The Hour of Darkness: Finding Hope in Despair-Mark 15:33-41

As we begin this morning, please turn in your copies of God’s Word to Mark 15, we will be reading verses 33-41 shortly, so please have these verses marked and ready for that time.

Two Sundays ago we looked at Mark 15:16-32, in the message entitled, Crimson Threads: The Tapestry of Prophecy and Fulfillment, where we considered how the prophecies surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus weaved a tapestry that reveals God's meticulous plan for redemption throughout history. In examining these prophecies, we saw the continuity of God's message and His ultimate purpose for humanity through the lens of the cross. We closed out with a look at Jesus as the Prophet, Priest & King, promised in the Old Testament, paying particular attention to the Latin meaning of the English translation of word we translate “priest”. The Latin is Pontifex, which literally means “Bridge Builder”. This is so important for us, because ever since sin entered into the world in the Garden of Eden, that sin brought about an insurmountable chasm between us and God. A chasm we had no hope of bridging. Then along comes Jesus, the promised Messiah, our Great High Priest, the ultimate bridge builder. And on the cross, and through His blood, He Himself bridged the chasm between us and God. He became the ultimate Passover Lamb, Who’s blood takes away the sin of the world.

Before we look at this morning’s passage, let’s go before the Lord in prayer.

Heavenly Father,

We have been reminded this morning that You are Jehovah Sabaoth, the LORD of Hosts. We sang praises to You as we considered the truth we read in 1 Samuel 17:47, that the Battle Belongs to the Lord. In our near-sidedness, we only see that battle, yet You, with eyes not bound by time and space, eyes that not only see into the future, but also an all-powerful arm that can bring about victory, as we sang not long ago, Behold Our God, seated on the throne. You Who have held the oceans in Your Hand, You Who has numbered every grain of sand. We can no more fathom all You wondrous deeds, than we can give You council. Because You are the One Who knows all things, we are incapable of teaching You anything. You, the Lord God Almighty reign. You are Holy, holy, holy! You, and You alone are Worthy, because You are the Lamb Who was slain, paying the penalty for our sins.

Now, heavenly Father, we as Your church, commit to do what we sang in our song of the month, O church arise, and put your armor on, Hear the call of Christ our captain! We are strong in the strength You give us, we hold out the shield of faith, the belt of truth about our waist, and we march as an army, bold in the battle cry of love, reaching out to those in darkness, pointing to the cross, where love and mercy meet. You are Great and Mighty, and thus we Rejoice in the Lord always.

Now Father, as we look into the unchanging truths of Your Word, particularly as we look at the last 3 hours You hung on the Cross of Calvary, the sins of all mankind, past present and future, thrust upon Your shoulders, we declare what David declared, “the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s ”. And We rejoice in the battle won, from the cross to the empty tomb.

O Father, speak to us through Your Word, we pray these things in Jesus Name, Amen

Now, would you please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word?

Mark 15:33–41 ESV

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud Voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” 35 And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, He is calling Elijah.” 36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to Him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take Him down.” 37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed His last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing Him, saw that in this way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this Man was the Son of God!” 40 There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 When He was in Galilee, they followed Him and ministered to Him, and there were also many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word, please be seated.

1. The Presence of God In the Darkness. Mark 15:33-34

We read in Mark 15:33;

Mark 15:33 ESV

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

We have a tendency to attempt to explain the miraculous, to come up with a logical explanation for the unexplainable. For instance, when it comes to the 3 hours of darkness that took place at noon on the day of the crucifixion, some have tried to explain this phenomenon away as a total eclipse. This would have been impossible because Jews used a lunar calendar, and as a result, the Passover always took place during a full moon, making a total eclipse impossible. Realistically, all other natural causes also prove to be somewhere between highly unlikely to completely impossible. Whether those natural causes be a terrible storm to a terrible sand storm. Especially when you consider that several early church fathers, men like Origen and Tertullian, suggest that the darkness extended beyond the borders of Israel and throughout the Roman Empire.

