3 Hours of Darkness

At noon,darkness fell across the whole land until three o'clock. -Mark 15:33.

3 Hours of Darkness
The Lord Jesus Christ had been rejected by many hostile groups of people,the religious leaders of the people,the Roman occupational power,the spectators at the cross and even by malefactors crusified with Him.His disciples,who had accompanied Him,abandoned Him and fled.
Now worse sufferings were to come over Him: He was forsaken by God! It was no longer a matter of the evil and brutality of men; in those hours of darkness He was the sin offering appointed by God for the sin of mankind.No-one was permitted to behold such a scene.Darkness covered the whole land.Hidden from human view and alone before God,Christ,"who never sinned,to be the offering for our sin" -2 Corinthians 5:21.So He endured the fact that God turned His face from Him.
By fulfilling God's claims as judge and suffering thus in perfect obedience,so that sinners might be saved,He glorified God the Father.That such a sacrifice was needed shows the magnitude of God's holiness.But the fact that God Himself made this sacrifice reveals His infinite love.An inferior sacrifice could never have glorified Him perfectly and at the same time brought about man's salvation.
What must it have been for the Lord Jesus to be "made sin".He had come into the world as the "holy one" (Luke 1:35),and now God's judgment had been carried out on Him.What humiliation,but also what love towards God and the lost on the part of the Redeemer!
This three hours of darkness was necessary if fallen man must be saved.It actually wasn't easy,but it was necessary.Christ has completed his task here on earth.It is now up to us to either believe in Him and be sure of eternal life,or reject Him and be lost forever! Christ's death on the cross will never be in vain.