Do we have any artists in here? If you are an artist then you probably enjoyed art class in school while you were growing up. All of the different mediums, all of the colors and all the expressions of creativity would have been something that you enjoyed and looked forward to. While that would certainly describe my wife, I would not fall into the category of one who loved art and art class in school. It wasn’t until my Junior year in High School that Art class became enjoyable for me. I had a teacher that actually made me be creative and work and Erin was in my class. As long as we stayed busy and worked on our “Masterpieces,” we could talk and be together. Suddenly I wanted to be an artist! That was a first, all through the early years of school, I hated art class. I enjoyed math and science, reading and even spelling. I loved gym class and recess, but art bored me to tears. I would have much rather been outside throwing a football than inside making circus animals out of pipe cleaners, it just wasn’t my thing.
My earliest memories of art class involve my teacher trying to explain perspective to us. Do you remember that? You would draw something like a main street going through a town and the stores are lined up along the street and they get smaller and smaller as they move towards the edge of the page to make it look like they get farther and farther away. You would start with a focal point and then bring two lines out from that point that progressively got further apart. Then, you’d draw the street and the shops and everything between those two lines. I just remember being frustrated because I could never get mine to look the way that it was supposed to look. My main street never looked like a town anybody would want to live in. To learn perspective, you had to have a point that everything else was working towards. It’s like a good book. I love to read John Grisham novels. Throughout the book, you may have a vast array of characters and plots and activities that are going on, but like that perspective drawing, they are all headed towards the same focal point. The climax of the story, where everything begins to happen at once and it culminates in a single event, that point where you can no longer put the book down. In the book of Matthew, we’ve come to that point. We’ve come to the focal point, the event that this book, and all of Scripture, and all of Creation, has been pointing towards and building towards from the beginning. We’ve come to the Cross.
This is the point. This is what Christ has come to do. The timing is right, He has been teaching and ministering for three years and the stage is set for the accomplishment of His purpose on Earth, the salvation of mankind. We’ve looked at Jesus’ birth. We’ve looked at the authority that He had over nature, calming the sea and walking on water. He showed authority over the body by healing all who came to Him, the deaf, the Blind, the leper, the cripple. He drove out demons with a word and showed authority that was unequaled by any human over the spiritual realms. We’ve looked at the authority that he had over death, raising a young girl and his friend Lazarus from the grave. He’s shown us authority beyond the established religion and the manmade rules and laws that governed the Jews. He fed 5000, he blessed the children, he taught a new way of love and heart change, he stood up to the Pharisees, he ate with tax collectors and sinners, he offered living water to a Gentile woman, he fulfilled every Messianic prophecy concerning His birth and ministry but none of those things were the real reason that He came. It was part of the reason, He had come to point the way to God and everything that He did revealed the character and heart of God, a God that the Jews worshipped, but didn’t truly know. He came so that they could see God.
JN 14:9 Jesus answered: "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father’?
Jesus was the image of God come to Earth, He came to point to God, to show us God, but that was not His primary objective. He came not only to point the way to God, He came to be the way to God. He came to provide forgiveness for our sins so that we could know God, not just worship Him, not just fear Him, but know Him and have a relationship with Him. For that to happen, He had to become a sacrifice, the cross was necessary.
Heb 9:22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
All of the sacrifices that were required by Jewish law, the entire system that was set up, Hebrews tells us that this was a shadow of what was to come, all of it pointed to and prepared the people for this event, this moment, when the true spotless lamb would bear the burden for and become the sacrifice for us. From the moment Adam and Eve sinned, all of history led to this defining moment when the purposes of God were accomplished on Earth for His creation.
The two chapters that we’re going to look at this morning are an account of what happened. They are an amazing picture of the humanity of Jesus as He struggles with what’s coming and endures physical and emotional pain. They are also a beautiful picture of the divinity of Jesus as He answers the question of who He is and as He dies in a way that leaves little room to doubt that He was truly God’s Son. Because of the sheer magnitude of what we’re going to be looking at, this is not going to be a typical sermon. It is going to be more of a running narrative of the events that happened with some commentary and application added in. You can follow along in your Bibles and I will try to give references often so that you can keep up. You’ve heard me say before that the time that we have does not allow me to do justice to a passage, never before has that been more true than this morning. I trust that even as we only scratch the surface of the incredible reality of the cross that God will use it to touch your heart in a new and fresh way as we see the cross for what it is, a symbol of life and of the love of our God for His people.
Let’s begin with the arrest of Christ in chapter 26 beginning with verse 36.
