Six Hours One Passover Friday
| It was the third hour when they crucified Him... At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour... And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" With a loud cry, Jesus breathed His last... (Mark15:25-37) |
Back then, time was measured from sunrise. So the third hour is 9h00, the sixth is 12h00 and the ninth is 15h00.
For the next few days we'll explore Mark's account of the six hours Jesus spent on the cross.
Bear in mind that the first three hours of the day (before the third hour) consisted of an ambush; lies; accusations; manipulations; trials before high priests, Herod and Pilate; a crowd shouting "crucify Him"; soldiers mocking; a flogging; and the arduous "Via Dolorosa."
Then, at the third hour, they crucified Him.
The physical agony has been well documented.
And occasionally we do have to think about it.
His raw encounter with pain reminds us that
- when we are in pain, He understands
- when human beings are incredibly cruel, He understands
- when we are exposed, powerless and completely at the mercy of others, He understands
But there's more than physical agony.
In the first three hours Jesus endured worst human beings can offer. They've hammered nails through Him. They've gambled away His clothes and the soldiers, priests, thieves, and the crowd have mocked. He is alone apart from a few women and John (who was probably just a teenager.) They're not really able to comfort Him. In fact, He lovingly comforts them: giving Mary a God-son and John a God-mom.
But there's more than social humiliation.
In the second three hours it goes dark for three hours.
This is symbolic of the darkness of our sin that now rested on Jesus.
In these three hours He is experiencing Divine Judgement and Wrath:
My eternity without God, your eternity without God, everyone's eternity without God.
Only three hours by our time.
For Him, it is eternal consequences, being carried on shoulders attached to nail-pierced hands.
...It's Passover...
In the temple courts and in homes people are preparing in the strange darkness.
They're slaughtering Passover lambs, preparing unleavened bread, and making bitter herb sauce.
But for six hours the "Lamb who takes away the sins of the world" has been hanging on the cross.
For three of those hours He has been abandoned by people.
For three of those hours He has been literally God-forsaken.
If we combine all the gospels, big things happen at the end of the sixth hour on the cross.
- He cries out in the agony of forsakenness.
- He breathes His last, He gives up His Spirit, He pronounces "It is finished!" (Done, Paid in Full)
- The temple curtain tears from top to bottom
- Graves split open and dead people rise because, death too is defeated.
- Our sins are forgiven, our penalty paid.
And the Roman Centurion declares "Surely this was the Son of God!"
