The Eclipse of the Cross Mark 15:20-34
This past week, our nation, experienced something that hasn’t been seen in a century, a full, coast to coast solar eclipse
(8/21/17).
It was an amazing event. When God does something, it catches the attention of the whole world. Millions of people watched this supernatural, spectacular event in the sky. It’s something only God can do.
There’s another eclipse I want to talk about today. This eclipse happened around 2,000 years ago: the eclipse of the cross. At this eclipse, it wasn’t the moon eclipsing the sun, it was our sins eclipsing the Son, that’s S.O.N. the Son of God.
We read about it here in Mark 15:20-34
Mark is describing the crucifixion of Christ. V25 Mark tells us that Jesus was crucified at “the third hour” that is 9am.
Crucifixions were held early morning. It would take hours for victims of crucifixion to die. If they were not dead by midafter-noon the Roman soldiers would break the victim’s legs resulting in a quicker death.
Jesus was crucified at 9am could mean that there were others crucified before him. Vs27 Mark tells us there were at least two others crucified one on each side of Jesus.
Vs33 gives us more details of the crucifixion of Christ. Mark tells us that from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. The sixth hour to the ninth hour would be noon to 3pm.
From noon to 3pm there was darkness, total complete darkness over the land.
So, Jesus was on the cross 6 hours. Then number 6 stands for man. Rev 13:18 says "… the number of a man … is 666."
The first 3 hours, from 9am to noon it was daylight. The last three hours he was on the cross, noon til 3pm, there was darkness.
Three hours was daylight, 3 hours was darkness.
The last three hours beginning at noon, when the sun was at its peak, an astounding event takes place: there was the eclipse of the cross.
But this was not a natural solar eclipse like we had this week. This was a spiritual eclipse. This was an eclipse where our sins blocked the son of God as he bore the sins of the world.
V33 speaking of the darkness, Mark says "…there was darkness over the whole land …." The original word for “land” is the word we get our word geology (study of the earth). It means earth. It can mean the part of the earth where you’re standing, a nation or it can mean of the whole world.
Ancient Roman history records that there was darkness over the known earth on that day. Luke says "… there was a darkness over all the earth …" 23:44 Just as the flood waters of Noah’s day covered the entire world so did the darkness of the cross.
The darkness of the cross was as the darkness of Deu. 28 where God tells the people you will stagger around at noon like the blind stumbling around in darkness and … no man shall save thee. v29 For three hours the people stumbled around in darkness like the blind. The darkness was blinding.
This darkness was as the darkness that God caused to fall over the land of Egypt in Ex. 10 where it says, "Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:” Moses stretched for his hand and there was a thick, black darkness in all the land of Egypt for 3 days. But on this occasion, here at the cross, it was God who stretched out his hand from heaven and caused a thick black darkness, that was felt by all the world for three hours. It was a blinding darkness.
Not only was the darkness blinding it was deafening.
For the first three hours that Jesus was on the cross, when it was daylight there was a crowd of people at the foot of the cross mocking, belittling, and ridiculing our Lord.
Mark tells us about this in vs29-32
Right in the middle of their mocking, Mark says in v33…
When the darkness came the mocking stopped. 1Sa 2:9 says God "…the wicked shall be silent in darkness; …."
The darkness was God’s way of saying to the wicked mockers, “be quiet.” “You’ve said enough.” To shut them up he turned off the sun.
All the wicked could do in the darkness was just stumble around like the blind. Like a drunk man drunk with his own pride and sin.
Biblical history shows that it is not unusual for God to interfere with the Sun. He has on several other occasions. Once, he caused the sun to stand still which means he caused the Earth to stop rotating.
On another occasion, he caused the sun to move backwards so that it moved backward on the sundial. On another occasion, in Egypt, he darkened the sun as a part of the plagues that fell.
But on this occasion at the cross, Luke uses a word ‘e-klips’, where we get our English word Eclipse, it means to utterly fail. It means the sun failed to shine. When the son of God died upon the cross the sun quit shining.
Isa 24:23 Isaiah prophesied, the moon will be disgraced and the sun ashamed. On the day Jesus was crucified, the moon hid its face in disgrace. The sun was ashamed of what we were doing to the son of God. It refused to shine. It refused to shed its light upon this wicked thing we were doing to its Creator.
When the sun stopped shining the stars hid their faces. The earth moaned. All of nature wept. God the Father turned his back.
What a horrible, wicked, evil thing was done when we crucified the Lord, our creator, our savior, the son of God.
This is not an eclipse as we saw this week. The crucifixion was at Passover which was in the middle of the month. An eclipse would be impossible meteorologically. At Passover, there is a full moon and a full moon is on the opposite side of the earth from the sun.
When Christ was born there was a great light. When he died there was great darkness.
Darkness in the bible represents:
1. Death. Mat 4:16 “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up”. The dead abide in darkness. The physical dead and the spiritual dead.
2. Satan. Satan is "the ruler of the darkness of this world," Eph 6:12
3. Hate. "But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes." 1Jo 2:11
4. Evil deeds of men. "… men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." John 3:19 “The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble." Pro 4:19
5. Hell. "But the children of the kingdom [of darkness] shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Mat 8:12 Jesus here is describing what hell is like. It is a place of darkness and weeping.
6. Judgement. When Jesus hung on the cross dying for our sins the earth was covered with darkness for three hours. The darkness represented God’s judgement of our sins.
The bible speaks of God's salvation as being light. God's judgment is spoken of as darkness.
God was showing by the darkness that the cross was judgment, the place of the severest, most comprehensive divine judgment, on his son Jesus Christ. And since God only judges one thing it is a judgment on sin.
The flood of Noah’s day was a judgement upon man for his sins. The fire and brimstone that fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah was a judgement upon man for his sins. The darkness that fell upon Egypt was a judgement upon man for his sins.
But the darkness that fell upon the cross was the judgement of man’s sin upon God’s own Son. The judgement that we should receive for our sins, Jesus took for us. He who knew no sin became sin for us.
God is judging our sins in Christ. Isaiah says, he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace fell on him, and by his stripes, we are healed.
The darkness is God's way of saying I am judging the sins of the world upon my son. I’m judging him so I won’t have to judge you. I’m condemning him so you won’t be condemned.
But there is more. V34, …
After six hours of excruciating pain, and suffering and torture, three of them in total darkness. After six hours, experiencing the full fury of the wrath of God upon him, as his suffering is coming to a climax, he begins to feel for the first time in eternity a separation from God his Father.
Isaiah says our sins have separated us from God. As Jesus bears our sins on the cross he for the first time in his life experiences this separation. God the Father, who is of purer eyes to behold evil, turns his face from his sin bearing son. At this very moment he cries out, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
And this is exactly what Psalm 22:1 says he would say. A thousand years before Jesus was born David in Psalm 22:1 prophesied Jesus would say those very words from the cross. Macarthur
The eclipse this week was for our viewing pleasure. The eclipse of the cross was for our salvation.
The son of God bearing our sins so we can be forgiven, born again, justified, redeemed, saved, delivered from sin.
But the eclipse of the cross would not last long. Three days later, the light would resurrect.
