THE BOOK OF MATTHEW
Lesson 95, Chapter 27 Continued 2
As we are nearing the end of our extensive study of Matthew’s Gospel and all
that has been revealed about Jesus’s life and teachings along the way, we have
arrived at the epic Redemption History milestone that had it’s beginning in the
Garden of Eden and now rests at the foot of a Roman cross around 30 A.D.
Let’s re-read a short section of Matthew chapter 27.
RE-READ MATTHEW CHAPTER 27:45 - 54
At 3 in the afternoon, during the hours on Passover Day that the Passover lambs
were being slaughtered, the sky (and it seems all the atmosphere) turns dark and
ominous. Darkness in the Bible is always symbolic and it projects the presence of
evil and just as often of God’s impending wrath. Yeshua finds sufficient breath as
He hangs suffocating on the death stake to shout out in Aramaic, “My God, My
God, why have You abandoned Me?” Even in death He is speaking prophetically
from one of the most profoundly messianic Psalms in the Bible: Psalm 22.
CJB
Psalm 22:2 My God! My God! Why have you abandoned me? Why so far
from helping me, so far from my anguished cries?
In those words, some onlookers thought they heard Jesus calling for Elijah. This
is another one of those conundrums that has baffled scholars for ages; why
would anyone think He said such a thing? Modern language scholars have
offered a solution that probably resolves it.
It is better known today that there were multiple Aramaic dialects in use then, and
was used so widely in the Middle East in the 1
st
century, that if one were to list
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the languages that everyday Jews in the Holy Land spoke, it would likely be in
order: Hebrew, Aramaic, and then Greek. In one of the Aramaic dialects that
seems to have been common in the Galilee, what Christ is recorded to have said
moments before His death may have sounded to the ear like: “Elahi, Elahi, lema
sebaqtani”, as opposed to “Eli, Eli, lama azabatani”. In other words, Elahi
sounds very much like Eliyah. From the dry mouth and parched lips of the dying
Messiah, and to the ears of a Judean, the two words might have been
indistinguishable. So, in English what some thought they heard Him cry out was
“Elijah, Elijah, why have you deserted me?”. Yeshua’s call for Elijah would have
made sense to a Jew because Elijah was expected to return on Passover, which
is why to this very day at the Passover seder Jews will symbolically leave an
empty seat at their table along with a goblet of wine for Elijah.
Not only does the Aramaic dialect matter help resolve the issue, but what further
bolsters the argument for it is that next we read that a bystander immediately
thinks to offer Yeshua something to drink. In other words, the bystander thought
that Yeshua’s dry lips and parched throat, and lack of lung power at this point,
caused whatever Jesus said from the cross to not be entirely intelligible. So, the
hope was that some liquid would help Him to speak more clearly.
What was offered to Yeshua wasn’t really vinegar (as we usually read it). Who
would drink vinegar no matter how thirsty they might be? The Greek word
is oxos and it is no doubt referring to a cheap low- quality wine that the poorer
parts of society drank. Why offer wine and not water to a thirsty man? Because of
the alcohol content of wine, the goal was mainly to help dull the pain while
providing a little bit of relief for thirst.
Christ is now dead; His spirit has left Him. We MUST ask ourselves: what has
just happened here on the cross? How are we to understand it’s ramifications?
What was Yeshua intending by pushing out the dying words about God, His
Father, abandoning Him?
Christians often go no further in attempting to understand exactly what transpired
on that cross than to repeat well-worn phrases like “Jesus atoned for our sins”,
or “His blood paid for our sins”, or “He was a sacrifice for our sins”. Those
phrases are spoken millions of times over in Churches worldwide every week; but
those simple thoughts don’t explain how or on what premise Yeshua
accomplished those things. Let’s attempt to go beyond those traditional sayings
and see if we can put together a coherent, understandable, biblically based
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explanation. I want to say in advance that whatever you may think you hear
coming from me in no way repudiates or challenges the notion that in some
mysterious and marvelous way, Christ suffered and died so that we can have
eternal life.
Repeatedly during His ministry Yeshua appealed to the Jewish people to pay
attention that He was fulfilling the centuries-old biblical prophecies about Israel’s
Messiah. Few Prophets present such amazing predictions about the Messiah and
details of his death as Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 53. We’ve read it a few times
(sometimes in small portions) but I’ll again draw on a couple of its verses to
make my point.
