Human beings die for various reasons and in varied ways. Now, there have been reported cases of strange happenings when some people have died. However, nothing comes close to how Jesus died. The Bible records that as Jesus lay on that cross, there was pitch darkness for three hours in the middle of the day – from noon till 3pm. As the African American preachers would poetically put it, “The sun covered its face as the Son was dying on the cross.” The next thing to happen was that the curtain of the temple was torn from top to bottom. Early Jewish tradition reports that this curtain was 4 inches thick, thus making the event even more spectacular. Finally, our Lord Jesus Christ cried out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit,” and breathed His last. I wonder how that voice must have sounded. This is perhaps the first time that He is heard ‘shouting’ for Matthew 12:19 reporting the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy records, _”He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.”_ What intrigues me is that the same Word of God that spoke at the beginning and said, ‘Let there be…’ now cries out in anguish of soul. It is a mystery of unparalleled proportions.

It is on account of these events preceding the death of Christ that the centurion remarked, “Surely this man was innocent.” Matthew reports the words of the centurion and those keeping watch over Jesus slightly differently: “Truly, this man was the Son of God.” In fact, Matthew adds a few more happenings – the earth shaking; splitting of rocks; opening of the tombs. Both from Luke and from Matthew, and even the account given by Mark, it is clear that Jesus did not die an ordinary death. This is because He was no ordinary man. How does the sustainer of life die? How does the giver of life lose it? How can the immortal One die? And on this last point there are many theological debates as to who really died – Jesus as merely man or Jesus as bearing both natures. To this, I argue that the death of Christ is a mystery that will amaze us in all eternity because the Bible does use the language of God dying. Acts 20:28 is an example: “…to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” See that? In the book of Revelation, John saw the risen Christ looking like a lamb that is slain. The centurion marvelled because of how Jesus died. We, too, must marvel and, together with the hymn writer, John Wesley, declare:

1. Do you marvel at the cross?