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Day 266: Son of the Father
Matthew 27-28
Matthew 27:27-31 ~ The Condemned Christ is Mocked by Roman Soldiers
The Praetorium was a Latin term that originally designated the praetor's (officer who administered justice) tent in a military camp but later came to designate the residence of a Roman official where he heard civil cases. The term could also refer either to a select military unity of Roman soldiers that served as personal body guards for the emperor (Praetorian Guard), or other officials, or simply to the military personnel attached to a Praetorium of the official. Verse 27 suggests that the soldiers attached to Pilate's household took Jesus into the judgment hall associated with Pilate's residence in Jerusalem.
Question: What three objects did the soldiers place on Jesus?
Answer: A scarlet military cloak, a crown made of thorns, and a reed.
Matthew describes the cloak was the typical scarlet cloak of a soldier, but Mark records that they dressed Jesus in a purple cloak. Purple was the most expensive die and was the color of royalty; however, the dye used for the Roman soldier's cloak was a reddish-purple/scarlet color. It is difficult to see where common soldiers would have come by expensive purple cloth, but the intention was to dress Jesus like a king since He was charged with sedition against the empire by claiming to be "King of the Jews" (Mt 27:29 and 37). The thorn spikes in the crown of thorns they made for Jesus was probably intended to represent the radiant crown of the emperor depicted on Roman coins, and the reed was probably intended to represent a king's scepter, a sign of royal authority.
Question: What is ironic about the soldiers' cruel treatment in dressing Jesus this way and greeting Him "Hail, King of the Jews," the traditional greeting for the Roman Emperor?
Answer: Jesus really is the king of the Jews and in fact, the King of kings.
Question: The soldiers' mistreatment of Jesus, including mocking Him, spitting in His face and striking him, recalls what parts of the prophecy of God's suffering servant by the 8th century BC prophet Isaiah? See Is 53:1-12 and the chart Isaiah's Suffering Servant fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.
Answer: The entire passage describes Christ's Passion, but two verses that are especially close to the suffering Jesus endured at the hands of the Roman guards are verses 3 and 7-8: He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, one of those from whom men hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem (Is 53:3) and Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth. Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away ... (Is 53:7-8a).
The Crucifixion
It was the third hour [9 AM] when they crucified him.
Mark 15:25
Matthew 27:32-44 ~ Jesus is Crucified
Those condemned to crucifixion were usually tied to a wooden crossbeam and were forced to carry it to the site of the execution. Perhaps Jesus had become too weak from His scourging to carry His crossbeam the entire distance. The Roman soldiers impressed a man who was probably a Jewish pilgrim into public service, a man named Simon who was a native of the city of Cyrene. The city of Cyrene was in North Africa and is located today in the modern state of Libya. The Gospels of Mark and Luke include the information that Simon lived in the "countryside," presumably of Judea (Mk 15:21; Lk 23:26). Luke relates that a large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented Him, and that two criminals who were also condemned to death were led away with Him.
In the Temple that morning, the unblemished, yearling male Tamid lamb was led from the chamber called the Lamb Office to the site of its execution near the altar: They gave the lamb which was to be the daily whole offering a drink from a golden cup (Mishnah: Tamid, 3:4B).
Golgotha is the Greek transliteration of the Aramaic name of the crucifixion site that was called gulgulta, meaning "skull." The identification of the crucifixion site as Golgotha is found in Mathew 27:33, Mark 15:22 and in John 19:17. St. Luke gives the name of the site as Kranion (Lk 23:33), the Greek word for "skull." The name Calvary comes to us from the Rheims New Testament translation of the Latin Vulgate, calvariae locus, which is the Latin translation of the Greek kraniou topos, "place of the skull;" in Latin the word for skull is calvaria. Matthew 27:32 and Mark 15:21 explicitly state the site lies outside the city; the Gospel of John says it is near the city (19:20). We know it was close enough to the city for the on-lookers to read the trilingual plaque that Pilate ordered to be place on Jesus' cross, probably as they looked down upon scene of Jesus' crucifixion from the top of the city wall.(2) Excavations beneath the Church of the Holy Sepulcher revealed burials that were centuries older than when Jesus was crucified and suggest that the name "skull" was given to the site because it was an ancient graveyard.(3)
... they gave Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall. But when he had tasted it, he refused to drink. Wine mixed with myrrh was prepared to dull the prisoner's pain (Mk 15:23). The historicity of the Gospel account is confirmed by the 1st AD century historian Josephus who recorded that wealthy women of Jerusalem provided wine mixed with narcotics for those destined for crucifixion. But according to Matthew, the Roman soldiers continued their abuse of Jesus by mixing gall into the treated wine. Gall is a bitter discharge from the liver or the gall bladder, but it can also refer to any bitter substance or even poison. That Matthew includes this information may be an allusion to the fulfillment of Psalms 69:22: Instead they put gall in my food; for my thirst they gave me vinegar. "Vinegar" was cheap red wine. Jesus will be given cheap wine/vinegar to drink just before He surrenders His life (Mt 27:48; Jn 19:28-30).