CJB
Isaiah 53:4-5
4
In fact, it was our diseases he bore, our pains from which
he suffered; yet we regarded him as punished, stricken and afflicted by
God.
5
But he was wounded because of our crimes, crushed because of our
sins; the disciplining that makes us whole fell on him, and by his bruises*
we are healed.
To understand what Yeshua set out to accomplish we must focus at least as
much on His humanity as on His divine nature. This is because just as Adam is
biblically representative of all humanity since Creation… humanity as a fallen and
sinful race… so Christ carried a similar burden upon His human shoulders. Every
person is responsible to God for our sin nature that is unavoidably passed down
to us from Adam, but also for our own personal sins of misbehavior and immoral
thought. God being just and always true to His word had to punish us collectively
as a race of created creatures for our rebellion and disobedience to His
commandments. He could not behave as a kindly grandfather, looking the other
way, going against His own ordinances. So, the Father more or less consolidated
all the sins of the world and placed them onto Jesus. On the cross Yeshua was
divinely crushed under the unbearable weight of God’s wrath that had been
building up for millennia.
It would have been nice if in the Gospel accounts a fuller understanding of what
Yeshua experienced and accomplished from a spiritual perspective had been
pulled together into a single narrative and carefully explained in detail for the
benefit of posterity; unfortunately, that’s not what happened. Instead, it seems to
have fallen mostly to the learned Paul, 3 decades later, to think it through,
assemble and order the many elements and data points, and to give us a better
explanation. But even his exposition of the matter is somewhat confounding
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because the premise of it is so contrary if not illogical to our modern, Western
human manner of thinking; and also because it is not organized into a nice, neat,
Greek-style systematic theology. We can read Paul’s words, yet it can still be
hard to make sense of them, because it is not presented in a form we’re used to
hearing from a pulpit. In his Book of Romans, we read the following in regard to
that fateful Passover day and the transaction that occurred on the cross.
CJB
Romans 5:12-19
12
Here is how it works: it was through one individual
that sin entered the world, and through sin, death; and in this way death
passed through to the whole human race, inasmuch as everyone
sinned.
13
Sin was indeed present in the world before Torah was given, but
sin is not counted as such when there is no Torah.
14
Nevertheless death
ruled from Adam until Moshe, even over those whose sinning was not
exactly like Adam's violation of a direct command. In this, Adam prefigured
the one who was to come.
15
But the free gift is not like the offence. For if,
because of one man's offence, many died, then how much more has God's
grace, that is, the gracious gift of one man, Yeshua the Messiah,
overflowed to many!
16
No, the free gift is not like what resulted from one
man's sinning; for from one sinner came judgment that brought
condemnation; but the free gift came after many offences and brought
acquittal.
17
For if, because of the offence of one man, death ruled through
that one man; how much more will those receiving the overflowing grace,
that is, the gift of being considered righteous, rule in life through the one
man Yeshua the Messiah!
18
In other words, just as it was through one
offence that all people came under condemnation, so also it is through one
righteous act that all people come to be considered righteous.
19
For just as
through the disobedience of the one man, many were made sinners, so
also through the obedience of the other man, many will be made righteous.
I’ll try to expound on this using modern terms and language. One man caused
the problem; a long while later another man solved it. Adam created sin and the
consequences of it that extend to every human ever born; Yeshua bore those sin
consequences for every human ever born. Since the consequence for sin is to
bear the wrath of God that includes both physical and spiritual death, that is what
Jesus bore on the cross (it could have been no less). And for Him, and for us all,
besides the tangible consequences that come from sin, so God’s wrath
necessarily begins with Him abandoning us. For Yeshua that meant that the Holy
Spirit…the God spirit… that lived within Him… the unique and incomparable divine
aspect of His being… left Him for a time as He hung from the execution stake.
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Especially because of who He was… and who He KNEW He was… that had to
have been the greatest of the many agonies He felt. When the Holy Spirit left
Him, He was no longer whole. He knew in advance this was going to happen; He
knew He was going to bear all of His Father’s wrath as the sole and collective
representative of sinful humanity. This is why on the Mount of Olives He prayed
and pled with His Father only a few hours before His ordeal:
CJB
Matthew 26:37-39 Grief and anguish came over him,
38
and he said to
them, "My heart is so filled with sadness that I could die! Remain here and
stay awake with me."
