“At the sixth hour, darkness covered the whole earth,” says Mark (15:33), and after three hours of darkness, Jesus cried out with a loud voice: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? ”. It is not known what happened during those three hours of darkness, but we can venture a guess. God’s children, his beloved creation, had put his only son on the cross. At that moment, goodness departed from the hearts of men and God departed from the earth. It is one of the clearest indications we have that God feeds on our love. No, he not only thrives on it, but he trusts it and we trust it. Without her, He must go, because that is the law that He created.

Priests and teachers made fun of him, says Mark. Not the wicked Romans, but the pious priests and learned teachers mocked Jesus on the cross. What does that tell us about godliness and learning? They were tempting him, mocking him, saying that if he really was the son of God, he could come down from the cross. They were expecting a miracle when the time for miracles had passed and they had not believed even then. They were relieved that his status in society remained secure. They did not realize that they had lost everything else with their comments. This is at the same time one of the most terrible moments in human history and one of the most impressive. In hindsight, we can see through the terror and be amazed at the majesty of God’s purpose. Looking back, we may be surprised that God did not strike down the priests and teachers for mocking his son. Instead, there is darkness. The Light, which needs faith to shine, departs.

Jesus for his cry after three hours of darkness felt the absence of his father. He did not know him by sight, but by the power of the Holy Spirit that communicated between them, and he would have felt that the Spirit and the Father were gone. Yes, God can intervene whenever He wishes, but right now, in those terrible three dark hours, it was His desire to disappear from the earth, so that some might feel the power of the Lord, and begin to miss Him now that He is gone.

Sometimes we wonder where God is, without realizing that we have pushed him away because of our lack of faith. It only takes a little faith for Him to plant the seeds of His love. But we forget that it only takes a little faith. We expect to be pure and faithful every minute of the day, to observe the minutiae of his moral code, just like the chief priests of Israel, and we forget that it only takes a little faith. If he had found a good soul in Sodom and Gomorrah, he would have saved her. But when not an iota of goodness remains, only darkness can follow.

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