Mark 15:22-39
Before I share from God’s Word let us pray.
Father we find ourselves here in this place this morning by Your will. You are so good and gracious to us Father God. You know every single one of us, all about us—the good, the bad, the ugly. So, this morning we bow before You, and worship You to thank You for loving the world so much that You gave Your only Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Thank You Lord Jesus for the wonderful truth that whoever comes to You, You will never turn away. This morning we pray that in these few moments that we spend in Your precious word, that these words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts may be found acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
Most of us know the Gospel story very well and as I prepared my heart and asked the Lord what He wanted me to share on for today and while visiting with a new family recently I was asked why we as a church have Communion each Sunday- I felt that it was a good question and so today I want us to think about these events today and then each time we break Bread and drink the wine, we may worship our GLORIOUS SAVIOUR
In Mark chapter 14 verses 33 and 34, we have the description of the Lord Jesus being “distressed and sorrowful” in the garden of Gethsemane. Mark says that He was “greatly distressed” and He was “troubled.” In fact, He says to His friends that He was “very sorrowful,” even to the point of death.
There is nothing superficial about that. It speaks about the humanity of the Lord Jesus. Many people struggle with the divinity of the Lord Jesus, others struggle with Him being less than human. But here we see Him, in all of the majesty of His humanity, overwhelmed—and giving, if you like, to each of us the go-ahead to be overwhelmed, the go-ahead to be distressed, the go-ahead to be troubled. If He was troubled and distressed then so may we, but not on account of the same issues. So, when we say, “I wonder if anybody knows what I’m going through, I wonder if anybody knows and cares,” we may be certain that the distressed Lord Jesus knows our distresses and He cares about us.
Not only do we see Him distressed, but we find Him also betrayed for 30 pieces of silver and by a kiss- nogal by one of His own disciples and friend- Judas Iscariot. And you will remember that in that scene in the upper room in Matthew 26 verses 21 and 22, when the Lord Jesus says in the upper room that “one of you will betray Me,” they all said individually, “Is it I Lord?” It is possible to go through the motions of Christianity, appearing to all intents and purposes to be the friend of the Lord Jesus and yet, in our hearts, it is not so.
So our Lord was distressed, betrayed and denied. During His three years of ministry, He got all of the questions that were asked of Him right, He performed many miracles and we wonder why He should collapse like a broken camping chair when everything went south.
Wouldn’t you and I feel these emotions as well if as it says in the chapter 4 verse 65, “And some began to spit on Him and they covered His face — (so they blindfolded Him)—and then they struck Him (when He couldn’t see what they were doing) - they said to Him, “Prophesy!” And the guards all “received Him with blows.”
And it immediately afterward in verse 66 it says, “And as Peter was below in the courtyard.” Also one of His closest friends was not far away and he denies that he knows Him as the Lord Jesus predicted that he would. So all of His friends had now deserted Him.
Pontius Pilate who was the governor also had his own part to play, however passive. He would try to cleanse the guilt from his conscience by publicly washing his hands of the whole affair, but he was not able get himself off the hook.
As the highest-ranking Roman around, he could have put an end to the injustice which was unfolding in front of him. He knew it was evil. Both Luke and John record three instances of Pilate declaring, “I find no guilt in Him” (See Luke 23 verses 14 -15, verse 20 and 22 and John 18 verse 38 and chapter 19 verses 4 and 6). In a case like this, any righteous ruler would not only have set the accused free, but seen to it that he was protected from further harm from his accusers. Yet, ironically, finding no guilt in the Lord Jesus, as he bowed to what seemed politically convenient in the moment.
First, Pilate tried to bargain. He offered to release a notorious criminal. But the people called his bluff, incited by their leaders, and called for the release of the guilty instead. Now Pilate was in a corner. So, he washes his hands and “released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered Him to be crucified” (Mark 15 verse 15).
Pilate’s part, was more reactive than the conspiring Jewish leaders, but when “he delivered Jesus over to their will” as we see in Luke 23 verse 25 he joined them in their wickedness.
Pilate then has the Lord Jesus to be scourged (beaten) and Psalm 129 verse 3 which has been considered to be referring to the Lord Jesus sufferings and whippings says “The plowers ploughed My back; they made long their furrows like a farmer ploughs fields.” We cannot imagine how that would have felt for the Lord Jesus as these Romans were very cruel people.
