23:44,45
Matthew and Luke record the darkness coming over the land. There is no indication of how this happened. It may have been an eclipse, or a totally supernatural event. It doesn’t matter, and one is not less “an act of God” than the other. Luke dwells less on the time on the cross than the other gospels. The darkness signifies the turning away of God, the wrath of God on our sin. The curtain is the curtain between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. This is usually taken as representing the barrier between us and God being torn apart by the death of Jesus, though some have also suggested that there is also the idea of the temple no longer being the place of God’s dwelling. Whether this signifies one or other of these, or both doesn’t really matter that much. The truth is that the way is now open to approach God through Christ, and He comes to dwell within us by His Spirit.
2:46
Jesus then committed His spirit to the Father. There are some ignorant people who talk of the cross as “cosmic child abuse”. Such people really have no idea what was going on. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit were working together in perfect harmony. For reasons that we can only faintly understand the cross was the only way of saving mankind. The cross is an act of love by God, it was an act of love carried out in agreement and in a relationship of love to each other, by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus’ words here demonstrate His trust in the Father, His love for the Father.
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