Just Another Day?
At the outset, to most of the people of Judea, this day was not much different from any other day. It was early morning and some criminals were going to be crucified--a ghastly but common occurrence on a hill on the outskirts of the city of Jerusalem.
But the Bible tells us that this day was anything but ordinary. By about three o’clock that afternoon, the world will have changed forever. Simply put, the day that Jesus died on the cross was the single most life-changing, worlds-impacting, paradigm-shifting day in the history of the universe.
The magnitude of the disturbance in the cosmos that day cannot be overstated. There is no hyperbolic language that can adequately convey the enormity of that event. As one Southern Baptist pastor put it, the violent upheaval of the creation story in Genesis is like “peas in the pocket” compared to the spiritual earthquake of the cross. (I'm guessing that "peas in the pocket" is a southern expression meaning, "relatively insignificant").
Earthquakes and Darkness
How impactful was the crucifixion of Jesus?
One thing that can't go unnoticed as we read through the Bible is how the most significant temporal events are often expressed in terms of grand cosmological phenomena. We read about "stars falling from the heaven" (Mark 13:25) or "the skies rolling up like a scroll" (Isaiah 34:4), or "the sun covered with a cloud and the moon [not giving] its light (Ezekiel 32:7).
It was common in the Hebraic writings to use such catastrophic, apocalyptic hyperbole to describe spiritually impactful events in the temporal realm. Often, these grand cosmological happenings were simply signifiers or harbingers of radical shifts of power, often from one nation to another.
However, we also read of times when there were actual, unexplainable disruptions in the cosmos, miraculous things that defied natural law. For example, in the book of Joshua, we're told of a day when the sun and moon actually stood still.
At that time Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon." And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded the voice of a man, for the LORD fought for Israel. (Jos 10:12-14 ESV)
The Cross
If Jesus' death on the cross was the most momentous event in the history of the universe, we would expect some similar cosmological phenomena to occur, and indeed it did.
We're told that the sun was obscured and complete darkness covered the land/earth for three hours (Matthew 27:45). We're told that an earthquake occurred at the exact time of Jesus' death (Matthew 27:54)--an earthquake so severe that it caused the boulders to split and the thick curtain in the temple to tear from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51).
While these signs were dramatic, unmistakable, visual evidence to the world that what occurred that day was of extreme consequence, the most significant impacts of Jesus' death on the cross were not immediately evident. It seems that the cross was part of a supernatural process whereby God was "reconciling the world to himself"--that is, cleansing the world of sin and drastically transforming the very souls and spirits of his creation, preparing the way for new life, new creatures called Christians.
An Incomplete Understanding
While I freely grant that nobody will ever fully comprehend the scope and depth and nature of the cosmic tremor that occurred with the death of Jesus on the cross, I believe that most Christians have a very incomplete and simplistic view of what transpired that day.
In Christian circles, we tend to focus on the personal benefits accorded to us by the work of Jesus on the cross--and there are many. We rejoice in the atonement, as we should. We celebrate Christ's victory over death, as we should. We give thanks for the reconciliation and the propitiation that brought us peace with God, as we should. And we deeply appreciate the sacrifice and the faithfulness of Jesus, as we should.
Furthermore, we accept that, knowing these wonderful benefits of the cross, we have an obligation to help others learn of the balm of divine forgiveness and the eternal hope offered by the gospel message. But there are many, less-often considered aspects of the cross that should leave us astonished at the majesty of God, in awe of the power of God, and amazed at the person of God.
Based on a sermon I gave several years ago, for the next several posts I would like to explore the effects of the crucifixion of Jesus from four distinct angles. We'll look at the cross from:
(1) Temporal Perspective: What did Jesus actually experience on the cross and why was such suffering necessary?
(2) Humanistic Perspective: What was the effect of the cross on the people of the world?
(3) Cosmological Perspective: What actually transpired in the cosmos when Jesus died?
(4) Theological Perspective: What did Jesus' death mean in the spiritual realm?
Final Thought
I’m convinced that a more complete understanding of God through a deeper understanding of the cross will serve to strengthen our Christian faith, and, since our faith is what gives us access to God's grace (Rom 5:2), the strengthening of one’s faith is always a worthwhile and fruitful goal.
Next Post: The Cross, Part 1: A Temporal Perspective https://www.bibleinsights.net/post/post-73-the-cross-part-i-a-temporal-perspective
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