Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
From the sixth hour at midday until the ninth hour a miraculous darkness lay over all the land, over Jerusalem and the plains of Judah, for three full hours. It had no natural cause like an eclipse, but was complete as midnight without moon or stars, like a funeral pall hiding the earth. Inanimate nature sympathized with its dying Creator, with the sun refusing to look upon the cross and seeming blotted out while angels veiled their faces. The gloom was a veil hiding God's glory and Christ's final agony from human eyes, for the Father and holy angels were beside the cross but unrevealed, leaving Him to endure the hour alone with no comfort from the Father's presence. Covered by that darkness as man's substitute and surety, He bore the iniquity and guilt of every descendant of Adam, the weight of the world's sins with the Father's wrath against iniquity and the penalty of death.
Timing and Nature of Darkness
From the sixth hour, which is midday, until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land, a span of three full hours extending over the earth, over Jerusalem and over the plains of Judah and Judea. The sun shone clearly until midday and then was suddenly blotted out at noon at full brightness, clothing the earth and enshrouding the cross and its surroundings. The darkness covered the land and the cross during the hours Jesus suffered and died, accompanying the moment when He declared His work finished.
The darkness was miraculous and supernatural, with no eclipse or other natural cause, a miracle and horrible unnatural sign. It was complete like midnight without moon or stars, deep as the blackest moonless starless night about the cross, like a funeral pall and sackcloth and dense blackness wrapping the cross and all the vicinity. A dense cloud settled over Jerusalem and the plains of Judah, with fierce lightnings of wrath directed against the city.
The darkness came with convulsions in nature: quaking and shaking and reeling earth, splitting and breaking rocks, the rent temple veil, opened graves and sepulchres, vivid lightnings without thunder flashing from the cloud to reveal the cross, rumbling like thunder and thunder itself, and falling rocks and cast-out dead. Together with the shaking earth, split rocks, opened graves and Jesus' cry as He died, these signs proclaimed that the Son of God was dying and marked the moment the world's Redeemer yielded up His life. The gloom was lifted briefly from the cross when Jesus cried in trumpet tones that His work was finished and commended His spirit to the Father, when light encircled the cross and His face shone like the sun before He bowed His head and died, and afterward darkness again settled over the earth with thunder, earthquake, breaking rocks and opened sepulchres.
In order the darkness belongs after the reviling and mocking by those passing by, by the chief priests with the scribes and elders, and by the thieves crucified with Him, and before the loud cry of forsakenness, the offering of vinegar, the yielding up of the ghost, the rending of the temple veil, the earthquake, the opening of graves and the confession of the centurion. At the ninth hour it lifted from the people while still surrounding and wrapping Jesus, symbolizing the agony and horror weighing on His heart as He suffered alone, and the sun's return did not immediately clear the darkness around the cross. Then it lifted from Him and from the cross at His death, for Jesus died at the very moment that darkness passed away, and when it lifted He became aware again of His physical suffering and thirst and said I thirst.
Veil Hiding Glory and Suffering
Inanimate nature sympathized with its insulted, bleeding and dying Author and Creator on the cross. At full midday brightness the sun refused to look upon the awful scene, hid its light, seemed blotted out at noon, and wrapped the cross and all the vicinity in complete darkness like a funeral pall, deep as midnight without moon or stars. The darkness clothed the earth and enshrouded the cross, while angels veiled their faces from the scene. It had no eclipse or other natural cause and was an emblem of the soul-agony and horror encompassing the Son of God, the same anguish He felt in Gethsemane when drops of blood were forced from His pores and He would have died had not an angel from heaven invigorated Him to reach Calvary. No eye could pierce the gloom over the cross and none could penetrate the deeper gloom flooding Christ's suffering soul. A nameless terror and grave-like silence fell on Calvary, stopping cursing and reviling in mid-sentence and prostrating men, women and children in abject fear, while vivid lightnings without thunder flashed from the cloud to reveal the cross and the crucified Redeemer.
