Darkness

Published: 19 October 2017

By Bryce Lowrance


"Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? " (Matthew 27:45-46)


What happened on the cross? In particular, what happened during those three hours of darkness?

To be honest, we do not know. Further, I am not sure we could fully comprehend it even if we were told what happened.

What we do know is what the Bible tells us. It was dark for three hours and it concluded with Jesus crying out.

From these facts, we can conclude that something happened during that time that had never happened before and will never happen again. If we look at the words that Jesus cried out, we can see that the Son of God was alone.

Jesus has always been One with the Father. He has always been God's Son. The Godhead has three parts but God is one! That is a wondrous mystery, but during these moments on the cross, the mystery of the Godhead became even more mysterious. Jesus was alone. Jesus suffered alone. Jesus died alone.

Jesus was alone. As horrible as that thought is, it tells us something absolutely glorious. Jesus died alone because He did the work of redemption alone. Therefore, when He cried out, "It is finished!", there was nothing left for man, angel, or any other to do.

His suffering and death alone on the cross was what was necessary to appease the wrath of God against our sins. Therefore, we should weep at the thought of this scene but rejoice at the thought of its results.