The Cross

This morning we arrive at the blazing center of Christianity. This morning we are talking about the death of Jesus Christ. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross is the central event in the universe. It was planned before the foundation of the world. All of human history leads up toward it. All of the Old Testament builds the foundation for our understanding of it. All of the New Testament explains it. And in all eternity we will be celebrating it. If you want to understand Christianity, don’t start with our morals, start with the cross.

It is the pulsating heart at the center of Christianity. The reason we gather today is because we have come to understand the cross. The reason we feel joy and thankfulness in our hearts this morning is because of the cross. The reason we preach is because of what happened on the cross. The message that we preach when he gather is centered around the cross. The reason missionaries cross cultures and learn languages is so they can tell new peoples about the cross. The reason thousands of people all over the world are coming to trust in Christ today is because they have come to understand the cross.

The cross of Jesus Christ shapes every aspect of Christianity. We are taught to pattern the way we love one another after the cross. We are to humble ourselves like Jesus upon the cross. We are taught to forgive our enemies as Jesus did on the cross. Husbands are called to love their wives like Jesus who gave his life on the cross. We are called to remember the cross, to walk in the way of the cross, and to boast in the cross.

The event that we’re going to study this morning is the most important event of your life, even though it happened long before you were born. It is the definitive moment for you and me.

The cross is the center of God’s universe, the climax of God’s redemptive story, the expression of God’s heart for sinners, and the subject of heaven’s praises for all eternity.

Friends, I have no trouble saying forcefully this morning: the cross ought to be your greatest passion in life. We each ought to take an intense interest in the cross - as John Stott says, “For whether we like it or not, we are involved. Our sins put him there.” And I don’t only mean talking about it. I mean meditating on it, dwelling on it, pondering it, rejoicing over it. I mean turning it around and examining every angle of it. I mean staring at it until it stuns you again; I mean implanting into the depths of your heart. I mean making the cross the lens through which you see and understand the world.

If there’s anything you’re passionate about studying, learning, and imitating, it is Christ’s cross. We pray that Grace Rancho has cross-centered songs, cross-centered sermons, and that we as a people are living cross-centered lives. There is no true knowledge of God outside the cross; there is no true obedience to God apart from the cross.

Now this morning I’m talking to Christians. And after the sermon we are going to do what Christians have been doing for centuries - we’re going to share the Lord’s Supper together - that sacred meal that brings us back in time and helps us stand before the cross and remember the broken body and shed blood of Christ. But if you’re not a Christian, my prayer is that God would open your eyes to see the glory of the cross, and how, through it, even you can be saved, forgiven, and reconciled to God.

And now in our study of Mark’s gospel we come to the cross. Mark 15:16-41.

Jesus was rejected by men.

If you take this section of Scripture in isolation from the rest of Mark, it may not shock you as much. But when you consider the life of Jesus, isn’t it strange that he dies alone, with nearly everyone around him rejecting him?

From the very beginning of his ministry he was immensely popular. Crowds followed him wherever he went. And he loved them, and he taught them, and he fed them. You remember back in 6:34 he saw the crowd that to him were like sheep without a shepherd, and it says he had compassion on him. He healed the sick, he cast out demons, he gave sight to the blind, he opened the lips of the mute. He taught the true way of salvation, that it’s not through obedience to the law but by repenting of sin and trusting in God’s mercy and grace. How is it that his life came to an end in this way?

Confucius died in his 70s, respected and revered by his many disciples. Guatama the Buddha died being celebrated in his 80s, surrounded by his disciples. Mohammed died in his 60s, in Medina, with his head being held by Aisha, the favorite of his many wives. Socrates, the beloved Greek philosopher, was made to drink Hemlock, and despite the tears and pleadings of his friends and disciples, he drank it and died in bed.

Jesus taught. Jesus had devoted disciples. Jesus healed the sick. Jesus was popular with the crowds. But the way he died is so utterly different from any other major religious leader. He died a reject. In fact, I think that’s one of the main points of our text.

If you go back and consider the text more closely, you’ll notice there’s not much of an emphasis on the physical agony Jesus experienced. In verse 15, we are told that he is scourged. We are not told the the whip used was like a stick with several leather braids, with pieces of metal and bone and rock attached, and that to do this kind of scourging they were force the prisoner to spread out, often tying him to a post, tightening the skin on his back, and then whipping it violently and repeatedly until it not only ripped through the skin but tore up the muscle underneath, and sometimes made it to the bone. Mark skips through some of these details.

We are told in verse 17 these soldiers who had been escorting him through the night “clothed him in a purple cloak” - an imitation of something a king would wear - “and twisting together a crown of thorns they put it on him.” We are not told of how it’s possible the thorns used to create this crown were sharp enough to pierce the skin, and some scholars say the thorns could be up to twelve inches long. It was forced onto his head. It doesn’t go into detail about how that would have torn through skin and scraped up against his skull.

