Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 15:33
And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
33. And when the sixth hour was come ] i. e. 12 o’clock. The most mysterious period of the Passion was rapidly drawing near, when the Lord of life was about to yield up His spirit and taste of death. At this hour nature herself began to evince her sympathy with Him Whom man rejected. The clearness of the Syrian noontide was obscured, and darkness deepened over the guilty city. It is impossible to explain the origin of this darkness. The Passover moon was then at the full, so that it could not have been an eclipse. Probably it was some supernatural derangement of the terrestrial atmosphere. The Pharisees had often asked for a “sign from heaven.” Now one was granted them.
until the ninth hour ] i. e. till 3 o’clock. A veil hides from us the incidents of these three hours, and all the details of what our Lord, shrouded in the supernatural gloom, underwent “for us men and for our salvation.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mar 15:33
There was darkness over the whole land.
The three hours darkness
What a call must that midday midnight have been to the careless! They knew not that the Son of God was among them; nor that He was working out human redemption. The grandest hour in all history seemed likely to pass by unheeded, when suddenly night hastened from her chambers and usurped the day. Every one asked his fellow, What means this darkness? Business stood still: the plough stayed in mid-furrow and the axe paused uplifted. There was a halt in the caravan of life. Men were startled, and hushed into silence.
I. Let us view this darkness as a miracle which amazes us. Abundant reason for a miracle at this time. The unusual in lower nature is made to consort with the unusual in the dealings of natures Lord. The sun darkened at noon is a fit accompaniment of the death of Jesus.
II. Let us regard this darkness as a veil which conceals.
1. A concealment for guilty enemies.
2. A sacred concealment for the blessed Person of our Divine Lord. The angels found for their King a pavilion of thick clouds, in the which His Majesty might be sheltered in its hour of misery.
3. The Passion is a great mystery, into which we cannot pry.
4. The powers of darkness will always endeavour to conceal the cross of Christ.
III. Let us consider this darkness as a symbol which instructs. The veil falls down and conceals; but, at the same time, as an emblem it reveals.
1. It is the symbol of the wrath of God which fell on those who slew His only-begotten sent.
2. It tells us what our Lord Jesus Christ suffered.
3. It shows us what it was that Jesus was battling with-darkness.
IV. A prophetical display of sympathy.
1. All lights are dim when Christ shines not.
2. See the dependence of all creation on Christ.
3. If under a cloud, take comfort from the thought that Jesus also was once there. Feel after Him. Lean on Him. He will hold you up. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Total eclipse of the sun
A pious astronomer, in describing an eclipse which he witnessed in Norway, says: I watched the instantaneous extinction of light, and saw the glorious scene on which I had been gazing turned into darkness. All the horizon seemed to speak of terror, death, and judgment; and overhead sat, not the clear flood of light which a starry night sends down, but there hung over me dark and leaden blackness, which seemed as if it would crush me into the earth. And as I beheld it I thought, How miserable is the soul to whom Christ is eclipsed! The thought was answered by a voice; for a fierce and powerful sea bird which had been swooping around us, apparently infuriated at our intrusion on its domain, poured out a scream of despairing agony when it was surprised in the darkness. What, then, will be the fearful surprise, when the lost soul finds itself in that world where hope, withering, flees, and mercy sighs, Farewell! (Christian Age.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
And when the sixth hour was come,…. Or twelve o’clock at noon, having hung upon the cross from about the third hour, or nine in the morning:
there was darkness over the, whole land until the ninth hour; or three o’clock in the afternoon. The Ethiopic version renders the whole thus, “and when it was noon, the sun was darkened, and the whole world was darkened until the ninth hour”;
[See comments on Mt 27:45].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Crucifixion. |
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33 And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 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? 35 And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. 36 And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down. 37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. 38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. 39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. 40 There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; 41 (Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem.
Here we have an account of Christ’s dying, how his enemies abused him, and God honoured him at his death.
I. There was a thick darkness over the whole land (some think over the whole earth), for three hours, from noon till three of the clock. Now the scripture was fulfilled (Amos viii. 9), I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day; and Jer. xv. 9, Her sun is gone down while it is yet day. The Jews have often demanded of Christ a sign from heaven; and now they had one, but such a one as signified the blinding of their eyes. It was a sign of the darkness that was come, and coming, upon the Jewish church and nation. They were doing their utmost to extinguish the Sun of righteousness, which was now setting, and the rising again of which they would never own; and what then might be expected among them but a worse than Egyptian darkness? This intimated to them, that the things which belonged to their peace, were now hid from their eyes, and that the day of the Lord was at hand, which should be to them a day of darkness and gloominess,Joe 2:1; Joe 2:2. It was the power of darkness that they were now under, the works of darkness that they were now doing; and such as this should their doom justly be, who loved darkness rather than light.
II. Toward the close of this darkness, our Lord Jesus, in the agony of his soul, cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? v. 34. The darkness signified the present cloud which the human soul of Christ was under, when he was making it an offering for sin. Mr. Fox, in his Acts and Monuments (vol. 3, p. 160), tells of one Dr. Hunter, a martyr in queen Mary’s time, who, being fastened to the stake, to be burnt, put up this short prayer, Son of God, shine upon me; and immediately the sun in the firmament shone out of the dark cloud, so full in his face, that he was forced to look another way, which was very comfortable to him. But our Lord Jesus, on the contrary, was denied the light of the sun, when he was in his sufferings, to signifying the withdrawing of the light of God’s countenance. And this he complained of more than any thing; he did not complain of his disciples’ forsaking him, but of his Father’s, 1. Because this wounded his spirit; and that is a thing hard to bear (Prov. xviii. 14); brought the waters into his soul, Ps. lxix. 1-3. 2. Because in this especially he was made sin for us; our iniquities had deserved indignation and wrath upon the soul (Rom. ii. 8), and therefore, Christ, being made a sacrifice, underwent as much of it as he was capable of; and it could not but bear hard indeed upon him who had lain in the bosom of the Father from eternity, and was always his light. These symptoms of divine wrath, which Christ was under in his sufferings, were like that fire from heaven which had been sent sometimes, in extraordinary cases, to consume the sacrifices (as Lev 9:24; 2Ch 7:1; 1Ki 18:38); and it was always a token of God’s acceptance. The fire that should have fallen upon the sinner, if God had not been pacified, fell upon the sacrifice, as a token that he was so; therefore it now fell upon Christ, and extorted him from this loud and bitter cry. When Paul was to be offered as a sacrifice for the service of saints, he could joy and rejoice (Phil. ii. 17); but it is another thing to be offered as a sacrifice for the sin of sinners. Now, at the sixth hour, and so to the ninth, the sun was darkened by an extraordinary eclipse; and if it be true, as some astronomers compute, that in the evening of this day on which Christ died there was an eclipse of the moon, that was natural and expected, in which seven digits of the moon were darkened, and it continued from five o’clock till seven, it is remarkable, and yet further significant of the darkness of the time that then was. When the sun shall be darkened, the moon also shall not give her light.
III. Christ’s prayer was bantered by them that stood by (Mar 15:35; Mar 15:36); because he cried, Eli, Eli, or (as Mark has it, according to the Syriac dialect) Eloi, Eloi, they said, He calls for Elias, though they knew very well what he said, and what it signified, My God, My God. Thus did they represent him as praying to saints, either because he had abandoned God, or God had abandoned him; and hereby they would make him more and more odious to the people. One of them filled a sponge with vinegar, and reached it up to him upon a reed; “Let him cool his mouth with that, it is a drink good enough for him,” v. 36. This was intended for a further affront and abuse to him; and whoever it was that checked him who did it, did but add to the reproach; “Let him alone; he has called for Elias: let us see whether Elias will come take him down; and if not, we may conclude that he also hath abandoned him.”
IV. Christ did again cry with a loud voice, and so gave up the ghost, v. 37. He was now commending his soul into his Father’s hand; and though God is not moved with any bodily exercise, yet this loud voice signified the great strength and ardency of affection wherewith he did it; to teach us, in every thing wherein we have to do with God, to put forth our utmost vigour, and to perform all the duties of religion, particularly that of self-resignation, with our whole heart and whole soul; and then, though speech fails, that we cannot cry with a loud voice, as Christ did, yet if God be the strength of the heart, that will not fail. Christ was really and truly dead, for he gave up the ghost; his human soul departed to the world of spirits, and left his body a breathless clod of clay.
V. Just at that instant that Christ died upon mount Calvary, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, v. 38. This bespoke a great deal, 1. Of the terror of the unbelieving Jews; for it was a presage of the utter destruction of their church and nation, which followed not long after; it was like the cutting asunder of the staff of beauty (for this veil was exceedingly splendid and glorious, Exod. xxvi. 31), and that was done at the same time when they gave for his price thirty pieces of silver (Zec 11:10; Zec 11:12), to break the covenant which he had made with that people. Now it was time to cry, Ichabod, The glory is departed from Israel. Some think that the story which Josephus relates, of the temple door opening of its own accord, with that voice, Let us depart hence, some years before the destruction of Jerusalem, is the same with this; but that is not probable: however, this had the same signification, according to that (Hos. v. 14), I will tear, and go away. 2. It bespeaks a great deal of comfort to all believing Christians, for it signifies the consecrating and laying open to us of a new and living way into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.
VI. The centurion who commanded the detachment which had the oversight of the execution was convinced, and confessed that this Jesus was the Son of God, v. 39. One thing that satisfied him, was, that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost: that one who was ready to give up the ghost, should be able to cry out so, was very surprising. Of all the sad spectacles of this kind he never observed the like; and that one who had strength to cry so loud, should yet immediately give up the ghost, this also made him wonder; and he said, to the honour of Christ, and the shame of those that abused him, Truly this man was the Son of God. But what reason had he to say so? I answer, 1. He had reason to say that he suffered unjustly, and had a great deal of wrong done him. Note, He suffered for saying that he was the Son of God; and it was true, he did say so, so that if he suffered unjustly, as it was plain by all the circumstances of his suffering that he did, then what he said was true, and he was indeed the Son of God. 2. He had reason to say that he was a favourite of heaven, and one for whom the almighty power was particularly engaged, seeing how Heaven did him honour at his death, and frowned upon his persecutors. “Surely,” thinks he, “this must be some divine person, highly beloved of God.” This he expresses by such words as denote his eternal generation as God, and his special designation to the office of Mediator, though he meant not so. Our Lord Jesus, even in the depth of his sufferings and humiliation, was the Son of God, and was declared to be so with power.
VII. There were some of his friends, the good women especially, that attended him (Mar 15:40; Mar 15:41); There were women looking on afar off: the men durst not be seen at all, the mob was so very outrageous; Currenti cede furori–Give way to the raging torrent, they thought, was good counsel now. The women durst not come near, but stood at a distance, overwhelmed with grief. Some of these women are here named. Mary Magdalene was one; she had been his patient, and owed all her comfort to his power and goodness, which rescued her out of the possession of seven devils, in gratitude for which she thought she could never do enough for him. Mary also was there, the mother of James the little, Jacobus parvus, so the word is; probably, he was so called because he was, like Zaccheus, little of stature. This Mary was the wife of Cleophas or Alpheus, sister to the virgin Mary. These women had followed Christ from Galilee, though they were not required to attend the feast, as the males were; but it is probably that they came, in expectation that his temporal kingdom would now shortly be set up, and big with hopes of preferment for themselves, and their relations under him. It is plain that the mother of Zebedee’s children was so (Matt. xx. 21); and now to see him upon a cross, whom they thought to have seen upon a throne, could not but be a great disappointment to them. Note, Those that follow Christ, in expectation of great things in this world by him, and by the profession of his religion, may probably live to see themselves sadly disappointed.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The sixth hour ( ). That is, noon (Jewish time), as the third hour was nine A.M. (Mr 15:25). See on Mt 27:45 for discussion. Given also by Lu 23:44. Mark gives the Aramaic transliteration as does B in Mt 27:45, which see for discussion.
Forsaken (). Some MSS. give (reproached). We are not able to enter into the fulness of the desolation felt by Jesus at this moment as the Father regarded him as sin (2Co 5:21). This desolation was the deepest suffering. He did not cease to be the Son of God. That would be impossible.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And when the sixth hour was come,” (kai genomenes horas hektes) “And when it was the sixth hour,” or “about the sixth hour,” of the day, high noon, that is midday, about three hours after Jesus was nailed to the cross, Mat 27:45; Luk 23:44.
2) “There was darkness over the whole land,” (skotos egeneto eph’ holen ton gen) “There came to be darkness (a blackout) an expression of Divine judgement upon and over the whole land;” A supernatural symbol of sin and sorrow, Mat 27:45; or over the whole earth, Luk 23:44.
3) “Until the ninth hour.”(heos horas enates) “Until the ninth hour of that day,” or until three o’clock, that is mid-afternoon, for the space of about three hours, Mat 27:45; Luk 23:44.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
‘And when the sixth hour was come there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.’
Jesus had now suffered on the cross for three hours when a great darkness came over the land. This may have been caused by a black sirocco, a violent desert wind sweeping in the sands of the desert, blacking everything out, something not uncommon in Jerusalem in early April, but here of special intensity. Others see it in terms of extremely heavy, black clouds blotting out the sun. Luk 23:45 speaks of ‘the sun’s light eclipsed’ but he was probably not intending it technically for there could not be an eclipse at the time of the full moon. The idea of darkness is linked with dying in Psa 23:4. Jesus was going through ‘the valley of deep darkness’, and so, if it only knew it, would the land that had crucified Him.
We are probably justified in seeing in this period a time when Jesus was guarded from the eyes of men as He faced alone the drinking of the cup of the wrath of God. And such was the dreadful experience that He underwent as He was made sin for us, that He felt forsaken by God and in the end cried out unforgettable words.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The last hours and the death of Jesus:
v. 33. And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
v. 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?
v. 35. And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, He calleth Elias.
v. 36. And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave Him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take Him down.
v. 37. And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. Meanwhile it had become high noon. Suddenly, without warning, darkness came upon the whole earth, not the darkness of a solar eclipse, for it was now the time of the full moon, nor of dense clouds, nor of a desert wind-storm. The sun was blotted out, it lost its light; it was a miracle of God. The entire universe was suffering with the Son of God; the sun was hiding his face in shame, on account of the spectacle of men murdering their Creator. The significance of these three hours, during which the face of the Savior was mercifully hidden from the curious gaze of a blasphemous multitude, is shown in the Savior’s cry at the end of these three terrible hours. Out of a heart breaking with grief and shame over the fathomless abyss of sin the cry of anguish is wrung forth: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” This depth of humiliation on the part of the Redeemer is beyond human comprehension. Those three hours of darkness cover the mystery of unfathomable depravity on the part of the entire human race, and of inexpressible love on the part of the Savior. He had been forsaken by God; He had been given into the power of death and hell. God had withdrawn from Him the mercy of His presence; He had suffered the pain of being condemned to all eternity for the sin of the world. Jesus here felt the full force, the full terror of the divine wrath which has been kindled on account of the million-fold trespasses of mankind. He drained the cup of the curse of God to the last dregs; He had suffered the eternal damnation of hell. The eternal Son of God in the eternal depths of hell! But all this was done for our salvation. The punishment of hell lay upon Him, in order that we might go free. For note that He clung to His Lord, His heavenly Father, in the midst of all this terror. He was still His God, His highest good, to whom He offered full obedience and thus conquered’ wrath, hell, and damnation.
