Mark 15:33-34 Darkness
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: May 3 & 4, 2018, Mark 15:33-34
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, eloi, lema sabachthani?” , which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
(Prayer) Thank You. I don’t understand Your pain, but thank You.
(Understanding the Text) For three hours, the day grew dark. What was the significance of the darkness? A lot of commentaries say that nature itself was hiding her face from this terrible scene, but that it is not Biblical. Nature is not a person and this saying implies a belief in a personified nature. Guzik points out an extra-Biblical reference to the darkness and earthquake. “a. There was darkness over the whole land: The remarkable darkness all over the earth showed the agony of creation itself in the Creator’s suffering. ‘Origen (Contra Celsus, ii,33) and Eusebius (Chron.) quote the writing of Phlegon (a Roman historian) in which he makes mention of an extraordinary solar eclipse as well as of an earthquake about the time of the crucifixion.’ (Geldenhuys)”. Cambridge Bible Commentary points out that there could not have been an eclipse at this time. “And when the sixth hour was come] i. e. 12 o’clock. The most mysterious period of the Passion was rapidly drawing near, when the Lord of life was about to yield up His spirit and taste of death. At this hour nature herself began to evince her sympathy with Him Whom man rejected. The clearness of the Syrian noontide was obscured, and darkness deepened over the guilty city. It is impossible to explain the origin of this darkness. The Passover moon was then at the full, so that it could not have been an eclipse. Probably it was some supernatural derangement of the terrestrial atmosphere. The Pharisees had often asked for a ‘sign from heaven.’ Now one was granted them.” Thus, God did provide a sign to the Pharisees, high priests, and common people. Did the sign bring them to faith? Not most of them but maybe some. F. F. Bruce’s commentary says “From noon till 3:00 p.m., the sky became darkened (33), which portent symbolized God’s displeasure at what men were doing to His Son.” I know the darkness came from God. I know that God was not pleased, and in fact, hated what was happening even though it was His own plan. However, I don’t think that the darkness was out of being displeased; that implies wrath and/or a lack of self-control, and what was happening was totally about God the Father and Son maintaining total control in order to accomplish an impossible terrible beautiful gift of love for humans. Was it a sign? Maybe, but upon reflection, I think it was to protect and hide the Father’s Beloved’s agony from the mockers and enemies surrounding Him. It makes more sense for the darkness to be a protection than a self-centered grieving. God did not blame man because this was His own plan, but He loved His Son so much that He wanted to spare Him whatever He could. He could not spare Him the pain and anguish, but He could spare Him the mockery and send a message to the Son’s enemies that the Father was still in control even if they thought that they had won.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) Jesus was put on the cross at nine in the morning, but darkness did not cover the land until three hours later at noon. Why the time delay? I could not find anywhere that answered that question. My best idea at this time was that it was necessary for the Father not to interfere before that time in order to allow the universe to understand how Satan and rebellion would treat the Beloved Son. The cross revealed the depths that Satan had sunk to and showed clearly God’s character contrasted with the enemies’ characters. The cross demonstrated where rebellion would lead to. However, a time came when it was no longer about the need for all of creation to witness the war taking place. Instead, it became about the Father, Son, and Spirit being torn apart. At that point, there was no need for witnesses and interactions with sinners. At that point, it was only about God being torn apart. Thus, the Father did the only thing He could do to protect the Son. He hid His agony in darkness.
Jesus finally could not bear the distance from His Father. He was split down the middle and part of His essence was gone and as a child, He cried out for His God. The process of splitting Himself apart which had begun when He was conceived was now total and His humanness cried out in despair for the missing part of Him. Jesus knew why this was happening, so it was not a cry of confusion, but instead it was a cry of a lover for His missing beloved. The cry of a husband mourning His dead wife. The cry of a bewildered pet mourning its missing master. The cry of separation too sorrowful to bear in silence.
(Application) MHCC Commentary has an interesting perspective about Jesus’ cry to His Father. “He did not complain that his disciples forsook him, but that his Father forsook him.” When Jesus was telling His disciples that they were all going to forsake Him, He was not blaming them but comforting them that He knew what they would do, and it was okay. He would meet with them again after everything was finished. “Then Jesus told them, “All of you will turn against me, because it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ However, after I have been raised, I will go to Galilee ahead of you.” (Mar 14:27-28). However, on the cross Jesus did complain that the Father had forsaken Him. This tells us something of the close powerful relationship between the Father and the Son. This is also our guidance in our own relationships. We need to be closer to Jesus than to anyone on earth, and that will allow us to not blame those on earth that we love for their desertions and failings.
(Revelation of God) This day that we look on as a day of triumph for the human race and for God over Satan was won through a battle so painful that it wrung a cry of anguish from deep inside the very heart of God. The darkness and pain of the day was shared by the whole universe and yet it was singular in the lonely heart of Jesus as He experienced the final breaking apart of His very being. In the end, He experienced a pain that cut through Him to the core and left Him for the first time in His eternal existence . . . alone.