IT NEVER CROSSED HIS MIND AGAIN
TEXT: HEBREWS 12:1-3
INTRODUCTION:
We are told to “consider” Jesus, Who “endured the cross” and despised “the shame.” He endured the shame because of, “the joy that was set before Him.” He is the beginner and finisher of our faith. He walked the way of faith first for us, and brought it to completion, looking forward to the joy that awaited Him in fulfilling the Father’s will. Although Jesus was and is fully God, He was and is fully man. He can feel what we feel because, as the Word says, He was “…in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). We are going to look at how His faith was tested, but He did not sin – not even one time.
At the beginning of His ministry, the devil tempted Him to use His powers selfishly to turn stones into bread. He tempted Him to draw attention to Himself by leaping off the Temple. In the third test, the devil asked Him to worship him rather than God. But Jesus answered him with the bare Word of God, saying, “It is written,” and quoted scripture. In the wilderness, He was tempted regarding His Godhood. In the Garden, He was tempted in His manhood. The faith of Jesus, the man, was tested in the Garden.
There in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus faced what I believe was His greatest temptation. He was struggling with the fact that for a time He would have to GIVE UP, or at least restrain part of His power. He Who had all power in heaven and earth – Who was one with the Father, would not face a struggle from outside this time by the tempting of the devil, but a struggle from within Himself – His humanity would have to struggle with His divinity, and He would have to do it by faith!
He had been born and lived as a human, but He had never experienced physical torture and death. And on the cross, He experienced His greatest trial, when for a time the Father turned His back on Him, and He lost connection with His heavenly Father. I had always focused on the fact that Jesus didn’t want to drink the cup of sin – that He would have all the sins ever committed or that ever would be committed poured on Him. Yes. That is a true and awful reality. But I’d never looked at the fact, that as a man, He didn’t want to go through all the pain and suffering, and the cross. He knew what He was facing because He inspired the authors who prophesied His sufferings.
All four Gospels tell us Jesus asked the Father to take the cup of sin and physical suffering from Him. Mark 14:34-36 says: “Going a little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed that, if possible, the hour might pass from Him. “Abba, Father,” He said, “Everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Matt. 26:37-39, says, “He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then He said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.”
“Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Luke 22 says Jesus was “in agony.” The Greek word means, “severe mental struggles and emotions.” Yet even AFTER an angel came from heaven to strengthen Him, “His sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.”
This is a rare medical phenomenon called hematidrosis, or bloody sweat. Jesus was under severe emotional distress as He struggled in prayer, trying in this manhood to find another way to get out of what He faced. Under that great burden, He prayed so hard that the capillaries under the skin broke releasing blood. As the sweat poured off Him, it mixed with the blood, falling in great drops to the ground. In His humanity, He did not want to go through what He knew was coming.
There is a prophecy in Isaiah 50:6-8 that I think portrays the mindset of Jesus after His Garden prayer. Looking ahead in time, Isaiah writes, “I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help Me; therefore, I will not be disgraced; therefore, I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed.” When He got up from His third prayer His face was set like a flint. His manhood had struggled with sin, but He overcame it by faith, and prayed, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” He turned toward Jerusalem and the suffering that awaited Him. (Luke 9:51).
The title of my message is: “IT NEVER CROSSED HIS MIND AGAIN.”
I. AT THE TRIAL BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN AND CAIAPHAS, IT NEVER CROSSED HIS MIND TO TURN BACK
A. The first physical trauma is inflicted on Jesus here. A temple guard violently struck Him across the face for not answering the High Priest as he thought He should. We read, “…one of the officers who stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, “Do You answer the high priest like that?” (John. 18:22). The literal reading is he “gave Jesus a slap in the face.”
B. Then the temple guards and other participants struck Him in the face and spat on him. Matt. 26:67-68 says, “Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands, saying, “Prophesy to us, Christ! Who struck You?”
C. Mark. 14:65 says they blindfolded Him. Luke. 22:63 tells us they held Him. Why? Because they didn’t want Him to see the blows coming and be able to flinch away.
D. He was undoubtedly left with bruises and facial swelling. He probably had a split lip and abrasions, and maybe a cut over His eye. But worse was to come. Yet, in all this, the thought of trying to get out of what lay ahead never crossed His mind.
II. BEFORE PILATE, THE THOUGHT OF NOT GOING ON TO THE END NEVER CROSSED THE MIND OF JESUS.
A. Pontius Pilate was the fifth Roman governor of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius. He presided over the trial of Jesus and ordered His crucifixion.
B. Jesus was bruised and weakened by the loss of blood from His battering before the Sanhedrin. He had not eaten since the Passover Meal and was dehydrated and worn out from lack of sleep. Then the officers of the Sanhedrin took Him across Jerusalem to the Fortress of Antonia, where Pilate had his palace.
C. After questioning Him Pilate said he could find no fault with Jesus and certainly nothing worthy of death, but under pressure from the mob, and their cries of, “Crucify Him. Crucify Him,” Pilate ordered the bandit, Bar-Abbas, to be released. He then condemned Jesus to a Roman-style scourging to be followed by crucifixion, which was according to Roman law.
D. The detail of the scourging is not in the Gospels, but history and Isaiah 53 tell us what happened. His clothing would have been stripped off and His hands would have been tied or chained to a post or stone block. Then, Roman soldiers called “lictors,” specifically trained to do the whipping, performed the scourging.
E. A short whip called a flagellum, consisting of heavy leather thongs, with small balls of lead and bone tied near the ends, was used to lay on the lashes with full force repeatedly across His shoulders, back, and legs.
