Luke 23:44
It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour.
It was now about the sixth hour
The "sixth hour" in Jewish timekeeping corresponds to noon, the middle of the day when the sun is at its zenith. This time reference is significant because it marks the beginning of an extraordinary event. In the context of the crucifixion, this moment underscores the gravity of the situation. The sixth hour, a time usually associated with light and clarity, becomes a moment of profound darkness, symbolizing the weight of sin and the judgment being borne by Christ. The Greek word for "hour" (ὥρα, hōra) can also imply a divinely appointed time, suggesting that this was a moment foreordained by God in His redemptive plan.

and darkness came over all the land
The "darkness" that envelops the land is a supernatural event, not merely a natural eclipse or weather phenomenon. In the Bible, darkness often symbolizes judgment or the presence of God in a profound way, as seen in the plagues of Egypt (Exodus 10:21-23) and the prophetic writings (Amos 8:9). The Greek word for "darkness" (σκότος, skotos) conveys a deep obscurity, both physical and spiritual. This darkness signifies the judgment of God upon sin, as Jesus, the sinless Lamb of God, takes upon Himself the sins of the world. It also reflects the spiritual blindness of those who reject Christ, highlighting the contrast between the Light of the World and the darkness of sin.

until the ninth hour
The "ninth hour" corresponds to 3 PM, marking a three-hour period of darkness. This duration is significant, as it encompasses the time of Jesus' greatest suffering on the cross. The ninth hour is traditionally the time of the evening sacrifice in the Temple, drawing a parallel between Jesus' sacrifice and the sacrificial system of the Old Covenant. The Greek word for "ninth" (ἔνατος, enatos) emphasizes completion, as this period concludes with Jesus' declaration, "It is finished" (John 19:30). This moment signifies the fulfillment of prophecy and the completion of the atoning work of Christ, offering redemption and reconciliation to humanity.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Jesus Christ
Central figure of the crucifixion account, the Son of God who is being crucified for the sins of humanity.

2. The Sixth Hour
Refers to noon, according to Jewish timekeeping, when the sun is at its peak.

3. Darkness Over the Land
A supernatural event where darkness covered the land, symbolizing the gravity of the moment as Jesus bore the sins of the world.

4. The Ninth Hour
Refers to 3 PM, marking the end of the period of darkness and the time of Jesus' death.

5. Golgotha
The place of the crucifixion, also known as "The Place of the Skull," located outside Jerusalem.
Teaching Points
The Significance of Darkness
The darkness symbolizes the weight of sin and the judgment of God being placed upon Jesus. It serves as a physical manifestation of the spiritual reality of separation from God.

Fulfillment of Prophecy
The event fulfills Old Testament prophecies, demonstrating the sovereignty of God and the divine plan of salvation through Jesus Christ.

The Cost of Redemption
The darkness underscores the immense cost of our redemption. Jesus endured separation from the Father so that we might be reconciled to God.

God's Sovereignty in Suffering
Even in the darkest moments, God is in control. The darkness at the crucifixion reminds us that God can use suffering for His redemptive purposes.

Call to Repentance and Faith
The darkness calls us to reflect on our own sinfulness and the need for repentance. It invites us to place our faith in Jesus, who bore the penalty for our sins.
Bible Study Questions
1. What does the darkness during the crucifixion signify about the nature of sin and judgment?

2. How does the fulfillment of prophecy in this event strengthen your faith in the reliability of Scripture?

3. In what ways can we see God's sovereignty at work in the darkest moments of our own lives?

4. How does understanding the cost of redemption impact your daily walk with Christ?

5. Reflect on a time when you experienced a "dark" period in your life. How can the truth of Jesus' sacrifice bring hope and perspective to that situation?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Exodus 10:21-23
The plague of darkness in Egypt, which serves as a parallel to the darkness during the crucifixion, symbolizing judgment and divine intervention.

Amos 8:9
A prophecy about the sun going down at noon, which is fulfilled in the darkness during Jesus' crucifixion.

