Easter Astronomy

For those who have seen the Bethlehem Star Presentation, you know there is a surprise ending related to Easter. That ending reveals the little known astronomically significant side. But if you are like me, it is difficult to remember what that was. (I had to hear it several times to “get it.”) So here is the rest of the Easter Astronomy Story. Just for review…

On the evening of the crucifixion, you may recall there was a moon in eclipse that rose just after sunset. So we can back up one night and realize that on the evening of the Last Supper, Thursday night, the fateful night of an Upper Room supper, prayer in the Garden, arrest—there would have been a full moon. The night was April 2, 33 AD. 

So as the sun set on that Thursday night, as the twelve disciples and Jesus went to the upper room, the moon would have been rising a nearly perfect full moon. Not quite full moon, because the next night it would be perfectly full and on this Thursday night it was careening toward the shadow cast by the Earth. 

As Jesus and the eleven disciples went to the Garden of Gethsemane, the almost full moon was illuminating their path. As Judas travelled the streets of Jerusalem to get the soldiers who would arrest Jesus, his way, too, was lit by the light of that same, ominously almost full moon. The eleven went with the Lord. Little did they know the horror that awaited them, and Him. But Jesus knew.

As Jesus prayed, and the eleven were struggling to stay awake with Him, the same moon bathed the garden with light. And it shone clearly for Judas and his band of arresting soldiers.

That night, Peter would be in the courtyard around the fire, and the moon would have been overhead all night until setting near dawn.

During all of that night and the next day, the torture of our Lord continued. As daybreak passed, Jesus went from one judge and one beating at the hands of ruthlessly obedient soldiers to another. Events proceeded mercilessly toward the cross. The torture, the crown of thorns, the nails. It all happened just as planned by the Father. It was Friday, April 3, 33 AD.

As Jesus gave up his Spirit and willingly laid down His life, below the horizon and out of view, the moon dipped into the shadow and proceeded toward full eclipse. It was the ninth hour. Earthquake. Veil torn in two. Tombs broken open. A large number of “the saints who had fallen asleep were raised” and appeared to many in Jerusalem. The very guards who had tried to take the life of the Lord and Creator of the universe became convinced. They BELIEVED. “Truly this was the Son of God,” they said. But of course, they hadn’t truly killed him. He laid His life down of His own accord. The payment for our sins concluded, He had cried out, “It is finished!” And so He gave up his Spirit and allowed death to complete its task…for the moment!

The eclipse continued out of sight of Jerusalem below the horizon until sunset, three hours later. At that point, Joseph of Arimathea had rushed to Pilate and received permission to bury the maimed body of our Lord, its flesh torn but no bones broken. He hurried back to the cross and found the Mother of Jesus, (the mother of James and Joseph), Mary Magdalene, and the wife of Zebedee who was also mother to two other disciples. John may have been there as well, he who had been assigned to care for Jesus’ mother by the Lord Himself from the cross.

Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the council who had not consented to the murder, knew his mission was time-critical. He and the remaining faithful needed to bury the disgraced body before sunset. They wrapped the body, hustled it to the waiting grave that had been prepared for Joseph himself (or so he thought). 

They buried the body, and as the sun set in the Western sky, an ominous sight appeared in the Eastern sky. A moon in full eclipse, doubly red from the horizon and the eclipse, rose and would have captivated the viewers. From Golgotha, site of the crucifixion and close to the grave site, it would have appeared over the temple, where the veil had been torn in two just hours earlier. As the Passover commenced at the time of sunset and eclipsing moonrise, the red moon over the temple highlighted the fact that the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world had been sacrificed. Not the symbolic lamb who would be killed in the temple, but the real Lamb Whose payment was sufficient once for all time, sufficient for all who would trust in Him. 

The eclipsing read moon was at the feet of the Virgin in the constellation Virgo. As it rose higher, it and Virgo left the shadow of the Earth and rapidly, in a matter of an hour or two, it went from vivid red to pure white. Our sins cleansed. The payment complete. The sacrifice paid. Our debt satisfied.

And so the body lay in the tomb until Easter Morning. 

Resurrection morning dawned clear and bright. By this time, the moon was in the Western sky, and as the Lord was miraculously resurrecting and leaving the tomb that could never hold him, leaving the guards who could never keep him, passing the stone that could never be sufficient to seal that tomb, the moon had left the foot of the Virgin and travelled through the constellations. Away from Virgo and through Libra, the balance scales of justice. Our necessary payment for sin paid in full. God’s justice satisfied. A death that was not owed by our Lord, to be conferred as payment in full for any who in the power of the Spirit would, through faith, place trust in that blessed, precious, bloody payment. The assurance that the payment was accepted was the walking, resurrected Lord Himself. Sunday morning, April 5, 33 AD.

God the Father had set the astronomically significant markers in place at the creation of the heavens and the Earth.

Rejoice in the sacrifice. Praise God for allowing His own Son to make the payment so terrible and incomprehensible that we can scarce meditate on it without falling to our knees. 

Amazing Grace, how sweet indeed that it saved a wretch… and can still save many more.