This miraculous darkness was God's testimony and a miraculous sign given to confirm and strengthen the faith of later generations. The darkness was a veil that hid God's glory and Christ's final agony from human eyes. The Father and holy angels and the heavenly throng were beside the cross but were not revealed and were concealed by the darkness, though the quaking earth and split rocks testified to their presence. God concealed His glory from human sight because its open revelation would have destroyed those who saw it, and no voice from heaven spoke in His favor. In that hour Jesus received no comfort from the Father's presence and endured the suffering alone. It came when the voice from heaven was silent and no testimony in Christ's favor was heard, so alone He suffered abuse and mockery at the hands of wicked men, unlike the baptism and the transfiguration when God had proclaimed Christ as His Son and the time just before His betrayal when the Father had spoken witnessing to His Son.
The darkness meant the Sun of Righteousness, the Light of the world, was withdrawing His light from Jerusalem and the world, and from the once-favored city. The sun seemed blotted out at noon, representing the night of woe that had settled on the Jewish nation. The supernatural gloom settled as a dense cloud over Jerusalem and the plains of Judah with fierce lightnings of God's wrath directed against the city, marking judgment falling on Jerusalem. The sun's return did not immediately clear the darkness around the cross. The gloom was lifted briefly from the cross when Jesus cried in trumpet tones that His work was finished and commended His spirit to the Father, when light encircled the cross and His face shone like the sun before He bowed His head and died, and afterward darkness again settled over the earth with thunder, earthquake, breaking rocks, and opened sepulchres.
Atonement Borne in Darkness
The darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour covered Christ as man's substitute and surety, with the iniquity of men laid upon Him and the guilt of every descendant of Adam pressing upon His heart. Counted a transgressor that He might redeem from the curse of the law, He bore the weight of the world's sins heaped upon Him till He groaned beneath it, with transgression gathering a veil about His divine soul. In that gloom He felt the wrath of God and the manifestation of His displeasure against iniquity filling His soul with consternation, realizing only displeasure for sin and its penalty of death. Sin hateful to Him was laid upon the sinless Sufferer, who bore humanity's sorrows and grief for sin and offered Himself that men might be justified through Him, dying beneath the sins of the world.
The outward darkness was the sign of inward anguish when the Father's glory and sustaining presence and approving smile and countenance were withdrawn. Its removal left despair pressing its crushing weight upon Him, piercing His heart with sorrow, though the Father and holy angels were in fact beside the cross with glory concealed because open revelation would have destroyed beholders. Through that amazing darkness He could not see beyond the tomb nor feel assured of resurrection and the Father's acceptance of His sacrifice, but relied by faith on evidence previously received that His work was accepted. He was tempted to fear that sin was too offensive for reconciliation and that His Father had forever left Him, and this despair brought forth the cry, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me.
His despairing mental agony was so much greater than His physical pain that the latter was hardly felt, yet He entrusted Himself to the Father as He died. The mysterious victim stooping beneath the amazing burden of the race was clothed with humanity yet one with Deity, the Wonderful, Counsellor, the eternal Son interposing Himself to bear the punishment of transgression as man's ransom that the transgressor might have another trial and be brought into favor with God. In dying for the sinful race He destroyed principalities and powers and him who has the power of death, veiled from sight in His expiring death-struggle for victory over a rebellious world. His death proves God's law could not be abolished to excuse sin, for if it could have been set aside He need not have died.
The Father suffered with the Son on Calvary and had part in His sufferings, while all nature sympathized with its dying Author in thunderings and lightnings and mighty earthquake. Hardened human hearts remained unfeeling under control of the powers of darkness, reviling and quarreling at the foot of the cross over the dividing of His vesture. Angels who had witnessed the suffering could look no longer and hid their faces from the sight, looking on with sorrow and amazement while the hosts of heaven veiled their faces.