Matthew 27:45 and Mark 15:33
These parallel accounts in the Synoptic Gospels also describe the darkness, emphasizing its significance.

John 1:5
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it, highlighting the spiritual battle occurring at the crucifixion.
The Saviour's Last HoursFriedrich Schleiermacher Luke 23:44
The Shelter of the DarknessW. Clarkson Luke 23:44
The Merciful Savior on the CrossR.M. Edgar Luke 23:26-46
The Three Hours' DarknessC. H. SpurgeonLuke 23:44-45
The Veiled CrossA. Rowland, LL. B.Luke 23:44-45
People
Barabbas, Herod, Jesus, Joseph, Pilate, Simon
Places
Arimathea, Cyrene, Galilee, Golgotha, Jerusalem, Judea
Topics
Afternoon, Dark, Darkness, Fell, Hour, Ninth, Noon, O'clock, Sixth, Till
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Luke 23:44

     1653   numbers, 6-10
     4284   sun
     4948   hour

Luke 23:26-49

     7241   Jerusalem, significance

Luke 23:39-47

     2525   Christ, cross of

Luke 23:43-49

     2412   cross, accounts of

Luke 23:44-45

     1450   signs, kinds of
     4810   darkness, natural
     4834   light, natural
     4912   chance
     4960   noon

Luke 23:44-46

     5338   holiday

Library
A Soul's Tragedy
'Then Herod questioned with Him in many words; but He answered him nothing.'--LUKE xxiii. 9. Four Herods play their parts in the New Testament story. The first of them is the grim old tiger who slew the infants at Bethlehem, and soon after died. This Herod is the second--a cub of the litter, with his father's ferocity and lust, but without his force. The third is the Herod of the earlier part of the Acts of the Apostles, a grandson of the old man, who dipped his hands in the blood of one Apostle,
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

The Dying Thief
'And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.'--LUKE xxiii, 42. There is an old and true division of the work of Christ into three parts--prophet, priest, and king. Such a distinction manifestly exists, though it may be overestimated, or rather, the statement of it may be exaggerated, if it be supposed that separate acts of His discharge these separate functions, and that He ceases to be the one before He becomes the other. Rather it is true that all His work is prophetic,
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

'The Rulers Take Counsel Together'
'And the whole multitude of them arose, and led Him unto Pilate. 2. And they began to accuse Him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that He Himself is Christ a King. 3. And Pilate asked Him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And He answered him and said, Thou sayest it. 4. Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man. 5. And they were the more fierce, saying, He stirreth up the people teaching
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

Jesus and Pilate
'And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, 14. Said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I having examined Him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse Him: 15. No, nor yet Herod; for I sent you to him: and lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto Him. 16. I will therefore chastise Him, and release Him. 17. (For of necessity he must release one unto them
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

Words from the Cross
'And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. 34. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted His raiment, and cast lots. 35. And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided Him, saying, He saved others; let Him save Himself, if He be Christ, the chosen of God. 36. And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming to Him and offering
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

The First Word
"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." ST. LUKE XXIII. 34. 1. Here we are watching the behaviour of the Son of God, the Ideal and Ground of Divine Sonship in humanity. Is this supreme example of forgiveness an example to us? Is it not something unnatural to humanity as we know it? We must recall, from a former address, the distinction which we then drew between the animal in us, with its self-assertive instincts, and the Divine in us, that which constitutes us not animal merely,
J. H. Beibitz—Gloria Crucis

The Second Word
"Verily I say unto thee, To-day thou shall be with Me in Paradise." ST. LUKE XXIII. 43. We judge of any power by the results which it effects. We gain some knowledge of the power of steam by its capacity to drive a huge mass of steel and wood weighing twenty thousand tons through the water at the rate of twenty knots an hour. There we have some standard by which we can gauge the force which sends our earth round the sun at twenty-five miles a second, or that which propels a whole solar system through
J. H. Beibitz—Gloria Crucis