Question: Why does Jesus taste the wine when He has sworn at the Last Supper that He will not drink the fruit of the vine until He comes into His kingdom (Mt 26:29; Lk 22:18)?
Answer: He only tastes the wine but does not drink it. This may be to further connect Jesus' perfect sacrifice to the sacrifice of the morning Tamid at the Temple that was given a drink prior to sacrifice. The Tamid was a sacrifice that had for centuries prefigured the sacrifice of Jesus as the true Tamid "standing" (as in continual) Lamb of sacrifice.
St. Mark is the only Gospel writer who records the time Jesus was placed on the Cross: It was the third hour [9 AM] when they crucified him (Mk 15:25). The "third hour" Jewish time was also when the first Tamid lamb was sacrificed in the Temple and its blood splashed against the sacrificial altar as the Levites blew the silver trumpets and the Temple doors were opened for the morning worship service (Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services, page 108). That morning was a compulsory Sacred Assembly and all religious Jews would be in attendance at the Temple, this includes the majority of Jesus' supporters who had no idea concerning the events unfolding at Golgotha.
As Jesus was suffering on the cross, the morning liturgy of the Tamid lamb continued in the Temple. The sacrifices for the first Sacred Assembly of Unleavened Bread and the individual hagigah peace offerings could not be brought forward until after the offering of the Tamid lamb on the altar fire along with people's offering of fine flour mixed with incense, the priestly wafer of unleavened bread and a libation of red wine. The priestly unleavened bread wafer always accompanied the sacrifice of the Tamid lambs: This is the offering that Aaron and his sons shall present to the LORD ... one tenth of an ephah of fine flour for the established cereal offering, half in the morning and half in the evening [afternoon]. It shall be well kneaded and fried in oil on a griddle when your bring it in. Having broken the offering into pieces, you shall present it as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD (Lev 6:12-14).
Question: The offering of the Tamid lamb included a wafer of unleavened bread (Lev 6:12-14) and red wine (Ex 29:40-42; Sir 51:14-15). The officiating priest elevated the wafer above the altar and broke it before laying it on the altar fire. Is that Old Covenant ritual reminiscent of any New Covenant ritual you have witnessed? What happens in the New Covenant ritual?
Answer: In the sacrifice of the Mass, unleavened bread and wine are offered on the altar, but instead of being destroyed with the victim of sacrifice on the altar fire, the bread, elevated and broken before the altar, and wine are transformed into the victim of sacrifice. Jesus Christ becomes present on the altar.
Matthew 27:35-36 ~ After they had crucified him, they divided his garments by casting lots; then they sat down and kept watch over him there. It was the custom for the soldiers overseeing executions to divide the possession of the condemned. The Roman soldiers "kept watch" over Jesus and the other two men in order to prevent any attempt to rescue them.
Psalms 22, written by King David in the 10th century BC, is a description of David's sufferings but also a prediction of Jesus' crucifixion long before the Persians ever invented crucifixion as a form of capital punishment. Included in the psalms is the prediction that lots would be casted for Jesus garments, an event that was not part of David's history. In verses 17-19 David wrote: Many dogs surround me; a pack of evildoers closes in on me. So wasted are my hands and feet that I can count all my bones. They stare at me and gloat; they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots.
Question: In the Gospel of John a detail is given about one of Jesus' garments that was not included in the other Gospels. What was unique about Jesus' tunic and what is significant about the action of the Roman soldiers in regards to it? This is the same tunic Jesus wore to the Last Supper. See Jn 19:23-24.
