Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour

 

 Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"  Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, "Look, He is calling for Elijah!"  Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink, saying, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down."  And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.  Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, "Truly this Man was the Son of God!"  

 

- Mark 15:33–39 

 

Yesterday we read that, after His trial before Pilate, they brought Jesus to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull.  Then they gave Him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but He did not take it.  And when they crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take.  Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him.  And the inscription of His accusation was written above: THE KING OF THE JEWS.  With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left.  So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And He was numbered with the transgressors."  And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, "Aha!  You who  destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!"  Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, "He saved others; Himself He cannot save.  Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe."  Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him.

 

  Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.  The sixth hour to the ninth hour correspond to the hours between noon and three o'clock in the afternoon, the peak time of sun and heat.  My study Bible directs us to Zechariah 14:6-7; Amos 8:9.  These prophets write of the darkness that overcomes Israel.

 

 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"  Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, "Look, He is calling for Elijah!"  Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink, saying, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down."  Here Jesus is praying Psalm 22; His words begin the first verse of the psalm.  Without reading the rest of the psalm, Christ's cry of "Why have You forsaken me?" could be misunderstood as a cry of despair.  But we should understand that, as Christ took on our human nature, He experiences our alienation from God in His humanity, knowing our suffering and distress, but He does not despair.  He speaks these words in the name of humanity, my study Bible explains, completely identifying with us in our condition.  In His divinity, however, He is never forsaken by the Father.  The whole of Psalm 22 is a vivid picture of the Crucifixion, but it ends with the note of salvation before the Lord.

 

And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.   Christ's death on the Cross is voluntary to the very end, my study Bible says, for even on the Cross, His life could not be taken from Him against His will.  Jesus accepts death on the Cross neither to receive the Father's punishment on our behalf, nor to satisfy the Father's need for blood-justice (as if God would demand such things), but so that by entering death as the divine Son of God, He can destroy the last enemy -- which is death itself (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).  My study Bible comments that Christ accepts human nature in order to sanctify human nature; He accepts our weakness in order to make us strong; He takes on our sin in order to free us from sin; He suffers in order to transfigure suffering; and He enters death in order to destroy it.

 

  Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  My study Bible comments that the veil that separated the Most Holy Place from the rest of the temple was a symbol of the separation between God and man.  Christ's death, it says, opens the way into the presence of God for all people, giving people access to that which is the most holy of all:  God Himself.  In many Orthodox churches, there is a curtain between the altar and the nave which is drawn open during liturgical services to emphasize that communion with God, which was at one time sealed off from humanity, is now available to all who approach in faith. 

 

 So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, "Truly this Man was the Son of God!"  The centurion is a Gentile.  As he observes what happens, my study Bible says that he realizes that Jesus has dominion over nature, and therefore acknowledges Him as the Son of God.  In the tradition of the Church he is known as St. Longinos.

 

 This centurion, a Gentile (as my study Bible points out) is perhaps the first evidence we get of the appeal of Christ to the pagan Gentiles.  Although Christ Himself said that He was sent only to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel," and He instructed His disciples similarly in their first missionary journey (see Matthew 10:6; 15:24), what we see at this juncture is the obvious appeal to one so representative of the Gentiles as this centurion.  He has eyes to see and ears to hear -- for him, as my study Bible says -- the effects of Christ at His death are obvious, so that he declares, "Truly this Man was the Son of God!"  The pagan centurion is able to see what those hard-hearted men in the religious leadership have steeled themselves against seeing.  He doesn't share their hatred or venom against One so truly graced and holy that all they can do is fight against Him so that He won't be recognized, and the people seek Christ instead of themselves as leaders.  St. Mark tells us something else that a Gentile perceives which others of the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" do not see, and that is Pilate's sharp awareness of motives among the religious leaders.  In Wednesday's reading, the text told us that Pilate "knew that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy."  Pilate is able to see what the people, stirred up against Jesus by the chief priests, cannot.  These are just hints in the Gospels of the times that are to come, when Gentiles, who have not hardened their hearts against the coming of the Lord in the Person of Jesus, begin to grasp the divine which is far beyond what their pagan faith can give them.  Perhaps it's true that, having been given so much, we are also free to reject so much, and refuse to open our ears and eyes to the manifestation and fulfillment of prophecy in a form we did not expect, and do not necessarily want.  Perhaps the darkness that was over the whole of the land as Christ begins to die is the dying of the light, manifest in nature.  It covers the land as the people sit in darkness, in a blindness to the light that is rejected here.  But as the light begins to dawn again, others begin to be enlightened, illumined with the comprehension of Christ.  And this, too, is the fulfillment of the prophesy of Isaiah:  "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined."   It is, after all, Jesus Himself who tells us, as reported in all four Gospels, that "a prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house" (Mark 6:4).  However, we should not discount the thousands of Jews who become His followers as well. See, for example, Acts 2, and the thousands who respond to St. Peter's sermon the day of Pentecost.  Perhaps the lesson we take from today's reading, sad as it is in certain very tragic ways for us, is that God's ways are not necessarily our ways, that God does not conform to our expectations, but it is we who always must be prepared for God, as a light that breaks through our own darkness.  In St. John's Gospel, Jesus tells Nicodemus that there are those who prefer their darkness to the light (John 3:19).  Let us be prepared for the light that comes in forms we don't expect, and to accept that God's ways are not always our ways (Isaiah 55:8), so that we might look around and truly see ourselves.