The Seventh Word
"Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." ST. LUKE XXIII. 46. The consummation of sacrifice, the union of the human will with the Divine, leads to the perfect rest in God. 1. We have tried to deal with the Seven Words as constituting a revelation of the Divine Sonship of humanity. From this point of view it is significant that the first and the last begin, like the Lord's Prayer, with a direct address to the Father. The service of the Christian man is that of a son in his father's house, of
J. H. Beibitz—Gloria Crucis

March the Twenty-Seventh the Silence of Jesus
"He answered him nothing!" --LUKE xxiii. 1-12. And yet, "Ask, and it shall be given you!" Yes, but everything depends upon the asking. Even in the realm of music there is a rudeness of approach which leaves true music silent. Whether the genius of music is to answer us or not depends upon our "touch." Herod's "touch" was wrong, and there was no response. Herod was flippant, and the Eternal was dumb. And I, too, may question a silent Lord. In the spiritual realm an idle curiosity is never permitted
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

The Saviour's Last Hours.
(Preached on Good Friday.) "Praise and thanks be to Him who lifted up the Saviour on the cross as the bringer of salvation, that thereby He might glorify Him with heavenly glory! Praise and honour be to Him who by His obedience even unto death has become the Author of our faith, that so He may be able, as a faithful high-priest, to represent before God those whom He is not ashamed to call His brethren. Amen." TEXT: LUKE xxiii. 44-49. THE habit of expecting to find great events accompanied by strange
Friedrich Schleiermacher—Selected Sermons of Schleiermacher

The First Cry from the Cross
"Long as they live should Christians pray, For only while they pray they live." To cease from prayer is to renounce the consolations which our case requires. Under all distractions of spirit, and overwhelmings of heart, great God, help us still to pray, and never from the mercy-seat may our footsteps be driven by despair. Our blessed Redeemer persevered in prayer even when the cruel iron rent his tender nerves, and blow after blow of the hammer jarred his whole frame with anguish; and this perseverance
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 15: 1869

The Believing Thief
Remember, beloved friends, that our Lord Jesus, at the time he saved this malefactor, was at his lowest. His glory had been ebbing out in Gethsemane, and before Caiaphas, and Herod, and Pilate; but it had now reached the utmost low-water mark. Stripped of his garments, and nailed to the cross, our Lord was mocked by a ribald crowd, and was dying in agony: then was he "numbered with the transgressors," and made as the offscouring of all things. Yet, while in that condition, he achieved this marvellous
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 35: 1889

Christ's Plea for Ignorant Sinners
"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."--Luke 23:34. WHAT tenderness we have here; what self-forgetfulness; what almighty love! Jesus did not say to those who crucified him, "Begone!" One such word, and they must have all fled. When they came to take him in the garden, they went backward, and fell to the ground, when he spoke but a short sentence; and now that he is on the cross, a single syllable would have made the whole company fall to the ground, or flee away
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 38: 1892

Exodus iii. 6
And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. LUKE xxiii. 30. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains. Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. These two passages occur, the one in the first lesson of this morning's service, the other in the second. One or other of them must have been, or must be, the case of you, of me, of every soul of man that lives or has lived since the world began. There must be a time in the existence of every human being when he will fear God. But
Thomas Arnold—The Christian Life

The Penitent Thief
LUKE xxiii. 42, 43. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise. The story of the penitent thief is a most beautiful and affecting one. Christians' hearts, in all times, have clung to it for comfort, not only for themselves, but for those whom they loved. Indeed, some people think that we are likely to be too fond of the story. They have been afraid lest people should build
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

Bourdaloue -- the Passion of Christ
Louis Bourdaloue was born at Bourges, in 1632. At the age of sixteen he entered the order of the Jesuits and was thoroughly educated in the scholarship, philosophy and theology of the day. He devoted himself entirely to the work of preaching, and was ten times called upon to address Louis XIV and his court from the pulpit as Bossuet's successor. This was an unprecedented record and yet Bourdaloue could adapt his style to any audience, and "mechanics left their shops, merchants their business, and
Various—The World's Great Sermons, Vol. 2