Answer: Jesus' tunic was seamlessly woven from one piece of cloth. It was obviously expensive so the soldiers cast lots to see which one would possess it. The Gospel of John says this was to fulfill what was written in Psalms 22:19.
Jesus' seamless tunic recalls one of the vestments of the anointed High Priest of Israel (Ex 28:1-5; Lev 21:10) which, according to Josephus, was seamless (Antiquities of the Jews, 3.7.4 [161]; The Jewish Wars, 5.5.7 [231]) and which was only worn during a liturgical service in the Temple (Ez 42:14).
Question: Why is it significant that Jesus wore the seamless garment of a high priest at both the Last Supper and His crucifixion?
Answer: That Jesus wore this high priestly garment at the Last Supper implies that it was a liturgical worship service at which Jesus officiated as the New Covenant High Priest of the sacred meal. That He wore this garment at His crucifixion implies that Jesus was acting as the New Covenant High Priest officiating at the offering of His sacrifice on the altar of the Cross for the atonement sanctification of all people.
You will recall that at the Last Supper the disciples washed their hands (part of the ritual of the meal) and feet (washed by Jesus in Jn 13:5). Josephus records that before performing their ministerial duties, priests washed both their hands and feet (Antiquities of the Jews, 3.6.2 [114]), information that adds another liturgical element to the events of the Last Supper.
Matthew 27:37 ~ And they placed over his head the written charge against him: This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. It was a common Roman practice to post the crime for which a person was being executed and the name of the condemned man. Such a plaque was called in Greek a titulus. Pilate himself ordered the wording of the sign, much to the displeasure of the chief priests.
Question: What additional information is included in the Gospel of John concerning Jesus' titulus? See Jn 19:20.
Answer: The inscription was written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek and could be easily read by the crowds.
Matthew 27:38 ~ Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and the other on his left.
All four Gospels agree that Jesus was crucified between two criminals (also see Mk 15:27; Lk 23:33; Jn 19:18). As Jesus is situated between two men on an elevation with His arms outstretched on the Cross, commanding the climactic battle between good and evil, the scene is reminiscent of Moses standing on a hill with outstretched arms between Aaron and Hur in the Israelite's battle with the wicked Amalekites (Ex 17:8-13; CCC 440). However, unlike the temporal consequences of Moses' battle, the outcome of Jesus' battle has cosmic and eternal implications.
Matthew 27:39-43 ~ Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, if you are the Son of God, [and] come down from the cross!" 41 Likewise the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said, 42 "He saved others; he cannot save himself. So he is the king of Israel! Let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if he wants him. For he said, I am the Son of God.'"
These actions by Jesus' tormentors are also described in Psalms 22. In verses 8-9 David wrote: All who see me mock me; they curl their lips and jeer; they shake their heads at me. "You relied on the LORD "let him deliver you if he loves you, let him rescue you."
The scene in Matthew 27:39-42 and the enmity against Jesus by the chief priests, Pharisees and elders also recalls the condemnation of the righteous by the wicked described in Wisdom 2:12-24: Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training. He professes to have knowledge of God and styles himself a child of the LORD ... He calls blest the destiny of the just and boasts that God is his Father. Let us see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him. For if the just one be the son of God, he will defend him and deliver him from the hand of his foes. With revilement and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience. Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him" (Wis 2:12-13, 16a-20).
Question: What kinds of taunts or challenges do the people, the chief priests, scribes and elders make?
Answer:
- "Save yourself if you are the Son of God and come down from the cross."
- "He saved others; he cannot save himself."
- "Come down from the cross and we will believe ..."
- "He trusted in God let him deliver him ..."