39
Going on a little farther, he fell on his face, praying,
"My Father, if possible, let this cup pass from me! Yet- not what I want, but
what you want!"

It was the cup of wrath from His Father that Christ feared most. We also cannot
just race-by another uncomfortable aspect of His ghastly ordeal. Christians
commonly speak of Jesus as a sacrifice; a sacrifice for us. So, was He literally a
human sacrifice in all its grisly senses? Isn’t God against human sacrifice? Are
we to understand that God made an exception in this one case? This is an issue
that has caused many Jews to run the other direction from Christianity because it
certainly seems that human sacrifice that is deplored as pagan and wicked by the
Church, is also the way that Christianity has always framed what Christ did and
was. And there are New Testament passages that seem to support the notion.
CJB
Romans 8:3
3
For what the Torah could not do by itself, because it
lacked the power to make the old nature cooperate, God did by sending his
own Son as a human being with a nature like our own sinful one [but
without sin]. God did this in order to deal with sin, and in so doing he
executed the punishment against sin in human nature,
CJB
Hebrews 10:26-27
26
For if we deliberately continue to sin after receiving
the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for
sins,
27
but only the terrifying prospect of Judgment, of raging fire that will
consume the enemies.
The Hebrews’ verse starts to tip-toe into the issue of Jesus as a blood sacrifice,
but then we get this:
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CJB
2 Cor. 5:21
21
God made this sinless man be a sin offering on our behalf,
so that in union with him we might fully share in God's righteousness."
How, then, do we not frame what happened on that cross as a human sacrifice?
This is the very thing God averted when He asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac,
but then stopped him and substituted a ram. In reality, the way 2Corinthians 5 is
worded in the Greek is NOT the way the CJB presents it. While the CJB says that
this “sinless man” was made a “sin offering” on our behalf, in fact the word
“offering” isn’t there. The Greek says only that He was made “sin” on our
behalf. There is a wide gulf between the intent and effect of the terms sin and
sin offering; the first term describing the problem, the second a solution. That
said, most Bible interpretations of this verse heavily imply (if not outright state)
the same meaning that the CJB dares to say out loud: that Yeshua was a human
sacrifice… a human sin offering… for us.
CJB
Hebrews 10:11-12
11
Now every cohen stands every day doing his
service, offering over and over the same sacrifices, which can never take
away sins.
12
But this one, after he had offered for all time a single sacrifice
for sins, sat down at the right hand of God,
The CJB wording of this verse is very much in line with most of the other
standard English Bible versions. So how do we not see Jesus as a human
sacrifice; it’s just that He was sacrificed on a Roman death stake as opposed to
a Temple altar? Hopefully you’re seeing where this creates all kinds of
uncomfortable theological, if not moral, issues that painless denominational
doctrines gloss over, but don’t actually address.
It is critical to observe that the simple theme underlying every one of these
passages is that Jesus became the object of God’s wrath. Therefore, the
problem with trying to equate Christ’s death with the death of animals as Torah-
prescribed Levitical animal sacrifices of atonement for humans, starts to diverge.
God does NOT pour his wrath out on the sacrificial animals. Rather the death of
the animals is what provides the legally required atonement mechanism so that
God forgives the human sinner and any form of God’s wrath is averted.
However, in Jesus’s case God’s wrath was not averted. He indeed experienced
the full weight of God’s wrath, which is entirely uncharacteristic of an altar
sacrifice. This is because Yeshua was somewhat different from animals who died
to atone for sin; rather for a few moments Yeshua represented the sin of all
humanity and bore the ultimate punishment. As 2Corinthians 5:21 says (when
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properly translated), Yeshua became sin. He became the personification of sin;
and God punished the sin of mankind through the wrath He imparted on His only
Son, Yeshua, as He hung on the cross.
Therefore, since Jesus’s death cannot be precisely equated to a Temple altar
sacrifice, what about Him being our Passover lamb? One of the most quoted
New Testament passages in this regard occurs in 1Corinthians.
CJB
1 Corinthians 5:7 Get rid of the old hametz, so that you can be a new
batch of dough, because in reality you are unleavened. For our Pesach
lamb, the Messiah, has been sacrificed.
One problem: the word “lamb” doesn’t actually appear in this passage in the
Greek. The KJV and some others renders it literally and correctly.
