Good Friday
Notes
Transcript
This is my son
This is my son
Every year on good Friday we come back to the cross.
We come to the cross to watch and to observe our savior taking our sin, our shame, our own lostness onto himself so that we might be free
We come to experience what Jesus invites us to…his kingdom
And the mystery of his kingdom is that there is only one door to get there. There is one way and that is through the door of the cross...
We have to leave all other things at the cross if we are going to faithfully enter in to God’s kingdom.
So today as we look toward the cross, in the book of mark, everything converges onto the cross...
The cross is the center point of the book of Mark where all the themes of Mark come together.
So before we turn to the cross I want to remind us of who Mark says that Jesus is
Jesus will be called three things in the book of Mark:
Son of God
Son of Man
Son of David
The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,
Son of God is a title that reveals Jesus’ divinity…This keeps coming up in the book of Mark and it will come up at the cross in a big way
Just a couple of verses later Jesus would get baptized and the heavens would open up and we would see this happen
And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
So this affirmation of Jesus’ identity is done by the father…By his father in heaven…Jesus is the son of the father…the son of God! This is huge and again…this will come up later in a big way
Jesus will allow himself to be called Son of God what he will call himself is “Son of Man”
Later as Jesus is brought a paralytic
But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man,
I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home
See all of the old testament was looking for this Son of Man that the prophet Daniel said would come…The one who is like the new and greater adam.
The human that can pass the test of temptation
The human that doesn’t fall victim to the beast of sin
The human/God one who can actually forgive sin!
And then in chapter 10 we see this
When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Son of David…So Jesus this divine Son of God and this human Son of Man has a royal inheritance
These three titles of Jesus, Show Jesus’ true identity and they keep coming up over and over again in the book of Mark
In the book of Mark these three titles come together to paint a picture of who Jesus really is.
So I want you to hold that in your mind that Jesus is
The son of God
The son of Man
and the son of David!
So Pastor Bethany shared with us the last supper of Jesus and after that final meal with his disciples
Jesus agonized and prayed in the garden
He spent time with his father and plead with him to take the cup of suffering…if there was any other way to redeem the would he would do it...
But at the end because of his great love for us, he was obedient to the will of his father
He was betrayed by Judas…He was arrested…he was put on trial...
Tonight I want to look at that trial and the cross because everything that happens here is simply amazing
First Jesus is put on trial with his own people and all of these titles will come together:
But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.
Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”
“I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
So when they say are you the messiah, they are saying are you the one who is coming in the line of David..>Son of David
Then they say son of the Blessed one…AKA son of God
and then Jesus says. I AM! and you are going to see the son of Man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one coming on the clouds of heaven!
So the question of who Jesus is is getting cleared up!
But after they hear this, they say, what more evidence do we need…We need to get rid of Jesus!
But this is a divine moment…Where all of the titles of Jesus come together
We see clearly who he is but the people who are ultra religious don’t recognize him!
So the chief priest and teachers of the law had already questioned Jesus and had their own mini trial.
All of their false witnesses could not agree on Jesus
So when Jesus admits to that that he is the messiah, Son of the blessed one then he calls himself the son of man
After this they beat him and the text says that they spit on him....
And as Jesus is being degraded…and spat on..>The text says that at the same time…Peter is denying Jesus
The times that Jesus needed his followers to stand up for him…Peter couldn’t even do that
But what Peter couldn’t realize at that moment is that the beating that Jesus was taking was on his behalf…On all of our behalf
So then they take Jesus to the Romans and hand him over to Rome...
Now here is why.
Under the Roman occupation, the Jews are not allowed to use the death penalty
So when they bring him to Rome they know what they are doing…It is with the expressed purpose to have Jesus killed
The Jews wanted to put the death of Jesus onto the Romans…
To make it look like they didn’t have blood on their hands
Now Pilate found no reason to have Jesus killed but because Pilate couldn’t have a rebellion on his hands…
Instead of governing…He let public opinion govern
This is never a good idea...
Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.
“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.
“What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.
“Crucify him!” they shouted.
“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
So this one moment turns out is key in Bible
We have this guy named Barabbas…which means son of the father
And you have Jesus who back in chapter 1 the father split open the heavens and said this is my son....We have here Barabbas son of the father and Jesus Son of the father
And not only that
Matthew gives us a little better detail on this guy Barabbas’ full name
At that time they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Jesus Barabbas.
At the trial of Jesus scene Israel is forced to choose between two Jesus’
Which Jesus do you want?
The question really is who is your savior?
