MARK 15:21-32
PARADOXES OF THE PASSION
As a Christian reads this text we can't help but be confronted with Paradoxes of the Passion. A paradox defines a statement which superficially seem to be contradictory, impossible, even absurd, yet beyond the superficial is in reality true. A paradox seems to contradict commonly accepted opinion or be inconsistent with common sense and yet is nevertheless factual. To speak of the Paradoxes of the Passion is to disclose the very center of that which is the object of our faith. Paradoxes of the Passion call us to look past the shallowness of man and see the Crucifixion of Christ from God's perspective. For the death of Christ was not what it superficially seemed.
The word paradox (( , contrary to opinion) comes from the Greek word para [ ] which means "along side of or beyond," and the word doxa [from , "to suppose or to seem to be."] which means "opinion, recognition or thinking." Therefore a paradox is something which is beyond our normal thinking or opinion. And yet it is a certainty that whether we use that word paradox or not, we are saved and redeemed by the Paradoxes of Jesus' Passion; for you see things were not as they seemed.
Taticus, the Roman historian, states concerning Judea during the whole life and ministry of Jesus; His trial, His crucifixion and His resurrection, one sentence "nothing of significance happen in that time during those days." That is a paradox. The greatest historian of the era could say that nothing of importance happen in Judea when Jesus walked the earth & gave His life for mankind. And yet our minds are riveted on that day and that life as the center of time and eternity.
These Paradoxes force the understanding of the Cross of Jesus outside our natural human logic and value system. Friends, to the natural man, there is no coercive value in the Cross of Christ. It alone will not constrain you, it will not compel, it will not force you. It stands there the great paradox, justice out of injustice, light out of darkness, healing out of wounds, life out of death. And it calls on you, to believe that God was at work in that mysterious paradox. The great paradox of the Cross consists of many less conspicuous paradoxes, a few of which time will permit us to see today. Our first puzzle is:
I. THE PARADOX OF STRENGTH OUT OF WEAKNESS, 22-23.
Those who stood before the Cross did not see that paradox and they missed the moment. And if you and I do not see that paradox we will miss the message. The Paradox is strength out of weakness.
Let us first look at His weakness on the way, or on The Via Dolorosa. Verse 22 reads, "And they bear Him up to the place Golgotha, which is being translated, Place of the Skull."
Most of this passage is in the vivid present tense. Even though in the KJV we find past tense words, Mark writes the story as if it is occurring before Him and us. They carry Him, they crucify Him, they divide His garments, they are wagging their heads. Like waves that crash in and over again and again so Mark portrays the drama before us.
The soldiers "are bearing Him." The word translated "bring" in the KJV, ( , ) means literally to bear or to carry Him, not to bring or lead Him. However He may have left with His cross, the witness of Mark is that in the way He staggered under it and even though they had pressed Simon of Cyrene into the service of carrying His cross, the contingent of soldiers were eventually forced to carry the staggering Christ through the streets of Jerusalem. To better educate more of the populace those to be crucified were taken the longest - not the shortest - way to the place of execution outside the city walls (Jn.14:20).
Here is the first paradox of the passion. He who bore the sins of all of us not only had to have someone else carry the cross but He Himself had to be carried [or borne along]. Hebrews 1:3 says, "He upholds all things by the Word of His power." He who bears (carries) all things by the Word of His power, had Himself to be borne on the way. He that carried the sins of the world had to be carried. That's the first Paradox of the Passion. They bore Him who would bear the sins of the world in His own body on the tree.
The weakness of the way is attached to this ugly word, Golgotha. The original Hebrew [Aramaic], Galgutha, has a gargling, gurgling, guttural sound. It sounds like death itself. Marks translates it into Greek as "Kraniontopos" which means literally "the topography of a cranium." In the Latin it is "Calvaria" from where we get Calvary. But the word is at its worst in its ugly guttural sound, Galgutha, where there He dies in the paradox of strength out of weakness.
In most artists conception of the crucifixion Christ is painted as valiantly facing death standing straight and stalwart with a glow of light all around Him stronger than all others around the Cross. But this picture is not the one Mark paints. He paints one weaker than the weakest, fainter than the faintest, tireder than the tiredest, bleaker than the very bleakest.