Jesus had called out the last words in the Aramaic tongue, just as the evangelist has recorded the words. Some of those that were standing nearby, whether of the soldiers or of the Jews, deliberately misunderstood His words and gleefully explained them to the rest as though the Lord had called upon the Prophet Elijah to help Him in this last extremity. And when Jesus thereupon cried out in His thirst and one of the bystanders, more soft-hearted than the rest, hurried over with a sponge-full of vinegar on a reed to give Him some alleviation of His burning suffering, he could not refrain from joining in the jeering, whether Elijah would come and help Him down from the cross. But now the end was at hand. Jesus gave a loud cry, a shout of triumph and joy, in which He also commended His soul into the keeping of His Father, and then He quietly breathed forth His spirit, He gave up His soul, His life. It was a true death; it was a complete severance of soul and body. But He was not overcome by His sufferings, He did not die of exhaustion. His dying was an act of His own free will. Voluntarily, in His own power, He placed His soul into the hands of His Father. He had power to lay it down, Joh 10:18. And, as the Stronger One, in dying, He conquered death. He gave Himself for us as a sacrifice, He accomplished a perfect reconciliation for the sins of all people. Through death He destroyed the devil that had the power of death, and delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage, Heb 2:14-15.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
XXIX
THE THREE HOURS OF DARKNESS AND FOUR MORE SAYINGS
Harmony, pages 212-214 and Mat 27:45-56
The last chapter closed as we were discussing Christ’s third voice from the cross, saying to the penitential thief, “To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” And the discussion closed with this question: Where is Paradise? Upon this subject two views prevail: One is that between death and the final resurrection the souls of disembodied saints go to an intermediate place; the other view is that there is no intermediate place. And it is the second view that the author firmly holds. In Dr. J. R. Graves’ book The Middle Life he takes the position that Paradise is a half-way station; that Hades is divided into two compartments, one called Paradise, in which the saints lodge, and the other called Tartarus, in which the souls of the wicked lodge. That neither the wicked nor the righteous immediately upon death go to their heaven or hell, is the “intermediate place” theory. It is also connected with an additional theory that when Christ died his soul went to that intermediate place, and while there preached to the spirits that were imprisoned there. The author does not subscribe to that at all.
In determining where Paradise is, we consult, not the Greek classics (as Dr. Graves does), but the New Testament usage. This usage makes Paradise the antitype of the earthly garden of Eden, which has its tree of life. The antitype of that is the true Paradise. We have these instances of the use of the word in the New Testament: In Luk 18 the first use of it. It is not mentioned again in the Gospels, but we come to it in 2Co 12 . There Paul tells us how he knew such an one about fourteen years ago, whether in the body or out of the body, he could not tell, but he knew such an one caught up to the third heaven and into the Paradise of God. There is nothing in that passage to make Paradise an intermediate place. Both the other two instances are in Revelation. In the letter to the churches Jesus says to one of them, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” Then by turning to the last chapter of Revelation you find where that tree of life is: it is in the midst of the Paradise of God. But where is that? The chapter commences: “I saw a pure river of water of life, coming out from the throne of (Sod and of the Lamb, and on either side of it was the tree of life.” Then in the same last chapter, it says, “Blessed are they that wash their robes . . . that they may have the right to the tree of life,” or, as it is expressed in an earlier passage in Revelation, “These are they who have washed their robes and made them white . . . that they may have a right to the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”
These are the instances of the usage of the word in the New Testament, abundantly settling where Paradise is. There are other passages you may use in making it certain. For instance, in the letter to the Hebrews, Paul tells us where are the spirits of the Just made perfect. He says, “You are come unto Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of Just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel.” So that wherever God is, and the heavenly Jerusalem, and the true Mount Zion is, and where the angels are, there are the disembodied spirits of the saints and this is no half-way house.
Look at it by this kind of proof: Who will deny that after the resurrection of Christ he ascended into the highest heavens? That is abundantly taught. Stephen, when he was dying, saw him there. And Paul says, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Where the Lord is, there Paul’s soul would go, as soon as he died. He says in 2Co 5:1 , “We know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” So, I do not believe that there is any stopping place for any saint or sinner immediately upon the death of the body, but his soul goes to its final place. We can get at it in this way: when Lazarus died the poor man was carried by angels to Abraham’s bosom. Where is Abraham? Jesus says, “Many shall come from the east and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.” This is no half-way place. So Paradise is a place. Jesus also said, “I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. . . . In my Father’s house are many mansions, etc.”
We are now on page 212 of the Harmony. It is the sixth hour, which is twelve o’clock. There was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. That darkness lasted three hours. And the word “land” means the whole of this earth. It does not mean a little section of it, either. Every one of the three Gospel writers uses a particular word which means the whole of the earth. It could not be over all the earth and be an eclipse; for an eclipse is not seen at the same time from all points of the compass. Then, again, no total eclipse ever lasted three hours. I witnessed a total eclipse once, and there were a few minutes when the shadow of the moon covered the sun completely, but in a very few minutes a little rim of light was shown, and it kept slightly passing. More and more of the sun appeared until directly all the darkness was gone. I have a full discussion of these three hours of darkness in my sermon on “The Three Hours of Darkness.”
For three hours that darkness lasted; and there was death silence. About the ninth hour, which would be three o’clock, the silence was broken, and we have the fourth voice of Jesus: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body, and spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God. So just before that darkness passed away, closing the ninth hour, Christ died the spiritual death. Right on the very verge of that deeper darkness came another voice. His words were, “I thirst.” This shows that his soul was undergoing the pangs of hell, Just as the rich man lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torment, and said, “I pray thee, Father Abraham, send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” This anguish was not from loss of blood, as in the case of a bleeding soldier. Any old soldier and I am one can testify that the fiercest pang which comes to the wounded is thirst. The flow of the blood from the open wound causes extreme anguish of thirst in a most harrowing sense. On battlefields, where the wounded fall in the range fire of both armies, a wounded man cannot get away, and nobody can go to him, and all through the night the wounded cry out, “Water, water, water!” After I myself was shot down on the battlefield it was two miles to where any water could be obtained, I had to be carried that distance, and the thirst was unspeakable. How much more the anguish of Christ enduring the torment of hell for a lost world!
The next voice is inarticulate, and that means that he had no joined words. We say a woman shrieks: that is inarticulate; but if she clothes her feelings in words, that is articulate. The record says, “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, It is finished.” So there is a cry from Jesus which had no words. “It is finished,” that is, the work of expiation of sin, toward God; and the work of deliverance from the power of Satan is accomplished. All of the animals that were slaughtered upon the Jewish altars as types are found there in the Antitype, “It is finished.” The Old Testament is finished ; the old ceremonial, sacrificial law is nailed to the cross of Christ. Paul says, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances against us, he nailed them to his cross.” On the cross he triumphed over Satan. “It is finished.” Because it is finished, Paul also says, “Let no man judge if you should eat anything that would be unclean according to the Mosaic law; that is nailed to the cross.” The Mosaic law forbade the eating of swine. But now you can eat swine if you want to. [It is far better, however, to eat fruits and vegetables than flesh foods of any kind. Editor.] “Let no man judge you in meat or drink.” And then he mentions the weekly sabbath, Saturday, and the lunar sabbath. The whole sabbatic cycle is nailed to the cross of Christ. If the Jew, then, after the death of Christ comes and says you must be circumcised according to the ordinances of Moses, you tell him that the handwriting of the ordinances of the Mosaic law were blotted out and nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ. You do not have to be circumcised in order to become a Christian. If he tells you that you should offer up sacrifices of lambs, or goats, or bullocks, you tell him, “No, that is nailed to the cross of Christ.” “Sacrifice and offerings thou wouldst not, but a body thou hast prepared for me”; and “through the eternal Spirit he made one offering once for all.”
“It is finished.” Whenever you preach on that and tell exactly what was finished, you have finished a great sermon. Expiation for sin was made; the penal demands of the law were satisfied; the vicarious Substitute for sinners died in their behalf; and the claims of the law on the sinner that believes in Jesus Christ were fully met. Therefore, no man can “lay any charge to God’s elect.” The debt, all of it, has been Paid.
His last voice on the cross was, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” that is, as soon as he died, his spirit went immediately to the Father, and not to that half-way place you have heard about. There can be no more important thing than this: Where was Christ’s soul between the death of his body and the resurrection of it, and why did he go to that place? Christ’s soul was-with the Father immediately upon his death. As quick as lightning his soul was with God. Now, why did he go there? The answer to this question will come in after the completion of our study on the resurrection. Remember we want to know why Christ’s soul, just as soon as he died, went to heaven.
He went to heaven as High Priest to offer on the mercy seat, in the holy of holies, his blood which was shed upon the earth on the altar on earth in order that on the basis of that blood he might make atonement for his people.
That is one reason. In Lev 16 we have the whole thing presented to us in type. The goat that was offered was slain, and just as soon as it was slain the high priest caught the blood in the basin he had, just as it flowed from the riven heart of the sacrifice. He then hastened with it, without delay, behind the veil into the holy of holies, and sprinkled it upon the mercy seat to make atonement, based upon the sacrifice made upon the altar. There was no moment of delay.
Now, when the true Lamb of God came and was slain, he being both High Priest and Sacrifice, he must immediately go into the presence of God in the true holy of holies, and sprinkle that blood upon the mercy seat. Therefore, Paul says, “When you come to the heavenly Jerusalem, Mount Zion, to God, and to angels, and to the spirits of the just made perfect, you also come to the blood of sprinkling,” there in the holy of holies, where Christ sprinkled that blood.
How long did Christ’s spirit stay up there? Three days the interval between his death and his resurrection. Why did he come back? He came back first to assume his resurrection body. He came back after his body. Second, in that risen body he received the homage of all the angels: “And when God bringeth again into the world his only begotten Son, he said, Let all the angels of God worship him.” He is the Son of God by the resurrection, as Psa 2 declares: “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” Paul quotes that to show that it is applied to the resurrection body of Jesus Christ. The angels worshiped Jesus in his eternal divinity, and they recognized him in his humanity. But there was a special reason why every angel of God should be called upon to worship the glorified Jesus Jesus in his risen and glorified body. So that is certainly one reason why he returned.
Another reason was to further instruct his people to clarify and confirm their faith, which he did. And the fourth reason was that he might, with all authority in heaven and on earth, commission them to do their work. I will show in subsequent discussions that he did that when he came back. If you do not know why Jesus came to the earth; if you do not know why he died; if you do not know where his spirit was between his death and resurrection, and why that spirit went to that place; if you do not know when he returned, why he returned, and how long he stayed after he returned; when he ascended into heaven; what he is doing in heaven in his risen body, and how long he will stay up there in his risen body, then you have not yet got at the gospel, and you do not know how to preach.
Still another reason why Jesus came back was to breathe on his apostles, that is, to inspire them, which means “to breathe,” to give inspiration to them, and to commission them. How long did he stay? Forty days. In that forty days he finished his instruction upon every point. Then when he went back he did not go as a disembodied soul. He went reunited, soul and body. And why? To be made King of kings and Lord of lords.
Another reason: As the High Priest of his people to ever live and make intercession for them in heaven; to receive from the Father the Holy Spirit, that he might send him down upon the earth to baptize his church. In other words, the old Temple was ended, its veil was rent in twain from top to bottom, and the new Temple, his church, set up, and as the old Temple had been anointed, the new Temple was to be anointed. All of which I discuss particularly in Acts of this INTERPRETATION.
How long will he stay up there? He will stay as long as his vicar, the Holy Spirit, works on earth; until all of his enemies have been put under his feet; until the times of the restitution of all things; until after the millennium, when Satan is loosed, and the man of sin is revealed, who is to be destroyed by the breath of the Lord when he comes. He will stay up there until he comes; until the salvation of the last of his people, and no more people are to be saved. As we learn from 2 Peter, he will stay up there until he comes to raise the dead, be married to his people, to raise the wicked dead, to judge the world in righteousness, and then to turn the kingdom over to the Father. You must know that Christ died with a view of taking the place of the sinner, in his stead, the iniquities of the sinner being put on him. He who knew no sin is made sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. By his death he comes in the sinner’s place to satisfy the penal claims of the law, and to propitiate God. That is the Godward side of his death. What is the devilward side of his death? The devilward side is fully presented in the sermon on “The Three Hours of Darkness.” He died that by his death he might destroy the devil that he might overcome him.
So we have gotten to the last voice, and Jesus is dead. The very moment that he died the whole earth shook; it quaked; there was an earthquake; the rocks were rent, the graves were opened, and the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from top to bottom. We are told by some writers that this veil of the Temple was seventy feet long, thirty feet wide, and four inches thick, closely woven, hard woven. Two yoke of oxen could not tear it, and yet the very minute that Christ died, commencing at the top, it split wide open, clear to the bottom, thus signifying that the way into the most holy is open for everybody.
So you see that is the one reason why he went to heaven between his death and his resurrection to open up a new and living way for his saints to follow him where he has forerun has already passed.
The rending of the veil of the Temple signifies that the old Temple is now empty. They can go on if they want to, but they do not offer sacrifices any longer, and if they did God would not recognize them; and in future years it will be destroyed utterly. In A.D. 70 it was destroyed, and there has been none since, and no Jew today ever offers a lamb or a sheep upon any altar. There is an abrogation utterly of the Old Testament economy, i.e., all of the ceremonial part of it.
Among the things that Jesus came back to earth for was to provide a new sabbath for his people. The Mosaic sabbath commemorated the creation the Christian sabbath commemorates redemption, and as God on the seventh day rested from his work of creation, Christ on the first day of the week rested from the work of redemption. His body came out of the grave, and from that time on it was the day upon which his people met to celebrate his resurrection the first day of the week. He himself met them several times upon the first day of the week, during those forty days. On the first day of the week he poured out the Holy Spirit. He ordered that collections be taken that money be laid aside for collection on the first day of the week. We learn that the Lord’s Supper was observed at Troas on the first day of the week; that John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, which is the first day of the week. So he comes to provide a new sabbath for his people. But we will discuss all this later.
While the graves were opened in that earthquake, the bodies lay exposed. Many of the saints whose bodies were lying there came to life, that is, after the resurrection. They lay there exposed three days, but after his resurrection, after he became “the first fruits of them that slept,” these bodies came to life and went into the city and were recognized. Then Jerusalem waked up and looked right into the face of their dead that had been buried but a short time before. Here is what the record says: “And the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised; and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection, they entered into the holy city and appeared unto many.”