All of the gospels really record Barabbas as an anti-Roman insurrectionist
He was a “freedom fighter” in Rome’s eyes he was a terrorist but in Israel’s eyes he was a hero
This man probably had a popular following! The fact that his name is recorded in all the gospels shows that Barabbas was very well know.
When Jesus is hung on the cross the gospels also record that he was hung in between two other rebells...
Jesus of Nazareth took the place of Jesus Barabbas
Barabbas represents the messiah that Israel has its hopes in…If we save Barabbas then maybe we will go free...
If we Save Barabbas then maybe one day he will lead us in a great rebellion
It reveals the messianic hope of Israel
Literally when the question was put to israel…the question was “what Jesus do you want”
I think we have been well trained by our media and the stories that we tell that
we want a victorious hero
We want instant gratification
We want the Jesus that will kick the romans butt and make them pay
But in God’s wisdom…We don’t get the Jesus that will throw the death blow to Rome but absorb it
We don’t get the Jesus that will retaliate but will redeem
The true son of the father loses the popular vote of popular opinion
Make no mistake about it, Jesus of Nazareth took the place of Jesus Barabbas and in so doing he takes the place of all of us!
Barabbas is a rebel…So am I! So are you!
he takes our rebellion
He takes our shame
He is the true son of the father!
So Jesus is handed over to be crucified...
He is mocked…In a really roman way…The roman Guard actually goes through a mock coronation ceremony. The same ceremony that they use to make a roman emperor an emperor, they use on Jesus but filled with mockery and violence....
But they didn’t understand what they were doing in God’s cosmic story
The throne of Jesus would be the cross
Where Jesus would absorb the fatal death blow of Rome…But where all of the sin of humanity would be dealt with
Where Jesus would reign victorious
and then this happens:
At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”
Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.
With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
My God My God why have you forsaken me?
Rejected and scorned by Israel,
sacrificed as a political pawn by Rome,
denied and abandoned by his own followers,
Jesus is wholly forsaken and exposed to the horror of humanity’s sin.
Its horror is so total that in his dying breath he senses his separation from God.
And even in this cry that Jesus has he is misunderstood…They think that Elijah is coming because Eloi in Aramaic sounds like Elijah in Hebrew..
But with a loud cry. Jesus breathed his last
And with that 2 things happened
The curtain was torn in two
This is the curtain that separates the holy of holies
It is the veil that keeps God separated from the people
It both protects people from God’s holiness and shows a seperation between God and people
and now that is torn
The death of Jesus removes the barrier between man and God
Because of the death of Jesus the personal presence of God is now available to all human kind
There is another note that we know because of Josephus the historian who was alive at this time.
The Curtain of the temple was a massive tapestry that depicted the heavens and another word for torn is to “rend” something…It gives new meaning to
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains would tremble before you!
Because of Jesus on the cross....the sin barrier between you and God is forever torn...
He is pleased to forgive your sin
It is his life’s work
And then probably because the curtain is torn...
There is this most amazing confession
This centurion…we don’t know…maybe he was involved in the beating, the mocking and the torture of Jesus
We don’t know his exact role
But he stands there and all of these titles of Jesus come rushing into the scene
This profession of faith, ironically, comes not from a disciple, relative, or even a fellow Jew.
It is rather a Gentile outsider—the captain of the execution squad, and thus an enemy—who first declares Jesus as God’s Son.
The cross is the supreme revelation of Jesus as God’s Son, and hence this title, which derives from God surpasses all other titles—whether Messiah, Son of Man, prophet, teacher, or Lord.
The cross is also the birthplace of faith, for the centurion’s confession is a saving confession of Jesus as God’s Son.
The cross is the intersection where God meets humanity.
This centurion met the living God in his death
Saving confession is not predicated on prior knowledge, proximity to Jesus, or privilege; it is, rather, an act of faith in a divinely revealed act of atonement.
The centurion’s confession is the saving proclamation of the church, for it is the convergence point of Mark’s two major themes:
the meaning of Jesus and the meaning of faith.
The Son of God, on whom rests the unique blessing and love of the Father, chooses not to exalt himself but to follow a path of servanthood,
indeed of vicarious suffering and death,
so that through the cross the world might acknowledge him to be the Son and with him share free and joyful access to the Father.
So as we close this time today
I really want to leave you with some good Friday questions
Which Jesus do you want?
The Political Hero? Barabbas…Or the one who will quietly take his place?
Who is Jesus?
Because all through mark we get these titles of Jesus but the load bearing christological title comes to us from a roman executioner…Surely he is the son of God
Lastly...Have you made this confession?
when you make this confession the veil is torn
When Jesus becomes the son of God in your life, in the words of Isaiah, the heavens are rended and he has come
Lets pray