THE SUN DARKENED

Scripture records a number of supernatural phenomena that occurred while Jesus hung on the cross.

Those events were God's own supernatural commentary on the cross.

They gave proof that the execution taking place that day just outside Jerusalem's city walls was an event of cosmic importance.

The routes to the city that day were jammed with pilgrims coming and going as they

prepared to celebrate Passover. Few if any of them realized what a monumental event was occurring at Calvary. God's true Paschal Lamb was dying on that very Passover to provide forgiveness for all the sins of all the redeemed of all time. That was the very focal point of redemptive history,yet as far as Jerusalem was concerned on that day, relatively few were taking notice.

But then suddenly all nature seemed to stop and pay attention.

The first of the miraculous signs that accompanied Jesus' death was the darkening of the sky. Matthew writes, "Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land" (Matthew 27:45).

Matthew was counting hours by the Jewish system, so the sixth hour would have been noon. At the precise moment when the noon sky should have been brightest in the sky, darkness fell over all the land, and remained for three hours.

This was probably not a total blackness, but rather a severe darkening of the normal daylight intensity of the sun. "Over all the land" is an expression that might refer to the land of Israel, or it could refer to the whole world. I'm inclined to think that the sun itself was dimmed, so that the darkness would have been universal, and not limited to the local area surrounding Jerusalem.

As a matter of fact, according to some of the Church Fathers, the supernatural darkness that accompanied the crucifixion was noticed throughout the world at the time.

The darkness could not have been caused by a solar eclipse, because Passover always fell on a full moon, and a solar eclipse (caused when the moon gets between earth and sun, blocking the sun's light) would be out of the question during the full moon.

But God is certainly able to dim the sun's light without recourse to any planetary phenomenon like an eclipse. During Moses' time, darkness had fallen on Egypt because a plague of locusts was so thick that the flying insects had blocked the sun (Exodus 10:14-15).

In Joshua's time the opposite had occurred, and the sun seemed to stand still over Israel for a whole 24-hour period (Joshua 10:12-14). In Hezekiah's day, the shadows turned backward ten degrees, as the earth's rotation seemed to reverse for about 40 minutes (2 Kings 20:9-11).

The darkening of the sun is commonly mentioned in Scripture as an apocalyptic sign

(Isaiah 50:3; Joel 2:31; Revelation 9:2). Amos wrote of the last days of the earth, "'And it shall come to pass in that day,' says the Lord GOD, 'That I will make the sun go down at noon, And I will darken the earth in broad daylight'" (Amos 8:9).

Throughout Scripture, darkness is connected with judgment, and supernatural darkness of this type signifies cataclysmic doom (cf. Isaiah 5:30; Joel 2:2; Amos 5:20; Zephaniah 1:14-15).

So the darkening of the sun at noon like this was certain to evoke widespread fear that catastrophic judgment was about to fall.

Scripture does not say why the darkness at Jesus' crucifixion; it only reports it as a fact.

Various interpreters have tried to explain the darkness in several ways. Some have suggested God sent the darkness as a veil to cover the sufferings and nakedness of His Son, making it an act of mercy toward Christ. Others have suggested the dimming of the sun signified God's displeasure with those who put Christ to death.

There may be truth in both of those ideas, but neither seems to get to the heart of what the darkness signified. Since this kind of supernatural darkness is always associated with divine judgment Scripture, it seems reasonable that this darkness was also meant to convey a message of judgment. Coming as it did during the time when Christ's suffering was most intense, in the three hours before He cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46),this darkness may well

have signified the Father's judgment against the guilt Christ bore in His person on

our behalf.

In any case, the darkness is certainly an appropriate reminder that the cross was a place of judgment. In those awful hours of darkness, Christ was bearing the judgment meant for His people. He was standing their place as the wrath of God was being poured upon Him for their transgressions.

That may be why the biblical narrative links the culmination of the darkness with Christ's outcry to the Father: "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a

loud voice, saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' that is, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'" (v. 46).

Matthew records what the taunting crowd said in response to Jesus' outcry: "Some of

those who stood there, when they heard that, said, 'This Man is calling for Elijah!'" (v. 47).

