The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 234

genernlly rccknncrl hie hours from miclnig-ht. tl10 earth: it probably wnA cnnfinecl to Palos- 'l'he Uomnns reckoned their civil dnys from tine and the o.djncent countriea. midnight, and there are also traces of reckon- Ver. 45.-And the veil of the temple wa.~ ing the J,ours from midnight in Asi11, Minor. rent in the midst. This was the inner veil, "About the sixth hour" would then be about which hung between the holy place aucl the six o..m. Before touching upon the strange holy of holies. It was rich wit!J costly cm- d,ukness which nt the sixth hour seems to broiclery, and very heavy. Before the will- hnve hung over the land like o. black ing snrrencler of life told of in the next verse pall, we note that somewhere in the first (46), our Lord spoke twice more. These three hours, possibly after the words spoken fifth and sixth words from the cross are pre- to the dying penitent, must be placed served by St. John (xix. 28, 30). The first the incident of the entrusting the virgin- of these," I thirst "-an expression of bodily mother to St. John (xix. 25, etc.). There exho.ustion, of physical suffering-was pre- is no doubt t'ho.t on the surFace of this, dicted as part of the agony of the Servant his third word from tho cross, lay a loving of God (Ps. lxix. 21). The eePond, "It i• desire to spare his mother the eight of hie finished!" tells that "the earthly life had lo.et awful suffering. Hence hie command been carried to its issue. That everv essen- to John to watch over from henceforth the tial point in the prophetic portraiture of mother of hie Lord. We may assnine, then, Messiah had been realized. The last suffer- that, in obedience to his Master's word, John ing for sin had been endured. The end of led llfary away before the sixth hour. So all had been gainer!. Nothing was left un- Bengel,.wbo comments here," Great is the done or unborne" (Westcott). faith of l\Iary to be present at the cross; Ver. 46.-Alld when J'esns had cried great was her submission to go away before with a loud voice, he as.id. Thie is bettel' his death." And there was a darkness over rendered, and JeJJus cried with a loud all the earth until the ninth hour. St. voice and said. The cry with the loud Matthew gives us additional po.rticulars re- voice is the solemn dismissal of his spirit specting this phenomenon. He says that when he commended it to his Father. besides this darkness there wne o.lso an The object of the receiving the refreshment earthquake, and that several graves were of the vincgo.r-the sour wine (John :xix. opened, and the dead during those hours of 30)-was that hie natural forces, weakened solemn gloom appeared to many in the holy by the long suffering, should be restored city. Early Christian writers of high au- sufficiently for him to rencler audible the thority, such as Tertullian (' Apo!.,' eh. 21) last two sayings-the "It is finished ! " of and Origen (' Contra. Cels.,' ii. Sa), appeal to St. John, and the commending his soul to this etro.nge phenomenon as if attested by his Father, of St. Luke. Father, into thy heathen writers. It was evidently no slight ha!!.ds I commend my spirit. St. John (xix. or imaginary portent, but one that wo.s well 30) has relo.ted now alreo.dy Jesus had known in the early Christian yeRrs. The uttered the triumpho.l cry, TETb,.,,-Ta, I "It narrative does not oblige us to think of any- is finished I" This wo.s his faretoell to eartli. thing more tho.n an indescribable and oppres- St. Luke records the words which seem sive darkness, which like a vust black pall almost immediately to have followed the hung over eo.rth and sea, The effect on the "It is finished I" Thie commending his scoffing multitude was quickly perceptible. spirit to hie Father has been accurately We hear of no more ories of mocking and termed his entrance-greeting to heaven. derision; only just at the end of the three This placing his spirit as a trust in the do.rk hours is the silence broken by the mys- l!'ather's hands is, e.s Stier phrases it, o.n ex- terious ancl awful cry of the Sinless One re- pression of the profoundest and most blessed lated by SS. Mo.tthew and Mark, "My God, repose after toil. "It is finished I" !ms my God, why bast thou forsaken mo?" already told ne that the struggling and com- Godet's comment is remarke.ble : " The bat were sea.led and closed for ever. Doc- d1ukness, the rending of the veil of the trine.lly it is a saying of vast importance: temple, the earthquake, and the opening of for it emphatically asserts tbo.t the soul eeverul gre.ves, are explained by the pro- will exist apart from the body in the hands found counection existing on the one side of God. This at least is its proper home. between Christ and humo.nity, on the other The so.ying bas been echoed on many l,etwcen hnmo.nity uncl ne.ture. Christ is the 11 &Bintly death-bed. Stephen, full of the Soul of hume.nity, o.s humanity is the soul Holy Ghost, in his grcnt e.gony shows us of the extorno.l wol'id." 'l'he darknoss, ho the form of this blessed prayer uie should suggests, we.a pcrho.ps connected with the properly use for ourselves o.t that supreme earthquake with which it was accompanied, hour, when ha asked the Lorll Jews to or it may have resulted from an atmospheri- receive his spirit, o.nd then foll 1\sleep. cal or cosmical ccmse. The phenomenon 'l'hus coming to the Son, we come through need not necessurily ho.vo extended over all him to the Father. IT nss, on hid way to tho  TIIE GOSPEL ACCOI~DING TO ST. LUKE. [en. xxm. 1-5G.