Darkness at Noon

Matthew 27:45 states: "Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land."

Regarding this passage, John Calvin wrote the following:

That the scribes and priests and a great part of the people carelessly overlooked this darkening of the sun, and passed through it with eyes closed, should strike is with horror, for their formidable degree of stupidity.  They must have been more foolish than dumb beasts to have continued their mockery with such a portent of force of heavenly judgment, and with open warning... As the warning was general, it should be useful for our understanding today, that the sacrifice by which we were redeemed was of no less importance that if the sun fell out of heaven, of the whole structure of the world collapsed.  So we shall abhor our sins the more.

Calvin, Commentary, 3:207. Cf. Cyril of Alexandria, Os.-Mal. ad Amos 8:9-10 (ed Pusey, 1:520).