Devotion #6: Figurative and Literal Darkness

Pastor Kyle Wendel

Have you ever experienced total darkness? I am referring to complete darkness. It is not the kind of dark where you can still see some things or can make out the silhouettes of items. I mean total darkness. It is terrifying. I would not label myself as someone afraid of the dark; however, I do not enjoy being in an area that I do not know and it is very dark.

My wife and I took a trip to the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky a few years back. The trip was incredible and we saw some awesome things. One of the craziest experiences I have ever had in my life was in those caves. We took a tour through the cave system. They had lights throughout the cave so you could see and it was not total darkness. However, we came to this giant cavern and the tour guide explained that he was going to turn off all of the lights for a moment. He instructed us to all sit down because it would be total darkness and we would not even be able to see our surroundings or each other. We laughed a little expecting to still be able to see some.

Next, the lights went out. It was complete darkness. I could not see anything. I could not see my wife right next to me. I could not even see my hand right in front of my face! If we were not with a group or guide, I could tell you that I would be terrified with no way to get out. It was absolute darkness.

In Scripture, we see a time when absolute darkness comes over the world. We see it happen when God judges Pharaoh and the Egyptians, but we also see it happen at Jesus’ crucifixion. Matthew 27:45 records, “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.”

The crazy part about this is that it was not a natural occurrence. There was no solar eclipse that would have happened at this time. A solar eclipse cannot happen when there is a full moon and the feast of Passover would have happened during a full moon. So, there is no natural explanation for this happening. It was solely judgment from God. Specifically, it was the judgment on sin.

For three hours there was darkness. I find this ironic. The people were blind to what they were truly doing. They did not believe that they were crucifying the Son of God. They were blind to their sin. Now they have found themselves in darkness figuratively and literally.

I often wonder about the people who crucified Jesus and the ones seeing it happen. How many would have realized what they had done? How many would have realized that Jesus was God? We know from Scripture that some did realize that what they had done was wrong. However, for some, the tough realization is that they chose to harden their hearts toward the Savior. They could try to make excuses and justify what was going on and the things that were going on around them.

One of the craziest things that blows my mind about the cross is that Jesus died for all of mankind, even the ones who physically nailed Him to the cross and mocked Him. Jesus loved them. Jesus knew them. He still died for them and their sins.

In reality, that is where we all sit. We may not have been the ones who physically nailed Jesus to the cross, but it was still our sin that did it. Our sin is what made Jesus willingly lay His life down on the cross. It is easy to condemn the people who were there and we quickly can forget that we did it too. We were all in darkness in our sin, but Jesus gave us light and life.

How great it is to have Jesus as our Savior, who took our place. He took our punishment from sin for us. All we have to do is believe and trust in Him. I pray over the next couple of weeks that we continue to study the cross and be fascinated by the work of Jesus. We need to fall to our knees and worship Him for all that He has done for us. God is so good. God is so powerful. Let us worship Him.