Note: This is the final sermon in a series of eight messages in the home stretch of the Gospel of Matthew. In this series, I wanted to articulate what I've digested and brewed over the last thirty years of life in the Church. In this, thinking about what the Gospels reveal about God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the working of the Holy Spirit. Especially being attentive to the ways the Gospel writers (and Jesus Himself) seamlessly connect the Old and New Testaments; and the ways the Lord Jesus, in his earthly ministry, fulfills and embodies the Law and the Prophets. That stuff floats my boat! So, I purposefully laid aside the commentaries and monographs in this series, preparing to speak from the fruit of my own labors in past reading, studying, and working with these sacred words. Nothing new or radical here, just standing on the shoulders of many faithful pastors, theologians and teachers. With all that treasure stored, it was time to retell the Story in my own voice. May the Lord Jesus Christ continue "to increase" through the fallible pulpits of small church pastors (like me) all over the world. CS
Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025.
Rev. Cameron Smith
New Life Presbyterian Church
Easter According to the Gospel of Matthew: "It is Finished" - Sermon #8 of 8
Psalm 87; Matthew 27:45-56
It is said, when someone dies, they are “gone but not forgotten.” Nevertheless, outside immediate family, in death, memory fades with the passage of time. For example, the plaques on the sides of our pews display names of long-gone people— A few still remember some, but most are just names.
Count Zinzendorf, the founder of the Moravian movement, famously advised preachers to: “Preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten.” In that spirit, the epitaph on my tombstone will riff on a John the Baptist line: (John 3:30) “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Mine will be: “He must increase, but I am deceased.”
But, "Increase," Jesus indeed has.
The Lord Jesus Christ is a singular historical memory that will never fade. No matter how persistent governments or tyrants or idealogues try to stamp it out. No matter how many years pass— we’re now two-thousand years on— Jesus will never be forgotten, and He cannot be erased. Jesus is relevant to every generation and to every culture. No one else from the dawn of time can make that claim. The irony of ironies is– his death framed history and set the future in motion. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ changed the world.
There is a line in C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” that illustrates well: Aslan, the Christ-like figure in the stories, in answer to the devil (White Witch)— gives his life vicariously for the life of a guilty young boy– an atoning sacrifice to be offered on “a Cross-like” altar called the Stone Table. As Aslan dies— there is an earthquake and great darkness. The Table cracks, split in two— and there is Resurrection.
Afterward, Aslan explains: “She [the White Witch didn’t realize] that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”
This describes Calvary: “A willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead.” An innocent, sinless, righteous man, died on a Roman Cross for the sins of the world— “And death started working backwards.”
Matthew 27 retells the death of Jesus on the Cross: The death knell of death came through a death. It begins with (27:45): Now from the sixth hour [Noon] there was darkness over all the land… Matthew is taking us back to Genesis 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. But the Spirit was moving!
The Spirit of God was moving in the terrible darkness of Calvary. Jesus gave voice to the words of Psalm 22 (27:46) “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” According to John 19:30, after Jesus had been given a sip of sour wine, He cried, “It is finished.”
This was not a cry of death, but of completion. In the book of 1 Kings, after seven years of work on Jerusalem Temple— King Solomon declares, “it is finished.” God’s eyes, ears, heart and heart with them. A sacrificial system in place. All’s well… ? The subsequent history of Solomon and Israel tells us that the work was far from finished.
The daily sacrifices and rituals and prestige of that glorious temple could never be sufficient. Hebrews 10:3-4 declares in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, in a death on the Cross, the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, became the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29) The work of the new Temple in the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ, was truly finished. The once for all time, never-to-be repeated, all-encompassing, all sufficient sacrifice.
It is finished! — (27:51) Behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom— And at that moment, the all-too-holy Holy of Holies was opened unto us. As an exclamation, not to be construed as a bare geological phenomenon, there was an earthquake— the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
In the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, there is a cave directly beneath the hill of Calvary. It is called the Chapel of Adam, where tradition says that Shem, after Noah’s Flood, reburied the bones and skull of Adam there. (I presume Eve, too.) There is a crack in the wall by the altar there in that cave caused by that earthquake. The blood of Jesus ran down through the crack of the rock— and covered the bones of Adam— covering the original sin that damned all creation from the beginning.
Is that true? Well, yes— It is true in that the blood of Jesus covers that sin, and much more— The sins of the whole world— BC and AD – until he comes again.
In 27:52-53, only Matthew reports this: the tombs …were opened. And the dead were raised. Witnessed all over the city. This wasn’t an episode of “The Walking Dead”— It was a foretaste of Resurrection Life. In the Gospel of John, this came in the raising of Lazarus: A demonstration of New Life and New Creation birthed in Christ. It is a testimony that the End, in Faith, is not death. Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life.
In 27:54, a Gentile, pagan Roman centurion, standing near the Cross as Jesus drew his last breath, declared: “Truly, this was the Son of God!” Astonishing! Matthew’s Gospel, written for a Jewish audience— declares that Gentiles too, have share in their Messiah!
Our OT reading this morning was from Psalm 87. This Gentile centurion’s witness gives meaning to this Psalter prophecy: (87:4-6) Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush—“This one was born there,” they say. …Of Zion it shall be said, “This one and that one were born in her.” …The LORD records as he registers the peoples, “This one was born there.”
The final theological reveal in this passage is one of the greatest in the Gospels— And it is a truth that most of my colleagues in “my tribe” have missed badly. (27:55) Mathew reports that there were ministering women present. These women had accompanied Jesus along the way. They provided financially. They served as faithful disciples. Like the men, they followed the Lord Jesus, too. As a matter of fact, it will be Mary Magdalene and other Marys— who are recorded here in all four Gospels— will be the first witnesses to the Resurrection. (28:9-10) Behold, Jesus met [the women] and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee…” and there they will see me.”
The male disciples were slow to believe. The women believed. In Church History, Mary Magdalene is referred to as “the Apostle to the Apostles.” I don’t think we can comprehend the scandal here. The greatest, paradigm shifting, earth shattering truth to ever known in history— Coming through a woman! But this was divine and intentional. In Jesus Christ, the curse of the Fall is being reversed: Death started working backwards. The relationship and partnership between men and women was being restored. All of this. It all started with a death on a Friday afternoon.
The Gospel was revealed to the world:
The work of redemption was definitively, completely, wholly Finished.
A renewed relationship with God was made possible.
Sins were washed and forgiven.
Resurrection life conquered death.
God’s love encompassed the whole world.
And all relationships were restored to pre-fall, Edenic glory.
He is risen!
He is risen, indeed!
