Look at Me
“And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means 'Place of a Skull,' they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink. And when they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves by casting lots. And sitting down, they began to keep watch over Him there. And above His head they put up the charge against Him which read, “THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”...And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” (Mat 27:33-37, 39-43)
We are all familiar with this part of the story, and we, more than any one else, know that in spite of all the celebrated men and women who have ever walked upon this earth, who have ever done anything noteworthy, have ever thought noble thoughts, dreamed great dreams, displayed impressive heroism, or even lived in the depths of infamy, that this Man and this event is the apex of human history. What happened had to happen. There was no other way. As Peter would remark shortly afterward:
“...the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.” (Acts 3:18)
On the surface, this day was a day of hopelessness, a day of despair, a day when all the forces of evil were focused on one thing: destroying the life of a genuinely innocent man. Yet in the middle of all this, Jehovah God showed His majesty to fallen man by performing something truly miraculous.
“Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.” (Mat 27:45)
We read those fifteen words in practically the blink-of-an-eye, but do we ever really think about the implications of this span of time. I would submit to you that for three hours; 180 minutes; 10,800 seconds, the entire universe stood still while its Creator worked His greatest miracle in securing its eternal redemption.
We need to set the stage. For the Jews, the feast week commonly called the Passover started with the meal itself, and was followed immediately by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They were observed between the 14th day and the 21st day of the first month, called Nisan. During this week celebrants swelled the population of Jerusalem to several hundreds of thousands, with many coming from throughout the Diaspora to be in the city for the observance. In addition, the tetrarch of Galilee, Herod Antipas, and Roman Prefect, Pontius Pilate were in attendance. Pilate always led a large contingent of Roman auxiliary troops from his capital in Caesarea Maritima to maintain civil order. They always treated the Jewish feasts as potential powder kegs of religious zealotry.
Many of these pilgrims would stay over in the city, and not return to their respective homes until after Pentecost. Luke described these self same men as being:
“...devout men from every nation under heaven.” (Act 2:5)
Yet on this day, before the judgment chair of Pilate, this crowd, being mostly unfamiliar with all the aspects of Jesus’ earthly ministry, was easily manipulated by the Jewish religious hierarchy into a barely controllable mob that would obediently clamor for His death. As the day wore on, and the act drew out to its inevitable conclusion, the Jews became even more boisterous in their derision of Jesus’ helpless form on the cross, and mockingly sought one more sign, one more miracle, to 'prove' to them His claim of being The Anointed One. As we read earlier from verse 42:
“…‘let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him.’” (Mat 27:42)
Well, the Jews got their sign, they got their miracle, and they got it in spades. Everything went dark, everything went silent, and the universe, the entirety of God’s creation, stood stock still. Skeptics gainsay this event as being nothing more than the fortuitous happenstance of a solar eclipse, but that was not the situation at all. The Passover itself always occurred during a full moon, with the Feast of Unleavened Bread taking up the lunar third quarter afterward. This was the fifth day of the waning moon, and was not close to approaching new moon required for an eclipse. Beside, even in an eclipse, there is still background illumination. A person can still see, and can still move about in relative safety. However, that was not the case here. The Greek word used by Matthew is ‘sko-tos,’ which means ‘darkness, the absence of light.’ I wonder if it is feasible to expand that definition to further mean, 'the withdrawal of light?' There is no direct tie, but it is the same word used by Matthew to describe a place of stifling torment:
“‘...I say to you that many will come from east and west, and dine at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'” (Matt 8:11-12)
I believe this darkness was instantaneous, total, and universal. No light from the sun, no light from the stars, no light even from artificial sources, such as lamps, torches, fireplaces, or bonfires. There was no need for such devices during daylight hours, but that audience, hundreds of thousands of individuals, standing around the Cross, were for the next three hours held captive in total, overwhelming, suffocating darkness. God was certainly capable of doing that. God is light (1 John 1:5). He commanded the creation of the spectrum for our benefit (Gen 1:3). For this, however, light did not simply cease; it was purposefully withdrawn, to prove a point.
As a young man I had opportunity to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. From my recollection, the park rangers conducting tours of the caverns would from time to time turn off the lighting within the various galleries to reveal the wondrous displays of iridescence found among the rocks adorning the cave walls. There was one such gallery, however, that was advertised as being, “The darkest place on earth.” When its lighting was extinguished, the tour participants were engulfed in total darkness. No one moved. Our sense of awe quickly gave way to a sense of dread, and rapidly approached panic as everyone's most ardent desire became for someone, anyone, to turn the lamps back on. The trail going through this cave was well developed, with steps, handrails, and a well-worn path to follow. Yet none of that mattered, all we wanted was light.
