Matthew 27

⁵⁴ When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” ⁵⁵ There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, ⁵⁶ among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. ⁵⁷ When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸ He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. ⁵⁹ And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud ⁶⁰ and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. ⁶¹ Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

Strangely enough, the Shroud of Turin, the famous cloth that many allege was the burial cloth of Jesus and many allege was not, has been showing up in the news a lot lately.

Dr. Russell Moul has written an article entitled “What’s Going on with the Shroud of Turin?” that seeks to explain why. Moul first points out that the current scientific consensus is that the shroud dates to 1260–1390 AD on the basis of radiocarbon dating conducted in the 1980s. Then Moul explains why the recent uptick in interest:

However, a study conducted by Italian scientist Liberato De Caro offered an alternative perspective on the Shroud’s age. The results were published in 2022 but have only now caught media attention for some reason. De Caro and his team from the Institute of Crystallography in Bari, Italy, examined the artifact with a new technique, known as wide-angle X-ray scattering, in a study conducted in 2019.

According to this paper, the Turin Shroud dates back to 2,000 years ago, contemporaneous with when the historical figure of Jesus was said to have lived.

The researchers say cellulose found in the Shroud’s fibres has aged slowly since the 14^th century because of the lower ambient temperatures in the rooms where it has been housed. This, they argue, means that most of the Shroud’s aging occurred before the 1300s.

“The degree of natural aging of the cellulose that constitutes the linen of the investigated sample, obtained by X-ray analysis, showed that the [Turin Shroud] fabric is much older than the seven centuries proposed by the 1988 radiocarbon dating”, De Caro and his team write.

However, the authors stress that their results can only be accurate if future research finds evidence that the relic was kept safely at an average room temperature of around 22°C (71.6 °F) with a relative humidity of about 55 percent for 1,300 years before it appeared in the historical record.[1]

This is intriguing. Mould does caution the reader, however. He points out that some of Liberato De Caro’s earlier work on and hypotheses concerning the shroud has been seriously questioned.

I supposed folks will be arguing about that cloth long after I am dead and gone! But it is interesting, is it not? The burial of Jesus and the details surrounding it still hold the attention of the world! And this is only fitting. For the death and burial of Jesus are at the heart of the greatest good news the world has ever heard!

In Matthew’s account, we find a number of figures surrounding the cross at the time of Jesus’ death. Each of then offers a powerful depiction of various human responses to Jesus.

A surprising declaration of faith.

We begin with a surprising declaration of faith.

⁵⁴ When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

This is a powerful moment. Of course, seen from this side of the cross and the empty tomb, we can see that the statement has theological deficiencies.

Frederick Dale Bruner has argued that the centurion’s declaration should be seen as evidence of a “conversion” even though it is flawed and incomplete (“raw and not perfect”). Specifically, Bruner points to two deficiencies in what the centurion said:

• The past tense: “this was the Son of God”
• The absence of the definite article: “this was a Son of God” (so Bruner argues)

What are we to make of these two deficiencies? I appreciate Bruner’s own thoughts on the matter. He writes:

Gentile faith, unchurched faith, “soldiers’” faith is often “imperfect”; yet God accepts even imperfect faith (see the imperfect faiths in the latter half of chap. 8, for example). We must teach the truth about Jesus as carefully as possible and seek to make faith as solid and as orthodox as God’s truth deserves, for right faith is important to life and work. But we must allow for rawness, some crudity, some imperfection, some humanity in faith, or else we become legalists rather than evangelicals…[2]

I believe Bruner is right here. Instead of criticizing what is lacking, let us marvel at what is present. It is no small thing for a Roman centurion to stand by the cross of Jesus and express his belief that Jesus is the Son of God. Michael Card notes that:

For the centurion to say what he said about Jesus could have resulted in his own expulsion from the military or possibly even his execution. Only Tiberius was the “son of God” in his world.[3]

That is no small thing!

And while we are analyzing the centurion’s language, let us not miss the first word he says: “Truly this was the Son of God.” This is a bold statement. Whatever problems there are with the wording of the centurion’s statement, this much is true: He saw through the lies of the mob and realized that Jesus was good and Jesus was somehow uniquely connected to God.

Faith often starts messily. Faith often starts small. In Matthew 17, Jesus suggests that much can be done with such faith.

²⁰ He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Let us pause and rejoice over the mustard seed faith of the centurion. Let us also hope that the centurion’s faith flowered into a fuller understanding in time. And let us be patient and kind toward those just beginning on their journey with Jesus…just as we all need more mature believers to be faithful and kind to us!

A touching display of devotion.

We also see a touching display of devotion in the presence of the women at the cross.

⁵⁵ There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, ⁵⁶ among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

All of the gospel accounts mention the women at the cross.

Luke, in Luke 23, offers the vaguest of statements.

⁴⁹ And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.

In Luke, “the women” are not named, though are identified as followers of Jesus. In Mark 15, there are more details.

⁴⁰ There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. ⁴¹ When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

John has his own list, in John 19, and tellingly includes Mary the mother of Jesus.