Still others have suggested that the darkness was brought on by Satan. The problem with this theory is, according to Scripture, only God possesses such power over the cosmic realm. We read in Job 9:7-8

Job 9:7–8 ESV

Who commands the sun, and it does not rise; Who seals up the stars; 8 Who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea;

We read in Isaiah 45:6-7

Isaiah 45:6–7 ESV

that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides Me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. 7 I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, Who does all these things.

Truthfully, the most logical explanation is this was a supernatural event, accomplished by the very Hand of God.

That brings to the mind the question of ;

Why the Darkness?

Why? Why did God bring about darkness in the middle of the day. And is there meaning in the darkness.

To answer this question, let me ask you a question, what great Jewish event was taking place the day of the Crucifixion? (The Passover). Correct, the Passover was taking place. Let’s take a few moments and look at what proceeded the very first Passover. To do that, turn in your copies of God’s Word to the Old Testament book of Exodus, chapter 10, starting in verse 21 and reading through verse 29. As you are turning there, let me set the stage for what is taking place here.

God sent Moses to free the Nation of Israel from 400 years of slavery in Egypt. No matter what great sign God brought about through Moses, nothing would convince the Egyptian Pharaoh to let the Nation of Israel to go. When all was said and done, God sent 10 major plagues against the Egyptians. After each of the first 5 plagues, we read that Pharaoh hardened his heart. By the way, as a quick side-note, each of the 10 plagues God brought about not only hurt the people of Egypt, but also demonstrated God’s ultimate power over Egyptian gods. God was demonstrating that He, and He alone is God. Then, from the 6th plague to the 10th plague, we read that now, God hardened the heart of the Pharaoh. It was as if the Pharaoh had crossed the point of no return and now God was going to make an example out of him as well as continue to establish His power over the gods of Egypt. We come now to the 9th of the 10 plagues. Let’s look at these verses together.

Exodus 10:21–29 ESV

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” 22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. 23 They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived. 24 Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, “Go, serve the Lord; your little ones also may go with you; only let your flocks and your herds remain behind.” 25 But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. 26 Our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take of them to serve the Lord our God, and we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there.” 27 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go. 28 Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me; take care never to see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.” 29 Moses said, “As you say! I will not see your face again.”

While it is not always the case, many of the instances of miraculous darkness in the Old Testament represent;

Oftentimes Miraculous Darkness = God’s Judgment. Ex. 10:20-21; Isa. 5:30; 13:10-11; Joel 1:15; 2:1-2; 10-11; 30; Amos 5:20; 8:9; Zeph. 1:14-15.

And also, here in Exodus 10, directly preceding the 1st Passover, God, as a form of judgment, brought about darkness for 3 days. And now, in this morning’s passage, directly preceding what would be the last required Passover, though many Jew’s continue to celebrate the Passover to this day, this was the last required Passover, because through the death of Jesus, the Lamb of God (which is what Agnus Dei means, it is Latin for Lamb of God). Jesus became the ultimate Lamb of God, the One to Whom all other Passover lambs were looking forward to, thus there was no need to have any other Passovers in the future. Only in this instance, rather that 3 days of darkness, there is 3 hours of darkness.

That brings about yet another question, if this darkness represented God’s judgment, who was it that was experiencing God’s judgment?

God’s Judgement on Whom?

In some ways, the answer is rather disturbing, because in this instance the judgment was on His One and only Son, Jesus. It is disturbing because of this; when I was growing up, too many times to count I experienced my father’s hand of judgment, and I can only think of one instance where I didn’t fully deserve that judgment. Truth be told, my dad probably missed another thousand times I deserved his judgment! But when it came to Jesus, well He had ever done anything worthy of judgment. Yet here He is, drinking from the Cup of God’s wrath, as I mentioned a couple weeks ago, drinking from our cup of God’s wrath. In one of Jays favorite verses we read 2 Corinthians 5:21

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake He made Him to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Or as The Living Bible puts it;

“For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us” 2 Cor. 5:21 TLB

R. Kent Hughes put it well in his commentary of the Gospel of Mark, when he wrote; “

Mark—Jesus, Servant and Savior (2 vols.) The Revelation of Love in Jesus’ Death (vv. 33-37)

