- [Narrator] Mark 15:33-39
is where the final moments of Jesus' life
are written for us to read.
His journey to the cross has been fraught with agony,
and He has been neglected, mocked,
insulted, humiliated, and tortured.
Now, as He hangs on the cross,
Jesus breathes His last breath.
Mark 15:33,
"And when the sixth hour, about midday, had come,
there was darkness over the whole land
until the ninth hour," about 3:00.
There was thick darkness over the whole land.
Now the scripture was fulfilled, Amos 8:9
Amos 8:9, Amplified Bible,
"'It shall come about in that day,' says the Lord God,
'that I shall cause the sun to go down at noon,
and I shall darken the earth in broad daylight."
The people have often demanded of Christ a sign from heaven,
and now they had one,
but such a one has signified the blinding of their eyes.
At this point in the afternoon, it would be 12:00,
and the darkness would continue until the ninth hour,
which would be 3:00.
This otherworldly darkness appeared
when the sun was shining the brightest.
Because the moon was now full,
it couldn't have been created by an eclipse,
because the moon can't intervene
between the earth and the sun when it's full.
This darkness was undoubtedly brought about
by God's prompt intervention.
Phlegon of Tralles gives a description of it.
Eusebius quotes extensively from Phlegon,
who claims that, in the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad,
a large and extraordinary eclipse of the sun occurred,
surpassing any that had previously occurred.
"At the sixth hour,
the day was turned into the darkness of night
so that the stars were seen in the heaven,
and there was a great earthquake in Bithynia,
which overthrew many houses in the city of Nicaea."
Phlegon attributes the darkness which he describes
to an eclipse,
which was natural enough for him to do.
Astronomy knowledge was rudimentary at the time.
Phlegon also mentions an earthquake,
and this puts his story in very close alignment
with the sacred narrative,
the same purpose as Saint Chrysostom.
"The creature could not bear the wrong done to its creator.
Therefore, the sun withdrew his rays,
that he might not behold the deeds of the wicked."
The darkness occurring at such a critical moment
can signify several things.
First, darkness was associated with antiquity,
with mourning.
Jeremiah 4:27-28, Amplified Bible,
"'Therefore,' says the Lord,
'the whole land shall be a desolation.
Yet I will not cause total destruction.
For this reason, the earth shall mourn,
and the heavens above shall become dark.
Because I have spoken, I have decided,
and I will not change my mind or relent,
nor will I turn back from it.'"
Someone once commented that, while He was suffering,
all the worlds suffered with Him
for the sun was darkened.
That is, the darkness can mean that Jesus's death
brought the sun to lamentation.
Darkness was also associated with the death of great men.
Both gentile and Jewish readers could understand darkness
as a cosmic sign that's accompanied the death of a king.
In addition, darkness was a sign of God's judgment.
Isaiah 13:9-13, Amplified Bible,
"Listen carefully.
The day of the Lord is coming,
cruel with wrath and raging anger,
to make the land a horror of devastation,
and He shall exterminate its sinners from it,
for the stars of heaven and their constellations
will not flash with their light.
The sun will be dark when it rises,
and the moon will not shed its light.
In this way, I will punish the world for its evil
and the wicked for their wickedness,
their sin, their injustice, their wrongdoing.
I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud
and will abase the arrogance of the tyrants.
I will make mortal man more rare than fine gold
and mankind scarcer than the pure gold of Ophir.
Therefore, I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will shake from its place
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts."
Mark 15:34, "And at the ninth hour,
Jesus cried with a loud voice,
saying, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani?'"
Which is, being interpreted,
"My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?"
- My God. - Throughout His life,
Jesus endured a great deal of grief and suffering,
both physically and emotionally,
but He was never separated from His Father in any way.
Now, He was aware of it.
At this time, there was a significant sense
in which Jesus had every reason
to feel as though God the Father had abandoned Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21, Amplified Bible,
"He made Christ, who knew no sin,
to judicially be sin on our behalf,
so that in Him, we would become the righteousness of God."
