GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
MARK 15:33
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33 When it was the sixth hour, darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.
The sixth hour was noon, and the ninth hour was three o’clock. The sun was high in the sky at noon; it should have been just about the warmest– in that climate, the hottest– time of the day. What was this darkness?
It was not a storm. Mark, Luke and the other Gospel writers use other words for “storm,” sometimes involving the shaking of the land or sea (seismos, Matthew 8:24, Mark 13:8), or a raging torrent of rain (cheimon, Acts 27:20). This was simply darkness. Mark uses the same word that Greek Bibles have in the Genesis account: “Darkness was over the surface of the deep” (Genesis 1:2). As the Psalm says: “You covered us over with deep darkness” (Psalm 44:19). And again: “He sent darkness and made the land dark– for had they not rebelled against his words?” (Psalm 105:28). This darkness was something very different from a storm.
It was not an eclipse. An eclipse lasts just a few minutes, long enough for the sun, earth, and moon to move just a degree or two in the sky. Such a darkness as an eclipse races over the land the way the shadow of a scudding cloud flies past. It does not cover over “the whole land” as this did, and not for three whole hours. So even if “the whole land” meant nothing more than Judea, that is, southern Israel, the land was plunged into darkness far longer than any phenomenon of moon passing between the earth and sun. But more importantly (and this is really all that needs to be said about any eclipse): an eclipse of the sun cannot possibly occur when there is a full moon, because by definition the moon will be in the other half of the sky: “The moon is full on the day of our Feast” (Psalm 81:3). The Passover takes place two weeks after the New Moon, in other words, when the moon is full (Exodus 12:6). This was something very different from an eclipse.
But “the whole land” cannot mean Israel alone, or Judea, or part of Asia. Luke says that “the light of the sun failed” (Luke 23:45). Sources outside of the Bible (including the opponent of Christianity, the Greek philosopher Celsus) acknowledged the miraculous darkness of Good Friday. And Tertullian wrote to Romans, telling them to check their own records: “At the moment of Christ’s death the light departed from the sun and the land was darkened at noonday, a wonder which is related in your own annals and is preserved in your archives to this day.”
This darkness was different. The Ninety-First Psalm shows this. This psalm seems to look ahead to the cross in many ways. One of these is with the words: “The LORD reigns! Clouds and thick darkness surround him” (91:1,2). There is Christ on the throne of his cross, surrounded by darkness, so that only his glory is bright. Even shrouded by shadowy darkness, his spiritual light cannot go out like a candle. When Christ reigns from this tree of a throne, “All who worship images are put to shame” (Psalm 91:7), and this takes place here outside the walls of David’s city, where the cross stood, for “Zion hears” (Psalm 91:8). And here again, “You, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth” (91:9), suspended as he is above the land and also spiritually and majestically towering over his created world. The darkness covered the land, but “light is shed upon the righteous, and joy on the upright of heart” (Psalm 91:11).
This darkness was a miracle from God. There is no possible explanation that fits apart from a miracle. God sent darkness upon Egypt in the ninth plague, darkness that spread over all the land of Egypt– darkness that could be felt. In those days, Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all of Egypt for three days (Exodus 10:22). Here, the hand of the Son of God was stretched out in the sky, and darkness covered the land for three hours.
And again, when the Egyptians pursued the Israelites past the tower of Migdol thinking that they were caught, pinned with mountains to the right and to the left, and the Red Sea in their way, the Lord moved his pillar of cloud between the people and the chariots of Egypt, “the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side” (Exodus 14:20; Joshua 24:7).
And yet again, when Israel had reached Mount Sinai, and Moses received the Commandments from the hand of God and the people down below worshiped in fear and trembling. “The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was” (Exodus 20:21).
This darkness, a miraculous darkness, was not the only Father grieving for his Son, but a display of the presence of God for all to see. “I form the light and create darkness… I, the LORD, do all these things” (Isaiah 45:7). And when Isaiah foretells help coming through the Messiah, the Christ, he speaks of him as the Suffering Servant. And what does the Lord Almighty say about him? “Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst. I clothe the sky with darkness and make sackcloth its covering” (Isaiah 50:2-3). The power of God is shown in his great miracles, and here was one that the passers-by, the high priests, the scribes and scholars, the robbers, and the heathen soldiers were not expecting. Here was a miracle to strike fear into the hearts of unbelievers, and to remind the faithful of the strength of God’s arm. “Even in darkness light dawns for the upright” (Psalm 112:4).
The darkness has deep meaning in more than one sense, and it will do no good to insist on one over the others. The following each seem to be wise and correct ways to understand this miracle:
1, The darkness itself covers the sufferings of Christ in the final hours. The creation (that is, nature, which groans on account of sin, Romans 8:22) will not look even if certain wicked creatures would like to. “The creature was unable to bear the injustice perpetrated on the Creator. Therefore the sun withdrew its rays” (Chrysostom).
2, The darkness is a reflection, for just as water below reflects light, this darkness in the heavens above reflected the darkest deed ever committed by mankind. “The sun had to withdraw its rays that it need not be a witness of the crime” (Cyprian).
3, The light is a reflection or illustration of that “which has not understood the light” (John 1:5).
4, The darkness is the lowering hammer of divine wrath and judgment, descending now for the final blow upon sin. Light itself departs from before God’s judgment. Joel says: “The sky trembles, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine. The Lord thunders at the head of his army” (Joel 2:10-11).
5, God hides his gracious countenance from the eyes of men; they are made aware of what it means to remove God from their lives by this unnatural darkness that falls upon them at noon.
6, The darkness emanates from the Son of God, the voice who spoke in the creation for there to be light (Genesis 1:3; Psalm 119:30). “I am the light of the world,” Jesus said. “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). The light was being put to death by sinners.
7, This darkness is the anguish of Jesus’ soul; the torment of being forsaken by God (which he will cry out about in just a short time).
The prophet Amos wrote: “The LORD God declares, ‘I will make the sun set at noon, and I will bring darkness on the earth when it should be light. I will turn your festivals into mourning and all of your songs into lamentation’” (Amos 8:9-10). The punishment upon the head of Christ, the wrath and grief of the Father, the departure of the light of the Son of God from the world, and the reluctance of the created world (apart from sinful man) to see the agony of the Creator, all of these are shown, or rather covered over, by this darkness. In that hour, the people of the land would only have understood that something dreadful was happening; something in the world was wrong, terribly wrong. The mercy of God was forsaking the Son of God. Love gave way to wrath. Sin was punished. And for all of these reasons, light fled and darkness fell. The payment for sin was the shedding of blood, and the blood was shed.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Mark 15:33 Darkness