Matthew 27:50
When my children were small, I devised a
game for our devotion time that I called “Answer Man.” I invited them to ask me
any question, and I would then get the answer for them. My oldest son started.
His first question was: “What did Jesus do for three days in the tomb?” My
question was: “Who ever thought up this dumb game anyway?” Well, here I am a
half of a century later, and our text of the day brings up the same question. I
certainly got plenty of history in my answer.
The death of Christ technically ends the
Old Testament. From the third chapter of Genesis, there is an anticipation of
Someone coming Who will “crush the head of evil” and bruise His heel in the
process. Who that would be and how He would do it remained a mystery. In
Matthew 27:50, the mystery is solved, and the anticipation evaporates off of
the pages of history. The power of sin is broken. The evidence is the removed
stone and the empty tomb.
The four Gospel writers record the death
of our Savior with slight variations. This is due to their writing style,
perspective and audience. When all of them are put together, the picture is the
same. Whenever we read ancient literature, we must hold it accountable to
ancient writing requirements and not the requirements of modern investigative
reporting. They were not nearly as concerned about details as we are.
Mark, as is his normal approach, looks at
this event through a porthole of history. He is almost always more brief than
the others and almost always leaves out a lot. It is almost as though he is in
a hurry to lay down his pen. He is not a literary artist trying to paint a word
picture. If he were alive today, his favorite appliance would be the microwave.
He would never call anyone without using his speed dial. One of Mark’s favorite
words was immediately. If we did not know better, we would think that Jesus
visited our planet for about three-and-one-half weeks. There were no snails in
Mark’s world. Everything happened immediately. Mark’s description of Christ’s
death was that He stopped breathing.
John, on the other hand, tells us about
this death from a much more philosophical perspective, which fits his style. He
reports that Jesus “gave His spirit over.” Clearly, the intent here is to
emphasize that life was not taken from Christ, but rather given by Him.
Elsewhere [I John 3:16], John would write that Jesus “laid His life down” in
the same manner that you would lay down a hammer after a nail had been well
driven.
Luke adds that Jesus said: “My Father,
into Thy hands I commit My spirit,” which is a quote of Psalm 31:5. In our text
of the hour, Matthew describes the exit of our Lord with yet another word. He
reports that Jesus “yielded up his spirit.” The variation in these reports is
not primarily in what happened, but rather in how it is reported.
Matthew 27:50
I. The Process of Christ’s Death
A. According to
Mark
B. According to
John
C. According to
Luke
D. According to
Matthew
The Result of Christ’s death
A. The finality
B. The availability
C. The release
D. The anticipation