In verse 19 we are told that these guards were “striking his head with a reed.” The reed here would be something like a bamboo staff. It doesn’t give us detail about how this might have given him a concussion, how this could have fractured his cheek bones, or his temple.

And isn’t it incredible how brief is the description of the crucifixion? V 24, “And they crucified him.” V 25 “And it was the third hour” - that’s 9am - “when they crucified him.” It does not go into detail about how those long nails would have been, and pounded through his hands, and the way it would have ripped through tendons. It doesn’t explain the agony of a large stake being driven through both feet; how it would have shattered the bones in his feet. It doesn’t describe the agony of trying to breathe while dangling there – which was how those crucified died - or how the splinters of the cross beam would have chafed against the raw, open sores of his back.

None of those things are the point. What Mark does highlight is the fact that he is utterly rejected by everyone. In verse 16, we are told that the soldiers led him inside the governor’s headquarters and “called together the whole battalion.” As if to say, “Hey everyone, get a load of this!” -Soldiers take delight in beating him up. They dress him up as a mock king, Matthew includes they give him a reed as a mock scepter, and then verse 18, they begin to salute him, “Hail King of the Jews.” These were Romans. This is a game to them. Verse 19, as they’re striking him repeatedly in the head, they’re spitting on him, some of them are bowing down in homage to him. They mocked him. The soldiers rejected him.

Mark then mentions Simon of Cyrene, a traveler. It’s mentioned that Simon is the father of Alexander and Rufus, which probably indicates that Alexander and Rufus were known to the early church. And they head to Golgotha, just outside Jerusalem. Verse 23 says “they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.” This mixture was a natural narcotic that would have numbed the pain, but Jesus refused it - he said he wouldn’t drink again until he entered his Father’s kingdom, and second, he wanted all his senses about him as he faced the cross.

They crucified him. It was a punishment reserved for the lowest of criminals. It was a form of execution devised by the Romans to bring fear into the hearts of those who might dare to defy them. It was a public demonstration. In fact, crucifixion was such a scandalous way to die, not even the pagans thought it was polite to talk about.

They strip him and cast lots to decide who gets his clothing. Verse 27 they put the inscription over his head: “The King of the Jews” - which of course was true, but was intended to be a mockery. You call yourself a king of the jews, here’s what will happen to you. Two other robbers were crucified with him, and Jesus was in the middle. These two men, likely partners with Barabbas in some way, are on either side of Jesus.

So the soldiers had entirely rejected him. Mark wants you also to see the ordinary passerbys reject him. Verse 29, “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!’’

Verse 31, the religious leaders have rejected him. I mean, we already knew that, but here’s what they were saying: “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.”

You might think that’s it, but the end of verse 32 says that even the two robbers who were being crucified with Jesus were reviling him. Although one will repent and look to Jesus in faith before the day is done, at this point these low life criminals feel superior to Jesus - to belittle him.

Mark is making a theological point. There is no category of person who did not reject Jesus. The religious people rejected him. The pagan people rejected him. The common people rejected him. The criminals rejected him. Behold the variety of ways humans can hate God.

And remember, this is coming off the heels of ch 14, in which Judas betrays him, the disciples abandon him, and Peter denies him. At this moment, could there be a more lonely person?

During the difficult COVID months some of the most heartbreaking stories were the ones about loved ones slowly suffering alone in a hospital with no visitors allowed. Jesus died alone. No one to hold his hand, no one to console his spirit, no one to sing him a hymn.

John 1:10 “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”

What we’re seeing in Mark is the pinnacle of human depravity. How horrible is sin! We think that since we weren’t there, we aren’t guilty in the same way these soldiers and priests are. But take a look at James 2:10. “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor.” Why is it that if you fail at one point, you’re guilty of all of it? It’s not because all the sins are the sin, but rather, it’s because fundamentally, all sins are against the same person. Sin is fundamentally against God.

There are many people who don’t think much about how their sins are offensive to God. They call sins “mistakes.” Missteps. A poor choice. We talk of sin the same way we talk about spelling a word wrong or missing a freeway exit. Whoops. But sin is against God. What the soldiers are doing to Jesus is a physical, visible manifestation of what sin is. We have all done this.

We Christians know that we too were guilty of rejecting Jesus. We mocked him. We ignored him. We followed our sinful desires. We chased personal glory, not God’s.

And here we see the gruesome horrors of sin. This is where sin takes us, that the most loving being in the universe could come and visit our world in compassion to accomplish the most self-giving act of love - and we all would summarily reject him!

