Jesus Stayed On The Cross

Mark 15:21-39 

Transcript

And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was a coming in from the
country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. And they brought
him to the place called Yalgatha, which means place of a skull. And they offered
him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him and
divided his garments among them, casting lots for them to decide what each
should take. And it was the third hour when they crucified him. And the
inscription of the charges laid against him read, the King of the Jews. And with
him they crucified two robbers, one on his right, one on his left. And those who
passed by derided him, wagging their heads, and saying, Aha, you who would
destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself and come down
from the cross. So also the chief priests and the scribes mocked him to one
another, saying, He saved others, he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the
King of Israel, come down now from the cross, so that we may see and believe.
Those who crucified him also reviled him. And when the sixth hour had come,
there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. At the ninth hour,
Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama shebakthani. This means, My God,
My God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said,
Behold, he's calling to Elijah. And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour
wine and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, Wait, let us see
whether Elijah will come to take him down. And Jesus uttered in a loud cry and
breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to
bottom. And when the centurion who stood facing him saw in this way that he had
breathed his last, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. Let's pray. Lord
God, in this moment, we ask for your help by your Holy Spirit as we consider
these sacred words and reflect on them together. We ask that your Holy Spirit
would help us to understand that you would call us to faith and to worship in
you as we read about the events of your Son's crucifixion. We pray for that in
Jesus' name. Amen. So our passage, as we just read, is about the crucifixion of
Jesus. These last chapters of Mark kind of break into the trial, crucifixion,
burial, and resurrection of Jesus. And as I just mentioned, we've been working
our way through Mark since about January, and we're now coming to the end. And
these are the climactic moments of Mark, but if you're someone that's grown up
in church, it can be easy for us to become perhaps numb or a little bit
desensitized to certain things because they are familiar. And that is a
challenge for some of us this morning because the passage is familiar. But as we
approach the text, I want us to see uniquely what Mark is doing in this text.
Look at the repetition with me for a moment of this word crucifixion. And I want
to look first at the repetition of it in the verses immediately preceding what
Gabe just read. Verse 13 says, they cried out again, crucify him. Verse 14 says,
they shouted all the more, crucify him. Verse 15, having scourged Jesus, they
delivered him to be crucified. And verse 20, they led him out to crucify him. In
our passage this morning, verses 21 through 39, there are four more direct
references to that word. And Mark doesn't take time to explain to his readers
what crucifixion was because it was a primarily Roman audience, and they knew
that full well. Some of them had likely observed crucifixions themselves. We do
not see things like this, so we can benefit from some explanation of what's
taking place. And first, it's important to note that a crucifixion where a man
hangs in agony, suspended by nails, driven through his body, was uniquely
horrific in a Jewish context. In the Old Testament law, if you look at
Deuteronomy, chapter 21 verse 23, Deuteronomy tells us, his body shall not
remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him on the same day, for a
hanged man is cursed by God. That's the Old Testament law. Jesus was the man
that his followers hoped was the Messiah, the Promised One, and the Awaited One.
And to see Jesus hanging from a cross would have meant to the Jewish audience,
not only that his claims about himself were untrue, but that he was actually
cursed by God. He's becoming a curse in that sense. And as we spend this morning
together reading Mark's account of the crucifixion of Jesus, I want us to spend
some time specifically reflecting on the endurance of Jesus in this moment.
Hebrews says that Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame. And by
endurance, I mean the willingness of Jesus to stay on the cross. Endurance is a
word that refers to the ability or strength to continue, even in the face of
things like pain, fatigue, hunger, hardship. And we typically think about
endurance, maybe we would talk about someone that's like a marathon runner, or
an Ironman triathlete, or a polar explorer, or like an astronaut, or something
like that. Someone who has incredible fortitude and endurance. And usually that
endurance is displayed because of some personal triumph or reward that the
person decides all that pain, all that fatigue, all that hardship is worth it.
Hebrews says Jesus endured the cross. And Mark makes it clear that Jesus stayed
on the cross voluntarily. And by that, I mean that Jesus was not lacking the
divine capacity to avoid the torture of the cross. It was not ultimately the
strength of his enemies that kept him up there. When he was arrested, the
initial impulse of Jesus' disciple Peter was to fight back. But Jesus made Peter
put his sword away. He says, this is Matthew 26, 53. Do you think that I cannot
appeal to my Father, and He will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels?