St. Luke records that Jesus prayed for His persecutors from the Cross, saying Father, forgive them, they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34). This is the first of seven statements Jesus will make from the altar of the Cross. Two of His statements are quotations from the Psalms of David.
| Jesus' Last Seven Statements from the Cross | |
| Statement | Scripture |
| 1. "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." | Lk 23:34 |
| 2. "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." | Lk 23:42 |
| 3. "Woman, behold, your son"... "Behold, your mother." | Jn 19:26-27 |
| 4. "Eli, Eli lema sabachthani," "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me." ~ Hebrew "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani," "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me." ~ Aramaic* | Mt 27:46 (*Ps 22:1a quoted in Hebrew) Mk 15:34 (Jesus quoted from Ps 22:1/2a in Aramaic) |
| 5. "I thirst." | Jn 19:28 |
| 6. "It is fulfilled."+ | Jn 19:30 |
| 7. "Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit."+ | Lk 23:46 (Ps 31:5/6 quoted) |
| Michal E. Hunt © copyright 2012 | |
Question: The first statement is a petition on behalf of those who are persecuting Him. What teaching that Jesus gave in His Sermon on the Mount does this petition recall? See Mt 5:43-48.
Answer: He taught that His followers are to imitate the example of their heavenly Father in freely giving their love and forgiveness, even to enemies.
Matthew 27:43b ~ The revolutionaries who were crucified with him also kept abusing him in the same way.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke all mention the two men crucified on either side of Jesus (Mk 15:27, 32; Lk 23:33, 39-43), but Luke records the change of heart of the man to the right of Jesus (Lk 23:39-43).
Question: What is Jesus' response to the man's righteous deed in defending Jesus against the verbal abuse of the crucified man to Jesus' left and his profession of faith in Jesus by asking to be remembered when Jesus comes into His kingdom? See Lk 23:39-43.
Answer: His good work in defending Jesus and his profession of faith in Jesus by his petition "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom" is rewarded by Jesus' promise of eternal salvation when Jesus tells the man "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
This is Jesus' second statement from the altar of the Cross. The Gospel of John also records Jesus' words to His mother and the beloved disciple (believed to be St. John Zebedee) in which He makes John responsible for the care of His mother. This would have been unthinkable if Mary had other sons and daughters and supports 2,000 years of Church teaching and tradition that Jesus was Mary's only child (CCC 499-500). Jesus' exchange with His mother and the beloved disciple is Jesus' third statement from the Cross.
Matthew 27:45-56 ~ The Death of the Redeemer-Messiah
While the Gospels of Matthew and Mark mention the total darkness that began at noon, St. Luke identifies the darkness as a total eclipse of the sun: It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon [the third hour] because of an eclipse of the sun... (Lk 23:44-45). This is a miracle that cannot be explained away by some coincidence of nature. The liturgical calendar was a lunar calendar and the day of Jesus' crucifixion on the 15th of Nisan was during a full moon cycle: And this feast is begun on the fifteenth day of the month in the middle of the month, on the day on which the moon is full of light, in consequence of the providence of God taking care that there shall be no darkness on that day [Philo, Special Laws II, 155]. Total or partial eclipses do not occur during full moon cycles, and they only last for minutes not for hours. Both Christian and non-Christian writers recorded the phenomena.
This cosmic event and its aftermath fulfill the prophecy of the 8th century BC prophet Amos: On that day, says the Lord GOD, I will make the sun set at midday and cover the earth with darkness in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentations. I will cover the loins of all with sackcloth and make every head bald. I will make them mourn as for an only son, and bring their day to bitter end (Am 8:9-10; emphasis added). Wearing sackcloth and shaving one's head is a sign of affliction and mourning in the ancient Middle East (Is 15:2; Jer 7:29; Mic 1:16).
As Jesus suffered on the altar of the cross, the Temple was in darkness, but the liturgical ceremony and sacrifices for first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread continued by the light of the altar fire. At noon the second lamb of the Tamid sacrifice was led out and tired near the altar before it was inspected one last time by the High Priest Joseph Caiaphas. Declared "without fault," it was given a last drink (Mishnah: Tamid, 3:4B; 4:1); this may be the point at which Jesus was offered a second drink (Lk 23:35-36); the first offer was before He was crucified (Mt 27:34-35; Mk 15:23-24). You may recall that Pilate declared Jesus "without fault" (Jn 18:38; 19:4, 6).
Matthew 27:46 ~ And about three o'clock [the ninth hour] Jesus cried out in a loud voice, Eli, eli, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken [abandoned] me?"
