You Really Matter to God; Mark 15:16-47; Psalm 22; 6th of 7 in “All for You” series; The Promise; 6th Lent (Palm Sunday); 4-9-06; Darryl Bell
Max Lucado wrote "[The cross] rests on the time line of history like a compelling diamond...History has idolized it and despised it, gold plated it and burned it, worn it and trashed it. History has done everything but ignore it...Never has timber been regarded so sacred.”
The cross of Christ is compelling evidence that you really matter to God. Jesus endured the cross to proclaim his love for you. We’ve been looking at the events of the last few days of Jesus’ life on earth in this series, “All for You.” We’re working through the last three chapters of the gospel of Mark, and we see what he did for us. Today is the crucifixion. Many of today’s insights come from David Garland in his commentary on Mark.
After his trial, Pilate handed Jesus over to the soldiers who took him into the palace. There they called together their comrades for a little fun. Mark says they called together “the whole company,” which would have been about 300-600 men. This was a big deal and they all wanted a piece of the action. Jesus had been condemned by the Jews for being a false Mes-siah. Pilate condemned him as a false king, the King of the Jews. So the soldiers gave him the “royal treatment.” They took an old cloak and put it over his bloody, mutilated shoulders and back as a royal robe. They grabbed some thorns growing there and twisted them into a crown for his head. Then, they made a mockery of honoring this regal King, bowing down and shouting, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They approached him like someone approaching a king to kiss him on the cheek, but instead of kiss-ing him they spit in his face. This mock homage probably ex-pressed as much contempt for Jews in general as it did for Je-sus. The Jews hadn’t had a king since Herod the Great, and the soldiers’ implied that this weak, pitiful figure is just the kind of king they deserve. There’s no question, Jesus was a different kind of king. He was anointed with spit, crowned with thorns, and enthroned on a cross. It’s no wonder they didn’t see his true royalty. I’m afraid that if I had been one of those soldiers, I probably would have done the same. When they finished mock-ing him, they jerked off the purple robe to which now blood had probably stuck and dried. So this ripped open the wounds on his back even more. They put his own clothes back on him and led him off to be crucified.
Crucifixion was a horrible means of torture and suffering. It accomplished a couple purposes. First, it prolonged the suffer-ing of the victims, often for days. They grew weaker and weaker until finally their lives flickered out from suffocation and exhaus-tion and dehydration and shock. If you wanted to make some-body really pay for his crime, this certainly did.
Second, crucifixion also served as a warning and a deter-rent to others. It was done in very public places, usually along main roads, where lots of people would see the victims. The im-plied message was, don’t cross Rome, or Rome will put you on a cross. The first century historian Josephus tells of the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman general Titus. When Jews were caught trying to sneak away from the besieged city, they were crucified. He says, “The soldiers out of rage and hatred amused themselves by nailing their prisoners in different postures; and so great was their number, that space could not be found for the crosses nor crosses for the bodies (J.W. 5.11.1 ss 449-51).
Now they take Jesus to crucify him. Normally the prisoner was forced to carry the horizontal cross bar to the place of exe-cution. There it and he were attached to the vertical post already in the ground. Jesus is so weak from the terrible flogging that he falls under its weight. The soldiers whip him some more, as if that is going to make him stronger. Finally, in impatient frustra-tion, they grab a passer-by, Simon, from a city in northern Af-rica, who is heading into Jerusalem just as the delegation with Jesus is going out. They put the cross on Simon’s back and or-der him to carry it. So Simon is drawn into this drama, and no doubt stayed to watch what happened when they got to the place of execution. Chances are, when he saw all that hap-pened, he became a believer. That’s why the gospel writers mention his name. Mark also mentions his sons, Alexander and Rufus. We don’t know much about them, but Paul does give greetings to a Rufus in his letter to the Romans. Mark’s original readers were also Romans, so this may have been a point of contact for them with Jesus’ story—the dad of one of their mem-bers carried Jesus’ cross.
They take Jesus to Golgotha, the “place of the skull.” We don’t know why it was called this. It may have looked like a skull somehow, or there may have been skulls lying around from pre-vious crucifixions. The word “Calvary” is from the Latin for “skull.” Interestingly none of the gospels mentions a hill, yet we traditionally talk about the hill of Calvary.
Mark is very restrained in his telling of the story. He gives few details of the physical crucifixion. His original readers would have been all too familiar with it, and he didn’t need to dwell on it. He focuses instead on the theological significance of what was going on. In any case, we know it was excruciating. The very word “excruciating” comes from the Latin excruciates, which means “out of the cross.” When something is excruciating it is like the pain the came “out of the cross.”
