Good Friday 4/2/10
Good Friday
4/2/10
Text: Luke 23:44-45
As I was preparing for my talk to you today on the crucifixion of our Savior verses 44 and 45 of our Gospel caught my attention. "It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 while the sun's light failed. " I can’t say that I ever paid much attention to those particular verses before except for seeing that a solar eclipse had taken place when Jesus was on the cross. It was a sign from God, that I knew, but as I read it this time I noticed the length of the eclipse. It was three hours long.
That seemed a long time for a solar eclipse, so I did some research and found out something that I want to share with you today. Every 18 months, somewhere around the world, the sun goes black, well it never goes actually black, for light bends around the moon which is between the earth and sun, plus there is the light from the stars. A solar eclipse will only last about 7 minutes, no more than that.
This darkness lasted approximately 3 hours not 7 minutes. It is not the same darkness when you have a solar eclipse. Something else is going on. I did a Bible word search on the word we translate as darkness to see how it is used elsewhere in the Bible. What I found out is that this darkness was like the darkness before God created light. It is also the same darkness that God cursed Egypt with when Pharaoh would not let the people go. It was a darkness that could be felt. Probably the closest thing we could come up with is the deep darkness when you are in a cave and the light goes out. You cannot see your hand even if you got right up against your eye. That type of darkness is oppressive and you would not want to stay in that darkness very long.
We get the reason behind Luke recording this for us from John 8:12 where Jesus is recorded as saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Darkness is scary and dangerous, for statically more crimes are committed at night than during the day.
Deep down, something about the dark unsettles us. And here is Jesus the light of the world surrounded in darkness and it appears that the darkness has overcome the light. The darkness did not win, for Jesus the light of he world calls us away from dark deeds. He calls us away from dark thoughts. He calls us away from words that mean dark things. He calls us away from the darkness we are tempted to dabble in, and “into his marvelous light”
When the sun rose on that first Good Friday, Jesus was in front of men who desired to do dark things to him. All through the previous night they had been harassing him, and mocking him, and trying to condemn him of crimes they had manufacture against him. They had waited until dark to arrest Jesus and through the night they did not leave him alone. As the sun rose they had what they wanted and took Jesus to Pilate where they did the committed one more dark deed; they falsely accused him in front of Pilate. Pilate gave the orders and the darkest deed of all was put into place. Jesus was condemned to die.
As the sun reached its highest point in the sky they nailed him to the cross. And then the sun failed for three hours until Jesus breathed his last breath. This was no eclipse, or blink of the sun, no passing dark cloud. It was as if the sun which was created by Jesus before he became one of us, was in itself rebelling against what was taking place. Here we see God judging, as he did in Egypt. God was judging sin just as he did in Egypt. He was setting his people free. And in doing so he set each one of you free from the dark slavery of sin setting you into the light of the resurrected Jesus.
That afternoon Jesus was put in a dark hole called a tomb and he was left there to stay. Yet we know that he did not stay, for the Light cannot be overcome by darkness. In Revelation where we see that the light wins over darkness John mentions that Jesus’ face shines like the sun. That is the light we have in the darkness of our lives. That is the light we will celebrate on Resurrection Sunday. The light that has enlightened you, so that even as we come forward to put our nail of sin into the cross we know we do not stand in darkness for Sunday is coming. Amen.
4/2/10
Text: Luke 23:44-45
As I was preparing for my talk to you today on the crucifixion of our Savior verses 44 and 45 of our Gospel caught my attention. "It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 while the sun's light failed. " I can’t say that I ever paid much attention to those particular verses before except for seeing that a solar eclipse had taken place when Jesus was on the cross. It was a sign from God, that I knew, but as I read it this time I noticed the length of the eclipse. It was three hours long.
That seemed a long time for a solar eclipse, so I did some research and found out something that I want to share with you today. Every 18 months, somewhere around the world, the sun goes black, well it never goes actually black, for light bends around the moon which is between the earth and sun, plus there is the light from the stars. A solar eclipse will only last about 7 minutes, no more than that.
This darkness lasted approximately 3 hours not 7 minutes. It is not the same darkness when you have a solar eclipse. Something else is going on. I did a Bible word search on the word we translate as darkness to see how it is used elsewhere in the Bible. What I found out is that this darkness was like the darkness before God created light. It is also the same darkness that God cursed Egypt with when Pharaoh would not let the people go. It was a darkness that could be felt. Probably the closest thing we could come up with is the deep darkness when you are in a cave and the light goes out. You cannot see your hand even if you got right up against your eye. That type of darkness is oppressive and you would not want to stay in that darkness very long.
We get the reason behind Luke recording this for us from John 8:12 where Jesus is recorded as saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Darkness is scary and dangerous, for statically more crimes are committed at night than during the day.
Deep down, something about the dark unsettles us. And here is Jesus the light of the world surrounded in darkness and it appears that the darkness has overcome the light. The darkness did not win, for Jesus the light of he world calls us away from dark deeds. He calls us away from dark thoughts. He calls us away from words that mean dark things. He calls us away from the darkness we are tempted to dabble in, and “into his marvelous light”
When the sun rose on that first Good Friday, Jesus was in front of men who desired to do dark things to him. All through the previous night they had been harassing him, and mocking him, and trying to condemn him of crimes they had manufacture against him. They had waited until dark to arrest Jesus and through the night they did not leave him alone. As the sun rose they had what they wanted and took Jesus to Pilate where they did the committed one more dark deed; they falsely accused him in front of Pilate. Pilate gave the orders and the darkest deed of all was put into place. Jesus was condemned to die.
As the sun reached its highest point in the sky they nailed him to the cross. And then the sun failed for three hours until Jesus breathed his last breath. This was no eclipse, or blink of the sun, no passing dark cloud. It was as if the sun which was created by Jesus before he became one of us, was in itself rebelling against what was taking place. Here we see God judging, as he did in Egypt. God was judging sin just as he did in Egypt. He was setting his people free. And in doing so he set each one of you free from the dark slavery of sin setting you into the light of the resurrected Jesus.
That afternoon Jesus was put in a dark hole called a tomb and he was left there to stay. Yet we know that he did not stay, for the Light cannot be overcome by darkness. In Revelation where we see that the light wins over darkness John mentions that Jesus’ face shines like the sun. That is the light we have in the darkness of our lives. That is the light we will celebrate on Resurrection Sunday. The light that has enlightened you, so that even as we come forward to put our nail of sin into the cross we know we do not stand in darkness for Sunday is coming. Amen.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 7:17 PM
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