This is Holy Week - Saturday - Shaken

This is Holy Week - Saturday

Shaken

‘At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life … When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God”.’

Matthew 27.51-52, 54

At the death of Jesus, the physical world responds: a total eclipse, the temple curtain is rent and there is an earthquake. The end of world is foreshadowed with a plunge into darkness, the established order doomed, and the earth rent asunder.

Jesus overcomes the darkness of death. The grave has lost its power, the tomb its terror and death its tragedy. He has taken away into the darkness the sin of the world; yours, mine, everyone’; all that would take the world to destruction.

Jesus had spoken out against the temple system and the chief priest, in those last few hours, had finally rejected him. God remained hidden and remote, shrouded in the temple within the holy of holies. In the death of Jesus, we see the hidden love of God revealed. The presence of God that was once denied to all, is now barred to no one. We can know God in the person of Christ.

As the earth quaked, a confession of faith from a Gentile shaken by the revelation. The first of millions to see the power of God’s truth in the cross. Now the focus of faith would shift from the city on the hill to the hill outside the city, to Calvary where the Messiah had died a brutal and shameful death. We join with the voice of that centurion in declaring that Jesus is the Son of God and commit ourselves to living in faith and sharing God’s love with all people.

When I survey the wondrous cross,
on which the Prince of Glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride.

See from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow mingled down;
did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were an offering far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

Isaac Watts (1674–1748)

The Methodist Church provides worship and devotional resources at www.methodist.org.uk