They offered Jesus wine drugged with myrrh as a seda-tive to dull some of the pain, but he refused it. He had made a vow at the Last Supper not to drink the fruit of the vine again un-til he drank it new in his Father’s kingdom. And he wanted to be fully conscious as he accepted his suffering. He would drink the cup of God’s wrath, but not this human cup.
Then they nailed him to the cross. It was customary for the executioners to lay claim to the possessions of the prison-ers, which in Jesus’ case was only his clothes. Artists through the centuries have preserved a bit of modesty by leaving some cloth wrapped around Jesus’ private area, but we need to re-member the executioners were seeking maximum mortification and humiliation. So victims almost certainly hung there com-pletely naked.
In his physical and emotional pain, and his humiliation, Jesus was also ridiculed by the contemptuous crowd. All walks of life, from criminals to chief priests joined in. They shook their heads in mockery. Ha! Look at you now! You can destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days, can you? You remember that was one of the accusations from his trial. Well then, save yourself and come down from the cross! Mark says they “hurled insults” at him. The Greek word he uses is blasphemeo, to blas-pheme. Jesus was accused of blasphemy, but who are the real blasphemers here? In a way the death of Jesus did destroy the temple made with hands. From that time on sacrifices at the temple became irrelevant. Jesus ended the need for temple sacrifices and through his resurrection established a new temple without walls, a new community of worshipers who could come to God through grace.
The religious leaders also mocked him. He saved others, but can’t save himself! The truth is, he could have saved him-self. He could have come down from the cross. But if he had saved himself, he wouldn’t have saved us. And his mission was to reconcile people to God. If it cost his life, he was willing to pay that price. It wasn’t the nails that held Jesus to that terrible cross. It was love for God and love for you and me. He chose to stay there, even though he didn’t have to. He lived what he taught: If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life (Mark 8:35 NLT). He said, I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).
This horrible ordeal began at nine o’clock in the morning. At noon the whole area was covered with darkness until three o’clock when he died. It would have reminded those familiar with the scriptures of the prophecy of the prophet Amos, talking about God’s judgment: At that time," says the Sovereign LORD, "I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth while it is still day. I will turn your celebrations into times of mourning, and your songs of joy will be turned to weeping. You will wear funeral clothes and shave your heads as signs of sorrow, as if your only son had died. How very bitter that day will be! (Amos 8:9-10)
In this horrible time Jesus cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Again, as we saw before, this is a lament. He’s expressing his anguish, without polish or pretense. He’s pouring his heart out to God. This phrase is the opening verse of Psalm 22, the most quoted Psalm in the New Testa-ment. While this is a cry of agony and abandonment, it would remind the original hearers of the whole Psalm, which ends in triumph. Theologians have struggled with his verse, and we may never know its full meaning. Some have said that Jesus truly was abandoned by the Father because he was carrying the sin of the whole world, and the Father couldn’t look upon it. This was the very worst part of Jesus’ whole ordeal, to be aban-doned by his Father.
Others contend that Jesus felt abandoned and alone. He was so fully identified with the human predicament that he shared human despair to the full. But in reality God never aban-dons his children. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor 5:19). While God didn’t save him from the cross, he never left his side either.
Garland argues that Jesus, who lived by Scripture and believed that he was fulfilling Scripture would turn to Scripture for comfort in this desperate moment. Jesus cried out at 3:00, which was the Jewish hour of prayer. Jesus prayed the prayer of a righteous sufferer who trusts fully in God’s protection. Psalm 22 fit so many aspects of Jesus’ experience that it would naturally come to mind. And this Psalm moves from the an-guished cry of abandonment to confidence in God’s deliverance. Why would Jesus cry out to an absent God unless he believed God was there to hear and to help? Jesus’ hearers were im-mersed in Scripture the way people today are immersed in TV and movies. Quoting a phrase brings to mind a whole scene or a whole movie. Likewise, Jesus’ quote of the first line of Psalm 22 would have brought the whole Psalm to mind, a Psalm that ends with God’s victory.
The bystanders misunderstood and thought Jesus was calling Elijah. It was commonly believed that Elijah would come to help someone who was in crisis. So they waited to see. Jesus gave another loud cry and breathed his last. He didn’t die like most people who were crucified. They were so weak, ex-hausted, and suffocated that they couldn’t rally the strength or the breath even to speak, much less to shout. But Jesus shouted, and then let go of his life. A couple remarkable things happened at that moment.