Distressed, betrayed, denied, deserted, beaten, mocked. Mocked by the soldiers. In chapter 15 verses 17 -20 it says that the soldiers said, “Let’s put a crown of thorns on Him. Let’s salute Him.” And they struck His head with a reed, and they spat on Him, and they knelt down to honour Him. And when they had mocked Him, they tore off the purple robe and put His own clothes back on Him, and they led Him out. But they weren’t alone in that, because in verse 29 we are told that the passers-by were actually doing the same thing: “And those who passed by mocked him.” They wagged their heads, saying, “Oh-ho! You would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. We listened to what You said.” Yes, they heard what He said, but they didn’t hear what He said. He wasn’t talking about the temple. He was talking about the temple of His body. (see John 2 verse 21)
You would think the religious people would have enough in them to say, “This is not the kind of thing that we should be involved in.” No, they were right there with them. The chief priests and the scribes also mocked Him. They said, “He saved others. He can’t save Himself. Let Him come down from the cross, that we may see and believe.”
At 9am they crucified Him by physically nailing His wrists and His feet onto the cross. Imagine how painful that must have been. EINA
And they crucified Him between two thieves. One was repentant, and one was not. Quite amazing isn’t it? You are so close to the Lord Jesus, and in the dying moments of your life, you are prepared to complain and swear at Him. And yet amazing love is shown. One of the thieves says to the other, “You know, I’m not sure we should keep on with this stuff, because we are up here getting what our sins deserve, but the man on the middle has done nothing wrong.” And then he says, “Lord, would you remember me when you come into Your kingdom?” And essentially, Jesus says to him, “I’ll do much better than that. Today—today, in My presence…”
Then at midday until 3pm there was darkness in the whole land. This was not an eclipse. An eclipse does not last for three hours. God turned off the light.
The sudden darkness tells us that something entirely new was happening. Up to this point it has all been about physical suffering—the scourging(beating), the nailing and the mocking — all at the hands of men. Now the Lord Jesus was entering into the heart of His atoning work as our sin-bearer.
The darkness reminds us that the events that took place in these hours are beyond our human understanding.
But there are some things that we know, because God has told us from His Word…
1. Christ bore our sins on the cross
1 Peter 2:24 says “He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree”.
2 Corinthians 5:21 says “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us”.
Isaiah 53:6 says “The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all”.
2. Christ bore the punishment for our sins on the cross
Isaiah 53:5 “The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him.”
Romans 3:25 “God presented Him [Christ] as an atoning sacrifice.”
1 John 2:2 “Christ is the atoning sacrifice [propitiation] for our sins.”
Our Lord Jesus endured the punishment for our sin on the cross. That means He endured hell on the cross because that is the punishment for sin. All that hell is, He experienced right there during these hours of darkness in which He bore our sin and endured our punishment.
3. Christ was completely alone in His suffering on the cross
His disciples had deserted Him, but now the Lord Jesus enters into an even deeper isolation, He is forsaken by God. Martin Luther says, “God forsaking God. What man can understand this?” Earth has rejected Him and heaven has given Him up. He cries out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?”
This abandoning of Christ meant two things…
a. The comforts of the Father’s love were beyond the Saviour’s reach
The Father did not cease to love Him. The Lord Jesus says in John 10 verse17, “The reason My father loves Me is that I lay down My life”. We can ask “How could the Father then cease to love the Lord Jesus while He was in the act of laying down His life?”
The answer is that the Father did not stop loving the Son in these hours of darkness. But Christ is separated from this love. He is outside of it. The love that the Son has enjoyed with His Father for all eternity is now beyond His reach.
b. The terrors of the Father’s judgment were poured out on the Saviour
To be our sin-bearer, Jesus Christ received in Himself the hell that our sins bring.
This is the deepest mystery in the darkness of the cross. How could the Father plunge the Son He loved into these torments?
There is a story told by a grandmother who asked the pastor to pray for her grandson, who was to have extended medical treatment for a severe condition. It involved a procedure that brings terrible pain to the little boy.
This grandmother said, “My son has to hold him down while the doctors do what needs to be done.” She described the father holding his son down, and how, when the boy screamed, the father had to turn his face away, “I think that is what it was like for God the Father at the cross.”
My precious friends, we need to try to take in what’s happening, because it goes to the heart of yours and my faith. When the Lord Jesus Christ becomes our sin-bearer, He is plunged into all the torments of hell because of our sin that was placed on Him. The Father, who loves Him, turns His face away and all the comforts of the Father’s love are beyond the Saviour’s reach. In the depths of His agony, the Lord Jesus cries out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
In verse 34 it says that the Lord Jesus shouts in a loud voice: “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani” which means “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?"
To forsake someone means to turn away from or withdraw from. Why would God do that to His own son? We as parents would not do to our own children, so it is odd that the source of all love would turn away from His own son, yet this is exactly what has happened in this moment. It was necessary for the fullness of God’s love for humanity to be realized and it tells us how much God values and loves us.
