On Monday, I got a call from a cousin of mine who lives in Tulsa… His mother-in-law passed away after a battle with cancer. I had been praying for her as it was a difficult time for them. My cousin told me that in trying to console his daughter he said, “Yes, your grandma is gone, but that’s why we have Easter…” And his wife, no doubt sad and upset about her mother’s passing said, “What does that have to do with anything?” You see; she’s not a believer. And she couldn’t understand what the Easter Bunny and eggs had to do with her mother’s passing.
Now please understand; this is not an argument against the Easter Bunny and eggs… I’m not against kids having fun and doing fun things. If anything, what I would argue against, or rail against is the stunning level of Biblical ignorance in our society.
When we look at this history behind Easter we see that the purpose of it has been almost forgotten in our society today. Just think about this for a minute… if an alien from another planet was able to come to our world today and observe our celebrations of Easter, it might think that the significance of this holiday was found in the bunnies, or the eggs, or the chocolate. Now I don’t believe in aliens… I’m just using that to make my point that there is a growing need for Biblical knowledge and understanding.
My cousin’s wife is hurting. She’s sad, and that’s compounded by the fact that she doesn’t understand the significance of Easter – or should I say, the resurrection!
And so this morning; what I want to do is talk to you about the events of the crucifixion and resurrection and why they are important… and what they mean to you me, right here, right now, today.
So if you’ll take your Bibles and open them up to Mark 15 we’ll read what God’s Word has to say about this (READ TEXT).
Now all of these events took place in the city of Jerusalem during a festival… a holiday if you will. They took place during the Passover. And that was a weeklong holiday that celebrated Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. And historians tell us that that the population of Jerusalem at this time would go from about 200,000 people to over 2.7 million people. We don’t know for sure how many people were in the city, but we can be sure it was a lot. And probably for many of the people there – it was just another Passover celebration… just like always. Nothing out of the ordinary or different. And this is the backdrop to the events of the Passion Week. Jesus comes into the city riding on a donkey and causes quite a stir. He weeps over the city. He chases the money changers out of the temple. He leaves the city, and then comes back and curses the fig tree. His disciples prepare for Passover, they celebrate Passover, Jesus washes the disciples feet, while Judas goes out to betray Him. Jesus gets arrested, He is tried, and then taken to the cross and crucified. And while all of these history changing events were taking place, the majority of the people in the city had no idea.
And even as Jesus was whipped by Roman soldiers and nailed to the cross, they had no idea. For the Roman soldiers – this was just another crucifixion. It was their job. For the people who walked by and mocked Him as He hung on the cross – Jesus wasn’t anything special to them.
But then… as Jesus hung on the cross, something happened.
People were doing what they normally did, going about their business, and all of a sudden, darkness comes across the entire land. And it’s not just for a few minutes… it’s from noon till 3.
Now just think about this with me for a minute or two… yesterday we had our Easter festival and we had kids out searching for eggs, and we had some good food cooking, and people visiting and everything… what would’ve happened if all of a sudden an intense darkness would’ve come over us. You’d have kids crying for their moms. It might make some people nervous. Probably every smart phone there would’ve been searching the internet trying to find out what was going on. So when this darkness came upon the land… I would imagine that everything just kind of stopped.
And this is significant for two reasons… first of all its prophecy being fulfilled. In Amos chapter 8 God gives Amos a vision and He tells the prophet that there will come a day when He is done with Israel. In Amos 8:2 He says, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them.” And it goes on and Amos see’s the judgment of God come upon Israel for their rebellion and disbelief, and rejection of God… but verses 9 and 10 are where we see this prophecy (READ).
This darkness that has fallen on the land at noon is a display of God mourning for His only Begotten Son. But not only that! Remember – this is Passover, and Passover was when the people of Israel were delivered from Egypt… and the way they were delivered from Egypt was that they took a lamb without spot or blemish and sacrificed it to God, and they painted the door posts with the blood of the lamb, so that when the darkness came upon Egypt, God would pass over them and they would live… But now in Jerusalem, the Lamb of God – Jesus Christ is being sacrificed for their sins – and this darkness represents the sins of the world that are being laid on the sinless Son of God. And that’s why Jesus cries out like He does
MY GOD! MY GOD! WHAT HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME!