KJV
1 Corinthians 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a
new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed
for us
Notice that here Christ is our Passover… not the Passover lamb. How are we to
understand this strange statement? The Passover is the totality of the event
when, in Egypt, death passed over God’s set apart people who loved and
obeyed Him, but it didn’t pass over those who worshipped other gods. Back
when Israel was in Egypt and preparing to escape Pharaoh’s grip, each Israelite
family was instructed to kill a lamb. They were to use its blood to paint on the
doorposts of their homes as a sign to God that they trusted in Him. And, they
were to roast and eat the lamb. It was not described as a ritual sacrifice; the lamb
was a meal with its blood a symbol and a sign… a sign of protection… not as a
substitute. So, the Passover event was completely unlike the Levitical sacrifices
because the Passover lamb’s blood was not used for atonement or forgiveness
but rather it signified obedience to the God of Israel and thus the households with
blood of their doorposts were identified as one of His own. Bottom line: while
there are indeed similarities (and lessons to be taken) between Yeshua’s death
on the cross and what went on at the Temple altar with the Levitical sacrificial
system, there are also significant differences. We find the same thing true with
the Passover and the Passover lamb. So, Christ was not just a higher form of
animal sacrifice so-to-speak; higher than bulls and goats. Nor, of course, was He
the literal centerpiece of a ceremonial meal. Rather we are to take these
statements about Him being a sacrifice and the Passover (or Passover lamb) as
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approximations and comparisons for which we have similar earthly
representations.
With this transcendent matter of Yeshua’s death somehow averting our spiritual
death, the divine transaction was unlike anything that had ever happened before
and we must not make the comparisons to Levitical altar sacrifices or to the
Passover lamb too strong or take them too far. Even the use of the term
“sacrifice” regarding His crucifixion, while appropriate, cannot be held in the
strictest technical or ritual sense of it, but rather in the sense of Yeshua selflessly
doing something for us that we couldn’t do for ourselves. God finally brought to
fruition His ancient plan to deal with sin; He poured out His wrath on His Son who
had taken on the sin and sins of the entire human race and virtually became sin.
Thus, the wages for sin (which is death) was finally indeed meted out by God and
no longer held back. Let me frame this in a way that might make a better impact
(just, please, don’t take this illustration too far because it is not meant to be
precise in all its aspects). Let’s use a familiar word for a person who disobeys
the laws of their society: a criminal. In God’s eyes a person who disobeys His
laws and commands is a criminal (a sinner). Thus, in God’s justice system a
“criminal” must pay the price for his or her crimes. Thus, in that sense Christ
died not as a sacrificial animal, or as a human sacrifice... but rather as the
universal sinner… the universal criminal. Remember what Paul said in Romans 8?
CJB
Romans 8:3
3
For what the Torah could not do by itself, because it
lacked the power to make the old nature cooperate, God did by sending his
own Son as a human being with a nature like our own sinful one [but
without sin]. God did this in order to deal with sin, and in so doing
he executed the punishment against sin in human nature,
God executing punishment on sin is a far cry from having sin atoned for and thus
His wrath being avoided. According to Paul, God DID execute His wrathful
judgment on sin by executing it upon Jesus. All the world’s sin was consolidated
into one big pot, and placed into Christ. It was as though Christ had Himself not
only become the universal sinner, but was also sin itself, and God dealt with it in
that way. It involved elements of the Levitical sacrificial system and of Passover
but wasn’t precisely either. This re-shapes our concept of the word “atonement”
because the main way we have understood it over the centuries is that He was a
substitute in the same way a sacrificial animal is a substitute. While true in some
ways, it’s also a scripturally incomplete definition.
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Jesus was not a human sacrifice. Rather for a most mysterious moment in time
He was divinely deemed the universal human criminal bearing the responsibility
within Himself for all the crimes (the sins) of mankind. God punished Him horribly
for it. Further, the irony of the 2 criminals flanking Jesus on the cross is not to be
missed. They were guilty criminals in reality; but Yeshua was only a guilty
“criminal” because God imputed their guilt, and ours, upon Him. The ironic
comparison for us to see between Christ and the 2 men hanging beside Him is
intended. So, what does this mean for us? Assuming you have sincere faith and
trust in the God of Israel and in His Son, Jesus of Nazareth, as your Lord and
Savior, it means that in a mysterious way you didn’t really escape your
punishment; in God’s eyes you’ve already suffered it and (assuming you
maintain that trust) will never have to suffer it again. This is why we are told that
as Believers we are to identify with Christ’s death and His resurrection. Your sins
and mine were poured into Him and so the wrath He suffered for sin, we suffered
vicariously through Him. It’s already happened. Our punishment has already
occurred. It’s finished. Again: this only applies to those who have and maintain
faith and trust in what God did for us. Why wouldn’t everyone want this for
themselves?
