Three Hours Of Darkness
The Imagery Of Darkness In Jesus' Crucifixion
Hello, and welcome to the Biblical Imagination, where we attempt to read the Bible with fresh eyes, shedding new light on old truths. Yes, it’s been a while since my last post. My apologies. I have decided that I shall forever be inconsistent when it comes to posting. Anyway, I want to say “welcome!” to those of you who have subscribed since the last post. There are a number of you—I’m honored!
This post is an Easter reflection on the image of darkness at Golgotha. I am nearing the completion of another post on God’s presence with His people. Hopefully, I will be sending it out soon.
Holy Saturday
As I send this out, the church reflects on Christ's work on the cross, as Jesus lies in Sabbath rest. Having accomplished his work of salvation, he rests in his tomb. He was crucified on Good Friday, laid in the tomb, and now we wait. As we wait, we reflect. I offer the following thoughts on the three hours of darkness that fell upon the land as Jesus hung on the cross. I’ll begin with the crucifixion itself.
Crucifixion and Shame
When we read of the events surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion in the gospels, we tend to dwell on the pain inflicted upon our Lord. Reading these events, we can easily focus on the cruelty, suffering, and pain Jesus suffered. That’s why Mel Gibson’s The Passion was so popular. Yet, curiously, the gospels themselves say little about his pain and suffering or the gory details of crucifixion.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John have a different aim—their emphasis is less upon the pain than the shame of the cross. For the authors of the gospel, what lay at the heart of crucifixion, as much or more than the suffering, is the public exposure and shame of the victim.
Have you noticed that in virtually all depictions of the cross in art and film, Jesus is wearing a loincloth? This is artistic modesty; no crucified man wore a shred of clothing. Along with the mocking, spitting, and scorn Jesus receives before he ever gets to Calvary – not to mention that which he receives on the cross – topping the list of offenses would be the sexual humiliation and shaming he receives.
Fleming Rutledge in her book, Crucifixion, notes, “A naked victim of scourging and mockery would not be able to cover his genitals with his hands [and so] would be utterly exposed to scrutiny, derision, and any obscenity that the spectators cared to hurl in his direction.” Aside from the agonizing death, another vile purpose of crucifixion was to utterly dehumanize the victim. 1
Jesus, the King of the Jews, is reduced to a shuddering worm of a man, covered in bruises, raw flesh, and his own blood – his circumcised and swollen nakedness is exposed to the mocking and gawking world.
By placing the sign over the cross that says “King of the Jews,” Rome mocks their Jewish vassal: “Behold your king!” It made a mockery not only of Jesus but also of the nation.
And Then Came Darkness
But at the “sixth hour,” which is noon, the mocking and derision come to an abrupt halt as Jerusalem, the city set on a hill, suddenly becomes dark. Mathew says (Lk 23:44) “. . .there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour” (three o’clock). Three hours of darkness.
If we stop to reflect on this strange event, our modern minds almost immediately go to an eclipse of the sun. We want to insist on a rational answer! Our curiosity lies in wondering why or how this happened, or what could have caused the sun’s light to go out? Our imaginations are caught up in rational discourse. We think, “It must have been a total eclipse of the Sun!”
But it can’t be the sun because Passover, when the crucifixion occurred, is marked by the full moon, and so the moon cannot be between the Earth and the Sun to cause an eclipse. Yet, still, our minds, trained as they are by science and rationalism, grope for a sensible answer.
But beloved reader, such questions would have been the last thing on the mind of those present that day, even those reading or hearing this for the first time. No, the people's immediate reaction there would have likely been sudden horror. It would have seemed to them all, Jews and Greeks alike, as if the world were about to end!
For a Jew, it would be a horrible foreboding – it would seem like the earth was collapsing in on itself, or it would be the undoing of the creation! You’ll remember that God’s first act in creating the world is His command, “let there be light – and there was light.” Then He separates the light from the darkness, and the rest of the creation follows. For darkness to invade at midday would make it seem as if the creation was coming apart.
The Flood of Noah is portrayed as just this—as an undoing of creation. It is a reversal of the creation account in Genesis. The first sign was darkness brought on by the heavy clouds and the first raindrops. God’s ninth judgment upon Egypt was darkness upon the land—a darkness, the text says, that could be felt (Exodus 10:21).
So, for Jews and Gentiles alike, darkness's invasion at noon would have struck fear into every heart. Jews knew well that God had not only created the world but that He upholds it by the word of His power (Heb 1:3)—that, at creation, God had set boundaries for light and darkness—and so darkness at midday suggests something is horribly wrong—the boundaries God has set are not holding!!
The text says nothing of this, but it was not necessary. Anyone in the ancient world would have known this by heart—the darkness would have been palpable, and the taste of fear would have been in their mouth. If the sun goes dark at midday, what might happen next? - The moon turn to blood? Will the Earth begin to shake on its foundations? Will the sky break forth in another flood?! Or will fire fall from heaven?! It was a paralyzing dread of what might happen next!
One thing is sure: the mouths of the mockers and the gawkers would have been instantly shut, and every heart would be dumbstruck with fear when the sun’s light went out. God’s darkness silences the mockers and strikes fear into their hearts. God brings the mockery of His son to a halt with the darkness.
Darkness And Evil
This leads to a second and related theme associated closely with darkness in the Bible. Earlier, when they came to arrest Jesus in the garden, he said to them, “When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Lk 22:53). In other words, Jesus’ arrest is the hour of the forces of darkness. In Jesus’ arrest, betrayal, suffering, and death, all the powers of evil in the world are let loose. Chaos and darkness cover the face of the deep as in the beginning of creation (Ge 1:2).
