“It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining.” (Luke 23:44-45)
“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Darkness, like a blanket, covered the place of the cross. Jesus lay on the cross beams. His head bloodied from the crown of thorns beaten into His kingly head, face bruised and swollen from punches and slaps, back ripped open with lacerations so deep that it appeared like a plowed field. Isaiah said, “his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness.” Each ring of the hammer as it fell upon the nails brought sickening pain. A scene so repelling that the people who had vigorously shouted to have him crucified just stood watching (Luke 23:35), perhaps repulsed by the reeking smell of sweat in the air and the torturous groaning of the victims. The rulers sneered, the soldiers mocked, and fellow prisoners hurled insults. It was a grotesque and ugly sight. No wonder the sun stopped shining when such indignities were heaped upon the holy Son of God.
And yet the sun didn’t need to shine because His light shone out of that darkness, the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. When we look at Calvary with physical eyes, it is dark and repulsive. But when we view it with spiritual eyes, we come face to face with His glory- the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We see the glory of God all around us. In fact the heavens declare the glory of God. We see His glory as we read in the gospels how He walked this earth, showing compassion, healing the sick, and speaking the truth. But no where do we behold His glory with more clearness than at the cross. The darkness of the place only made His light shine brighter. The incongruity of it all is stunning. Only God could turn such ugliness into beauty. How beautiful the heart of Christ is shown to be when they stood the cross upright and the weight of His body sagged heavily downward on His diaphragm, and the King of kings had to push on his nail pierced feet to raise Himself up enough to lift his diaphragm in order to exhale and say, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” I know no other heart like that.
Mark tells us, “The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him. ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid mock homage to him.”Where do we see a clearer picture of grace and mercy and love? Several hundred Roman soldiers came together to make sport of the King of Glory, the One who is the” radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, the one who “sustains all things by his powerful word.” (Hebrews 1:3) They, a whole company of soldiers, spit in their Creator’s face and mockingly bowed their knees, beating the crown of thorns into the head of the One who made the heavens by His word and the starry host by the breath of His mouth. (Ps. 33:6) He could have called down twelve legions of angels, yet, like a lamb, he opened not his mouth. No words can express such divine grace. No canvas can depict such beauty. To the redeemed soul, Calvary is a beautiful place because a beautiful God hung there and a radiant place because a glorious God shined there.