Eli is Hebrew for God. Since Aramaic was the common language of the region, it seems unlikely that all the spectators at the cross were truly ignorant about the meaning of His words. It appears that their remark ("This Man is calling

for Elijah!") was a deliberate misrepresentation of His words, another cruel and sadistic sneer at Christ.

Their behavior further makes clear their mocking intent: "Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink. The rest said, 'Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him'" (vv. 47-49).

The one who ran to fetch the vinegar obviously did so for melodramatic effect, to complete his mockery by pretending to be generous and compassionate to Jesus, but really only seeking another means to taunt. Vinegar would have been a disappointing refreshment to someone in such a state of dehydration, though it would have helped some.

In fact, shortly after this, when Christ did utter the words, "I thirst" (John 19:28), the vinegar was all He was offered. By then it was close at hand (v. 29) because of this individual's devilish taunt. But at this point, others who were standing close by forbid the prankster from giving Christ even mock assistance, saying, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him." Despite the ominous darkness, they were reveling in Christ's sufferings, and they did not want anyone to offer Him relief, even if the assistance rendered were merely a fiendish insult.

Matthew indicates that such cruel taunting continued to the very end. It was at some point in the midst of that continued taunting that Christ said, "I thirst," and was then given a sponge full of vinegar. Shortly afterward, "Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, saying "Tetelestai!" Then commending His spirit to God, He "yielded up His spirit" (Matthew 27:50).

THE VEIL TORN

At the very moment of Christ's death, a series of remarkable miracles occurred. Matthew writes, "Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom" (v. 51).

The veil was a heavy curtain that blocked the entrance to the Holy of Holies in the

Jerusalem Temple, the place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, symbolizing the

sacred presence of God. Josephus described the veil as an ornately decorated curtain, made of blue woven fabric.

Only one person ever traversed the veil, and that was the High Priest. He ventured into the Holy of Holies just once a year, on the Day of Atonement, when he was permitted to enter only to bring the blood of a sacrifice. The veil was of vital symbolic importance, signifying "that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest" (Hebrews 9:8).

In other words, it was a constant reminder that sin renders humanity unfit for the presence of God. The fact that the sin offering was offered annuallyCand countless other sacrifices repeated daily, was meant to show graphically that sin could not truly and permanently be atoned for or erased by mere animal sacrifices. "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4).

"But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:11-12).

The tearing of the curtain at the moment of Jesus' death dramatically symbolized that His sacrifice was a sufficient atonement for sins forever, and the way into the Holy of Holies was now open. In effect, the entire system of rituals, animal sacrifices, even the priesthood itself, were done away in the moment of His death. The redeemed now had free and direct access to the throne of grace without the need for priest or ritual (cf. Hebrews 4:16).

The tearing of the curtain from top to bottom signified that it was God Himself who

removed the barrier. He was in effect saying, "My Son has removed this veil and eliminated the need for it, through a single, perfect, once-for-all sacrifice that cleanses the redeemed from their sins forever.

The way into my Holy presence is now open to every believer and the access is free and unobstructed."

At the moment the tearing of the veil occurred, the Temple was packed with worshipers who were there for the killing of their Passover lambs. By God's design, it was in the very hour that those thousands of lambs were being slain that the true Passover Lamb died. He was the real Lamb whom all the others merely symbolized.

In fact, He perfectly fulfilled all the symbolism of the worship in the Temple. From that day on, all the Temple ceremonies lost their significance, because what they were meant to foreshadow had now arrived.

Within forty years, the Temple itself would be completely destroyed when Titus sacked Jerusalem. But the true end of the Old Testament sacrificial system occurred not with the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, but here at the moment of Jesus' death, when God sovereignly declared Christ's death a sufficient sacrifice for sins forever, by supernaturally splitting the Temple veil from top to bottom.

THE EARTH SHAKEN

Another miracle also occurred at the exact moment of Christ's death. "And the earth

quaked, and the rocks were split" (Matthew 27:51). An earthquake powerful enough to split rocks would be a significant temblor. (The crowd in the temple probably assumed the earthquake was the cause of the tearing of the veil.) Such a powerful quake would be a frightening experience for everyone in the region of Judea.