Terror Conviction and Unbelief
A nameless terror and grave-like silence fell upon Calvary, stopping cursing and reviling in mid-sentence in half-uttered sentences and prostrating men, women and children upon the earth in abject fear. Vivid lightnings without thunder flashed from the dense cloud to reveal the cross and the crucified Redeemer, so that priests, rulers, scribes, executioners and the mob all thought their time of retribution had come. The darkness was felt, and together with the shaking earth and other signs in nature it proclaimed that the Son of God was dying and filled the executioners and spectators with terror. The astonished throng hushed its mocking and jeering, withdrew and groped its way back to the city smiting breasts and wailing in fear, whispering in terror that an innocent person had been murdered who may indeed be the Son of God as He claimed.
The darkened sun, shaking earth and rent rocks showed nature's sympathy with its Creator and testified that the Son of God, the Redeemer for whom Israel had looked, was dying. The darkness belongs after the reviling and mocking by passersby, chief priests with scribes and elders, and thieves, and before the loud cry of forsakenness, the vinegar, the yielding up of the ghost, the rending of the veil, the earthquake, the opening of graves, and the confession of the centurion. It terrified the executioners and spectators, silenced the mockers, and convinced the soldiers guarding the cross and the watching centurion so far as their minds could grasp the idea, so that they feared greatly and confessed Him the Son of God. Conflicting reports of these strange events had reached Pilate, but the fact of Jesus' death had been kept from him until he learned from Joseph that Jesus died at the very moment the mysterious darkness passed away and was suddenly lifted. That Jesus died so soon when crucified men often lingered days on the cross strengthened Pilate's belief that Jesus was no ordinary man, left him strangely agitated, and made him keenly regret his part in condemning Him.
The darkened heavens came with commotion in nature, the reeling earth, split and broken and shattered rocks, the rent veil, the conqueror's cry It is finished, Christ's prayer for His murderers and His merciful answer to the dying thief. Together these things spoke to the heart of Nicodemus and forever settled his faith in Jesus, showing him how much he had lost by not openly joining Christ while He lived. As he witnessed them he remembered Jesus' teaching that the Son of Man must be lifted up like the serpent Moses raised in the wilderness, and the cross brought him from doubt to faith to recognize the meaning of Jesus' death. The same darkened heavens with reeling earth, rent veil and shattered rocks convinced Joseph, and established Nicodemus's faith in Jesus' divinity.
After the frenzy of excitement passed, the darkness and its sudden lifting with quaking earth, shivering and rending rocks, flashing lightning, opening graves and rending of the temple veil intruded upon the minds of His enemies and pressed upon them with overpowering evidence that Jesus was the Son of God. As the darkness fell, those who had joined in mocking became troubled in conscience, and when it lifted they went home convinced that the priests' accusations were false and that Jesus was no pretender. These remarkable circumstances remained in the minds of the priests and rulers and added to the evidence of His divine identity. Some of those so convinced later became converts to Christ when Peter preached at Pentecost and explained the meaning of the cross.
That physical darkness was not more dense than the darkness still enveloping the minds of the priests and rulers, whose hatred had not abated with His death and who knew not the Son of God. They rejected the evidence of His divinity, remained hardened against Him, steeled their hearts against His truths, and were less susceptible than the granite rocks of the mountains. The disciples, however, were overwhelmed with grief and disappointment, for they had expected Jesus to rule as a temporal prince and their hopes of eternal life were centered in Him. Watching their Saviour in the hands of the cruel mob, crowned with thorns and treated with derision and insult and mockery, stretched upon Calvary's cross as a malefactor and dying as a criminal, their hopes died in terrible and impossible to appreciate affliction and agony, their last hope seemed swept away, and they doubted whether He was the Messiah. The supernatural darkness with earthquake, rent rocks and opened graves attended a public Roman crucifixion that prophecy required, Roman rule making that fulfillment possible, and struck Romans and witnesses with remorse and terror so that crucifixion soon fell out of use in Judea, though revived temporarily at Jerusalem's destruction.