Jesus last four statements come very close together. At is about three in the afternoon. This is Jesus' fourth statement from the Cross. St. Matthew records Jesus' statement in Hebrew either to draw His Jewish audience to the passage in the Hebrew Scriptures of Psalm 22:1a or because this is one element that has been retained from his Gospel that was originally written in Hebrew (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.1.1). St. Mark records Jesus' statement in the Aramaic that Jesus' would have spoken aloud (Mk 15:34).
Psalms 22:1a reads: My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why so far from my call for help, from my cries of anguish? Jesus' quote from this Psalms is not as some have wrongly interpreted a cry of utter despair and hopelessness; far from it. If one reads the entire Psalms 22, David's cry of distress ends in a shout of joy and his confidence that God has heard his prayer, will rescue him from his enemies, and future generations will be told of his deliverance. Such psalms are called toda psalms (the Hebrew word toda means "thanks" or "thanksgiving"). Again, it is also important to note that this psalms, attributed to David and therefore written sometime in the early 10th century BC, is a description of a crucifixion centuries before the Persians invented this form of capital punishment.
Matthew 27:47-49 ~ Some of the bystanders who heard it said, "This one is calling for Elijah." 48 Immediately one of them ran to get a sponge; he soaked it in wine, and putting it on a reed, gave it to him to drink. 49 But the rest said, "Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to save him."
The crowd mistook the words "Eloi," "my God," for the name of the prophet Elijah who they evidently recall was prophesied to be a precursor to the coming of the Messiah (Mal 3:23/4:5) and whose mission they may have confused with the passage in Malachi 3:1 that speaks of God's messenger who will "prepare the way" by suddenly coming to the Temple "which Jesus did in His Temple cleansings.
The Gospel of John records that it is at this time that Jesus utters the words "I thirst" (Jn 19:28); this is Jesus' fifth statement from the Cross. John 19:29-30 ~ A jar full of sour wine stood there; so putting a sponge soaked in the wine on a hyssop stick, they held it up to his mouth. After Jesus had taken the wine he said, It is fulfilled [or finished = literally in the Greek text, "Teltelestai"]; and bowing his head he gave up his spirit (emphasis added). "It is fulfilled/finished" is Jesus sixth statement from the Cross.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and John record that Jesus was given a final drink of wine. However, only the Gospel of John mentions that Jesus requested the drink, saying "I thirst," that the Roman soldier extended the drink of wine to Him on a hyssop branch, and that Jesus spoke the words "It is fulfilled" "the same last words as those of the host of the Passover meal when the 4th Cup, the Cup of Acceptance, has been consumed.
Question: Why does the Gospel of John draw our attention to the fact that it is a hyssop branch that the Roman guard used to give Jesus the drink of sour wine? What was the symbolic importance of this detail? Hint: see Ex 12:22; Ex 24:8; Lev 14:6, 49, 51-52; Num 19:11-21; Ps 51:7; Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24; Lk 22:20; and Heb 9:18-22. Use each of these passages in your answer.
Answer:
- In the first Passover event, hyssop was used to smear the blood of the sacrificial victim from the threshold (where the blood was poured out) to the lintel and the door posts of the doorway of the Israelite houses, making a cross-like sign under which those inside eating the sacred meal were saved from death (Ex 12:22).
- In the ratification of the Sinai Covenant, Moses, the mediator between God and the people, symbolically united them by using a hyssop branch to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the altar (representing Yahweh) and then on the people; it was a symbolic act that created one family united in the "blood of the covenant" (Ex 24:8; Heb 9:18-20). These are the same words Jesus used in the Last Supper when He offered those assembled His Precious Blood (Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24; Lk 22:20).
- Hyssop was used in the rituals of purification. The passage in Numbers 19 gave instruction in the use of hyssop for ritual purification for those who were contaminated by a dead body. Such ritual contamination left the covenant member literally "dead" to their community until they could be purified on the third and seventh days (a double resurrection)* with hyssop and holy water. The blood of Jesus has purified us and saved us from spiritual death and has given physical death no power over us. Jesus' Precious Blood is the cleansing agent, which the hyssop and holy water of the Old Covenant symbolized. It is His Precious Blood that purifies us from all sins: Purify me with hyssop till I am clean, wash me whiter than snow (Ps 51:7).
In the climax of Jesus' crucifixion, the hyssop branch was symbolically used in the ratification of the New Covenant in the blood sacrifice of Jesus the Christ. It is His Precious Blood that transforms and unites the New Covenant people into God's Holy Covenant family - the Universal Church!
