Day 44 – Surely…
Mark 15:33-39
At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.” Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said. With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
Owen Lynch writes:
Mark does not explain why darkness enveloped the whole land for 3 hours from noon to 3pm. The exact cause is immaterial, but the symbolism is powerful, some scholars think that Mark was quoting the Jewish Prophet Amos, who wrote that on the “day of the Lord” there will be darkness, not light (Amos 5:18).
If this was the “day of the Lord”, it’s not the “day of the Lord” that everyone was expecting. The “day of the Lord” was a Jewish idea that Yahweh would judge Israel and punish them for repeatedly breaking the laws of Moses. The prophet Amos is full of warnings of judgement and destruction for Israel.
But fast forward to what we call Good Friday and on that day we don’t see Israel getting destroyed, instead we see Jesus being destroyed...on a Roman cross.
Mark is telling his readers that Jesus is taking the punishment due to Israel for breaking the law of Moses on himself. Instead of Israel being killed, Jesus is killed.
At that time the Jews would sacrifice an animal at the Temple to pay or atone for their law-breaking behaviour. The temple priests were in control of this system and it was central to Jewish politics and society.
Jesus was killed because he was an enemy of the state, the political and religious leaders wanted to eliminate his threat to their hegemony. However, his followers saw his death as a human sacrifice to pay or atone for all the Jews who ever broke the law of Moses, thus nullifying the power of the temple and the authority of the temple priests. Mark records in 5:38 that the temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom, indicating that the Jews no longer needed the temple system to access Yahweh, because Jesus was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices.
Today, consider how you interpret the death of Jesus, what meaning do you attach to it? What relevance does his death have for you and your family?