But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice, and gave up his spirit. Mt. 27:50
War movies sometimes show a battlefield in hushed silence. The battle is over and all is still. We see the wreckage of tanks, artillery, plus bodies lying still. Total silence.
Then there is a flashback to the battle. The air is suddenly filled with deafening sounds – the pounding of artillery, blazing machine guns, rifle fire, planes overhead, the screams of the wounded.
When Jesus dies, we hear his loud cry, and then all is still and silent. We look at the cross and see the wreckage of what happened.
If there was a flashback, the most striking thing would be the sounds. Eyewitnesses of crucifixions have written that the air was filled with horrible screams – screams of rage, despair, pain, desperate prayer. They say that the sounds echoed in their ears for days, even years.
In Matthew’s account, Jesus screams. Twice. Then he dies, and all is silent.
In his suffering and dying Jesus experienced the worst of human existence. He went to the very bottom. Total darkness. Helpless. Abandoned.
But he never abandoned hope. And so . . . . . he “gave up his spirit” to God.
He did this for us, so that we could join him in going through death to life.
At Eucharist we can take the hopeless, helpless, dark parts of our lives, join him on the cross, and with him entrust it all to the Lord.
Spend some quiet time with the Lord.
