The Divine Necessity of the Cross
Introduction
I want to start tonight with two words.
Words. What are they? They are the vehicles of thought--the means by which we communicate with one another. They are also the means by which God communicates to us--the Bible is a large collection of words--God’s words, expressing God’s thoughts.
But I’m not going to tell you what the words are. I want you to see if you can spot them. I’ll read out several verses from different places and see if you can see two words that appear in each verse. The verses are:
Matt. 16:21
Mark 8:31
Luke 9:22
Luke 17:25
Acts 17:3
What are the two words? "MUST" and "SUFFER".
Look briefly also at Luke 24:46 where "behoved" is the same Greek word as "must".
I want to look at these two words tonight and this concept of the necessity of Christ’s suffering.
And I want to ask and then answer the question, Why MUST Christ SUFFER?
Context
Look at Matthew 16:13-28.
Look at verse 21. What goes before it? What goes after it?
It’s the well known passage of Peter’s Confession.
You see that the multitudes had no idea that Jesus was the Christ. They thought he was John the Baptist, or Elias or Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.
Their eyes were not opened. Despite all that had happened and all that Jesus had done, they still did not recognize in Him the Christ.
The disciples, on the contrary, had had their eyes opened by revelation. They had come to know that Jesus was the Christ.
Let us remember that Christ is not a name but an office.
Jesus Christ isn’t the equivalent of John Smith. It would help us if we referred to Him as "the Christ." Christ is the Greek word for the Hebrew "Messiah." In English it is "Anointed One."
So this revelation that the disciples had and that Peter voiced was that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One.
Now notice what Jesus says immediately after this confession of Peter. v20 "Then charged He His disciples that they should tell no man that He was Jesus the Christ."
Why this prohibition?
Because before the disciples could proclaim the Christ to the multitudes, there was something fundamental that they would have to understand about Him, which they had not yet grasped, and would not grasp until after the resurrection.
They would be proclaiming "their" Christ. What was "their" Christ? Their Christ was one who was going to set up an earthly kingdom.
Their Christ was going to fulfil all the OT prophecies of dominion and power and glory.
Their Christ was going to reign from a throne in Jerusalem and throw off the Roman yoke, and they, the disciples, were going to be His companions in power.
That is why Jesus forbad them to speak forth this new revelation of Him as the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah. He knew that as yet they were under a misapprehension as to His real mission and the nature of His Kingdom.
Now notice the very next verse after this charge (v21). Did you know that this verse marks a distinct division in this gospel, and the corresponding portion in Mark?
Turn with me to Matt. 4:17. There he began his preaching ministry.
Now come again to 16:21 and notice how the verse starts: "From that time forth...." From that time forth what? BEGAN JESUS.... He began something there which marked a distinct turning point in His ministry. The rest of the gospel account deals not so much with preaching to multitudes, miracles, and so on; but has largely to do with teaching the disciples. And one of the chief things He tries to instill into them is the teaching about His death.
But look at Peter’s reaction. "Be it far from thee...." Peter’s mind can’t make the adjustment. He has just confessed the revelation that here before Him stands Jesus of Nazareth, and that this man is none other than the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah for which the whole nation of Israel has been waiting for for centuries. Here is the one Who at last is going to bring Israel out of the doldrums and a wonderful future lies ahead. And now He has started talking about suffering--about being rejected, and being killed, and of rising again. "Be it far from Thee Lord." Impossible! This can’t be! Don’t be so silly! Don’t talk such nonsense! It comes over very strong in the Mark account. Look at Mark 8:32. "And Peter took him and began to REBUKE Him!" What happens when you rebuke someone? You give them a telling off, right? That was Peter’s reaction to Jesus’ words about His coming sufferings and death.
What does it say in the margin of the KJV? "Pity Thyself!" or "Spare Thyself!" Is not that the language of the world? Look after yourself! Make sure that you’re alright--never mind about the next person. Make sure you get that next promotion--never mind about the ones you have to jostle out of the way to get it. Make sure you’re happy, that you’re comfortable, and so on. "You can get everything you want out of life by looking after yourself."
Jesus recognized in it the voice of the devil. "Get thee behind me, Satan," He said. Satan here means adversary. He recognized the same voice that had tempted Him in the wilderness. "Realize yourself. You can do it. Be some great one by yourself. No need to submit to God. Just bow down to me and I’ll give you a shortcut to fame and power."
Now go back to v21. "From that time forth BEGAN Jesus ...." This indicates a concerted campaign on the part of Jesus to get His disciples to understand the necessity of His death. The words are almost the same in Mark 8:31. "And He began to teach them, that the Son of Man MUST SUFFER." It was a concerted effort. See also Mark 9:31 and 10:32. There are parallels in the other gospels.
So that is the context: Christ wanting to show His disciples that His Messiahship meant SUFFERING and DEATH. To be the Messiah meant the fulfilment of passages like Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22.
His Sufferings
Now let’s approach the question, "Why must Christ suffer?"
But before we deal with that directly, let’s have a look at what He actually suffered. Not that I take any particular delight in the gory details, but I think it does us good to remember occasionally what He actually went through.
The amazing thing is that He saw it all coming, and yet He continued steadfastly to Jerusalem. He never flinched for one moment.