That is, we would be made acceptable to Him
and placed in a right relationship with Him
by His gracious, loving kindness.
Jesus not only endured the withdrawal
of the Father's fellowship,
but also the actual outpouring
of the Father's wrath upon him
as a substitute for sinful humanity.
Horrible as it was,
it fulfilled God's good and loving plan of redemption.
Isaiah 53:10-12,
"Yet the Lord was willing to crush Him,
causing Him to suffer.
If He would give Himself as a guilt offering,
an atonement for sin, He shall see His spiritual offspring.
He shall prolong His days,
and the will, good pleasure of the Lord
shall succeed and prosper in His hand.
As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He shall see it and be satisfied
by His knowledge of what He has accomplished,
the righteous one.
My servant shall justify the many, making them righteous,
upright before God in right standing with him,
for He shall bear responsibility for their sins.
Therefore, I will divide and give Him a portion
with the great kings and rulers,
and He shall divide the spoils with the mighty.
Because He willingly poured out His life to death
and was counted among the transgressors,
yet He Himself bore and took away the sin of many
and interceded with the Father for the transgresses."
A classic poem from "Throned Upon the Awful Tree"
by John Ellerton in 1875 states,
"Throned upon the awful tree,
king of grief, I watch with thee.
Darkness veils thine anguished face,
none its lines of woe can trace.
None can tell what pangs unknown
hold thee silent and alone.
Silent through those three dead hours,
wrestling with the evil powers,
left alone with human sin, gloom around thee and within,
'til the appointed time is nigh,
'til the lamb of God may die."
Mark 15:35,
"Some of the bystanders heard Him and said,
"Look, He is calling for Elijah."
Verse 35 mentions those who waited around the cross
despite the eerie darkness.
The darkness would certainly add
to the dreadfulness of the situation.
Unfortunately, Jesus was misunderstood
and derided to the end.
These spectators at the cross
knew just enough of the Bible to get it really wrong,
and they speculated wildly,
thinking that Elijah might come and rescue Jesus.
As Jesus hung on the cross,
His listeners misunderstood him
by taking part for the whole.
He said, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"
Not only did they get wrong what they heard,
Jesus said Eloi, not Elijah,
but they also only heard one word of what He said.
One of the first things we learned about Jesus
was that He was wildly misunderstood.
When Joseph and Mary left Him in Jerusalem,
they didn't realize He had to attend
to His Father's business.
On the cross, at the end of His earthly career,
He was also misunderstood.
Jesus cried with a loud voice and breathed His last.
Most crucifixion victims died
in profound fatigue or unconsciousness in their final hours.
Jesus, on the other hand,
was conscious and able to talk
right up until the moment of His death,
although being severely wounded and debilitated.
As horrible as the physical suffering of Jesus was,
this spiritual suffering,
this act of being judged for sin in our place,
was what Jesus dreaded about the cross.
This was the cup,
the cup of God's righteous wrath,
that Jesus trembled at drinking.
Psalms 75:8, "For a cup of his wrath
is in the hands of the Lord and the wine foams.
It is well-mixed and fully spiced,
and he pours out from it,
and all the wicked of the earth
must drain it and drink down to its dregs."
Jeremiah 25:15, "For thus says the Lord,
the God of Israel to me,
'Take this cup of wine of wrath from my hand
and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.'"
The death of Jesus on the cross was, and is,
the ultimate demonstration of God's love
towards all mankind.
Romans 5:8, Amplified Bible,
"But God clearly shows and proves His own love for us
by the fact that, while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us."
It is the power of God unto salvation,
though it seems foolish to those who reject it.
1 Corinthians 1:18,
"Jesus erased our record of sin and rebellion against God
by nailing it to the cross."
Corinthians 2:14,
"Having canceled out the certificate of debt
consisting of legal demands
which were enforced against us and which were hostile to us,
and this certificate He has set aside
and completely removed by nailing it to the cross.
If Jesus had not endured the cross,
what hope would we have here on Earth?"
Mark 15:36,
"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.'
And Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost,
and the veil of the temple was rent in twain
from top to bottom.