²⁵ but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

There are some questions here that we likely cannot fully answer, but, when we put the gospel accounts alongside each other, we begin to approach a fuller list of the women who were present:

• Mary the mother of Jesus
• Mary Magdalene
• Mary the mother of James [the younger (?), Mark 15:40] and Joseph [Joses (?), Mark 15:40]
• Mary, the sister of Jesus’ mother [Some consider her to be Mary the wife of Clopas from John 19:25. “…according to Eusebius…Clopas was an uncle of Jesus.”[4]]
• Salome
• The mother of James and John (the sons of Zebedee)
• “many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem” (Were they too at the cross?)

The presence of these women is most powerful. There are historical questions about how dangerous or safe it would have been for these women to be present at the cross, but they seemed not to have considered that question at all. They were present because they were devoted to Jesus. In this, they should more commitment than the many who were not present.

It is also moving to see Jesus’ mother present. Mary loved her son and Mary would not let Him die without her there.

I recall when Mel Gibson’s movie “The Passion of the Christ” came out that a lady in the church I was pastoring at that time took great issue with the scene in which Michelangelo’s “Pieta” is recreated. Jesus is lowered from the cross and placed across Mary’s lap. Mary “breaks the fourth wall,” as they say, and stares into the camera. This lady took issue with that scene ostensibly because “the New Testament never says she held His body” but, I suspect, it was more because of its recreation of famous Catholic imagery. I told her that numerous moments are not actually recorded in the New Testament but that the particular moment of Mary holding the body of her son struck me as the most believable and natural of moments! I asked her, “Would you have held the body of your son?”

Rudyard Kipling beautifully captured a mother’s devotion in his poem “Mother ó Mine.”

If I were hanged on the highest hill,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
I know whose love would follow me still,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!

If I were drowned in the deepest sea,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
I know whose tears would come down to me,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!

If I were damned of body and soul,
I know whose prayers would make me whole,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine![5]

That is nicely said! Mary’s devotion and love is evidence, as is the devotion and love of all who stand near the cross.

A disciple’s efforts to honor.

There is another depiction of devotion in Matthew’s account that needs to be acknowledged.

⁵⁷ When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸ He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. ⁵⁹ And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud ⁶⁰ and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. ⁶¹ Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

Joseph of Arimathea and his request for the body of Jesus is worthy of our consideration. It is interesting that, like the presence of the women, all four gospels take note of Joseph of Arimathea. Once again, a consideration of all the accounts gives us a fuller picture.

Mark 15 reveals Joseph’s place on the Sanhedrin and makes reference to Joseph “looking for the kingdom of God.”

⁴³ Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. ⁴⁴ Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. ⁴⁵ And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph.

In Luke 23, we learn that Joseph disagreed with the behavior of the council toward Jesus.

⁵⁰ Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, ⁵¹ who had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of God.

John reveals, in John 19, that Joseph was a secret disciple because he feared the Jews should they discover His faith in Jesus.

³⁸ After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. ³⁹ Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. ⁴⁰ So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.

When we harmonize these descriptions of Joseph of Arimathea, here is what we find. Joseph:

• was rich;
• was a respected member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council;
• was a good and righteous man;
• did not agree with the Sanhedrin’s plot against Jesus;
• was looking for the Kingdom of God;
• was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews;
• went courageously and boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus;
• wrapped the body of Jesus in a linen shroud and applied the spices with the help of Nicodemus;
• placed Jesus in his own new tomb;
• rolled the stone over the entrance to the tomb.

It is telling to note that the greatest depictions of devotion and love surrounding the cross were all imperfect in their own way.

The centurion’s faith lacked theological clarity.

Mary believed in her son, but there is evidence in the gospels that she struggled to fully understand.

Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple under cover of darkness because he feared the council.

And yet these are presented to us as models of faith, as examples worthy of emulation. And, indeed, they are!

This reminds me that, again, our faith need not be perfect and devoid of any questions to be authentic.

This reminds me that Jesus came for real men and women who are all in different places in the journey of faith.

This reminds me that the gospels are not saccharine, unrealistic depictions of glossy, flawless faith. They are, instead, pictures of you and of me. They are pictures of people—imperfect, flawed, struggling to understand—who can yet look to Jesus and journey with Him even as we seek to understand more.

And here is the beautiful thing: As we journey with Jesus, He grows us, changes us, transforms us.

Look to Christ crucified and Christ risen. You need not be perfect. It is enough to bring your heart—wherever it is and whatever state it is in—and offer it to Jesus in faith. Then watch what He does!

 

[1] https://www.iflscience.com/whats-going-on-with-the-shroud-of-turin-75707

[2] Bruner, Frederick Dale. Matthew. Volume 2. Revised and Expanded Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004), p.765.

[3] Card, Michael. Matthew. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2013), p.245.

[4] Blomberg, Craig L. Matthew. The New American Commentary. Volume 22 (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1992), p.422.

[5] https://poets.org/poem/mother-o-mine