These voices, that darkness) that earthquake, that veilrending, that grave-opening, made a profound impression upon those who were there. The centurion, the captain of the hundred, who was conducting a section of the army the officer in charge) whose business it was to see that he was crucified said) “Truly this was the Son of God.” That is the impression it made upon his mind. No such things happened on the death of any other human being; therefore, one of the great French infidels said that Socrates died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ died like a god. The effect upon the women is thus described and here are the very women who organized that first Ladies’ Aid Society: “And there were also women beholding from afar, among them were both Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and Salome: who, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him: and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem.” How were the people affected? “And all the multitudes that came together to this sight, when they beheld the things that were done, returned smiting their breasts.”
Now he is dead, and the next event to notice is, Why he did not hang on the cross longer? This is the explanation, Harmony page 215: “The Jews, therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath (for the day of that sabbath was a high day) asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.” A sabbath did not necessarily mean the seventh day. Any high day could be a sabbath, and the Jews wanted those who were crucified to die soon. A crucified man might linger several days. So Pilate, out of deference to the Jewish law, commanded their legs to be broken, so as to bring about an earlier death. Now, when they came to break the legs of Jesus, to their surprise, he was already dead. There was nothing in the mere physical anguish in the crucifixion to bring about the death of Jesus Christ. He died under the hand of God. He died by the stroke of the sword of the law: “Awake, O sword, against the Shepherd: let him be smitten and let the flock be scattered.” He died of a broken heart, evidenced by the fact that when the soldiers, to make sure that he was dead, ran a spear in his side, behold, water gushed out, an indication, physicians say, of death from heartbreaking. N ow, while he is hanging there, Joseph of Arimathaea, a member of the Sanhedrin, and Nicodemus, another member of the Sanhedrin, who came to Christ by night, obtained permission to take his body down and bury it. They had become disciples. It is a very precious thought to me that that same Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night, and was so puzzled about regeneration, has at last been born again, and become a disciple of Jesus Christ. They had not consented to what the others did in condemning Jesus, so they take him down and wrap his body with spices in a fine linen shroud and put him in a new tomb, belonging to Joseph of Arimathaea; in which no other one has ever lain, and shut him up in a big stone vault. This stone was hewn out like the vaults you see in New Orleans, and some in Waco. It was not a burial by the piling of dirt on him, but it was the placing of him in a rock vault.
QUESTIONS 1. What was the third voice from the cross?
2. What two views prevail on the location of Paradise and to which one does the author hold?
3. What other theory closely connected with “intermediate place” theory?
4. What are the uses of the word “Paradise” in the New Testament?
5. Where is Paradise and how do you prove it from these scriptures and others cited?
6. How long was the darkness over all the land at the crucifixion, and what is the meaning of the word “land” in this connection?
7. How do you prove that this darkness was not an eclipse of the sun?
8. Has the earth ever known such another period of darkness?
9. When and what was the fourth voice from the cross and what was its meaning?
10. What is meant by death, both physical and spiritual?
11. What was the fifth voice and its meaning? Illustrate.
12. What was the sixth voice and what its significance?
13. What was the seventh voice and what its meaning and broad application?
14. What was the last voice from the cross and what was its significance?
15. Briefly, why did Christ’s spirit go immediately to heaven when he died and of what was this act of Christ the antitype?
16. What does Paul say about this?
17. How long was Jesus up there and why did he return?
18. How long did he stay here after his return, and what was he doing while here?
19. Why then did he go back to the right hand of the Father?
20. How long will he stay there and for what will he come back?
21. What great supernatural events attended the death of Christ?
22. Describe the veil of the Temple which was rent in twain at his death and what is the special significance of this great event?
23. Explain the opening of the graves and the coming forth of the saints.
24. Who were present at the crucifixion and what was the effect on each class?
25. Why did not Christ hang on the cross longer, what caused his early death and what the proof?
26. Who took Jesus down from the cross, where did they bury him and what the manner of his burial?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
27 And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left.
28 And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.
29 And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days,
30 Save thyself, and come down from the cross.
31 Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save.
32 Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.
33 And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
Ver. 33. Darkness over the whole land ] Portending doubtless those dreadful calamities that were coming upon this perverse people, according to Isa 5:30 ; Isa 8:22 ; Lam 3:1-2 ; but clearly showing God’s heavy displeasure against his Son, our surety, which made him also cry out with a loud voice in the next verse, as one so far forsaken, as not afforded the common benefit of sunlight.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
33 37. ] SUPERNATURAL DARKNESS. LAST WORDS, AND DEATH OF JESUS. Mat 27:45-50 . Luk 23:44-46 . Joh 19:28-30 . Our account is nearly verbally the same with Matt.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mar 15:33-36 . Darkness without and within (Mat 27:45-49 , Luk 23:44-46 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mar 15:33 . , : another awkwardness of style variously amended in Mt. and Lk. : on this darkness vide on Mt. Furrer ( Wanderungen , pp. 175 6) suggests as its cause a storm of hot wind from the south-east, such as sometimes comes in the last weeks of spring. “The heavens are overcast with a deep gray, the sun loses his brightness, and at last disappears. Over the darkened land rages the storm, so that the country, in the morning like a flower-carpet, in the evening appears a waste. On the saddest day in human history swept such a storm at noon over Jerusalem, adding to the terrors of the crucifixion.”
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mar 15:33-39
33When the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” 35When some of the bystanders heard it, they began saying, “Behold, He is calling for Elijah.” 36Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink, saying, “Let us see whether Elijah will come to take Him down.” 37And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last. 38And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
Mar 15:33 “the sixth hour” If Jewish time is used, this would be twelve o’clock noon. See note at Mar 15:1.
“darkness fell over the whole land” This is one of the OT judgment signs, either in a covenantal sense (i.e., one of the Egyptian plagues, cf. Exo 10:21; Deu 28:28-29) or an apocalyptic sense (cf. Joe 2:2; Amo 8:9-10; Zep 1:15). This was a symbol of God the Father taking His presence away from His Son, who bore the sin of all humanity. This is what Jesus feared most in Gethsemane (symbolized by “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” in Mar 15:34). Jesus became a sin offering and bore the sin of all the world (cf. 2Co 5:21). He experienced personal separation from the Father. Darkness was a physical symbol of God the Father turning away from His Son.
Mar 15:34 “at the ninth hour” If Jewish time is used, this was three o’clock in the afternoon.
“‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me'” This is a quote from Psa 22:1. Since the Jewish scrolls had no chapter and verse divisions (all of which were added to Bible texts in the middle ages), it seems that by quoting the first verse, Jesus wanted to highlight the entire Psalm.
There is a difference of scholarly opinion on how this phrase should be translated
1. The Septuagint has “O God, My God, attend to me” (which happens in the Psalms)
2. The Peshitta (translated by George M. Lamsa) has
a. Psa 22:1, “My God, my God, why hast thou let me live?”
b. Mar 15:34, “My God, my God, for this I was spared!”
3. The Jewish Publication Society of America has, Psa 22:1 as “My God, my God, why have You abandoned me?”
4. Codex Bezae (fifth century) has “My God, my God, why have you reviled me?” For a full discussion of the Gnostic problems connected to this verse see Bart D. Ehrman’s The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Affect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament, pp. 143-145.
Jesus was experiencing the last full measure of human sinseparation from fellowship with the Father (cf. Isa 54:2). Humans were created for fellowship with God; without it we can never be whole!
Mar 15:34-35 “He is calling for Elijah” Jesus and the Apostles (and all Jews in Palestine of the first century) spoke Aramaic. Mark, writing to Romans, always translates these Aramaic phrases, which Peter remembered so well. In Aramaic Elijah is Elia. The Aramaic phrase is also recorded in Mat 27:46. This is the most startling phrase Jesus cried from the cross. He felt alienated from the Father. Elijah was traditionally the prophet who would come in times of trouble and before the Messiah (cf. Mal 3:1-6; Mal 4:4-6), therefore, the bystanders thought Jesus was praying for him to come help Him.
One of my favorite authors is F. F. Bruce. In his book Answers to Questions, p. 65, he mentions an article in the Palestine Exploration Quarterly, Jan. – April, 1951, by Alfred Guillaume, which notes that the suffix “my” is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls as iya. When Jesus said, “My God,” the form would be Eliya, which is pronounced very close to Elijah’s name. This may explain why the bystanders misunderstood Jesus’ words.
Mar 15:36 “with sour wine” This was the cheap wine that the populace and soldiers drank. This may relate to Psa 22:15. Jesus was so dry that He needed a drink to help Him speak the last few words from the cross (cf. Joh 19:28-30).
“put it on a reed” The reed was used to reach His mouth. Giving a drink to crucified persons was not an act of compassion, but a way to prolong life and agony.
“‘Let us see whether Elijah will come to take Him down'” This was not from compassion, but the desire to see a sign (cf. Mat 27:47-48).
Mar 15:37 “a loud cry” Joh 19:30 tells us He said, “It is finished!” This word has been found written across business documents in the Koine Greek papyri from Egypt. It apparently was a commercial term that meant “paid in full” (i.e., Isaiah 53).
Mar 15:38 “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” There were two curtains to the inner shrine of the Temple, one in the Holy Place and a second before the Holy of Holies. If the second was ripped no one would have seen it except the priests, unless the first one was regularly pulled back and tied to the sides. These curtains are described in Exo 26:31-37. In Jesus’ day, in Herod’s remodeled Temple, this curtain was 60′ by 30′ and about 4″ thick! If the outer one was ripped all worshipers in the different outer courts would have seen it. This seems to show that the way to intimate fellowship with God has been reestablished by God at Christ’s death (cf. Gen 3:15; Exo 26:31-35). In Mat 27:51-53 other miracles are recorded as attesting signs.
Mar 15:39 “a centurion” This was the rank of a low-level Roman military officer. It literally means “a leader of one hundred.” These men were the backbone of the Roman army. Cornelius in Acts 10 is also a centurion. Mark is written to evangelize Romans!
“Truly this man was the Son of God” This is literally “this man was a son of God.” However the absence of the article does not automatically mean it is not definite (cf. Mat 4:3; Mat 4:6; Mat 14:33; Mat 27:43; and Luk 4:3; Luk 4:9). This was a hardened Roman soldier. He had seen many men die (cf. Mat 27:54). This may be “the focal passage” of Mark because this Gospel was specifically written to Romans. It has many Latin words and very few OT quotes. Also Jewish customs and Aramaic phrases are translated and explained. Here is a Roman centurion professing faith in a crucified Jewish insurrectionist!
It is possibly theologically purposeful that passers by, chief priests, and even fellow prisoners mock Jesus, but the Roman centurion responds in affirmation and awe!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the sixth hour of the day. (Joh 11:9.) From sunrise: i.e. noon. See note on Mar 15:25, and App-165.
was = became.
over. Greek. epi. App-104.
the ninth hour. The hour of offering the evening sacrifice: i.e. 3pm. So that the darkness was from noon till 3pm. See App-165.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
33-37.] SUPERNATURAL DARKNESS. LAST WORDS, AND DEATH OF JESUS. Mat 27:45-50. Luk 23:44-46. Joh 19:28-30. Our account is nearly verbally the same with Matt.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mar 15:33-41
17. THE DARKNESS AND THE END
Mar 15:33-41
(Mat 27:45-56; Luk 23:44-49; Joh 19:28-30)
33 And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.–The sixth Roman hour, the hour of noon. Luke says, “About the sixth hour.” Three o’clock in the afternoon. From one prayer hour to the other, not to be specified to the minute; about three hours. The darkness was certainly over all the land of Judea. All the attempts made to explain and identify this darkness with some event in secular history are so much wasted time. [At 12 o’clock, at its meridian splendor, the sun was darkened. This was doubtless an expression of horror on the part of God at the enormity of the crime that was committed in crucifying Jesus. He, too, was the light of the world, the Son of righteousness, to give light to the world. This was a significant declaration that the light of the world was put out in the death of Jesus. It began at twelve and continued until the ninth hour, or three o’clock. “Over the whole land” refers to the land of Judea, as such an expression is never applied to the whole world. The light went out in his death to appear in greater splendor and glory by his resurrection.] Out of Golgotha’s darkness came the world’s light.
34 And at the ninth hour–Matthew says: “Until the ninth hour.” Only Matthew and Mark relate the following incident.
Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?–Pronounced by some a mere exclamation of agony; a human sense of abandonment to death. [As the darkness is about to pass away, Jesus utters a loud cry, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” This is Hebrew, and means, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” As the weakness of death comes on he feels God has forsaken him, and in distress he makes the cry. It seems to indicate a feeling of this kind. He was forsaken and betrayed by man. This he could bear, as man is weak, frail, and blind. But now he feels the support of God is withdrawn, and he asks, Why, what have I done that thou hast forsaken me? He could bear the treason, the denial, the forsaking of his chosen apostles–they were ignorant, weak, frail–but 0, my God, what have I done that thou hast forsaken me?]
35 And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elijah.–[Some, not understanding the Hebrew, now greatly fallen into disuse, misled by the similarity of sounds, said, “He calleth Elijah.” They imagined he was seeking help from Elijah. It would have been an indication of divine favor if God had sent some one from the spiritland to aid him, they thought.]
36 And one ran, and filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let be; let us see whether Elijah cometh to take him down.–[John (Joh 19:28) says: Jesus “saith, I thirst.” This was done in kindness to quench a thirst that rages under such suffering. He had refused the vinegar and myrrh in the beginning. He now receives this. Others said, “Let be; let us see whether Elijah cometh to take him down.” The miraculous powers that Jesus had shown through life, the wonders of nature that now transpired, seem to have brought them to half expect and apprehend some supernatural display to deliver Jesus and bring ruin to them. Yet it did not lead them to believe in him.]
37 And Jesus uttered a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. –[Jesus commended the keeping of his spirit to God, then yielded it up to him. Jesus was dead. He died to save men. The next verse says the veil of the temple, that separated the outer court from the holy of holies, was rent asunder–torn from the top to bottom. Matthew (Mat 27:51-53) adds: “The earth did quake; and the rocks were rent; and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised; and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared unto many.” John (Joh 19:26-27) relates one occurrence while he was on the cross that has been passed over: “When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold, thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold, thy mother! And from that hour the disciple took her unto his own home.” This shows the deep and strong love he bore to his mother that could make him forget the sufferings of the cross to provide a home of love and comfort for her in her declining years. Let it be remembered that all these sufferings and indignities were borne by Jesus with the knowledge that he could speak the word and twelve legions of angels would come to his deliverance. He failed to seek the deliverance because his deliverance from death would leave man a helpless and lost sinner without a way of escape from ruin. He bore it all out of love to man. His love for man was so deep and strong that he found more joy in the crown of thorns and the cross with the way open for man’s redemption than he found on the throne of God with the way for man’s redemption closed.]