There were two veils,
one in front of the holy place
and the other in front of the holiest of holies.
The holy place corresponds to the nave of the church
where the priests were constantly present,
and the holy of holies corresponds to our chancel choir,
which is the holiest portion of the building.
This was always kept closed,
nor might anyone enter it but the high priest,
and that only once in the year, on the day of expiation.
The veil which was rented our Lord's death
was that which was placed before the holy of holies.
It was the responsibility of the officiating priest
on the evening of the day of preparation,
at the hour of evening prayer,
which would correspond to the time of our Lord's death
to enter into the holy place,
where he would, of course,
be between the two curtains or veils,
the outer veil and the inner veil.
It would then be his obligation to lift the outer barrier,
revealing the sacred space to those in the outside court.
Then and there, to their amazement,
they would witness the inner veil ripped apart
from top to bottom.
According to Josephus, these veils or curtains
were of immense bulk,
heavy and beautifully embroidered with gold and purple.
This tearing of the veil now meant,
first, dispensation with its rights and ceremonies
was now uncovered by Christ,
and that thence forth,
the middle wall of petition was broken down
so that now not the Jews only,
but the gentiles also might draw nigh
by the blood of Christ.
But second, it also implied that the way to heaven
was laid open by our Lord's death.
When now hadest overcome the sharpness of death,
thou didest opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
The veil implied that heaven was closed to all
until Christ, by His death,
rented this veil in twain
and laid open the way."
Mark 15:39, "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.'
It was the centurion's responsibility
to keep an eye on everything
and ensure that the punishment was carried out.
He must have been standing near the cross,
and something about the dying sufferer's entire demeanor
was so unlike anything he had ever seen
that he spontaneously said,
'Truly, this man was the Son of God.'
He had watched Him through those wearisome hours.
He had seen the meekness and the dignity of the sufferer.
He had heard those words,
so profoundly impressed upon
the faith and reverence of Christians,
which fell from Him from time to time as He hung there.
And then, at last, he heard the piercing cry,
so startling, so unexpected,
which escaped Him just before He yielded up His spirit
and he could come to no other conclusion than this,
that He was, in very deed, God's son."
In just a few verses, Mark packs a lot of punch.
There's a lot to say about the strange events that occur,
but today we are drawn to the Roman officer
who admired Jesus after He died.
Jesus influenced those close to Him.
The thief on the cross had reacted uniquely to Him
and now the soldier overseeing Him has to remark
that He is the Son of God.
Jesus had kept His identity hidden
at the beginning of His ministry.
Now, it was plain for everyone to see.
As a commander, a centurion controlled the soldiers
who dealt with Jesus.
Did he participate in the soldiers'
taunting and beating of Jesus
as they crowned Him with thorns?
Maybe, or perhaps he was too respectful for such antics.
Perhaps it was the strange darkness that blanketed the land.
Maybe it was the tearing of the veil.
Alternatively, perhaps Jesus
had imparted truth to His officer
as he traveled down the road.
Something stirred in this man's soul
as he gazed at Jesus' lifeless body, whatever it was.
I imagined him staring up at the cross,
mouth gaping as he wraps words around his thoughts.
"This man truly was the Son of God."
If any religious leaders overheard him,
they would've lost their minds.
They just spent the previous days
persuading Rome to execute Jesus
precisely because He was blaspheming about being God's son.
As Stewart Townend wrote in the hymn
"How Deep the Father's Love for Us,"
"Behold the man upon a cross,
my sin upon his shoulders, ashamed,
I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers."
We need to realize that Jesus died for you.
Do not reject Him.
Once you've known him,
once you've heard the gospel and rejected it,
you can never be the same.
It says that, "When the rich young ruler rejected Christ,
he turned away grieved, emotionally disturbed,"
because when you reject the claim of Christ,
that's a very serious thing.
It will be an hour of decision for many of you
who will receive Him today.
However, there have been those that have rejected God.
An example is Satan.
To watch "Where Did Satan's First Evil Desire Come From?"
click here.