Friends, this is the nature of all sin. Your sin is a big deal. We all must come to see that our sin is treason against our creator, it is a rejection of the Lord of the universe. We don’t need more religion, we need rescue. We have all turned away from God.

If you’re not a Christian, maybe some of the problems in your life are stemming from the fact that you don’t see your sin as a very big deal. A person might notice a lump on his body but ignore it because it’s small. He doesn’t realize the lump means all his insides are riddled with cancer. Are you willing to admit the presence of sin, but denying its seriousness? If you go on this way, what do you think will happen to you when you die?

He was cursed by God.

What’s happening at the human level is the backdrop for what’s happening at the spiritual level. Because, there’s more than meets the eye here. The mocking and spitting and nails and thorns and ridicule - these things are just the surface of the agony Christ is suffering.

Remember back in 14:36, as Jesus sweated drops of blood, in abject agony, he cried out to his Father, “Remove this cup from me.” What troubled Jesus more than anything was not the physical pain, not the verbal abuse, but the cup that he would drink - the cup of the full fury of God’s wrath against sin. Here, on the cross, Jesus is drinking the cup.

This is the moment that God the Father has imputed the sins of his people onto Jesus, and Jesus suffers for them. Jesus is experiencing the full weight of God’s curse against sin. Isn’t this all exactly what Isaiah predicted in Isaiah 53? “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces.” Verse 4: “Surely he has born our griefs and carried our sorrows.” Verse 5: “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of all us.”

Here, God the Father heaps on Jesus all the sins of all the people through all of time who would ever trust in Jesus. And there, on the cross, Jesus is punished for sins he did not commit - he is punished for our sins. Deuteronomy taught that everyone who was hung on a tree was cursed. And here, Jesus, pinned to the tree, is cursed by God.

Verse 33, the whole sky goes dark. This is a supernatural darkness caused by God. While we ordinarily think of God’s presence as light, the Bible also speaks of God’s presence as darkness, especially in relation to his presence to judge. When God comes to Sinai to bring the law, it’s darkness. When God speaks of his judgment in Isaiah 5, it’s darkness. God’s presence to judge is a gloomy, forboding, terrible, palpable darkness, like smoke. At the cross, God’s wrath and judgment comes to judge the Son of God. It’s as if God will not even let the rays of sunshine warm the naked, cold skin of his Son. In verse 34, Jesus cries out: “Eloi, eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He’s quoted Psalm 22:1, which allows him to both express faith “My God” - and the horror “why have you forsaken me.” He, being treated as a sinner, is experiencing the terrors of hell.

There will come a day that all who reject Jesus Christ will be forsaken by God for all eternity. They will be cast out of his presence. Terror will engulf them, as they plunge into the fiery darkness of eternal despair. Here, Jesus is being plunged into this hellish terror. Jesus wasn’t experiencing the wrath of the Father while in the grave. He was experiencing the wrath while on the cross, while alive, as a living man.

Some think he’s calling Elijah, in verse 35-36, they try to give him something to drink. But then there, in verse 37, “And Jesus uttered a loud cry” - John says he cried out “It is finished!” The payment for sins has been completed. “And he breathed his last.” He died. The eternal Son of God actually died, and Jesus atoned completely for all the sins of his people.

All God’s wrath against the sins of his people was poured out on Jesus, and when Jesus cried out, “It is finished” - he did so because there was no more wrath to pour out.

He made the full payment for our sin. He finished it. What this means is the judgment our sins deserved have been judged already, on the cross. This means that there is “no condemnation” for God’s people. This means that we no longer have a record of our sins that count against us. This means that there is no more enmity between us and God.

In other words, from this day forward, for we God’s people, we can know that any feelings of condemnation are not from God. Any thought that God is punishing us is a lie. Any idea that God has abandoned us is a devilish trick.

Listen, we are sinners. But the Bible teaches that when you trust in Jesus, all your past sins, all your present sins, and all your future sins, are transferred to the cross, punished there, and they are forgiven, and God will not judge you for your sins, because he already judged them on the cross! Jesus died so that you might live.

Look at verse 38, which seems like a random detail: “And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.” There’s some background necessary for understanding this.

This thick, dark curtain was designed to make a clear separation from the Holy of Holies in the temple. The Holy of Holies, where the presence of God dwelled, was off-limits. God was so holy, so perfect, that no sinner could enter there. Even the high priests could only come once a year and with all the right cleansing and sacrificial rituals. The point was to say that You, because of sin, cannot be in the presence of God. Off-limits. You’re filthy. God is pure. You’re not allowed to be in his holy place.