38 And the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom.–This veil between the holy and most holy places was torn, and exposed to view the most holy place. This was done by supernatural agency.
39 And when the centurion, who stood by over against him, saw that he so gave up the ghost,–Captain of a hundred, commanding the quaternions of soldiers who had crucified Jesus and the robbers. Matthew makes this clearer and includes the other soldiers: “When they saw the earthquake and the things that were done, feared exceedingly.” When they saw that he died so speedily, and amid such surroundings of sublimity.
he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.–The centurion beholding the wonderful occurrences, the sudden darkness and light, the earthquakes, the rending of the rocks and tombs was impressed with the truth of Jesus’ claims to be the Son of God.
40 And there were also women beholding from afar;–Matthew says: “Many women were there beholding from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him.” (Mat 27:55.) They witnessed the scene from some place as near as they could approach. In their devotion these women watched him to the last, and two of them (verse 47) continued after he died and saw where they buried him.
among whom were both Mary Magdalene,–Mary of Magdala. She had a real cause, peculiar to that of others, of attachment to Jesus, having been relieved by him of a most dreadful calamity, and restored to her right mind, after being possessed by seven devils. (Mar 16:9.)
and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses,–Probably the wife of Cleopas, or Alpheus. (Joh 19:25.) She witnessed with Mary Magdalene, the burial of Jesus. (Verse 47.) “James the less,” literally, the little, but used in a comparative sense, meaning the younger, to distinguish him from James the son of Zebedee.
and Salome;–“The mother of the sons of Zebedee,” mentioned by Mat 27:56. She is also regarded by some as “his mother’s sister” of Joh 19:25. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is not mentioned, as she had probably gone away with John, overwhelmed with sorrow (Luk 2:35), soon after she was committed to his care. (Joh 19:25-27.)
41 who, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;–To his wants from their own substance. (Luk 8:3.) While multitudes of men joined in the cry, Crucify him, and forsook him in his trying moments, it does not appear that any of his female followers were thus unfaithful. In the midst of all his trials, and all the contempt poured upon him, they adhered to the Savior.
and many other women that came up with him unto Jerusalem.–Their names are not given. They also witnessed the scene.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
CHAPTER 73
What convinced him?
And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 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? And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down. And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.
(Mar 15:33-39)
What convinced that battle hardened soldier, a man who had probably slaughtered multitudes with steel-hearted coldness, what convinced this Roman centurion that the man he executed on that dark, dark day was the Son of God? Let me show you what he saw on that day of mans infamy, the day of Gods glory, when the Son of God suffered the wrath of God in the place of men and women who were the enemies of God.
Let me show you seven extraordinary miracles which took place when the Son of God was made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Here are seven miracles of Calvary. Six of them, if not all seven, were witnessed and carefully observed by the centurion. They convinced him that Jesus of Nazareth, with whose blood he was covered, is himself the Son of God.
The Midday Darkness
And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour (Mar 15:33). Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell us of this phenomenal darkness at midday, when the sun was miraculously turned into darkness for three hours. This noon-day darkness was predicted by Amos as an indication of Gods judgment upon the Jewish nation for despising and rejecting his Word (Amo 8:9).
Still, ungodly men appear in every age who try to explain away the miraculous things revealed in the Book of God. They tell us that this just could not have happened and did not happen, that it was just an exaggeration on the part of the Lords disciples, that it was only meant to teach spiritual lessons, or that it was an ordinary solar eclipse. But none of those cows will fly.
The report was given by divine inspiration and given by honest men. It was at the time of the Jews passover, which was always held during the full moon. In the 2nd century Tertullian asserted that this extraordinary midnight darkness at midday was reported and recorded by heathen chronologers and historians in the ancient archives of Rome. John Gill, commenting on Mat 27:45, refers to one Dionysius the Areopagite, who saw this great darkness over the earth in Egypt and wrote, Either the Divine Being suffers, or suffers with him that suffers, or the frame of the world is dissolving.
Without question, these three hours of darkness, which engulfed the earth from twelve noon until three oclock in the afternoon, are intended to teach us many things. Let me point out just a few things that are obvious upon the very surface. Certainly, these three hours of darkness are intended to display in the most convincing manner possible Gods abhorrence of sin. When Gods own Son was made to be sin for us, when God the Son was forsaken by God the Father as our Substitute, God turned out all the lights of heaven to show his abhorrence of sin.
The darkness that covered the earth that day was symbolic of the darkness and blindness of divine judgment upon fallen men. When God takes away the light, men cannot see. When God sent blindness upon the Jews, they kept all their religious ceremonialism, religious books, and religious customs; but they have no light to this day.
And this darkness was emblematic of the darkness engulfing our Saviors soul when he was made sin and endured the wrath of God for us. It was at the end of these three hours of darkness, at three oclock in the afternoon that our Savior cried out, My God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken me? This took place just as the Jews were offering up their daily sacrifice at the very time when the paschal lamb was slain. Both of these were eminent types of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, whose very soul was engulfed in the darkness of Gods holy wrath and fierce justice.
The Rent Veil
And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom (Mar 15:38). Both Matthew and Mark were inspired to tell us specifically that the temples veil was ripped apart from the top to the bottom, not from the bottom to the top. It did not just wear out at this particular time. God almighty ripped it open!
This was not just a heavy curtain; it was a thick, thick veil, separating the holy of holies from the holy place. It was at least 40 cubits (60 ft.) in length! No one was allowed to go behind this thick, thick veil, except the high priest. He went in only on the day of atonement, and, even then, only with the blood of the paschal lamb. There he sprinkled the blood upon the mercy-seat and made a typical, ceremonial atonement for Israels sins.
Can you imagine the shock, the horror which must have seized the emptied-handed priest who was in the temple when this happened? For more than four hundred years the Jewish priests had faked the ordinances of God. Five things that were central to the worship of God in the typical dispensation were never found in the temple at Jerusalem after the Babylonian Captivity: (1.) The Ark of the Covenant, (2.) The Mercy-seat, (3.) The Urim and Thummim Lights and Perfections, (4.) The Continually Burning Fire on the Altar, and (5.) The Shechinah. All these things find their fulfillment in Christ, who is the great Glory of the House of God. When the veil was rent apart, the exposed hypocrisy of the empty-handed priest in the holy of holies, with no ark and no mercy-seat upon which to sprinkle the blood of the paschal lamb, must have been shocking.
The rending of that veil displayed in the most vivid way possible the complete fulfillment and abolition of the entire Mosaic economy. The law was now totally fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ for us. All its types, all its requirements, all its purposes were fulfilled by our Substitute. Christ is the end of the law (Rom 10:4). To try to re-establish the law, the priesthood, altars, sacrifices is nothing short of idolatry. It is an attempt to undo the work of Christ and sew up the ripped veil! Such an evil must not be tolerated.
That veil represented the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. When the veil was rent, it meant that the true Paschal Lamb had now been offered and accepted by God for the redemption of his people (Heb 9:7-12). When he entered into heaven with his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for his people, the veil was ripped apart. The God-mans precious blood opened the way for sinners to come to God (Heb 10:12-22).
The Earth Quaked.
Matthew tells us that when the veil of the temple was ripped apart, the earth quaked. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent (Mat 27:51). This earthquake was a token of God anger, wrath and judgment against the nation of Israel because of their evil works (Amo 8:7-8; Psa 18:7). And it was an emblem of the shaking and removing of Judaism (Heb 12:26-27).
Rent Rocks
Next, we read in Mat 27:51 that the rocks rent. This rending of the rocks certainly implies the terrible fury of Gods holy wrath. In fact, the Prophet Nahum uses similar expressions to describe God wrath (Nah 1:5-6). What a warning God gives to sinners with every token of his displeasure! These were special, miraculous tokens of judgment upon the Jewish nation and of judgment to come. But every time God sends an earthquake, tornado, flood, tidal wave, or hurricane, he is warning you of the fury of his wrath!
But the rending of the rocks may also represent something gracious. It may speak of the conversion of Gods elect by the preaching of Christ crucified. As the result of Christs death, by the merit of his precious, sin-atoning blood, God the Holy Spirit breaks hard, stony-hearted sinners, takes away the heart of stone, and gives them tender hearts of flesh. John the Baptist once said, God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham (Mat 3:9).
Though the hearts of his elect are as hard as an adamant stone (Zec 7:12), the Lord God graciously breaks the hard heart with the Saviors blood and raises up children unto Abraham from Gentile stones Act 2:37-42).
Opened Graves
In Mat 27:52 we read, And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose. John Gill wrote, This was a proof of Christs power over death and the grave. By dying, he through death destroyed him that had the power of it, and abolished death itself. He became the plague of death and the destruction of the grave, and took into his hands the keys of hell and death.
A Resurrection
Not only were the graves opened, Matthew tells us that after our Lords resurrection there was a miraculous resurrection of many of Gods saints.
And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
(Mat 27:51-53)
We are not told who they are, so I will not guess; but many of the saints came out of their graves in resurrection bodies, just after the Lord Jesus did, walked the streets of Jerusalem, and were seen of many. This, too, was predicted in the Old Testament. It was written in Isa 26:19, Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
The resurrection of these saints, by virtue of Christs atonement, was Gods declaration that atonement was indeed made (Rom 4:25). And these resurrected saints stand as the pledge of our resurrection.
A Miracle of Mercy
I do not know whether the centurion witnessed the resurrection of these saints or not; but there is one more miracle he did witness, by which he was convinced that the crucified Substitute was indeed the Son of God. He witnessed that miracle of mercy described in Luk 23:39-43.
And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
What a picture that is of Gods rich, free, matchless grace in Christ! Here is a condemned criminal against whom no condemnation can stand, a rebel reconciled to God, a thief transformed into a saint, and a sinner saved by free grace to the soul satisfaction of a dying Savior! This mans conversion is a picture of ours (Eph 2:8-9).
And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. (Joh 20:30-31)
Convinced of this one thing am I,
And to the mocking crowd,
With the amazed centurion cry,
THIS IS THE SON OF GOD!
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
when: Mar 15:25, Mat 27:45, Luk 23:44, Luk 23:45
darkness: Psa 105:28, Isa 50:3, Isa 50:4, Amo 8:9, Amo 8:10
Reciprocal: Exo 10:21 – darkness Exo 12:6 – the whole Psa 18:9 – darkness Psa 25:16 – for I Jer 4:28 – the heavens Mat 20:5 – sixth Luk 21:25 – signs Joh 19:14 – the sixth Rev 6:12 – the sun Rev 8:12 – and the third part of the sun
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Chapter 21.
The Death
“And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 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? And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, He calleth Elias. And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave Him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take Him down. And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And when the centurion, which stood over against Him, saw that He so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.”-Mar 15:33-39.
Mark remains faithful to his habit of conciseness and brevity even in his account of the Lord’s dying. There were several things of moving and pathetic interest which happened in the interval between the third hour when they nailed Jesus to the Cross, and the sixth hour with which this paragraph begins. But Mark passes them over in silence. The one thing he is concerned about is that men should contemplate the actual dying of the Lord, and that in that death they should see not a martyrdom, but the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God’s love. And so without staying to notice the events that happened by the way, he passes swiftly to that tremendous hour of crisis when having borne our sin and the curse of it, the Lord gave up the ghost.
The Darkness.
“When the sixth hour was come,” he says, that is when it was broad noon by the time of day, instead of being broad noon, it was more like midnight, for “there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.” It was not the darkness of eclipse. It may have been nothing more than the darkness of a brooding storm, as Dr David Smith suggests. There is nothing in the narrative to suggest it was miraculous or supernatural. The evangelists make no suggestion as to how the darkness was caused, they simply record the fact, that for three long hours Jerusalem and the whole land as far as eye could see was enveloped in murky gloom. But the fact that they record the darkness at all shows this, that they felt there was some relation between the darkness of nature and the dark deed that was being perpetrated upon the Cross. It was as if nature went into mourning for the death of Christ. Milton giving the reins to his poetic fancy pictures the earth as hushed and still and expectant when Jesus was born. That is mere imagination. But it is simple historic fact that nature dressed herself in habiliments of woe when Jesus died. The people mocked at the victim, the priests taunted Him and jeered at Him, but nature hid her very face for shame. Nature sympathised with God; shared in the sorrow of God, “There was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.”
Darkness and the Man of Sorrows.
The darkness was not only in nature. There was darkness also in the soul of Christ. For at the ninth hour the Lord cried with a loud voice saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is being interpreted, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Now this darkness that overwhelmed the soul of Christ is an infinitely more amazing and awful thing than the darkness which covered the face of the land. For usually our Lord lived in the sunshine. Outwardly it is true Jesus’ life was hard and rough and troubled enough. He had few of what we call the comforts of life. He was born into a poor home. At an early age He had to address Himself to the hard and wearing toil of the carpenter’s shop. He earned His bread in the sweat of His face. As a man His poverty clung to Him. He had not where to lay His head; He was dependent upon the kindness of friends for His support. And He had other trials to bear beside those which are incidental to poverty. He was a lonely man because He was a misunderstood man. The people at large misunderstood Him, at one time in mistaken enthusiasm wanting to take Him and make Him King, and at another in their fury wanting to kill Him out of hand. His disciples misinterpreted Him, and with the deeper purposes of His soul showed scanty sympathy; His own kinsfolk thought Him mad; while as for the leaders of the nation-the priests, the scribes, the elders-they had pursued Him almost from the first with malignant and relentless hatred.
-Who was also the Man of Joy.
I agree that, as far as its external conditions went, it is hard to conceive a stormier and more troubled life than that of Jesus. And yet, to say that Christ’s was an unhappy life would be to give an entirely false impression. He was not simply the Man of Sorrows. He was also the Man of Joy. He lived in the sunshine. He rarely or never talked of His sorrow. What He talked about was His joy. “His joy” was the bequest He wished to leave to His disciples. When “His joy” was in them there would be nothing left to wish for; perfect satisfaction and content would be theirs, their joy would be fulfilled. And the secret of our Lord’s happiness, the source of this deep and abiding joy was His consciousness of the Father’s presence and smile. Between Him and the Father there was constant and unbroken communion. You remember how the sense of this uninterrupted fellowship finds expression again and again in His speech. “I am not alone, the Father is with Me.” “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me.” “I and My Father are one.” No matter what our Lord’s outward circumstances might be, He knew that the Father’s smile was resting upon Him. No matter though the priests and people reviled Him, He could always hear His Father say, “Thou art My beloved Son.”
“Why hast Thou?”
But now, on the Cross, at this sixth hour, His soul was overwhelmed with deep night. He felt Himself bereft of His Father’s fellowship. He missed the shining of His Father’s face. He bore the pain of the nails, and the mockery of the people, and the taunts of the priests without a murmur. But when for a moment God’s face was hidden from Him He broke out into this lamentable and heartbroken cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
The Cry on the Cross.
