Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Were the weather on that dire day anything like the weather experienced in Jerusalem this afternoon, it would have been clear with temperatures in the low 80’s. This would certainly been warm enough to take the chill out of the air experienced before dawn when St. Peter made his fireside denial. So its no wonder that that St. Luke, physician and keen observer of history, made specific reference to the preternatural darkness that descended over Jerusalem for three hours. Perhaps, as it is in the case of modern executions, this was the LORD's way of closing the curtain in order to shield creation from the agony of its creator. Perhaps. What is known however is that the very icon, or expression of the inexpressible God was now suspended between earth and the heavens. The very fact that the Christ was still alive at this point was its own miracle.
Jesus had now been awake for close to thirty hours. During this, he had suffered crushing emotional distress to the point that the capillaries feeding his face ruptured, allowing holy blood to leech out of his pores. He had been pummelled and beaten in the facial areas to the point that most did not recognize him. At the hand of the Roman cohort, he received a brutal beating that few survived. Then, after carrying a 100 pound plus beam out of the city, he was then nailed to a Roman cross. (And we whine over a paper cut?)
Suspended, He endured the mocking of the many, ranging from those sharing his fate, to those in the religious establishment. The one who could have mustered heaven's power to shatter the earth into space dust, simply interceded for his tormentor's forgiveness. Naked, he was robbed of all his rightful heavenly splendor as the sins of humanity fell on his shoulders with the force of a pile driver. In the midst of this agony, he sensed the absence of the Heavenly Father as he quoted Psalm 22.
Some point before 3:00 PM, Christ raised himself on the nails that impaled his hands and declared "It is finished!" Moments later and rising on the nails one last time, he commended his spirit into the Father's hands. What did Mary or John see? What did the other women observe? Whatever it may have been was punctuated by the violent shaking of a planet in mourning.
Perhaps God cried...
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