Luke 23:44-46
"Jesus' archenemy did not quit trying to destroy His light. Satan waged war on our Savior throughout His entire life. Time and time again while Christ walked this earth, he would come to Him with one purpose in mind. The enemy would never stop until he had destroyed the Light, once and for all.
From Satan's part in an evil alliance between another King Herod and Pilate; to the lies he whispered to the Pharisees; to the temptation for money and power that he dangled in front of Judas; to the mocking and vicious whippings that the Roman guards administered; to the spineless accusations and acts of the priests; to the crazed mob who yelled out, 'Crucify Him'; to the awful end, Christ's crucifixion on the cross, Satan surely had set his focus firmly on the end of Jesus. And in Christ's last days on earth as a human, Satan stepped up the torment to a horrifying level.
The Magi had come to a King Herod from a different era, asking him where the King of the Jews could be found. The questioned had enraged the Herod who governed Judah at the time of Jesus' birth. And again we see Jesus referred to as the King of the Jews in our verses today, but this time they are spoken as an insult to Jesus but the very Roman guards who nailed Him to the cross. They mocked His authority and power by saying, 'If you are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!' Could it have been the whisper of Satan that then caused them to insult Jesus even further by placing an inscription above His head on the cross that read, 'This is the King of the Jews'?
Surely Satan moved in and about the crowd that day, watching and listening. A wry smile curled on his lips as he wrung his evil hands together. 'Surely the time is near,' he thought. 'Soon, yes very soon, this Jesus will no longer be a threat to me.' The darkness of the fallen angel was not contained within him, for at that very moment, at the sixth hour (12 noon), a deep darkness 'fell over the whole land' and remained until three hours later. It was so dark that the sun could not be seen. Darkness seemed to be overpowering the Light.
'Yes! YES! The Light of the world is ebbing. It won't be long now until I am in charge!' Satan muttered to himself. The the words he had longed to hear for so long were filling the vast emptiness of the darkness that surrounded them. 'Father, into Thy hands I commit My Spirit.' And Jesus died. The evil grin on the face of Satan turned into a low chuckle and then into riotous laughter. 'I've won!' he shouted with delight. This indeed was the darkest day in all history. The Light had been extinguished, or so everyone thought.
Dark days will surely come to us all, days when it seems like we are miles and miles from the Light of Jesus. But we know the rest of the story, don't we? In the end, Jesus wins! No matter how the 'darkness' tries to creep into our lives and blow out the Light of Jesus in us, Satan will never be successful if we but keep our eyes firmly fixed on the Light the world, Jesus our Savior. He is the Light of all of your days. Spend time with Hm, and He will bring even more light into your life."
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