The slow, agonizing death on the cross continued for Jesus and the two thieves.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, stayed by her son at the foot of the cross. It was horrible to watch her son die and know there was no way she could stop it. And to think her son-The Son of God-was sinless. The knowledge that Jesus was paying the price of for the sins of all mankind didn’t make her heartache any easier.
John waited at the foot of the cross along with Mary and a few other women. The other disciples were not there.
Even in His agony, Jesus as the eldest son, provided for his widowed mother.
“Woman, behold they son!,” Jesus said to His mother.
“Behold they mother!,” Jesus said to John. From that day on, John took Mary into his home and cared for her as he would have his own mother.
At noon, darkness fell over the land. When the sun should have shown it’s brightest, a heavy curtain of black covered everything. The darkness enveloped everything and everyone. While the Creator hung suspended between heaven and earth. The sun Jesus created went dark. For three hours, darkness covered the land.
Jesus, who was without sin, took on the sin of every person who ever lived.
For the first time, the darkness of sin separated the Son of God from His Father.
“Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthani?” Jesus cried out in Aramaic (translation to English is My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?)
Some of the people who were watching Jesus misunderstood His words.
“This man is calling for Elijah,” they said.
“Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him,” they said. They didn’t understand that Jesus could have come down from the cross at any time. But He chose to stay there to pay the sin debt for all people.
But darkness can never overtake The Light of the World.
The Light always shines in the darkness.
Jesus completed what He came to do.
“I am thirsty,” said Jesus.
Someone got a sponge dipped in sour wine and gave Jesus a drink.
“It is finished,” said Jesus. The sin debt for all mankind was paid.
When the land was dark and the sin of the world rested on Jesus, He’d called out “My God….” Now that Jesus had paid the sin debt for all mankind, He called out again—the time to His Father. Sin no longer separated Jesus from His father.
“Father, into thy hands I commit My Sprit,” said Jesus.
He bowed His head and breathed one last time.
They didn’t take the life of Jesus. He willingly gave His life.
Carla Killough McClafferty