Darkness over the land (Mk 15.33)

This Darkness Really Happened

You might expect a supernatural darkness lasting three hours to be mentioned by writers outside the Bible — and in fact it was. A Greek writer called Thalus, writing in 52 AD, mentions this darkness, although he wrongly explains it as a natural solar eclipse. Another Greek historian called Phlegon, writing in 137 AD, recorded: "In the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad" — that is, AD 33 — "there was the greatest eclipse of the sun. It became night in the sixth hour of the day, so that the stars even appeared in the heavens. There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned in Nicaea." Then Tertullian, the second-century Christian apologist, writing to sceptics who did not believe the Bible's account, said: "At the moment of Christ's death, the light departed from the sun and the land was darkened at noon day — which wonder is related in your own annals and preserved in your archives to this day." Tertullian was able to tell these sceptics: go to the library, check the records, and you will find it there. It would not have been a very persuasive argument if no such records existed. So there is confirmation outside the Bible — not that we as Christians need it, but it is encouraging to know that this supernatural darkness was noted by others as well.

Concealment

The first strand of significance in this darkness is concealment. Jesus was on the cross for six hours before he died. The first three hours — from the third hour until the sixth — were in the bright light of day. That was important: Christ's sufferings were clear for everyone to see. There were many witnesses, most of them hostile. This was not something done in a corner. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was lifted up on the cross and exposed for all to see.

But the last three hours of Christ's suffering — from the sixth to the ninth hour — were seen by no one. What was happening to Jesus during those three hours of darkness? What was he going through as he carried the weight of the guilt of all the sins of all his people in all the ages? We do not know. No one saw it. And surely one reason for the darkness is that we are not meant to see it. Jesus was going through the profoundest depth of suffering — experiencing in those three hours all the agonies of hell. Not just one hell, but countless millions of hells for all his people. He was being forsaken by his Father. And God in his mercy drew this veil of darkness over the cross because it was too terrible, too profound, too sacred for anyone to witness.

Deep suffering demands privacy. If you ever witness someone in a moment of terrible anguish, you feel that you should not be there, that it is not your business. And if that is how we feel about ordinary human suffering, how much more should God hide his Son's wrestling with the pains of hell from human gaze? This is probably what Isaiah 52:14 is talking about: "His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness." That prophecy was not about Jesus having some kind of physical deformity — it was about the cross, about those three hours of darkness, about what the suffering did to the face of Jesus. If we could have seen it, it was twisted, disfigured, marred beyond anything any horror film could conjure from human imagination. There may be things you have seen that you wish you could unsee. Nothing compares to this. And he endured all of it for us, so that we can be forgiven.

There is so much about the cross that is simple and easy — children can grasp it. But we must never think we understand it all. There are profound mysteries here that the greatest intellect has never been able to penetrate. That awesome, unfathomable mystery is symbolised by the darkness at the cross.

Curse

The darkness also symbolises curse. In the Bible, darkness is a sign of God's curse upon the land. Perhaps some of you are already thinking of the most famous example — the first ever Passover, 1,400 years before this one. In Exodus 10:21, the Lord told Moses to stretch out his hand so that darkness would spread over Egypt — "darkness that can be felt." Total darkness covered Egypt, not for three hours but for three days. That plague of darkness was the ninth of ten plagues, the last warning before the tenth and final plague: the death of the firstborn.

And why the death of the firstborn? Remember the warning God gave Pharaoh through Moses at the very beginning: "This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son. I told you, let my son go that he may worship me. But you refused to let him go. So I will kill your firstborn son" (Exodus 4:22-23). Pharaoh's son died so that God's son — Israel — could go free.

Now here we are in Mark 15 at another Passover. Another supernatural darkness covers the land — not Egypt this time, but Israel. It does not last three days but three hours, though that echo of the three days is surely deliberate. And this darkness is going to end in the death of a firstborn: the firstborn over all creation. Jesus, the Son of God, the once-for-all Passover Lamb, is going to be punished and die so that his people — slaves to sin — can go free to worship him. The curse falls upon Jesus Christ so that we can be blessed. God's Son dies so that you and I can be called sons of God.

This should have been a solemn sign to the Jews who crucified Jesus. As they groped about in the darkness during those three hours, did any of them think about the Exodus? Did it occur to any of them that they were in the position of the Egyptians — that they had ignored the voice of God through his prophet, and were now in great danger?