King David, in the messianic Psalm 22 appears to be sharing in some vision of what will happen to the Lord’s Messiah and we can see that it is all about the crucifixion! Line after line shows what happened to the Lord Jesus on that fateful, glorious day. In the last line in verse 31 of the Psalm, “He has done it,” is almost the same as Jesus’ final words, “It is finished.”
When the Lord Jesus cried out the first verse of this Psalm, He was also calling out His dependence upon God and His gratitude for the goodness of God. He recognized the desperation of humanity that suddenly hung upon His shoulders and even in that agonizing moment, His voice called out to show that only God can deliver us. The psalm was written approximately 1,000 years between King David’s vision which is recorded in Psalm 22 and the recorded actions of the death of Jesus, it is amazing that they should be so similar?
It is quite appropriate that we sang How deep the Father’s love for us today- Thank you Jason. One of my favourites and the words are so true.
I would like us to think a few moments on verse 38:
“The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”
In the Temple at Jerusalem, the curtain separates the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple. The Holy of Holies was the place where the Ark of the Covenant had been placed and it was the physical location where God would meet with the High Priest who was the representative of His people. The Lord Jesus actions of dying and paying the penalty for our sins by being humiliated, suffering horribly, and His death, now removed the barriers between us and God the Father.
The theological term for this is “justification.” There was no longer a need for a blood sacrifice every year for sin—The Lord Jesus’ sacrifice dealt with sin once and for all. No longer do we need a High Priest to speak on our behalf, Jesus has assumed this role as Hebrews 7 verses 22-28 reminds us. The relationship that we were created to have with God is now possible again. All believers can now say “Hallelujah, what a Saviour” The “tearing” of the Lord Jesus’ flesh secured the reconciliation between God and His sinful people. That is what the tearing of the curtain signified.” As believers we are no longer separated from God. We could now approach Him directly.
The tearing of the veil in the temple was significant not only because it happened but also in the way it happened. God tore the curtain, from top to bottom, in two pieces. God made a way for us through our Lord Jesus, and so He tore the veil that separated us from Him. This curtain was ornate, massive, and specifically crafted. Nothing man-made can withstand the power of God. The curtain represented all of the laws God’s people followed in an effort to maintain right standing with God, and when it tore it signified how we all fall short of the glory of God. The way God made through Christ’s death is the only way in which we can stand in the presence of God.
Please close your eyes for the next few moments as I conclude and pray.
Every new day starts in the dark and this day was no different. Our Lord Jesus, was arrested and put through a fake trial. He was spit upon, He was stripped, He was mocked, and then He was tortured. The Lord Jesus was tortured so badly that He was beyond any recognition.
Then under false charges He was ordered to be crucified and He found Himself on the hill of Golgotha dying a slow and painful death on the cross. And what about His followers, the ones that said that they would love Him and that they would never betray Him. What were they doing? They were hiding amongst the shadows, denying that they ever knew Him.
Good Friday!
If you and I were there that day, I doubt that we would call it good. But what if we had to re-examine that afternoon, that moment on the hill. Wouldn’t we be there also- hiding in the shadows? Crouched down with all of the other betrayers… Because you see in the dark, we can hide. Hide the stains on our hands, hurt in our hearts, the shame and guilt that seems to cloak us and wrap us up- day in and day out. If we are to be honest- that is it, right? And when we observe what unfolds on the cross, we cannot but help, but look inward and see our ill intentions, our mis-guided motivations. The corruption of our character. So, I must ask you as I ask myself, about all of that horror, WHERE IS THE GOOD? The good is there. It is in the final and complete sacrifice being made to save us from the sin that has got us cowering in our dark corners. It is there- in God’s love for the world that He created. And it is there in our Lord Jesus final determination to obey the Father and change our destiny. And it is there in salvation. It is everything that we need, but nothing that we can gain by ourselves, which empowers us to walk out of the dark shadows and into the light. There on the cross is all of the good that God is. O yes, every day starts in the dark.
Let us pray.
Father God, thank You that this was all part of Your plan from before the beginning of time as You knew our hearts would be filled with pride and greed. Thank You for sending the Lord Jesus to take the penalty of us going to hell upon Himself and all those who place their faith and trust in His perfect sacrifice at Calvary receive the precious gift of eternal life. We thank You that You did not remain in the tomb as You rose again on the third day. Thank You Lord that You first loved us. You know each heart in this hall today, strengthen and encourage each of the believers to live lives that bring honour and glory to You and challenge and speak to those who have not yet bowed their knee to You that today should be that day. Thank You that it is in Jesus Christ alone that our hope is found. We love You Lord. Amen.