Now let’s step back and get real. How can this be? How can my sins in
the 21
st
century retroactively become Yeshua’s sins in the 1
st
century? In some
ways it sounds preposterous. Because it is, for lack of better words, a happy
fiction. Or better, a happy LEGAL fiction that God accepts as true within His legal
system… His unique justice system… that doesn’t operate like human, earthbound
justice systems. God has simply determined or ordained that as part of His
justice system He will inflict upon one man all the punishments and wrath for all
the sins of all the humans who agree to subscribe to His justice system; a system
consisting of 2 separate elements for 2 separate purposes: Jesus Christ and The
Law of Moses. The first is for redemption; the second is our guide for living the
redeemed life. Subscribing begins with acknowledging the God of Israel and
trusting in His Son as our Lord and Redeemer. God’s infliction of His wrath upon
one man (Jesus) for all the world’s sins, actually reflects divine proportional
justice that blames the origination of all sins upon one man: Adam.
This is why the anonymous writer of Hebrews can say that if we won’t accept the
death of God’s Messiah as our own death and thus our suffering God’s wrath
right along with Christ on that cross, then there’s nothing more that is available
to pay for our sins. Since the redeeming event of the cross there is no amount of
blood that can be spilled on the Temple altar that will suffice. The Levitical
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sacrificial system for sins isn’t replaced per se; it’s simply no longer relevant. In
fact, since the cross, the term “sin offering” has become an oxymoron.
So, does that mean that the Torah and all the Law of Moses have also become
irrelevant? Yeshua directly answered that question several months before His
death.
CJB
Matthew 5:17-19
17
"Don't think that I have come to abolish the Torah or
the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete.
18
Yes indeed! I
tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud or a
stroke will pass from the Torah- not until everything that must happen has
happened.
19
So whoever disobeys the least of these mitzvot and teaches
others to do so will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But
whoever obeys them and so teaches will be called great in the Kingdom of
Heaven.
Yeshua makes it clear that the Torah continues to be relevant and in force until
the present earth and Universe are obliterated and re-created. Why? Because
sin and sins didn’t die on the cross; it’s easily observed that both certainly
continue to exist. Rather it is the sinners that have committed sins that died; but
only certain sinners… the ones we call Believers. If we don’t look to the Torah
and the Law of Moses as our guidebook for what sin is, what moral behavior is,
what right and wrong is, what evil and good is, then how will we have any
common standard by which to judge our own behaviors and thoughts? Even
more, how will we know God’s standard for all those things?
Now we get to deal with yet another interesting issue. Verse 51 explains that “at
that moment” (at the moment Yeshua expired), the veil of the Temple tore from
the top to the bottom, and at the same time there was an earthquake so powerful
that rocks broke. Many Bibles (such as the CJB) will call this Temple veil
the parokhet or say something about the “inner veil”. Neither of those
translations is an actual translation but rather both are traditional Christian
interpretations and doctrines that came much later. The Greek word used
is katapetasma; it simply means “veil”. The Temple had 2 veils; an inner and an
outer. The inner veil separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place. These
were 2 separate chambers that served 2 different purposes and were restricted
to use by 2 different sets of people. The Holy Place… the less “holy” of the 2
chambers… was the front chamber where regular priests could enter and operate,
and in fact they had a number of duties to perform there on a daily basis. On the
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other hand, the innermost chamber… the holiest of the 2… was where in more
ancient times the Ark of the Covenant sat (but no longer since after the
Babylonian exile the Ark went missing). Only one man, the High Priest, could
enter that chamber, and only 1 time per year on Yom Kippur (the Day of
Atonement). This wasn’t Jewish tradition; it was Torah Law.
The front chamber had a veil that separated it from the Temple courtyard where
the Temple Altar was located. Herod’s Temple in Christ’s era was considered
one of the wonders of the world. Its enormity that some said looked like a white,
so-capped mountain, was enhanced by the presence of a thick veil that stood
perhaps 8 stories high. It could be seen from miles away. The veil’s weight
probably could be measured in tons. It hung from a specially constructed stone
lintel. So, the question is: which veil tore? The inner veil or the outer veil?
