Tag Archives: darkness

The End of the Beginning!

Christian Life, , ,

THE END OF THE BEGINNING!

“By now it was noon. The whole earth became dark, the darkness lasting three hours — a total blackout. The Temple curtain split right down the middle. Jesus called loudly, ‘Father, I place my life in your hands.’ Then He breathed His last.

“When the captain there saw what happened, he honoured God. ‘This man was innocent. A good man and innocent.’

“All who had come around as spectators to watch the show, when they saw what actually happened, were overcome with grief and headed home. Those who knew Jesus well, and the women who had followed Him from Galilee, stood at a respectful distance and kept vigil.” Luke 23:44-49 (The Message).

So many unusual things happened that day! Those who were responsible for His death and those who came to watch the show, had witnessed many a crucifixion (after all, they did not have television!), but never had they seen a man die like this. Even the Roman captain said so!

Why did they slink away, grieving? What was it about the bloodied corpse suspended on a cross by a few nails that got to them? They heckled Him when He was writhing in agony, but now they left because they could no longer look at Him. Was His dead body a silent rebuke to their callous hearts? They got what they wanted and now they could not reverse it.

Why was there total darkness for three hours? This was much more than an eclipse of the sun, which usually lasts no more than a few minutes? Was the Father shielding His Son’s suffering from prying eyes? Was He turning away from the sight of His Son absorbing the sin of the world? Was creation responding to this crime against its Creator? Was this symbolic of the darkest deed human beings had ever perpetrated against God?

And, back in the city, something unusual happened in the Temple. The thick curtain separating the Holy Place, where the priests did their daily rituals, from the Most Holy Place, was torn in two from top to bottom. For anyone other than the high priest, and that only once a year on the Day of Atonement, to enter the Most Holy Place, let alone see into it, would have been instant death.

It was in the Most Holy Place that the Ark of the Covenant, a wooden box overlaid with gold and decorated with two golden angels with wings touching, stood, upon which a mysterious light glowed between the overshadowing angelic wings. This light was the visible representation of God’s presence.

The Jews believed that the curtain represented God’s clothing, protecting them from His awesome presence. Was the supernatural ripping of the curtain at the moment of Jesus’ death a message? Was God saying that He was now accessible to all people because Jesus had atoned for their sin?

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is His body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:19-22 (NIV).

There is significance in Jesus’ final loud cry. The Hebrew people had been taught to give the first fruits of their harvest, roughly one fortieth, to the high priest, which took care of his family’s needs, but also guaranteed God’s blessing on the rest of their harvest. This became an offering (terumah) when it was lifted up to God and placed in the hands of the high priest. This was symbolic of a greater harvest of people who would be gathered in and resurrected with Jesus on His return.

“But Christ had indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.” 1 Corinthians 15:20-21 (NIV).

Likewise, Jesus was ‘lifted up’ (John 12:32), and He placed Himself into His Father’s hands (Luke 23:46). He became both a sin offering and a ‘terumah’ offering, guaranteeing a harvest of believers who would be raised to life in the presence of God with an incorruptible body like His own.

This was the end of Jesus’ earthly life but the beginning of eternal life for all who believe in Him.

It’s A Dark Night

Christian Life, ,

IT’S A DARK NIGHT

“Jesus spoke to those who had come — high priests, Temple police, religious leaders. ’What is this, jumping me with swords and clubs as if I were a dangerous criminal? Day after day I’ve been with you in the Temple and you’ve not so much as lifted a hand against me. But do it your way — it’s a dark night, a dark hour.'” Luke 22:51-53 (The Message).

Darkness…night! It’s amazing what people will do under cover of darkness that they will not do in the daylight! What is there about darkness that affects the way we think? Darkness in the Bible means much more than the absence of light. The theme of darkness is introduced in the first chapter of the Bible and is carried through to the last book.

Before God stepped in to restore the earth after He had created it, it was shrouded in darkness. Even the light of His presence did not penetrate the darkness until He took positive action. Why was that? Lucifer and a third of the angels tried to dethrone God and take over His role as God, but God threw them out of heaven down to the earth (Revelation 12:7-9). The darkness over the earth was symbolic of the moral darkness that the presence of Satan brought.

What did God do? His first words to rectify the situation were: “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Genesis 1:3 (NIV). But there is a problem. According to the Genesis account, He created the heavenly bodies on the fourth day. What was this light that shone on the earth on the first day?

John gives us the answer. “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it…The light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognise Him….The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us…” John 1:3-5, 9-10, 14a (NIV).

Just as God had confined Satan’s sphere of influence to the earth, so He assigned the earth to His Son before He began the work of restoration, to exercise His divine power and influence to win His erring sons and daughters back to Himself.

Darkness symbolises the state of mind that the devil’s deception brings. Satan is both deceived and the deceiver. Jesus called him “a murderer and the father of lies” (John 8:44). When human beings follow his lying suggestions, they lose their ability to think rationally and logically and are in a state of “darkness”. Moral darkness obscures the light of truth just as physical darkness hides people’s evil deeds.

There is no such thing as a battle between light and darkness. Wherever the light shines, darkness is dispelled. They cannot co-exist. Jesus is the light that brings light to every person who is born into the world, but those who receive Him are “enlightened” with the truth that God exists, that He is good and that He is in charge, not the devil.

Men are accountable to God and He has provided mercy and forgiveness through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. Every other philosophy and religion is a hoax to keep people in the darkness of deception that leads away from God to destruction.

Jesus and His opponents were entering the darkest hour in human history. Not even the holocaust can eclipse what men did to God on that day. Although His warning went unheeded, it had to be, and it happened because of the depth of the darkness that held those captive who wanted Him dead.

Jesus said to them, “This is your hour — when darkness reigns.” Luke 22:53b (NIV). Darkness did not triumph over light; it only hid the light for a few hours but the rejoicing that men’s darkness brought in hell was premature and short-lived. It was temporary, for an “hour”. Three days afterwards, the light erupted from the tomb and lived again, and His light continues to shine on the earth and in the hearts of those who believe in him!