• The greatest picture of love ever displayed was when Jesus died on the cross. It was not because of His guilt, it was not the hammer, the nails, the crown, or the abuse that Jesus died, it was His love; it was the love He had for you and me. But never miss this critical part.
• He didn’t just die there for us, but literally He died in our place, for our sin. The nail, the pain, the shame of it all – should have been ours. A friend of mine wrote the song, “I Should Have Been Crucified” and that is the truth. It should have been me and you. Sin had to be paid for and Jesus did it when He had no sin of His own.
• The caveat is found in Luke 9:23 when Jesus pointedly tell us, “If anyone would come after me (which means ‘be my disciple’), let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.” Can anybody say, “OUCH?” In other words, you must deny self, die to self, & devote self. Today we seem to want to soften these words, Jesus does the opposite in Luke 14 when He says, “Whoever does not bear his own cross & come after me CANNOT (not may not but cannot) be my disciple.”
• (READ TEXT) Let’s take a look toward the hill called Golgotha. On this hillside that is said to be shaped like a skull we see three crosses. I bring this to our attention because all too often, we only visualize one cross, but there were indeed three.
• Crucifixion may well be one of the cruelest forms of punishment ever devised by man. While the Romans didn’t invent crucifixion they certainly raised it to an art form. If you study crucifixion, you discover that death was the ultimate outcome but not the only purpose. The inflicting of unimaginable pain & shame was the desire. For instance, the sedile (or seat) was a sharp piece of woods which the victim might rest his backside on – but would ultimately hurt like a knife in the skin of the victim’s backside. When they nailed a person to the cross, the legs were bent slightly and the arms were nailed slightly bent with the spike being driven between the radial & ulna bones around the wrist area. When he stood up on the nail the pain shot throughout the body and when you relaxed your knees to allow the pain to subside and the weight moved to the nails in the wrist – once again, the nerve endings shot throughout the arms & body. Excruciating best describes the ongoing pain for the victim.
• So now, as we face Golgotha consider these three crosses & the pain equated with a cross. Now consider Luke 14:27, “Whoever doesn’t bear his own cross & come after me cannot be my disciple.”
• As we view these crosses, I want to ask you, “What one is yours?” Our text gives us clues about each one. Let us ‘name’em & claim’em:
1. The Cross of Rebellion – As I read the text, this is the first cross I see mentioned. IN verse 39 he says, “If you are what you say you are save us.” Not surprisingly, this cross is the one who goes along with the crowd and the crowd always goes against Jesus. The people, the soldiers, and even the earthly rulers mock Jesus because they don’t get it, don’t understand.
• Now you get to the guy on the cross. On both of the side crosses were men that the Bible called “Criminals”. One gospel calls them thieves and another uses the word for murderer, but whatever word was used, these were not first time offenders. Now we read that the one (we’ll say on the left) began to verbally blaspheme Jesus. There are commonalities between this thief and rebellious people. First, he sounded like the devil. Look at those words, “If you ARE the Christ.” These are almost the exact words the enemy used on Jesus in the wilderness. (If you are the Christ, command these stones). These words have great similarity to the words of the serpent in the garden. Next, we see no admission of guilt. He’s not sorry for what he did – he’s sorry that he got caught. He didn’t want to make a change in his life; he wanted to get free so he could continue his activity. Next, we see no humility. Did you know that of all things common to man that the root of rebellion is Pride? Pride says, “I don’t need God because I can save myself.” The rebellious one chooses to believe in man & not in God. STORY: A man getting a haircut discusses with his barber the concept of God. The barber said, “I don’t believe in God.” The customer asked, “Why not?” The quick reply was, “When I see the sick, the poor, they hurting, the helpless, and those abandoned by man I know that if there were a God, he would do something about this?” While the customer could have pushed, he chose to back out, paid the barber & left. In just a few minutes he returned to the barber to say, “I have decided that I don’t believe in barbers.” The obvious question was, “Why?” The man said, “I just walked down the block and witnessed kids with long hair, men who needed shaving, and men who had unkempt hair. So barbers must not exist.” The barber retorted, “I’m here – they just don’t come to me.” And the man said, “About our discussion concerning God – DITTO.” The rebellious will never come to God.
