Darkness. Day 45 of Lent. It’s three o’clock on GoodFriday

It’s three o’clock,
Light rolls back,
the sky turns black, thunder groans across the horizons.

It’s three o’clock,
“Ichabod!” a dismayed mother calls her son home,
Unable to give reason to the swollen, angry black sky.
She covers her head with her shawl,
the air heavy with the chill of darkness
“Get in the house,” she pulls and threatens, “Get in now!”

It’s three o’clock.
A bleary bartender twists away from a prattling patron,
to notice the sky. Is startled, but only for a moment.
“Pour me another!”
He turns back to the wine, the world, the aching addicts.

It’s three o’clock.
Quick! The Sabbath comes in three hours.
“Break their legs,” the Centurion commands the soldiers.
They smash their bones with fist-thick clubs.
Impatience hears no agony.

It’s three o’clock.
In darkness the Nazarene sags into His agony.
Crowned with the curse.
Betrayed, beaten, battered to a cross.
The Cup empty of the dregs.
His heart is brim full—
Bulging.
Gasping to finish.
Trembling.
Accepting all.

All.
Yours and mine. Every sin.
Stuffed in his holy frame.
Every choice, from everyone
They fill him.
And the shame and guilt no longer can hide.
They become His.
He becomes sin.
Separated.

It’s three o’clock.
Wrath finds its vengeance.
The earth shakes.
A curtain rips.
A spear pierced side sheds its Passover blood,
and the cleansing water pours forth.
The final sacrifice is accepted.
And Jesus the King of the Jews has died.

Tenebrae – Latin for darkness

Nothing reminds us of the weight of sin like darkness.

“Does cold exist? In fact cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat.

Does darkness exist?  Darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness.

Evil does not exist. It is just like darkness and cold. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happened when man does not have God’s love present in his heart” Albert Einstein