Timothy Keller discusses the topic of spiritual darkness in Chapter 11 (“The End”) of King’s Cross. He notes that all four Gospel writers emphasize that the critical events of Jesus’ death happened in the dark. Just as those events initially seemed senseless to the followers of Jesus assembled around the cross, Pastor Keller states that we may be completely in the dark about the reason for our suffering. While we may not know the reason for our ministry downsizing or position loss, the cross does tell us what the reason isn’t:
“It can’t be that God doesn’t love you; it can’t be that he has no plan for you. It can’t be that he has abandoned you. Jesus was abandoned, and paid for our sins, so that God the Father would never abandon you. The cross proves that he loves you and understands what it means to suffer. It also demonstrates that God can be working in your life even when it seems like there is no rhyme or reason to what is happening.”
As Jesus’ darkness dispels and destroys our own darkness, we have light and life in Christ.