F. The first blows were only hard enough to cut through the skin. Then the blows became harder, cutting deep into the tissues causing the blood to seep from the capillaries and veins just under the skin. This would also cause the lowering of the blood pressure, which would have caused Jesus to become extremely faint to the point of passing out.
G. Finally, the skin of the back would begin to be laid out in long ribbons, until the entire area of the back was an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue.
H. Because His legs were whipped, Jesus would have had difficulty standing upright, which put more pressure on His wrists.
I. When it was determined by the officer in charge that Jesus was just clinging to life, the beating stopped. Due to the loss of blood and fluid, starving His organs of oxygen, Jesus would be in what is called medically, hypovolemic shock, which itself can cause death. He could have prayed to the Father to send twelve legions of angels to His aid, but He did not. The thought never crossed His mind.
III. HE WAS MOCKED BY THE ROMAN SOLDIERS AND A CROWN OF THORNS WAS PLACED ON HIS HEAD, BUT QUITTING NEVER CROSSED HIS MIND
A. In Matthew 27 the Roman soldiers led Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto Him the whole band of soldiers. They threw a robe across His shoulders, placed a stick in His hands, and began to mock Him as a so-called King.
B. They wove together 2-3-inch-long thorns, molded them into the shape of a crown, and pressed it forcefully into His scalp. As the thorns pierced the tender skin of the head more profuse bleeding would occur.
C. They also struck Him across the face, causing more bruising and bleeding, and took the stick and beat Him over the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp.
D. Finally, they tore the robe off Him. The robe most likely had stuck to the clots of blood on His back, and when they removed it, just as in ripping off a bandage, this would have caused more pain and more bleeding.
E. This was only the beginning of our Lord’s sufferings. Yet, with all the suffering and pain continuing, the thought of giving up on us never crossed His mind.
IV. IN THE WALK TO CALVARY, AND DURING THE CRUCIFIXION, THE THOUGHT OF GIVING UP NEVER CROSSED HIS MIND.
A. The weight of the heavy crossbeam was just too much for our Lord. Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us the soldiers found a man called Simon of Cyrene and compelled him to carry the Lord’s crossbeam.
B. By now Jesus was in extreme pain. Blood was undoubtedly running down His face and into His eyes, and He was sweating the cold, clammy sweat of shock. But as He made His way to Calvary the thought of quitting never crossed His mind.
C. When they reached Golgotha Jesus was offered a pain-killing drink, but He refused. He had to feel all the pain for the sake of sinners.
D. With the crossbeam on the ground, He was placed on it. His hands would have been tied to keep them from moving, and they were nailed to the cross beam. The ancient Jews as well as modern anatomy consider the wrist to be part of the hand. The bones at the base of the hand are tightly compacted and touching, so the soldier would have been trained to locate an open space between the bones, to (unknowingly) not violate the prophecy, that “not a bone of His was broken” (Psalm 34:20/John 18:36).
E. In college anatomy class, I learned that the wrist is a part of the hand. The hand consists of the wrist, palm, and fingers. So, despite what I and others have thought, Jesus was not nailed through the palms. The nails would have ripped right through the palm.
F. The Romans used seven-to nine-inch-long nails made of heavy iron, with square edges along the shaft. They were driven completely through the wrist of Jesus and the wood of the crossbeam. Then they were bent over on the backside so as not to come loose.
G. The crossbeam was then affixed to the vertical. His feet were put on top of one another, toes down, and placed on a small platform, with His knees bent. A long nail was driven through the arches, causing tremendous pain and more bleeding.
H. Then with Jesus fixed on the cross, it was hoisted up and over a hole that had been dug and then dropped in with a thud, sending waves of pain through the body of Jesus.
I. Jesus had told Pilate that no one could take His life from Him. He said, “I lay it down of Myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father” (John 10:18). At any point Jesus could have stopped all this pain and suffering, but the thought never crossed His mind.
Closing:
Jesus was and is fully God. He stilled the storm with a word. He multiplied the loaves and fish two times. He changed water into wine. He walked on water. He was all-knowing. He knew the thoughts that people were having. He knew who would believe in Him and who would not. He prophesied the future many times. As God, He promised to be omnipresent, saying, “Where two or three are gathered together, I am in the midst.”
But He was also fully human. The virgin birth made it possible for Christ to have a human nature without inheriting the sin of Adam. His blood, which came from His Father through the miraculous conception of the Holy Spirit, was sinless blood not tainted with original sin. As a man, He became weary. He got thirsty. He got hungry. He had a human soul and felt human emotions, such as love and sorrow. He learned what it feels like to be hurt emotionally, but in all these experiences humans feel, He never sinned, not even once.
Scripture says Jesus, “…learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5:8). He knew the prophecy of Isaiah must be fulfilled. He would be “…cut off from the land of the living.” But after that third Garden prayer, the thought of turning back never crossed His mind again. What WAS on His mind as He endured the pain, suffering, and death, was me and you, and all who would put their faith in Him for eternal life. No one loves or forgives like Him.
Friends, I’m here to tell you, that the body of Jesus came off that cross a corpse. He was a dead man. He was put in the tomb dead as dead could be. He went in a dead man, but He came out A LIVE MAN. On the third day, He arose! NEVER HAVING TO DIE AGAIN. He came out with a perfect, resurrection body with properties that could allow Him to appear and disappear at will—that could pass through walls and ascend into the air before the eyes of His Apostles. He is alive forevermore Amen! We serve a LIVING SAVIOR. As our text commands, let us consider Him Who endured such contradiction of sinners, lest we become weary and faint in our minds. (Altar appeal)
