“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” Matthew 27:46 NKJV

 

In the Bible, when one reads the ninth hour of the day, we understand it to be 3pm local time. In Matthew 27:45, the Bible tells us that there was darkness over the land from the sixth to ninth hour. From noon to 3pm, there was darkness. Interestingly, noon to 3pm is known as the brightest part of the day. We would escape the power of the text if we chose to insert our lives here. If we chose to ask the question, “What do you do when the darkest moments of your life consume what should be the brightest moments?” While that question is very real and is a necessary lesson to be taught with the body of Christ, this particular text must remain about Christ. Because He is the light of the world, we must ask the question, "Why is this happening now?" Why is Jesus in the process of saving the world, yet utter darkness has fallen on us? Why now? 

 

The reason that this text must remain focused on Christ and not on us is because this was the moment of transference. The Apostle Paul tells us that He Who knew no sin became sin. (II Cor. 5:21) In the Old Testament, when the people of God would sacrifice an animal for their sin, they would touch the forehead of the animal as a sign of transference. They were transferring their transgression to the animal that was about to die because the wages of sin is death. Wherever there is sin, there will be death. So when they pierced His skull with a crown of thorns, it was the transference of sin and transgression. The darkness that covered the Earth was a symbol that the Son, Who was the light of the world, had become the darkness so we could be the righteousness of God. 

 

Yet the scripture will remain true that God cannot dwell in an unclean temple. For the essence of God must turn away from His own flesh because it has been consumed in our past, present, and future sin. Jesus, the flesh of God, cried out about being forsaken so that we would never have to. For us, repentance of sin transfers our sin back to the cross, to the moment of darkness, to the moment of transference.