Levity had diabolical revelry while the blessed Lord Jesus meekly suffered injustice the most outrageous, and cruelty the most refined. At its height it was rebuked -

I. BY A HORROR OF DARKNESS.

1. This was preternatural.

(1) It was not the result of an ordinary eclipse of the sun. The Passover was celebrated at full moon, when such an event could not have taken place. A solar eclipse never continues beyond a quarter of an hour. This darkness continued three hours.

(2) It may have been produced by the intervention of dense clouds. Such an intervention would have been unusual in Judaea in the spring of the year during the brightest hours of the day. But whatever may have been the secondary causes, they were commissioned by the same Providence that sent the plague of darkness upon the Egyptians (cf. Exodus 10:21-23).

(3) It was no chance that so intimately connected this darkness with the event of the Crucifixion. It was "over all the land," viz. of Judea, where Christ suffered, and prevailed during the latter three hours of his suffering. It terminated also with the termination of those sufferings. To explain such coincidences as purely accidental is but to substitute a miracle of chance for a miracle of Providence. What is gained?

2. It was portentous.

(1) It expressed the moral anguish of spirit which Jesus then endured for us. For in those three dreadful hours he was enduring the punishment of our offences. This experience of Divine anger drew from him the pathetic exclamation, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?"

(2) It expressed the present triumph of the powers of darkness over the Sun of Righteousness (cf. Genesis 3:15 Luke 22:53). An extraordinary illumination heralded the birth of Christ, an extraordinary darkness signalized his death.

(3) It indicated the spiritual darkness of the Jewish people, who obstinately closed their eyes upon the Light of the world, and filled up the measure of their iniquity by crucifying the Just One. It presaged also the desolation which in consequence they were destined to suffer.

(4) It expressed a mourning spread over nature for the horrible crime then perpetrated by men. This sentiment is put into the mouth of Dionysius the Areopagite, who, witnessing a wonderful eclipse of the sun at Heliopolis, in Egypt, said to his friend Apollophanes, "Either God himself suffers or sympathizes with the sufferer."

II. BY THE RENDING OF THE TEMPLE'S VEIL.

1. This also was preternatural.

(1) The matter of fact cannot be disputed. For it occurred at the time of the evening sacrifice, while the priest was offering incense in the holy place, and on the occasion of a great festival when the people in vast numbers were praying without. The testimony of Matthew might therefore have been readily contradicted had it not been true. It is too late in the day to attempt to contradict it now.

(2) We are not informed how the wonder was effected, whether by lightning or by invisible hands; but the veil was thick and strong, and could not have been "rent from the top to the bottom" by any ordinary force. God can work his miracles immediately or by secondary causes.

(3) That this was a Divine thing is evident from its coincidence with the moment of the Redeemer's yielding up his spirit. To say this was a mere accident is but to make the miracle of chance all the more stupendous.

2. This too was portentous.

(1) Paul teaches us to regard the rending of the veil of the temple as emblematical of the rending of the body of our Lord, the sacrificial efficacy of which opened to the guilty the way of access to God, and opened to all who believe, the way into his glorious presence in the future life.

(2) It intimated also the abolition of the Jewish ceremonial Law, which, by its interposition of imperfect and mystic rites, had obstructed free and direct approach to God.

(3) It signified the revealing and unfolding of the mysteries of the Old Testament, so as to make the face of Moses to shine in the radiance of the gospel. In Christ we discover the true Propitiatory, or Mercy seat. He is that Ark of the covenant who contains in his heart the unbroken tables of the Law. He is that precious golden pot of incorruptible Manna, the very Bread of life from heaven.

III. BY THE PORTENTS FROM THE EARTH.

1. The earthquake.

(1) Travellers have observed marks of extraordinary convulsions in these rocks. The fissures lie across the natural cleavage. Though earthquakes are produced by natural causes, yet are they under the control and direction of Providence.

(2) This earthquake attested God's approbation of the Sufferer, as it expressed also his anger against his persecutors (cf. Amos 8:8; Nahum 1:6). So as the rending of the veil intimated the removal and abolition of the Jewish Church, this rending of the rocks imported the ruin that was coming upon the nation.

(3) The phenomenon occurring at that critical moment when Jesus dismissed his spirit, significantly evinced that the dreadful act of rejecting and crucifying the Christ provoked the desolation.