Example and Call to Follow
The three hours of darkness belong to the suffering on Calvary that stands with the trials in the wilderness and in Gethsemane to show the way and to bring the divine help needed for salvation, calling for self-denial and sacrifice in seeking eternal life. The sun hid its light because it refused to behold the agony through those dreadful hours while angels veiled their faces from the horrid scene, and what was given up for sinners puts anything called self-denial in the shade. The way is therefore proved not too strait, demanding undivided affections, separation from the world and from dead professors, and the giving up of all for Christ. On the cross Jesus stands as the example of God's word prevailing against human power used to support evil, when the Jewish priests and rulers forced the Roman governor to carry out their will. His agony teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, solemn consecration to God, and preparation for holy work, and the great sacrifice on Calvary sets the measure for the church's missionary work.
The taking away of the Bridegroom, lifted up on the cross and dying as a malefactor in whom the disciples' hopes of eternal life were centered, gave them cause to mourn and fast. It was a day of trial and temptation when their faith was tried and their hope and courage failed. Heaven did not remain silent as the Son of God endured indignity and died for sinners, so that the world would not perish and all who live might receive everlasting life. He hung in shame, agony, and apparent weakness while heaven's angels watched and were not commanded to intervene.
Nature mercifully covered its dying Author while He hung on the cross, after He had endured spitting, mocking, and the satanic triumph of priests and rulers who said they had Him secure, hiding Him to shield Him from further degradation. The heavens were shrouded in deepest darkness with rent rocks and convulsed earth, striking terror to the hearts of those who had been actors in His mock trial. It came at the Passover when Jews and their adherents were drawn to Jerusalem and universal attention in the plan of redemption must be awakened. At that hour the voice from heaven was silent and no testimony in His favor was heard, so alone He suffered abuse and mockery at the hands of wicked men, unlike the baptism and the transfiguration when God had proclaimed Him as Son and unlike the time just before His betrayal when the Father had spoken witnessing to His Son.
From the sixth hour at midday until the ninth hour a miraculous darkness lay over all the land, over Jerusalem and the plains of Judah, for three full hours. It had no natural cause like an eclipse, but was complete as midnight without moon or stars, like a funeral pall hiding the earth. Inanimate nature sympathized with its dying Creator, with the sun refusing to look upon the cross and seeming blotted out while angels veiled their faces. The gloom was a veil hiding God's glory and Christ's final agony from human eyes, for the Father and holy angels were beside the cross but unrevealed, leaving Him to endure the hour alone with no comfort from the Father's presence. Covered by that darkness as man's substitute and surety, He bore the iniquity and guilt of every descendant of Adam, the weight of the world's sins with the Father's wrath against iniquity and the penalty of death.
Timing and Nature of Darkness
From the sixth hour, which is midday, until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land, a span of three full hours extending over the earth, over Jerusalem and over the plains of Judah and Judea. The sun shone clearly until midday and then was suddenly blotted out at noon at full brightness, clothing the earth and enshrouding the cross and its surroundings. The darkness covered the land and the cross during the hours Jesus suffered and died, accompanying the moment when He declared His work finished.
The darkness was miraculous and supernatural, with no eclipse or other natural cause, a miracle and horrible unnatural sign. It was complete like midnight without moon or stars, deep as the blackest moonless starless night about the cross, like a funeral pall and sackcloth and dense blackness wrapping the cross and all the vicinity. A dense cloud settled over Jerusalem and the plains of Judah, with fierce lightnings of wrath directed against the city.
The darkness came with convulsions in nature: quaking and shaking and reeling earth, splitting and breaking rocks, the rent temple veil, opened graves and sepulchres, vivid lightnings without thunder flashing from the cloud to reveal the cross, rumbling like thunder and thunder itself, and falling rocks and cast-out dead. Together with the shaking earth, split rocks, opened graves and Jesus' cry as He died, these signs proclaimed that the Son of God was dying and marked the moment the world's Redeemer yielded up His life. The gloom was lifted briefly from the cross when Jesus cried in trumpet tones that His work was finished and commended His spirit to the Father, when light encircled the cross and His face shone like the sun before He bowed His head and died, and afterward darkness again settled over the earth with thunder, earthquake, breaking rocks and opened sepulchres.