Have you ever COMPARED HOW Jesus died with how the other hero's of the ancient world died. Take Homer's Iliad and Odessy which set for a millennium the marks and lines of strength and courage. When you read of the heros like mighty Achilles, handsome Paris and brave
Hercules you find they go to their death with a dignity and a strength and a vitality. Or when you read the account of the death of Socrates you find him dying in dignity surrounded by his disciples without struggle poisoning himself. Or in Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History account of the death of the martyrs you read the story of Polycarp of Smyrna who goes to his death with strength and dignity and force of life. He stood at the stake, not tied up, but stood there until the flames consumed him. Even those who followed after our Lord in the trail of martyrs died with strength and vitality, but not so the Christ. For it is the paradox of the Cross that our strength comes out of His utter weakness. Our endurance out of His faintness, our healing our of His wounds, our life out of His death. So He dies a death that is more of a struggle even than that of the martyrs.
But the weakness in the way was a willing weakness. We read in verse 23 that repeatedly [imperfect tense], "They tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh but He did not take it." There is some weakness which is only circumstantial. It is a weakness due to conditions and not due to character or will. Christ's debilitation was induced, not characteristic. His weakness was a willing weakness.
The Talmud tells us that certain women of Jerusalem offered a narcotized drink to those who were suffering the excruciating pain of crucifixion. That very word excruciating comes from the Latin word ex-crucas- meaning "out of the cross," reminiscent of that very day.
It is one of the paradoxes within a paradox that the first thing given to Him in His life was [this embalming agent] myrrh by wise men who bore testimony from the east and now the last thing offered to Him, by a world that offered Him so little, is this narcotized anesthetic. He will refuse it. He refuses it for a two fold reason.
First, because He has already taken a vow of abstinence. In Mark's 14th chapter verse 25 Jesus said, "I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the Kingdom of God." This means that He has bound Himself with a sacred oath not to taste any fruit of the vine until this age is over. But more than that, as we will see, Second, He will not abate or ameliorate or minimize that cup or that bloody submersion. Jesus was resolved to taste the death and the punishment at its bitterest, facing it with His eyes wide open. For the pain and penalty that was before Him to pay for the sins of the world He needed full use of His human faculties to completely drain the cup which was the Father's will for Him to drink (10:38; 14:36). Jesus was not going to sleep through the cross as the disciples slept through Gethsemane. The weakness in the way was a willing weakness.
Then we read of:
II. THE PARADOX OF GLORY OUT OF SHAME and THE PARADOX OF CLOTHING OUT OF NAKEDNESS (24-25).
Verse 24 has more of these vivid present tense verbs. "And they are crucifying Him, and they are parting His garments and dividing up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them." Notice how many of these verses begin with "and," and, and, and. If fact, this is one long sentence which Mark has written as if He was breathless to finish the scenario before he put down his pen. Mark says that they, like gamblers do, take everything. They strip Jesus naked, part His garments and cast lots for them. The shame of the nakedness of the Cross.
The Roman writer Ar/ ti/ mi/ dor/ us in his five-volume Greek work "the Oneirocritica," (English: The Interpretation of Dreams) says that under Roman law that men were crucified exposed, naked, and open. Peter Paul Ruben in his noted painting, "the Descent from the Cross," may be some what modest in the way he paints Christ though his culture called for it. We should understand in the spirit of the 2nd chapter of Philippians that the emptiness of Christ, the emptying out of Himself involved not only that refusal to grasp equality with the Father, that willingness to empty Himself by becoming obedient to death, even death of the Cross. It would seem to be enough that He would die on a cross with sinners, but the bottom, the low point of that emptying may have been the humiliation, the shame of public nakedness. Knowing that shame the Jews even required that a man would be clothed when he was stoned for blasphemy. They took the only thing He had, the very clothes on His back. It seems to me when I read the gospels the only thing that we are specifically told that Jesus of Nazareth owned was this robe. But there is one other thing God made His own on earth.
THE CROSS WAS HIS OWN
They borrowed a bed to lay His head
When Christ the Lord came down;
They borrowed the [fold] ass in [the city old] mountain pass
For Him to ride to town;
But the crown that he wore and the cross that He bore
Were His own—
The Cross was His own.
He borrowed the bread when the crowd He fed
On the grassy mountain side;
He borrowed the dish of broken fish,
With which He satisfied;
But the Crown that He wore and the Cross that He bore
Were His own—
The Cross was His own.
He borrowed a ship in which to sit
To teach the multitude;
He borrowed a nest in which to rest,
He had never a home so crude;
But the Crown that he wore and the Cross that He bore
Were His own—
The Cross was His own. - Author Unknown
The shame and indignity of the Cross was that they even stripped Him of His last possession and gave Him a cross. And we see the Paradox out of His shame and nakedness comes His glory and crown (see Phil 2:8-11), and our covering & righteousness. He who died naked for us can cover our nakedness before the all seeing eyes of God with His shed blood. Not only that but He who in nakedness bore our unrighteousness can now imputed His righteousness to us (Gal. 3:27; 1 Cor. 15:53; Rom. 4:7; Rev. 19:8).
