Luke 23:44-49 [Under the Sun #10]
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace-Benson/Vail, AZ
August 16,2020
Try to imagine going about your routine one sunny day at lunchtime. Maybe you’re ordering your food in line at Chipotle…or you’re rushing through grocery store aisles, getting some shopping done…or sitting at your desk in school…or working at your job…and all of the sudden, there is no sunlight at all; it is dark as night. That’s exactly what people around the world experienced when Jesus died. We are used to hearing the words of Luke 23 in the spring time, in a Passion History lesson and on Good Friday when we remember the crucifixion of Jesus. But here we are, thinking about it today as part of our Under the Sun summer series because, on that Good Friday as the Savior of the world gave up his life as a sacrifice for the sins of all people, God manipulated the sun. He’d done this before. We already heard about when God made the sun stand still. Another time, he moved the sun’s shadow backward. Today, we hear how God shut the sun down entirely! The Greek word that is translated “darkened” here is ekleipo. It really means to stop or to fail. So if the sun stops or fails, it is not shining, it is darkened. You can probably guess that we get our word “eclipse” from the word ekleipo. That doesn’t mean that what happened was an eclipse of the sun at just the right time when Jesus died. Though people have pressed this theory, you can probably see some of the problems with that. First of all, English speakers shouldn’t think that because our word “eclipse” comes from that word, it must have been a natural darkening of the sun because of the alignment of the sun, moon, and earth. That’s backwards. We took their word for ceasing or stopping and used it for what we call an eclipse, an event where the sun’s light is darkened, where the brightness is stopped. Another problem with that theory is that at the suffering and death of Jesus, the sun was darkened for three hours—from noon until 3 PM. You’ve seen eclipses; you know they don’t last that long. If you’re really into these things, you also know that an eclipse only lasts 7 minutes and 31 seconds or less—not 3 hours! So what we are really talking about is that God caused the sun to stop shining for three hours as Jesus, his innocent Son, hung on a cross dying. It was as if the entire heavens and earth were grieving over what was happening there on the hill just outside Jerusalem—as if all of creation mourned the sufferings and death of their Creator. But something even more can be seen there…and it actually had to do very much with you and me. An impressive event occurred, like an exclamation point, at the end of that period of darkness. The curtain of the temple was torn in two. If that doesn’t sound impressive to you, as you think about the curtains that hang in your house, let me assure you that this curtain was an extraordinary thing! Ladies, if any of you knit, think about crafting thick blankets, 6 feet wide by 6 feet long…and making 50 of them, then stitching them together into one large curtain 30 feet high by 60 feet wide. That’s about the size of the curtain that divided the Holy Place in the Jerusalem Temple from the Most Holy Place, or Holy of Holies. Men, take a look at your hand. Specifically, look at the width of your palm. Kids, this isn’t going to work for you; you’ll need to look at Dad’s hand. Look at how far it is from one side of his hand across to the other. It is said that this temple curtain was that thick and perhaps a bit more! The historian Josephus wrote that horses tied to each side of that curtain and pulling against each other would not have been able to tear it apart. This was obviously not just any curtain, certainly not like any you have in your home. It would have been extremely difficult to cut, much less have it just rip. If you’re looking for a visual, next time you are in the church at Grace-Tucson, you can look to the front of the church to get an idea of the size of it. From one side of the church to the other is 50 feet, so you’ll need to imagine another 5 feet on each side to reach 60 feet wide. It is 30 feet from the floor of the sanctuary to the top of the arch over the chancel. That would be about the size of this huge, thick curtain
that kept everyone out of the Most Holy Place, the room regarded as the very dwelling place of the true and living God in all his holiness. This curtain formed a separation that was a reminder of these words from God’s prophet Isaiah: “your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you (59:2).” It was certainly no accident that at the moment Christ died, that curtain ripped apart from top to bottom. No, God tore it apart! The sun stopped shining, creating a darkness that encompassed the whole world. It was experienced in Egypt, in Asia where the stars were reportedly seen during the day, and in Rome, where it was entered into the public record. God visibly showed his judgment on sin with that darkness, then visibly showed the forgiveness of that sin as he ripped in half the curtain that symbolized separation from him. At that moment, the Son of God, hanging there on the cross with the world’s sin pressing down upon him, cried out with a loud voice from the darkness, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” When he had said this, he breathed his last. You know about that sacrifice. It was for you that Jesus lived, obeying his Father perfectly, because you can’t. It was for you that Jesus died, so that you can live eternally. In that moment of sundarkening and sacrifice and sin-payment, even those who did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah, were moved. When the centurion saw what had happened, he began to glorify God, saying, “This man really was righteous.” The hardened Roman soldier who had seen so many crucifixions had never seen one like this. He had never heard anyone handle it the way the perfect Jesus did. He had never heard anyone say the things Jesus said. He had never heard one criminal turn to another condemned man as his eternal Savior. And he had never seen the sun go dark as a man suffered and then breathed his final breath. Everyone else was moved too. When all the groups of people who had gathered to see this spectacle saw what had happened, they returned home beating their chests. You may remember what that meant. This was an outward sign of grief. They knew this wasn’t right. An innocent man had been put to death and God had spoken by shrouding them all in darkness. It was upsetting, troubling, and no doubt caused many to consider their place before a God who could turn off the sun—and why he would do it when this Jesus was put to death. And then there were those who loved Jesus and knew that he was the Messiah: All those who knew Jesus, and the women who followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. Jews and Gentiles alike were impacted by seeing Jesus die. I imagine none of them ever forgot what they saw. You and I are left to do some soul-searching too, because we know quite well that he allowed himself to be tortured and sacrificed for our sins too. He loved us enough to die for us, so that we can live with him. Doesn’t that cause us to marvel at his righteousness, his purity, as the centurion did? Doesn’t it cause us to grieve, like the crowds of people who beat their chests and went home, as we consider our place before a holy God? Doesn’t it cause us to watch, like those who knew Jesus then, and to think about what he did? We don’t need the sun’s light switch to be flipped to the OFF position for us anymore. We know Jesus’ undeserved love in the face of our sin. We are moved by his saving sacrifice. And we follow his lead in committing ourselves into our Heavenly Father’s hands—for each day of our lives here, and for eternity—because we know those promises of heaven are certain because they are based on Jesus’ completed sacrifice. Maybe even on bright, sunny days, as we are going about our normal routines, we might occasionally think about it suddenly going completely dark, and we can think again about what that Good Friday must have been like when the sun went dark and God’s Son gave his life for us. And our grateful hearts will give thanks and humble praise to the Lord. Amen.