The account of Jesus’ crucifixion completes the passion narrative and fulfills the Lord’s earlier prophecies concerning his suffering and death (Matthew 20:19). Jesus told his disciples that he would be “mocked and scourged” by the Gentiles and then killed. His death fulfilled the Messianic Psalms concerning the righteous martyr (Psalms 22 & 69). The prophecies of Isaiah anticipate a Messiah who would be a suffering Servant. He would be beaten and mocked (Isaiah 50:6), despised and rejected (Isaiah 53:3). And yet he “bore our suffering” and “was pierced for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:4-5).

Though Jesus died at the hands of sinful men, his death was to fulfill the promise that God would wash away the sins of his people. He would remove their guilt by the shedding of blood. Just as the Lord covered the shame of Adam and Eve through the life of an innocent one, so too would he cover the guilt and shame of his people once and for all by the sin-bearing substitute of his Son. By his own sovereign will, God directed the event of Jesus’ suffering and death as he was put forward to bear the wrath deserved by sinners (Romans 3:25).

Matthew’s account includes a number of extraordinary signs. At the moment of Jesus’ death, the curtain partitioning the Holy of Holies was torn in two, the earth shook, and dead saints were raised from their tombs. Considering its cosmic significance, it makes perfect sense that Jesus’ death would be accompanied by astonishing signs of life. All of this prompted at least one Roman centurion to confess of Jesus, “Truly, this was the Son of God!”