But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so? So the death
of Christ was carried out by wicked men, and it was through betrayal, human
treachery. At the exact same time, it is also the redemptive plan of God. And
Jesus stayed on the cross to make a way for you and I to come to God. And I want
to explore that, and Mark will talk about what that means. So in the background
here, Jesus has already been mocked, struck, spit upon, stripped of his clothes.
He's suffered serious blood loss from the beating that he's already taken after
being scourged at the hands of Pilate. Mark 15, 21 tells us that another man,
Simon of Cyrene, was compelled to carry the cross for Jesus because he was
already so weakened in his physical state. And Jesus is taken to a place outside
the city called Golgotha, where this was supposed to take place. Because of the
immense pain of crucifixion, Jesus is offered wine mixed with myrrh. That's what
verse 23 tells us. They offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take
it. That was designed to have a bit of a numbing effect. But we see that Jesus
here is determined to go through his suffering fully conscious, with a clear,
alert, sober mind. In other gospel accounts, we know that he was alert enough to
minister to the thief on the cross. So again, Mark's right into a Roman
audience. He doesn't get into the mechanics of crucifixion. But from history, we
know that the Romans were well-versed experts in physical torture. Jesus would
have been nailed to a vertical beam with a spike straight through both of his
feet. And he was nailed to a horizontal beam with a spike straight through each
wrist. Those were probably five to seven inches long. And when they were driven
through arms and legs, it would have caused major nerve damage. Searing,
shooting pain. And a person undergoing crucifixion would lose an extreme amount
of blood and would be going through constant shocks of pain as they are slowly
suffocating from being suspended by the nails. Mark tells us that gathered below
the cross was a group of Roman soldiers. So we can picture this is a group of
very calloused men. People that have seen enough death, that the scene doesn't
appear to affect them very much. Verse 24 says we read that they're casting lots
to see who gets the dying man's belongings. There are two ordinary criminals,
deserving criminals you could say, hanging one on Jesus' right, one on his left.
Isaiah 53 says he was numbered with the transgressors and he bore the sins of
many. He was numbered with the transgressors, crucified with ordinary criminals.
And Mark is setting the scene for us. And he says the crucifixion began at the
third hour, so that's 9 a.m., after the whole night of betrayal. If you read
Mark's gospel in its entirety, you see that Jesus foretells his death and
resurrection three separate times. So the whole narrative is leading us up to
this point. Jesus knew that it was coming. And he foretells his death and
resurrection directly three times in the Gospel of Mark before we even get to
Jerusalem in the final weeks. So without any other foreshadowing, he does it in
Mark 8, 31 through 38. He does it in Mark 9 and he does it in Mark 10. In Mark
8, Jesus says he began to...Mark 8 tells us he began to teach them that the Son
of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief
priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. And he
said this plainly. So unlike other sayings of Jesus, there's nothing
particularly mysterious or that needed a lot of translation or interpretation.
It was shocking but straightforward. And yet, we also hear the disciples didn't
understand, also did not want to understand. When Jesus repeats essentially
these same things in Mark 9, the disciples don't grasp it and unlike at other
times, they don't want more information. Mark 9, 32 after Jesus foretells
similar things, Mark 9, 32 says they did not understand the saying and were
afraid to ask him. And the third time Jesus foretells his death is in Mark 10,
32 to 34. He and the disciples are on the road to Jerusalem where these
climactic scenes will take place. Mark 10, 32 to 34 says they were on the road
going up to Jerusalem and Jesus was walking ahead of them and they were amazed.
And those who followed were afraid. And taking the 12 again, he began to tell
them what was to happen to him saying, See, we are going to Jerusalem and the
Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes and they
will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will
mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him and after three days he will
rise. The ones who followed Jesus were amazed that he was willing to go to
Jerusalem for Passover. It's a hotbed of unrest. They knew that Jesus's life is
in danger in Jerusalem and yet here he is walking ahead of everyone. We see
Jesus leading the way, clear, purposeful, going forward because he knew the
reason that he came to earth. According to Mark, Jesus came to earth to give his
life as a ransom for many. That word ransom comes from a Greek word which means
to loose. In other words, to deliver or to make free. In a ransom situation, one
person is inescapably trapped and another person pays the price, usually an
extremely high price, to set them free from captivity. And on the cross, Jesus
pays the ransom price, the redemption price for sin. And it tells us both the
seriousness of sin and the depth of his love. It means that his life would be a
substitutionary payment on behalf of those who have sinned against God. It's
hard for us to really even grasp the weight or the intensity of this mission.
