sermon 3/16/08

Cross Talk
Mark 15.21-39

The cross is an unusual thing for us to talk about and display. It was the instrument of torture and death in the first century. It would be the electric chair or lethal injection equipment and the water boarding instrument all rolled into one. It is strange that we would wear a cross as a necklace or ear rings. Why do we display it in our churches? Because, the cross is absolutely central to the Chr faith. The cross was used by the Romans to execute traitors or terrible criminals. The torture element was that it could take days for the person to die on a cross. The person would struggle all that time in awful pain trying to breathe. Jesus was nailed to a cross and the crowd watched as he struggled to breathe. As he was on the cross different things were said to him and he said some things. This morning we are going to look at four things that were said and see how it applies to us.
Read Mark 15.25 – 30. The place of execution was a very public place – it always was so it would be a stark warning to other people not to do the crime being punished. Lots of people walked by to just stare at the condemned people. Some even shouted at Jesus thinking that they could heap even more disgrace on him. Mark writes that some said, “You who were going to destroy the temple and build it in three day, come down from the cross and save yourself.” Jesus could have saved himself – he could have popped those nails out of his hands and feet with the blink of his eye. The truth is that the nails were not what held him on the cross at all. It was the absolute love for you and me that held him on the cross. He had the choice to either save himself or save us, and he chose to save us by giving his life on the cross. What love! What self-sacrifice he made for us!
The truth is these people and the leaders of the Jews in the next section did not have a clue what was taking place before their eyes. They thought they were seeing a poor God-forsaken criminal getting what he deserved for his crimes. What was actually taking place was a cosmic, universal and eternal drama between God and evil. The pure Lamb of God was being sacrificed once and for all for the sins of everyone in the world. If Jesus would have come down from the cross, there would be no salvation, no hope, and no eternal life for anyone.
Next Mark records some of the things the chief priest and teachers of the law said to him. Read 31 – 32. These men demanded that Jesus be crucified and now they mocked him while he was on the cross. They did not believe he was the Christ – the anointed one. They did not believe he was the king of Israel. To them Jesus was just a man who was an absolute threat to them and their power as religious leaders. And they lied when they said that if he would come down from the cross they would believe in him. These men had seen all kinds of miracles – feeding on 5000 people, healing all kinds of sicknesses, driving out evil spirits, and even raising Lazarus from the dead. A simple miracle like coming down from the cross would not have changed their minds at this time. They in fact did not want him to come down from the cross – they wanted him to die so they would have been rid of him.
Later on the apostle Paul wrote that the Jews wanted to see signs of the power of God, but even the greatest display of power, the clearest display of power would not convince them that Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus did not come down from the cross because he loved these very religious leaders so much he was willing to give his life for them. He was willing to forgive them for what they were doing and saying. He wanted them to have new life in Christ. They wanted a show, a trick. Jesus gave them his life. Jesus gives us his life.
The next section of this chapter deals with one of the most difficult passages of the Bible. Read verses 33 – 38. I think Jesus knew this moment was coming even before he came to this earth. When he would be suffering the most, when all the sins of every one for all time were heaped on him, he would be separated from God. For all of eternity, millions of years, the Father and the Son had shared a loving and joyful intimate relationship. They were together in an absolute unity forever. But at this moment, when he was on the cross, he cried out, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani’ – My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This was a pray to the father, as many of the other statements Jesus made on the cross. This was an absolute cry of the heart from one who felt completely alone at that moment. I do not understand why he had to be alone right then. It may be that the sin heaped on Jesus at that moment meant that God could not be there. This to me is a profound mystery.
The last statement in this section was made by the centurion, the Roman soldier in charge of the crucifixion. Roman soldiers stationed in Jerusalem probably hated their jobs. They were hundreds of miles away from their homes. They probably hated the religion of the Jews and the petty laws of the Jews. Here he was killing another Jew for some crime that did not make sense. He heard what the people said, and what Jesus said, and concluded and confessed that this man was the son of God. Not just the king of the Jews as the sign over his head, said. “Surely this man was the Son of God.” I do not think even the disciples of Christ at that moment would have confessed what this soldier said. I do not know if this was special revelation from God or maybe he was more spiritually awake than anyone else in the crowd so he could see that this criminal hanging on the cross was indeed the son of God. We confess that this morning – Jesus is the Savior, the son of God.
So here we are. Jesus was nailed to an ugly cross. His own people did not accept him or understand what he was doing. The Messiah, the Son of God, was hanging on a cross. He had breathed his last breath. He was dead. The darkness of that afternoon reflected the darkness in the heart of all his followers. They did not know that it was Friday and Sunday was coming. They did not know that the resurrection was coming. For them hope was gone. For us the cross is a necessary step – the death of Jesus on the cross, but it lead to his burial and eventually to his glorious resurrection – to Easter.
We are going to sing the invitation hymn, “On a Hill Far Away.” Before we do I want to look at this song for a couple of minutes. Turn with me to page 317. (Go through the song verse by verse.)
This morning – do you love the cross? Do you love the dearest and best who died on the cross? Are you ready to give your life to him forever?