Conquest

A third strand of significance in the darkness is conquest. In Isaiah 59, Israel has broken its covenant with God and Isaiah announces their judgement: "Like the blind, we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight" (Isaiah 59:10). There is this darkness of judgement — but listen to what God does next: "The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one. He was appalled that there was no one to intervene. So his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him" (Isaiah 59:15-16). God straps on his armour and goes out into the darkness to fight for his people.

And that is exactly what is happening here at Calvary. The Lord Jesus Christ, God himself, is fighting for his people in the darkness. We are the ones who rebelled against God, we are the ones who broke the covenant — but in grace and pity he brings rescue. He bears in his own body the full weight of all the sins of all his people in every age. He submits himself to the Father's wrath, endures the cross, despises its shame, and offers up his own body as a sacrifice. And as he resists temptation to the very last moment of his life — so that he can bestow his own spotless righteousness on us — Jesus is fighting for his people in the darkness.

Jesus said in Luke 22:53: "This is your hour — when darkness reigns." It seemed as though darkness was conquering. Ever since the Garden of Eden, the devil had feared and hated this prophesied seed of the woman who would one day crush his head. And now here that seed hangs helpless — forsaken by his disciples, his life draining away, a despised failure. It looked as though the darkness had triumphed at the cross. The light of the world was about to be snuffed out.

But the true conqueror here is Jesus — and he is conquering by dying. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5). The cross is actually the defeat of the powers of darkness, not their triumph. This is the moment when the heel of the serpent-crusher comes down on the head of the serpent and crushes him. Paul explains it in Colossians 2:15: "Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."

It is good for us to remember this when the powers of darkness seem to be conquering in our world — in countries torn by war and famine and disease, in homes even here in Galway where little children and babies are horribly abused. There is so much darkness, and it looks as though it is winning. The temptation is to lose heart and lose hope. But just as at Calvary, God is working, God is fighting — invisibly in the darkness — bringing in his kingdom.

Condemnation

Finally, the darkness symbolises condemnation. In the Bible, cosmic signs emphasise the magnitude of what is taking place on earth. At Christ's birth, a star appeared in the sky to lead the Magi. When the shepherds were out in the fields, God turned the darkness of night into blazing day as the glory of ten thousand times ten thousand angels shone around them. At his Son's birth, God turned night into day — and so it seems fitting that at his Son's death, he should turn day into night.

Jesus said in Mark 13:24 that the coming of the Son of Man on the day of judgement would be heralded by awesome signs: "The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky." Amos said the same thing: "In that day, declares the Sovereign Lord, I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your religious feasts into mourning and all your singing into weeping… I will make that time like mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day" (Amos 8:9-10).

Of all the days in history, has there ever been a day more solemn, more awesome, more important than this one? The day the Son of God was nailed to the cross and bore his people's sins in his body. The day when God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. There is a very real sense in which the crucifixion at Calvary fulfils those prophecies about the day of judgement. God is condemning his Son here in the place of every single Christian — pronouncing the verdict "guilty" and executing the sentence upon his Son. He casts his Son, his only Son, out into the outer darkness of hell as he drinks to the dregs the cup of God's wrath.

The warning of the darkness is a solemn warning for unbelievers. If you are not a Christian yet, this darkness is a preview of what is in store for you — not three hours of darkness, but an eternity. Jesus describes hell as "outer darkness," the darkest place imaginable, a place of torment and anguish. If you are not a Christian, that is where you are headed.

And if you are a Christian, this is the darkness you have been saved from. Christ went into the darkness so that you could be brought out into the light. "He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves" (Colossians 1:13). "God called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" (1 Peter 2:9). Jesus suffered and fought in the darkness so that you and I can live in the light — not for a few hours or a few years, but forever.

A communion season like this is a good opportunity to examine ourselves and shine the light of God's Word into those pockets of darkness that stubbornly remain in our lives. Maybe there are areas of behaviour you are struggling with. Maybe things you are not sure are sinful — hold them up to the light, bring them out, shine God's Word on them. If you are struggling with some secret sin, one of the first things to do to kill it is to bring it into the light. Sin thrives in secret, in the darkness. Confess it, talk about it, do not hide it. Paul says in Ephesians 5:8: "At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light." If you are a Christian, that is what you are — a child of light. The devil wants to convince you that you are still in the darkness and cannot escape. Listen to what God says: now you are light in the Lord.

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