Think
of the brightest moment in your life—a time of happiness, wonder, and joy. What was it?....Now think of the darkest
moment in your life—a time of great pain, grief, maybe a tragedy you would
rather forget. Maybe you even asked or
cried out, “Where are you, God?” Was
Jesus in both of those moments? Did He
share in your joy? Did He share in your
sufferings? Today we look at the
brightest and darkest moments in Jesus’s life—His transfiguration, and his
crucifixion.
The Transfiguration was literally
the brightest day for Jesus. He appeared
in light as light. Luke describes his
clothing as flashing like lightening.
Jesus appeared in all His heavenly glory, that which was His from before
time, and that which He has now. Jesus
was being honored by God the Father. And
yet, even in this brightest moment, there was talk of darkness ahead. Jesus, Moses, and Elijah are having a
conversation about “Jesus’s departure” “He was about to accomplish in
Jerusalem. That’s a nice way of saying
Jesus’s death. We aren’t giving any
details about the conversation, but it was something Peter, James, and John
were able to hear, although they do not participate in it. We are only told that towards the end of the
conversation, Peter interrupted to say that they could build tabernacles for
Jesus and the two prophets. Luke tells
us that they had been sleepy before this, and it was the light that brought
them to their senses. The other two
gospels emphasize how terrified they were.
While this was a bright day for Jesus, the disciples were overwhelmed
and scared. God has to speak in a cloud
to tell them to PAY ATTENTION! Something
important and serious is happening and going to happen. They had to be reminded that Jesus wasn’t an
ordinary rabbi. He is the Son of God,
the Chosen One.” If you remember from
last week, these are the very titles that the religious leaders used to mock
Jesus and challenge Him to come down off the cross.
For the 3 disciples, I’m sure this
was a WOW experience that took some time to process. They didn’t talk about it until years
later. That probably would’ve been a
hard thing to do! The Bible study group
has been looking at the life of Paul this week.
In re-reading Paul’s conversion experience this week, it dawned on me
that the light Paul and the soldiers experienced on that Damascus road was the
glorified Jesus—the risen and ascended One shining with the same glory that
Peter, James, and John saw on that mountaintop, light so bright that it left
Paul blind until Ananias healed him, and may have even been the source of his
ongoing eye problems, which Dr. Luke helped treat. Like Peter, James, and John, everyone fell to
the ground in fear. I can imagine Paul
talking to Peter after he returns from his 3 year period in the wilderness and
sharing his experience. I’m sure Peter
and John both would have made comparisons with their experience of Jesus.
For Jesus, this experience allowed Him
to reveal His divine fullness to the disciples.
The voice from the Father, echoing what He spoke at Jesus’s baptism,
must have been a comfort and reassurance to Jesus. He would hear God speak one more time during
Holy Week when Jesus was teaching and some Greeks wanted to see Jesus. We don’t know if they ever got to, but the
people around Jesus did. He tells them,
“This voice has not come for my sake but for your sakes.” This bright moment
for Jesus gave Him something to look forward to, knowing that He was about to
face His darkest moment.
Jesus’s darkest moment was hanging on the cross, dying. Everyone in Jerusalem and maybe even broader, participated in this darkest moment with the sun being obscured for 3 hours. We have seen that yes, there was an eclipse during this time, but this couldn’t have been any ordinary eclipse. 3 hours of totality would be something for sure! Totality during an eclipse is generally a few minutes. The longest solar eclipse ever recorded is 743 BC at just over 7 ½ minutes. That’s BC, so if one lasted 3 hours in 33 AD, it surely would have made the history books. Furthermore, Jesus was crucified around the full moon, not the new moon, which is required for a solar eclipse. In fact, Julius Africanus writing in 240 AD, reflecting on the writings of Thallus from 50 AD, says that Thallus’s explanation of this 3 hours of darkness being an eclipse are “without evidence.” There was also an earthquake when Jesus died. We will hear more about this in a couple of weeks. Depending on when that earthquake actually hit, it could have thrown enough dust in the air to darken it. We know that volcanos have done this, so much so, that the sky has been darkened for nearly a year! 3 hours is nothing for a volcano and even a large earthquake. But all the gospel put the earthquake just before or right at Jesus’s death. Back in Luke 22, when Jesus was arrested, He said “to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders who had come out against Him, ‘Have you come out with swords and clubs as against a robber? While I was in the temple, you did not lay hands on Me, but this is your hour and power of darkness.” Of course, Jesus’s arrest and trials and tortures by the Jewish leaders and Herod were all at night. In the morning, He went before Pilate and was tried and tortured. And as He was crucified around noon, the sky once again became as dark as night and stayed that way until Jesus died at 3pm. This was also an hour of the power of darkness. It looked like evil was winning. Certainly, evil was very much at work. The sky darkening could have been creation’s response to the crucifixion of Jesus. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the religious leaders tried to make Jesus get His disciples to shut up as they were praising God and singing about the Messiah, but Jesus told the leaders that if they were to be silent, the rocks would cry out. Romans 8 tells us that all creation is groaning, even now. Romans 8:20-22--"For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."
But just as there was a bit of darkness
on Jesus’s brightest day for the disciples, that holy terror that overcame them
and perhaps even lingered after they came down from the mountain, there is
brightness for us on Jesus’s darkest day.
Craig Evans suggests in his commentary on Luke that the 3 hours of
darkness might be a foreshadowing of Christ’s return. Christ’s return is referred to by both Jesus
and Paul as being “like a thief in the night,” not that it means Jesus will
come at night (because it will always be light somewhere anyway), but that His
coming will be unexpected. Paul, Peter,
and the book of Revelation all talk about the heavens and earth shaking
violently when Christ returns. Even
Jesus, as brokenhearted as He is, knows that He will come again in glory. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus
went to the cross keeping in mind the “joy that was set before Him.” Joy would be coming.
We know that there is even more light
for us on this darkest of days, so much so that we now call this day, “Good
Friday.” The brightest as we have heard
the past two weeks is that we have been forgiven at the cross and have had the
way to eternal life opened for us. We
know that Jesus’s crucifixion is the greatest expression of God’s love for us,
that God sent Jesus to be condemned and die in our place. And though it looked like evil was winning,
it was by Christ’s death that the devil was defeated. Colossians 2:15 says, “When He, that is
Jesus, disarmed the rulers and authorities (that is the spiritual powers and
authorities), He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them
through the cross.” Yes, we can stand
with the women and John at the cross and weep.
It is a very dark day, but the darkness cannot overcome the light.
We may not realize it, but Jesus is
present with us not only in our brightest moments, but in our darkest moments
as well. He suffers with us, and we
offer our sufferings up to Him. In our
brightest moments, He rejoices with us, and we are called to glorify and praise
Him. Jesus is with us in every
moment. No matter how dark it gets,
Jesus is the Light which the darkness cannot overcome. The Light will shine again. Darkness cannot win.
No comments:
Post a Comment