But here, at the death of Christ, the curtain tears from top to bottom? God is tearing down the veil, and now, anyone is welcome to come into the presence of God - how? Because they can be cleansed and purified by the blood of Christ. When you trust in Christ’s death for your sins, your sins are washed away, completely forgiven, and you are so perfectly pure in the eyes of God that you can come boldly into his presence. Read Hebrews 9 to study this further.

What this means is glorious: the door to God is not through your efforts, not through your religion, not through your baptism, not through your performance. Christ is the open, and the door is wide open. God is not hiding behind a locked door. God hasn’t cracked open the door so only a few can see in. With the coming of Christ, and his death, God has swung open the doors to heaven, and says, “Come all sinners, find forgiveness in the blood of my Son! Enter into my presence with glad confidence! Come boldly!” Sinner - the ripped curtain means God has invited you to come!

In 1982, Kevin Tunnel got drunk at a New Year’s eve party, thought he could drive home, and on his way home he lost control, swerved and killed an 18 year old girl, Susan Herzog. He did three years of probation and a year of community service, and Susan’s parents didn’t think it was enough, so they sued him for $1.5 million. Then, surprisingly, parents offered to settle out of court. Instead of asking for the $1.5, they agreed to exactly $936, and one bizarre condition: Kevin had to pay the $936 by sending them a check for $1 made out to the deceased Susan Herzog, every Friday for the next eighteen years—one for every year Susan had been alive.

The penalty seemed like he had been let off easy, but soon the burden of guilt proved too much for Kevin to bear. He tried to present the Herzogs with two boxes of pre-written checks, dated each week through 2001, a year longer than required. The couple refused to accept them.

After seven years of the weekly purgatorial ritual, Kevin began to miss a few payments. The Herzogs promptly dragged him back into court. Giving an account before a judge, a teary Tunell admitted that the agonizing guilt he felt each time he filled in Susan’s name had become unbearable. He couldn’t sleep. He was haunted by his guilt and shame, and every week he was reminded of what he had done.

Some of you are that way. You live in the constant sting of guilt. But do you know what the cross is? Jesus paid it all. Colossians 2:14 Jesus “the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” Rom 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The sins are gone. The guilt is gone. Condemnation is gone. You are welcome to come to God through Jesus. The veil is torn, you have full-access to the Holy of Holies.

Stop living in the constant guilt and shame of past sins. Those sins are paid for. They were already paid for. God has forgiven you. You were not meant to live each day under the weight of condemnation! You are called to be boldly assured, boldly free, confidently joyful!

All because of that cross.

Jesus was recognized by one.

We’ve been noticing the total rejection of Jesus by men; the fact that God cursed Jesus. But verse 39 shows us that one unlikely man recognized who it was that was dying on that cross. “And when the centurion” - a Roman military leader, likely in charge of many of the soldiers who were beating and mocking Jesus - “who stood facing him” - he’s up front and center watching Jesus’ last words, hearing his final cries, “saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God.”

This centurion has certainly seen many crucifixions. He had heard people screaming in agony and cursing their tormentors. He had seen them writhe in pain and agony. The way Jesus died was so utterly different he knew this was no mere man. With his last words, he cried out for the forgiveness of his torturers. He did not retaliate in any way shape or form.

In that moment, the centurion - who was one who had previously rejected Jesus, who was involved in his arrest and beating and scourging - he knew that this man was God’s own son. And right there, an invisible swap took place. All the centurion’s sins were put there on that cross, and judged. And all the perfect righteousness of Christ was transferred to him. All because of the simple look of faith.

There are many of us here who, like this centurion, were at one point rejecters of Jesus. We lived for ourselves, our pleasures, our lusts. And we lived like Kevin Tunnel, in nagging, haunting guilt, in secret shame. And then someone showed us the cross. And the Holy Spirit opened our eyes. And like this centurion, we said, “He’s the Son of God.”

There is an important lesson here. If you want faith, if you want to enhance your love, and trust, and hope in God, stare at the cross of Christ. Study it deeply. Think about it from every angle. As Spurgeon says, “The cross which is the object of faith, is also, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the cause of it. Sit down and watch the dying Savior till faith springs up spontaneous in your heart. There is no place like Calvary for creating confidence. The air of that sacred hill brings health the trembling faith. Many a watcher there has said, ‘While I view Thee, wounded, grieving, Breathless on the cursed tree, Lord I feel my heart believing That Thou suffer’dst thus for me.”

If you're not sure God loves you, if you fear hell, if you want to be a Christian but you’re not sure what to do. Look at the cross, and the cross will grab hold of you.

This is why we sing the cross. This is why we preach the cross. This is why we remind each other about the cross. There should not be a day that we don’t marvel at the cross. Put the cross before you always. Live in its constant shadow. Worship there.