(4) It may also be taken as a token and earnest of that mighty convulsion of nature which will attend Christ's coming to the judgment (cf. Hebrews 12:26).

2. The opening of the tombs.

(1) This showed that the power of death and the grave was vanquished by the death and resurrection of Christ. When our Lord gave up the ghost it was not life but death itself that died. This was the great death out of which life was educed. He triumphed over death in the "place of a skull" - where the trophies of death lay around. His Divinity was proved, for he imparted life to the bodies of the sleeping saints (see John 5:25).

(2) "This opening of the graves was designed both to adorn the resurrection of Christ, and to give a specimen of our resurrection, which also is in virtue of his" (Flavel).

(3) It was a strong confirmation of the resurrection of Christ. For those who came forth from the tombs after his resurrection "appeared to many" to whom our Lord himself did not appear. Returning with Jesus to heaven, they were also pledges to angels and spirits of men of the general resurrection to come. See now -

IV. THE EFFECT UPON THE SPECTATORS.

1. Upon the Jews.

(1) The horror of darkness interrupted their raillery. It struck them with terror. Guilt trembles in darkness. It did not change their hearts.

(2) Until near the close of this period of horror, Jesus suffered silently in the sorrowfulness of his soul for the sin of the world, and distressed with the awful loneliness of being forsaken of his God. This was the worst part of his sufferings, and extorted from him that loud pathetic cry. This roused again the courage of his revilers to say, "This Man calleth Elijah." They misunderstood him, as carnal men do evermore, substituting trust in the human for trust in the Divine.

(3) Jesus then said, "I thirst" (see John 19:28). This moved one standing by to fix a sponge soaked in vinegar on a hyssop stalk, and put it to his mouth, but the kindness was interrupted by others who, in the same obdurate spirit, said, "Let be; let us see whether Elijah cometh to save him." The heart is desperately wicked.

(4) The prodigies which followed made them "smite their breasts" (see Luke 23:48). The wicked will wail amid the convulsions of the last day (cf. Isaiah 2:19-21; Revelation 1:7).

2. Upon the soldiers.

(1) They had reviled him before (see Luke 23:36), but now they "fear exceedingly," and the centurion in particular is thoughtfully affected, for he makes a true confession.

(2) In his reflections he thought upon the manner of the death of Christ (see Mark 15:39), for his death was evidently a voluntary act.

(a) Luke tells us that the last utterance was, "Father, unto thy hands I commend my spirit." This he uttered with a loud or great voice. Then immediately he "yielded up his spirit." His strength was unbroken. He died as the Prince of life.

(b) The circumstance of his expiring sooner than was usual with crucified persons (see Mark 15:44), as well as the loudness of his voice in the very act of his dying, showed the voluntariness of his death (see John 10:17, 18).

(c) Our Lord is nowhere said to have fallen asleep (cf. ver. 52), but always to have died. "Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, breathed their last; Ananias, Sapphira, Herod, expired; Jesus gave up the ghost, dismissed or delivered up his own spirit" (A. Clarke). In the manner of his death, then, behold the manner of his love.

(d) Christ's loud voice was like the trumpet blown over the sacrifices.

3. Upon the women.

(1) They followed him in love. They had ministered to him. They seem now to have been the only disciples, excepting John, present at the Crucifixion. They were "afar off." This expression may only intimate that they had come from far, even from Galilee. For the mother of Jesus stood by the cross with John, and Mary of Magdala and others also were near. Yet when Christ suffered, his friends were but spectators. Even angels stood aloof when he trod the winepress alone.

(2) Their faith and love were strengthened. All that the centurion saw they also saw, and with wider and deeper conviction. - J.A.M.

A dark shadow belongs to the best of things.

I. The first lesson is patience and perseverance. We must be patient with others if they stumble in the darkness, if they do not at once find their way towards the truth.

II. The darkness of Good Friday is a likeness of the opposition which each one of us ought to be, and will be, called upon to face, in doing his duty.

III. The darkness of the dismal tragedy of the crucifixion reminds us of the consoling truth that failures are not perpetual failures. Good Friday was outwardly a failure; the Easter morn was its complete success.

(Dean Stanley.)

The infidel has attempted to impugn its credibility. He has urged: "Why we do not read of it in profane history?"

