The Cross and the Chaos (Ebenezer) Part 2: The Crucifixion (Full Sentences)

Introduction

Attention:

Ask: How many of you have been to the eye doctor before?

It has been a couple of years for me, but I used to go all of the time

The most recent time that I went to the eye doctor was when I lived in Lynchburg, and I remember, one time, they dilated my eyes, and they ended up looking like this.

Ask: Does anybody know why they dilate your eyes at the eye doctor?

It lets more light into your eyes, so that they can understand your eye problems.

What we will see tonight is that the crucifixion of Jesus shines a light on the problem of evil and helps us to understand it better than anything else ever could

It helps us to examine the issue

Here’s the definition of the POE that was given last week:

The Problem of Evil (POE): “If God exists and He is good, why is there so much bad stuff in the world?”

Ultimately, what we see at Easter is that, when it comes to suffering, we are not alone: Jesus suffers with us

That is exactly what we are going to be looking at as we examine Mark 15:33-35

Need:

We need to hear this because, as we discussed last week, the problem of evil is the number #1 reason that people your age are not Christians.

Today’s youth need to understand that the cross of Jesus helps us to understand this issue from a Christian perspective

If the POE is something that has been keeping you from putting your faith in Jesus, you need to work through this and to give your life over to Him

Or if you are a believer, maybe this series will be an opportunity for you to deeply grow in your faith and to be able to answer some of life’s hardest questions that you just haven’t been able to figure out.

So let’s dive in!

Body

The Big Idea: Jesus shares our sufferings

The Question: How does Jesus share our sufferings?

1. He asks our questions

2. He suffers without cause

3. He gives pain a purpose

Mark 15:33–34 (ESV)

33 And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Explanation:

On a basic level, what does Jesus do in verse 34?

He asks God the Father a question.

This fact alone is pretty interesting: why is Jesus asking God the Father a question? Isn’t Jesus all-knowing? (Omniscient)

And it is not just any question; it is taken straight from Psalm 22

What does this tell us? Let’s go over to the Psalm and find out.

Psalm 22:1–2 (ESV)

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,

and by night, but I find no rest.

This is a Psalm from David that describes suffering itself

Remember: Psalms are songs

So Jesus is basically taking a famous song about suffering and singing along with us

Imagine a famous song about death that is sung at funerals. That’s basically what is being sung here.

What is the simple question that Jesus is asking God?

“Why?”

Why have you abandoned me? Why are you allowing this evil to take place?

Jesus is asking the very same question that is put forth by the problem of evil: “God… why?”

Jesus doesn’t answer all of our questions about evil: He asks all of our questions about evil.

As the Son of God in human flesh, he identifies with us in every way (Hebrews 4:15), and this includes the big questions that we ask God

Jesus asking our questions about evil is better than Jesus answering our questions about evil, because it means that He is more concerned about walking with us than He is about giving us what we want.

Jesus is all about relationship, and that relationship compels us towards trusting Him and following Him in the midst of our questions.

Illustration:

It is nice when someone else asks the same question that you have been asking.

Maybe you’re in class, and there is a question that you have, but you don’t want to actually ask the question out loud.

But then, somebody else steps in and asks that same exact question.

That’s a good feeling, right?

It feels good to know that Jesus asked the very same questions that we are asking

He gets us, and He loves us.

Application:

What questions have you been asking God recently?

Maybe it simply has been the question of evil “God, how can their be so much evil in the world if you are so good?”

But maybe it is more specific: “God, why did you allow this to happen to my friend… to my family… to me?”

You can fill in the blank: “God… why did you allow x to happen?”

How does it make you feel to see that Jesus asked a similar question?

I pray that you are encouraged by Christ’s love and the depths that He went to prove it to you

Jesus could have said a lot of things on the cross… but He chose to identify with our questions about suffering in that moment.

If you have accepted Christ, He is with you! May that encourage you to continue your journey with Him no matter how hard the questions get

Transition statement: Jesus isn’t just asking this question, he’s doing it while suffering without cause

The Big Idea: Jesus shares our sufferings

The Question: How does Jesus share our sufferings?

1. He asks our questions

2. He suffers without cause

3. He gives pain a purpose

Explanation:

One of the main aspects of Psalm 22 is that the suffering is “without cause”

This is helpful when it comes to talking about the problem of evil, because it is the idea of the innocent suffering that really bothers us

What are some examples of the innocent suffering?

When you look at what has been happening in Ukraine for awhile now, for example, one of the biggest things that we notice is that the innocent are suffering, and that this isn’t good

There is something about us as people who are made in the image of God that see the innocent suffering and say “this is not good.”

One of the primary truths that we know about Jesus is that He is uniquely innocent; he’s stainless

He is perfect and without sin (1 Peter 2:22); the spotless lamb without blemish (1 Peter 1:18-19)

Yet He suffers! He dies on a cross even though He INFINITELY doesn’t deserve it

We’re the ones that deserve that, but He takes our stains upon himself

Here’s what this teaches us: We should have more of a problem with God allowing Jesus to suffer than we do with Him allowing anyone else to suffer

Jesus is innocence itself

The fact that Jesus innocently suffered should really “do something” to our hearts; it should be question-invoking

The most evil act ever commited was commited to our Perfect Savior. That should mean something to us.

