New Hope Church
January 15, 2012
Jesus Christ Crucified
Mark 15:1-39
In some ways (because of our cultural distance) we are at a slight “disadvantage” when it comes to hearing the story of the cross. We hear that Jesus was rejected, persecuted, and killed, but we don’t always feel it the way the original hearers or readers did.
To help us grasp some of the gruesome realities of what Jesus experienced I want us to walk through the events of the cross step by step. Along the way we will ask a series of questions: What happened to Jesus physically, emotionally, and spiritually? Why was it necessary? What is the good news of the cross?
According to Mark’s Gospel, the Jewish leaders condemned Jesus to death because he claimed to be the Christ, the Son of Man. Then the Roman leaders condemned him to death because they wanted to prevent a riot, not because he claimed to be the King of the Jews.
As the apostle Paul explained: “Even though the religious leaders found in Jesus no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed.” (Acts 13:28)
And Peter testified: “The God of our fathers glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.” (Acts 3:13-15)
Jesus was traded for Barabbas; the Son of the Father for a son of a father; the King for a rebel; the life-giver for a murderer; a teacher for a robber.
WHAT HAPPENED TO JESUS PHYSICALLY?
[I am relying on observations by Dr. Alexander Metherell in The Case for Christ. Adapted for use here.]
After the Jewish leaders delivered Jesus over to the Romans he was tried and accused. Like a lamb before the slaughter Jesus remained silent and made no answer. “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:22-23).
He scourged by Roman soldiers. Roman floggings were known to be terribly brutal. The number of lashes usually depended on the mood of the soldier applying the blows.
The soldier would use a whip of braided leather thongs with metal balls and shards of bone woven into them. When the whip would strike the flesh, these balls would cause deep bruises or contusions, which would break open with further blows. The shards of bone would cut the flesh severely.
The whipping would have gone all the way from the shoulders down to the back, the buttocks, and the back of the legs.
One physician who has studied Roman beatings said, ‘As the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh.’ Eusebius, a historian in third-century, described a flogging in chilling detail: ‘The sufferer’s veins were laid bare, and the very muscles, sinews, and bowels of the victim were open to exposure.’
We know that many people would die from this kind of beating even before they could be crucified. The victim of flogging would experience tremendous pain, and he would suffer the side-effects of losing a large amount of blood.
In addition to the flogging, Jesus was punched, crowned with thorns, beaten with reeds and sticks, stripped down and dressed up. His beard was plucked out and he was spit upon and mocked. As the prophet foretold, he was marred and disfigured beyond human recognition (Isa 52).
After all this Jesus was forced to carry the 50 lb. cross-beam out to the place of crucifixion. But Jesus was unable to carry his beam all the way to the place of the Skull, so the Romans forced Simon to carry the cross for him.
Not Simon Peter; Simon of Cyrene.
While Simon Peter slept through the night and denied Jesus three times and laid down his cross. Simon of Cyrene (literally) took up the cross and followed Jesus.
When Jesus arrived at the site of the crucifixion he was laid out on his broken and bruised back. His arms were stretch out and his wrists were pierced with long iron spikes. They were driven through the wrists about an inch or so below the palm in order to support the weight of his body when he was lifted up.
The nail crushed the largest nerve going out to the hand. His hands closed into tight fists. The word excruciating (lit.“out of the cross”) is based on the intense anguish caused during the crucifixion. The pain was absolutely unbearable, and literally beyond words to describe.
Crushed and severed nerves in his hands and feet were certainly bad enough, but the stress of hanging from the cross would have taken a toll on Jesus’ body. First of all, his arms would have immediately been stretched and his shoulders would have become dislocated. As Psalm 22 says “my bones are out of joint”.
Once the victim was hanging in the vertical position it was just a matter of time before he died.
As terrible as crucifixion was, the worst was yet to come.
WHAT HAPPENED TO JESUS SPIRITUALLY?
What the Romans and Jews did to Jesus physically is nothing compared to what God did to him spiritually.
In addition to the physical and psychological pain he experienced at the cross, Jesus experienced the deep sorrow and grief that comes with bearing our sins. He felt the crushing weight and heavy burden of our sins and he endured the consequences of our sins—the wrath of God was poured out on him in pure justice.
