"At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon." (Mark 15:33) At Passover the moon would have been full, meaning the moon is on the opposite side of the earth from the sun so that the sun fully illuminates it. The moon cannot cross between the sun and the earth at this time, so a complete solar eclipse is not possible at Passover. However, according to NASA a partial lunar eclipse occurred on April 3 in 33 AD, which would correspond well to the date Christ may have been crucified. Some scientists think this eclipse would have been visible from Jerusalem while others disagree. It's quite possible that the three hours of darkness did not occur as the result of an eclipse at all but as the result of some other phenomenon, even a miraculous phenomenon. During the plagues of Egypt, darkness fell on the land for three days as a sign of God's judgment. (Exodus 10:21-23) During the Great Tribulation in the book of Revelation, the kingdom of the Antichrist is plunged into darkness as a sign of God's judgment. (Revelation 10-11) So if the darkness on the day of the crucifixion also represents judgment, what type of judgment is it?
We could interpret the darkness as God's judgment upon Jerusalem for rejecting the Messiah. Psalm 69 speaks of the agony and shame the Messiah would endure at the hands of His own people, and then the psalm includes a curse upon those who have so sadly mistreated Him, "Pour out Your wrath on them; let Your fierce anger overtake them. May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents." (Psalm 63:24-25) Jerusalem is going to fall within forty years following the crucifixion and the temple is going to be destroyed, so in part I think we can conclude that the darkness over Jerusalem on the day Christ was crucified could be interpreted as a sign of God's coming judgment on that city.
But in a broader sense I think the darkness represents God's judgment upon sin. We have all sinned. From Adam and Eve on down to you and me today, we have all sinned. As the prophet Isaiah said while relating to us his vision of the suffering Messiah, "we all, like sheep, have gone astray". (Isaiah 53:6a)
How is God judging sin on the day of the crucifixion? By placing all the sins of the world upon His Son. "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:6b) "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21) Jesus literally became sin in our place, while the judgment of God fell on Him in our place. God the Father shrouded this transaction between Himself and the Son in darkness because it is too private, and perhaps too awful, for human eyes to witness.
Because He took our sin and shame and punishment on Himself, Jesus Christ experienced a darkness none of us will ever have to experience if we have placed our faith in Him. He experienced a separation from the Father that you and I will never have to experience if we have placed our faith in Him. As darkness reigns over the land, and as He drinks the bitter cup of God's wrath, Jesus calls out to the Father whose presence He cannot feel. "And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?' (Which means "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?") (Mark 15:34) Jesus quotes the words of King David who, inspired by the Holy Spirit, foresaw the suffering of the Messiah. (Psalm 22:1a)
If we have placed our faith in the One who bore our sins in His own body on the cross, we will never call out from a dark eternal destination of separation from God, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" Christ experienced a darkness of the soul that we can't even imagine so that we would never have to experience it for ourselves. The work of salvation has been done for us. Let's be like the rebel we studied yesterday who, as he hung on a cross beside Jesus, believed to the saving of his soul. That rebel had rejected the laws of God and the laws of man, earning himself a death sentence for his body. But because he accepted Jesus as the Christ, he gained eternal life for his soul.
Below is a link to today's worship song which contains some of the Scripture we've studied this morning.
Jesus Messiah
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