Notice in the verse in Matthew (16:21) in Mark (8:31) and in Luke (9:22) it says that He must suffer "MANY THINGS." Have you ever thought about that? MANY THINGS. He MUST SUFFER MANY THINGS.
Rejection
One of the most obvious things He suffered was REJECTION. "He came unto His own, and His own recieved Him not." The nation of Israel, and especially its leaders, rejected Him. Have you ever been rejected--not only for the Lord’s sake, but on any level? Perhaps you went for a job interview and were rejected or something of that nature. Rejection. "He was despised and rejected" we read earlier.
Misunderstanding
Another and related form of suffering He underwent was misunderstanding. The Jewish nation and its leaders misunderstood this God-man. But not only they--some folks a lot closer to Him also misunderstood Him. What about John the Baptist? From prison he sends a message, "Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?" Is that not a sign that he has misunderstood the Christ? But even closer still--remember what we were just saying about the disciples. They misunderstood Him, even though they were His bosom companions. And He knew that they misunderstood, and He knew that when He went to the cross and died, they would be devastated because they misunderstood Him. Remember the disciples after the crucifixion. Remember the two on the Emmaus road--their conversation betrayed that they had totally misunderstood this Christ. The suffering of being misunderstood!
Sweating Blood
As we come closer to the cross, we remember His agony in the garden--agony so great that instead of sweat coming through His pores, blood came through! Has any of us ever known such agony as that? I think not! This surely was a terrible kind of suffering
Forsaken by the Disciples
On the night that He most needed His bosom companions they forsook Him and fled. Peter was putting into practice his words to Jesus, "Pity thyself." All the disciples were. They were thinking of themselves. They fled for their lives, and in doing so they forsook their beloved Master.
Scourged, Mocked, Buffeted, Spit on
The sacred record tells us that once arrested He was flogged or scourged, that he was mocked and laughed at, that he was buffeted (hit around the head and so on) and spit on. Have you ever been spit on? I haven’t, but I would think that it is very degrading and humiliating. I won’t go into details about all this because the Scriptures don’t. They don’t have all that much to say on the actual details of scourging and so on.
Physical Suffering of the Cross
Crucifixion was an extremely painful death. Remember that Jesus would be utterly exhausted, having not slept the night before and having gone through the agony in the garden, having been arrested, tried, flogged, buffeted, etc. I remember being quite shocked when I saw the part in the Jesus film where His hands were nailed to the cross. It was all done so quickly, and yet so cruelly. We can read the whole account in just a few minutes, but each minute must have seemed like an eternity to the Lord Jesus. But He bore it all manfully. He would not even take the pain deadening drugs they offered Him. He suffered one of the most painful deaths possible.
Forsaken by the Father
Finally, we come to the worst suffering of all. "My God, My God, why hast THOU forsaken me?" That Father with Whom he had been in intimate relations for all eternity. That Father with whom as a man he had spent many lonely hours of communion on the mountain top and in the desert. That Father who had met him at his baptism and at the transfiguration and put a special seal upon him. That father upon whom he had depended for every miracle--indeed for everything that he had done in his ministry. And now he was gone! Forsaken! What a suffering that was--worse probably than all the others combined.
I know there are those who say that he only FELT forsaken, but I believe that we must take the words as they stand and believe that God DID indeed and in truth forsake Him. Why? Because he was "made to be sin for us, who knew no sin." He BECAME SIN. God cannot look on sin, and therefore he could not look on his Son. This was the ultimate suffering.
The Question Answered
And so now we must come to the question, Why MUST Christ SUFFER?
1. Was it in order that he might fulfil the prophecies? Is that the primary reason why Christ must suffer? No. The prophecies were only made because it was pre-determined before the foundation of the world that CHRIST MUST SUFFER, not the other way around. There was a divine decree made that Christ must suffer, and the prophecies of the OT all predicted that. But that was not the reason for His suffering.
2. Was it because it was inevitable? i.e. It was inevitable that one so holy, so pure, so unlike anyone else in the world, should be persecuted and eventually done away with, wasn’t it? And as Christ made these predictions, was it not because he looked out upon the situation and knew that the darkness would eventually crush the light, that the religious system of the elders, pharisees, and scribes could not tolerate Him much longer? Was that why he must suffer--because it was inevitable from the very nature of things? Of course these things are true--that it was inevitable that the hatred should rise to such a pitch as to crush the life out of Jesus. But that could have been avoided. God could easily have rescued Christ from such a death. The fact that He didn’t means that there was some other, deeper reason for the sufferings and death of the Lord.
3. Was it a demonstration of the love of God? Did Christ suffer and die so that he could show the human race what love is? What love could endure? What love could suffer? Was it for an example, so that we should lay our lives down for others? Again, while in a sense it was a demonstration of the love of God and an example, yet that was not the primary reason why Christ MUST SUFFER and die.
What, then, is?
The New Testament knows of only one answer to the question, Why must Christ suffer and die? It is that Christ’s sufferings and death were necessary in order for the love of God to break the barrier of sin and reach through to you and me. We must never forget that God’s love is a HOLY love and cannot have anything to do with sin. Therefore, in order for God to have any dealings with us at all, the sin problem must be dealt with. And the sin problem could only be dealt with by a suffering, dying Saviour--one who would take upon himself all the sins and all the sufferings of mankind. "Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows."
