The Sufferings of Jesus:
A Lenten Series, Part 8
The Darkness and the Separation
We pick up the story with Jesus' troubles at their peak. His blood loss is
incredible. He is weak with hunger, dehydrated, His bones are out of joint
(see Ps. 22), and the pain is astronomical. He is slowly asphyxiating, and
just when things didn't seem like they can get much worse, darkness falls on
the face of the earth: "Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour
there was darkness over all the land." (Matt 27:45 NKJV)
Since the people of the day calculated the hour from dawn (roughly 6 am),
the third hour would be 9 am, the 6th hour would be around noon, and the 9th
hour would be at 3 in the afternoon. So basically, at midday, when the sun
is usually at its peak, darkness fell over the face of the earth and lasted
for three hours!
There are many who would try to explain this phenomenon through natural
causes: Dust storm, heavy cloud cover, etc. However the gospels do not
support this. In fact, the original Greek states that literally, the sun
failed. It was supernatural. It was caused by the immediate power of God.
So why would darkness fall over the land in the middle of the day?
The gospels do not tell us why, they simply record
that it happened. If you look in the rest of the Bible however, you will see
that darkness is often used to signify God's judgment against sin. Consider
the following text: "Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with both
wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy its
sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not
give their light; the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon
will not cause its light to shine." (Isaiah 13:9-10).
Other examples include quotes from Jeremiah, Amos, Ezekiel and Joel, and
darkness was one of the plagues against Egypt. Even Jesus used this term in
describing the destruction of Jerusalem: "Immediately after the
tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not
give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the
heavens will be shaken." (Matt 24:29-30 NKJV)*
The point is, darkness is used in the Bible, both literally and
figuratively, to represent God's judgment against sin. When the lights went
out that fateful day in Jerusalem, it was because our sinless, precious Lord
was carrying every last sin that had ever been and ever would be committed,
on His body! God's judgment had been passed! God is light, the direct
opposite of sin. Darkness and light cannot coexist. If you have light, you
do not have darkness, and vice-versa! When all of our sins hung on Jesus'
innocent shoulders, it drew a shield of darkness so thick that God's light
couldn't penetrate it!
Am I taking this a bit too far?
Remember Jesus' words from the cross? "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' That is, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'" (Matt 27:46 NKJV) Friends, Jesus cried out these words because God could not penetrate the sin He bore!
Jesus, who had never been out of contact with God, now
found Himself completely separated from His source of strength, His source
of love, His very being. Imagine the hopelessness. Imagine the fear
and the desperateness. Imagine the anxiety and the pain!
I would like to propose that this separation from God, this darkness that
fell on the face of the Earth, was perhaps the worst thing that Jesus
suffered.
Tomorrow is Easter. The time of year to celebrate Jesus' death and
resurrection. Before we go to church to sing about His resurrection,
let's take a moment, to contemplate the suffering that Jesus bore. The
suffering that we, ourselves, should have borne!
Remember, He did it out of love. He did it to re-establish the line of
communication broken in Eden. He did it to re-open the door to a
relationship with God, the door that was closed that fateful day at the Tree
of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Don't take it for granted, friends! If Jesus
gave that much for us, can't we afford to spend time with Him? To bask in
His presence? To let His Spirit work in our hearts to mold and make us into
the vessels we were intended to be? To return to others that love that He so
selflessly and painfully gave to us?
Don't just go through another Easter this year, friends! Spent time in His
presence! Contemplate what He suffered for each of you! I guarantee you will
come away forever changed, for you will have fallen deeper and deeper in
love with Him!
This is the last lesson from the Lenten Series, THE SUFFERINGS OF JESUS. If
you have missed any of the lessons, you can access them online at
www.scripturalnuggets.org/Folder10/suffering_of_jesus.htm
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two teens, Author and
Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural
Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems,
www.scripturalnuggets.org,
with Answers2Prayer Ministries,
www.Answers2Prayer.org.
* Much of the information in regards to the three hours of darkness came
from an interesting reading entitled "The Three Hours of Darkness", by Brian
Schwertley. You can visit this article at
http://www.reformedonline.com/view/reformedonline/16%20The%20
Three%20Hours%20of%20Darkness.htm