As for timing, at the time of the death of Jesus, every
periodic feast, or event, happened or culminated in that the same year. The year of Jubilee for example, the once
every 50-year event, when the slaves were set free all across the land of
Israel, happened at the year of the death of Christ. Yes there is a lesson there. No slave was ever intended to remain a slave. Not the ones bought and sold in ancient
times, nor you and I who before Jesus were nothing but slaves to sin and self. But beyond the year of Jubilee, if a feast
happened once every 7 years or once every 12 years, it was due to happen in the
year of Jesus’ death. This timing would
wind up drawing people towards Jerusalem in larger numbers than usual,
particularly at Passover which was considered the most important event in
Jewish religion. If you were a freed
slave you might want to attend this event for the first time as a freed
person. If you were a Jewish believer
and were too poor to gather for the other periodic feasts, you would definitely
choose to attend Passover in order to see the ceremonies of the Day of
Atonement, when the sins of the nation were laid upon the lamb who would be
slain in sacrifice. These events would
happen at the rebuilt Temple directly in front of the Most Holy place where
only the giant curtain would separate the two main chambers of the Temple.
Only the High Priest of the Jewish nation could dare to
tread behind that giant dividing curtain on the Day of Atonement. In fact bells were sown into the bottom of
the garments of the High Priest in order for those outside to hear if he were
still alive behind the curtain. If the
High Priest were still filled with sin behind this curtain he would be struck
dead by the very presence of God. And
those outside would have to pull the dead High Priest out of the chamber using
the ropes they would secure around his waist before he ventured in. If instead they too ventured into that
chamber there would have been a stack of bodies not just the one. So this event was a bit terrifying in nature,
as well as awesome in symbolism. And
keep in mind it was the very personal presence of our God (Jesus that is) who
sat upon the mercy seat constructed upon the top of the ark of the covenant
which resided in that most holy place. These
were not just idol traditions happening in empty chambers, but instead real events
happening before the presence of a real God.
A real judge of our character. A
real mercy seat. Taking away our real
sins with the blood of the symbolic lamb.
But today was different.
Jesus the real lamb of God was hung on the cross outside of the city of
Jerusalem on the hill called Mt. Calvary.
This time it was God the Father who was Himself enduring the test of
Abraham repeated with no hope of an out at the last minute. Instead it was a humble perfect lamb at the
Temple of Jerusalem who was to gain a reprieve.
Luke picks up the events in his letter to his friend about what we
believe and why in the 23rd chapter starting in verse 44 saying … “And it was
about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the
ninth hour.” Eclipse? No.
Thunderstorm? Not likely, a
thunderstorm in the desert would have been unusual, but heavy rains, winds,
lightnings, and thunderings would have driven casual spectators back into their
homes, not allowed them to continue standing at the foot of the cross for three
hours while Jesus hung in agony for our sins.
This all started at noon and lasted till three pm in our modern telling
of time during the day. This would have
coincided perfectly with the ceremonies at the Temple to celebrate Passover. You can imagine both audience and
participants were certainly terrified as this darkness could hardly be seen as
an omen of good.
But today was different.
Instead of bright noon day sun, a darkness of the sun refusing to shine,
no moon, no stars, just a thick black dark.
It was very dark, perhaps not as bad as it was in Egypt during the
plague of darkness, but this was miraculous darkness none the less. Nature itself refused to look upon the death
of its creator. And our Father God must
sit upon His throne and take no action to spare His Son, His most loved Son,
the agony, pain, humiliation, naked degradation, and blood flow as it does from
open wounds, while dying upon that cross.
Our Father God cannot reassure His Son, or comfort Him, or even be with
Him in His agony. Jesus must die and die
alone separated from the presence of His Father. Jesus cannot see through these events to know
if they will be enough to satisfy the justice required by heaven’s law. Will Jesus be forever stained by our sins so
that the Father can no longer look upon Him?
After all, the entirety of the sins of our world are no small amount of
sins, nor small amount of viciousness, nor selfishness we embrace nearly every
day of our lives, refusing transformation and the freely offered love of God. That is some weight Jesus must carry, even
though He committed no sin at all. And
while God has all the power in the universe, He too must sit and watch His Son
die the death we deserve.
Luke continues in verse 45 saying … “And the sun was darkened, and
the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. [verse 46] And when Jesus
had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the
ghost.” So it is time for the
pinnacle of the ceremony at Passover.
The hand of the High Priest is raised with a knife in it. He like Abraham of old is set to bring the
knife down and plunge it into the neck of the innocent lamb tied below upon an
altar in the courtyard in front of the Most Holy place. But like Abraham of old, before the High
Priest can bring the knife down upon the lamb of that altar, an angel restrains
his hands, and the lamb is spared, and the ropes fall away from that lamb and
he gets up and runs away free back to his flock and his owner. The People (both audience and priesthood) are
amazed at this miracle, but before they can begin to process what has just
happened further angels tear a hole in this dividing curtain from top to
bottom. The curtain falls away on the
left and right and reveals not just a glimpse of the Most Holy place, but a full
view of the entire chamber. Everyone is
looking in there, to a sight no one has ever seen and lived before this; an
entire crowd of just normal Jewish believers.
