4.10.2022 - The King Is Crucified

April 10, 2022 - The King Is Crucified Good morning. Great to see you all here in person, and welcome to those of you joining us online. Over the past month or so, we've been looking at the latter part of the Gospel of Mark, in this series called, The King's Journey to the Cross. Today, we hit the climax of that journey... Jesus being crucified. Over the past 2000 years, the cross has been a central symbol of Christian hope. We have crosses in our churches, like the one behind me. We wear crosses as jewelry, or on our clothing. That can seem normal to us - but we may not realize the original, jarring nature of the cross as a "Christian logo." Long before the cross was a religious symbol, it was the ultimate symbol of Roman power. Through the cross, the Romans declared, "We are in charge here and this is what happens to people that get in our way." They had crucified thousands of rebel Jews during the days when Jesus was a boy, growing up in Galilee. And they would crucify thousands more, decades later - in the conquest of Jerusalem in 70 AD. In-between those two significant events, they crucified many others - for a variety of reasons, often with little pre-text. ● The Roman Empire boasted of bringing justice and peace to the world. But the truth is, they systematically cut down any threats to their accumulated power, often by ruthless methods... including crucifying those that opposed them. And yet, somehow, the cross - this tool of extreme brutality - became a central symbol of Christian hope. How did that happen? There are numerous ways you could answer that question...here's the one we're going to focus on this morning: ● At the cross, we see the intersection of human brokenness and divine sovereignty. (Repeat) As we're going to read about in a few moments: horrific things were done to an innocent man... and still somehow that worked towards God's plan of rescuing us and beginning to set the world right again. Listen to how theologian NT Wright describes this dynamic. ● "The way in which Jesus defeated evil was consistent with the deeply subversive nature of his own kingdom announcement. He defeated evil by letting it do its worst to him." That's what we're going to see in today's passage: There were awful, broken responses to Jesus and terrible things were done to him BUT in the midst of all that - God's redemptive plan was accomplished. Go ahead and pick up a Bible... if you're here in person, you can grab one from under the chairs and turn to page 695. If you're online or prefer to use your favorite electronic device... scroll over to Mark 15. While you're finding that - let me catch you up on where we are in the Holy Week Narrative. ● It's the eve of the Passover - the most prominent of the Jewish festivals. ● Jesus gathered his closest friends, eating what we call the Last Supper. ● After that meal, Jesus / the disciples went to the garden of Gethsemane to pray. It was there that Judas betrayed Jesus and Jesus was arrested. ● Pick up in Mark 15... starting in verse 1. Mark 15:1-5 - Page 695 1 Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate. 2 "Are you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate."You have said so,"Jesus replied. 3 The chief priests accused him of many things. 4 So again Pilate asked him, "Aren't you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of." 5 But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed. (Stop there for now) Throughout his gospel, Mark pushes the question: Is Jesus the King? And then he details how people responded to Jesus. Here's how that comes up in Ch. 15: Pilate didn't care about the religious qualms that the chief priests had regarding Jesus... but he did want to consider if Jesus was a threat to Roman power. The gospel of Luke goes into more detail, describing how the chief priests accused Jesus of undercutting the Romans, opposing paying taxes to Caesar and claiming to be the Messiah - in other words... claiming to be a king. ● It's in that context, in verse 2 that Pilate asks Jesus "Are you the king of the Jews?" (You have said so, Jesus replied) Pilate is wondering: Are you a political leader? And are you a threat to me? Jesus doesn't give a denial or affirmation to Pilate's question. Or you could say, Jesus gives BOTH a denial & an affirmation in replying: "You have said so" ● It's much like the answer he gave in Mark 12... when he was asked, "Jesus - should we pay taxes to Caesar?" How did Jesus answer? (PAUSE - Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what is God's) When Pilate asked "Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus could have said... "No - I'm not a political leader. I'm just a spiritual person, bringing peace, joy, love and happiness to humanity." But he doesn't say that. ● Likewise, Jesus also doesn't claim to be a political leader in the mold that Pilate was expecting. Jesus was absolutely challenging the power of Rome, but he was doing it in the most subversive way possible. And that's one of the reasons why, as verse 5 states, "Pilate was amazed." ● Jesus didn't fit into the box Pilate had for leaders. ● Jesus had tremendous power and authority, but his leadership came from a place outside any human-made category. Here's a question to consider: How do you tend to put Jesus in a box? We all do this at times... where we try to shape Jesus into a mold of our own making. How do you do that? Here are two biggies I see in our society today: ● It's easy for us to approach Jesus like a spiritual advisor... akin to a self-help author or inspirational speaker. We read and we listen; we adopt tidbits we like from them, and discard what we don't like. ● Here's another one - we try to leverage Jesus in hopes of achieving personal, political or cultural gains. ○ But - Jesus is not going to be stuffed into a box like either of those. ○ He is a king, but he's unlike any other king we've seen. (Pause) Let's continue in the passage (Page 696) and explore some of the responses people had to Jesus. As Pilate talked with Jesus, he knew that Jesus hadn't done anything wrong. Jesus hadn't been leading a revolt or stirring up dissension. But Pilate found himself in a bind. ● If he just let Jesus go, a riot was going to ensue. But he didn't want to condemn Jesus without cause. Mark 15 describes that there was a way out of that bind: at the Passover festival, a prisoner could be released by the people's request. Pick up in verse 6: 6 Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. 7 A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. 8 The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. 9 "Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate, 10 knowing it was out of self-interest (literally - out of malevolent envy) that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. ● Pause there for a moment... can you get this scene in your mind? ● The crowd cried out for the release of Barabbas - an insurrectionist that had committed murder. That's how verse 7 describes him. ● Barabbas was the quintessential Jewish zealot... someone that was determined to usher in a version of God's kingdom by defeating Roman power by Roman means... repaying pagan violence with holy violence. In asking for Barabbas' release... the deep-seeded self-interest of the religious leaders and the culpability of the crowds was made evident. (Pause) Continuing.. V.12... Pilate asked them: "What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?" "Crucify him!" they shouted. Let that sink in. When Jesus showed up, preaching about and demonstrating the goodness of God's kingdom... he was rejected. ● This is the first of several Broken responses to Jesus we see in Mark 15 ○ The crowd rejected Jesus ○ The crowd rejected Jesus and they wielded the power of Rome against him, crying out: CRUCIFY HIM This theme of rejection appears in numerous places in the gospels... The gospel of John describes that "Jesus came to his own, and his own did not receive him." That's in John 1. In John 6, after Jesus spoke about what it means to be his disciple, the people replied: "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" And it goes on to say that "many turned back and no longer followed him." Here's another example of this theme of rejection... written in the book of Isaiah, hundreds of years before Jesus was born. When Isaiah got a prophetic glimpse of the future Messiah... this is what he wrote: Isaiah 53:3-6. 3 He was despised and rejected - a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. 4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. (SLOW) Isaiah 53 would be a great passage to reflect on this week. It's the Old Testament foreshadowing of what we see fulfilled in Mark's gospel As Isaiah prophesied: Jesus was despised and rejected. He was mistreated and misunderstood. Yet that rejection became the way for us to be restored to God. Back to Mark 15, Verse 14. "Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!" 15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. ● Pilate asks: What crime has Jesus committed? What has he done? They don't even answer Pilate's question. It's a way of saying... Jesus may be innocent, but we want him dead. It's a substitution. ● Here's the innocent. Here's the guilty. Switch them. Substitute them. ● Put the innocent where the guilty should be and put the guilty where the innocent should be. How much more clear could Mark's gospel be... to describe what Jesus' death is all about? Jesus was willing to take our place. He took our sins upon himself. He took our evil upon himself & took our punishment. He died, that we might live. Friends, the story of Mark 15 is also our story. Maybe we haven't rejected Jesus in as dramatic fashion as the crowds, but as Isaiah 53 says: All of us have strayed away. We have all left God's path to follow our own. And yet, God has laid on him (Jesus) the sins of us all. This is so important for us to take in, and it can speak to so many situations. ● For a number of you... you are familiar with your brokenness. You know that you've missed it and messed up... and maybe you wonder: could there be grace for me? Yes, there is grace for you! ● For others... your first reaction could be some resistance. You might think: I'm a pretty good person. (pause) But...how good is good enough? If all the things you've done and said could be flashed up here on the screen... Do you just hope that the good things outnumber the bad? ○ What do you do with the things you regret, the hurt you've caused others, or the ways that you've strayed??? All of us need a substitute. All of us need to be forgiven. And all of us can experience God's amazing grace through Christ. Okay... let's continue to verses 16-20 16 The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. 17 They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. 18 And they began to call out to him, "Hail, king of the Jews!" 19 Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him. This section details the 2nd broken response: The soldiers mocked Jesus As I've been preparing this message, these verses are the ones that I've come back to over and over. I haven't been able to shake the contrast between what Jesus deserves, and the way soldiers treated him. Their mocking was relentless. ● In ridicule, they took symbols of royalty and placed them on Jesus. ● They called out "Hail, king of the Jews." as a joke and an insult. Then we get to verse 19, which reads this way in the New Living Translation: "The soldiers struck Jesus on the head with a reed stick, spit on him and dropped to their knees in mock worship." ● Jesus, the one worthy of ALL worship, was repeatedly humiliated by the soldiers. And items that could have been expressions of honor were instead used as expressions of mockery. Two thoughts have stuck with me as I've kept pouring over these few verses. The first is this: We were created to worship ● You might think I'm only referring to the music we sing at a church service. But, worship is so much more than that. We have been created with the capacity for awe and wonder, to appreciate beauty and pleasure. Those transcendent experiences point to this truth... we were made to worship. And whatever we give our hearts to, has amazing power in our lives. ○ The word worship means to ascribe worth... literally worth-ship. ○ We are saying with our mouths and with our lives: these things have value. This is what is important. ● As people created in God's image... we have been infused with immeasurable worth. AND we have been created to offer that worth back to something / someone beyond ourselves. There is tremendous potency to this reality in our lives. We have the potential to unlock amazing goodness by what we worship, or we have the ability to do significant harm. ● Isn't that what we see with the soldiers here in Mark 15? They worshiped Roman power and relished their ability to abuse others. Sad, but true. ● Now our misplaced worship is probably not that extreme, but we still need to choose: what will capture our affections and who has our allegiance? That leads me to the 2nd thought I've had this week: Don't waste your worship! ● I sometimes find it helpful to think about daily choices being like currency. My life has tremendous value, and I get to choose how I spend it. ● And just like I don't want to waste money - I don't want to waste my life. Another way to say that is... "I don't want to waste my worship. Some days, if I'm honest... I can mis-spend my life in people-pleasing; I can misplace what is important by grasping onto earthly security; I can let challenges I am facing become bigger than the God that I serve. Or in the midst of fatigue and hurt, I can drift towards being detached. ● And, so I regularly have to come back to the place of saying: Jesus, you are the only one ultimately worthy of my worship. Your priorities, your way of life... I want those to matter most to me. Help me Lord! For you: what do you worship? What do you ascribe worth to? ● This week you may want to reflect on how you spend your time/energy ● What do you think and dream about? What do you shell out money for? Even pay attention to what you tend to get offended by / trips you up. ○ All of those can be signals to what is important to you. Your life has immeasurable value. Choose wisely. Don't waste your worship. Okay... let's read the last section of Mark for today: (15:21-33) 21 A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. 22 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means "the place of the skull"). 23 Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get. 25 It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. 26 The written notice of the charge against him read: the king of the jews. 27 They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. [28] 29 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, 30 come down from the cross and save yourself!" 31 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! 32 Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him. 33 At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. In this section, we see a 3rd broken response to Jesus in this passage: ● The chief priests and bystanders taunted Jesus. And again, this was pretty intense. They hurled insults at Jesus & ridiculed him. ● In particular, their taunts were focused on Jesus' power. To them, to see Jesus on the cross was proof that he was a powerless leader. ● V. 31 - "He saved others, but he can't save himself. ● V. 32 - "Prove yourself.. Come down from the cross that we may believe!" They couldn't grasp how different Jesus' authority was from what they saw in worldly powers. They expected a leader to rise up to defeat evil. Jesus' way was exactly the opposite. He laid his life down. Here's how Jesus described this contrast in Mark 10:45. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45 The way Jesus exerted his power seemed upside-down to the people of his day. And it can seem upside-down to us. We can want a leader, a rescuer, that takes on evil and walks out unscathed. ● Jesus' way was different. He defeated evil by letting it do its worst to him. ● He was rejected and mocked and ridiculed. He yielded to being falsely accused, condemned and executed on a Roman cross. And, yet, through all that, God's redemptive plan was accomplished. (God's redemptive plan was accomplished) Let me touch on two items now and then we'll talk more about this at our Good Friday service. The first is this: ● Jesus is the way to come home and back into God's presence ○ In v.37-38 we read: With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. A few verses earlier, the bystanders taunted... Jesus, weren't you the one that said you'd destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days? ● That actually was something that Jesus said, but they had no idea what he meant by that statement. Instead of the physical temple...Jesus was referring to himself. His very life was going to be destroyed, but it was going to be restored on the 3rd day. ○ That's what we're going to celebrate next week at Easter! ● But starting with his death, Jesus was opening up a way back into God's presence. The writer of Hebrews goes into even more details about what was taking place at the moment of Jesus' death. Hebrews 10:19-22 19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God's house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. ● Reference our staff meeting prayer time ○ Boldly approaching God ○ Jesus unlocking, ripping open a new and life-giving way ○ "Let us go right in" - level of relationship needed to just walk into someone's house. ○ That's what we have with Jesus. His death makes that possible. One last item as we prepare for ministry time. ● We get to choose how we respond (Look at verse 39) ○ When the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!" So many characters in today's passage missed who Jesus was: ● The chief priests and religious leaders didn't see it ● The crowds and bystanders missed it ● Pilate couldn't understand it ● And the soldiers used what was true about Jesus against him. For all we know, this centurion, this Roman military officer, could have been a part of the abuse unleashed on Jesus. At the very least - he was likely observing and overseeing those under his charge. ● But in the end, the centurion is the one that gets it. ● He is the one who sees Jesus for who Jesus really is: someone with power and authority that go beyond this world. The one true king. This one verse encapsulates so much of what the Gospel of Mark is all about. Chapter after chapter, Mark has been presenting Jesus as the king with a kingdom and challenging us to respond. ● May we have the wisdom to see, and the courage to confess... ○ This man truly was the son of God. Talk about ministry time response while they are still sitting... ● Jesus, I want you to see you for who you really are, instead of shaping you into something of my own making. ○ Some: 1st time confession ○ Others: you need to quit trying to put Jesus into a box he doesn't fit ● I want to boldly come before God ○ Simple... I want to know your presence, experience you ○ Could be a need that you have... Hebrews 4 also talks about boldness... "Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most." ● I want wisdom on how to spend my life ● Could be facing a major decision ● Could need to make some adjustments... where you know you've been focusing on lesser things & you don't want to do that anymore ● Could be any number of things that are on your mind today. A relationship that is strained, something going on in your body or something in your heart that you are longing to receive healing for. Have them stand... into prayer: "You are my king" lyrics? He is worthy of it all...