The description by Matthew of the death of Christ is one of those very difficult passages. It reads like something out of a mystical thriller. When the really significant things happen, and they are unusual, unusual things happen.
At this time, the weather changed, the veil of the temple (in the inside of a building only priests could enter and was continaully guarded by priests and Levites) was torn in part, and the saints who were dead rose and entered the temple.
Following the move trom theism to atheism prefigured by Kant demolishing arguments made from nature (which were the usual arguments used to justify the existence of God) trhere was a move to discount the weird, strange, and miraculous. But this has never sat with our imagination. When momentous events happen, we expect meomentous things to be going on in the same palce and at the same time.
45From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 46And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “This man is calling for Elijah.” 48At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. 49But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” 50Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. 51At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 53After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. 54Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”
Now, this is not surprising to any Christian, or any Jew. For to us, God is personal. I’m reading Goldberg (Spengler) at the moment and he points out that Judaism (and Christianity) is not a mere religiouon but instead of life in a relationship with another, and that another is the almighty. When Moses was on Mt Sinai, the mountain was covered by cloud. Elijah and ELisha raised the dead and did acts of power. Jesus was greater than these, and his death (whidh led to him destroying death) was and is one of three key points that lead to salvation (the other two are the incarnation and resurrection). At this time he was atoning for my sin, and the sin of all.
So this was not a routine crucifixion of a rebel. The Romans had a tradition of those — including mass crucifixions of slaves and rebels. THis was more significance. The very signs that Matthew notes would resonate with anyone who knows the Law and the Prophets.
And it was enough to make a centurion, not inexperienced with the ways people die on a cross, to say this was a divine one.
Jesus death was never usual. Anyone who claims it is has not looked at the texts, or denies their validity. (And they are more valid than the victorian scholars: more recent archeological data shows that the dating and names used in the gospels did exist and the gospel writers were not in error).
The modern mind is without foundations — for they have denied the foundations that existed. We do not need to make that error.