In order the darkness belongs after the reviling and mocking by those passing by, by the chief priests with the scribes and elders, and by the thieves crucified with Him, and before the loud cry of forsakenness, the offering of vinegar, the yielding up of the ghost, the rending of the temple veil, the earthquake, the opening of graves and the confession of the centurion. At the ninth hour it lifted from the people while still surrounding and wrapping Jesus, symbolizing the agony and horror weighing on His heart as He suffered alone, and the sun's return did not immediately clear the darkness around the cross. Then it lifted from Him and from the cross at His death, for Jesus died at the very moment that darkness passed away, and when it lifted He became aware again of His physical suffering and thirst and said I thirst.
Veil Hiding Glory and Suffering
Inanimate nature sympathized with its insulted, bleeding and dying Author and Creator on the cross. At full midday brightness the sun refused to look upon the awful scene, hid its light, seemed blotted out at noon, and wrapped the cross and all the vicinity in complete darkness like a funeral pall, deep as midnight without moon or stars. The darkness clothed the earth and enshrouded the cross, while angels veiled their faces from the scene. It had no eclipse or other natural cause and was an emblem of the soul-agony and horror encompassing the Son of God, the same anguish He felt in Gethsemane when drops of blood were forced from His pores and He would have died had not an angel from heaven invigorated Him to reach Calvary. No eye could pierce the gloom over the cross and none could penetrate the deeper gloom flooding Christ's suffering soul. A nameless terror and grave-like silence fell on Calvary, stopping cursing and reviling in mid-sentence and prostrating men, women and children in abject fear, while vivid lightnings without thunder flashed from the cloud to reveal the cross and the crucified Redeemer.
This miraculous darkness was God's testimony and a miraculous sign given to confirm and strengthen the faith of later generations. The darkness was a veil that hid God's glory and Christ's final agony from human eyes. The Father and holy angels and the heavenly throng were beside the cross but were not revealed and were concealed by the darkness, though the quaking earth and split rocks testified to their presence. God concealed His glory from human sight because its open revelation would have destroyed those who saw it, and no voice from heaven spoke in His favor. In that hour Jesus received no comfort from the Father's presence and endured the suffering alone. It came when the voice from heaven was silent and no testimony in Christ's favor was heard, so alone He suffered abuse and mockery at the hands of wicked men, unlike the baptism and the transfiguration when God had proclaimed Christ as His Son and the time just before His betrayal when the Father had spoken witnessing to His Son.
The darkness meant the Sun of Righteousness, the Light of the world, was withdrawing His light from Jerusalem and the world, and from the once-favored city. The sun seemed blotted out at noon, representing the night of woe that had settled on the Jewish nation. The supernatural gloom settled as a dense cloud over Jerusalem and the plains of Judah with fierce lightnings of God's wrath directed against the city, marking judgment falling on Jerusalem. The sun's return did not immediately clear the darkness around the cross. The gloom was lifted briefly from the cross when Jesus cried in trumpet tones that His work was finished and commended His spirit to the Father, when light encircled the cross and His face shone like the sun before He bowed His head and died, and afterward darkness again settled over the earth with thunder, earthquake, breaking rocks, and opened sepulchres.
Atonement Borne in Darkness
The darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour covered Christ as man's substitute and surety, with the iniquity of men laid upon Him and the guilt of every descendant of Adam pressing upon His heart. Counted a transgressor that He might redeem from the curse of the law, He bore the weight of the world's sins heaped upon Him till He groaned beneath it, with transgression gathering a veil about His divine soul. In that gloom He felt the wrath of God and the manifestation of His displeasure against iniquity filling His soul with consternation, realizing only displeasure for sin and its penalty of death. Sin hateful to Him was laid upon the sinless Sufferer, who bore humanity's sorrows and grief for sin and offered Himself that men might be justified through Him, dying beneath the sins of the world.
