The Fifth Sunday in Lent (GA)

Mark 15:33-39

³³ And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. ³⁴ And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ³⁵ And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” ³⁶ And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” ³⁷ And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. ³⁸ And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. ³⁹ And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

There was darkness over the face of the earth for three hours. There was darkness upon the cross of Christ as he was hanging upon that tree for the forgiveness of all your sins. Jesus Christ suffers in darkness, even as the Sabbath, the day of preparation, is beginning. There is darkness for a prolonged period of time, so that the Light of the World will be destroyed.

There are many people standing out there in the middle of the darkness and not looking at the sky but are focusing on this man dying on the cross. I wonder why people are still going about their daily life. I remember when I was in Middle School and there was Solar Eclipse. Now of course this was predicted and there was like a three-week build up for this event. It lasted all of about 20 minutes in our location. But for those 20 minutes the entire school went outside to experience the event.

It makes me wonder why these people are not focusing on the darkness that is covering the land, but are still focused on the words this man hanging upon the cross suffers and dies. Just think how much special attention the criminals must feel, as the criminals crucified last month didn’t get a second glance. (Or some might argue that punishment of criminals was similar to watching the local sports team success.) But on this day think of all the other important things going on in Jerusalem.

This is the main event. This is the Main Event of the Century, Millennia, All Time. Jesus Christ died upon the cross in the midst of darkness. Jesus Christ was cursed by the Father, so that you can be forgiven all your sins.