LOVE'S AGONY

LOVE'S AGONY Mark 14, Mark 15 and Isaiah 53 March 28, 1999 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory Really loving someone can be tough. Just ask Mirella, who waits with her five children in Centreville, IL for her husband, Raymond to get out of jail. They say with continued good behavior it should be only two more years. “Only?!” With only a small income and these children to feed two years is a long time. But she waits and hopes, because she loves Raymond, and love is tough during times of separation. Bill and Rhonda love their 16 year old daughter, Michelle. Michelle has determined it’s time to live her own life and stop listening to her parents. She has become involved in several behaviors which genuinely threaten her life, from gangs and sexual promiscuity to crack cocaine and armed robbery. Bill and Rhonda are Christians who feel they did their best in raising Michelle, but they struggle with worry, shame and, mostly, what to do for Michelle. Many of their Christian friends have offered glib advice--some say “Let her go”, others say “Just accept her and love her, and try not to sound judgmental”. But every day they pray with tears and even fight with one another over how to treat their daughter. They love her and want the best for her, but it seems there’s nothing they can do. Love agonizes when its intended recipient unreceptive. Julie cried when Bobby, her husband of 8 months, was sent to help in the resistance against the madness of Sadam Hussein in Desert Storm. The promise was it would only be six months, but already there’s fear of chemical warfare and scud missiles. There would be the comforting help of her nearby parents and friends promised to be there for her, but she missed Bobby. Love for another is painful when he’s gone and in harm’s way. Love, when it is real love, agonizes. In fact, the deeper and truer the love, the more the agony. Why? Because, in a sin-scarred world, loved ones often are taken away, or choose to leave; they suffer illnesses and threats and hurts. You worry for them, you miss them, you are jealous for them, you long to have them brought back, to win them back--often, to just know they’ll be OK. Love is always a risk, because people and circumstances can change quickly and brutally overnight. They can turn on you, turn away from you, hurt you. But, if you love them, just simply accepting it, with platitudes like “Oh, well, easy come, easy go” or “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” is impossible. You’ll do anything, try anything, if you can only have your lover back, your love reciprocated. It’s true, isn’t it? In this imperfect world, among imperfect people, love agonizes. Would it surprise you to know that the heart of God agonizes just like that? Ever since the first two bites of forbidden fruit compelled the God of perfect justice to banish His beloved creatures from His intimate presence, the God of perfect love has been pining and planning to win us back. Here is the agony: His perfect justice cannot allow unconditional reconciliation, because He has already spoken, “The soul that sins will die,” and “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.” But His perfect love for mankind does not want this inevitable judgment to fall on them. He devised a plan that would, in His wisdom, take time to implement. It would be methodical, slowly building throughout history, readying mankind to understand, and coming to a crescendo in the life, death and resurrection of His own son, Jesus. So the words of 2 Corinthians 5 - “God made Him who knew no sin to become a sin offering for us”. The judge who pronounced His judgment, in an act of cosmic drama, takes the sentence on himself on behalf of his beloved. Perfect justice satisfied by perfect love. He became, in the atoning death of Jesus, both JUST AND JUSTIFIER. And now the free gift of salvation comes as a gift to anyone who will by faith receive it. God has done it all for us; we need not remain eternally separated from Him in the suffering of Hell, because Jesus paid it all for us. To us, it is FREE, but it was not cheap. Let’s look again at the passion narrative of the gospel of Mark and see just how much the love of God agonized for us. Love’s agony in relationships (Mark 14:27-51, 66-72) Have you ever been stabbed in the back by someone. When you’re not there, they whisper terrible, libelous things about you? It’s an awful thing--a deeply painful experience. But let me ask you this - Have you ever been betrayed in this way by someone you trusted, really trusted? It’s enough to break your heart, isn’t it? But let me ask you this--Have you ever been God and betrayed by the very people you created and trusted and cared for? Jesus had a very difficult day the day of the Last Supper. First, He knew what was coming (His suffering and death). He knew a close associate would betray Him along the way. He told His best friends how much He needed them to pray for Him and all they could do was sleep while He agonized in prayer. His friends had sworn they would stay by his side, but they all ran when the going got