It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour… Luke 23:45 (NIV)
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…
1. Christ bore our sins on the cross.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24).
The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6).
2. Christ bore the punishment for our sins.
The punishment that brought us peace was upon him (Isaiah 53:5).
He [Christ] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 2:2).
3. Christ was completely alone in his suffering.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 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 turned his face away for a moment, 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?