Now, this brokenhearted cry of our dying Lord is almost too sacred a thing to discuss and analyse. And discuss and analyse it as we may we shall never perhaps fully understand the desolation of soul that called it forth. The mystery of the Cross is in this cry. And while we may get glimpses into the meaning of the Cross, we are constrained to confess that there are heights and depths in it that still out-top our knowledge. If I dwell on our Lord’s bitter cry, it is not because I think I can completely explain it. It will suffice to point out some of the elements of the deep and measureless sorrow which evoked it, and to repudiate some false and cruel theories which have been built on the foundation of this cry.
-Not a Cry of Bodily Weakness.
The words themselves, as you all know, are quoted from the first verse of the twenty-second Psalm. On the lips of the Psalmist they form little more than the complaint of a lonely and deserted man. But there is a depth of meaning in them as Christ used them, that the Psalmist who first uttered them knew nothing about. What did they mean on the lips of Christ? First of all, we can dismiss absolutely the idea that the cry was wrung from Him by fear of death. Christ never feared the physical fact of death. As a matter of history, the victims of this cruel punishment of crucifixion longed and cried and prayed for death. Death to them was not a foe but a friend, bringing them relief from intolerable agony and pain. Nor was it a case of a soul clouded by bodily weakness. In the extremity of weakness and pain faith sometimes faints and fails. But Christ was not in the extremity of bodily weakness. His mind was not clouded. He was in the possession not only of all His faculties but of a large amount of physical strength when He actually died. Christ’s death was not the death of one whose vitality was exhausted. He cried with “a loud voice” just before He gave up the ghost. The people could not believe that He really was dead. Pilate could not believe it when they told him. The fact is, Christ did not die as other men die. While vitality was strong within Him He laid down His life of Himself.
-Nor of Remorse.
Again, I entirely repudiate the suggestion that this is the cry of “infinite remorse which Christ suffered as being the chief Sinner in the universe, all the sins of mankind being upon Him.” To speak of Christ, even when we think of Him as the representative Man, as being the “chief Sinner in the universe” is perilously near blasphemy. And to attribute remorse to Christ is to attribute to Him a feeling of which He knew absolutely nothing. How could One Who knew no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth, know “remorse”? Moreover, the very form of the cry in itself puts this explanation clean out of court. This is not the cry of One Who felt Himself the chief of sinners, this is the cry of One conscious of His own innocence. Christ was unconscious of any reason for desertion. That is what overwhelmed and astonished Him. “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
-Nor drawn out by “The Wrath of God.”
I will have just as little to say to that other explanation which declares that Christ on the Cross was enduring the “wrath of God” even though it comes to us backed by the authority of the Shorter Catechism. Accepting this explanation, certain theologians have spoken of God as hating Christ to the uttermost. But this too is something like blasphemy. It was in obedience to the Father’s will that He hung and suffered there. To say that God was angry with Christ because He gave this final proof of His obedience, because He became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross, is to sacrifice the character of God. As a matter of fact, “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself” (2Co 5:19). Christ was His beloved Son at the Baptism when He took up His redeeming mission, He was His beloved Son at the Transfiguration when He faced and accepted the Cross, but He was most truly God’s beloved Son when He actually hung upon the Cross and in obedience to the Father’s will, and to further His Father’s redeeming purpose, made that last and final and uttermost sacrifice of Himself. “For this,” He said Himself, “doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life.”
-But as the Cry of the Sin-Bearer.
What then is the explanation of this exceeding bitter cry? I find my clue to its meaning in the way in which Christ identified Himself with men. He became bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. He took hold upon the seed of Abraham. He was made in all things like unto His brethren. He entered our family and became our Elder Brother. But it was a sinful family He entered, and He, the one pure member of it, took the sin of the whole family upon His own heart as if it was His own. He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, and the Lord laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. The Elder Brother did no sin, but He felt the shame and pain of His brother’s sins. They sinned, and in His own pure soul He felt the guilt. As Paul puts it, “Him Who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf” (2Co 5:21). Now one bitter and inevitable result of sin is this, it separates between a man and God. The sinner feels like Cain, “cast out from the presence of the Lord.” Sin like a black and threatening cloud hides from man the shining of God’s face.
Now, Christ so realised our sin that for the time He shared in that awful doom of sin and His fellowship with the Father was arrested. So long as He had His Father, nothing mattered. But to be robbed of His Father’s fellowship was very death to Christ. And yet He submitted to it, because it was thus that redemption was to be won. It was not that God had withdrawn His face or was angry with the Son Who was doing His will. It was that these crowding sins of ours hid the vision of God’s face. “It needed not,” as Dr David Smith says, “the Father’s displeasure that He might lose the sense of the Father’s presence.”
But God is near in the Darkness.
I find a blessed and helpful truth suggested in this. God may be near to us when we seem to have lost sight of Him. We have our occasional bright and sunny days when we can say, “The Lord is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” But there come to us also days of darkness when our enemies mock at us and say, “Where is now thy God?” when we ourselves are tempted to think that God has clean cast us off, and to cry with our Lord, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Our prayers seem to go unanswered, and the heavens are as brass to our appeal. At such times it will comfort us to remember our Lord on the Cross. He too felt homeless and forsaken, and yet the Father knew and was at hand. It may be just like that with us. In the darkest hour He may be near. When we fear that He has forgotten us, He may be thinking upon us for our good. He can never forsake those that trust in Him.
After the Anguish the Triumph.
But note that though apparently forsaken, though enveloped in darkness, Christ says, “My God, My God.” Here is superb and subduing trust. He trusted God in the deep night. When He could not see Him, He still clung to Him. He was “my God” through it all. Here is the veritable triumph and climax of faith, to believe in God when we cannot see Him: to trust where we cannot trace. No soul is ever lost that out of its darkness and despair can still cry, “my God.” Follow our Lord’s story. Anguish gave place to triumph. “It is finished,” is the Lord’s cry. “Father,” He said, “into Thy hands I commend My spirit.” And so it will be with us. If in the night we still cling to Him and say, “My God,” the joy of assurance and recovered vision will come in the morning. Only a short time elapsed, when Jesus “crying with a loud voice” (showing that death was not due to exhausted vitality) gave up the ghost.
No death like this.
Other men die because their hour is come and they cannot help it. But Jesus, while life still beat strongly within Him, gave up the ghost. He of His own free will laid His life down. There was never dying in the world’s history like this. “Truly,” said the Centurion, “this Man was the Son of God.” It was not the mere suddenness of the dying at the last that impressed him, but the whole circumstances of it-His answer to the dying thief, His prayer for His enemies, His meekness, His moral majesty. This pagan soldier had seen nothing like it. “If the death of Socrates was that of a sage,” Rousseau said, “that of Jesus was the death of a God.” Can we say less than that? At the foot of the Cross, let us make our confession, “Truly this was the Son of God.” And believing that Jesus was none other than the Son of God, let us rejoicingly believe that He offered for sin the “one full perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.”
Fuente: The Gospel According to St. Mark: A Devotional Commentary
3
This mixture is explained in the comments at Mat 27:34.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
WE have in these verses the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. All deaths are solemn events. Nothing in the whole history of a man is so important as his end. But never was there a death of such solemn moment as that which is now before us. In the instant that our Lord drew His last breath, the work of atonement for a world’s sin was accomplished. The ransom for sinners was at length paid. The kingdom of heaven was thrown fully open to all believers.-All the solid hope that mortal men enjoy about their souls, may be traced to the giving up the ghost on the cross.
Let us observe, in these verses, the visible signs and wonders which accompanied our Lord’s death. Mark mentions two in particular, which demand our attention. One is the darkening of the sun for the space of three hours. The other is the rending of the veil which divided the holy of holies from the holy place in the temple. Both were miraculous events. Both had, no doubt, a deep meaning about them. Both were calculated to arrest the attention of the whole multitude assembled at Jerusalem. The darkness would strike even thoughtless Gentiles, like Pilate and the Roman soldiers. The rent veil would strike even Annas and Caiaphas and their unbelieving companions. There were probably few houses in Jerusalem that evening in which men would not say, “we have heard and seen strange things to-day.”
What did the miraculous darkness teach? It taught the exceeding wickedness of the Jewish nation. They were actually crucifying their own Messiah, and slaying their own King. The sun himself hid his face at the sight.-It taught the exceeding sinfulness of sin in the eyes of God. The Son of God himself must needs be left without the cheering light of day, when He became sin for us and carried our transgressions. [Footnote: It is almost unnecessary to remark, that the darkness which covered the heaven on the day of the crucifixion, could not possibly have been occasioned by an eclipse of the sun, because the passover was always held at full moon. It is evident that the darkness was miraculous, and caused by some special interference with the course of nature.]
What did the miraculous rending of the veil mean? It taught the abolition and termination of the whole Jewish law of ceremonies. It taught that the way into the holiest of all was now thrown open to all mankind by Christ’s death. (Heb 9:8.) It taught that Gentiles as well as Jews might now draw nigh to God with boldness, through Jesus the one High Priest, and that all barriers between man and God were for ever cast down.
May we never forget the practical lesson of the rent veil! To attempt to revive the Jewish ceremonial in the Church of Christ, by returning to altars, sacrifices, and a priesthood, is nothing better than closing up again the rent veil, and lighting a candle at noon-day.
May we never forget the practical lesson of the miraculous darkness! It should lead our minds on to that blackness of darkness which is reserved for all obstinate unbelievers. (Jud 1:13.) The darkness endured by our blessed Surety on the cross was only for three hours. The chains of darkness which shall bind all who reject His atonement and die in sin, shall be for evermore.
Let us observe, secondly, in these verses, how truly and really our Lord Jesus Christ was made a curse for us, and bore our sins. We see it strikingly brought out in those marvelous words which He used at the ninth hour, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
It would be useless to pretend to fathom all the depth of meaning which these words contain. They imply an amount of mental suffering, such as we are unable to conceive. The agony of some of God’s holiest servants has been occasionally very great, under an impression of God’s favor being withdrawn from them. What then may we suppose was the agony of the holy Son of God-when all the sin of all the world was laid upon His head-when He felt Himself reckoned guilty, though without sin-when He felt His Father’s countenance turned away from Him? The agony of that season must have been something past understanding. It is a high thing. We cannot attain to a comprehension of it. We may believe it, but we cannot explain and find it out to perfection.
One thing, however, is very plain, and that is the impossibility of explaining these words at all, except we receive the doctrine of Christ’s atonement and substitution for sinners. To suppose, as some dare to do, that Jesus was nothing more than a man, or that His death was only a great example of self-sacrifice, makes this dying cry of His, utterly unintelligible. It makes Him appear less patient and calm in a dying hour than many a martyr, or even than some heathen philosophers. One explanation alone is satisfactory. That explanation is the mighty scriptural doctrine of Christ’s vicarious sacrifice and substitution for us on the cross. He uttered His dying cry, under the heavy pressure of a world’s sin laid upon Him, and imputed to Him.
Let us observe, lastly, in these verses, that it is possible to be forsaken of God for a time, and yet to be loved by Him. We need not doubt this, when we read our Lord’s dying words on the cross. We hear Him saying to His Father, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” and yet addressing Him as “my God.” We know too, that our Lord was only forsaken for a season, and that even when forsaken He was the beloved son in whom, both in His suffering and doing, the Father was “well pleased.”
There is deep experimental instruction in this, which deserves the notice of all true Christians. No doubt there is a sense in which our Lord’s feeling of being “forsaken” was peculiar to Himself, since He was suffering for our sins and not for His own. But still after making this allowance, there remains the great fact that Jesus was for a time “forsaken of the Father,” and yet for all that was the Father’s “Beloved Son.” As it was with the Great Head of the Church, so it may be in a modified sense with His members. They too, though chosen and beloved of the Father, may sometimes feel God’s face turned away from them. They too, sometimes from illness of body, sometimes from peculiar affliction, sometimes from carelessness of walk, sometimes from God’s sovereign will to draw them nearer to Himself, may be constrained to cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
It becomes believers who feel “forsaken,” to learn from our Lord’s experience not to give way to despair. No doubt they ought not to be content with their position. They ought to search their own hearts, and see whether there is not some secret thing there which causes their consolations to be small. (Job 15:11.) But let them not write bitter things against themselves, and hastily conclude that they are cast off for ever, or are self-deceivers, and have no grace at all. Let them still wait on the Lord, and say with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” (Job 13:15.) Let them remember the words of Isaiah and David, “Who is among you that feareth the LORD-that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.” “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him.” (Isa 50:10. Psa 42:11.)
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Mar 15:33. The sixth hour. The form of the verse, as well as the connection, shows that our Lord had already hung for some time upon the cross (see Mar 15:25).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Mar 15:33-38. When the sixth hour was come For an explanation of this paragraph, see notes on Mat 27:45-53. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? In these words, Jesus claims God as his God; and yet laments his Fathers withdrawing the tokens of his love, while he bare our sins.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
CXXXIII.
THE CRUCIFIXION.
Subdivision C.