1. That, according to the evangelical history, the darkness may not have extended beyond the limits of Judea. If this be true it would not be observed in Greece, Italy, or any other country beyond Judea.

2. The historical accounts of that period, especially of matters then occurring in Judea, are, if we except those of the New Testament, very scanty indeed.

3. The policy of both Jews and Gentiles who were opposed to Christianity, was to suppress facts that might tend to record it.

4. It is assuming what cannot be proved when it is said that this event is not named by other than Christian writers. Most of the works of that time have perished; and , in his apology for the Christian religion, addressed to the magistates of the empire and to the Senate of Rome, appeals as having this miraculous darkness preserved in their archives.

I. THIS DARKNESS AS INDICATING THE AGENCY WHICH THEN PREDOMINATED. Sin was then prevailing over holiness.

II. This darkness as indicating THE CRIME WHICH WAS THEN PERPETRATED.

III. This darkness as indicating THE SUFFERINGS WHICH WERE THEN ENDURED.

IV. This darkness as indicating THE EVILS WHICH WERE THEN REMOVED.

V. This darkness as indicating THE JUDGMENTS THAT WERE THEN INCURRED.

(W. Urwick, D. D.)

Barabbas, Eli, Elias, Elijah, Israelites, James, Jeremiah, Jeremias, Jeremy, Jesus, Joseph, Joses, Judas, Mary, Pilate, Simon, Zabdi, ZebedeeArimathea, Cyrene, Field of Blood, Galilee, Golgotha, Jerusalem, Place of the SkullAfternoon, Dark, Darkness, Fell, Hour, Ninth, Noon, O'clock, Sixth, Till1. Jesus is delivered bound to Pilate.
3. Judas hangs himself.
19. Pilate, admonished of his wife,
20. and being urged by the multitude, washes his hands, and releases Barabbas.
27. Jesus is mocked and crowned with thorns;
33. crucified;
39. reviled;
50. dies, and is buried;
62. his tomb is sealed and watched.

Matthew 27:45

     1450   signs, kinds of
     2530   Christ, death of
     4284   sun
     4810   darkness, natural
     4912   chance
     4960   noon

Matthew 27:28-50

     2060   Christ, patience of

Matthew 27:38-46

     2525   Christ, cross of

Matthew 27:39-50

     2412   cross, accounts of

Matthew 27:45-46

     1653   numbers, 6-10
     4948   hour

Matthew 27:45-49

     4514   stick

Matthew 27:45-50

     5338   holiday

The Blind Watchers at the Cross
'And sitting down they watched Him there.' --MATT. xxvii. 36. Our thoughts are, rightly, so absorbed by the central Figure in this great chapter that we pass by almost unnoticed the groups round the cross. And yet there are large lessons to be learned from each of them. These rude soldiers, four in number, as we infer from John's Gospel, had no doubt joined with their comrades in the coarse mockery which preceded the sad procession to Calvary; and then they had to do the rough work of the executioners, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Veil Rent
'Behold, the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.'--MATT. xxvii. 51. As I suppose we are all aware, the Jewish Temple was divided into three parts: the Outer Court, open to all; the Holy Place, to which the ministering priests had daily access to burn incense and trim the lamps; and the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest was permitted to go, and that but once a year, on the great Day of Atonement. For the other three hundred and sixty-four days the shrine lay silent, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Sentence which Condemned the Judges
And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked Him, saying, Art Thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. 12. And when He was accused of the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. 13. Then said Pilate unto Him, Hearest Thou not how many things they witness against Thee? 14. And He answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly. 15. Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Crucifixion
'And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, 34. They gave Him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when He had tasted thereof, He would not drink. 35. And they crucified Him, and parted His garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted My garments among them, and upon My vesture did they cast lots. 36. And sitting down they watched Him there; 37. And set up over His head His accusation written, THIS …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'See Thou to That!'
'I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? See thou to that. 24. I am innocent of the blood of this just Person: see ye to it.'--MATT. xxvii. 4, 24. So, what the priests said to Judas, Pilate said to the priests. They contemptuously bade their wretched instrument bear the burden of his own treachery. They had condescended to use his services, but he presumed too far if he thought that that gave him a claim upon their sympathies. The tools of more …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Taunts Turning to Testimonies
'... The chief priests mocking Him ... said, 42. He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. 43. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him.' --MATT. xxvii. 41-43. It is an old saying that the corruption of the best is the worst. What is more merciful and pitiful than true religion? What is more merciless and malicious than hatred which calls itself 'religious'? These priests, like many a …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Fourth Word
"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani."--ST. MATT. XXVII. 46; ST. MARK XV. 34. There are three peculiar and distinguishing features of this fourth word which our Saviour uttered from His Cross. 1. It is the only one of the Seven which finds a place in the earliest record of our Lord's life, contained in the matter common to St. Matthew and St. Mark. 2. It is the only one which has been preserved to us in the original Aramaic, in the very syllables which were formed by the lips of Christ. 3. It is the …
J. H. Beibitz—Gloria Crucis