John 19:30 ~ After Jesus had taken the wine he said, It is fulfilled.'
In the prescribed ritual of the sacred meal of the Passover victim, there was a 4th ritual cup that closed the meal and sealed the covenant for another year. This cup was called the Cup of Acceptance. It was after consuming this final communal cup that the host of the Passover supper would cry out: "It is fulfilled" "Teltelestai" in Greek. Since Jesus made an oath that He would not drink wine until He came into His kingdom (Mt 26:29; Mk 14:25; Lk 22:17), He could not have taken the 4th cup at the Last Supper. Therefore, He could not have officially, according to custom, closed the Passover sacrificial meal in the Upper Room. The Gospel of John records Jesus' words in Greek and not in Aramaic, perhaps to draw our attention to the Greek which was also an accounting term that was written over the ledger recording a debt, meaning the debt was paid in full.
St. Luke gives us the last words of Jesus from the Cross; it is His seventh statement: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit (Lk 23:46). His statement is a quote from Psalms 31:5/6: Into your hands I commend my spirit; you will redeem me, LORD, faithful God. It is another toda psalm that begins as a prayer of distress in which the psalmist cries out: I am forgotten, out of mind like the dead; I am like a shattered dish. I hear the whispers of the crowd; terrors are all around me. They conspire against me; they plot to take my life. But I trust in you, LORD; I say, "You are my God." My times are in your hands; rescue me from my enemies, from the hands of my pursuers (Ps 31:13-16). But the cry becomes a prayer of thanksgiving and praise for God's mercy and loving care in the psalmist's hour of need and a message of hope to the faithful: Yet you heard my plea, when I cried out to you. Love the LORD, all you faithful. The LORD protects the loyal, but repays the arrogant in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD" (Ps 31:23b-25).
Question: Why did Jesus shout out this quote from Psalms 31 in His last words from the Cross?
Answer: His shout demonstrates that by the force of His will He gave up His Spirit. Jesus' self-sacrificial death and willingness to give up His Spirit wasn't a defeat - it was a victory that he will share with the faithful!
In the offering up of His perfect sacrifice, Jesus came into His Kingdom. What He spoke of figuratively in His agony in the garden of Gethsemane was now symbolically fulfilled as He drank the wine of God's wrath as well as the wine of the 4th Cup of the ritual meal that He did not pass at the Last Supper. All was "fulfilled," as He promised in Matthew 5:17-18 and announced in John 19:28. Therefore, He accepted on behalf of all people the cup that sealed the covenant with God in a New and eternal covenant which offered mankind the purification of sins through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (Jn 1:29). Through His Passion the debt of sin is paid in full and the New Covenant is inaugurated in the sacrificial blood of the Christ which will become the Eucharistic cup of Acceptance for the restoration of fellowship with God in the New Covenant Church. He willingly gave up His spirit for the sake all mankind and for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth that was to be the vehicle to lead all members of the human family to salvation.
Matthew 27:57-61 ~ The Burial of Jesus
St. Mark includes the information that Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Sanhedrin and that the day Jesus died was Preparation Day (Friday) for the coming Sabbath. It became the Sabbath at sundown; therefore, Jesus' body was removed from the Cross prior to sundown in accordance with the Law (Dt 21:22-23). Placing Jesus' body in this rich man's tomb was a fulfillment of Isaiah 53:9 in the Septuagint translation: And I will give the wicked for his burial, and the rich of his death; for he practiced no iniquity, nor craft with his mouth.
The body of Christ was wrapped in a clean linen shroud which many Christians believe is the Shroud of Turin (Mk 15:46; Lk 23:53; Jn 19:40). There is no mention of washing Jesus' body in any of the Gospel accounts, which was the typical practice in a natural death (see Acts 9:37). However, not washing Jesus' body is in accordance with Jewish customs for one who died a violent death since the blood, which gives life, must not be removed from the body. This is the practice in Israel today for those killed by suicide bombers. The Shroud of Turin not only has the negative image of a man who died from crucifixion, but the blood of the victim is on the Shroud. However, even a victim of violent death would have his body prepared with herbs and spices, and this was the case with Jesus' body (Jn 12:7; Lk 23:53; 19:40), and there is ample evidence of this practice on the Shroud of Turin.
