Matt, xxvii. 45. Note from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
IT might well be expected that the crucifixion of the Son of God should be accompanied with circum- stances of a peculiar nature ; sufficient, when properly understood, to remove the offence of his cross, and to distinguish him from all others who should suffer the same kind of death. The whole creation is at God's command, and ready, in any manner that he sees fit, to display his power. The sun in particular has been made his instrument for that end. In the days of Joshua, it suspended its course for the space of a whole day*. In the days of Hezekiah, it reversed its natural course, and went backwards ten degrees on the sun-dial of Ahaz''. And now, at the death of Christ, when risen to its meridian height, it veiled its face in darkness". How far the darkness extended, whether over the whole earth, as some think, or over the land of Judaea only, as our translators thought,
^ .Tosh. X. 12, 1.3. i* 2 Kings xx. 11.
•^ The sixth hour corresponded with our noon.
we do not take upon us to determine ; though we incline to the latter : but, whether more or less, it could not proceed from a natural cause. It could not be an eclipse, because the moon at that time was at the full : and even if it had been an eclipse, it could not have been total for more than a quarter of an hour ; whereas this continued for the space of three hours. It was manifestly a miraculous darkness, produced by the almighty power of God, and that too for ends worthy of a divine interposition. It was,
I. An attestation to our Saviour's character —
[It was ordained of God, that every species of testimony should be given to his Son, in confirmation of his claims as the true Messiah. The particular kinds of testimony vv^ere, many hundreds of years before, made the subject of prophecy: and they were almost all of such a nature, as to be independent of his own followers, and consequently incapable of being brought to effect by any concerted plan of theirs. The miracle now exhibited was of that kind : for the whole creation could not have produced such a change in the face of nature : and as it could not be counterfeited, so neither could it be denied : it carried its own evidence along with it.
That this darkness was foretold, we cannot doubt **. The
prophet Joel most indisputably refers to it^ : for an inspired
Apostle quotes his very words, and declares, that those words
related to events which were to happen at that precise period,
for the exiiress purpose of attesting the Messiahship of Christ^.
Behold then a proof which cannot reasonably be doubted. True it is, that the Jewish historian does not record the fact : but we well know how averse he was to mention any thing that tended to the honour of Christianity, and therefore can account easily for his omission of so extraordinary an inter- position of the Deity in confirmation of our religion. But the fact itself is undeniable : and if the three days' darkness in Egypt was a convincing testimony from God to the mission of Moses, so was this to the Messiahship of Christ.]
II. An emblem of his sufferings —
[" Darkness " is often used in Scripture as a figurative
representation of afllictions But it was peculiarly
proper as an emblem on this occasion. Our blessed Lord was under the hidings of his Father's face, and in the depths of dereliction cried, " My God, my God ! why hast thou forsaken
d Amosviii. 9. « Joel ii. 30—32. f Acts ii. 16, 19—21. s Isai. V. 30. and viii. 22. Ezek. xxxii. 7, 8.
(iOO MATTHEW, XXVII. 45. [1411.
lue ?" His sufferings were such as no finite imagination can conceive. The torments which men inflicted on his body were small, in comparison of those which he now endured in his soul. All the hosts of hell were, as it were, let loose upon him ; as He himself says, " This is your hour, and the power of dark- ness''." Above all, the wrath of God was now poured out upon him, as the Surety and Substitute of a guilty world ; according to that declaration of the prophet, " It pleased the Lord to bruise him'." Under such circumstances, what in the compass of created nature could so fitly represent his sufferings as the event before us*^? Hear the description given of those