Verses 29 through 31 tell us that those passing by “blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross! Likewise also the chief priests with the scribes, mocking with one another, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save!” Those who blasphemed the Lord Jesus twisted His word, “(You) destroy this temple,” in John 2:19. Those who blasphemed Him also said that He saved others, but could not save Himself. If the Lord had saved Himself, He could not have saved us.
According to 15:33, “And when the sixth hour had come, darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.” The sixth hour is our twelve noon, and the ninth is our three o’clock. The Lord was crucified beginning from the third hour, our nine o’clock. He was suffering on the cross for six hours. In the first three hours, He was persecuted by men for doing God’s will; in the last three hours, He was judged by God for the accomplishment of our redemption. It was during this time that God counted Him as our suffering Substitute for sin (Isa. 53:10). Hence, darkness came over all the land because our sin and sins and all negative things were dealt with there, and God forsook Him (v. 34) because of our sin.
In 15:16-32 we see how the Slave-Savior was mistreated by man. He was mocked, beaten, blasphemed, and crucified. All these were actions of His persecutors.
Verse 33 says that at the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land. At exactly noontime darkness came over the whole land and remained until the ninth hour, until three o’clock. This darkness was caused by God, and it was an indication that God had come in to judge the One who was hanging on the cross.
We have seen that the Slave-Savior was on the cross for six hours, from nine o’clock until three o’clock. The first three hours were the time of man’s persecution. We may say that during those hours the Lord Jesus was a martyr. Then at noon, with darkness coming upon the whole land, God came in. This darkness was a sign of God’s judgment of sin. Whereas man persecuted the Slave-Savior during the first three hours of His crucifixion, God came in during the second three hours to judge Christ as our Substitute. It was in these hours that God put all our sins upon Him and considered Him a sinner as our Substitute. Therefore, during the first three hours of His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus was a martyr. But during the second three hours, He was the Redeemer. As a martyr He suffered persecution under the hand of man. As our Redeemer He suffered judgment for us under the hand of God. The darkness was a symbol that God had come in to judge Christ as our Substitute for our sins.
Mark 15:34 says, “At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, My God, why did You forsake Me?” God forsook Christ on the cross because He took the place of sinners (1 Pet. 3:18), bearing our sins (1 Pet. 2:24; Isa. 53:6), and being made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). We shall consider this verse in more detail in the following message.
Verses 35 and 36 continue, “And some of those standing by heard it and said, Behold, he is calling Elijah. And someone ran and filled a sponge with vinegar, and putting it on a reed, gave it to Him to drink, saying, Let him be, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down.” This vinegar was offered to the Lord for quenching His thirst (John 19:28-30), but it was offered in a mocking way (Luke 23:36).
The wine mingled with gall and myrrh, in Matthew 27:34 and Mark 15:23, was offered to the Lord before His crucifixion as a stupefying draught, which He would not drink. But the vinegar in Mark 15:36 was offered to Him at the end of His crucifixion in a mocking way.
Verse 37 goes on to say, “But Jesus, letting out a loud cry, expired.” This means that the Lord stopped breathing. Matthew 27:50 tells us that at this point the Lord cried out with a loud voice and “dismissed the spirit.” This meant the Lord gave up His spirit (John 19:30), indicating that the Lord voluntarily yielded up His life.
After the Lord Jesus expired, “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (15:38). This signifies that the separation between God and man was abolished because the flesh (signified by the veil) of sin taken by Christ (Rom. 8:3) had been crucified (Heb. 10:20). The fact that the veil was torn from the top to the bottom indicates that the rending of the veil was God’s doing from above.
The temple was twenty cubits high. It would have been impossible for man to tear the veil from the top to the bottom. It was God who rent that veil.
The veil in the temple was a sign of the flesh Christ had put upon Himself. The tearing of the veil signifies that the humanity taken on by Christ had been crucified. If we study the Bible carefully, we shall realize that cherubim were embroidered on the veil, and cherubim are signs of God’s creatures (Ezek. 1:4-14; Rev. 4:6-9). Hence, the cherubim on the veil signify that the creatures were related to the humanity of Jesus. When the Lord put on our humanity, He put on a humanity that bore the creatures. This gives us a strong basis to say that when Christ crucified His humanity, He terminated the creatures.