The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 217

Ver. 53.-Tlie power of spiritoo,7, darkness. .As our Lord, declining to avail himself of the physical forces at his command, surrendered himself to the will of his assailants, he used an expression which was full of spiritual significance. "'l'his is your hour," he sa,d, "and the power of dnrkness." By this he intimated (1) that the hour of his enemies' triumph had arrived-the brief hour of their outward success and inward exul- tation, the dark hour of his humiliation and visible defeat; and (2) that this passing hour was simultaneous with the prevalence of the power of darkness. Wicked men were to triumph because the forces of guilty error were for the tune prevailing. ·we look at- L 'l'HE POWER OF DAR!n."ESS. 1. Its spiritual nature. It is a state of spiritual blindness. V? e may not, with a great Greek philosopher, resolve all evil into error; but we may say that sin is continually, is universally, springing from inward blindness. Men do not see the truth; they call good evil, and evil good; they have the most false imaginations concerning all objects, from the Divine Being himself to the lowliest huwan duty; and hence they go far astray. 2. Its most glaring manifestations. It lays its unholy hand on innocence, on Divine Love itself, and leads it away to trial and crucifix.ion. It conducts the devoted servant of Christ to the brutal judge, to the shameful scaffold, to the devouring flame. It arms a vast multitude of men and leads them forth to a vain and useless strife, shedding human blood and wasting human labour, a.s if Christ would be pleased or could be served by such means as these. It covers with the sacred name of religion a system that holdd millions of human beings in a degrading bondage. It sanctions all the sinful institutions the world has seen and i:;uffertd from. 3. Its most deplorable effects. These are not found in the deeds and the i;uiferingi; of men, but rather in their souli;; the worst issue of spiritual misconception is in the utter darkness of spirit in which it ends. "If the light-that is in us be dark- ness, how great must that darkness be!" It means : (1) l•'alse thoughts. Here were meu who should have known better thinking the worst things of Jesus Christ- judging him to be a criminal, to be a traitor, to be a blaspliemer; and there are men amougst us who, under the power of error, think altogether wrong thoughts of God and of the Saviour-thoughts wliicll do him wron9., which misrepresent him to the miud, which repel rather than attract the soul. ~2) Bad feelings. Here were men induluinu in feelings of positive and perfect hatred against Jesus Christ; and there are men, ~i!Jed by the power of darkness, hating instead of loviog the Father of spiritij, repelled from instead of befog drawn towards good anti true 11ouls whom they have grievously mirnuderstood. (i:l) Wrong purpo6es of heart. Under this malignant influence men are ~urposiag to injure their fellow-men, Instead of resolving to rellcue, to rail;e, to euuoule t.bem, the1 dclermi.u.e to put them dowu or to hold them 011. xxII. 1-71.J 'l'HJi; GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUEE.