The Cross

The Final Leg

Mark 15:21- 39

I want to start tonight by just recapping where we have been the last three weeks reading a few inserts from a book titled: When God Weeps.

Austin

“By the flicker of oil lamps he looked up from dinner and studied the faces around the room. Twelve familiar expressions. They were his friends, all but one. The miles they had walked together! Yet how could they fathom his thoughts tonight? Can the child ever really understand his father? Solomon was right: “Each heart knows it's own bitterness.” These were the ones he had come for—natives of this sad planet who had never tasted what had delighted him in that other Place—so slow to learn—so dull in the most urgent of matters—always scrapping about who deserved top honors in a coming world they couldn’t possibly grasp. But he loved them. Very deliberately he broke the loaf, keeping his composure as he watched the crumbs fall. The wine ran down his throat as the true wine began to run cold in his veins. Divinity in a human body ate and drank with his friends. He sensed that familiar presence he had met in the wilderness—the time was close. Judas stood to leave; their eyes met. Do it quickly. The presence that had awaited outside in the dark now stole invisibly into Judas’s very essence. For the next few hours, the most distilled evil in the universe would personally operate through the body of a disciple of Jesus. The Master spoke quietly to them a final time, they sang a psalm, and it was time to go.”

The first night of the series we talked about the passover meal.

This tradition that was part and is still part of the Jewish culture even to today was a remembrance of how the Israelites left Egypt and not just let but were free, they remembered how God freed them from slavery and brought them from Egypt.

Jesus stood up durning tradition and He would begin to change everything, by saying this is my body which will be given for you and this is my blood which is spilled for you, do this as often as you eat and drink in remembrance of me.

Then they left, for it was time to go.

Natalie

“Out into the darkness they slipped. Through a city gate, down the steep ravine, up into the hill of olive trees. Eleven lambs and a shepherd in the night. What would become of these friends, his only earthly support in this hour? Satan already had the twelfth one, the absent one, by the throat—soon he’d be swinging under a tree limb, gasping and white, facing much worse after his breathing stopped. One of the eleven would soon race terrified into the shadows, stark naked in his haste, scraping his shins, bloodying his soul. All of them would turn tail, near-wetting themselves with fear, shrinking into corners. The loud, friendly fisherman was being invisibly outwitted even now—being set up for a special roughing-up tonight. Clueless, he had just bragged of the noble deeds he would surely rise too. But before morning he would slice off a man’s ear, intending far more—he would say unerasable things to a servant girl by an open fire, he would shiver at a rooster’s call, and would consider, through his sobbing, whether to find a tree like Judas did. Prophecy fulfilled was at the doorstep: “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered” (Zechariah 13:7). They reached the olive press. Would his three closest friends mind coming just a little further to pray a stone’s throw away? Three of the gospel writers would later tell of Jesus’ foreboding just then—about his warning the disciples to pray for inward strength against the tempter—prayers for their sakes. But Matthew noticed and would one day record a particular phrase that the others didn’t. “My soul is ready to die with sorrow,” the Shepherd had said. “Wait here and stay awake with me” (Matthew 26:38). Stay awake “with me.” For the only time in his life the Shepherd was asking for something from them. He wanted human comfort that night. But somebody’s yawn tipped the first domino, and in no time everyone’s prayers had degenerated into dreams. Now, the Son of God dropped to the dirt in an olive grove and vomited in his soul at the prospect before him. Eleven men who would later change world history—some, accustomed to working all night on their fishing boats—could not keep awake for the scene. Yet sixty feet away their eternal destinies were being fought over. Except for the heaving of those shoulders that bore the weight of the world, nothing could be seen in that shadowy spot where the Son of God groaned. But the bleachers of heaven filled to capacity that night—and hell strained its neck to see how the spectacle in that lonely acre would end. The Father gazed down and gave his sober nod. The Son stared back, and bowed his acceptance. A fine of men and torches snaked down from the city, through the blackness, toward the garden. God in the flesh saw them coming through tear-blurred eyes that refused to blink. “It’s time to get up,” he quietly told the eleven. The torches arrived. The sheep fled. The shepherd stood. The hurricane struck.”

We then covered the garden, when Jesus was praying to God that because God can do all things to allow this cup to pass from him but not Jesus’ will to be done but God’s will be done.

Jesus would ask his friends to stay awake with him and he asked them to pray and not fall into temptation.

As Jesus was sweating blood he was nervous and stressed out as the betrayer Judas would come with a large crowd to take Jesus away:

Jesus would then be arrested and taking through trials:

John

“Who can describe the whirlwind of the succeeding hours? Could so many lies really be told at a single trial? Could so much sin be poured into one court room? The drowning ones he had come to rescue screamed that he be thrown from the lifeboat. God had claimed to be God—what could be worse! God had kept his sworn promise to send a Messiah—how ridiculous! In the wee hours of that morning, Sodom and Gomorrah came to look virginal next to Jerusalem. Later, in the brighter light of day and to the background of a pressing crowd screaming insanities, Pilate washed away centuries of Roman justice in his finger bowl. The Savior was now thrown to men quite different from the eleven. The face that Moses had begged to see—was forbidden to see—was slapped bloody (Exodus 33:19-20).The thorns that God had sent to curse the earth’s rebellion now twisted around his own brow. His back, buttocks, and the rear of his legs felt the whip—soon they looked like the plowed Judean fields outside the city. “On with the blindfold!” someone shouts. “That’s it—now spin him. Who hit you? Heh, heh.” By the time the spitting is through, more saliva is on him than in him. No longer can he be recognized. “Cut him down from the post!

Jesus went through the trials and he was innocent but yet the crowd did not see it that way as they would shout CRUCIFY HIM CRUCIFY HIM, Jesus would go and be whipped with a device called the cat of nine tails that would have pieces of bones and metal, where the purpose of the this device was to grip and rip flesh right off the bone.

Jesus would endure 39 lashes with this cat of nine tails.

As Jesus was then given up to the Jewish leaders to be crucified, we pick up the story, and the last leg in our journey.

“Send him toting his crossbar to the playground.”

Up Skull Hill to the welcome of other poorly paid legionnaires enjoying themselves.

“On your back with you!”

One raises a mallet to sink in the spike.

But the soldier’s heart must continue pumping as he readies the prisoner’s wrist.

Someone must sustain the soldier’s life minute by minute, for no man has this power on his own.

Who supplies breath to his lungs?

Who gives energy to his cells?

Who holds his molecules together?

Only by the Son do “all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17).

The victim wills that the soldier live on—he grants the warrior’s continued existence.

The man swings.

As the man swings, the Son recalls how he and the Father first designed the medial nerve of the human forearm—the sensations it would be capable of. The design proves flawless—the nerve performs exquisitely.

“Up you go!” They lift the cross.

God is on display in his underwear, and can scarcely breathe.

But these pains are a mere warm-up to his other and growing dread. He begins to feel a foreign sensation.

Somewhere during this day an unearthly foul odor began to waft, not around his nose, but his heart.

He feels dirty.

Human wickedness starts to crawl upon his spotless being—the living excrement from our souls.

The apple of his Father’s eye turns brown with rot. His Father! He must face his Father like this!

Now from heaven the Father now rouses himself like a Lion disturbed, shakes his mane, and roars against the shriveling remnant of a man hanging on a cross.

Never has the Son seen the Father look at him so, never felt even the least of his hot breath.

But the roar shakes the unseen world and darkens the visible sky.

The Son does not recognize these eyes.

“Son of Man! Why have you behaved so?

You have cheated, lusted, stolen, gossiped—murdered, envied, hated.

You have cursed, robbed, overspent, overeaten—fornicated, disobeyed, embezzled, and blasphemed.

Oh, the duties you have shirked, the children you have abandoned!

Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled my name?

Have you ever held your razor tongue?

What a self-righteous, pitiful drunk—you, peddle killer drugs, travel in cliques, and mock your parents.

Who gave you the boldness to rig elections, foment revolutions, torture animals, and worship demons?

Does the list never end! Splitting families, acting smugly,—buying politicians, practicing extortion, accepting bribes.

You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorist tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves—relishing each morsel and bragging about it all.

I hate, I loathe these things in you! Disgust for everything about you consumes me!

Can you not feel my wrath?”

Of course the Son is innocent. He is blamelessness itself.

The Father knows this.

But the divine pair have an agreement, and the unthinkable must now take place.

Jesus will be treated as if personally responsible for every sin ever committed.

The Father watches as his heart’s treasure, the mirror-image of himself, sinks drowning into raw, liquid sin.

Jehovah’s stored rage against humankind from every century explodes in a single direction.

“Father! Father! Why have you forsaken me?!”

But heaven stops its ears.

The Son stares up at the One who cannot, who will not, reach down or reply.

The Trinity had planned it.

The Son endured it.

The Spirit enabled him.

The Father rejected the Son whom he loved. Jesus, the God-man from Nazareth, perished.

The Father accepted his sacrifice for sin and was satisfied.

The Rescue was accomplished.

God set down as it was finished.

We are going to be in Mark 15:21-39 if you have your bibles or it will also be on the screen.

In this journey we have been on we have learned a lot about Jesus and tonight is no different.

Tonight we are going to learn three things about Jesus and the first is Jesus was broken.

Jesus was broken (Mark 15:21-25)

Mark 15:21–25 ESV

And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. And it was the third hour when they crucified him.

As we begin we are comforted with this man name Simon and it was wonder why he was grabbed from the crowd and help Jesus with the cross.

It is important to keep in mind how miserable Jesus probably was at this point, Jesus had to be at the point of physical exhaustion.

He may have been slowing the group as it was important that no one would remain on the cross until the next day.

They grabbed the man and just had him help Jesus with the cross.

Simon is never mentioned again, his role was brief and that was it.

The Roman soldiers led Jesus to Golgotha which was a place that was designated for death.

Hundreds of times this place was visited, and hundreds of time people were crucified here.

Jesus was led here for the purpose of death.

However, what happened on the cross was much more impactful.

Once they got to the place of the skull, it was normal for the person about to be crucified to be offered wine mixed with myrrh, this was a mixture that would dull the pain for what was about to occur.

Jesus does not take it.

Jesus had to endure every degree of human suffering; body, mind and spirit.

So they were on the hill of Golgotha.

Jesus had already been beating too where he was unrecognizable, whipped with a cat of nine tails, that had pieces of bone, glass, and metal in it, and made to carry a 200 lbs. cross that is what he would be put on.

They got to the place and they put him on the cross and what does verse 24 say;

They crucified him.

The process of the crucifixion was terrible; I do not think anyone would deny that.

The person would be stripped down to nothing.

The person would be tied to the crossbeam of the cross or they would put nails through your hands and feet to hold you up on the cross.

They would put the nails right under the two bones in your forearm to make sure that they would not fall down.

We get the word excruciating from crucifixion.

At the foot where the Son of God was being killed the guards threw lots, they gambled for Christ clothes. It was customary for the clothes of the one being executed to be given over to their execution squad.

They would fulfill a prophecy made in psalms chapter 22:18,

Psalm 22:18 ESV

they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

When the guards crucified Jesus it was 9 in the morning. That is what it means by the third hour.

Application:

There is no doubt that Jesus was not broken at this point, not physically broken but mentally, I mean this was his creation, these people he created, and here they are doing unspeakable things to Jesus.

Jesus has to be tired, hungry, hurting, just exhausted, you now know why Jesus was pleading with God that if it was possible to let this cup pass from him. It was terrible.

But Jesus was still willing.

No matter the broken state of Jesus he was still will to go to the cross and die a death we deserved.

Can we say the same thing if we find ourselves in a broken state, where we are tired of people picking on us, are we hungry, are we exhausted, are we hurting?

When we have our faith challenged and we are asked to deny Jesus how quickly do we turn away?

Do we get broken first? Is after we are worn down?

You see Jesus never once gave up on us, we willingly accepted his fate and willingly gave himself up.

Even though Jesus was broken he still went and the second thing we learn is Jesus was Humiliated.

Jesus was Humiliated (Mark 15:26-32)

Mark 15:26–32 ESV

And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.

Explain

The point of the cross was to completely humiliate you as you died. For the guards to put a sign up that says here is Jesus king of the Jews.

It was mocking Jesus.

To add insult to Jesus the Romans crucified two others that day.

One on Jesus’ right and one on his left.

Two strangers, two thieves. No relation to the two men.

All three brought together to die.

The place on Jesus’ right and left was a hot button for the disciples during Christ ministry.

James and John actually fought over who would sit where.

At the time when Christ needed them where were the disciples?

The disciples told Jesus that they would rather die than leave him, however, they ran and they did not come back.

Jesus would have two thieves on his side.

The point of the crucifixion was to break the individual to where death on the cross was a gift, they would be publicly embarrassed.

As people passed by they would look up and shout things like;

Come on down!

If you really are God, then you can save yourself!

What are you waiting for!

Save yourself!

Not only were people mocking him on the ground but also one of the thieves was also mocking him. In Luke it gives an account of the two thieves, how one rejected Jesus and the other believed in Jesus.

Application

Im sure we can all think of time where we have been humiliated before, it stinks right, people mock us they point and laugh, no good at all, and I am sure we have all been there.

Now here is Jesus, being mocked openly put on display for everyone to see and people saw and they mocked him.

Jesus knew full well what he was doing, giving up his life for those people down there.

Jesus knows exactly what it feels like to be mocked, rejected, broken. The next time you don’t think that He cant relate to you, I would think again, because I think Jesus is the only one who can truly relate to all us on any level.

Jesus was Broken, humiliated and yet Jesus gave up his life.

Jesus gave up His life (Mark 15:33-39)

Mark 15:33–39 ESV

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 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?” And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

Explain

While the form of death was the cross. We have to keep in mind that many people died on a cross.

Jesus was not the only person to have been beaten and then taken to be crucified.

If the story ended with Jesus to going to the cross and the next past of these passage never happened, then Jesus would have died a similar death like most other criminals in Jerusalem at that time.

BUT here was something different.

Mark 15:33 ESV

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

The whole land of Jerusalem was in darkness. It was noon on that day, and it was totally dark outside.

The land was in darkness.

During this time the wrath of God was being poured on to Christ.

The full wrath of God was on the son.

Jesus going to the cross, being held up on that wooden cross, would began to feel the weight of the worlds sin on him.

A man who lived a perfect life, a perfect spotless lamb would take on the sin of the whole world past, present and future.

Without a word of complaint…. The wrath of God, God’s hatred for sin is great, Sacrifices were made to God but would not last.

Jesus standing before the Father receives the wrath of God.

When the wrathful gazed eyes of God lifted, God saw a broken man, that was dirty, foul, dreadful, sinful, God saw his perfect son alone, dirty and God could not stand the sight of him.

Jesus calls out

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Then gives up his spirit. Did you hear that!!!

HE GAVE UP HIS SPIRIT.

It is important to know that Jesus’ life was never taken from him, but it was given up freely.

In other accounts of the gospel it reads that he cries out IT IS FINISHED and then breaths his last and he is gone.

In that moment the veil which had been a tool to separate the holy place to the Most holy place, the temple, where God would make his presence known.

It was the place where sacrifices were done.

The nasty animal sacrifices that were done for hundreds and thousands of years would be no more.

The tearing of the veil showed that there was no more separation from God and his people.

We are now able to not only have our sins paid for but we can come to God freely.

Jesus freed us not only from the law of Moses time but also from the whole sacrificial system.

While many would have mocked Christ the Roman Centurion saw that Jesus breathed his last, the centurion realized that He made a mistake and that Jesus truly was who is he said he was; The Son of God.

Application

I can honestly say that I never thought about the sins that Jesus died for.

The sin of lust, hatred, disobedience, drunkenness and so much more.

Christ gave it up for us.

Christ stood and received the full force of God’s wrath that we deserved.

We have need to realize that our sin separated us from God, and it was God who put Jesus on the cross so that we could have a relationship with Him, an open and free relationship.

Jesus offers us hope.

The hope is found in Jesus. Our hope is in Jesus.

I pray that we get this part, why Jesus had to go to the cross and realize that, our sin was death, but since Christ died for our sin and when we acknowledge that we are sinners and repent of those sins, believe that Jesus was perfect, He died for the sins of the world and he is coming again, and surrender to Christ that He will be Lordship of our life, we can then share in the Hope that Christ promises.

If you have not made that commitment today don’t wait.

Pray