The forces of evil are doing all they can do. Satan is unleashed against the only-begotten Son of God. As the Presbyterian minister, Fleming Rutledge has envisaged:
“He [Satan] comes back to Jesus in that black hour and whispers, “You see? I was right. You’re a failure. You should have listened to me. I told you you weren’t going to be able to convince anybody. Where are all your fine followers now?
Where are all those people you healed and all those tax collectors and prostitutes and fishermen you spent so much time with? There isn’t anybody left to carry your message. It’s all over; you’ve failed. The world is in my power now; God has abandoned you.” 2
So, maybe the mockery didn’t come to an end.
Darkness And Judgment
A third theme associated with darkness in the Bible is judgment. If God is in control, and He is, and the forces of wickedness are running loose, then God’s judgment cannot be far behind!
Indeed, the prophets had foretold “The Day of the LORD” – that is, God’s day of judgment upon the world – that it would be a day of darkness and not of light. Amos, speaking of that Day says,
“And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.” (Amos 8:9)
Earlier, Amos had declared to those who were foolishly looking forward to the day of the LORD:
“Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light,” (Amos 5:18).
Similarly, the prophet Zephaniah warns;
“A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness,” (Zephaniah 1:15, ESV)
And so, beloved, here on that fateful day at Golgotha we see this very judgment of God coming.
But it comes, not upon the world, but upon Jesus – the Holy Son of God!
And so beloved reader, it is here where we encounter the very heart of Christ’s atoning work on the cross. After the three hours of darkness, Matthew reports the agonizing cry of Jesus: “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?!
Known as Jesus’ cry of dereliction from the cross, it’s the moment the Father turns his face away from the son as a consequence of the human sin Jesus is bearing. You can sense Jesus' loneliness in this cry, can you not? (And what almost seems like astonishment!) Jesus knew this moment was coming, yet the pain in his cry seems to imply he never expected the abyss to be this deep or this dark!
Beloved reader, you and I can’t understand how this was accomplished – how Jesus takes upon himself our sin - it is a mystery beyond our comprehension. However God accomplishes it, we witness in this agonizing moment as the Holy Son of God takes upon himself the sins of the world - The scriptures affirm it repeatedly. “He who knew no sin became sin for us!” (2 Cor 5:21). “He became a curse for us.” (Gal. 3:13). Peter says, “he bore our sins in his body”
In that agonizing moment, Jesus encounters the darkness reserved for the wicked – that “outer darkness” reserved for unrepentant – the place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” This is Jesus’ moment of horror! When he loses fellowship with the Father. Again, we can sense it in his cry!
Martin Luther, one of the fathers of the Reformation, declared:
Christ - on the cross of Calvary, is no longer an innocent person without sins… but a sinner, [who carries] the sin
of Paul, who was a blasphemer, an oppressor, and a persecutor;
of Peter, who denied Christ;
of David, who was an adulterer, a murderer, and caused the Gentiles to blaspheme the name of the Lord. 3
And I should add—let you and I place our names here as well—what have you done for which you desperately need forgiveness? Say your name and fill in the blank.
Luther continues
he bears all the sins of men in his own body, that he might make satisfaction for them with his own blood.
Why Judgement?
Why must God judge us? Because He created us to reflect His likeness. We see this likeness in Christ, but not in ourselves. Burning with holiness, God must judge us because our sin—turning away from God and living life on our terms—mocks Him! - the very one in whose image we were created! Yet, at the Cross, God placed our sin squarely on Jesus' shoulders, and turned his face away from His son.
I should also include that the darkness here is symbolic of the Spiritual darkness in which we humans grope—the spiritual darkness that manifests in our brokenness and our depravity.
As we near a close, let us return to where we began - the shame of the cross.
Jesus stands in the place of both the weakest and most exploited victim – that is, those who have suffered the violence of human wickedness – and also, in the place of the most grotesque and violent of sinners.
We must grasp this: on the cross Jesus experienced, on the one hand, the victimhood of all of who have suffered the horrifying violence of human sin – children who have been repeatedly raped and beaten and tortured or are kidnapped and sold as sex slaves. Victims of rape, incest, jealousy, betrayal - the list is as long as human history.
If you are or have been a victim, or even if you find yourself isolated and alone during then you can find consolation, you can find comfort, in Jesus’ suffering, and in his cry from the cross - for he has suffered, not only for you, but with you. As the prophet Isaiah has said, he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, surely he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. (53:3-4)
As one pastor, Neil Plantinga, has put it:
“and so across the world, Jesus will comfort his followers this Holy Week. Every abandoned child, every battered spouse, every humiliated adolescent, every derelict who cries out to God – and any of us who reason to think we may be God-forsaken”
On the other hand, the most brutal and wicked oppressors are offered forgiveness as well. Jesus died for these as well. There is forgiveness for everyone who will, not simply believe, but truly repent and call upon the name of the Lord.
Yet, heaven help us if we, who bear the name of Jesus, become those who bring sorrow, injustice, discrimination, and dehumanization to those who are suffering. Sadly, in today’s political climate, many will weep for Jesus’ suffering while turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to those with whom he most closely identifies. God will not allow Himself to be mocked by His own!
Let There Be Light
In closing, let us notice that when the Savior dies, when he gives up his spirit, the sun begins to shine again, and the earth is glad, for the work of salvation is accomplished! Three days later, the sun shines even brighter, with the light of New Creation. It is not coincidental that Mary, on “the first day of the week,” mistakes Jesus for the gardener! (Jn. 20:1, 15. cf Ge 2:15).
Thanks for Reading!
May you have a blessed Easter Day.
Rutledge, The Crucifixion, p. 95 fn 55
Rutledge, F. (2005). The Undoing of Death: Sermons for Holy Week and Easter (pp. 181–182).
Martin Luther, Galatians p. 164