Mark says the curtain in the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. This is a powerful sign. The curtain was a big, thick, heavy divider between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. Priests went every day into the Holy Place, the first, outer room of the temple, to bring offerings and to rejuvenate the lamps. But the Holy of Holies, the inner room, was the place where God’s glory dwelt. It was the place of God’s very presence, cut off from the world by the curtain. With Jesus’ death this curtain wasn’t just pushed open. It was torn in two, from top to bottom, as a powerful sign of change. We’ll pick that up again in just a moment.
The other remarkable occurrence was the Roman centurion who was in charge of the execution. He didn’t know Jesus from his previous ministry. But having presided over many crucifixions, and seeing the way Jesus died, he knew there was something unique about Jesus. Truly, this was the Son of God! he exclaimed.
There are some interesting parallels between the way Mark’s gospel begins and ends, between Jesus’ baptism and his crucifixion. In both there is a reference to Elijah, who was expected to come as a precursor to the Messiah. At the baptism, John the Baptist dressed like Elijah. At the crucifixion the bystanders misunderstood Jesus’ cry from the cross as a call to Elijah. In both events there is a tearing. The only times Mark uses this word “tear” (schizo) are in these two places. At the baptism the heavens are “torn” open and the Holy Spirit descends as a dove. And at the crucifixion, the temple curtain is torn, from top to bottom. At the baptism the voice from heaven declares, “This is my beloved Son.” At the crucifixion the voice of the battle-hardened centurion, who had no reason to sympathize with Jesus, declares, “Surely this was the Son of God.” Even when the religious leaders refuse to recognize it, God proclaims the truth of his Son’s identity and mission.
After he was dead Joseph gathered his courage and went to Pilate to ask for Jesus’ body. There was a risk in doing this because he might have been suspected of being a sympathizer with this rival to Caesar. But as a member of the Jewish Council, which had condemned Jesus, he wouldn’t raise suspicion. Since victims sometimes lived for days, Pilate was surprised that Jesus was already dead. He called in the centurion in charge to verify the death, which he did.
There is a heresy first proposed a little over a hundred years ago, that Jesus didn’t really die. Then he revived in the tomb and appeared as if he was resurrected. That theory is being revived as we see from an article on Dateline last week called “The Jesus Papers” in which the same claim is made. If we had time we could give lots of evidence that Jesus really did die, and that’s what the centurion certified as well.
Pilate gave permission for Joseph to take the body, and he laid it in his own new tomb that had been carved out of solid rock.
It’s been said that someone pulled Joseph aside some time later and upbraided him. "Joseph, that was such beautiful, expensive, hand-hewn tomb. Why on earth did you give it to someone else to be buried in?" Joseph just smiled. "Why not?” he said. “He only needed it for the weekend."
Indeed, that is the Good News we’ll celebrate next Sunday.
But before we conclude today, I’d like to return to the curtain in the temple that was torn at the moment of Jesus’ death. First we might wonder how would the Christians even have found out about the tearing of the curtain. It was in a part of the temple where only the priests could go. It wasn’t in their best interest to tell anybody about that. But in Acts 6:7 we are told that a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. It may be that when they saw this powerful sign, they couldn’t re-sist the truth that it signified, so they trusted Jesus themselves, and they shared the story with the church. This curtain was about 30 feet high by 30 feet wide and 2-3 inches thick. It was not an easy thing to tear. That it was torn as it was signifies several things, both positive and negative. Something is destroyed, and something is revealed.
First, there is a new revelation. God’s glory is revealed. What had shielded God’s glory from human view is now torn away. The veil of secrecy is lifted so that everyone can now see the face of God and the love of God in Jesus’ death. Everyone can see what God is really like. The torn veil lets something out. The truth about God can’t be confined in walls of stone. Through Jesus’ death God’s glory flows out to flood the world.
Second, the barrier between God and humans is torn away. People now have access to God. We can come to God and have a personal relationship with him. Hebrews says, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. This is the new, life-giving way that Christ has opened up for us through the sacred curtain, by means of his death for us. (Hebrews 10:19-20).
And third, something is destroyed. This marks the end of the old order. Animal sacrifice is no longer needed. It has become obsolete. The curtain wasn’t just opened, but ripped, torn, destroyed. God forsakes this temple. Jesus will be raised, but the Temple will be razed. The tearing of the curtain introduces a new revelation and a new relationship between God and people.
Why has the Bible given us all this information and all this detail about Jesus’ suffering and death? Because you really matter to God. Why did all this happen? It happened for you. God wants you to know that. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). Jesus went through all this for you. He loves you that much.
You may be discouraged. You may be exhausted. There may be times when you wonder whether life is really worth it all. But take heart. The most important matter in the universe is settled. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus prove God loves you and God’s power is available to you. Knowing that, there’s nothing else that you won’t be able to handle. You really do matter to God.