tough. Even Peter, who made the strongest vow of support, ran for his life and then, adding insult to injury, within earshot of Jesus, denied even knowing Him three times. At any time in the course of these heart-rending events Jesus could have called it quits and said “It isn’t worth it.” Or, He could have made it easier by calling thousands of angels to His side to teach His enemies and His so-called friends a few lessons. But He didn’t. He knew that what was best for these whom He loved, even though they did not show much love for Him, was to go through love’s agony. Love’s agony at the trial (Mark 14:53-65; 15:1-15) It was a crisis marriage counseling situation. I sat stunned as I heard the estranged husband lash out at his wife saying the meanest, cruelest things in the most accusing voice he could muster. And it was clearly all lies! A quick glance at the wife and I was shocked. She sat quietly, unresponsive and with a look of pure love in her moist eyes. Why? Love agonizes. Love overlooks faults and prays and works for the good of the beloved, no matter what the personal cost. And here is where we find Jesus. A crimeless criminal being falsely, but successfully accused in a kangaroo court. He was spit at, insulted, blindfolded, hit with fists and cruelly humiliated. Love was winning, but love agonized. Peter, the coward, would later write to Christians: Christ suffered for you...He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him he did not retaliate; when he suffered he made not threats... The very powerful and precise prophecy about this mistreatment of the Messiah was spoken hundreds of years before by Isaiah, whose words recorded in chapter 53 read: He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering... Jesus didn’t get to the cross yet, and He was already fulfilling the prophecy. And it would only get worse. Love’s agony in the Palace (Mark 15:16-20) They took Him to the palace, where a whole company (600) of Roman soldiers were garrisoned. Scripture tells us that they were like bullies circling a smaller child, pushing and jeering. Mob psychology took over. One man grabbed an officers purple robe and said, “Well, look at the king!” Then they stripped Him naked, handed Him a stick for a scepter and thorny vine twisted into a crown. They hammered the thorns down into his scalp and the blood ran down His face. There, in His humiliation, Jesus tasted his own blood, that with which he would buy our pardon. They mocked Him with false worship, and after they tired of their sport, they led Him out for crucifixion. Love’s agony on the cross (Mark 15:21-32) He carried His own cross as long as He could in his weakened state--it probably weighed about 200 pounds. The only relief He got was when the soldiers thought He might die before He got to the crucifixion, so Simon was recruited to help. What had weakened Him was the scourging that took place just before the walk to Golgotha. Mark doesn’t detail that part of the suffering, but the other gospel writers do. I want to read to you part of an article that appeared 13 years ago in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association, entitled “On the Physical Death of Jesus” Flogging preceded every Roman execution, and only women and Roman senators were exempt. The usual instrument used was a short whip--a flagrum or flagulum--with several single or braided leather thongs at variable lengths. Small iron balls or sharp pieces of sheep bone were tied on at various intervals. For scourging, the man was stripped of his clothing, and his hands were tied to an upright post. The idea was that a person would have their hands tied around a post up very high so that the flesh on their body would be stretched out tightly in preparation for the scourging. The back, the buttocks, and the legs were flogged either by two soldiers or by one who alternated positions. The...scourging...was intended to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse or death...As the soldiers repeatedly struck the victim’s back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions, and the leather thongs and sheep bone fragments would cut into the skin and subcutaneous tissues. As the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh. Pain and blood loss generally set the stage for circulatory shock. The extent of blood loss may well have determined how long the victim would survive on the cross. Yes, this was the same scourging meted out to any criminal. But other criminals were not the Son of God who could have saved themselves at any time with a simple call out to heaven. In addition to the extreme physical torture, Jesus was GOD VOLUNTARILY GOING THROUGH THIS FOR YOU! Now, the rest of Isaiah 53: Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed. (vss. 4-6) My friends, this was NOT just another Roman execution! In his book, The Life of Christ, Frederick Farrar wrote his well-researched description of what crucifixion entails: Death by crucifixion, invented by the Persians, embraced by the Romans, involved dizziness, cramps, thirst, starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, shame, long