Mark 15:33-34
“At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).“
Mark 15:33-34 NIV
As Jesus died, this was the time of darkness. At midday, all light was snuffed out of the world as Jesus faced ridicule, mockery, shame, brutality, and humiliation alone.
He felt as if He had been abandoned, completely. But He spoke the living Word we read in Psalm 22. Jesus partially quoted on the cross. Notice how it speaks of feeling absolutely abandoned and completely surrounded by enemies.
Then read how it finishes in verses 30 & 31. “Our children will also serve him. Future generations will hear about the wonders of the Lord. His righteous acts will be told to those yet unborn. They will hear about everything he has done.”
In the middle of humanity's worst moment, Jesus looked beyond the horror with the eyes of faith. He was faithful even though He felt alone.
He endured the cross for all of us who need His grace. He trusted that the Father He was honoring with His death would also be the Father who would bring Him victory. He felt alone, but Him faith to know God would not abandon Him and would give Him victory.
There must be a depth of love between the members of the Trinity at which we can only wonder, for Each loves the Other with a divine love that always has been and will continue to exist forever. It is a Godly love that will reach into the eternal ages to come, a deathless love that will never end, for God is love.
And yet, that continuously existing communion between Father and Son was broken at Calvary's Cross, as the Lord Jesus Christ was made sin for you and for me. The sun hid its light as three hours of oppressive darkness shrouded the blackened sky, until Christ screamed in horror as He met the deepest point of suffering possible separation from the Father.
The price of sin had to be paid by the One and Only Sacrifice for sin, and it demanded that God the Father and God the Holy Spirit pour out the wrath of God upon the Holy Son of God, by turning their face away from the One Whom They had loved for an eternity.
No wonder that the Son cried out in anguish. “My God! My God!" to the other Members of the triune Godhead as the accumulated sin of the entire world was thrust on His sinless shoulders, and the full force of the wrath of the Most HighGod was poured out in fullest measure on the unique Son of the Highest.
Mortal mind cannot conceive of the intense bitter anguish and pain that must have descended on the innocent Sacrifice, for in bearing the sins of humanity that holy Man was made sin for us as the floodgates of God's wrath were poured out upon Him in all its Holy fullness. No wonder He screamed, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?"
God turned His back on the beloved Son of His love. But though abandoned by the Lover of His soul, it was to God that He called out and to God that He turned to as He cried out questioningly, why have You abandoned Me?
And yet He knew the answer. It was for the redemption of the human race that He had to be forsaken so tragically. It was for this reason that He was born into His own creation and for this reason that He died for the sin of the world.
Praise God that Jesus our precious Saviour and Kinsman-Redeemer drank the Father's bitter cup to its dregs so that you and I who believe on His name, would not perish but have eternal life with Him.
What does that darkness mean?
The answer of the Bible is clear and undisputed. Darkness is a symbol of the judgment and the wrath of God. The ninth plague that fell upon Egypt before God brought Israel out of the land of Egypt and poured His judgments upon Egypt’s gods and upon Pharaoh. Exodus 10:21, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness which may be felt.”
It was a thick darkness, a darkness that no candle’s light could penetrate. Men would sit down in fear and in dread. So the darkness that now descends upon Calvary is the darkness of God coming in His judgment against sin.
Jesus Himself made that plain when He characterized hell, the place of God’s wrath and judgment on sin, as a place of “outer darkness.”
The darkness on Calvary, therefore, represented God’s judgments that were now being unleashed and poured out in their full measure. God’s Holy fury for God is Holy and Righteous which banishes sin to outer darkness, this fury is going to be placed upon Him who hangs upon the cross in the stead of and in the place of all those who were given to Him by His Father’s eternal grace of election.
The Lord knew that this was to happen to Him. In the Psalms He had spoken “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow”
Again, “All thy waves and billows are gone over me.”
The darkness of our hell, the darkness of what was owed by us, the judgments that deservedly were our own would then be transferred completely to the Lord, the head of the church.
It was out of that darkness, near the end of a period of three hours, that there arose the loud cry of our Lord that rent the silence around the cross.
We read verse 34, “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Again the Holy Spirit emphasizes the time. It was at the ninth hour, that is, at the end of the three-hour period of pitch darkness, the tail end, in the last moments, so that shortly after His cry the darkness is lifted from Calvary and the light returns.
We are told that He cried out with a loud voice. It was not a muffled moan of a man on the brink of death. It was not something that He whispered hoarsely to those who were nearby so that you would have to bend your ear to hear what He had to say.
No, it was a loud voice. We get the word mega and megaphone from the Greek word that is used. Mega, tons, big. It was a loud voice, filling all of Golgotha, filling the whole land around Him. In fact, this voice fills heaven and earth.
Our Lord Jesus has now hung upon the cross for six hours, bleeding, in the agony of the body, and now, for three hours, in the unfathomable agony of soul. He has borne the unbearable. He has swallowed up the eternal hell of God’s children.
At the end, after a silence of three hours during which each person cowered and was silent, Jesus marshalls tremendous physical strength, and His cry rends the air.
It was spoken in a language that all would know: “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani.” “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
What was that cry?
It was not a cry of despair. He does not say, “Oh God, oh God,” but “My God, My God.” Whatever it meant, it was spoken by the Lord in the confidence and in the faith that God was His God “My God, My God!!!”
Will we this day speak with the same confidence My Jesus My Lord!!!
Father thank You this day and please give us the kind of faith that Jesus had. Lord open the floodgates of heaven and pour out Your abundant blessings over my friend and family today. Lord we want to be able to obey and bring You glory even when we feel abandoned and forsaken and forgive us for feeling that way. Lord we need that kind of courage. Lord empower us with that kind of trust. Lord we can only wonder at the pain that You went through to save us from eternal separation from Your Father. Lord use my friend be the light of Your love to all today. Daddy we love You amen. Be a blessing. Love ya !
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