I. The Arrest
A. The Garden
As we enter the garden on the Mount of Olives, Jesus has just finished the Last Supper with His disciples. He has broken the Bread and poured the wine, instructing His disciples to drink and eat in remembrance of Him. He has shared with them that one of them will betray Him to the dismay and disbelief of the men. He has predicted the betrayal of Peter, the passionate leader of the 12. This has to be so hard for Christ. These men are His closest companions on Earth, they are His chosen disciples, the men through whom the world will be changed. As the tension and sorrow mounts, so does the loneliness. He has shared everything with these men, but now He must walk alone. Jesus knows what is coming; He knows that His disciples do not understand it and that they will all abandon Him in His hour of need.
He has come to the Garden before, seeking solitude and a place to pray. It would be getting close to midnight and Jesus has had a long day at the end of a long and busy week. In His humanity, fatigue and exhaustion were beginning to set in but He knows that He needs to be with God, to talk with Him, to prepare Himself for what was ahead. He takes Peter, James, and John and enters the garden, he asks them to pray and then goes a little further in and collapses to the ground.
You have heard me say many times that certain verses are one of my favorites or that certain stories are one of my favorites, this story, this picture of Christ that the gospels paint is my favorite by far. Nowhere else is the complete humanity of Christ more evident than in the Garden on the night that Christ is betrayed. We can talk about the cross and the wonder and beauty of what was accomplished on it for us. We can sing about the cross and wear it around our neck, but in remembering the triumph and victory, we often forget the price that was paid. Here, in the garden, we get the true picture of the depth of love that Christ had for us. He is struggling with what’s ahead and that makes His love even more apparent when He is willing to continue towards the cross.
I want you to close your eyes for a moment, listen to the words Matthew uses and picture the scene before us.
Read verse 36-48
Here you have a very human Jesus struggling with a life or death situation. Luke tells us that His distress was so great that His sweat fell like drops of blood to the ground. The disciples are asleep and are no support, He is alone and crying out to His Father. You have to understand this, it was not just the pain or the torture of the crucifixion that was causing Jesus so much grief. He, himself taught the disciples in Matthew10:28:
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Jesus uses the term “this cup,” to describe the coming events, asking God to remove the cup if possible. In the OT, the cup was a common symbol for the wrath of God. Jesus is about to take sin upon Himself and in doing that, the wrath of God will be brought against Him to satisfy our penalty. He is about to experience a separation from the Father and that is what drives Him facedown before the Father. But when He stands, the decision has been made. His face is set, He utters the words that seal our eternity and illustrate the perfect love that Christ has for us, “not my will but yours be done.” Often we struggle with God’s will in our own lives. We may think that He asks too much or that he is being unreasonable. We may have better plans for ourselves and so we put off His will for ours. We can learn so much from Christ here. We will never be asked to do or to give more than that which was asked of Christ. How different would our lives be if we learned to answer as He did here and say, “not what I want, but your will be done.” Jesus submits to God’s will and rouses the disciples because Judas has arrived.
B. The Betrayal
Matthew says that a large crowd arrived armed with swords and clubs to bring this troublemaker to justice. It would have been dark and difficult to see, and in the days before cameras and picture, even the most well known of celebrities would not be as recognizable as they are today, so Judas arranged a sign for the captors to show them who it was that they had come to seize. He approaches Christ and in the ultimate act of betrayal, he kisses him as a sign for the mob. What irony there is in this gesture. It was normal for a student to kiss the hem of the master’s garment, or his hand as a sign of respect, but a kiss to the face was a sign of deep friendship and intimacy and would never have been done unless initiated by the master. The word that Matthew uses here means to kiss with great affection or intensity, it’s the same word that was used for the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume and kissed them repeatedly as an act of worship. So, instead of simply pointing Him out, Judas uses an intimate and highly personal gesture to hand Christ over to the mob that underscores the depth of the betrayal that took place. This was a man whom Jesus had invested three years of His life into. He had eaten with him, talked with him, laughed with him, and taught him, Judas had seen the miracles and the power and still, with a kiss, he handed Him over to die.
At this point, Peter, the passionate one, whips out a sword and cuts off the ear of one of the men. I’ve always found this to be an interesting addition to the narrative. No one would have blamed Jesus if He had allowed the disciples to fight a bit, or if he had simply let this man, who had come to kill him, bleed for awhile. But once again, Christ showed compassion on someone who does not deserve it and he uses the moment to teach. He reaches out and, Luke tells us, he puts the guys ear back on. He heals him! Do you think maybe these guys had some second thoughts about who they were arresting! Jesus, who we have just seen in a very human moment, now reinforces His divinity.
Read 53-54
Jesus knew that He could get out at any time. He knew that He had angels at his disposal and that with a word, this could all be over. But He also realizes that this is the only way and that for the Scripture to be fulfilled, He had to subject himself to abuse and to being arrested by these men. As we close this portion, it ends with these words: “Then all of the disciples deserted him and fled.” Jesus was now on His own. Remember this. I want you to be aware of the incredible change that happened in these men. These same men who ran away scared and abandoned Jesus are the ones who turned the world upside down as we read about the early church in Acts. What could have caused that change? What could cause cowards who ran into men willing to be beaten and die? Only the reality that Christ was God’s son and had conquered death, but that’s another sermon!
