Good Morning.
Mid-afternoon. The hour had come, 3:00. This was the moment in history when everything changed.
At 3:00, when the sun was at its highest point, the sky went dark. Of course it did. How could they kill the Light of the World and darkness not make its claim? The darkness is broken only by flashes of lightening. The air is filled with an energy that tells the people gathered that something extraordinary is about to happen. It was a storm. It was an earthquake. It was something that felt like the end, and it was all of that.
In the distance, not quite a mile away, an appropriately dressed priest was taking a bleating lamb to the altar to be slaughtered. It was 3:00, the time for the afternoon sacrifice. This was the sacrifice that was intended to catch the attention of heaven, especially at that moment. This sacrifice was only a few hours away from the beginning of the Sabbath, and not any Sabbath, but the Sabbath of the Passover. The Sabbath that would conclude the days of feasting and remembrance, the Sabbath that reminded Israel of the faithful, of the work of the blood of the lamb. This was the sacrifice that was intended to catch the attention of heaven, but not this time. At this moment all of heaven’s attention is on another lamb. The lamb who hung from a cross. The lamb whose blood would take away the sins of the world (John 1:29).
Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. Matthew 27:50-51
I know, this is a Friday, but it isn’t Good Friday. However, I ask that we give our thoughts for a moment to that Friday so long ago, that Friday when our Savior cried “It is finished!” and breathed His last breath. This is a thought that continues to be well deserved. He died for you that dark afternoon. He died to take away your sins. He died to pay the price you could never pay. With His stripes, you were healed (Isaiah 53:5).
Praise God for that 3:00 and the darkness which has earned us eternal light!
Vern