Darkness covers the land. The picture has gotten darker, hasn’t it? Sure the colors have gotten darker. The colors have darkened to the point that greater and greater definition and depth has been added. But it reflects a different kind of darkness that has come.
It has gotten darker yet on this night. But it has all led up to this night when we recall the darkness of this night. The darkness of this world is a constant reminder to us of just how terribly messed up this world really is. There is darkness in this world and we don’t need to look very hard to find it. Sometimes the darkness is the feeling that God is so far and so distant from us. Sometimes, it’s the experience that God doesn’t care bit about what happens to us. Like the girl who I met the other day who has known the brokenness of this life. Recovering drug addict, divorced, a broken down car, and a boyfriend who hardly cares to help. Sometimes, its our experience that God is so terribly hidden from us and we are in, the dark.
This darkness that haunts us, points us to another darkness. The darkness where we all are headed. It is the darkness of the grave. We are all haunted by it until we too face it. We are haunted by it when our loved ones are placed in the depths of the earth. We are haunted it by it with creaking bones and illnesses that deprive us of the vitality of life. Death is not a good thing. It is an intrusion on this world. It always involves separation. Separation between loved ones. The eternal death which is separation between man and God. Death always involves separation. It is a separation that leaves one in the dark. Paul says that the wages of sin is death. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Everyone. Sin is always death in hiding and death is nothing but sin made manifest. We don’t always have the explanations for why we face the specific darknesses and hiddenness of God in our lives. It’s not a tit for tat kind of tally system. But one thing is for sure, the brokenness, fallenness, and darkness of this world has one root cause and we are born into its slavery and we perpetuate it ourselves in all things that we do, leaving none blameless. That is sin.
But you know, In Christ, God is not a stranger to darkness. He is whipped. He is spit at. He is stripped of his clothes while soldiers gamble for them. He is mocked, “He saved others, why cannot he save himself?” He is given sour wine. Even a criminal who truly is guilty rails at him. Then from the 6th hour until the 9th the light of day failed. That’s 12 pm to 3pm. The middle of the day. Darkness covers the land. Darkness covers the land like black death. The black death this world deserves covers Christ on the cross. Even the dark night of the very abandonment and wrath of God against sin covers Christ on the cross.
Standing on the other side of this coming Sunday and the Word of God, this is why Good Friday is so important for us. This is why Good Friday is so important for us when we face the darkness of this world. This is why darkness is so important for the young girl that I mentioned a moment ago. This is why Good Friday is so important for those who face death. God is not a stranger to the darkness of death.
Brothers and sisters in Christ we do not have a God who simply sits far off in some cloud out of sight leaving us in utter darkness. No, we have a Father in Heaven who loves you so dearly that He sent His one and only Son into our flesh to take on the utter darkness of this world, to bear it for your sake. He has entered into the very pit of human broken existence and the darkness of sin. He made himself low. So low and lowly. He made himself humble, so humble to the point of death, yes, even death on a cross. He did it for you. He enters into the very depths of your crying out to God. He enters into the very depths of your despair. He enters into the very depths of your experience of being abandoned by God. He bore that abandonment for you so that you may know that when the darkness surrounds you, Christ is with you! When hardship assails you, Christ is with you! All to the effect that you might trust that God is FOR YOU even in death. In Christ, God is always for you!
By Jesus death, He has defeated death. By Jesus separation from the Father, he has removed all separation. By Jesus taking on the blackness of death, we are given the light of life! By Jesus Death for YOU, Jesus life is YOURS. Jesus took your death, the judgment of God against sin and He gives you His life. Jesus took your sin and Jesus gives you His righteousness. You have no need to doubt Him in this. By His word it’s black and white.