Although Golgotha was located just outside Jerusalem's city wall, it was still just as wild a setting as it was the day Abraham “saw the place afar off” (Gen 22:4). There were no stairs, no walkways to ease one’s traverse of that terrain. Suddenly, the wrong step could have meant injury or even death. The people did not move. They did not speak. For the next three hours they were confronted with the reality and the consequence of their sin. The only sounds heard were that of labored breathing coming from the men they knew to be still on those crosses.
The three Synoptic Gospels all agree, “there was darkness over all the land…” but the Greek phrase is not definitive in describing the extent of the geographic area affected by this darkness. Theologians tend to appeal to the Plague of Darkness that fell only upon Egypt (Exd 10:21-23) as a guide to limit its effect strictly to the city itself, and possibly the surrounding environs of the Roman province of Judea. I, however, speaking as a geographer, do believe that this darkness was universal.
I hold this position for several reasons. First, mankind's commonality of rebellion and sin was universal. When Paul wrote to the church in Rome:
“...for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23)
The Apostle put in a nutshell the full culmination of man's spiritual history. As a result, the entire creation waited anxiously for the day of its redemption, as spoken later in that same letter:
“For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” (Rom 8:19-22)
Second, consider this: To this day Jerusalem shares the same sun with the Isle of Capri, located offshore the west coast of Italy. On that day it was the home of Tiberius Caesar Divi Augusti Filius Augustus, Emperor of Rome, the most powerful man in the world. Although it is said that he personally disdained the veneration, as Princeps and the head of the Imperium, he was fawningly worshiped by his people as deity. Yet on that day he, along with everyone living under Roman rule, from Spain to Babylon, experienced that darkness for which there was no natural explanation. When it is noon in Jerusalem, it is dawn in the Yucatan peninsula of eastern Mexico. This area was primarily inhabited by the Mayan civilization, and their religion revolved around worship of their sun god, called 'Kinich Ahau.' Imagine the terror they must have experienced when they awakened that day only to find that their ‘god’ had inexplicably failed them. Their temples had to have run red with the blood of countless human sacrifices as they entreated their deities not to withdraw their light, and thus their favor, from them ever again. Simultaneous to this, it is dusk in China's imperial city of Bejing. It was during this time in history that the Chinese elevated astrology from the realm of magic to that of science. Their most learned men studied the stars nightly, and were comfortable with their knowledge of the celestial grandeur of the night sky. To have that splendor snuffed out like a candle would certainly give them quite a start. When we understand the true magnitude of what happened on the Cross, we can easily see God using this event to proclaim to the whole world the truth of His existence, His supremacy, His love, His redemption, and His judgment over His creation.
Third this darkness even struck at the core of everything the Jews held dear. One important appliance located in the Temple was the Menorah, the seven-branched lampstand revered by the Jews even today as a symbol of the Israelite nation. Although the six outward lamps were lit nightly, and extinguished daily at first light, the center lamp of the Menorah burned continuously. It was referred to by the Jews as, ‘ner Elohim,’ ‘the Lamp of God,’ and its uninterrupted flame was seen as a sign that the ‘shechinah,’ the Divine Presence of God, actually dwelt within the Temple itself. That flame was extinguished that day, and according to rabbinical tradition, the lot never fell to sanction its rekindling ever again.
Fourth, within the narrative of the gospels especially, there is a facet to recorded Scripture I call, “Hearing that which need not be said.” They are the mental connections and recollections we all make when prompted by some external stimuli, such as another person's spoken word. The most awe inspiring experience I encountered during the short time I spent in the AIM program at the Sunset School of Preaching was hearing the commitment to the memorization of Scripture practiced by faculty, staff, and students alike. That ability was impressive, but was not unique. I cannot stress enough the fact that the adversaries of Jesus among the Jews; the Pharisees, the Saducees, the priests, the scribes, the Sanhedrin, the teachers of the Law; they all knew the words. The Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms; these men knew them all by-heart. Right-to-left, left-to-right, top-to-bottom, inside-out, upside-down, and sideways. They were the uppermost echelon of Jewish religious society. It was their lives to know the words. They could not escape them.
Amos is the one responsible for a most interesting prophecy:
“‘It will come about in that day,' declares the Lord God,'That I will make the sun go down at noon, and make the earth dark in broad daylight. Then I will turn your festivals into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring sackcloth on everyone’s loins And baldness on every head. and I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and the end of it will be like a bitter day.’” (Amo 8:9-10)
Theologians are of a mind to limit the impact of this prophecy to an immediate context that directly impacted the Kingdom of Israel with its coming destruction at the hands of the Assyrian Empire. However, I believe that to do so would deny Jehovah God's ability to also see its dual fulfillment in this day, this time, and in these three hours from the moment the inspiration of the Holy Spirit compelled the prophet to open his mouth. None of the gospel writers refer to this as a fulfilled event, but I believe it is plausible that those words did come to the minds of many in that multitude, and were not lost on those who were honest with themselves as they stood there in silence.
