The Battle - is no fantasy

If you have read the account of Christ’s death maybe, you missed the battle. That is OK, I did, and even those who were there did. You can read it again in Mathew 27: 45-53 by clicking here: https://www.youversion.com/bible/111/mat.27.niv

Those who were watching must have been devastated and confused at His death. After all, they believed that He was the Messiah. The Messiah whom the bible foretold, that was going to come and free the Jews. Of course, they expected freedom from the tyrannical reign of the Roman Empire. The fight that was coming, in their eyes, was going to be a physical battle. It didn’t turn out that way did it?

I wonder what they thought when Christ died…seemingly without a fight. 

If you were there what would have heard? Maybe it would have sounded something like this.

“What? He is dead? The Messiah was going to free us! He did not even fight his persecutors. He didn’t even argue with them. Did he speak up for his innocence? Did he fight for his own freedom? Nope, he never argued; no, instead He prayed for them, asking God to forgive them. I cannot believe it is over, I cannot believe we lost, I cannot believe we lost this way. There was no fight. There was no battle. He just gave up on us. Oh no, what do we do now?” 

Being crushed by the seeming finality of the defeat they did what most of us would have done. They all ran from the scene, they went home to lick their wounds and hide from what was the most devastating blow to their faith. Their messiah failed. They must have been questioning everything they had learned in those three years of his ministry. 

Hold on though, hold the phone, not so fast. They didn’t recognize the battle, it was only reaching its climax as Christ was drawing closer to giving up His life. Let us take a look at three events that occurred as Christ hung on the cross between those two thieves. 

1. The eclipse
2. Christ cries out in a loud voice
3. The Earthquake   

1) The Eclipse - there was darkness that came over all the land mentioned in verse 45 was first prophesied hundreds of years before.

Isaiah in 50:10 Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.

Matthew’s Commentary has this to say about the eclipse.

"When earth denied him a drop of cold water, heaven denied him a beam of light; having to deliver us from utter darkness, he did himself, in the depth of his sufferings, walk in darkness, and had no light. During the three hours that this darkness continued, we do not find that he said one word, but passed this time in a silent retirement into his own soul, which was now in agony, wrestling with the powers of darkness, and taking in the impressions of his Father’s displeasure, not against himself, but the sin of man, which he was now making his soul an offering for.

Christ, who came to free the captives (us), had to free them from someone. While the Jews of the time believed that they this freedom would be from the Romans, Christ was really freeing us from Satan. Paul referred to them in Ephesians 6:12 as…… the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

In this 3-hour period Christ does not speak. Not even a word. It could be that there was a fierce battle being fought, being fought in the darkness. God may have darkened the world to make for a more illustrious battle by giving Satan the fight on his own turf. In essence, God could have given Satan the home field advantage so he could, when victorious, be even more than the conqueror. 

2) Christ cries out -  just before He does give up his last breath Christ “cries out in a loud voice” (v.46) My God, My God why have you forsaken me? This, while a cry from Jesus, about His suffering from bearing our sins was also more than that. By this point He was beaten brutally and fatigued from hanging on the cross. Most men, when they are on deaths door do not have that kind of energy or even the physical capability to speak. Let alone cry out in a loud voice. Is it possible that this was a WAR CRY? Meant to send us and Satan a message that Christ was still yet full of strength and that His life in him now was still fully whole. This shows that Christ was fully giving up His life on his own accord.

3) The earthquake - so powerful and violent that it tore the curtain/veil in the temple, it split rocks in half, and it broke open the tombs of many of the holy people. This must have been one mighty blow to the powers of evil. Could it have been the final blow that put Satan down for the count? A hit so hard even the rocks, one of the hardest things on the planet actually split in two.

These three events fill me with excitement about how the battle with Satan was a foot. When Christ was dying on the cross in the flesh, He was fully engaged in battle in the spiritual realm. The whole time he was fully in control and doing everything just as predicted hundreds of years before. He was the ultimate underdog in the eyes of His people. They just didn’t know it yet. Perhaps the most interesting and incredible part of this battle came in the time from His death to the time of His resurrection.

There are not any specific verses in the bible that tells us what happened in that period so we have to speculate. This has lead to a lot of speculation among scholars. You will need to research that on your own, diving a little deeper, and coming up with your own opinion. Let me leave though with a piece of scripture that may hold a clue or a reference. .  

 

1^st Peter 3:18-20

18For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built…….