It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed.
Luke 23:44-45
This wasn’t an eclipse. An eclipse doesn’t last three hours. God turned off the light. The sudden darkness tells us something entirely new was happening.
The darkness reminds us that the events that took place in these hours are beyond our understanding. But there are some things that we know, because God has told us…
- Christ bore our sins on the cross.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree (1 Pet. 2:24). The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isa. 53:6). - Christ bore the punishment for our sins.
Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace (Isa. 53:5). He [Christ] is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:2). - Christ was completely alone in His suffering.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mat. 27:46). How could the Father plunge the Son, whom He loved, into these torments?
There is a story about a young boy who regularly had to endure a very painful procedure. The boy’s father had to hold him down while the doctors performed the procedure. It was so difficult that when the boy screamed the father had to turn his face away.
Perhaps that’s what it was like for God the Father as His Son went to the cross. While the Son He loved endured the cross, the Father momentarily turned His face away, and they did this for you.
Can you worship as you think about the love of the Father and the Son for you that was displayed at the cross?
