The Hour of Darkness

Overview

The night Jesus was betrayed has a theme: darkness, night. Right in the middle of the passage, Jesus makes an odd statement: “But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.” What that must mean is the physical darkness is a representation of something deeper.

There’s a darkness that blinds the eyes, and then there’s a darkness that blinds the heart and the mind and the soul. It’s a spiritual darkness. This is the thing Jesus came to deal with. Because he came to deal with it, there’s a solution for it.

There are three incidents that happened in the physical dark. The first two tell us about our condition, and the third tells us what Jesus has come to do about it. The incidents: 1) the soldiers reject Jesus, 2) the disciples reject him, and 3) even his Father rejects him.