The outward darkness was the sign of inward anguish when the Father's glory and sustaining presence and approving smile and countenance were withdrawn. Its removal left despair pressing its crushing weight upon Him, piercing His heart with sorrow, though the Father and holy angels were in fact beside the cross with glory concealed because open revelation would have destroyed beholders. Through that amazing darkness He could not see beyond the tomb nor feel assured of resurrection and the Father's acceptance of His sacrifice, but relied by faith on evidence previously received that His work was accepted. He was tempted to fear that sin was too offensive for reconciliation and that His Father had forever left Him, and this despair brought forth the cry, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me.
His despairing mental agony was so much greater than His physical pain that the latter was hardly felt, yet He entrusted Himself to the Father as He died. The mysterious victim stooping beneath the amazing burden of the race was clothed with humanity yet one with Deity, the Wonderful, Counsellor, the eternal Son interposing Himself to bear the punishment of transgression as man's ransom that the transgressor might have another trial and be brought into favor with God. In dying for the sinful race He destroyed principalities and powers and him who has the power of death, veiled from sight in His expiring death-struggle for victory over a rebellious world. His death proves God's law could not be abolished to excuse sin, for if it could have been set aside He need not have died.
The Father suffered with the Son on Calvary and had part in His sufferings, while all nature sympathized with its dying Author in thunderings and lightnings and mighty earthquake. Hardened human hearts remained unfeeling under control of the powers of darkness, reviling and quarreling at the foot of the cross over the dividing of His vesture. Angels who had witnessed the suffering could look no longer and hid their faces from the sight, looking on with sorrow and amazement while the hosts of heaven veiled their faces.
Terror Conviction and Unbelief
A nameless terror and grave-like silence fell upon Calvary, stopping cursing and reviling in mid-sentence in half-uttered sentences and prostrating men, women and children upon the earth in abject fear. Vivid lightnings without thunder flashed from the dense cloud to reveal the cross and the crucified Redeemer, so that priests, rulers, scribes, executioners and the mob all thought their time of retribution had come. The darkness was felt, and together with the shaking earth and other signs in nature it proclaimed that the Son of God was dying and filled the executioners and spectators with terror. The astonished throng hushed its mocking and jeering, withdrew and groped its way back to the city smiting breasts and wailing in fear, whispering in terror that an innocent person had been murdered who may indeed be the Son of God as He claimed.
The darkened sun, shaking earth and rent rocks showed nature's sympathy with its Creator and testified that the Son of God, the Redeemer for whom Israel had looked, was dying. The darkness belongs after the reviling and mocking by passersby, chief priests with scribes and elders, and thieves, and before the loud cry of forsakenness, the vinegar, the yielding up of the ghost, the rending of the veil, the earthquake, the opening of graves, and the confession of the centurion. It terrified the executioners and spectators, silenced the mockers, and convinced the soldiers guarding the cross and the watching centurion so far as their minds could grasp the idea, so that they feared greatly and confessed Him the Son of God. Conflicting reports of these strange events had reached Pilate, but the fact of Jesus' death had been kept from him until he learned from Joseph that Jesus died at the very moment the mysterious darkness passed away and was suddenly lifted. That Jesus died so soon when crucified men often lingered days on the cross strengthened Pilate's belief that Jesus was no ordinary man, left him strangely agitated, and made him keenly regret his part in condemning Him.
