Forsaken in the Darkness

In this week’s message, Mark 15 counts the hours of the crucifixion until darkness falls over the land at noon. When it lifts, Jesus cries out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” In that darkness the Passover Lamb bore the Father’s wrath for our sin, showing how horrible our sin is and how wonderful God’s love is.

Well, I would like for you to join me this morning as we look once again at Mark chapter 15. I think for two weeks now in the bulletin, I’ve said Mark chapter 14, so if you’ve already turned there, just turn the page over one, and I’ll try to correct that for next week.

Mark chapter 15, and we’ve been looking into this chapter for some time. We’ve looked at the betrayal and the arrest of Jesus. We considered His trial before Annas and Caiaphas. We thought about Peter’s denial, the trial before Pilate.

We looked at the cruel mockery of the priests and the soldiers and the spitting on and the scourging of the bystanders, the Roman soldiers and the mob who demanded His death, and Jesus carrying His cross until Simon of Cyrene picks it up. Last week we focused especially on the way of suffering, the Via Dolorosa, and the things that Jesus undertook for us and all of that suffering.

And today I’m going to move ahead just a bit in the text. I’m going to skip ahead just a little bit in the text, not much, and take the liberty of doing that because I really would like to spend a little more time in this little section. It’s such an important passage describing Jesus’ death and then His resurrection. I think it’s absolutely worth the extra attention because we need to think about it and meditate on it and focus on it.

So I want us to do that. I’m going to read this whole section, well, not the whole chapter, but this section again. Beginning… let’s see. The best place to begin is probably back in 16, so it leads up to this section. This is God’s holy word.

The TextMark 15:16–39

The soldiers took Him away into the palace, that is the Praetorium, and they called together the whole Roman cohort. They dressed Him up in purple, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on Him. And they began to acclaim Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They kept beating His head with a reed and spitting on Him and kneeling and bowing down before Him. After they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off Him, put His own garments on Him, and they led Him out to crucify Him.

They pressed into service a passerby coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear His cross. Then they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of the Skull. They tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh, but He did not take it. And they crucified Him and divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take.

It was the third hour when they crucified Him. The inscription of the charge against Him read, “The King of the Jews.” They crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right, one on His left. And the Scriptures were fulfilled, which says, “He was numbered with transgressors.”

Those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads and saying, “Ah, you who were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself and come down from the cross.” In the same way, the chief priests also with the scribes were mocking Him among themselves and saying, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross so that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with Him were also insulting Him.

When the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they began saying, “Behold, He’s calling for Elijah.” Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave Him a drink, saying, “Let us see whether Elijah will come and take Him down.”

And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed His last. The veil of the temple was torn in two, top from bottom. When the centurion who was standing right in front of Him saw the way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God.”

Let’s ask God to bless this passage that we’ve read.

Father, we thank you for the preciousness of your word. And Father, as we come to this particular passage, this section, we recognize how especially sacred and holy this is and how much it should mean to every Christian, every one of us. We pray, Father, that this morning you impress on us anew what Jesus has done for us as we consider Him on the cross, as we consider what He suffered for us. We ask, Lord, that you show us mercy as we look into this, and that by the power of your Spirit you enlighten our minds. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Well, like I said, this morning I want to skip ahead a little bit, but I plan on backing up and looking at more of these details and some of the people involved as this unfolds in the next couple of weeks at least. And it’s worth it. We really do need to spend time on this passage. Every Christian, every believer in Jesus Christ needs to focus on and think about and really come to understand what took place in this passage, to think about it.

And it is so easy to know this apart from the platitudes that we use. We come to a passage like this and we hear certain phrases over and over. And the phrases are true, but we hear them so often that we hardly think about it. We sing them in our hymns and we hardly think about them.

A phrase like, “The cross proves God’s love for us.” You see, because I stopped and I called attention to it, we might think about that. But if I would just use that in a phrase in the middle of one of my sermons, we hear it so often.

What you think when you hear something like that is, of course that’s true. Of course that’s true. And you go on and you give it no thought. It doesn’t really impact you in much of a way.

We need to get beyond that. We need to get beyond and actually do what John the Baptist said when he said,

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

John 1:29

You see, to say “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” could be a platitude. But John is saying, look at Him. John is saying, take a deep look at Him and come to understand who He really is. This is Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, the fairest Lord Jesus.

Do you ever look at Him and value Him for who He is? More important than anything, more important than any distraction that pulls our minds away from Him day after day and moment by moment. Jesus is worth concentrating on and thinking about.

Behold the Lamb of God.

John 1:29

I hope that we can see a little more of Him this morning.

The first thing that I want to call attention to in this 15th chapter, as we continue to look at it, is the emphasis that Mark has on the time of day. Time of day.

The First Hour

In the very first verse, it says,

Early in the morning, the chief priests with the elders and the scribes, the whole council, held a consultation.