DARKNESS THREE HOURS. AFTER FOUR MORE SAYINGS,
JESUS EXPIRES. STRANGE EVENTS ATTENDING HIS DEATH.
aMATT. XXVII. 45-56; bMARK XV. 33-41; cLUKE XXIII. 44-49; dJOHN XIX. 28-30.
c44 And it was now about the sixth hour, b33 And a45 Now bwhen the sixth hour was come, there was ca darkness came aover all bthe whole land afrom the sixth hour buntil the ninth hour. c45 the sun’s light failing [The darkness lasted from noon until three o’clock. It could not have been an eclipse, for the moon was always full on the first day of the passover. Whether the darkness was over the whole world, or simply all of Palestine, is uncertain, as, according to the usage of Bible language, the words would be the same]: b34 And at {aabout} the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli {bEloi, Eloi,} lama sabachthani? which is, {athat is,} [729] bbeing interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? [We can imagine what it would mean to a righteous man to feel that he was forsaken of God. But the more we feel and enjoy the love of another, the greater our sense of loss at being deprived of it. Considering, therefore, the near and dear relationship between the Son and Father, it is evident that we can never know or fathom the depth of anguish which this cry expressed. Suffice it to say, that this was without doubt the most excruciating of all Christ’s sufferings, and it, too, was a suffering in our stead. The words of the cry are found at Psa 22:1. Eli is Hebrew, Eloi Aramaic or Syro-Chaldaic for “My God.” The former would be used by Jesus if he quoted the Scripture, the latter if he spoke the language of the people.] 35 And some of them that stood by, {athis man} when they heard it, said, bBehold, he {athis man} calleth Elijah. d28 After this Jesus, knowing that all things are now finished, that the scripture might be accomplished, saith, I thirst. 29 There was set there a vessel full of vinegar: a48 And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with {band filling a sponge full of} vinegar, aand put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. dso they put a sponge full of the vinegar upon hyssop, and brought it to his mouth. bsaying, {a49 And the rest said,} Let be; let us see whether Elijah cometh bto take him down. ato save him. [Jesus had now been upon the cross for six hours, and fever and loss of blood and the strain upon the muscles of his chest had rendered his articulation difficult and indistinct. For this reason some of those who stood by, though perfectly familiar with the language, misunderstood him and thought that he called upon Elijah. Immediately afterwards Jesus speaks of his thirst, and vinegar is given to him to remove the dryness from his throat. Those who give the vinegar and those who stand by, unite in saying “Let be.” This phrase has no reference to the vinegar; it is a general expression, meaning, “Let us do nothing to prevent him from calling upon Elijah, or to prevent Elijah from [730] coming.”] b37 And d30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, aJesus cried again with {buttered} a loud voice, dhe said, It is finished [He had come, had ministered, had suffered, and had conquered. There now remained but the simple act of taking possession of the citadel of the grave, and the overthrowing of death. By his righteousness Jesus had triumphed in man’s behalf and the mighty task was accomplished]: c46 And Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit [ Psa 31:5]: and having said this, dhe bowed his head, and gave up {ayielded up} bthe ghost. ahis spirit. [None of the Evangelists speaks of Jesus as dying; for he yielded up his spirit voluntarily– Joh 10:18.] 51 And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two cin the midst. bfrom the top to the bottom. [The veil was the heavy curtain which hung between the holy and the most holy places in the sanctuary. By shutting out from the most holy place all persons except the high priest, who alone was permitted to pass through it, and this only once in the year, it signified that the way into the holiest–that is, into heaven–was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was standing ( Heb 9:7, Heb 9:8). But the moment that Jesus died, thus making the way manifest, the veil was appropriately rent in twain from top to bottom, disclosing the most holy place to the priests who were at that time offering the evening incense in the holy place.] aand the earth did quake; and the rocks were rent; 52 and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared unto many. [The earthquake, the rending of the rocks, and the consequent opening of the graves, occurred at the moment Jesus died, while the resurrection and visible appearance in the city of the bodies of the saints occurred “after his resurrection,” for Jesus himself was the “first-born from the dead” ( Col 1:18). Matthew chooses to mention the last event here because of its association with the rending of [731] the rocks, which opened the rock-hewn sepulchres in which the saints had slept. There has been much speculation as to what became of these risen saints. We have no positive information, but the natural presumption is, that they ascended to heaven. These resurrections were symbolic, showing that the resurrection of Christ is the resurrection of the race– 1Co 15:22.] b39 And when the centurion, who stood by awatching Jesus, bover against him, saw that he so gave up the ghost, asaw the earthquake, and the things that were {cwhat was} done, he glorified God, saying, {bhe said,} cCertainly this was a righteous man. a54 Now the centurion, and they that were with him feared exceedingly, saying, Truly this bman was the Son of God. [The conduct of Jesus upon the cross and the disturbances of nature which accompanied his death convinced the centurion that Jesus was a righteous man. But knowing that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, and this claim was the real cause for which the Jews were crucifying him, he concludes, since he concedes that Jesus is righteous, that he is also all that he professed to be–the Son of God. There is no just reason for minimizing his confession, as though he had said, “A son of the gods;” for he said nothing of that kind, and those err as to the use of Scriptural language who think so. Like the centurions of Capernaum ( Mat 8:10) and Csarea ( Act 10:1, Act 10:2), this Roman surpassed in faith those who had better opportunities. But in this faith he was not alone.] c48 And all the multitudes that came together to this sight, when they beheld the things that were done, returned smiting their breasts. [The people who had acted under the influence of the priests now yielded to superior influences and began to experience that change of sentiment which led so many to repent and confess Christ at Pentecost.] 49 And all his acquaintance, a55 And many women balso awere there beholding cthe women that {awho} had followed cwith aJesus from Galilee, ministering unto him: cstood afar off, abeholding from afar, cseeing these things. bamong [732] whom were both Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; athe mother of the sons of Zebedee. b41 who, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him; and many other women that came up with him unto Jerusalem. [John has already mentioned this group of women (see Act 16:29). The synoptists, who make mention of the women toward the close of the crucifixion, do not mention the mother of Jesus as any longer among them. It is likely that she had withdrawn with John, being unable longer to endure the sight. As to the ministering of these women, see p. 297, 298.]
[FFG 729-733]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
JESUS EXPIRES AMID THE DARKNESS
Luk 23:44-46; Joh 19:28-30; Mar 15:33-37; Mat 27:45-50. And from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Infidelity has ransacked astronomy to find a total solar eclipse at this time and thus account for the darkness. If you will think of one fact you will see the utter folly of such an effort. You know it was the time of the Jewish Passover, which always took place at the full moon of our April. You know this is a time when a solar eclipse is utterly impossible, as the moon is in the east and the sun is in the west, the eclipse necessarily taking place when they are both on the same side of the earth, as the moon must come between the earth and the sun in order to produce the eclipse. Luk 23:45 : And the sun was darkened. This settles the matter against the hypothesis of an eclipse, as the sun is not darkened in that case, but shining as brightly as if no intervening object casts a dark shadow on the earth. The revelation sustains the conclusion that the sun himself actually refused to shine.
He dies, the Friend of sinners dies! Lo, Salems daughters weep around! A solemn darkness veils the skies, A sudden trembling shakes the ground. Come, saints, and drop a tear or two For Him who groaned beneath your load: He shed a thousand drops for you
A thousand drops of richest blood.
Mat 27:46-49 : About the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a great voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Thus the darkness, prevailed from twelve to three oclock, when our Lord expired with these words. A momentous crisis right here culminates, leading us down into the profoundest depths of the redemptive scheme.
He made Him sin who knew no sin, in order that we may be the righteousness of God in Him. (2Co 5:21.)
In this wonderfully terse statement of the vicarious atonement, be sure you recognize the fact that sin in both clauses is a noun. If you take it for a verb, you ruin the passage. In the Greek, you see on a glance that it is a noun in both instances; but not so in English, which is a loose, unmechanical language, splendid for universal use, but really unfit for a Divine revelation. Consequently, God in mercy made the intensely mechanical Greek, in order to reveal His wonderful truth to the world in such an explicit presentation that human ingenuity: can never evade its legitimate meaning. While Jesus knew no sin i. e., was always perfectly sinless and holy, God made Him sin as a substitute for a guilty world. E. V. gives it to be sin, as you see, italicizing to be, showing thereby that it is not in the original, which is true. To be is objectionable, too much savoring the idea that Jesus in some way had sin in Him, which is utterly incorrect and unsustained by the Scripture. I trow, this moment, when God turned His face away from Him, was the identical crisis when He laid on Him the sins of the whole world, and the above Scripture was verified.
God can not look upon sin under any circumstances; hence when He laid the sins of the whole world on His Own Son, He turned His face away from Him, when the humanity cried out as above. You see here that sin and righteousness are antithetical and coextensive, all sin being laid on Jesus and all the world receiving the righteousness of God i. e., being justified in Him this taking place in infancy, and explaining the fact of universal infantile salvation. This is also the sinners hope. As Jesus carried all of his sins on the cross, he has nothing to do but forsake all, receive the righteousness of God by faith, and become a disciple of our Lord.
And certain ones of those standing by hearing, said, He is calling for Elijah. As they did not understand the Hebrew word Eli, taking the sound, they mistook it for Elijah. And immediately one of them, running, and taking a sponge, and filling it with vinegar, putting it on a reed, gave Him drink. And the rest said, Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah is coming to save Him. They all knew well that Elijah never died, but was translated to heaven alive. Therefore, looking upon him as still alive, and thinking that Jesus was calling him, they did not know but he would ride down from heaven on his fiery chariot, as he had gone up from the land of Moab many centuries ago.
Luk 23:46. Calling with a great voice, Jesus said, Father, into Thy hands I will commit My spirit. And saying these things, He expired. Matthew and John say, He gave up His spirit; i. e., the human spirit left the body, going into Hades as above described, proclaimed His victory in hell, meeting the thief and all the Old Testament saints in the intermediate paradise, and returned the third morn, when He re-entered His body. As Jesus is both man and God, He has a perfect human soul and body, like Adam before he fell. O what a time the soul-sleeping heresy has with plain and unmistakable Scriptures like these, showing positively that Jesus had a human soul, which He gave up when He died, and it returned to His body in the resurrection, as they are under the necessity either to abandon their false doctrine or prove that Jesus had no soul, which you see flatly contradicts the Word of God, as here given! I hope, reader, if you have a creed of any kind you will throw it away, and take the Bible for your only guide. If your creed is true, you do not need it, as the Bible includes it; if untrue throw it away, lest it lead you to hell.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
THE DEATH
33 And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 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? 35 And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. 36 And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down. 37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. 38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. 39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.
The term translated “reed” here is the same word used of the people beating Christ with a reed giving good evidence that it was more than a small reed but more on the order of a staff or cane. The man lifted up the spunge with the reed, which would require some strength as well as length to lift the heavy sponge up to the Lord.
The people thought that He was calling for Elias or Isaiah to come and save Him from the cross. This was simply a comment to His Father in His time of pain and loneliness. Just what is meant by “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” is much discussed in theology classes across the nation and world, but there is no definitive answer to the question. Let us see what different men have said of the phrase.
Wesley: “Thereby claiming God as his God; and yet lamenting his Father’s withdrawing the tokens of his love, and treating him as an enemy, while he bare our sins.”
Henry also follows the thought that the sin of the world was upon the Lord at this point making Christ feel as though abandoned. He puts it this way: “Because in this especially he was made sin for us; our iniquities had deserved indignation and wrath upon the soul (Rom 2:8), and therefore, Christ, being made a sacrifice, underwent as much of it as he was capable of; and it could not but bear hard indeed upon him who had lain in the bosom of the Father from eternity and was always his light. These symptoms of divine wrath, which Christ was under in his sufferings, were like that fire from heaven which had been sent sometimes, in extraordinary cases, to consume the sacrifices (as Lev 9:24; 2Ch 7:1; 1Ki 18:38); and it was always a token of God’s acceptance. The fire that should have fallen upon the sinner, if God had not been pacified, fell upon the sacrifice, as a token that he was so; therefore it now fell upon Christ, and extorted him from this loud and bitter cry.”
I think there is a bit of error mixed into Henry’s comments such as “as he was capable” indicates Christ took upon Himself all that He could stand – however He took upon Himself all that was due, every whit of it, not just what He could stand to take. He suffered for the sins of the world in total not in part.
Gill waxes eloquent on the subject but does not really give us the answers we seek. He suggests that this was the Lord human speaking not the divine. This may be but this is not clear from the Scripture.
The Lord human was definitely not separated from the Lord divine, the statement was related to God the Father being separated from Him. Gill relates this to the separation of the lost from God in Hell. That is of interest, but does not really relate because the lost will still see separation from God in Hell. The Christian was saved from this fate, so not sure why you would need Christ separated from God the Father even if it were possible within the Godhead which it is not.
This was Christ (both human and divine) speaking. Had God forsaken Him in the sense that we understand it? Was there a separation between the Son and the Father? Both seem rather impossible as we understand the Trinity.
We need to understand this within the context of Christ being totally God and totally man, not two entities tied up in one container. He was both at once, not both at different times or some blended mix of some sort.
Clarke mentions: “Some suppose “that the divinity had now departed from Christ, and that his human nature was left unsupported to bear the punishment due to men for their sins.” But this is by no means to be admitted, as it would deprive his sacrifice of its infinite merit, andconsequently leave the sin of the world without an atonement. Take deity away from any redeeming act of Christ, and redemption is ruined. Others imagine that our Lord spoke these words to the Jews only, to prove to them that he was the Messiah. “The Jews,” say they “believed this psalm to speak of the Messiah: they quoted the eighth verse of it against Christ – He trusted in God that he would deliver him; let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
(See Mat 27:43). To which our Lord immediately answers, My God! my God! etc , thus showing that he was the person of whom the psalmist prophesied.” I have doubts concerning the propriety of this interpretation.”
He also presents the thought that the words might be interpreted slightly differently to produce a different conclusion to the words of the Lord. “The words, taken in this way, might be thus translated: My God! my God! to what sort of persons hast thou left me? The words thus understood are rather to be referred to the wicked Jews than to our Lord, and are an exclamation indicative of the obstinate wickedness of his crucifiers, who steeled their hearts against every operation of the Spirit and power of God. See Ling. Brit. Reform. by B. Martin, p. 36.
“Through the whole of the Sacred Writings, God is represented as doing those things which, in the course of his providence, he only permits to be done; therefore, the words, to whom hast thou left or given me up, are only a form of expression for, “How astonishing is the wickedness of those persons into whose hands I am fallen!” If this interpretation be admitted, it will free this celebrated passage from much embarrassment, and make it speak a sense consistent with itself and with the dignity of the Son of God.” He continued to support my thought that there is no possibility of a division within the Godhead thus there must be a different meaning to the text and I would heartily concur. His explanation seems to be the better of all options read to this point in time.
Barnes submits the usual line of thought which this author has been taught through reading and classes over the years. This line of thinking has never really given me a proper understanding of the text whereas Clarkes thinking seems more the logical. I will allow the reader their own struggle with understanding this text.
“Eli, Eli … – This language is not pure Hebrew nor Syriac, but a mixture of both, called commonly “Syro-Chaldaic.” This was probably the language which the Saviour commonly spoke. The words are taken from Psa 22:1.
“My God, my God … – This expression is one denoting intense suffering. It has been difficult to understand in what sense Jesus was “forsaken by God.” It is certain that God approved his work. It is certain that he was innocent. He had done nothing to forfeit the favor of God. As his own Son – holy, harmless, undefiled, and obedient – God still loved him. In either of these senses God could not have forsaken him. But the expression was probably used in reference to the following circumstances, namely:
“1. His great bodily sufferings on the cross, greatly aggravated by his previous scourging, and by the want of sympathy, and by the revilings of his enemies on the cross. A person suffering thus might address God as if he was forsaken, or given up to extreme anguish.”2. He himself said that this was “the power of darkness,” Luk 22:53. It was the time when his enemies, including the Jews and Satan, were suffered to do their utmost. It was said of the serpent that he should bruise the heel of the seed of the woman, Gen 3:15. By that has been commonly understood to be meant that, though the Messiah would finally crush and destroy the power of Satan, yet he should himself suffer “through the power of the devil.” When he was tempted Luk 4:1-44, it was said that the tempter “departed from him for a season.” There is no improbability in supposing that he might be permitted to return at the time of his death, and exercise his power in increasing the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. In what way this might be done can be only conjectured. It might be by horrid thoughts; by temptation to despair, or to distrust God, who thus permitted his innocent Son to suffer; or by an increased horror of the pains of dying.
“3. There might have been withheld from the Saviour those strong religious consolations, those clear views of the justice and goodness of God, which would have blunted his pains and soothed his agonies. Martyrs, under the influence of strong religious feeling, have gone triumphantly to the stake, but it is possible that those views might have been withheld from the Redeemer when he came to die. His sufferings were accumulated sufferings, and the design of the atonement seemed to require that he should suffer all that human nature “could be made to endure” in so short a time.
