Passion Paradoxes
Lead up to Easter sermon (preached on Palm Sunday)
Chuck Sligh
April 5, 2020
NOTE: PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives
Inspired and adapted from a sermon by Dennis Davidson on SermonCentral.com.
TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 15
INTRODUCTION
This morning we’re going to be in Mark still, but we’re going to go almost to the end of Mark to look at something that I found to be very interesting in the run-up to Easter. As I studied Mark 15 preparing for today’s sermon, a number of paradoxes jumped out at me.
Webster’s defines a paradox as a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that, when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true. For instance, someone said, “Some of the biggest failures I ever had were successes.” Now a failure is, by definition, the opposite of success. But we understand that though technically that statement is self-contradictory, there’s a deeper truth that what may be a failure today might turn out to be something different in retrospect.
Here are a couple of other examples of paradoxes:
• Save money by spending it. – To save money is the opposite of spending it, but we understand that sometimes we should spend some money for means or ways that will in the end save us more money.
• If I know one thing, it’s that I know nothing. – Well, if you know nothing, you cannot know one thing, but we intuitively get the underlying point of the paradox.
Jesus gave a paradox when he said in Mark 8:35, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” On the surface, this seems contradictory. But Jesus was speaking of saving or losing our lives in the temporal realm on earth and having the opposite effect on eternity.
Paradoxes help us see deeper truths than what is on the surface. As I studied Mark 15, I realized the chapter is saturated with paradoxes and that they help us see the crucifixion of Christ from God’s perspective. Let’s examine the many paradoxes of the cross this morning to see what I’m talking about:
I. FIRST IS THE PARADOX OF STRENGTH OUT OF WEAKNESS. – Verses 22-23
Think about Jesus’ weakness on the way to Calvary, known as the Via Dolorosa. In Mark 15:21-23 we read, “And they compelled one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. 22 And they brought him to the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull. 23 And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he did not take it.”
I mentioned earlier in our study of Mark that Mark frequently mixes in his narrative the “vivid present tense” in the Greek. Even though our modern versions translate Mark as using the past tense words, Mark writes the story as if it is occurring before our own eyes.
This is especially effective in the story of Christ’s crucifixion. The Greek reads like this throughout Mark 15: “They carry Him, they crucify Him, they divide His garments, they are wagging their heads, and so on.”
This literary device was used by ancient writers to evoke the sense of the reader being an eyewitness to the events recorded. The King James Version is the only version I know that maintained most of the present tense just as Mark wrote it.
Now the words translated “brought him” in verse 22 means “to bear Him” or to “carry Him” in the Greek, not to bring or lead Him. So in the Greek, Mark is saying “they are BEARING Him or CARRYING Him to the place Golgotha,” not bringing or leading Him to Golgotha.
Jesus left Jerusalem carrying His cross, but on the way, He staggered under it. So verse 21 says that they pressed Simon of Cyrene into service to carry His cross. Having endured the agony in Gethsemane, having been up all night as he was judged by a kangaroo court, and having been whipped and tortured, Jesus was so weak by this point, that not only was Simon needed to carry the cross, but the soldiers had to “bear” or “carry” Jesus along the rest of the way to Golgotha.
Here’s the first paradox of the Passion: He who bore all of our sins not only had to have someone else carry His cross but He Himself had to be carried along.
Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus upholds ALL THINGS by the word of His power.
He who upholds all things by the word of His power had Himself to be upheld on the way to the cross—the Via Dolorosa. He who carried the sins of the world had Himself to be carried. They bore Him who would bear the sins of the world in His own body.
In many artists’ conceptions of Christ on His way to the cross, Jesus is painted as valiantly facing death standing straight, having a glow of light around Him. But this picture is not the one Mark paints, which remember, is the vivid remembrance of his mentor, Simon Peter. Mark paints a picture of One weaker than the weakest, fainter than the faintest, tireder than the tiredest, bleaker than the bleakest.
But the weakness on the way to the cross was a WILLING weakness. We read in verse 23 that “Then they gave Him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but He did not take it.”
Wine mingled with myrrh was a narcotic drink for those suffering the excruciating pain of the crucifixion. The words “they gave him” in this case are in the Greek imperfect tense, giving the meaning “they kept giving him wine mingled with myrrh”—not once, in other words, but repeatedly. But each time, Jesus steadfastly refused.