Mark 15:1

And they met there before daybreak, or just a little before, because Jesus needed to be tried by Pilate, and that takes place at dawn. And so here they are at the break of day. In the first hour, about 6 o’clock in the morning, they take Jesus to Pilate, and that’s the first mention of time. So as soon as it was morning, in the first hour, it’s about 6 a.m.

The Third Hour

Look at verse 15 now of chapter… let me see if I’ve got that right. No, I mean 25. Yeah, 25.

It was the third hour when they crucified Him.

Mark 15:25

That is, if the first hour is 6 o’clock, this is the third hour, it’s 9 in the morning. At 9 in the morning, the text simply says,

In the third hour they crucified Him. The inscription of the charge against Him read, “The King of the Jews.” They crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right and one on His left.

Mark 15:25–27

Right after Jesus’ hands were nailed to the cross and the nails were driven to His feet, the cross was lifted upright and they dropped Him into that hole in the ground. Jesus prayed. It’s not in this passage, but right about nine o’clock, right after this begins, Jesus prays a prayer and He says,

Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.

Luke 23:34

And it was between this ninth hour and the 12th hour that Jesus talks with the thief, the man who’s beside Him. It’s between this time when He is talking to the thief and the thief repents. He turns to Christ and says,

Remember me when you come into your kingdom.

Luke 23:42

And Jesus says to him,

Today you will be with me in paradise.

Luke 23:43

And then when you look at John’s gospel, it’s clear it’s still at this time of the day, in this period of three hours between 9 and 12, that John the apostle is there in front of the cross, and Mary, Jesus’ mother, is there. And Jesus commissions John to care for His mother. He says, “Woman,” to Mary,

Woman, behold your son.

John 19:26

And to John He says,

Behold your mother.

John 19:27

And so all of these things, these things take place in this three-hour period.

The Sixth Hour

But then the sixth hour comes. It’s 12 noon. And at 12 noon, verse 33,

When the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani.”

Mark 15:33–34

And so at 12 o’clock, 12 o’clock, darkness falls. It’s an incredible thing. Darkness falls. It’s as if the sin that is laid on Jesus hides the sun, and it becomes dark.

And Douglas Webster made an interesting observation, and he put it very succinctly when he said,

At the birth of the Son of God, there was a brightness at midnight. And at the death of the Son of God, there was darkness at noon.

Douglas Webster

It’s interesting, isn’t it? The Shekinah glory in the middle of the night at the birth of Jesus. The darkness when Jesus dies.

The Ninth Hour

And then in the ninth hour, Jesus cries out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani.” For three hours, there’s darkness and there’s silence. Three hours of darkness and silence. What’s taking place during that time on the cross? That’s what I want us to think about this morning.

What’s taking place in the darkness? And probably one of the most important keys for us to understand it is what Jesus says as soon as the darkness lifts.

In the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,” which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Mark 15:34

It’s a terrible thing. These seem like terrible words, don’t they? So how do we understand it? What did those words mean? Well, obviously, as you know, I’m sure, this is a quote from Psalm 22:1.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Psalm 22:1

So what did Jesus mean when He cried out this cry? He was there. It was darkness. He couldn’t sense His Father’s presence. What was He saying? Now, this is Jesus talking to His Father. What is He saying?

Not a Cry of Despair

Well, there are some who have said that He was crying out of despair. They’re saying that it’s as if in His mind, He’s in that dark hour of the soul, the dark night of the soul. He’s experiencing this, and it takes Him to the point of despair, and He’s feeling that the Father has forgotten Him. And usually they’ll always say, of course the Father hasn’t forgotten Him. It’s just the way He feels in that moment.

Could that be true? Well, you’re thinking probably not because of the way I framed that, I expect. No, I don’t think that could be true at all. For Jesus to despair in that moment would mean that He’d lost faith. And that’s not true of Jesus. Certainly not.

Forsaken by the Father

So then why does He call out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” at the end of this darkness? It is because God had forsaken Him.

Think about that. That’s the most extraordinary thing to imagine, that the Father had actually forsaken Jesus there. The Father had forsaken Him. Think about that.

That means that Jesus was under the judgment of God and the condemnation of God. That’s what it’s saying. That’s the idea. He was God forsaken. An actual and real separation between the Father and Jesus under the condemnation of God.

Who Jesus Is

And that being true, let’s think about what’s involved here. Let’s think about who Jesus is, the one who’s been condemned here by God, the Father. Jesus is, He is actually the Son of God. He is the one whom has always, always loved and served His Father, whose heart has always been faithful to His Father, always devoted throughout His life. There’s never been a moment when Jesus failed to love and do the will of His heavenly Father. He said,

It’s my meat and drink to do my Father’s will.

It was never, never a moment in Jesus’ life when He failed to do His Father’s will. He loved His Father.