Mary Magdalene and Mary (probably) the mother of James and Joseph, kept watch over the location of the tomb.
Saturday, Nisan the 16th
Matthew 27:62-66 ~ Guards are placed at Jesus' Tomb
This day was the Great/High Sabbath of the holy week of the feast of Unleavened Bread (Jn 19:31).
Question: What is ironic about the guards the members of the council wanted placed on Jesus' tomb to prevent His disciples from stealing His body and fostering the belief that His missing body was resurrected?
Answer: The presence of the guards and the officially sealed tomb, which Jesus' disciples would have observed, only served as more proof that Jesus' Resurrection was a supernatural event.
Chapter 28 ~ Jesus Arises from the Dead
Sunday, Nisan the 17th ~ the Feast of Firstfruits
~ the offering of the first fruits if the barley harvest
The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you come into the land which I am giving you, and reap your harvest, you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest, who shall wave the sheaf before the LORD that it maybe acceptable for you. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall do this. On this day when your sheaf is waved, you shall offer to the LORD for a holocaust an unblemished yearling lamb. Its cereal offering shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD; and its libation shall be a fourth of a hin of wine ... This shall be a perpetual statue for you and your descendants wherever you dwell.
Lev 23:10-14
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Lk 23:53; 1 Corinthians 15:20
Matthew 28:1-10 ~ The Resurrection of the Christ
After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.
Question: What day of the week is it according to our names for the days of the week?
Answer: It is Sunday, the first day of the week.
The Jews only gave a name to one day of the week, and that was the Sabbath (the other days were numbered day one, day two, etc.). The day of Jesus' Resurrection was on the Jewish feast of Firstfruits which, according to the Law was to fall in the day after the Sabbath of the holy week of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:9-13) and was designated a "perpetual" feast to be observed for all generations (Lev 23:14). The communal sacrifice for this feast day, in addition to each of the single Tamid lambs of the morning and afternoon worship service, was a single unblemished male lamb that was to be offered with unleavened bread and red wine. The morning and afternoon Tamid worship services and the feast of Firstfruits were the only communal sacrifices that required a single yearling male lamb offered with unleavened bread and red wine. The date of the Jewish feast of Weeks/Pentecost was determined by counting fifty days from the feast of Firstfruits. As the ancients counted, this feast also always fell on a Sunday. Today the Church celebrates the feast of Firstfruits as Easter Sunday and the date of the feast of Pentecost is determined in the same way by counting fifty days, as the ancients counted, always falling on a Sunday.
Matthew 28:11-15 ~ The Suppression of the Testimony of the Roman Guard
Instead of recognizing the "sign" of resurrection that Jesus promised them (Mt 13:39-40), the religious leaders conspire with the guards to deceive the people.
Question: Why do they tell the guards that they will protect them from Pilate?
Answer: The penalty for a Roman soldier who was caught sleeping on guard duty was death.
Matthew 28:16-20 ~ The Resurrected Christ gives the Great Commission
In Matthew 28:7 when the women disciples discovered the empty tomb, the angel of God told them to go and tell the disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead and "now he is going ahead of you to the Galilee; that is where you will see him." They meet Him at the Galilee by the sea (Jn 21:1-23) where Jesus begins His instructions to them that will last for forty days as He appears and disappears to His faithful. It is at the meeting at the Sea of Galilee/Sea of Tiberius that He gives Peter and the disciples their "marching orders" in establishing His Kingdom of the Church.
Matthew 28:19-20 is called "The Great Commission."
Question: What is the scope of the mission Jesus has given His disciples in every generation? See Dan 7:13-14; Jn 20:21-23 and CCC 730.
Answer: The mission is universal for the emissaries of the One who has universal power over all the earth. From the time of Jesus' Resurrection, the mission of God the Son and God the Holy Spirit becomes the mission of the Church, as Jesus told the Apostles in John 20:19b ~ As the Father has sent me, so I send you.
Question: What is the significance of the command to baptize with the formula: "In the name of the Father, and of he Son, and of the holy Spirit"? See Jn 3:3-5 and CCC 1257, 1272-3.
