The gloomy day of the cross …

I can hardly imagine a day in human history that could be as gloomy as the day Jesus was crucified.

The setting of the day itself was ominous …

“At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock,” Matthew 27:45.

And no one felt the gloom more painfully than Jesus …

“At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ which means ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Matthew 27:46.

On the surface, it was a horribly ugly scene, the world’s most gloomy day yet.

But often, underneath the gloom of life, can be something beautiful in the works, an idea Harry Readhead writes about for Metro.co.uk …

In Seoul, South Korea, when the day is its most gloomy, the streets are their most colorful. That’s because the streets have been adorned with beautiful murals of swimming water life, using a special hydrochromatic paint that can only be seen when it’s wet. “Project Monsoon” is an attempt to brighten up the otherwise dreary three-week rainy monsoon season.

The beauty underlying the gloom of the cross was God at work carrying out His plan to reconcile sinful humanity to Himself through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. This beautiful work of love by God pierces through the ugly day with another statement from Jesus:

“Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. When Jesus had tasted it, he said, ‘It is finished!’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit,” John 19:28-30.

The gloom of sacrifice and the shedding of blood would be eclipsed by the beauty of Jesus achieving victory over sin on our behalf … “It is finished!”

God had used all of human history to work to this specific moment in time to redeem us from sin through the perfect sacrifice of His Son.

It was a beautiful moment in a remarkably gloomy setting.

But wait, something more beautiful was yet to come …

Scotty