And think about who Jesus is talking to. He’s talking to His heavenly Father, who always loved Him, He who had sent His angels to minister to Him, who had continually been with Him, continually been with Him.

Listen to this verse to get the idea of this. I think this is important. In John 16:32, just before Jesus is crucified, He’s with His disciples, and He’s predicting that His disciples are going to abandon Him. And so the verse goes in John 16:32,

Behold, an hour is coming and already is. It’s already come. For you to be scattered, each to his own home, and leave me alone. And yet, I’m not alone, because the Father is with me.

John 16:32

Isn’t that precious? It’s a precious thing. That was true of the Lord Jesus all His life. He and His Father were one. They were together. The Father is with Jesus every moment, all this time.

Separation from the Father

And yet, for those three hours, the Father turns His back on Jesus. For three hours, the Father condemns Jesus. The human soul of Jesus is condemned, not because He’s done anything wrong, but because He has taken upon Himself the sin of others. He’s taken upon Himself your sin and my sin.

And the holy and righteous and perfect Jesus has offered Himself to suffer the judgment and condemnation of the Father for us, for you. For you. He’s offered Himself to suffer in your place.

And so the human soul of Jesus is separated from the Father. This is what Jesus has done for us. Now this is Jesus who has not done anything wrong. I mean, He’s perfect in every way, and yet sin is attached to Him.

He has willingly become a sacrifice so that the sins of mankind have been laid on Him. He’s accepted them. He’s not guilty of them personally, but He has accepted them. And because He is the offering and He has accepted them, God sees and judges that sin. He sees and judges that sin as if it were us. He takes that place.

If we stand before God apart from Jesus Christ, we are guilty of eternal sin. Countless sins. But one is enough. And so we would rightly be condemned to hell forever, removed from God.

But we have a provision because of what Jesus has done here. He has taken your sin and it’s been laid on Him, and He suffered the consequences of your sin, death on a cross. He suffered in our place, death on a cross and separation from the Father.

What Jesus Dreaded

You know, when we were looking back, when Jesus was in Gethsemane and He was anticipating what was going to take place and He sweat drops of blood and the agony of the anticipation of this was on Him, it wasn’t the cross. It wasn’t the beatings that caused that. It wasn’t that.

I mean, you can see that in this chapter. They’re about to crucify Him. They’re going to offer Him a painkiller. He says, I don’t need it. It’s not the pain. It’s not the pain that He’s worried about.

When we think about these passages and we think about the cross and we emphasize the cat of nine tails… what’s the name of the movie? I’ve never seen the movie about the crucifixion of Christ, The Passion of the Christ. But as I understand it, it emphasizes all these things.

It’d be terrible to see that. It’s terrible to see the horrific physical abuse that they gave Jesus to crucify Him. All of that’s terrible. And it impacts us to think about that emotionally.

But Jesus wasn’t dreading that. That’s not what He was dreading when He was anticipating what’s going to take place. It’s these three hours, these three hours of separation from the Father. Because you know what that means? Three hours of separation from the Father, His soul condemned in your place. Jesus’ human soul condemned in your place, in my place.

Spiritual Death

And so there’s this separation. When we talk about death, we’re talking about the separation of the soul from the body, right? And when we’re talking about spiritual death, we’re talking about the separation of the soul from the Father, from God. That’s what spiritual death is. That’s what hell is. Being removed from every grace and blessing of good from the Father.

On the cross, in those three hours, when God condemned Jesus in our place, Jesus was separated from the Father and He experienced hell. He experienced everything that it means to be separated from everything that is good and imaginable.

And in that moment of darkness, I don’t know what took place. I mean, we can’t know what took place. But all Jesus’ life, Satan had been trying to tempt Him, to trip Him up, and now He’s separated from the Father on the cross. Can you imagine? Probably every denizen of hell was there to tempt Him, to test Him in those hours apart from the Father, to cause Him to despair if they could. But He didn’t despair.

The Answer to His Question

And this prayer that He prays is not a prayer of despair. The answer to His question, “Why have you forsaken me?” is because the sins of mankind have been laid on Him. That’s the answer. Because you’re bearing the sins of the world, as it says in John 1:29. He’s condemned to death, but it’s because of what He was able to accomplish for us.

Pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we’re healed. We like sheep have gone astray, each turned to his own way, but the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:5–6

And when John says, “Look at the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” he’s talking about Jesus, and he’s looking already to this moment, this time on the cross.

Our Passover Lamb

Do you know what happens on that day, the Passover day, and the ninth hour, and the moment that the sun came out? In Jewish tradition of Passover, at three o’clock in the afternoon, when Jesus says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” that was the moment that they killed the Passover lamb to celebrate the Passover. And that’s an interesting thing, isn’t it?

Jesus, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us.