“4. Yet we have reason to think that there was still something more than all this that produced this exclamation. Had there been no deeper and more awful sufferings, it would be difficult to see why Jesus should have shrunk from these sorrows and used such a remarkable expression. Isaiah tells us Isa 53:4-5 that “he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows; that he was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; that the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him; that by his stripes we are healed.” He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us Gal 3:13; he was made a sin-offering 2Co 5:21; he died in our place on our account, that he might bring us near to God. It was this, doubtless, which caused his intense sufferings. It was the manifestation of God’s hatred of sin, in some way which he has not explained, that he experienced in that dread hour. It was suffering endured by Him that was due to us, and suffering by which, and by which alone, we can be saved from eternal death.”
There is much discussion relating to the work of the Lord on the cross. Some suggest that He suffered what we suffered had we gone to hell; however there is no real proof of this. He saved us in some manner from that fate, however it is not stated that He took our punishment upon Himself. Indeed if the picture of the Old Testament sacrifice is related to the Lord’s own we see that the lamb did not suffer the fate of the saint, it only died and shed its blood, which in fact the Lord Jesus Christ did for each one of us. He died and His blood was shed, no more is required of the Lord to save us.
Others point to the fact that the Lord went into hell to suffer our punishment – no there is no indication of this. He died in our place, He shed His blood for atonement, but there is no indication that He suffered hell for us. Just a point of logic, how could one suffer millions of eternities in hell for all mankind in a few hours in the grave? The requirement for sin was the sacrifice of another – an animal in the Old Testament, and God in the case of the New Covenant – this is clear in the book of Hebrews. The emphasis is on the shedding of blood, not suffering torment for the saint.
Did He suffer on our behalf? Definitely, in beatings, in humiliation and in death, but He did not suffer the fires of hell for an eternity so that I would not have to. As I type these thoughts the general teaching on this subject over the years seems more and more polluted. It is clear that we have been misled and it is quite possibly due to the misinterpretation of the Lord’s words in this text.
Let us list some items and see if we can gain some overall understanding of the work on the cross.
There is the fallen nature often called the sin nature. There is the death physical that was part of the curse upon Adam. There is spiritual death. There is the second death. There is suffering in hell. There is atonement. There is Christ’s death. There is Christ’s shedding of blood.
Just how do all of these items relate to one another? Let us see if we can work through these one at a time and relate them to one another if they are indeed related.
THERE IS THE FALLEN NATURE OFTEN CALLED THE SIN NATURE. This in my mind was dealt with at the cross for all of mankind. All Old Testament people died and went to Abraham’s bosom (often called Sheol) according to Luk 16:1-31. Christ took the saints out of this location after His work on the cross indicating that the Old Testament saints were not complete in their salvation in some manner. I would relate this to their lack of regeneration a work of the Spirit that could not take place until the provision of the cross. Their salvation was completed at the cross so that they could go to be with God after that completed work.
The fact that the Old Testament lost were in the same location as the saints, though in a separated area, indicates that they were in similar circumstance – they were not yet ready for eternity indicating that they also awaited the work of the cross in some manner. This would be that eternality of nature that the work of Christ did on the cross.
Chafer once said something along the line that Christ did everything to make us as if Adam had not fallen. I believe that this is correct. This work of the cross gave all of mankind the same possibility of benefit, though some would accept the completion of that work via salvation and others would reject it.
It would be my contention that the cross work gave all mankind eternal existence, though the quality of that existence would be based upon their belief or non-belief in God. We see in theRevelation that all areas will be emptied into the Lake of Fire that final resting-place of the Devil and his own. This is in the context of the Great White Throne Judgment. Rev 20:14 “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
Another reference to this is found in the same book a tad later and lists some of the types of people involved clearly showing lost souls. Rev 21:8 “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
Since the saint does not have a part in this second death we must assume that is one of the items covered in the work of the cross. Since this second death is to the spirit of the lost person and the saint has no part in that death, then one of the benefits of the cross and our belief in Christ is to avoid the second death.
Now let us move on to the point of the sin nature. This would seem to be that which would keep one from eternal existence. Since the lost were retained in a holding pattern with the saints would indicate a purpose. If they were to be lost/annihilated they would have been gone in a flash at the time of their death. Instead they were retained in Abraham’s bosom for some purpose. They are still retained there awaiting the Great White Throne Judgment.
Thus post cross the lost today when they pass into death automatically have eternal existence though that existence will be most miserable.
The question is do they have the lost nature in this life? It would seem quite so, though they can shed it with simple belief and acceptance of God and His Word as do the saints which claim the work of the cross. Another way of looking at this is that they are by nature lost.
The loss of the old nature or sin nature at the point of salvation seems quite clear when Paul mentions 2Co 5:17 “Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” “New creature” seems quite definite. It mentions new creature, not a mixture of an old creature and a new creature into a new/old creature, but a NEW CREATURE. Rom 6:6 also mentions “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Either we are crucified with Him or we are not. We are free to serve Him totally, though none will choose this path of operation due to our self-centered bent to please our own desires rather than His.
We are free of that old nature. Take a simple illustration. Nature means that which makes up the item. If you take a glass of milk it has a nature that makes it milk. If you stir in some poison you no longer have an item that has the nature of milk, you have an item that has the nature of poisoned milk. You do not have a container partially filled with milk and partially filled with poison. In man how can we understand that before salvation we have a fallen nature totally corrupt, then we are made new by salvation – how can you logically or Biblically understand this to mean that God added a new nature to your being while leaving the old. We are not a containerwith an old nature and a new nature; we are a “new creation.” We as to nature are new, not a mixture of new and old. The work of the cross either changed us completely or it did not.
Either we are made just as Adam was before he fell or we are not. A mixture that wars between its natures is totally illogical and in my mind unbiblical. If you would like further study on this read my work on regeneration and if you reject my thinking then offer a better answer to the questions that my thinking answers so fully.
There is the death physical that was part of the curse upon Adam. Now this one is not so clear. Adam fell and part of the curse was physical death. If Chafer is correct then are we not free from this “first death” that he gained due to his sin? Are we to understand that he would have lived forever had he not fallen? No, there was located in the garden the tree of life. If he would have lived forever why would there be a tree of life to eat from? He was facing physical death over time, but his physical death that was part of the curse seems to have been a quicker much more eminent and guaranteed death. Had he failed to eat of the tree of life he would have died it would seem.
Now we have mentioned that Chafer said that we were made to be as Adam before he fell. Notice in the book of Revelation when is says in Rev 22:2 “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, [was there] the tree of life,” and in 22.14 “Blessed [are] they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life , and may enter in through the gates into the city.” It seems that we will have the same access as Adam did before he fell.
THERE IS SPIRITUAL DEATH. Spiritual death is that final “second death” that the lost must enter into. It is the eternal state of the lost. It is the horrible state of the dead that Michelangelo depicted in the Sistine Chapel. If you have time go onto the Internet and search for the work and take some time to just study it and consider the ramifications of what the man portrayed. It depicts the horror of the lost spirits being ferried to hell in boats. It is not a pretty picture and might even help you to realize just what it was that Christ did for you on the cross.
This is wrapped up in the tree of life and the death that was pronounced upon Adam and Eve. They were removed from the tree of life so were bared from further physical life and the change in their nature guaranteed their part in the spiritual/second death to come.
THERE IS THE SECOND DEATH. This is covered in the section just prior.
THERE IS SUFFERING IN HELL. This is the result of the spiritual/second death. It is described as darkness, fire, loneliness and not pleasant conditions. The Lord pictures it when He referred to the Jerusalem City dump, which was constantly ablaze. His listeners knew when He spoke of hell that it was going to be worse than being cast onto the city dump and suffering for eternity.
Some suggest that this is not eternal, that it is only a temporary place of purification or that it only pictures the final annihilation of the being. These are great theories, which might bring comfort to some, but they are not Biblically based.THERE IS ATONEMENT. Some suggest that this is “at one ment” or that it is an act on the part of one that brings two back together. Man and God were going different directions, but with the work of the cross man could once again face God face to face – based on belief. The cross brought the possibility of man and God facing one another to a reality if only the man would accept the work of Christ.
In Exo 29:35 the term is used of purifying the alter. There is a part of atonemenet that makes one pure and ready to face God and it also allows God to turn to that which is pure. Exo 30:15 speaks of the people bringing money to atone for their souls. Exo 32:30 ff speaks of atonement in relation to sin and Moses asks God to blot him out of His book if the Lord will not forgive the people.
Moses suggests the idea of substition in relation to the people’s sin and consequence. He is willing to be lost for their safety. Christ actually did this for all mankind on the cross.
Rom 5:10 ff speaks to the New Testament concept of atonement. “11 And not only [so], but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. 12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”
The passage is clear that Adam sinned, death came due to that sin, and that death was passed upon all men.
Reconciliation or satisfaction is also the idea of atonement. It is making man right with God though it is based and is conditional upon mans belief.
THERE IS CHRIST’S DEATH.
A good question to begin with is this; did Christ’s death itself accomplish anything for man?
Was it the death, the shedding, or the blood that was the item which brought benefit to man. This, from my understanding, was part of the problem some years ago with one of the popular pastors in our country that submitted that it was the shedding, not the blood itself that was beneficial. In my mind it is semantics, as long as that which was needed was done. Whether the liquid was beneficial or not will take a deeper discussion than we will take on here. Besides, that discussion was done some years ago and probably in a better manner than I could do it.
The requirement of the Old Testament set in the garden was death and shedding of blood. When the first couple sinned they discovered their nakedness and covered themselves. God shortly gave them coverings of skin that was the first shedding of blood to cover the sin of man. The requirement did not change. During the Law the requirement was the same; an animal of perfect condition was to be offered.
We know from the book of Hebrews that this was a temporary remedy for it was not adequate to the requirement, but it allowed the Old Testament believer to have some standing with God even though his salvation was not complete until the cross. Many dispute this concept but to do someans that God had to deficit spend until the cross so that the Old Testament saint could be saved. He had to save them on the basis of what was not yet done.
Some suggest that in God’s mind the cross had happened and that the Old Testament saint was as saved as we are. If you can jump through those illogical entanglements feel free to accept their theories. The Old Testament saint was not complete in their salvation, only made acceptable so that they could enter Abraham’s bosom rather than the nearby place of torments. When the work of the cross was finished the Lord went to Abraham’s bosom and took those saints to be with the Father where we will go when we pass from this life. This is also why the Lord had to “go” before He could send the Spirit. The Spirit could not indwell the souls of men who were not complete before the Father.
Some suggest that Christ must die in our place. Is it the death or the shedding of blood? It would seem death was the requirement in that this was the requirement in of the Old Testament sacrifice. Does the death have some purpose in providing for the saint? It must or it would not have been the requirement.
One point of note is that Adam’s curse, which in part was death, is not immediately related to the death of the sacrifice though linked. Physical death is part of that overall consequence of sin and thus related, but does not make the two equals. The death of the cross was death for all that relates to Adam’s sin and Adam’s physical death is a part of the consequence of his action.
In a sense Christ did overcome the physical death aspect in that He made provision for our resurrection. We still must go through that transition from this life to the next but it is immediate and assured.
THERE IS CHRIST’S SHEDDING OF BLOOD. This was the finished “once for all” sacrifice of God on the cross for mankind. All that will believe will be saved from their lost condition which includes their fallen nature, their past sin, their future sin, their well deserved eternity in hell, and their physical death/resurrection from the grave.
Heb 10:10 declares “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once [for all]. 11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;”
This passage gives us information on two fronts. It was the offering of His body that was efficacious and it was definitely once for all. Be sure to note one time as well as for “ALL.”
“The Calvinist brethren, and I do believe them to be brothers in the Lord even though they would not admit to the reverse of that, can begin to jump through their illogical hoops to get wrapped around the clear word of God. 🙂
It would seem from the context of this passage that it was not only the offering of His body, but later was also the offering of His blood on the heavenly alter that completed this work. There is also clarity that sins, plural were taken care of at the cross. The removal of sin is part of that great doctrine of reconciliation. There is the removal of the sin nature as well as the removal of sins which allows God to turn to man in the giving of salvation.
There is, whether measurable or not, a sequence to the whole of salvation. My theology online deals with the sequence of events. Now, this is not a sequence as the reformed doctrine tells it. They would have us believe that regeneration occurs then sometime in the future the rest of salvation will happen, whenever the person believes. This is partially why many reformers baptize infants. Others suggest that when John the Baptist squirmed in his mother’s womb was the occasion of his regenerated then much later he believed.
Salvation in my mind is in an instant – all of it, yet within that instant there is actually a sequence. Some parts of salvation must occur before others can.
THERE IS FORGIVENESS OF SINS. This occurs when you believe. It is part of the work of the cross – the death and offering of the blood on the heavenly alter. This gains our past forgiveness and assures future forgiveness as we confess our sins according to 1Jn 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The lost on the other hand will answer for their sins, past, present and future as well as pay for their lack of caring for their sin nature by belief. This is indicated when Revelation speaks of them being judged by their works at the resurrection. Their activities will be their judge as to how they will suffer in the Lake of Fire. All are lost, but there seems to be some manner of “according to their works” as well. Much like the believer whose works will be tried by fire to see which are good and which are bad.
BENEFITS/COSTS OF THE CROSS/SALVATION:
FREEDOM FROM THE SECOND DEATH for the saint. ASSURANCE OF THE SECOND DEATH for the lost.
LOSS OF THE OLD NATURE through salvation for the saints. RETENTION OF THE SIN NATURE through rejection of Christ for the lost.
GAIN OF A NEW NATURE FOR THE SAINT. LOSS OF A NEW NATURE FOR THE LOST.
ACCESS TO THE TREE OF LIFE FOR THE SAINT. LOSS OF ACCESS TO THE TREE OF LIFE FOR THE LOST.
EXCUSE FROM THE SECOND DEATH FOR BELIEVERS. ACQUISITION OF THE SECOND DEATH FOR THE LOST.
PROVISION OF SALVATION FOR THE SAINT.CONVIRMATION OF ETERNAL PUNISHMENT FOR THE LOST.
FORGIVENESS OF PERSONAL SIN FOR THE BELIEVER. LACK OF PROVISION FOR THE PERSONAL SIN OF THE LOST.
There were three hours of darkness. This was not a normal occurrence or Mark would not have mentioned it. Matthew, Mark and Luke all record this event and all mention that the darkness was over the land. It might be assumed that all three writers were indicating the land that was involved – Israel, not the surrounding countries however we will see in a moment that this may not be correct.
It would seem that this darkness was somewhat symbolic of the spiritual darkness of the land that had rejected their Messiah. He had come to take them unto Himself in His kingdom but they had rejected His teaching as well as His person. Darkness is the result spiritually and physically. The Jews had sought a sign and now that He had given them one, they still did not catch the implication of this man and His life or death.
