In the temple, flies gathered round body parts of the first sacrificial lambs of the day and worshippers filled all the courts of the Jewish sanctuary  as light turned to unexpected dark [1]. The timetable for the sacrifices that remembered the miraculous escape of Israel from Egypt so long ago was maintained regularly each year. But this year's Pesach (Passover) celebration was different in many ways, mostly unknown to the priests on duty that day. The God they sacrificed to had dove-tailed the rituals precisely into a crucial part of The Plan: the rescue of a fallen creation from the machinations of His and their enemy.

For the priests, levites and people thronging the Temple courts that day, being thrown suddenly into the deepest shade as the sun disappeared was a terrifying sign that caused the prayers of many to turn to fearful cries of surprise and shock.

Outside the city, twisted demonic hordes gathered like crows around the dying bodies on the Roman crosses as darkness swept across the land. They had influenced the religious leaders, incited the crowds and goaded the soldiers beyond  normal human cruelty and spite. Now they circled the three wooden structures in a rising, unseen crescendo of triumphalism and mirth.

Even HaSatan, the adversary himself, The Fallen One, placed his distant focus on this scene of pain and death and smiled in smug triumph as his ancient thirst for revenge and his schemes to thwart The Plan approached a climax. They watched as the black vortex of sin spiralled down into the body and soul of their enemy; agony beyond anything mortal man could endure. Agony made more unbearable by the second as the chord of unity between Father and Son grew taut. Agony that reached its depth in the raw cry of despair and hopelessness bursting from dying lips - "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" - and the chord snapped as the Father's broken heart turned away from the sin visited on the Son: the sin that could not be looked upon by heaven's gaze.

The black hordes of evil sensed triumph as, with a shuddering breath, the Son took a last look at the earth and the people he loved so much and breathed, "It is finished! Father, into your hands I commit my spirit". [2] The life of the last sacrificial lamb on the altar bled away as the priest wielded his knife... and the life of the sacrificial Lamb on the cross bled away as He gave it up for the world He loved.

In the Temple, the priests carrying out those last sacrifices were stunned to feel the earth move beneath them and to hear a loud tearing, ripping sound come from the direction of the Holy of Holies. The first ones to arrive there threw up their hands to cover their vision and swiftly reversed out again in fear, hurriedly shutting the huge doors of the Holy Place to stop others entering. Calling for the High Priest to be sent for, the trembling priests reported the unthinkable - the parochet (the huge, multi-layered curtain that protected the Holy of Holies from view) had been torn apart. Not only that, but the tear was from top to bottom; something impossible for humans to do. [3]

Outside the city, at the death of the human sacrifice on the cross the demons screamed again, this time in frustration. This wasn't right! Something's wrong! They were the ones to wring life from sinful bodies and drag them to Sheol (the waiting place), but this life had given itself freely. 

Not waiting to be seized by death, the Son had surrendered His spirit of His own free will. Triumph in the demonic universe turned to angry frustration. "We can't hold Him! He's moving downwards Himself! We have no power over this Life!" The Adversary's smugness vanished as he sensed an anomaly in his dominion of darkness. This was too easy. No screaming resistance, no realisation of an inescapable doom, no sin or fear or rage to feed on and magnify. This One was here but didn't belong. Their claws could not pierce Him, their coils could not hold Him, their ugliness did not terrify Him as He bore a world of sin down into the pit. It was as if He, not they, was in control now in this cesspit of sin and doom.

But that was just the start! The demons and powers of the air shrank back in bewilderment and fear as the Crucified One began to speak and to sing. The Words of God have power beyond hearing and as the Son began to declare His victory over death, Sheol and sin the twisted creatures of evil felt themselves somehow shrinking as power and authority over men were stripped from them. For this was the kingdom of darkness and death. [4]

The weapon of death is sin [5] and the Son had just destroyed death itself and sin in man by His sinless sacrifice. No more did man have only darkness and judgement awaiting him, but there was now another option - to choose life in the Son and victory over death by His death on the cross! The powers of the air; fallen angels; demons - they would fight on, but the knowledge of their own doom and of their ultimate defeat would haunt them from this point on. Disarmed by the Son, their shame and humiliation were on display for all the spiritual realm to see and for the world to know.

And as the word and song rang through the domain of evil, like some river of incandescent silver flowing through the darkness, the demons could only writhe in anger and wait for this agony of the Son's presence among them to end - which it did, at dawn of the third day...

Footnotes :

[1] Matthew 27:45

[2] Matthew 27:50, 51

[3] The heavy curtain across the entrance to the Holy of Holies symbolised the inability of man to approach God without sacrifices. Exodus 26:31-34 describes the original curtain erected in the desert tabernacle, but the one in Herod's temple is described in the Talmud as having been in two parts, each 40 cubits long and 20 cubits wide (roughly 17.5m high and just under 9m wide) and the thickness of a man's hand (around 4 inches). Whatever the exact dimensions were, it was big and thick and its destruction from top (heaven) to bottom (earth) was a supernatural event that signified one thing: the death of Jesus removed forever the separation of God from man! See this link for more detail.

[4] Colossians 1:13

[5] 1 Corinthians 15:56