Another phenomenon that happened at the moment of Christ’s death was that
several dead people that were considered holy (righteous) came alive in their
graves. Then AFTER Yeshua arose from His tomb, these newly alive folks
walked out of their tombs and into the city of Jerusalem and it was attested to by
many people who saw them and must have known them. So, it seems to be that
at Christ’s death they awoke, but not until Yeshua awoke 3 days later did they
walk out of their tombs. This is hard to explain and I don’t think I have a good
explanation that goes beyond what others have attempted. There is much
suspicion among Bible scholars that over time something got lost in the
transmittal of this portion of Matthew. For one reason, it begs the question if
these people now remained alive forever, or they died again? For such an
enormous miracle as the dead being resurrected, there is nothing more than a
simple mention of it and all ramifications seem to be left to the minds of the
readers. What supplies us with some interesting information (that is all too short
on details) is that the Roman centurion (and some others as well) that were there
overseeing Christ’s crucifixion experienced the earthquake and “saw what was
happening”. They were so overcome by what they witnessed that Matthew has
them saying “He really was a son of God”.
Now let’s get back to the matter of the veil. Wherever exactly the crucifixion took
place it was a) not far from the Jerusalem city walls and b) up on a relatively high
place with plenty of access for people to walk by and gawk. I believe that place
had to be somewhere on the side, near the top, of the Mount of Olives. Further,
the renting of the veil and other things that happened were witnessed by the
Roman soldiers. Plainly put, there is no way that the Romans standing at the foot
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of the cross (or anyone else for that matter) could have seen or even known
about the condition of the inner veil of the Temple. But, they did have a plain view
of the enormous and highly visible outer veil.
It is theorized (rightly so) that since the monumental outer veil was hung from a
rock lentil, and there is specific mention of rocks splitting due to the violence of
the quake, that the lentil cracked and broke under the terrific weight of the veil. It
necessarily would have split from the top down. It is my opinion that it indeed was
the outer veil that split, opening up a view into the front chamber where the
regular Temple priests could enter. Almost all of Christianity asserts that it was
the inner veil to the Holy of Holies, and this is assumed because of some words
Paul, Peter and others say about Believers being priests.
CJB
1 Peter 2:3-5
3
For you have tasted that ADONAI is good.
4
As you come
to him, the living stone, rejected by people but chosen by God and
precious to him,
5
you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a
spiritual house to be cohanim set apart for God to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to him through Yeshua the Messiah
There are a few other passages as well that describes Believers as priests, which
has led to a Church Doctrine of the Priesthood of Believers. However, we also
read this:
CJB
Hebrews 4:14 Therefore, since we have a great cohen gadol (High
Priest) who has passed through to the highest heaven, Yeshua, the Son of
God, let us hold firmly to what we acknowledge as true.
Here’s the thing: if as Believers we, as a result of Yeshua’s death, are allowed
into the Holy of Holies (as represented by the tearing of the inner Temple veil, if
that was indeed the case), then we don’t become mere priests, we become High
Priests because only the High Priest could venture beyond that inner veil.
However, Yeshua is seen as our spiritual High Priest and there can only ever be
one. Otherwise, the term “High” Priest loses all its meaning. Bottom line: it was
NOT the inner veil that tore. It was not the Holy of Holies that became
symbolically open to Believers. Rather it was the outer veil that tore, which did
symbolically invite Believers into it as servants (priests) of God in His Kingdom.
Paul, Peter and other Jews thoroughly understood this and thus called us
“priests” and never “High Priests”.
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Let’s read some more of Matthew 27.
RE-READ MATTHEW CHAPTER 27:55 – end
We haven’t read of women disciples of Christ until now. Two of them are
introduced and they were both named Miriam. Mary of Magdala (better known to
most Christians as Mary Magdalene) we are familiar with; but the Miriam who is
said to be the mother of Jacob (better known to us as James) and of Joseph is a
bit uncertain. In the listing of Yeshua’s biological half-brothers there is a Jacob
and Joseph. So, this Miriam could well be Jesus’s mother; but it would sure
seem to have been much easier to have just said that!