And it would also be a mistake for us to think that Jesus's divinity made it in
any way easier for him. Nothing easy about it. In Mark 14, as the crucifixion
draws near, we see Jesus in agony in the garden, knowing the suffering that's
awaiting him. And he goes to pray. Mark 14, 34 to 36, Jesus is praying and he
said to his disciples, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and
watch. And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that if it
were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, all
things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but
what you will. Jesus's mission is clear to give his life as a ransom for many.
And now that this moment actually comes, that has been foretold. As Mark
describes the scene of the crucifixion, the tension that Mark is setting up is
really, will it actually happen? Will he go through with it? Will he go to the
cross? Will he come down from the cross? Will he be rescued? Will God intervene?
And those are the questions that get posed to Jesus as he suffers. In most
cases, of course, if a person was being crucified like this, there would be a
sense of inevitability. But so many people have seen Jesus's divine power that
instead we have a sense of suspense. Crucifixion lasts from the third hour till
the ninth hour. Can't really imagine the pain, the physical, mental, emotional
torture, the spiritual anguish. But in the midst of this, Mark highlights for us
the endurance of Jesus. First, look at 29 through 30. The passerby's mock him.
Mark 15, 29 through 30. Those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and
saying, aha, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save
yourself and come down from the cross. The people who had likely flocked around
Jesus before didn't have any use for him now that he's suffering. And what a,
what a temptation to prove himself in some unmistakable way that must have been.
If you think about it, Jesus faced this temptation right at the beginning of his
public ministry. The temptation to prove himself. Mark states it briefly in
chapter one when he says the Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and he
was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan. But when we get into a
more detailed account in Luke, Jesus is tempted to do things like turn stones
into bread or throw himself down from the temple. In other words, it's a
temptation to show your, for Jesus to show his power demonstrably on command to
the doubters. And Jesus resists that temptation, essentially prove yourself,
with Satan at the beginning of his public ministry. But now as people mock him,
it sure seems like that would be a good time to demonstrate your power as
enemies surround him and mock him. How, how tempting to destroy that, to
demonstrate that power. Instead, in love for those who he had come to save,
suffering as a ransom, Jesus stays on the cross in this display of seeming
helplessness. And then secondly, verse 31 and 32, the chief priests and the
scribes, they mock Jesus. They have been his enemies this entire time. Nothing
he said or did at any time kept them from opposing him. But all the while, it
was while insisting that if a good enough sign were given, then they would
believe. And this appears to them to be their moment of triumph because Jesus,
the one they have seen as their rival that they've been opposing all this time,
he's suffering. Verse 31 and 32 tell us, so also the chief priests with the
scribes mocked him to one another saying, he saved others, he cannot save
himself. Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down now from the cross that
we may see and believe. Even as they watch Jesus slowly bleed and suffocate, the
religious leaders, they actually acknowledge to each other that he did save
others. Isn't that amazing? They have been doubting and criticizing his ministry
all this time. And then while he's on the cross, they do say to each other, he
did save others. And yet in their hard heartedness, they taunt him because they
believe his power has come to an end. And how strong would have been the
temptation to come down from the cross? What an opportunity to just drop the mic
in a display of awesome power. Instead, we see Jesus's power displayed in what
seems like great weakness. And third, Mark tells us that as Jesus hangs on the
cross, there are common criminals on his right and on his left. These are the
people that really should have nothing to say because they are actual legitimate
law breakers. If there are people that would, should probably keep their mouth
shut and think about the judgment that's about to weight them, it would be them.
Mark reports those who were crucified with him also reviled him. There would be
no reason to have to listen to abuse to men like that from this cross. How
tempting it must have been to shut up these men and come down from the cross.
