The Darkness Changed Everything

The Darkness That Changed Everything

It was a busy morning in Jerusalem and it had been a long night for Jesus. He had been betrayed, imprisoned, and shuffled from judgement hall to judgement hall. He had been released and exchanged for a criminal, and the people who had witnessed his miracles and benefited from his mercies were calling for his execution. Jesus made no formal attempt to refute the accusations made against him. He made no defense of his innocence. He willingly went, and passively submitted to the road of the cross.

The morning of the crucifixion was busy. Crowds lined the streets as Jesus was marched to Calvary. He had already been scourged and beaten bloody. He was disrobed and emcumbered with a cross that he was forced to carry. As the crowds lined the streets, they yelled, spit and mocked him as he was marched to Calvary. It was a busy day in Jerusalem.

The gospel writers would depict a busy scene on the cross at calvary. If you close your eyes, you could almost hear the clammoring of the hammers fastening the hands and feet of Jesus to the wooden beams. You could almost hear the groans of Jesus as they drove spikes in his flesh. The timeline of the gospel writers suggests that he was hoisted on the cross for three hours, suffering in agony and pain.

But in the course of the first three hours on the cross, he finds the ability to be attentive to the needs of others surrounding him. He says “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” He answers the death bed fears of the thief next to him by saying “today, you shall be with me in paradise.” This was a busy morning in Jerusalem!

The soldiers were mocking him and gambling to see who would take possession of his garments. The chief priests were busy mocking and criticizing Pilates inscription that was above the head of Jesus. Passerbyer’s and onlookers were shaking their heads in disgust and disbelief. Disciples were hiding for fear of being captured and crucified. This was a busy day in Jerusalem.

And God interrupts the business of the day with sudden silence and darkness. The text would indicate that at the 6th hour, which is about 12 noon, darkness fell over the land (Luke 23:44 “It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour,”). The text does not explicitly indicate that there was silence, but when you read all of the gospel accounts of the “darkness” that covered the land, no word is spoken, no action is discussed, no work is accomplished. The darkness is silent. It isn’t until after the text mentions the darkness being released that we read words spoken and actions being taken.

It is as if the crowds are transfixed with amazing. The loudness of the blood of Jesus can be heard dripping. The labored breathing of Christ on the cross can be heard echoing from his hoisted body. It was if the darkness casted its own shadow of silence. The silence of the gospel historians in that moment would suggest that they intended for us to feel the moment. For a whole three hours, silence and darkness. For three hours, dismal and gloom.

Whatever happened in the span of the three hours of darkness was enough for Matthew 27:54 (“When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!””) to record that the Roman centurion was “filled with awe.”

Whatever happened in the span of the three hours of darkness was enough for Luke 23:48 (“And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts.” ) would suggest that all who witnessed this returned home and “beat their breasts”. It was apparent that the darkness affected them.

What kind of event was this darkness? It was not an eclipse of the sun, because the longest eclipse only lasts a few minutes. This darkness lasted three hours. It could not have been an eclipse of the sun because the murder of Jesus happened during the passover, which only happened during the full moon. It would have been scientifically impossible to have a solar eclipse during a full moon.

What kind of event was this darkness? The darkness could not have been caused by the absence of the sun, or what we call night time because the text says that it was in the middle of day! This darkness smootherd the sun at noon time!

What kind of darkness was this? Was it a slow and gradual deepening darkness? The text would indicate that all at once the darkness came, and all at once the darkness left.

The darkness dealt to the people that day was divine darkness. It was darkness orchestrated by God himself. It was darkness commondered by the Lord of heaven to captivate the attention of people. This darkness was proof that God alone can interfere with the course of his regular and natural causes. This darkness was proof that when we ignore God, he is capable of bringing himself in contact with our sensibilities.

When the text says in Luke 23:45, that the “sun was obscured”, the word “obscured” means to “fail to exist, or die out.” For three hours, the sun failed. For three hours, God dismissed the sun. For three hours, the sun took an extended lunch break.

For three hours, God suspended the natural order of life, because his son was on the cross!

This darkness was prophesied darkness.

The prophet Amos foretold the darkness in Amos 8:9 ““And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.”

Joel foretells the darkness in Joel 2:10 “The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.”

Zephaniah foretells the darkness in Zephaniah 1:15 “A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness,”

Luke reports that darkness covered the “whole land”, which implicates that all of humanity is responsible for Jesus’ death. The critic might wonder if this event actually occured. Is this some dramatized testimony of the devoted followers of Jesus? Are there any historical records that would verify the claims that the land was filled with darkness?

There was a man by the name of Celsus, a heathen historian and critic of christianity, who wrote about the infamous darkness. Another historian, Tertullian, wrote about the pagans who chronicled the account of darkness in their history books.

But why darkness?

Based on the judgement of all-white juries, eight black teenage boys were sentenced to death for the rape of two white women on a freight train in 1931. A ninth boy, only twelve years old, was judged to be too young for the electric chair. The trials took place in just a day, with a lynch mob demanding the surrender of the teenagers outside the jail before the trials. The only lawyers who would defend the accused included a retiree who hadn’t tried a case in years and a Tennessee real estate lawyer who was unfamiliar with Alabama law.

The boys were convicted and demonstrated commenced in the all black neighborhood of Harlem in New York City. The case eventually made it to the supreme court, where the convictions were reversed because of the lack of adequate defense. Charges were dropped against the boys, but three were resentenced to life in prison; a fourth, Clarence Norris, was re-sentenced to death, later reduced to life in prison.

In 1976, Governor George Wallace pardoned Norris. To this day, the Scottsboro case is referenced in public dialogue for unfair, racially baised convictions and sentencing.

Jesus’ capture and arrest bares resemblance to the stories of so many black and brown folks in America and across the world. Unfair trials. Unfair sentencing. There can be no justice where there is no truth!

Darkness showed up because God was protesting the death of his son. Darkness showed up because it was representative of the occupation of the occupation of their hearts. Darkness showed up because the Son of God was on the cross.