Matthew Henry relates this occurrence to Old Testament prophecy. “Now the scripture was fulfilled (Amo 8:9), I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day; and Jer 15:9, Her sun is gone down while it is yet day.”
Gill mentions that he had been on the cross since nine in the morning and that the darkness started at noon and ended at three in the afternoon. He also suggests that this was an extended eclipse of the sun. A total eclipse would do the trick but a normal one would not last three hours. This was a supernatural occurrence whether an eclipse or not.
Gill further suggests that the darkness was over the whole of the Roman empire since there are several mentions of the unexplained darkness recorded by secular historians in the realm. These mentions would indicate that he is correct. He mentions “moreover, it was over all the land, or earth, as the word may be rendered; and the Ethiopic version renders it, “the whole world was dark”; at least it reached to the whole Roman empire, or the greatest part of it; though some think only the land of Judea, or Palestine, is intended: but it is evident, that it is taken notice of, and recorded by Heathen historians and chronologers, as by Phlegon, and others, referred to by Eusebius (d). The Roman archives are appealed unto for the truth of it by Tertullian (e); and it is asserted by Suidas, that Dionysius the Areopagite, then an Heathen, saw it in Egypt; and said “either the, divine being suffers, or suffers with him that suffers, or the frame of the world is dissolving.”
If the darkness was over all the earth, the eclipse theory would not fit, but rather a supernatural darkening of the sun which was obvious over the entire “lighted” portion of the earth.
“And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.” This indicates that Christ gave His life on His terms not the terms of the Romans, Jews or the cross. He gave up the ghost.
“And gave up the ghost” is one Greek word. It is a verb and is in the active voice indicating thatit was Christ’s action of giving. The word relates to breathing out or breathing out your last breath.
Robertson quotes Augustine “”He gave up his life because he willed it, when he willed it, and as he willed it””
Robertson continues with a quote from Stroud relating to the physical cause of the death of Christ – that the loud cry was one of the proofs that Jesus died of a ruptured heart as a result of bearing the sin of the world. (As mentioned prior to this that whether He actually suffered the punishment for our sin or not is not clear.)
The phrase may just mean that He breathed His last. The synoptic Gospels follow the same active voice but all could mean either that He specified the occurrence, or that He simply died. Since throughout the trials and His actions it is clear that He chose the time of his end and there is no need to think that He did not also choose the exact instant of His death. Indeed, this was the hour for the killing of the Passover lamb, thus if he did choose His time – well what irony.
“And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.” Top to bottom would indicate that this was God doing the tearing, not man. At the least this was a picture of the putting away of the Old Covenant and the beginning of the New. Man did not have to access God through the priestly system any longer, but on the other hand had free access to God on His own.
Matthew records that other supernatural things were also going on. There was earthquake rending of rocks as well as the rending of the veil. This was not just the veil that a woman would wear, but was a heavy curtain. You can find more about it in the Old Testament description of the tabernacle.
“And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.” The Centurion must have noticed something remarkable in what is recorded otherwise he would not have made the declaration that he did about the Lord’s son ship.
Some might suggest that the man had no idea what he was saying, that he would have viewed Caesar as God. This might be true but there is no indication that anyone considered Christ a relation to Caesar, nor did Caesar have a “son” as god in the theological sense of Caesar worship.
Matthew records that there were other soldiers with him and it seems all were in agreement as to the son ship of the Lord. It should be assumed that these men had observed the “trials” and had seen the Lord’s actions through it all. This likely was part of their evaluation of the Lord and the truth of His claims.
It is also probable that the men had seen many people on the cross and their deaths. The whole scene may have brought them to the conclusion that the Lord was truly different.It is not of any small note that the Lord’s death had immediate results – the quake, the open graves and the tearing of the veil. We do not know how much of this the soldiers observed, but had they witnessed any of it the impression would be that this was not just another Jew hanging on the cross, but someone special.
Robertson observes that the text could easily be translated “a son of god” rather than “the son of god” indicating that the soldiers realized He was out of the ordinary even though they may not have known just who Christ was.
It is doubtful that they understood Christ to be the son of God as we do, but rather as someone super special, someone that carried Himself in an excellent manner and someone that died an honorable death even though seemingly innocent to them. It would be clear to them that after the fact when they heard of the temple veil and opening of graves that they would have really wondered at who this man really was. Some suggest that the hill of the crucifixion was surrounded by graves of those killed on the crosses of the past. It is quite possible that they observed some of these graves opening.
Just what we should make of the immediate results of the cross might be an interesting study. What else occurred at that moment? Was salvation’s provision beginning in mankind? We know that some items were probably not completed until the Lord offered His blood in the heavenly tabernacle. When this occurred is not known either. It is recorded that He did not want anyone touching Him until He had ascended unto the Father, but what relation that has to the offering in the tabernacle is not clear either.
I would suggest the following sequence, but only as a suggestion for thought.
Death on the cross Quake Rending of the veil Opening of the graves Burial Going into Abraham’s bosom to preach Resurrection Going to the heavenly tabernacle and offering Salvation completed for the Old Testament saint and provided for all others Going to Abraham’s bosom to take the saints to heaven Ascension to sit with the Father
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
15:33 And when the sixth hour was come, there was {6} darkness over the {c} whole land until the ninth hour.
(6) How angry God was against our sins, which he punished in his son who is our sure substitute, is made evident by this horrible darkness.
(c) By this word “land” he means Palestine: so that the strangeness of the wonder is all the more set forth in that at the feast of the passover, and in the full moon, when the sun shone over all the rest of the world, and at midday, this corner of the world in which so wicked an act was committed was covered over with great darkness.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The death of Jesus 15:33-41 (cf. Matthew 27:45-56; Luke 23:44-49; John 19:28-30)
Mark’s account of Jesus’ death included five climactic events: the darkness, two of Jesus’ cries, the tearing of the temple veil, and the Roman centurion’s confession. All of these events happened during the last three of the six hours of Jesus’ sufferings on the cross.
"For the first three of Jesus’ six hours on the cross he suffered in daylight at the hands of humans (Mar 15:21-32). In the darkness of the second three hours He suffered at the hands of God." [Note: Bailey, p. 96.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
All three synoptic evangelists recorded the supernatural darkness that covered all of Judah from 12:00 noon to 3:00 p.m. None of them explained it. They all evidently viewed it as a sign of God’s judgment on Jesus (cf. Isa 5:25-30; Isa 59:9-10; Joe 2:31; Joe 3:14-15; Amo 8:9-10; Mic 3:5-7; Zep 1:14-15). The Father withdrew the light of His presence from His Son during the hours when Jesus bore the guilt of the world’s sins (Isa 53:5-6; 2Co 5:21). Perhaps darkness covered the whole land of Israel because it also symbolized God’s judgment on Israel for rejecting His Son. [Note: Grassmick, p. 189.] The ninth plague in Egypt was a plague of darkness, and it too was followed by the death of the firstborn (Exo_10:22 to Exo_11:9).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER 15:33-41 (Mar 15:33-41)
THE DEATH OF JESUS
“And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, He calleth Elijah. And one ran, and filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave Him to drink, saying, Let be; let us see whether Elijah cometh to take Him down. And Jesus uttered a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And when the centurion, which stood by over against Him, saw that He so gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. And there were also women beholding from afar: among whom were both Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; who, when He was in Galilee, followed Him, and ministered unto Him; and many other women which came up with Him unto Jerusalem.” Mar 15:33-41 (R.V.)
THREE hours of raging human passion, endured with Godlike patience, were succeeded by three hours of darkness, hushing mortal hatred into silence, and perhaps contributing to the penitence of the reviler at His side. It was a supernatural gloom, which an eclipse of the sun was impossible during the full moon of Passover. Shall we say that, as it shall be in the last days, nature sympathized with humanity, and the angel of the sun hid his face from his suffering Lord?
Or was it the shadow of a still more dreadful eclipse, for now the eternal Father veiled His countenance from the Son in whom He was well pleased?
In some true sense God forsook Him. And we have to seek for a meaning of this awful statement — inadequate no doubt, for all our thoughts must come short of such a reality, but free from pervarication and evasion.
It is wholly unsatisfactory to regard the verse as merely the heading of a Psalm, (Psa 22:1-31) cheerful for the most part, which Jesus inaudibly recited. Why was only this verse uttered aloud? How false an impression must have been produced upon the multitude, upon St. John, upon the penitent thief, if Jesus were suffering less than the extreme of spiritual anguish. Nay, we feel that never before can the verse have attained its fullest meaning, a meaning which no experience of David could more than dimly shadow forth, since we ask in our sorrows, Why have we forsaken God? but Jesus said, Why hast Thou forsaken Me?
And this unconsciousness of any reason for desertion disproves the old notion that He felt Himself a sinner, and “suffered infinite remorse, as being the chief sinner in the universe, all the sins of mankind being His.” One who felt thus could neither have addressed God as “My God,” nor asked why He was forsaken.
Still less does it allow us to believe that the Father perfectly identified Jesus with sin, so as to be “wroth” with Him, and even “to hate Him to the uttermost.” Such notions, the offspring of theories carried to a wild and irreverent extreme, when carefully examined impute to the Deity confusion of thought, a mistaking of the Holy One for a sinner, or rather for the aggregate of sinners. But it is very different when we pass from the Divine consciousness to the hearing of God toward Christ our representative, to the outshining or eclipse of His favor. That this was overcast is manifest from the fact that Jesus everywhere else addresses Him as My Father, here only as My God. Even in the garden it was Abba Father, and the change indicates not indeed estrangement of heart, but certainly remoteness. Thus we have the sense of desertion, combined with the assurance which once breathed in the words, O God, Thou art my God.
Thus also it came to pass that He who never forfeited the most intimate communion and sunny smile of heaven, should yet give us an example at the last of that utmost struggle and sternest effort of the soul, which trusts without experience, without emotion, in the dark, because God is God, not because I am happy.
But they who would empty the death of Jesus of its sacrificial import, and leave only the attraction and inspiration of a sublime life and death, must answer the hard questions, How came God to forsake the Perfect One? Or, how came He to charge God with such desertion? His follower, twice using this very word, could boast that he was cast down yet not forsaken, and that at his first trial all men forsook him, yet the Lord stood by him (2Co 4:9; 2Ti 4:16-17). How came the disciple to be above his Master?
The only explanation is in His own word, that His life is a ransom in exchange for many (Mar 10:45). The chastisement of our peace, not the remorse of our guiltiness, was upon Him. No wonder that St. Mark, who turns aside from his narrative for no comment, no exposition, was yet careful to preserve this alone among the dying words of Christ.
And the Father heard His Son. At that cry the mysterious darkness passed away, and the soul of Jesus was relieved from its burden, so that He became conscious of physical suffering; and the mockery of the multitude was converted into awe. It seemed to them that His Eloi might indeed bring Elias, and the great and notable day, and they were willing to relieve the thirst which no stoical hardness forbade that gentlest of all sufferers to confess. Thereupon the anguish that redeemed the world was over; a loud voice told that exhaustion was not complete; and Jesus “gave up the ghost.” [9]
Through the veil, that is to say His flesh, we have boldness to enter into the holy place; and now that He had opened the way, the veil of the temple was rent asunder by no mortal hand, but downward from the top. The way into the holiest was visibly thrown open, when sin was expiated, which had forfeited our right of access.
And the centurion, seeing that His death itself was abnormal and miraculous, and accompanied with miraculous signs, said, Truly this was a righteous man. But such a confession could not rest there: if He was this, He was all He claimed to be; and the mockery of His enemies had betrayed the secret of their hate; He was the Son of God.
“When the centurion saw” . . . “There were also many women beholding.” Who can overlook the connection? Their gentle hearts were not to be utterly overwhelmed: as the centurion saw and drew his inference, so they beheld, and felt, however dimly, amid sorrows that benumb the mind, that still, even in such wreck and misery, God was not far from Jesus.
When the Lord said, It is finished, there was not only an end of conscious anguish, but also of contempt and insult. His body was not to see corruption, nor was a bone to be broken, nor should it remain in hostile hands.
Respect for Jewish prejudice prevented the Romans from leaving Jesus’ body to molder on the cross, and the approaching Sabbath was not one to be polluted. And knowing this, Joseph of Arimathea boldly went in to Pilate and asked for it. It was only secretly and in fear that he had been a disciple, but the deadly crisis had developed what was hidden, he had opposed the crime of his nation in their council, and in the hour of seeming overthrow he chose the good part. Boldly the timid one “went in,” braving the scowls of the priesthood, defiling himself moreover, and forfeiting his share in the sacred feast, in hope to win the further defilement of contact with the dead.
Pilate was careful to verify so rapid a death; but when he was certain of the fact, “he granted the corpse to Joseph,” as a worthless thing. His frivolity is expressed alike in the unusual verb [10] and substantive: he “freely bestowed,” he “gave away” not “the body” as when Joseph spoke of it, but “the corpse,” the fallen thing, like a prostrated and uprooted tree that shall revive no more. Wonderful it is to reflect that God had entered into eternal union with what was thus given away to the only man of rank who cared to ask for it. Wonderful to think what opportunities of eternal gain men are content to lose; what priceless treasures are given away, or thrown away as worthless. Wonderful to imagine the feelings of Joseph in heaven today, as he gazes with gratitude and love upon the glorious Body which once, for a little, was consigned to his reverent care.
St. John tells us that Nicodemus brought a hundred pound weight of myrrh and aloes, and they together wrapped Him in these, in the linen which had been provided; and Joseph laid Him in his own new tomb, undesecrated by mortality.
And there Jesus rested. His friends had no such hope as would prevent them from closing the door with a great stone. His enemies set a watch, and sealed the stone. The broad moon of Passover made the night as clear as the day, and the multitude of strangers, who thronged the city and its suburbs, rendered any attempt at robbery even more hopeless than at another season.
What indeed could the trembling disciples of an executed pretender do with such an object as a dead body? What could they hope from the possession of it? But if they did not steal it, if the moral glories of Christianity are not sprung from deliberate mendacity, why was the body not produced, to abash the wild dreams of their fanaticism? It was fearfully easy to identify. The scourging, the cross, and the spear, left no slight evidence behind, and the broken bones of the malefactors completed the absolute isolation of the sacred body of the Lord.
The providence of God left no precaution unsupplied to satisfy honest and candid inquiry. It remained to be seen, would He leave Christ’s soul in Hades, or suffer His Holy One (such is the epithet applied to the body of Jesus) to see corruption?
Meantime, through what is called three days and nights — a space which touched, but only touched, the confines of a first and third day, as well as the Saturday which intervened, Jesus shared the humiliation of common men, the divorce of soul and body. He slept as sleep the dead, but His soul was where He promised that the penitent should come, refreshed in Paradise.
[9] The ingenious and plausible attempt to show that His death was caused by a physical rupture of the heart has one fatal weakness. Death came too late for this; the severest pressure was already relieved.
[10] I.e. in the New Testament, where it occurs but once besides.