Pastor Welton Watson, Central Baptist Church Luke 23:44-47 “And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. 45 And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. 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. 47 Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.”
Everyone seems to be so excited about a four-minute total eclipse of the sun which can be observed this next Monday, April 8th. This eclipse will only be observable in certain areas of the country for just a short time. The story in our text this week is about a total eclipse that continued for three hours over the entire earth. This eclipse began at 9 in the morning and continued until 12 Noon. During this time, the sun refused to shine, because God turned the light switch off while his darling Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, was hanging on a cruel Roman cross, paying for the sins of the entire human race. The Bible says that God cannot look upon sin, and during the three hours Jesus hung on the cross, he had all the sins of the whole world - past, present, and future - hanging on him there as He died all alone to pay for our sins.
The eclipse we will be experiencing next Monday will be a covering of the sun by the moon, but the eclipse of our text was a total shutdown of the sun’s rays. It was total darkness, as the evil of mankind and the mercy and grace of God was being demonstrated. Jesus made seven utterances from the cross, the last of which we find in John 19:30 “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” The payment for sin was paid in full. The veil of the temple was rent asunder from top to bottom, thus exposing the Holy of Holies, and making it now accessible to all who will.
In Mark 16:39, we find the deeper meaning of the centurions statement “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.”
The darkness and earthquake at Jesus’ death was a sign of something miraculous that God was doing for mankind. His anger and fury at sin was demonstrated by the darkness and earthquake and horrible suffering of his Son, but his love for man was demonstrated by his willingness to pay a debt that man could not pay. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Out of darkness; into light!