Let Him Deliver Him Now
It is very painful to the heart to picture our blessed Master in his death-agonies, surrounded by a ribald multitude, who watched him and mocked him, made sport of his prayer and insulted his faith. Nothing was sacred to them: they invaded the Holy of holies of his confidence in God, and taunted him concerning that faith in Jehovah which they were compelled to admit. See, dear friends, what an evil thing is sin, since the Sin-bearer suffers so bitterly to make atonement for it! See, also, the shame …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 34: 1888

The Rent Veil
THE DEATH of our Lord Jesus Christ was fitly surrounded by miracles; yet it is itself so much greater a wonder than all besides, that it as far exceeds them as the sun outshines the planets which surround it. It seems natural enough that the earth should quake, that tombs should be opened, and that the veil of the temple should be rent, when He who only hath immortality gives up the ghost. The more you think of the death of the Son of God, the more will you be amazed at it. As much as a miracle excels …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 34: 1888

Lama Sabachthani?
Our Lord was then in the darkest part of his way. He had trodden the winepress now for hours, and the work was almost finished. He had reached the culminating point of his anguish. This is his dolorous lament from the lowest pit of misery--"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" I do not think that the records of time or even of eternity, contain a sentence more full of anguish. Here the wormwood and the gall, and all the other bitternesses, are outdone. Here you may look as into a vast abyss; …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 36: 1890

Our Lord's Solemn Enquiry
"Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"--Matthew 27:46. IF any one of us, lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ had been anywhere near the cross when he uttered those words, I am sure our hearts would have burst with anguish, and one thing is certain--we should have heard the tones of that dying cry as long as ever we lived. There is no doubt that at certain times they would come to us again, ringing shrill and clear through the thick darkness. We should …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 62: 1916

The Eloi.
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"--ST MATTHEW xxvii. 46. I do not know that I should dare to approach this, of all utterances into which human breath has ever been moulded, most awful in import, did I not feel that, containing both germ and blossom of the final devotion, it contains therefore the deepest practical lesson the human heart has to learn. The Lord, the Revealer, hides nothing that can be revealed, and will not warn away the foot that treads in naked humility even upon the …
George MacDonald—Unspoken Sermons

Third Stage of Jewish Trial. Jesus Formally Condemned by the Sanhedrin and Led to Pilate.
(Jerusalem. Friday After Dawn.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 1, 2; ^B Mark XV. 1; ^C Luke XXII. 66-23:1; ^D John XVIII. 28. ^a 1 Now when morning was come, ^c 66 And as soon as it was day, ^b straightway ^c the assembly of the elders of the people was gathered together, both chief priests and scribes; and they led him away into their council, ^a all the chief priests and { ^b with} the elders ^a of the people ^b and scribes, and the whole council, held a consultation, and ^a took counsel against Jesus to put …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