continuance of torment, horror of anticipation, mortification of intended wounds, all intensified just up to the point at which the person could endure it but stopping just short of the point where unconsciousness would bring some relief. it was designed to keep the person conscious and suffering. The unnatural position made every movement painful. The lacerated veins and crushed tendons throbbed with incessant anguish. The wounds, the arteries, especially at the head and stomach, became swollen and oppressed with surcharged blood. And while each variety of misery went on gradually increasing, there was added to them the intolerable pain of burning raging thirst; and all these physical complication caused an internal excitement and anxiety which made the prospect of death itself a delicious and exquisite release. But the person couldn’t die. Dr. Truman Davis also did extensive research into crucifixion. He adds in his book The Crucifixion of Jesus, As the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward. As he hangs by his arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed. Air can be drawn into the lungs but cannot be exhaled, and Jesus fights to raise himself.And so as he hangs there the idea is that the person dies of suffocation...He presses himself up to get a breath of air and then to release the pain of pulling on the nails he lets down, until finally he has no strength left to lift himself to get a breath of air, and then falls again and suffocates. It is not the pain that kills. Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as the tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against the rough timber. Such was the nature of love’s agony for you and me. 1 John 4:10 - And this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the PAYMENT for our sin. Love’s agony in the separation from the Father ( Mark 15:33-39) Here we enter the unimaginable. Here Jesus agonized way beyond the physical pain and the emotional hurt and the whole torturous process. Here Jesus faced the ultimate horror. He was, for these seemingly endless moments, actually separated from His heavenly Father. In the climactic scene of His final minutes of life, Jesus takes on himself the full, unmediated weight of the sin of all of humankind, from Adam to Antichrist, and becomes the complete satisfactory payment for it all. This is why He cries out MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME? This is what killed Him. Again from 1 Peter 2:24 - He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. Conclusion At the close of the Civil War, General John B. Gordon ran for the Senate in the state of Georgia. At that time legislatures elected the senators. A former comrade of the General’s, who disliked him intensely, was a member of the Georgia state legislature. this man planned to vote against the General. When the day came for the roll call vote, the General sat on the platform watching. When the man who hated him rose to cast his oral vote, history tells us he stopped and stared at General Gordon’s face. There was an ugly scar on the General’s face, a war wound and a testimony to his devotion and suffering during the war. The legislator choked back tears and those near him were the only ones who could hear him murmuring, “I can’t vote against him; I’d forgotten the scar.” This message has been a graphic and difficult one to hear. But I believe that we need to be reminded of the scars Jesus endured--scars He bore even after His resurrection. They are a reminder to us of Love’s Agony in our behalf. Many look at the cross and the idea of Christ’s death being a “substitutionary atonement” for our sins as being ridiculous. A lot of people will say, “How can you call him a Savior who suffered and died? He lost!” In 1894 Ghandi wrote in his autobiography, “I could accept Jesus as a martyr. His death on the cross was certainly a good example. But that there was anything else to his suffering, mysterious or miraculous, this my heart can never accept.” At the turn of the century, a famous German philosopher named Friedrich Nietzsche, dismissed the suffering of Jesus, calling the whole idea of God on a cross “preposterous”. More recently, an Oxford scholar named Alfred Ayer wrote a paper evaluating world religions, and he called Christianity “the worst of all because it rests on the idea of a suffering Savior and a substitutionary atonement, which is intellectually contemptible and morally outrageous.” This is exactly what the Bible says people will think. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate....We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called...Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. What about you? Will you be wise or will you be foolish? Will you choose to accept the payment Christ has made for your sins, or will you reject it because it seems foolish? Look at His scars and cast your vote. Consider the love of God for you and decide if you will live for Him. As for me, love’s agony in the suffering and death of Jesus has won my heart and I’ve committed my life to serving Him.         [Top]