Finally, when in the ninth hour light did return, this epic confrontation between God and man still had yet to run its entire course. Usually at this time of the day there was a flurry of activity in the Temple. It was at this time, that in an elaborate ceremony presided over by the High Priest and temple leaders, the evening sacrifice for the nation was offered. I am sure that while it was everyone's most earnest desire to leave their places as quickly as possible, before anyone had a chance to scurry away from this 'Place of the Skull,' the following words were heard:
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” (Matt 27:46)
Everyone there stood transfixed by the scene. Even though there was still denial of the words, everyone recognized David’s Psalm. I have been told that in this era of Jewish history, the 22nd Psalm was used extensively in their synagogues as a call to worship. Everyone knew of its messianic theme. We have been taught throughout our spiritual careers that the Lord used this as an expression of the pure anguish He experienced in paying the price of carrying our sins, in being separated from God; and to a certain extent that is true. However, that was not His sole motivation. By prompting His audience to 'hear that which need not be said,' Jesus said to the assembled multitude, “Look at Me!”
“…I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All who see me sneer at me. They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, 'Commit yourself to the Lord. Let Him deliver him. Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.'” (22 Psa:6-8)
The worm spoken of here is a particular species highly valued for the vivid red dye that was derived from its crushed body, and used to tint the robes of the kings of Israel and Judah. The scorn Jesus endured was still fresh in the memory of all. The words still said, “Look at Me!”
“Be not far from me, for trouble is near; For there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They open wide their mouth at me, As a ravening and a roaring lion.” (22 Psa:11-13)
“Look at Me!”
“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and You lay me in the dust of death.” (22 Psa:14-15)
“Look at Me!”
“For dogs have surrounded me. A band of evildoers has encompassed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” (22 Psa:16-18)
The men Jesus addressed knew the words of the Psalmist. They could no more stop their flow through their conscious minds than they could stop the sun rise. Here it was, playing-out before their very eyes.
Jesus cared not for Himself. In that moment He knew He had won His war. The head of the enemy was crushed once and for all under the weight of The Cross. After six hours of sheer agony, and being only moments away from bringing this all to its victorious end, Jesus still made one last-ditch effort to reach His antagonists. To get them to finally:
“…see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and return, and be healed.” (Isa 6:10)
Jesus had dealt with these men all His life. Some of the those standing on that hillside that day also stood before Herod the Great when he inquired, on the behalf of the Magi, the birthplace of the King of the Jews (Matt 2:4). They were the ones who scorned Simeon in his quest to find the 'consolation of Israel,' (Luke 2:25). They were the ones who, twenty-one years previous to that day, almost to the day, occupied the precincts of the Temple, and sat in astonished amazement when as a young man this Nazarene conversed with them regarding the very finest concepts of the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luke 2:46-47). Now there He was, totally helpless, suffering the cursed fate they fervently desired of Him, yet David's words of righteous deliverance and praise of God still echoed in their ears.
“But You, O Lord, be not far off. O You my help, hasten to my assistance. Deliver my soul from the sword, my only life from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion’s mouth. From the horns of the wild oxen You answer me.
I will tell of Your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly I will praise You. You who fear the Lord, praise Him; All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, and stand in awe of Him, all you descendants of Israel. For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has He hidden His face from him; but when he cried to Him for help, He heard.
"From You comes my praise in the great assembly; I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him. The afflicted will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek Him will praise the Lord.Let your heart live forever!
"All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before You. For the kingdom is the Lord’s, and He rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust will bow before Him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive. Posterity will serve Him. It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They will come and will declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has performed it.” (22 Psa:19-31)
Can you imagine their incredulity? For three years they were in conflict with this man because He taught the purity of the gospel, and exposed them for their hypocrisy, duplicity, and the error of their beliefs. Even in death they could not deny His impact on their lives. In many His words had the desired effect:
“And all the crowds who came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, began to return beating their breasts.” (Luke 23:48)
They knew something was wrong about what they had just done, but it would take some time before their understanding caught up with their consciences. Unlike them, we do have the benefit of 20-20 hindsight. We know our needs, and we can know how Jesus can satisfy every necessity of our sin-battered souls. I implore you do not look to me for salvation. Do not look to any preacher, teacher, elder, apostle, or even the angels in heaven for what each of our souls fervently desires. Look to Jesus. His physical image may be lost to us, but its the Word that lives forever (Isa 40:8).