Mark notes the divine sovereignty in all this for in verse 25 Mark alone of the Gospel writers reports, "And it was the third hour when they crucified Him." Stripped of His clothing, His arms and legs nailed in unnatural positions Jesus was crucified at 9 am., as they figured time. Notice those REVERBERATING 3'S in the passion which the commentators remind us cannot be accidental. Three disciples follow Him into 3 periods of prayer; Peter accomplished 3 denials, 3 prediction of His crucifixion in Mark; 3 kinds of trials, before ecclesiastical leaders Annas, Caiaphas and Sanhedrin; 3 political trials, before Pilate, Herod and Pilate again; 3 crosses; crucified the third hour, raised 3 days later. I assume the commentators are right when they see in this series of threes that there is revealed the unity and design of God underlining it all. So we can see beyond the paradoxes of weakness and shame to the strength and glory that by design results because of it all.
Not only is there the Paradox of Strength Out of Weakness and the paradox of Glory Out of Shame, there is,
III. THE PARADOX OF TESTIMONY OUT OF MOCKERY, 26-32
Three representative groups of His bitterest enemies unwillingly give testimony to Him in Mark's panorama of Calvary. Their taunts at the cross are really testimonies. The stones that they throw at Him are in reality glorious prophecies that proclaim the Gospel. And out of the mouths not of babes but of mockers God perfects praise.
The first paradox is the paradox of His political enemy Pilate and what he said. Verse 26 reads, "And the inscription of the charge against Him read, "THE KING OF THE JEWS." This statement so far as being historically ratified from contemporary sources is as certain as can be. Mark uses the word ( ) an overwriting. John uses the word ( ), a title. Whether it is in Juvenal, or Pliny the Younger, or in Eusebius again and again we read that this is what the Romans did. They put white chalk on a board and wrote in black ink or burnt in the letters of the accusation. Jesus accusation was that of insurrection. The word Mark uses is translated "robbers" but that word ( ) is really "insurrectionists" when it is used in the literature of the day [James Brooks. The New American Com. Mark. p 258]. All of them crucified together because they were found guilty of the same crime. And Pilate in a double barreled sarcasm writes "King of the Jews."
One barrel of that sarcasm is because Pilate did not like to be toyed with. And in that trial when he said to Jesus, "Don't you realize I have the power of life and death over You." Pilate heard a prisoner tell him what no prisoner had told him before, "you have nothing unless it has been given you from above." Pilate was not the kind of man to have forgotten that. And he mocks the dominion of one who so confidently said that.
The other barrel of the mockery was aimed at the Jews. The chosen people of God whose very name was mocked by the ruling of Rome.
And yet there is paradox in it. Pilate wrote the first Christian sermon and published it in three languages. What he wrote in the language of justice and the empire, Latin, and in the language religion, Hebrew, and in Koine the common language of the whole civilized western world, confessed to the world the truth that Jesus of Nazareth is King of the Jews.
It was the truth that He came unto His own and His own received Him not (Jn. 1:11) and if you believe Paul and I pray you do, it was a prophetic truth when Paul says in the 11th chapter of Romans, "And yet all Israel shall be saved," in some consummating, unknowable mystery He is the King of God's covenant people. Pilate unwittingly paradoxically told the truth.
The second paradox in verse 29 is a true confession out of blind ignorance from a hate filled mob, the hostile crowd. John tells us that Jesus was crucified outside the city walls yet near to them. That vulgar and hostile mob seized as mobs tend to do on the easiest thing which was the thing that He said that caught everyone's attention: He said "destroy this Temple and I'll raise it up again in three days." After they had forgotten His beatitude and parables they remembered that very materially striking statement. He really did not say it like they remember in verse 29, "Those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads, and saying, "Ha! You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days," ["Ha" translates the Greek particle O (omicron) U (upsilon) and (alpha). Ironically they pronounce woe on Jesus when they are bringing woe upon themselves.]