As Isaiah 53 says, Jesus was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. He was oppressed, afflicted, and led to the slaughter. He was cut off out of the land of the living. He was stricken for the transgression of my people.
At the cross God the Father treated Jesus as a wretched sinner. “God made him who had no personal experience with sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:20).
The innocent one felt the enormous weight of our guilt; the holy one felt the shame of our filth. He was abandoned by everyone he loved, including his Father. For the first and only time in eternity or history, the Father turned away and forsook his Son.
At the cross Jesus experienced separation from God as if he were a sinner.
The LORD cursed him and abandoned him;
the LORD hid his face and left him in darkness and showed him no mercy;
the LORD turned his back on him and he descended into the hell of separation from the Father.
Jesus experienced at the cross what every sinner (including you and me) deserves to experience—the un-merciful justice of God’s holy wrath.
At the cross, the last Passover, a deep darkness covered the land of Judah (Mark 15:33), just as a plague of darkness covered the land of Egypt at the first Passover.
“The sun was darkened, and the moon did not give its light, the stars were falling from the sky,
and the powers in the heavens were shaken.” (Mark 13:24-25)
Out of the darkness and dread “Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.” And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, it caught his attention.
Why? He saw how Jesus was scourged and mocked and crucified. He knew that victims of crucifixion usually died by asphyxiation, so they were choking and gasping for air before they died. Or they died by cardiac arrest, so they were tense and terrified when they died. Not Jesus. He did not die of natural causes; he gave up his spirit with a loud shout–he gave his life a ransom for many.
So when the centurion saw the way Jesus died he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:37-39). He made the good confession of faith and he became one of the first people to enter the kingdom of God after the crucifixion of Jesus.
WHY WAS IT NECESSARY FOR THE SON OF MAN TO BE THE SUFFERING SERVANT?
As we learned in a previous sermon, “it was necessary” for the Son of Man to suffer many things, to be rejected, persecuted, and crucified. And “it was necessary” for him to be raised on the third day.
Why was all this necessary?
Jesus is the suffering servant of the Lord who gave his life for many. As it is written: “He poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors” (Isa 53:12).
Jesus is the true kinsmen-redeemer who paid the ransom for many with his death and purchased redemption for many with his blood. “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
Jesus is the ransom paid to Father God for the sins of many. He is the one who purchased redemption from Father for all those chosen by grace from the foundation of the world.
Scripture says no man can ransom another (Psalm 49:7). That’s true. But if no man can ransom another, how can Jesus give his life a ransom for many? Answer: Jesus is no ordinary man. He is the Son of Man and he has authority to forgive sins (Mark 2:10).
“With man this is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God” (Mark 10:26-27).
Jesus gave his life a ransom for many (10:45) and his blood was poured out for many (14:24).
How can you know if Jesus gave his life a ransom for you? How can you know if his blood purchased your redemption?
At the cross the religious leaders said “Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” (Mark 15:32). For them, seeing is believing.
Jesus Christ says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34) For him, “believing is seeing.”
In order to know if Jesus gave his life a ransom for yours you must turn away from self and trust in Jesus. So repent and believe the good news.
WHAT IS THE GOOD NEWS?
The good news is that Jesus is the King who came to serve, not to be served, and to give his life a ransom for many.
The good news is that greatest among us is the suffering servant; the first among us is the slave of all.
The good news is that Jesus suffered much for us—because we deserve to be punished severely for our sins.
The good news is that Jesus was rejected by the political and religious leaders—because the rulers of the world must be disarmed, exposed to public shame, and conquered.
Jesus was not wise, or powerful, or noble according to worldly standards. Yet God chose a crucified fool to shame the wise; a man crucified in weakness to shame the strong; a lowly and despised King to reduce to nothing those who think they are something.
The good news is that Jesus was killed—because the wages of sin is death and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
The good news is that Jesus was separated from the Father so that we could be reconciled to the Father.
The good news is Jesus suffered once for all, the righteous One for the unrighteous many, to bring us to God.
When Jesus cried out and died, God tore the curtain of the temple in two, from top to bottom. “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
Let us draw near
with a true heart in full assurance of faith,
with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience
and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,
for he who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:19-23)
