Oh Horrible, Happy Day – Luke 23:44-49

“Oh Happy Day” is a 1967 gospel music arrangement of an 18th-century hymn by clergyman Philip Doddridge. Recorded by the Edwin Hawkins Singers, it became an international hit in 1969, reaching No. 4 on the US Singles Chart, No. 1 in France, Germany, and the Netherlands and No. 2 on the Canadian Singles Chart, UK Singles Chart, and Irish Singles Chart. It has since become a gospel music standard” (Wikipedia).  It has been mistaken at times for a Christmas or New Year’s song, but it is really a Good Friday song.  It speaks to the day of Jesus’ death.

It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.  (Luke 23:44-49 ESV)

Though it is the Father’s will for the Son to die in our place, his death does not go without the Father grieving and bringing darkness, for three hours (noon till 3pm), on the earth to shield the sight.  Jesus’ death also signals the end of the animal sacrificial system God instituted to foreshadow this sacrifice, and so the curtain that barred entrance and sight into the most holy place, where the blood of the sacrifice of atonement was brought, is torn in two.  These are two divine acts of God signaling the momentous event that has just transpired.  The Triune God has purchased our salvation.

Like all deaths, the spirit or soul leaves the body, and as Jesus senses the end he commits his spirit to the Father in whose presence he will be.  At this, the centurion who has been overseeing the crucifixions, expresses his awareness of the signs that have been witnessed and the character of this man and acknowledges his innocence.  He is no dummy.  The crowds of people are in emotional distress.  And Jesus’ followers stand by to receive his body when it is lowered off the cross so they can prepare it for burial.

One can only imagine the horror of that day.  A gruesome torture of several people, the Christ especially.  A preternatural darkness.  But what looked like the worst possible thing in the world was actually the most wonderful for us.  Jesus took our deserved penalty upon himself so that we might be forgiven and released from that penalty, forever reconciled to the One who made us and saved us.  Oh happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away.