The word translated "hurled abuse" (blasphemeo) is the verbal form of the noun blasphemy (14:64). It is paradoxical that the One falsely accused of blasphemy became the object of blasphemy [Brooks. 259]. Sense the bitter, biting statement, "Ha You who are going to destroy the Temple." You need to read where He said that in John 2:19. "You destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." And here a quadruple paradox, or a paradox within a paradox, mystery within a mystery for John says He was speaking of His body (2:21). He told them that by prostituting the faith, they are destroying the temple where God and man meet, paradox one. They would destroy the temple of His body, paradox two. God will raise it up, paradox three. And they will understand none of it, paradox four. So the mocking mob speaks the truth of His bodily resurrection. For on Sunday, that first Easter, that Temple they had destroyed, God raised up again. And forty years later that other Temple was leveled and not one stone was left upon another.
Macaskee's painting of "Christ on the Cross" hung every Easter season in Wanamaker's Department Store (now Macy's) in Philadelphia. It's 14x23 feet, a heroically dimensioned painting, it hangs there over the milling mobs that come and go, and one wonders if they look up and say, "a ha."
But the greatest paradox of testimony (Praise and Thanksgiving)out of mockery was saved for His bitterest enemies. For we read in verse 31. "In the same way also the high priests with the scribes are mocking to one another and were saying, "He saved others, He is not able to save Himself." And they became gospel preachers. To them what was the greatest contempt, to us it means eternal life. They did not see the paradox. On the one hand were His four kinds of miracles: Natural miracles, healing miracles, exorcisms and resurrection miracles. And now on the other hand His impotence and exhaustion on the cross. This man who calmed storms, can He calm His own storm; this man who heals the flow of blood, can He stop His own blood; this One who exercises a Gadarene Legion; can he not stop this hour; and the power of satan. This one who raises a Lazarus can he not stop His own death. I suppose for our Lord this was the cruelest cut of all, for they said He cannot save Himself. The Greek word ( ) means He is not able to save Himself. They would have told the truth if they had said He is not willing too. (Verse32) "Let this Christ, the King of Israel come down now from the Cross, so that we may see and believe. (If You do what we tell You to, we will believe.) To the very end they wanted coercive evidence; a sign that would compel them, force them, constrain them, and to the end, He would not give it to them. And church He will not give it to us either. He will be the Christ of the paradox on the Cross, to Taticus–nothing happened; to me eternal life. He will not coerce us to believe!
They said, "If He is the king of Israel, let Him come down now.!" Church, had He done that we would not be meeting here this morning. You should bolt those doors, evacuate this choir, silence that organ, take down that cross, and topple this pulpit. For His very throne and dominion are because He didn't. Yes the paradox. "He saved others, Himself He could not save." He could not save Himself, if He was to save us.
And now in closing just this last point for the time is gone.
IV. THE PARADOX OF LOYALTY OUT OF NOWHERE, 21.
Those who should have been there were not there. Not boasting Peter nor James, who wanted the best place, were there. Yet one who should not have been there was, "Simon of Cyrene." Oh what a difference a trivial makes in our life. Coming out to the street and turning right instead of to the left (vv. 21), being there five minutes before instead of five minutes later. He got what many men have given their life for, immortality. He is the only figure named in Mark's account of the passion. Like Robert Frost, he took the road less traveled by and that made all the difference for him.
There's one last paradox in Simon that we will look at. The paradox that even thought Christ was bearing the sin of Simon of Cyrene in His
own body on the tree, He had to have Simon bear the physical cross. It is the paradox that He needs us but He does not need us. He can feed the multitude, yet He needs a little boy with loaves and fishes. He can present Himself as King, but He needs the fold of a donkey to present Himself. And He can die carrying the sins of the world, but He needs someone to help Him carry His Cross. He can save the world, but He needs you and I to share His gospel of forgiveness, love, and hope.
IN CONCLUSION
That is where this message leaves me this Sunday. Will I leave a stranger to carry His Cross for Him. I wonder as the disciples gathered in the wake of that Event if there was not some sense of lost that a stranger carried His Cross on the way.
I think of this as a contemporary application church. In the neighborhood around First Baptist Church Bluegrass and in the city of Knoxville will we leave strangers to carry the Cross? Will God raise up other people while in our familiarity we slip into the shadows as did Thaddaeus, Bartholomew and Andrew? And the message comes to my heart, no! Paint me like a John who stands there beneath the shadow of the Cross is where I determinedly would take my stand. And that will be our song of invitation, number , Beneath the Cross of Jesus I Fain Would Take My Stand, the shadow of a mighty rock with-in a weary land.
Would you come today to take your stand this morning to commit life and family and home. Would you come for salvation and new birth and assurance, or come for new commitment or transfer of letter however it is we will stand and sing, May this song be our testimony - as we sing.
[The idea for this message came from a message I heard Dr. Joel Gregory preach in 1980 at Gambrel Street Baptist Church, Ft. Worth, TX.]