First Stage of the Roman Trial. Jesus Before Pilate for the First Time.
(Jerusalem. Early Friday Morning.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 11-14; ^B Mark XV. 2-5; ^C Luke XXIII. 2-5; ^D John XVIII. 28-38. ^d and they themselves entered not into the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled, but might eat the passover. [See p. 641.] 29 Pilate therefore went out unto them, and saith, What accusation bring ye against this man? 30 They answered and said unto him, If this man were not an evildoer, we should not have delivered him up unto thee. [The Jewish rulers first attempt to induce …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Third Stage of the Roman Trial. Pilate Reluctantly Sentences Him to Crucifixion.
(Friday. Toward Sunrise.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 15-30; ^B Mark XV. 6-19; ^C Luke XXIII. 13-25; ^D John XVIII. 39-XIX 16. ^a 15 Now at the feast [the passover and unleavened bread] the governor was wont { ^b used to} release unto them ^a the multitude one prisoner, whom they would. { ^b whom they asked of him.} [No one knows when or by whom this custom was introduced, but similar customs were not unknown elsewhere, both the Greeks and Romans being wont to bestow special honor upon certain occasions by releasing …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Remorse and Suicide of Judas.
(in the Temple and Outside the Wall of Jerusalem. Friday Morning.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 3-10; ^E Acts I. 18, 19. ^a 3 Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned [Judas, having no reason to fear the enemies of Jesus, probably stood in their midst and witnessed the entire trial], repented himself, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood. [There are two Greek words which are translated "repented," …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Crucifixion.
Subdivision A. On the Way to the Cross. (Within and Without Jerusalem. Friday Morning.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 31-34; ^B Mark XV. 20-23; ^C Luke XXIII. 26-33; ^D John XIX. 17. ^a 31 And when they had mocked him, they took off from him the ^b purple, ^a robe, and put on him his garments [This ended the mockery, which seems to have been begun in a state of levity, but which ended in gross indecency and violence. When we think of him who endured it all, we can not contemplate the scene without a shudder. Who …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Morning of Good Friday.
The pale grey light had passed into that of early morning, when the Sanhedrists once more assembled in the Palace of Caiaphas. [5969] A comparison with the terms in which they who had formed the gathering of the previous night are described will convey the impression, that the number of those present was now increased, and that they who now came belonged to the wisest and most influential of the Council. It is not unreasonable to suppose, that some who would not take part in deliberations which were …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Crucified, Dead, and Buried. '
It matters little as regards their guilt, whether, pressing the language of St. John, [6034] we are to understand that Pilate delivered Jesus to the Jews to be crucified, or, as we rather infer, to his own soldiers. This was the common practice, and it accords both with the Governor's former taunt to the Jews, [6035] and with the after-notice of the Synoptists. They, to whom He was delivered,' led Him away to be crucified:' and they who so led Him forth compelled' the Cyrenian Simon to bear the Cross. …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Jesus in the Tomb.
It was about three o'clock in the afternoon, according to our manner of reckoning,[1] when Jesus expired. A Jewish law[2] forbade a corpse suspended on the cross to be left beyond the evening of the day of the execution. It is not probable that in the executions performed by the Romans this rule was observed; but as the next day was the Sabbath, and a Sabbath of peculiar solemnity, the Jews expressed to the Roman authorities[3] their desire that this holy day should not be profaned by such a spectacle.[4] …
Ernest Renan—The Life of Jesus

The vicariousness of Prayer
The Vicariousness of Prayer I The work of the ministry labours under one heavy disadvantage when we regard it as a profession and compare it with other professions. In these, experience brings facility, a sense of mastery in the subject, self-satisfaction, self-confidence; but in our subject the more we pursue it, the more we enter into it, so much the more are we cast down with the overwhelming sense, not only of our insufficiency, but of our unworthiness. Of course, in the technique of our work …
P. T. Forsyth—The Soul of Prayer

The Fifth Word from the Cross
The fourth word from the cross we looked upon both as the climax of the struggle which had gone on in the mind of the divine Sufferer during the three hours of silence and darkness which preceded its utterance and as the liberation of His mind from that struggle. This view seems to be confirmed by the terms in which St. John introduces the Fifth Word--"After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished,[2] that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst." The phrase, "that the …
James Stalker—The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ

The Love of the Holy Spirit in Us.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not."--Matt. xxvii. 37. The Scripture teaches not only that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and with Him Love, but also that He sheds abroad that Love in our hearts. This shedding abroad does not refer to the coming of the Holy Spirit's Person, for a person can not be shed abroad. He comes, takes possession, and dwells in us; but that which is shed abroad …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Lastly; they who Will Not, by the Arguments and Proofs Before Mentioned,
be convinced of the truth and certainty of the Christian religion, and be persuaded to make it the rule and guide of all their actions, would not be convinced, (so far as to influence their practice and reform their lives,) by any other evidence whatsoever; no, not though one should rise on purpose from the dead to endeavour to convince them. That the evidence which God has afforded us of the truth of our religion is abundantly sufficient. From what has been said, upon the foregoing heads, it is …
Samuel Clarke—A Discourse Concerning the Being and Attributes of God

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