So the mob has come and carried Jesus away, the arrest has taken place, sometime after midnight. We are now in the middle of the night on Friday morning but that doesn’t stop the process. The next step along the way is a trip through the “justice” system.
II. The Trial
We’re going to look quickly at what the trial and sentencing of Jesus looked like. There is so much to draw from here, I would encourage you to go back and read it on your own to get a better feel for it than we can give you this morning.
I used to be a big Law and Order fan. I think it’s gotten kind of over the top recently but I used to catch it every Wednesday night at 10. I liked the drama of the courtroom. I liked the lawyers and the witnesses and the twists and turns that each episode took. If this plot came across the desk of the producers of that show, they would dismiss it immediately as being ludicrous. No way would a trial break so many rules, no way would a man so clearly innocent be sentenced to such a harsh penalty. The Jewish legal system was the most advanced and fair system of law to date. It encompassed morality and spirituality as well as the law. The accused was innocent until proven guilty, the trials were organized and well run, the witnesses had to agree and there were stiff penalties for false testimony. If you lied and accused someone of something, you were subject to whatever penalty that they would have received, right up to the death penalty. For this trial, however, all the rules were thrown out the window
A. Annas
John tells us that Jesus was taken first to the home of the former high priest, Annas. This would have been in the middle of the night. Annas held the true political power in Jerusalem. He had been the high priest for 20 years and had been succeeded by 5 son-in-laws that he worked like puppets. He questioned Jesus and sent Him on to the next group.
B. Caiphas
While Jesus was questioned by Annas, the Jewish leaders gatheres at the home of Caiphas where Jesus was brought next. The Jewish court system never met at night. If a proceeding was still going as night approached, they would suspend it until the next day. Yet it was in the darkness of night that Christ was tried. The entire court also would excuse themselves from a case if one of their members was bringing the charges. That was set aside. The rules on witnesses, the rules on self-incrimination, all of those were ignored in this sham of a trial. The chief priests produced a series of false witnesses who could not get their stories straight. Jesus was silent throughout these proceeding, refusing to defend himself against the lies that were being presented. In doing this, he fulfilled what was written in Isaiah 53:7
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
Finally, when asked if He was God’s Son, he spoke. And what an answer he gave. Remember, Jesus had spent much of His ministry concealing who he really was, now His strategy changed. The time for Truth was at hand and Mark tells us that he answers: I Am. He uses the traditional OT name of God. Then he says in chapter 26, verse 64: "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."
This is a direct reference to a Messianic prophecy found in Daniel. Jesus did not defned himself, instead, when He spoke, He said the words that would condemn Him the quickest. He spoke the Truth that He was God’s Son. With that admission, the high priest tears his clothes (which they were forbidden to do) as a sign of outrage at the blasphemy that he’s heard. There was no one who came to speak on Christ’s behalf, no one who came to His defense and later that morning, the Sanhedrin gives its official verdict: Death to the Impostor.
Now the Jews were under Roman rule. They did not have the authority to carry out a death sentence. So, they sent Christ to the next stop in His trial.
C. Pilate
Pilate was the Roman governor. In a nutshell, he did not find anything wrong with Christ. He could see no guilt, he could see no reason to sentence him to death. He sent Christ to King Herod, hoping that Herod would condemn Jesus and take the pressure off of him. Herod mocks Christ, he asks for a performance, again, Jesus is silent. Herod gets bored of Him, finds no fault in Him, and sends Him back to Pilate. Pilate gives the people a choice that he thinks will take care of the problem. He offers to release Jesus or Barabbas, a murderer. The same crowd that shouted “Hosanna!” just a few days earlier and embraced Christ as King, now demanded that Pilate release the murderer instead. Pilate was motivated by politics and did not want a riot that would look bad on his resume, so he gave them Barabbas and, after washing his hands of the guilt, he sentenced Christ to die by crucifixion. Jesus was immediately taken out and beaten.
III. The Execution
The Biblical accounts of the crucifixion are fairly simple. They would have been written to a people who understood what it meant to be crucified. Today, we have nothing to compare it with, no punishment comes close to the pain and horror of the cross and the slow agonizing death that the Romans had perfected. There was no appeal, there was no death row. When the sentence was handed down, the process of execution began. He was handed over to the soldiers after his flogging. He would have been beaten to near death. His back shredded and bleeding. The lash consisted of leather strips that had glass and bone and metal embedded in it to inflict the most damage and pain possible with each blow. It was not uncommon for a man to die during his beating. The soldiers were not content to simply carry out there orders, they began to mock him. They dressed him as a king and knelt before him saying “Hail to the King of the Jews. A crown of thorns was placed upon His head. I remember in Syracuse, someone had crafted a crown of thorns for an Easter play. The thorns were about 2 inches long and as I held it I began to cry. It’s so easy to know the story and not let the sacrifice sink in, but holding this crown, feeling the thorns and imagining the soldiers pressing it into the head of Christ, I was overwhelmed by the imagery and the reality of what he endured for me.
