No 26

The Miracles of Calvary (Darkness)

This is the first of several studies on the miracles that occurred while Jesus was on the cross. The first one that we will be looking at is the Miraculous Darkness; the gospel of Luc records the following “And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.” (ch 23:44). Jesus had been on the cross for three hours and at noon (sixth hour) darkness blanketed the land. Now we are not sure if the darkness covered only the area of Judea but the Bible says “all the earth”; so we must assume that the darkness was more than local. Perhaps, it was half the earth as it is at night or it could’ve been the whole earth just as the text says. One thing for sure is that this darkness was supernatural. Of course, mid-day darkness is not something that is foreign to anyone on earth; eclipses of the sun occur frequently. But this was not an eclipse as some have said for several reasons. 1) Eclipses last minutes not hours. The longest eclipse on record lasted a few minutes; this darkness lasted for 3 hours. 2) The crucifixion of Jesus occurred during the feast of Passover when the moon is full. It is impossible for an eclipse to occur during a full moon. 3) The darkness began abruptly and ended abruptly.

During the three hours of darkness, the Bible is silent on what transpired in and around the cross. The natural order was not disturbed in any way because the Creator God would not have allowed any disharmony. The reason for the darkness was to draw attention to what was happening – God confirmed the awesome significance of the inconceivable suffering and death of Jesus Christ. It was at the end of the darkness that Jesus cried out as if His sufferings had come to a climax. The gospel of Matthew says “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (27:46). The darkness of Calvary also gave an illustration of the doom of those who were perpetrating the act and for us who are on this side of the cross, we are confronted with heinousness of our sins.