Answer: Rebirth through water and the spirit in Christian baptism is the means Jesus has given for entrance into the community of the New Covenant. In the Sacrament of Baptism, the baptized person is configured to the risen Savior and incorporated into the Body of Christ which is His Church. The formula Jesus gives for the Sacrament of Baptism defines the Trinity and designates baptism as the union of the one baptized with the life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The union of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the central mystery of Christian faith. Indeed, the faith of all who call themselves Christians rests on belief in the union of the Most Holy Trinity (CCC 232-34, 237).
Do not miss that baptism is linked to teaching the newly baptized to observe "all that I have commanded you." Simply acknowledging Christ is not enough and the old Law no longer defines righteousness "it is the Gospel of salvation preached in the New Law that defines the path of salvation for Christians.
| Old Covenants | Fulfilled in Christ |
| 1. The covenant with Adam | Jesus is the "new Adam" who has atoned for the sin of the first Adam, conquering sin and death and bringing forth His Bride, the Church, from His pierced side as Eve was born from the side of Adam (Rom 5:14-21; 1 Cor 15:20-45; CCC 359, 411, 504, 766). |
| 2. The covenant with Noah | Jesus' gift of the Sacrament of baptism has restored man, through water and the Spirit to renewed life (Jn 3:3, 5; 1 Pt 3:21, CCC 628, 1094). |
3. The three-fold Abrahamic covenant:
| Jesus has fulfilled the three promises made to Abraham (CCC 59, 706, 762-66):
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| 4. The Covenant at Sinai | Jesus has fulfilled all the blood rituals and purification rituals of the old Law in His one perfect sacrifice on the altar of the Cross, having made atonement for the sins of man and offering continual purification through the Eucharist and the other Sacraments of His Church (Heb 9:15-28; CCC 577-582). In His self-sacrifice and fulfillment of the Sinai Covenant, Jesus has freed God's people from the curse of failing to keep the old Law (Dt 28:15; Rom 3:21-26; Gal 3:13-14). |
| 5. The Aaronic Covenant of a ministerial priesthood | Jesus has established the New Covenant priesthood: A universal priesthood of all believers and a ministerial priesthood that is no longer based on heredity but on the call of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28:19-20; CCC 1141-43). |
| 6. The Perpetual Priesthood of Phinehas | Jesus Christ is the eternal High Priest of the New and Everlasting Covenant (Heb 4:14-15; 8:1-3; CCC 1137). |
| 7. The Davidic Covenant | God's promise to David that his throne would endure forever is fulfilled in Christ who is the heir of David and the King of the Universal Church (Lk 1:32-33; Heb 1:1-4; CCC 786, 2105). |
| Michal E. Hunt © copyright 2012 | |
DAY 266 Religion Hostile to Science?
CHALLENGE: “Religion is intrinsically hostile to science.”
DEFENSE: This is a gross caricature that itself exhibits hostility to religion.
There have been conflicts involving science and religion (e.g., the Galileo affair, the Scopes Monkey Trial). There are religious individuals who are hostile to science, but there also are scientifically oriented individuals who are hostile to religion. Looking down on something as “unscientific” displays hostility in the same way dismissing it as “irreligious” does.
The supporters of both religion and science are flawed human beings who are sometimes unjustly hostile, but this does not make the two fields intrinsically hostile to each other.
Religion is a diverse phenomenon. When one thinks of all the different religions in the world, all the diversity of viewpoint and attitude that can exist within a single religion, and all of the scientists who belong to different religions, it is a gross caricature to assert that religion is somehow fundamentally opposed to science.
Christianity, in particular, understands God as a divine lawgiver who embedded certain laws in nature. These laws can be investigated by humans, and it has been argued that this understanding has played an important role in the rise of modern science, in which many Christian scientists were prominent.
Religion, science, and philosophy each ask fundamental questions about the world, and sometimes the areas investigated by the three disciplines overlap. However, this does not make the three disciplines intrinsically hostile to each other.
From a Christian point of view, all truth is God’s truth, and he is glorified when humans use their divinely given intellects to discover what God has done, regardless of which field makes the discovery.
The Catholic attitude toward science is expressed in the Catechism: The question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms and the appearance of man. These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give him thanks for all his works and for the understanding and wisdom he gives to scholars and researchers (CCC 283).
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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