For it is at this very moment that outside the city on a hill called Mt.
Calvary, that Jesus is surrendering His spirit to God the Father, giving up the
ghost, and dying on behalf of that nation and every other.
Today is surely different.
At the moment of his death there is an earthquake to shake not just this
location, nor the nearby city of Jerusalem, but across the entire region of the
middle east. The whole area rumbles at
the loss of innocent blood shed at our redemption and these earthquake waves
are sent everywhere as a wakeup call to this event. None will wonder if stories of it are true,
for all will have felt it enough to terrify them at this moment in time. His cross will be the epicenter. People will be thrown to the ground, holding on
to the ground in terror. The scale of
these miracles and scope of those affected are not just limited to small hill
outside of Jerusalem but felt nearly everywhere, seen nearly everywhere. Many have come from the far reaches of the
earth to be here at this moment, perhaps most not even aware of what was going
on at Calvary. But they would search for
answers behind the meaning of these things now.
Seeds were being planted across believers from the far corners of the
earth, that would one day soon result in a harvest of new converts such as the
world has never seen before. Even in the
heart of one who calls himself our enemy awakens recognition and conversion based
upon what is taking place.
Luke continues in verse 47 saying … “Now when the centurion saw
what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.” A Roman in charge of this horror sees what is
happening and knows what he has just been responsible to carry out. Yet he does not shrink from the terrible truth,
instead embracing it, and giving witness to it aloud. Some versions of this have the Roman declare
surely this was the Son of God (more than just a righteous man). Keep in mind it is still dark outside from
noon till three. Keep in mind that
earthquake happens at the moment of the death of Jesus and is felt
everywhere. Keep in mind the testimony
of everyone at Passover will be of a spared lamb freed by angelic hands, and a
curtain torn from top to bottom revealing an empty Most Holy place. People inside the city start hearing of Jesus
at Calvary, and want to see it for themselves.
They are there. They want to see.
Luke concludes in verse 48 saying … “And all the people that came
together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their
breasts, and returned. [verse 49] And all his acquaintance, and the women that
followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things.” Travelers, pilgrims, believers, soon to be
believers travel out to Calvary to see for themselves if the rumors of the
death of Jesus are true, and to ponder what it means to them. All of those disciples, and secondary
disciples (the 70 selected by Jesus early in His ministry) watch these events
from a safe-from-Roman distance and marvel at these events. Lastly the women who are considerably braver
than any of their male counterparts stand nearer the cross watching and weeping
and wondering at the meaning of these events.
All of them must confront the error of their own beliefs. The Messiah was NOT meant to end Roman
oppression. They were not going to be
free. They were going to remain where
they were. Their relief would come from
sin, not from circumstances. They would
have to swallow hard to let go their own deep seated incorrect doctrines and
acknowledge that Jesus was God, and God did something they did not expect. Jesus died.
He allowed Himself to die. He
gave up His own life willingly. He
endured torture with no relief. He hung
naked allowing humiliation from a crowd of cruel religious leaders. He endured all of it then died. This was NOT something their Messiah was supposed
to do. But God did what they did not
expect in a way they never expected.
Is it any different today?
We pray as if directing God to do what we want, what we expect. But perhaps like those faithful of old, we
must confront the idea that God does what He knows must be done, in things we
did not expect, in ways we did not expect.
And we too must confront the error of our beliefs. Jesus is bigger than what we believe. His Truth is beyond our understanding of
truth. We are not the arbiters of truth,
Jesus is, and Jesus alone. For some back
then, despite all the evidence, it was just too much to accept. So they smote their breasts and went back to
where they were staying. For others
however, the sadness of these events was just too overwhelming. They too smote their breasts and returned
home, but in mere sadness wondering what the Messiah was truly supposed to be,
instead of what they had pigeon holed Him to be. But to be clear it was the women who
witnessed it all, endured it all, braved the danger of Roman assault and rape,
and stood by our redeemer through the worst moments of His life. For any who would dare to refute what the
Holy Spirit might offer to a woman in the realm of spiritual gifts merely
because she is a woman stands upon shaky ground. For women were there. Men were a good distance farther away. There is lesson here for us, if we have the
humility to accept it.
For three hours nature itself bore testimony to the divinity
of Jesus Christ. These were not coincidences. The angel in the Temple restraining the hand
of the High Priest like Abraham of old was not a coincidence. The tearing of the curtain by other angelic
hands not a coincidence (nor the timing).
It was orchestrated. It was
timed. It was intended. The startled lamb freed from the altar had
little understanding of what was going on or why, perhaps we have no
better. But these things were
miraculously timed, to end the symbolism of the religion of the past, and usher
in the religion of Christianity. Sacrifices
were done. THE Sacrifice had been made. No more symbolic blood need be shed, the
purest blood of God Himself had been shed.
The world was ablaze with these events and even more would be coming. Perhaps it is so even today just out of your
sight. Are you able to challenge what
you believe? What if God is doing
something right now you did not expect, or doing it in a way you never
expected. Can you come to accept Jesus
and let Jesus lead? I hope I can as the
true age of Christianity dawns.
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