This is the most amazing most astonishing thing… every time I think of this… every time I consider this… I’m amazed and I just… I just want to worship Him. (Selah)
Man in his sin had forsaken God… time and time again… each and every day. You see; that’s what sin is really, it’s a forsaking of God, and His Word, and His ways. Sin in its essence is saying, “God I know you say I should do this… but I’m going to do this instead.” It’s saying, “God I know that you alone are worthy of worship and devotion, but I’m going to worship this instead.” Sin is a rejection and a forsaking of God. It is rejection and disbelieving His Word.
Think about it… how many of us would take a loaded gun and point it at our own heads and pull the trigger? None of us! No person in their right mind would do that! But what if someone was standing next to you and said, “Go ahead, you won’t be hurt.” Again… if we were in our right mind we wouldn’t do it. And yet, even though God has said, “The wages of sin is death,” and, “The soul that sins shall surely die.” People reject that and go ahead and sin. They don’t believe His Word… instead they believe the lie that “You shall not surely die.”
And yet; because of His love for us, God forsake His Only Begotten Son, so that those who have forsaken Him can be forgiven and redeemed. And all of those sins… all of our forsaking God, and rejecting God, and rebelling against God… each and every sin, is laid upon Jesus. And God the Father in His holiness, by His very nature and being, cannot be around sin, and Jesus who has become sin for us, is forsaken. And He cries out in anguish and agony.
MY GOD MY GOD WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME! Because He’s never felt this before. He’s never been separated from His Father before.
But He does it so that we can be forgiven.
Now people might ask – “How do we know that Jesus accomplished His mission? How do we know that His death on the cross made it so that God could forgive us and so that we could be saved and justified before God?”
Have you ever wondered that? Well the great thing is that God has given us two things… I guess we could call them two “PROOFS” that Jesus’ death on the cross was what we needed.
The first one He gave to us right after Jesus died.
In our text… verse 38 says, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.”
This is where its helpful to know about the historical and cultural context.
You see; in the temple there were several curtains, but there was one curtain in particular that separated the rest of the temple from a part of the temple that was called the Holy of Holies. And in the temple, that Holy of Holies represented access to God. Ever since the Garden of Eden, man’s access to God has been either blocked or limited. Ever since He drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden for their sin and placed an angel with a flaming sword to guard the entrance, man has been separated from God. And that’s what this curtain represented. That man… because of sin, was separated from God.
But now… all our sins have been laid on Jesus, and He paid the price for them… and God Himself tore the curtain down to show us that we can now come to Him through His Son Jesus Christ.
And someone might say, “Hey, we still see the effects of sin in this world. We still see that man is separated from God. Just look around. I mean, everyone here might be wearing their Sunday best, but more than a billion people in the world live on less than 3 dollars a day. People are starving, we are on the verge of a war with Russia over the Ukraine… Heck, husbands can’t even live with their wives. We hate our bosses, we hate our neighbors. Why? And not only that…” They say, “No matter how much man achieves, or acquires, and no matter where they go… something on the inside doesn’t work. People aren’t happy, they’re miserable.”
But they’re missing it… you see, when God tore that curtain He said that the way was open. They way back to Him was made open and available… but that way is through His Son. It’s through Christ. It’s not through social change, it’s not through education, it’s not through the accumulation of wealth, or power, or authority. It’s not found in sex, or drugs, or alcohol. Its not found in your career, or sports, or being popular or famous. It’s only found in Christ.
That torn curtain tells us that the way to God is open and possible… but there’s another “PROOF” that He has given us…
We call it the empty tomb.
In 1st Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul lays it out for us. He basically tells us that the resurrection is the proof, or the evidence that proves all the claims made by Jesus. Think about that. Jesus claimed that He could heal the sick. He claimed that He could forgive sins. He claimed that He was the Son of God. He claimed that He could not only overcome death for Himself, but for everyone who believed in Him. IF He wasn’t who He said He was, and if He couldn’t do those things that He said He could do, do you really think that God would’ve raised Him from the dead? But He did raise Him from the dead.
The resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ shows us that all that was lost due to sin can be restored. It shows us that we can have eternal life. And because of the Resurrection we who belong to Christ, don’t mourn like those who have no hope. We know that our Redeemer lives and that we will see Him on that day.
CLOSING PRAYER