Yes, Jesus was weak, but it was a willing weakness. He could have at least alleviated some small bit of his suffering; but chose to endure it to its worst and bitter end.
II. THE SECOND PARADOX WE SEE IN THIS PASSAGE IS THE PARADOX OF GLORY OUT OF SHAME. – Verse 24-25
Verse 24 has more of these vivid present tense verbs, so in Mark’s day this verse would read like this: “And they are crucifying Him, and they are parting His garments and dividing up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to see what each would take. And it was the third hour when they crucified him.”
Roman writers of the day wrote that under Roman law, men were crucified naked. For modesty’s sake, the great painters always show Christ on the cross with a little cloth covering his privates. But that’s not the way it really was the day our Savior died on Calvary. The most shameful and humiliating thing a person could experience in that day was to be forced to be publicly naked, especially among the Jews.
The soldiers took the only bit of dignity Jesus had left—His clothing. Think of the shame and humiliation of Jesus’ nakedness of the Cross.
Now here is the paradox: Out of His shame and nakedness emerges two things:
I. First, HIS glory and crowning authority.
In Philippians 2, Paul tells us that Jesus emptied Himself to become a man, live as a servant and humble Himself to go to death on the cross. That’s where our salvation was purchased at such a great and dreadful cost.
But that’s not the end of the story. Paul goes on to say, “Therefore, God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and those in earth, and those under the earth; 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Out of his shame and nakedness came HIS glory and power.
II. But second, out of His shame and nakedness comes OUR covering & righteousness.
He who died naked for us can cover our spiritual nakedness before the holy eyes of God with His shed blood. God’s clothing us with His righteousness is a beautiful word picture that depicts the biblical doctrine of imputation, the teaching that God credits believing sinners with Jesus’s perfect righteousness so that God sees us as righteous. What a paradox that though Jesus was stripped of his robes, we can be robed in the righteousness of Christ!
We’ve seen the paradoxes of strength out of weakness and of glory out of shame…
III. THIRD IS THE PARADOX OF TESTIMONY OUT OF MOCKERY. Verses 26-31.
Three representative groups of Jesus’s bitterest enemies unintentionally give testimony to Jesus in Mark’s record of the crucifixion. Their taunts at the cross are really testimonies, and though they don’t realize it, the things they say are actually Gospel sermons. And each one is a paradox in itself.
• The first testimony came from PILATE.
Verse 26 reads, “And the inscription of his accusation was written over Him: ‘THE KING OF THE JEWS.’”
Pilate, of course, was being sarcastic of Jesus, who had proclaimed authority over Pilate when Pilate questioned him and whom the people had proclaimed to be the King of the Jews. And yet there is paradox in his inscription he wrote out to be posted above Jesus on the cross.
Think about it: What Pilate did was write the first Christian sermon and even published it in three languages! What Pilate wrote in Latin—the language of justice and empire, and in Hebrew—the language of religion, and in Koine Greek, the common language of the whole civilized western world, was a testimony to the world of the truth that Jesus of Nazareth is King of the Jews. Jesus is the ruler of a spiritual Kingdom on earth now, and someday will rule as the King of the Jews whose capital will be Jerusalem in a literal 1000-year kingdom, and as King of heaven for all eternity.
• The second testimony came from the hostile CROWD.
Verses 29-30 say, “And they that passed by derided him, wagging their heads, and saying, ‘Ha, you who would destroy the temple, and rebuilt it in three days, 30 save yourself, and come down from the cross.’”
It’s amazing that the hostile mob forgot the healings of Jesus; the miracles He performed; His beautiful beatitudes; His mesmerizing parables; the people He raised from the dead; the way He lovingly blessed the children; and the way He boldly confronted the hypocritical religious leaders of their day.
They seized on only one thing He had said in His public ministry—something they saw as blasphemy, and they didn’t even get that right! He never said He would destroy the temple. John 2:19 tells us that He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He wasn’t saying HE would destroy the temple in Jerusalem. Two verses down, John explains: “But he spoke of the temple of his body.” Jesus was referring to what THEY would do to His BODY, and was prophesying His resurrection after three days. But they falsely twisted His words and accused Him of blasphemy.
But here’s the thing: The mocking mob, without knowing it, spoke the truth about Jesus bodily resurrection, for on the following Sunday, that first Easter, God raised up the temple of His body they had destroyed on the cross. Their false testimony was a true testimony, even a prophecy, of Jesus’ resurrection!
