And when the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour.
From the sixth hour to the ninth hour, that is, roughly from noon until three o’clock, darkness came over the whole land. This was not an ordinary natural event, but a sign of God’s judgment and of the mystery of the cross. The light of creation seemed to be covered when the Creator, in the flesh, was hanging on the cross. That darkness testified that the judgment of sin was being carried out here: Christ was bearing, in place of His people, the weight of the condemnation that sin had brought upon humanity. The outward darkness of the cross showed the incomprehensible spiritual burden that the Savior was carrying in His sacrifice.