Illustration:

Unlike Jesus, I am not stainless. I spill coffee on myself and on other things all of the time

Sometimes, I’ll have to change clothes after my lunch shift because I’ve spilled coffee on myself, and to be honest, I deserve to have to do that for not being more careful

Jesus didn’t deserve to die a horrific death. But he did it anyways. He suffered without cause that He might pay our cost.

Application

What is it about seeing the innocent suffer that you hate the most?

For me, I think it is seeing children suffer; there is something so beautiful about youthful innocence, and to see that tarnished gives me great sorrow

How does seeing that Jesus is the embodiment of innocence change your perspective?

At Easter Time, we confront the worst evil in all of human history. How does that affect you?

How can Christ’s innocence change the way that you ask your questions?

The point isn’t to not ask questions; the point is to ask them with hope and trust

We don’t ask questions with one foot out the door of faith; we ask our questions with out feet fully planted in our faith

God is real, and we can pledge our devotion to Him, even when the questions are hard.

Transition statement: Even though Jesus died without cause, He did not die without purpose.

The Big Idea: Jesus shares our sufferings

The Question: How does Jesus share our sufferings?

1. He asks our questions

2. He suffers without cause

3. He gives pain a purpose

Explanation:

How was the death of Jesus the worst evil ever committed?

He is God Himself

He is perfect and completely innocent

Our innocent Lord and Savior was brutally murdered as if he was a criminal

But the greatest evil ever committed was not purposeless in the eyes of God. Why is that?

It came about to give birth to the greatest gift that’s ever been given.

This quote from the Gospel Coalition is really helpful: “some goods can’t exist apart from the evils to which they are a response.”

The quote goes on: “There is no courage without danger, no sympathy without suffering, no forgiveness without sin, no atonement without suffering, no compassion without need, no patience without adversity.”

This is seen throughout the entire scope of Scripture

Remember the verse that we read about Joseph last week: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good” (Genesis 50:20)

What others intend for evil, God intends for good

Does this mean that we can use this as a blanket statement for every case of suffering? If someone loses a loved one, should we just say “welp, God meant it for good?” Well, of course not! How insensitive would that be?

Plus, why God allows certain things to happen are unknowable to us on this side of Heaven

But what we do know is that He’s in control.

Jesus’ death on the cross is the ultimate example of man using something for evil that God intends for good.

The goods demonstrated at the cross far outweigh the evils

And if the murder of Jesus is the greatest evil ever committed, how much more infinitely great must be what He has accomplished through it?

Through His death, Jesus redeems His people. He experiences the abandonment from God that we deserved. He died to give us life.

“He died forsaken by God so that His people might claim God as their God and never be forsaken.” -John D. Grassmick

The worst thing that ever happened is actually the best thing that ever happened.

Praise be to God!

Illustration:

In 2010, my aunt Deanna died of a drug overdose at the age of 39

This was an incredibly hard thing to go through; my mother was especially devastated

And we definitely had those momments where we were like “God… why?”

But you know what? God brought good out of it

My parents basically adopted my cousin (her son), and he was exposed to a healthy church for the first time in his life.

What happened to Deanna was horrible, but God came in and used it for good.

This is infinitely more true with the cross

As hard as Deanna’s death was to go through, the death of Jesus was way worse

Yet God comes in and makes it the best thing that has ever happened.

Application:

What pain are you going through that feels purposeless?

We go through all sorts of things that feel purposeless

I know that these is especially true for teenagers in 2023; life is hard

How does seeing that Jesus’ pain had a purpose give you hope?

You might not know the exact reason that you are going through something hard, but you can go through it knowing all the while that God is good and He is in control

Since Jesus joins us in our suffering, are you willing to join Him in His?

Are you willing to follow Jesus even when the questions are hard?

The Christian life was never meant to be easy. It is meant to be “bigger than us”

Because Jesus has joined in our sufferings, the least that we can do is join Him in His, and this allows us to live for something that’s bigger than ourselves.

Have faith in His power to give pain a purpose

Conclusion

Visualization

Here you stand with your questions about God and the nature of evil.

And now, here you stand at the foot of the cross.

How will you respond?

Reiteration

I believe that there are some of you in here tonight that have not given your lives to the Lord, and this question that we have tackled is one of the main reasons.

Tonight, God is calling you to accept Him as your Lord and Savior! How will you respond?

I believe that others of you are saved, but you’ve been struggling through this problem nonetheless.

Perhaps the main reason that you are struggling with it is that you are going through something really difficult that it has been hard to wrap your mind around.

Maybe this question has been keeping you from taking your faith as seriously as you need to; maybe it has been keeping you from taking that next step

Tonight, Christ is calling you to embrace a radical faith that trusts in Him no matter what. How will you respond?

PRAY

Small Group Questions

How does the crucifixion of Jesus affect your perspective on the Problem of Evil?

What are your thoughts on what Jesus says in verse 34?

How does it make you feel to know that Jesus identifies with you by asking the same questions that you do?

How do you think that viewing the Crucifixion in this way could help someone work through the problem of evil and place their faith in Jesus?

How can you intentionally use this Easter season to work through your questions about God and evil?