The Profound Connection Between Suffering and Glory

Darkness and Light The Gospel of Mark ends with startling abruptness—three women, told that Jesus has risen from the dead, fleeing in “trembling and astonishment” (Mark 16:8). In the briefest Gospel account, sparing in its details, we are for some reason informed that this occurs “very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen” (Mark 16:2). What is so striking about this detail is that we are told what the sun is doing only one other time in Mark’s Gospel: at the very beginning, as Jesus ministers to people “at sundown” (Mark 1:32). Jesus then launches his ministry—not once the sun comes up but, we are told, “while it was still dark” (Mark 1:35). As the Gospel account unfolds, the alert reader feels the presence of darkness throughout the Gospel as Mark tells us repeatedly of the presence of evening darkness at regular intervals (Mark 4:35; 6:47; 11:19; 14:17; 15:42). This pervasive “evening time” looming over the whole account culminates in a total blackout from noon to 3:00 p.m. as Jesus is on the cross (Mark 15:33).1 Why? “Because the Candle that lighted the sun and the moon was blown out,” as Rutherford poetically put it in a 1643 sermon.2 Finally Home Dane Ort...