Devotion: Lent 5
Read Matthew 27:45-66
Some additional thoughts to add to the mystery of the darkness over the whole land. First, it happened during a full moon (based on when Passover would need to be). That is, even if the sun was darkened, it still should not have been dark, yet it was. Second, it occurs over the entire land. Third, it happens for three hours. Fourth, it happened during the brightest time of the day. In other words, this was a miraculous mystery that proclaimed the death and forsakenness of the Son of God.
Read Isaiah 50:3, Amos 8:9 and Jeremiah 15:5-9 and consider how Christ was receiving the wrath of God that we deserved. Consider also Exodus 10 and the time of darkness the Egyptians experienced when God wanted to rescue His people from slavery. Gerhard writes, “because God the Lord now intended to rescue His people from their hellish slavery by the death of Christ, there was darkness throughout the entire land.”
Romans 8 says this: “19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Gerhard says it is as if creation were mourning.
Considering that it was for three hours, Gerhard writes, “just as the sun finally, after three hours, came forth again with its previous light, thus is thereby signified that Christ, the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4), would after three days once again come forth from the darkness of the grave and walk in the light of His heavenly brightness.”
Because Christ experienced the wrath of God we deserved, we get to experience God’s blessings. How does the Benediction proclaim this? It’s in Numbers 6:24-26 if you want to look it up. Psalm 4:6 is another connection.
Finally, where were the unfaithful cast into? Matthew 22:11-14. Instead of being counted as the unfaithful, Christ’s work and death gives us another title. Read Colossians 1:12.
Christ calls out to God that He is forsaken. Read Psalm 22 and consider how the rest of this Psalm describes Christ’s work.
Because Christ was forsaken for us, we have the promise that we are never left of forsaken. Read Isaiah 49:14-16.
O Lord Jesus Christ, let my heart in its final end hear from Your voice these Words: Today you will be with me in paradise; bind my soul into the bundle of the living. Since You Yourself also for my sake lamented being forsaken by God, so grant me grace that I never forsake You, but instead cling to You with eternal love. Amen.
We know soldiers run at give Jesus sour wine to drink in response to His cry, I thirst. John 19:28. Gerhard writes, “This thirst resulted from exhaustion. For since His holy blood had generously flowed from His wounds, His strength was exhausted and He had a great thirst. Just as a day laborer, when he has performed hard labor all day long, feels a great thirst, so also a warrior, when he has withstood the slaughter, similarly becomes thirsty. Thus Christ, the righteous Servant of God, had worked the entire previous night and all day for the sake of our salvation; and, as the Prince of Life, He had fought against the forces of hell.”
How does Luke 16:24 describe hell? What, again, is Christ experiencing for us?
Because He experiences this for us, what promises do we have? Revelation 7:14-17.
With these precious promises, the Holy Spirit works in us these desires: Read Psalm 42:1-2; Psalm 84:2; Psalm 119:131. With this desire, how does God respond? Isaiah 55:1, John 4:13-14, John 6:50.
O Lord Jesus Christ, may Your thirst which You endured on the cross quench the thirst of my soul and protect me from the eternal thirst; may Your perfect atoning sacrifice, which You accomplished on the cross, be a comfort for my soul; give me grace that my soul thirsts for you, the Fountain of Life; and, grant that I may commend my soul into Your hands at the hour of death. Amen.