| Matthew 27:54 – “Surely this man was the Son of God!” |
Tonight I was watching a 1990 version of Heidi with Charlie Sheen and Leslie Caron. Early in the film, my alarm on my phone went off, reminding me to take my daily heart medicine. The ringtone is a cuckoo clock chime. As I got up to go turn it off, there was a cuckoo clock in a scene of the movie that was chiming 9 PM. The camera pans the clock to show the hour. The time on my watch was 9 PM. My med reminder is set for that hour. What a weird alignment of events. And, we have a cuckoo clock in our den that had just chimed 9 times as well. I got an eerie feeling just thinking about it.
Nothing compared to what happened on the most critical day in the history of the world. The day Jesus was on the cross. Pilate’s wife had a dream. She sent a message to her husband. “Have nothing to do with that innocent man.” And she mentioned her dream.
A centurion, accustomed to folks on the cross, took note of Jesus. I suspect he noticed how Jesus didn’t attempt to spit on him as he stood watch over the proceedings. Jesus didn’t curse at him. Jesus spoke kindly to the man on the cross next to him. He spoke kindly to his mother, and a man with his mother (John).
He observed the sun stop shining from noon to three PM. This was no eclipse. He felt the earth quake beneath him. He saw rocks split. He saw that when they went to break Jesus’ legs to hasten death, it was not necessary, as Jesus was already gone. To guarantee he was not guessing wrong, he had a soldier spear Him. Sure enough, He was dead.
How did these natural phenomena align? Father in heaven, thank You for allowing Your much loved son to face that day, and thank You for Sunday morning, in Jesus’ name, Amen!
-Jeff Beall
