Matthew 27:51-56 - Homiletics

Witness to the Lord's Divinity.

I. THE WITNESS OF PORTENTS .

1 . The rending of the temple veil. "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." It may be that Christ, the Lamb of God, yielded up the ghost on the day and at the hour when they killed the Passover. It was the hour of evening prayer. The priests as they entered into the holy place found the great veil, which hid the holy of holies from the eye of man, rent in twain from the top to the bottom. This had happened at the moment of the Lord's death; it was closely associated with that tremendous event. St. Matthew and St. Mark mention the Lord's death first, St. Luke puts first the rending of the veil; the two events were so very closely connected in time and meaning. The evangelists felt the deep spiritual significance of the rending of the veil; so doubtless did that great company of priests, who afterwards became obedient to the faith. It was a supernatural event, not the result of the earthquake or of any ordinary cause. It had a deep and blessed meaning. The holy of holies was the one spot in all the earth where God had been wont to manifest his immediate presence in a special manner. That manifestation had been surrounded with circumstances of awe. The sacred place where the Most High had dwelt between the cherubim was hidden from men by the great heavy veil, shrouded in awful darkness. Only on one day in the year might that veil be lifted; only one mortal being might dare to enter, and that with solemn rites of propitiation, with great fear and trembling. But now the veil was rent; it was rent at the moment of the Saviour's death: and evidently by the Divine interposition. The solemn ritual of the great Day of Atonement was fulfilled in the one Sacrifice now offered upon the cross. Such rites were no longer needed. God himself opens the way into the most holy place. His people may draw near, very near, into his immediate presence. All may come, not the high priest only, but all faithful Christians; for he who washed us from our sins in his own blood hath made us priests unto God and his Father, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable unto God through him. But the rent veil figured also the pierced body of the Saviour; for thus saith the Scripture, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which be hath consecrated for us, though the veil, that is to say, his flesh,...let us draw near with a true heart" ( Hebrews 10:19-22 ). The Divine Word dwelt ("tabernacled," John 1:14 ) in the body of Christ. Now that tabernacle was rent. While he was in the flesh, that veil of mortal flesh hung, like the temple veil, between him and the true holy of holies. When it was rent, the way into the holiest was made manifest, and the Lord in his glorified humanity, "by his own blood entered in once into the holy place," that is, "into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." There he is making intercession for us, and in the power of that prevailing intercession we may draw near to God. The veil is rent. There was a veil over all nations ( Isaiah 25:7 , Isaiah 25:8 ); it was destroyed when death was swallowed up in victory. There is neither Greek nor Jew, barbarian nor Scythian, but Christ is all, and in all. The veil is rent. There was a veil upon the hearts of men, that veil is done away in Christ. They that are his, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

2 . The earthquake. "The earth did quake, and the rocks rent." It might well be expected. Prodigies such as these are nothing in comparison with that greatest of all wonders which had just taken place. These lesser signs attested the tremendous power of that moral earthquake which the death of Christ would cause. Old beliefs would be shattered, old superstitions rent; there would be a great heaving in men's hearts, a severing of old lines of thought, a mighty change in the spiritual order of the world.

3 . The opened graves. There was a strange excitement in the realm of the dead. It might well be so. Isaiah represents the nations of the dead as stirred at the coming of the King of Babylon ( Isaiah 14:9-12 ). But what is the death of the greatest of earthly monarchs compared with the death of him who is the Son of God? "The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God." The "loud voice" of the dying Jesus was heard in Hades. The graves were opened. And when he arose, who is the Firstborn from the dead, many bodies of the saints came out, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. A wondrous miracle, but not wondrous compared with that chiefest of all wonders, the death and resurrection of the Lord. It is not strange that smaller wonders should cluster round that great central wonder.

II. THE WITNESS OF MEN .

1 . The centurion and soldiers. They feared greatly, the centurion especially. It seems from St. Mark's account that he was deeply moved, not only by the earthquake, but by the words and bearing of the Lord. He felt not only that the Lord was wholly innocent ( Luke 23:47 ), but that he was more than man; that that title which the mockers had ascribed to him in scorn was truly his; he was the Son of God. That centurion "glorified God;" he probably became one of that noble band of Roman soldiers, like the centurion at Capernaum and Cornelius of Caesarea, who believed in the Lord. The cross of Christ, and the Lord lifted up thereon, could draw all men unto him, even the Roman centurion, even the soldiers who had pierced him, who had sat dicing beneath the cross. May we, one and all, feel its constraining power!

2 . The women. The Lord's mother had stood by the cross; probably St. John had led her away before the Saviour's death. But there were still many women beholding afar off—good and holy women, who had followed Christ from Galilee, and ministered to him of their substance. Mary of Magdala was there, out of whom the Lord had cast seven devils, who loved him with the devoted love of deepest gratitude; Salome, who bad asked for her sons the chief places in the Saviour's kingdom, and now saw the two crucified malefactors, one on his right hand and the other on his left. They had ministered to him in life, gladly giving their worldly means to supply his wants; now they were faithful even unto death. Let us imitate them in their loving almsgiving, in their holy steadfastness, in their watching round the cross. Christians should give freely, Christians should be faithful in danger and in death, Christians should ever gaze upon the cross of Jesus.

LESSONS .

1 . The veil is rent. Use the Christian's privilege; draw near in faith and love and reverence.

2 . The cross won those Roman soldiers. Let us be ashamed of our hard hearts; let us pray for the strength of deep conviction.

3 . Be faithful, like those Galilaean women.