Although earthquakes were a fairly common phenomenon, an earthquake with enough force to split rocks would have instantly brought the entire city of Jerusalem to a halt for several minutes.

Earthquakes in Scripture are often usedClike darknessCto signify a graphic display of divine judgment. In particular, earthquakes signify God's wrath. When Moses met with God at Sinai to receive the tablets of the law, "the whole mountain quaked greatly" (Exodus 19:18).

David wrote, "Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of the hills also

quaked and were shaken, because He was angry" (Psalm 18:7). "The earth shook; the heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel" (Psalm 68:8).

The prophet Nahum wrote,

The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,

And will not at all acquit the wicked.

The LORD has His way

In the whirlwind and in the storm,

And the clouds are the dust of His feet.

He rebukes the sea and makes it dry,

And dries up all the rivers.

Bashan and Carmel wither,

And the flower of Lebanon wilts.

The mountains quake before Him,

The hills melt,

And the earth heaves at His presence,

Yes, the world and all who dwell in it.

(Nahum 1:3-5).

The book of Revelation indicates that the final judgment of the earth will commence with a global earthquake more powerful than any ever experienced before (Hebrews 12:26-27; Revelation 6:14-15).

So it is clear that a supernatural earthquake like this one could only signify the wrath of God. At the cross, the wrath of God against sin was poured out on God's own Son. The accompanying earthquake, coming at the culminating moment of Christ's atoning work, was a kind of divine punctuation mark, perhaps signifying God's anger at the fact that sin had cost His Son so much.

THE DEAD RAISED

At that very same moment when Christ died, yet another miracle occurred: "The graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many" (Matthew 27:52-53).

Many of the tombs in and around Jerusalem to this day are hollow stone sepulchres,

resting at ground level or just above. The earthquake was evidently powerful enough to split sepulchres like these. That was not the miracle; that might have occurred in any earthquake.

The great miracle is that those who emerged from the broken sepulchres were raised from the dead.

Of all the gospel writers, only Matthew mentions this event. Some have cited this as a reason to discount Matthew's veracity, suggesting that if such an event occurred, it would have certainly been noteworthy enough to catch the attention of all Jerusalem.

But there's no reason to think this miracle was designed to catch a lot of people's attention. It seems to have been a remarkably quiet miracle, despite its spectacular nature.

Although "many . . . saints who had fallen asleep" were raised, not all were. These were select representatives of the multitude of saints buried in and around Jerusalem. The number who were raised is not specified, but the term "many" in this case could refer to as few as a dozen, or even fewer. (That would still be "many," given the fact that what Matthew is describing is people who were released from stone sarcophagi and came alive!)

Still, despite the spectacular nature of the miracle itself, this seems to have been a fairly low-key event.

Notice, in fact, that those who rose from the dead did not appear in Jerusalem until after Jesus' resurrection.

The NIV translation: "They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection

they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.") Where these resurrected saints were in the days after they were loosed from the grave and before they appeared in Jerusalem is not specified.

But the fact that they waited until after Christ's resurrection to appear to anyone reminds us that He is the firstfruits of those risen from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20). These risen saints most likely came forth from the dead in glorified bodies already fit for heaven (rather than being restored to life in unglorified mortal bodies, as Lazarus had been).

They "appeared to many" (v. 53). Again, how many is not specified, but evidently there were enough eyewitnesses to verify the miracle. When Matthew wrote his gospel, some of the eyewitnesses would have no doubt still been alive. Matthew doesn't say what became of the risen saints, but they undoubtedly ascended to glory not long after Jesus' resurrection.

Their appearance proved that Christ had conquered death, not merely for Himself, but for all the saints. One day "all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth" (John 5:28-29).

You may be one of those who need to come forth and agree with the voice that is nagging at you and disrupting your life.

Do you hear me?

Your life.

If you made a commitment to the Lord and you are still living your life, you are missing out.