• Candidly, without a touch of the power of God, the one who rebels ultimately rejects Christ.
2. The Cross of Repentance – On the other side of the Lord, we see a cross which we will call the cross of Repentance. Many seem to believe that the one criminal was bad and the other was good because one rebelled against Jesus while the other repented. However, Mark hints that when the crucifixion began – both criminals were hurling insults at Jesus. Mark 15:32 concludes with this thought, “Even those who were crucified with Him were taunting Him.” The cross of repentance is a reminder that it only takes an instance for the human heart to be softened and a soul to turn toward Christ. The man on this cross was a lifelong criminal. His life to this point was one of lawlessness and sin. We should never forget that when trauma comes in the life of a person, as a general rule, it drives that heart further in the direction it is already going. If your heart is in rebellion and trouble comes – you’ll simply move toward rebellion. How many times have we seen this played out? A family who expresses no faith in God loses a loved one and all of a sudden, they believe in God enough to blame God. You see, they were going down that road to start with – and with the tragedy, they simply hit the accelerator of life.
• Yet, as we see in the life of this condemned man – there is hope. It is sad to say that it took the nails in his hands and his life slipping away in the presence of God’s Son to see his own need. I pray, “Don’t’ let that happen with you.” Look at what this repentance man said in verse 40, “Don’t you even fear God?” This is the first revelation about a rebellious or a repentance heart. The rebellious do not fear anyone or anything – and certainly not God. In fact, they are the masters of their own souls. The Bible says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” In His condemned state, He realized who God was and that God did control life and death as well as heaven and hell.
• Verse 41 tells us that in looking at Jesus he realized 2 things, ‘He was getting what he deserved and Jesus was getting what He DIDN’T deserve.” Perhaps for the first time in his life, he saw the love of God in real time. At this point, he turned to the center cross & made a simple request. It was not ‘help me see mom again’ or ‘give me a mansion on the hilltop’, in fact, it wasn’t even save me – his request was ‘remember me.’ This kind of reminds me of the parable of the Pharisee & Publican, “God be merciful to me a sinner. Here’s what I know: It is this kind of cry that God hears, honors, and responds to. The Bible clearly says, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
• Now, this picture is before us. We see two condemned men, facing death while staring at life. Both of these men are faced with eternity, both men have the same opportunity, and both men are making a decision.
• Right now, we are in the same place as those two criminals. As offenders of God’s law, we are condemned and face the certainty of death. We face eternity & the certainty of death while, at the same time, we have the opportunity, and are indeed making a decision. One man turned toward the crowd & wound up in a place called hell while the other turned toward the cross. It is that cross which gives us everything we need.
3. The Cross of Redemption – The definition of “Redemption” – to ‘purchase, buy back, or even release.’ The greatest pragmatic illustration of redemption is found in our recent past. (S & H Green Stamps.) On the center cross of redemption, hangs the only one who can change a life. He is the only Son of God. He is the one sent by God to buy our souls. Because Jesus didn’t deserve to die, He paid the price to buy us back from the marketplace of sin, to release us from eternal damnation in hell, & to purchase us from the world forces.
• Colossians tells us that “In HIM, we have redemption through HIS BLOOD, (which gives us) forgiveness for our sin.” The criminal who repented turned to Jesus and understood that his only hope was to be found in this cross of redemption. Jesus is in the business of taking lives which have no eternal worth – and making them into something beautiful. When the criminal said, “Please remember me”, Jesus’ response was, “Not only will I remember you, but today (TODAY) you will be with me in paradise.” What other religion or belief system in the world says to people, “Today, you be with ME in paradise.” But it is not possible without a sincere, earnest, & genuine request. God does the work, but He expects you to respond to His offer. That center cross is His love on display for you.
• Three crosses. Can you see them? The center ‘cross’ stands alone as the place of help & hope. So I you right now, “Which cross is yours?”
