🔇 Why God Was Silent at the Cross | Matthew 27 Devotional (7-Step QT)
7-Step QT Notes
1. 🙏 Quiet Time
Pause.
Take a deep breath.
Bring your honest questions and emotions before God—especially the moments when He feels silent.
2. 📅 April 3, 2026
Today’s passage reminds us:
God’s saving love was revealed through holy silence and costly grace.
3. ✝️ Matthew 27:45-56
From noon to three in the afternoon, darkness covered the land, and Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” before yielding up His spirit. At His death, the temple curtain was torn, the earth shook, tombs were opened, and a centurion confessed that Jesus truly was the Son of God. Women who had followed and served Jesus from Galilee watched these events from a distance.
4. 📖 Key Verse
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit (v. 50).
5. 📝 Reflection
Crucifixion was an extremely cruel form of execution designed to cause a slow and agonizing death while hanging on a cross. Scholars explain that the primary causes of death were respiratory failure and shock resulting from severe blood and fluid loss. For this reason, Matthew’s record—that Jesus cried out loudly and then immediately breathed His last—raises questions. Under such conditions, one would expect that speaking, let alone crying out loudly, would be nearly impossible. Does this mean Matthew’s account is incorrect?
Matthew testifies that three significant events occurred around three o’clock in the afternoon. First, there was Jesus’ loud cry. Jesus cried out, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani,” quoting Psalm 22:1, which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Second, there was the reaction of the people. Because the phrase “my God” in Hebrew sounded like “Elijah,” the people were uninterested in the meaning of Jesus’ suffering and instead assumed He was calling for Elijah. Some offered Him sour wine to relieve His pain, while others stood by, waiting to see if Elijah would come. Third, there was Jesus’ death. Jesus did not quietly fade away; He cried out loudly in agony and then died.
When these three events are considered together, one profound truth emerges: Jesus cried out with a loud voice, but God remained silent.
Beloved brothers and sisters, God remained silent before Jesus’ loud cry because of us. Even as faithless onlookers reacted to Jesus’ anguished voice, God remained silent. For the sake of us sinners, God remained silent before the cry of His beloved, sinless Son. What silence could be more irrational or incomprehensible than this? God’s salvation accomplished through Jesus’ death cannot be explained by human logic or reason—it is pure grace. May we remember today that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, and in this way God demonstrated His love for us (see Romans 5:8).
6. 💬 What does this passage speak to you today?
- When have I cried out to God and felt like He was silent?
- How does knowing that Jesus experienced abandonment for me reshape my faith?
- Where do I need to trust God’s grace instead of demanding immediate answers?
7. 🙏 Prayer
God, when You feel silent, help me remember the cross.
Thank You for loving me at such great cost.
Teach me to trust Your grace, even when I don’t understand.
Amen.
Scriptures
📖 (Matthew 27:45-56, ESV).
45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47 And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” 48 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. 49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” 50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 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.
Comments
Post a Comment