Words of Power in Death, v33-41, Even in total darkness Christ wanted to praise our Father, proclaiming his commitment. As His Father’s heart was breaking, the Spirit of Christ was tearing the Temple’s curtain in two! Ex. 26:31 blue, purple, scarlet fine twined linen with cherubim skillfully weaved within, 2Chron. 3:14. Matthew, Mark and Luke all record the sky becoming dark as Jesus hung on the cross. “It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three, because the sun’s light failed,” according to Luke 23:44. The obvious problem for this to occur naturally is that this is Passover week and the phase of the moon does not lend itself to an eclipse of the sun. However, Christians have always maintained that our God is Almighty as the Creator, and Christ was there in this almighty event, John 1:1-14. So when Christ died physically as the spiritual light of the world, a miraculous event would happen. The darkness in Egypt during the plagues is recorded as a miracle too. But brushing biblical theology aside, we do have the secular evidence of the quotation from Thallus, Thallus wrote a history of the eastern Mediterranean world since the Trojan War. Thallus wrote his regional history in about AD 52. (Habermas, Gary. The Historical Jesus, pp. 196-7, College Press Publishing Company, 1996.) Thallus is specifically quoted by Julius Africanus, a renowned third century historian. J.Africanus states, ‘Thallus, in the third book of his histories, explains away the darkness as an eclipse of the sun—unreasonably as it seems to me.’ Apparently, Thallus attempted to ascribe a naturalistic explanation to the darkness during the crucifixion. J.Africanus rightly argues that a solar eclipse could not have occurred during the lunar cycle of the Passover. He also questions the link between an eclipse, an earthquake, and the miraculous events recorded in the Gospels. Eclipses do not set off earthquakes and bodily resurrections. We also know that eclipses only last for several minutes, not three hours. For J.Africanus, naturalistic explanations for the darkness at the crucifixion were grossly insufficient, as he showed with science. There is powerful evidence for the historicity of the miraculous darkness at Christ’s crucifixion. It was a real historical event, Christ came to suffer the horrible and darkest death of crucifixion in order to die for the sins of the world. When Jesus uttered the powerful words of Psa. 22:1, and “it is finished”, his praise not only affected creation’s source of light, but he also tore the Temple Veil from top to bottom. These events are real acts of judgment, divine decisions are done and our world would never be the same!
The Victorious Burial, v42-47, There are at least 5, even 6 recorded witnesses to the exact location of the burial of the corpse of Jesus. Joseph of Arimathea, Pilate, The Centurion, Mary Magdalen, Mary the mother of Joses and of course Nicodemus (Jn. 19:39) This is important because of the legalities of responsibility in finding the corpse which was claimed to have been risen from the dead. Both Roman and Jewish authorities are directly connected to facing up to the consequences of securing the corpse to tomb. The message of the resurrection happening at this site, was paramount to the force of the message during that generation. For all other generations, the exact site is of no consequence, because the message, once established as true, is, was and will forever be true. No one could disprove the resurrection then, nor can they disprove it now. Historical evidence and eye-witness testimony can not be re-written, therefore, this burial itself is a victory in the way it was done. Our baptism is an evidenced burial of our faith in the operation of God in giving us life from death, Romans 6:1-7.
Epaggelia 