After being up all night and dragged through trials after trial. After being mocked and spit on, abandoned and beaten. Jesus, in his humanity, could not bear the weight of the cross on the road to Golgotha. A man named Simon, of Cyrene, was pulled from the crowd and forced to carry the cross for Christ. Finally, they reached the place where the execution would take place. The Cross would have been laid out and Jesus would have been laid on it. The Romans would then choose whether to tie the victim to the cross or to nail them. Jesus was nailed. Large spikes, similar to railroad spikes would have been driven through either wrist. The nerve called the sensorimotor median nerve would have been severed resulting in a pain so intense that words cannot do it justice. A single nail would have been driven through both feet to hold them in place. Then, the cross would have been lifted up and with a jolt it would have fallen into its hole. Immediately the full weight of the individual would be borne by the nails in the hands and feet, pulling joints and tendons out of place and resulting in even more unimaginable pain. Add to this the rough wood of the cross against a back that has been torn apart by the lash and the fact that just to breathe you had to push up with your feet, pushing off of the nails, and dragging your back up and down against that wood and you can see that the Romans had perfected the art of torture and pain. This is how Christ spent His last hours.
As He hung there, the crowd mocked Him. Matthew says that they hurled insults at Him. Imagine the reality of this, these are the very ones that Christ is dying to save who are yelling and screaming, mocking Him in their anger. The soldiers cast lots for His clothes. They put a sign above His head that read “this is the King of the Jews.” The Chief Priests mocked Him and told Him to save Himself. He was made a spectacle of.
And this is how it ended: From noon until three, the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness came over the land. In the ninth hour Jesus cries out twice. One was in agony as He cries out in verse 46, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” I mentioned that in the Garden, I believe what Jesus was troubled most by was the wrath that was coming, that point where God would turn away from Him. As He hung on the cross, as he suffered and bore our burden, God turned away. It was this pain that made Him cry out when nothing else would.
Forget the pain for a moment, here’s what was happening that no one could see that day: God was punishing His own Son as if He had committed every wicked deed done by every sinner who would ever believe. He hung there for you and me. I was fooling around backstage at an Easter cantata practice while my mother got the teen who was playing Jesus ready. She was attaching him to the cross that He would be on and I grabbed a marker off the desk and joked that I was going to write “Dan was here” across his chest. I was trying to be funny but my mother says that it was one of those moments when the reality of the cross became so clear. As Jesus hung on that cross He had “Dan was here” written across His chest, and the names of each and every one of us. It was our sin that was placed upon His shoulders. Fulfilling what the prophet Isaiah wrote when He said that “God laid on Him the iniquities of us all.” My sin hung there. God gave Him our punishment and He did it so that He could forgive and treat those who have been redeemed by Christ’s blood as if they had lived Christ’s perfect life of righteousness.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21
It was our sin that caused God to turn away and it was this separation that caused Christ to cry out. He cried out once more. Other gospels tell us that He cried “It is Finished.” Matthew says simply that He gave up His Spirit. His life was not taken. He willingly gave it. When He had accomplished what He had come to do, He gave up His life. Even under these circumstances He displays His sovereignty over life and death.
John 10:17-18 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."
At the ninth hour, with a loud cry, Christ laid down His life for the sins of mankind and His mission was accomplished.
In His death we see
1) Prophecy Fulfilled.
From the casting of lots over His clothes, to the mocking crowds, from the trials to the way that Christ conducted Himself. The OT prophecies were each and every one fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ as he hung on the cross that day.
2) Love Defined
Everything that He endured, everything that He was subjected to, He did because of love. That is almost impossible for us to understand.
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
Jesus laid His life down that we might know life in a way that was not possible apart form the cross.
3) Truth Revealed
The words of the centurion in verse 54 sum it all up: “Surely, He was the Son of God.” The way that He died revealed that all He had claimed to be was true. Those who crucified Him came to know the Truth, this was the Christ sacrificed for us.
Next week we wrap it up with the burial and the account of the resurrection. This is the event that took a quivering bunch of weak and cowardly men, the very ones who abandoned Jesus to the cross, and turned them into world changers. The cross is hard to take, but together with the resurrection and the empty tomb, they form the heart of the Good News of the Gospel that ought to be on the lips of every Christian!