• The third testimony came from Jesus’ bitterest enemies—the CHIEF PRIESTS.
Verse 31 says, “In the same way the chief priests also along with the scribes, were mocking him, said among themselves, ‘He saved others; himself he cannot save.’”
Unwittingly, these religious leaders became Gospel preachers. To them, their words were the worst contempt; to us, they mean eternal life. They didn’t see the paradox: His life displayed four kinds of miracles: natural miracles, healing miracles, exorcisms and resurrection miracles…while in His death, we witness apparent impotence and exhaustion on the cross.
o This man who calmed storms, can He not calm His own storm?
o This man who heals the flow of blood, can He not stanch His own blood flow?
o This one who exorcises a legion of demons, can He not stop Satan?
o This one who raises a Lazarus; can He not stop His own death?
Perhaps the charge that “He cannot save Himself” was the cruelest cut of all. The Greek word means He is NOT ABLE to save Himself.
Part of what they said was false, but part of it was true. He WAS able to save Himself, but not if He was to save US.
In Matthew 26, Matthew describes the turmoil Jesus experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane as He anticipated the suffering He would experience in just a few hours. He asked the disciples to watch and pray while He went into the Garden to commune with God because he said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.”
He left them and verse 39 says He went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as you will.” In His humanity, He was struggling with this awful cup of suffering He would endure on the cross. If there WERE a way to avoid the cross and still accomplish God’s plan of redemption, He was looking for it. But in His divinity, He was willing to follow through to the very end. He suffered emotionally in this encounter to the point that we’re told that Jesus sweat great drops of blood, a rare condition doctors verify that can happen when a person faces extreme stress.
After returning to the disciples and finding them asleep, Jesus rebuked the disciples for their laziness and exhorted them to watch and pray. Then Matthew tells us that Jesus returned and prayed again to the Father…but note now a change in His prayer: This time He does not inquire as to the possibility of a way out. Now He speaks words of resolve: “O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, unless I drink it, your will be done.”
But in His humanity, He must have still been struggling, because though He had made that statement of resolve, after He returned to the disciples again, and found them asleep, He returned to the Garden to talk to the Father one more time, making the same statement of resolve as before, as if to confirm it, to settle it firmly in His heart. There was no change in God’s Plan, because you see THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY.
Suddenly, you sense that Jesus is now at peace, eerily like the stories of many who faced death coming to that final point of acceptance or people often do just before they commit suicide. Matthew tells us that He returns to the disciples and says with clear determination, “45 Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us go. Behold, My betrayer is at hand.” And He walks right into the kiss of Judas and the soldiers who came to apprehend Him. Since Jesus intended at all costs to carry out the will of the Father, and die for us, He could NOT save Himself!
The mocking chief priests and scribes were eerily correct: Himself He could not save…so that he could save others. There was no other way; so Jesus voluntarily gave His life for you and me.
CONCLUSION
What shall we take away from today’s sermon on this Palm Sunday? I have two brief applications for you to consider:
• First, like Simon, will you carry Jesus’ cross for Him to those who have never heard?
One last paradox concerning Simon is the paradox that God does not need us, but He has chosen to use us. He can feed the multitude, yet He used a little boy with loaves and fishes and some disciples to pass them around and collect what was left over. He can present Himself as King, but He used the disciples to arrange a donkey to present Himself.
We have the opportunity today to bear the cross of Christ and take it to the lost. In Grafenwoehr and Vilseck and surrounding towns, will we carry the cross to others, or will God raise up other people while we slip into the shadows as did the twelve apostles, except John? God help us who are Christ’s disciples to carry the message of the cross to those who do not know Christ!
• And there is an application for you today if you have never turned from your sin and made Jesus your Savior.
If there is anything I know from the New Testament, it is that it wasn’t really those people two thousand years ago who put Jesus on that cross. It was our sin—my sin, your sin, the sin of the world that sent Him there. And the Bible teaches that if you will repent of your sin and turn to Christ for salvation, He will forgive you and clothe you in His righteousness. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, how badly you have offended the Holy God, how far you have wandered from Him, how deep into the depths of depravity you have stooped, there’s room at the cross for you to be saved and to have the promise of eternal life. Come to Jesus and be saved today!