Wave after wave of the world’s sin was poured over Christ’s sinless soul. Again and again during those three hours His soul recoiled and convulsed as all the lies of civilization, the murders of a thousand “Killing Fields,” the whorings of the world’s armies, and the noxious brew of hatreds, jealousies, and pride were poured on His purity. Finally He became a curse: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’” (

The Cry That Broke the Darkness. Mark 15:34; Mt. 27:46

At or about the end of the three hours of mid-day darkness, a loud cry shatters the darkness; Mark 15:34

Mark 15:34 ESV

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud Voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Now, for a few minutes, let’s try to imagine we were there that day. We are in the middle of a nice breakfast anticipating a day of huge significance. It is the day of the Passover Celebration and we have made to journey from our hometown far away to celebrate the Passover in a place unlike any other, the holy city of Jerusalem. In just a few short hours we will be making our way to the magnificent Temple. A temple built more than 400 years earlier in the days of Ezra. Then along came Herod the Great, 40 years or so before our visit and he completely rebuilt and enlarged the temple, most of which was completed in the first 10 years, but since that time, at his command, the temple has been enlarged and perfected, with the goal of being even greater than the original temple build by King Solomon.

All of the sudden our breakfast is interrupted by a large commotion. We make our way into the street and follow the large procession from a distance. Looking ahead climbing the hill in front of us we see 3 figures carrying crosses towards Golgatha. The Man towards the front, Who as far as we could tell had been beaten far worse that the other 2, crumbles under the weight of the cross. The Roman soldier pulls a man from the crowd to carry the cross to the top of the hill. Once they make their way to the top of the hill, Roman soldiers lay each man on their cross and proceed to nail their hands and feet to the cross. Tying ropes to the top and on both cross bars, and with a 3 soldiers behind each cross, 1 at each top, the other 2 at the cross bars, they lift the cross’s up until they drop into the deep holes that had been dug out for each. With a loud thud, each drops 2-3 feet into the holes, the bodies convulsing in pain.

It seems almost everyone in the crowd was ignoring the 2 outside men while shouting at and hurling insults at the man in the middle, and not just the crowds, even the 2 hanging on the 2 exterior crosses were hurling insults His way.

For 3 hours we watched, not fully understanding what was taking place. The hot sun was beating down upon us, but for some reason we were unable to pull ourselves away. Then, in an instant the sun just disappeared. Actually, it was even worse that the dark of night, at the dark of night, at least you could see the stars and the moon, we were experiencing total darkness in the middle of the day. For the next 3 hours, silence reigned. Torches and lamps began to dot the landscape, but there was nothing but quiet discussions and whispers. Then, at the end of the 3 dark silent hours, a shout pierces the darkness; “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” Of course we immediately recognized the Aramaic language to mean “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Which we also recognized as a quote from the Messianic Psalm 22:1.

No sooner did we hear these words than the sun instantly appeared once again.

As I mentioned, sometimes if I imagine myself actually being around when Biblical events take place, it helps me picture things differently that just reading them in the pages of Scripture.

We will finish our look at these verses next Sunday, but for now, let’s close our morning in prayer.

Our most gracious and loving Heavenly Father,

When I consider what we’ve looked at this morning, I remember the hymn The Old Rugged Cross. The powerful words drawn from the reality of what we read on the pages of Scripture. “On a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross. The emblem of suffering and shame; and I love that old cross, where the dearest and best, for a world of lost sinners was slain. O the old rugged cross, so despised by the world, has a wondrous attraction for me, for the dear Lamb of God, left His glory above, to bear it to dark calvary. In the old rugged cross, stained with Blood so Divine, a wondrous beauty I see; for twas on that old cross, Jesus suffered and dies, to pardon and sanctify me. To the old rugged cross, I will ever be true; its shame and reproach gladly bear. Then He’ll call me someday, to my home far away, where His glory forever I’ll share. So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown.”

Father in heaven, thank You for the cross, and thank You Jesus, for the Blood applied, Blood that cleanses me from my sin, “that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

This we pray, in Jesus Name, Amen