In any case, as the day of Passover wore on and evening was approaching, a
man named Joseph (said to be from Ramatayim) came to Pilate. Joseph is
identified by Matthew as a disciple of Yeshua. That he was able to get an
audience with Pilate says he was probably of the aristocrat class and that Pilate
previously knew of him. The Book of Mark chapter 15 identifies the day as
“Preparation Day”, the day before Sabbath. This is where our extensive study of
the Hebrew versus Roman calendars and the timing of the Feast Days comes in.
Remembering that John plainly says that among the Judeans Passover Day is
nicknamed Preparation Day, then we understand that this is what Matthew is
referring to. It is, of course, still Passover Day but this one-day feast is about to
end, and the immediate start of the week-long Feast of Matza is about to begin.
Since the 1st day of the Feast of Matza is a special added sabbath, then that
means that Yeshua’s burial had to happen quickly (before this sabbath began),
or the body would have to wait for another 24 hours before it could be entombed.
No burial could take place on any kind of sabbath; feast sabbath or weekly
7
th
day Sabbath. This is why the mention of the time of day (evening) and the
urgency of getting Jesus’s body down from the cross and placed into a tomb.
Following tradition, the body was wrapped in a linen covering and Yeshua was
laid into Joseph’s personal tomb. Apparently the tomb had only recently been
completed and no one had yet been laid to rest in it. Here’s how burial typically
worked for Jews in the 1st century. The deceased was cleaned with water (for
ritual purification), then wrapped in a linen cloth. Usually, various fragrant herbs
and spices were wrapped up inside the linen covering for obvious reasons. Then
the body was placed in a tomb. Tombs usually had a few resting spots to hold
perhaps 3 or 4 bodies at once. A body was usually in there for about a year,
while nature did its work. Once nothing remained but bones, the bones would be
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removed and placed into an ossuary (a bone box), and then moved to another
place (often a designated cave) where many of these bone boxes would reside
as permanent burial. So, tombs were used and reused scores if not hundreds of
times by various people.
A large stone was rolled to cover the door into the tomb and Joseph left. Matthew
says the 2 Mary’s remained there near the tomb. Verse 62 takes place a day or
so later. It says that the next day after the preparation the chief priest (not the
High Priest) and some Pharisees went to visit Pilate. It’s hard to place this in
time. Whether “after the preparation” means after the preparation of Jesus’s
body, or it means the day after Preparation Day, is ambiguous. If they had gone
to Pilate the day after Preparation Day (Passover Day), then it means that they
visited Pilate on a feast sabbath. That is not impossible. If it means they met with
Pilate the day after Jesus’s body was prepared, it might mean Nisan 16
th
, the
2
nd
day of the Feast of Matza. I believe in order to make the timeline work
according to the Prophecy of Jonah, it can only mean that they went to Pilate on
the feast sabbath, the 1
st
day of the Feast of Matza, Nisan 15
th
.
The concern of the Temple and Synagogue leadership, and thus the reason for
their audience with Pilate, was that they were afraid that Yeshua’s body would
go missing because they understood Jesus to have said that after 3 days He will
be raised from the dead. While they didn’t believe that resurrection would
happen, they were afraid that some of Yeshua’s followers might come, remove
the body, and make it appear as though He had arisen. And if that happened,
then the belief that Yeshua was the Messiah and divine Son of God would spread
like wildfire putting the Jewish religious authorities’ power and position at risk.
So, they asked Pilate for permission to have guards at the tomb. Obviously these
were Roman guards they were requesting or they’d have no need to approach
Pilate about it; they could have just used a couple of the Temple guards. These
men were far more concerned with making sure that the threat of Jesus was
ended once and for all, than with contracting ritual uncleanness from being near
to dead bodies or in some way violating the festival sabbath rules. Each Gospel
account tells this story a bit differently. Luke has it that the women came to the
tomb shortly after Jesus was laid in it, went back home until after the sabbath,
then later came back with spices to better prepare the body, but the tomb was
empty. Mark has it approximately the same.
Here’s the timeline of events that I think happened, as it properly fulfills the
Prophecy of Jonah for Messiah in be in the tomb, dead, for 3 days and nights. On
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Nisan 14, Passover, Christ was killed. On Nisan 15, Christ was in the tomb (this
was a feast sabbath). Nisan 16 was the regular 7
th
day Sabbath and Christ was
still in the tomb. On Nissan 17
th
Christ arose. This amounts to 3 days and 3
nights as the Hebrews reckoned it, and it incorporates the reality of the various
sabbaths involved.
We’ll begin the final chapter of Matthew next time.
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