The Hands of the Father.
"Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit."--St Luke xxiii. 46. Neither St Matthew nor St Mark tells us of any words uttered by our Lord after the Eloi. They both, along with St Luke, tell us of a cry with a loud voice, and the giving up of the ghost; between which cry and the giving up, St Luke records the words, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." St Luke says nothing of the Eloi prayer of desolation. St John records neither the Eloi, nor the Father into thy hands, nor the loud
George MacDonald—Unspoken Sermons

The Last Season
which I shall mention, in which the heart must be kept with all diligence, is when we are warned by sickness that our dissolution is at hand. When the child of God draws nigh to eternity, the adversary makes his last effort; and as he cannot win the soul from God, as he cannot dissolve the bond which unites the soul to Christ, his great design is to awaken fears of death, to fill the mind with aversion and horror at the thoughts of dissolution from the body. Hence, what shrinking from a separation,
John Flavel—On Keeping the Heart

Second Stage of the Roman Trial. Jesus Before Herod Antipas.
(Jerusalem. Early Friday Morning.) ^C Luke XXIII. 6-12. ^c 6 But when Pilate heard it [when he heard that Jesus had begun his operations in Galilee], he asked whether the man were a Galilaean. 7 And when he knew that he was of Herod's jurisdiction [Herod was tetrarch of Galilee--Luke iii. 1], he sent him unto Herod, who himself also ["also" includes both Pilate and Herod, neither of whom lived at Jerusalem] was at Jerusalem in these days. ["These days" refers to the passover season. Pilate had come
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Dead with Christ.
Gal. 2:20.--I am crucified with Christ. The Revised Version properly has the above text "I have been crucified with Christ." In this connection, let us read the story of a man who was literally crucified with Christ. We may use all the narrative of Christ's work upon earth in the flesh as a type of His spiritual work. Let us take in this instance the story of the penitent thief, Luke 23:39-43, for I think we may learn from him how to live as men who are crucified with Christ. Paul says: "I have been
Andrew Murray—The Master's Indwelling

Some More Particular Directions for Maintaining Continual Communion with God, or Being in his Fear all the Day Long.
1. A letter to a pious friend on this subject introduced here.--2. General plan of directions.--3. For the beginning of the day.--4. Lifting up the heart to God at our first awakening.--5, 10. Setting ourselves to the secret devotions of the morning, with respect to which particular advice is given.--11. For the progress of the day.--12. Directions are given concerning seriousness in devotion.--13. Diligence in business.--14. Prudence in recreations.--15. Observations of Providence.--16. Watchfulness
Philip Doddridge—The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul

The First Word from the Cross
In the last chapter we saw the impressions made by the crucifixion on the different groups round the cross. On the soldiers, who did the deed, it made no impression at all; they were absolutely blind to the wonder and glory of the scene in which they were taking part. On the members of the Sanhedrim, and the others who thought with them, it had an extraordinary effect: the perfect revelation of goodness and spiritual beauty threw them into convulsions of angry opposition. Even the group of the
James Stalker—The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ

Things Omitted from Mark's Gospel.
1. Just as the skill of a master artist is discovered in the objects which he leaves out of his picture (the amateur crowding in everything on to the canvass for which he can find room), so the discerning eye at once detects the handiwork of the Holy Spirit in the various things which are included and omitted from different parts of the Word. Notably is this the case with Mark's Gospel. Here we find no Genealogy at the commencement, as in Matthew; the miraculous Conception is omitted, and there is
Arthur W. Pink—Why Four Gospels?

Barabbas
BY REV. J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A. "And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas."--ST LUKE xxiii. 18. You have heard a crowd of people cry out all at once. It is always impressive, it is sometimes very terrible, occasionally it is sublime. It begins in a way that no one can explain. Somebody in the crowd utters a name, or ejaculates a brief sentence. What happens? Often nothing at all. Men are not in the mood for it; it drops unnoticed, or provokes
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

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