Did you happen to grab your Total Solar Eclipse donut during the latest solar eclipse (with an awesome totality view in Austin)? That’s right, ICYMI Krispy Kreme Donuts created a special edition Total Eclipse donut for the occasion.
The recipe: the top of an original glazed donut (the sun) dipped in black chocolate icing (the darkness), then topped with silver sprinkles and some buttercream (the circle of light around the moon). What’s the moon on the donut? An entire Oreo cookie covering up the middle hole of the donut.
It all resembles God’s greater recipe, how the sun, moon and earth align during an eclipse. Maybe you were able to experience the greater eclipse (God’s version) while eating the lesser eclipse (Krispy Kreme version)? But if you only caught one of them, I hope it was the greater. For one thing, it’s healthier.
There’s a third eclipse, too. It came to mind after I’d been sitting outside during the total eclipse with students from CrossLife Christian Academy. I’ve seen dozens of pictures of the sun and moon aligning during a total eclipse that are honestly clearer than the live version I looked at. So, my main curiosity about the total eclipse was how dark it would actually become.
The exact minute of the total eclipse occurred, and it did actually darken to about the light level of evening dusk just after sunset. That’s what I had anticipated. Not dark, just a bit dimmer than a really cloudy day. Not super spectacular in my opinion. So I went back to my office.
That’s when it happened.
It got dark, in the middle of the afternoon! I mean, as dark as night!
There were no more shadows, because everything was shadowed by the moon. There was no light at all, except for the artificial lights provided by electricity. It was both eerie and exciting. And then, it passed. God’s natural light returned, and man-made lights were no longer needed.
I thought of a similar scenario reported in the Bible, like an eclipse but not actually a naturally occurring one where the sun, moon and earth momentarily align. Greater than this great total eclipse occurrence was a different kind of darkness, the greatest darkness of all.
Evil. Ungodliness. Sin. This darkness casts its shadow over the entire history, current happenings, and future hope of the human race. More than figurative language, it actually happened the day that Jesus died on the cross.
The Bible reports, “It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining” (Luke 23:44,45).
A natural eclipse doesn’t last for 3 hours. The longest known total eclipse was 7 minutes and 28 seconds in 743 B.C. However, NASA says this record will be broken in 2186 by a whopping second, with a 7 minute, 29 second total solar eclipse. Not even close to 3 hours. Only a miracle from God can do that.
The greatest recipe in the history of the world for an eclipse of darkness was a miracle of God, as his Son was dying. This divine act of darkness was actually the ultimate darkness, greater than the greatest darkness seen on earth.
Greater darkness than the most addictive sin or the worst sinner (maybe you think that’s you).
Greater darkness than the deepest, darkest evil, corruption, terrorism and hate that brews like poison in the vile bowels of hell and those who live as puppets of Satan.
Greater darkness than the lifeless moment following your final breath of existence.
Divine darkness. A shadow created by the death of Jesus Christ actually casting a shadow over all other shadows, like a black sheet covering a dead corpse. Jesus is the sheet. Our human race, our sin and evil, is the dead corpse.
The divine act of salvation is that the darkness of Jesus’ dead corpse eclipses the greatest darkness of sin, evil, hell and Satan in our world. And, yes, it also eclipses these darknesses in our own hearts and lives.
Right around the time that Jesus died—which the Bible reports as 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the light returned to earth like the light returned after the total eclipse in Austin. The death of Jesus and the returning natural light reveal the divine act of salvation, the ultimate moment uncovering the darkness, lightening the universal shadow, and saying to the world: The death of Jesus Christ now covers up all evil, sin, hell and activity of Satan.
Not just with darkness, but with light, because 3 days later Jesus rose from the dead, eclipsing the eclipse again. With finality. And forever. There will never be another eclipse like it. Enjoy it every day!
PRAYER: God, your divine darkness has eclipsed the total eclipse! Let the three hours of darkness on the earth while Jesus was dying overshadow all my shadows of sin and guilt, and the shadows of evil and Satan in this world. Amen.
EVANGELISM ACTION: Share this on social media and get attention by posting that you found a bigger eclipse.