1 Corinthians 5:7

That’s what the Scripture says. In that moment, Jesus becomes our sacrifice to take away our sin.

Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many.

Hebrews 9:28

He Himself bore our sin in His own body on the tree.

1 Peter 2:24

Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.

1 Peter 3:18

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, because it is written, “Cursed is anyone who’s hanged on a tree.”

Galatians 3:13

That’s what Jesus did for us. He’s under the very curse of God, the judgment of God, and He bears that for us. And at the end of those three hours, it’s done. He’s paid the price. He’s accomplished it, and He says to the Father, “Father, Father, why have you forsaken me?” And that’s the end of it.

It’s not a cry of victory here. It’s a cry of reality. And yet it’s a plea to the Father because there’s no longer any reason. It’s complete.

So Jesus, when He says this in Aramaic, those Greek speakers around them misunderstand it, and they think He’s calling out to Elijah. But Jesus is talking to the Father. And they give Him a little drink of vinegar and He drinks, and then He utters a loud cry and He breathes His last. And the centurion says,

Surely this man was the Son of God.

Mark 15:39

I’m not going to develop these. I’m just going to say them. Three things that I want us to take from this in some real way.

How Horrible Our Sin Is

And that is, when you think about Jesus in this moment, the precious Son of God who’s done nothing, who the Father loved, who’s always been close to Him, suffering in this way, doesn’t that tell us how horrible our sin is? Shouldn’t we begin to understand how terrible sin is?

We treat it lightly. We laugh at it. Hardly a week goes by that somebody doesn’t laugh at sin. You watch it on television and all these shows, and vicariously we laugh and experience the sins of others. We treat it lightly. We think it’s nothing.

Think of it nothing on the cross. Think of it nothing in these three hours of blackness. Think of it as nothing in these three hours where Jesus is silent. He’s there for you. How can we sin and treat it lightly when it costs so much, when it is so horrible?

How Wonderful God’s Love Is

The other thing that this should show us is that God’s love for us is amazingly wonderful. God’s love is amazingly wonderful, and it’s not because of us. It’s because God has an amazingly wonderful ability to love.

He loves with a mighty love, so much so that He was willing to give His Son. Jesus loves with such a mighty love that He was willing to stand in your place for you. He loves you so much that He was willing to stand in your place and endure this for you.

Only by Grace

And it should teach us that it’s only by grace that we get this, because Jesus completely accomplished this work of salvation for us. And there’s nothing that we can do to earn it or merit it or deserve it. We simply receive it freely from Him. We get it from Him as a gift, and that’s the only way to receive it.

There’s a hymn called “The Green Hill Far Away,” and one of the verses says,

We may not know, we cannot tell what pains He had to bear, but we believe it was for us He hung and suffered there.

Cecil Frances Alexander, There Is a Green Hill Far Away

In the book of Hebrews, in chapter 13, it says,

Jesus suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through His own blood. Let us then go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore.

Hebrews 13:12–13

That’s a great application, isn’t it? Are we willing to do that? Are we willing to go outside our circles, outside our church, into our everyday life, into the courses of the people that we’re with every day, and bear the same kind of shame that Jesus is willing to bear? Identify with Him, so whatever shame is with Jesus is ours as well. Are we willing to take up His name and stand by Him truly? The One who’s done so much for us.

And if not, why not? Why not? Do we really love Him? Do we love Him? We need to leave with that, with that thought.

What am I going to do for Jesus? How am I going to express my true love for Jesus? Not on a Sunday morning, but every day this week as I live out my life and for the rest of my life, how am I going to express my love for Jesus today? How am I going to express what I owe Him? I owe Him everything. How can I do that?

How can I express my love for Jesus? How can I show my love for Jesus to my children? How can I show my love for Jesus to my family, my family members, my cousins, and everyone that I know when I see them? How can I express my love for Jesus to my fellow workers who I see every day? Do I care about Him enough to identify with Him?

We may not know, we can’t tell what pains He had to bear, but we believe it was for us He hung and suffered there.

Cecil Frances Alexander, There Is a Green Hill Far Away

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for our precious, precious Savior, who loved us with a mighty love and who is more beautiful and more wonderful than anything we can imagine. Father, give us a mighty love for Him. Father, if we could just reflect the love that He has for us, if we could come to understand it better, and how can we see it better than what He has done for us on the cross?

Oh Lord Jesus, please, please let us love Him in a way that is seen by all those around us. Truly, not hypocritically, but actual, the pure love of Christ. May it show through us. And may we be unafraid, unafraid to ever identify with Him.

Father, help us then, like Him, to go outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore. Help us to identify with our Savior and take on whatever stigma that Jesus has in this world, and own it as a badge of privilege and honor. We ask, Father, for this grace. Strengthen us to be faithful to you, and bless our witness, we pray. In Jesus’ name, amen.