The darkened heavens came with commotion in nature, the reeling earth, split and broken and shattered rocks, the rent veil, the conqueror's cry It is finished, Christ's prayer for His murderers and His merciful answer to the dying thief. Together these things spoke to the heart of Nicodemus and forever settled his faith in Jesus, showing him how much he had lost by not openly joining Christ while He lived. As he witnessed them he remembered Jesus' teaching that the Son of Man must be lifted up like the serpent Moses raised in the wilderness, and the cross brought him from doubt to faith to recognize the meaning of Jesus' death. The same darkened heavens with reeling earth, rent veil and shattered rocks convinced Joseph, and established Nicodemus's faith in Jesus' divinity.
After the frenzy of excitement passed, the darkness and its sudden lifting with quaking earth, shivering and rending rocks, flashing lightning, opening graves and rending of the temple veil intruded upon the minds of His enemies and pressed upon them with overpowering evidence that Jesus was the Son of God. As the darkness fell, those who had joined in mocking became troubled in conscience, and when it lifted they went home convinced that the priests' accusations were false and that Jesus was no pretender. These remarkable circumstances remained in the minds of the priests and rulers and added to the evidence of His divine identity. Some of those so convinced later became converts to Christ when Peter preached at Pentecost and explained the meaning of the cross.
That physical darkness was not more dense than the darkness still enveloping the minds of the priests and rulers, whose hatred had not abated with His death and who knew not the Son of God. They rejected the evidence of His divinity, remained hardened against Him, steeled their hearts against His truths, and were less susceptible than the granite rocks of the mountains. The disciples, however, were overwhelmed with grief and disappointment, for they had expected Jesus to rule as a temporal prince and their hopes of eternal life were centered in Him. Watching their Saviour in the hands of the cruel mob, crowned with thorns and treated with derision and insult and mockery, stretched upon Calvary's cross as a malefactor and dying as a criminal, their hopes died in terrible and impossible to appreciate affliction and agony, their last hope seemed swept away, and they doubted whether He was the Messiah. The supernatural darkness with earthquake, rent rocks and opened graves attended a public Roman crucifixion that prophecy required, Roman rule making that fulfillment possible, and struck Romans and witnesses with remorse and terror so that crucifixion soon fell out of use in Judea, though revived temporarily at Jerusalem's destruction.
Example and Call to Follow
The three hours of darkness belong to the suffering on Calvary that stands with the trials in the wilderness and in Gethsemane to show the way and to bring the divine help needed for salvation, calling for self-denial and sacrifice in seeking eternal life. The sun hid its light because it refused to behold the agony through those dreadful hours while angels veiled their faces from the horrid scene, and what was given up for sinners puts anything called self-denial in the shade. The way is therefore proved not too strait, demanding undivided affections, separation from the world and from dead professors, and the giving up of all for Christ. On the cross Jesus stands as the example of God's word prevailing against human power used to support evil, when the Jewish priests and rulers forced the Roman governor to carry out their will. His agony teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, solemn consecration to God, and preparation for holy work, and the great sacrifice on Calvary sets the measure for the church's missionary work.
The taking away of the Bridegroom, lifted up on the cross and dying as a malefactor in whom the disciples' hopes of eternal life were centered, gave them cause to mourn and fast. It was a day of trial and temptation when their faith was tried and their hope and courage failed. Heaven did not remain silent as the Son of God endured indignity and died for sinners, so that the world would not perish and all who live might receive everlasting life. He hung in shame, agony, and apparent weakness while heaven's angels watched and were not commanded to intervene.
Nature mercifully covered its dying Author while He hung on the cross, after He had endured spitting, mocking, and the satanic triumph of priests and rulers who said they had Him secure, hiding Him to shield Him from further degradation. The heavens were shrouded in deepest darkness with rent rocks and convulsed earth, striking terror to the hearts of those who had been actors in His mock trial. It came at the Passover when Jews and their adherents were drawn to Jerusalem and universal attention in the plan of redemption must be awakened. At that hour the voice from heaven was silent and no testimony in His favor was heard, so alone He suffered abuse and mockery at the hands of wicked men, unlike the baptism and the transfiguration when God had proclaimed Him as Son and unlike the time just before His betrayal when the Father had spoken witnessing to His Son.