Instead, we see that in the midst of his physical agony, Jesus ministers to one
of these thieves. From the sixth hour to the ninth hour, 12 p.m. to 3 p.m., the
whole area, the whole land is blanketed in darkness. And Jesus has been
abandoned and mocked by everyone. He's experiencing complete alienation. At the
ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which
means my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders
hearing it said, behold, he's calling Elijah. And someone ran and filled a
sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying,
wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down. In this hour of
agony, Jesus prays from the Old Testament scripture, our Psalm book, his prayer
book, Psalm 22. Not everyone understands the reference, so some people think he
is calling Elijah. So once again, for a fourth time, we see there's this
question of whether there will be intervention. The crowds want to see, is
Elijah going to intervene? That might seem strange to us, but there are Jewish
legends that Elijah could be called upon to help in time of need. Elijah was a
prophet, the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, and he himself had been
translated from earth to heaven. So even as Jesus approached these final
moments, there's still this sense that this can't really be happening. Still
wondering, is there going to be a miracle? Is Elijah going to intervene? Let's
see whether Elijah will come. Elijah didn't come. And Jesus stayed on the cross,
enduring physical, mental, emotional, spiritual agony, alienation from God,
taunts and mockery from the crowds. And Mark concludes by saying, Jesus uttered
a loud cry and breathed his last. We know from other gospel accounts that when
he uttered a loud cry, he said, it is finished. The sense of that phrase is
absolute final completion. We could say it like it has been and it forever will
be finished. At the moment of his death, the curtain of the temple was torn in
two from top to bottom. The curtain is functioning as a barrier in the temple
between the pure and holy presence of God and the sinfulness of man. Nobody was
allowed to go behind that curtain except for the high priest once a year, one
day a year to offer sacrifices on behalf of the people. In his death, Jesus
acted as our great high priest, offering a once and for all sacrifice. Hebrews
explains the significance to this, to believers today saying, we have this as a
sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place
behind the curtain. That barrier between God and man is our sin. But in his
death, that barrier is broken. In his death, Jesus took the punishment as our
substitute for our sin. All that time, Jesus stayed on the cross, not lacking
the capacity to come down, not really being held up by human power. But he
endured it to make a way for us to come to God. And he proves his love not in a
demonstration of power, but through suffering. And think with me for a moment
about how the Gospel of Mark comes together. In Mark 1, 1, it begins, the
beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In the very first
verse, Mark says point blank to his readers as they unrolled the scroll or
whatever it was that this was written on. Here's who this is. Here's who this
document is about. Here's his identity. After that, Mark becomes kind of this
dramatic documentary. And we have been proceeding at this very rapid pace
through the life of Jesus. Mark is reporting for the rest of the Gospel. He's
not making editorial comments. Here's what I thought about this. Here's what it
all means. He's reporting. It's action-based. But as the Gospel concludes, and
before we read anything about the resurrection, look at what this Roman soldier
says. And think about this guy. We cannot probably even conceptualize how many
people he had seen tortured and killed. He's a centurion. In other words, he has
authority over 100 soldiers. And the men casting lots at the foot of the cross
would have been under his authority. It's not like this is someone who's greatly
moved by scenes of death. But when he saw Jesus endure the cross, he said,
truly, this man is the Son of God, was the Son of God. So Mark's proclamation in
1-1 is bookended by the centurion's proclamation in 1539. And the point is, this
is not just a truth for it. This is not just a religious document. This is not
just Mark's opinion. It's for everyone to read the words of this book and
recognize Jesus is God's son sent to earth. When the apostle Paul reflects on
this, on the death of Christ later on in Romans, he says in chapter 5, 6-8, For
while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one
will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one
would even dare to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were
still sinners, Christ died for us. And when we read Mark front to back and when
we consider the claims that he's making, I have to ask, Have you ever actually
turned to Jesus? If not, then there is still a barrier between you and the God
who created you. You have to actually confess your sin. You have to place your
trust in the work of Jesus who stayed on the cross to make a way for you to come
to God. Or we could put it like this. We could say, Is your sin still on you? Or
is your sin on Jesus? Because we have all sinned. I hope that none of us think
that we are good enough on our own for God. The question is really, What are we
doing with that sin? Is it still on you? Are you trying to carry it yourself?
Are you trying to minimize it and pretend it's really not that serious? Are you
trying to counterbalance it and think, If I do enough good things, it will kind
of offset? Are you trying to just ignore it and think about it at a more
convenient time? Or has he actually taken your sin? Have you looked to the cross
and knelt down and confessed your sin and placed your trust completely in
Jesus's finished work? Peter tells us that he himself bore our sins in his body
on the tree. So we could live a completely different life. That we might die to
sin and live to righteousness. For those of us who have placed our hope, our
trust in Christ, we're living to righteousness now. And the scripture says, By
his wounds you have been healed. So do you see his love? Do you see him as Lord?
Let's pray together.