Will the Real Jesus Please Be Crucified?
Mark 15:21-32
Martin Luther King
Jr. à The ultimate measure of a man is not
where he stands in
moments of comfort and convenience, but where
he stands at times
of challenges and controversy.
-no one in history, not even MLK, faced
anything like Jesus
If you’ve been around for any of the last 20 months, you won’t be too
shocked by what happens on this day—not only because Jesus
predicted it, but also because what we’ll see and hear from Him is
how He’s lived His entire life on earth—only now, because of the
gruesome, violent circumstances—it’s intensified
-it’s like placing Jesus under a microscope...the real Jesus is
revealed...there will no longer be any remaining doubt about His
character or His identity...not after this
-and on this day we not only see who Jesus is, but also how He
wants us, His followers, to live...and to die
Who is the real
Jesus? What is He like?
-we find out as we listen to His words from the cross taken from all
four Gospels
The real Jesus forgives
Luke tells us as they crucify Him, Jesus prays, Father, forgive them
for they do not know
what they are doing. (Luke 23:33-34)
-it would be no stretch, then, to imagine Jesus’ words of incredible
forgiveness are spoken just as the nails are being driven into His
flesh...through His muscles, tendons, ligaments, and nerves
--and the professional Roman executioners must be stunned by
what they are hearing
---I wonder if they pause for a moment and actually let that
sink in...or if they quickly go about their business, eager to
get as far away from Him as possible
Now we hear the same One who had looked Judas in the eyes and
called him, "Friend" now speak words of forgiveness for the soldiers
-we cannot forgive sin like God, of course, but we can forgive
others when they hurt us
-forgiveness is one of the basic traits of a
follower of Jesus
--but
how often do we put limits or conditions on our forgiveness?
---“I
could forgive her for that, maybe, but this is over the line.”
---“I'll forgive him if—and only if—he makes
a public apology.”
-but forgiveness flows from Jesus just as freely as the blood flows
from His head, His hands, and His feet
--you could even say Jesus bleeds forgiveness...and you’d be
right because that's precisely what forgiveness costs
Is there someone you need to forgive?
-remember, our
forgiveness pales in light of Christ's
--and how, exactly, can we call ourselves
followers if we refuse?
Is there someone you need to go to and ask for forgiveness?
-maybe God, family
member, former friend, someone in this room
The real Jesus saves
Also from Luke 23, Jesus promises salvation to the man hanging on
the cross next to Jesus
-you might recall that one of the criminals ridicules Jesus, but this
other one confesses his sin and his need for a Savior
--to this
one, Jesus says, Today you will be with me in
On the surface, Jesus' promise doesn't carry much assurance
-seriously—how could a wandering rabbi from
a claim...much less make good on it?
--even more, how much comfort could those words have
considering they are coming from a condemned man hanging
on a cross?
-the reality is this: it’s because Jesus is on the cross, not despite
the fact He's on the cross, that enables Him to make that
guarantee and empowers Him to carry it out
That's exactly where we have to meet Jesus—where the criminal did
-we have to accept
the fact of a crucified King, a suffering Savior
--too often we tend to skip Good Friday and
run right to Easter
---but the Resurrection is nonsense without
the cross
-and it's here at the foot of the cross where so many seekers turn
around and walk away rejecting
--not
rejected...rejecting
--remember, in 1 Corinthians 1, Paul calls the idea of a crucified
Christ "a stumbling block" and "foolishness"...but to those who
believe "it
is the power...and wisdom of God"
-we have to meet God
on His terms on His turf
--His terms are simple: by grace through faith
--His turf is on a hill outside of
-have you met Him there...on His terms?
--as the classic hymn puts it: “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply
to the cross I cling”
The real Jesus is concerned more for others than for
Himself
In John 19:26-27,
Jesus says to Mary, His mother, "Dear
woman,
here is your
son." And to the disciple,
"Here is your mother."
-Jesus is making sure that Mary will be cared for...and He entrusts
her well-being to John—they essentially adopt each other
-we tend to focus on ourselves, on our
perceived needs and desires
--this was an act of extreme selflessness
---Jesus, in His horrible pain, reaches out to
those in need
---while we sit down at a table full of food...satisfied...and quite
comfortable knowing that our double-pane, thermo-insulated
windows and our air-conditioner will drown out the cries for
help coming from right outside our own door
Jesus, by his radical example, tells us: Look around!
-people are hurting...right
here...right now
-people are lonely...right
here...right now
-people are dying...right here...right now
--you don’t have to go any further than across the aisle or across
the street or across down to find that out
By His example, Jesus asks us from the cross, "Will you go, tell,
serve, and love them
for My sake?"
The real Jesus is forsaken by God
The cry of Jesus found in Matthew 27:46 presents several sticky
theological problems
-scholars have debated for 2000 years what Jesus means when He
questions, “My God, My
God, why have You forsaken Me?
To some, the cross is embarrassment...especially this part
-we expect this part of the story to end like
a John Wayne movie
--as
our hero is about to meet his doom, in rides the cavalry
-but the reality is starkly simple: there was no bugle sounding
“charge!”...instead there was darkness, there was agony, there
was tragic aloneness
I've preached an entire message on this verse...questioning where
was God when Jesus experienced
this depth of abandonment?
-2
Corinthians
Christ, reconciling the world to Himself
--one way of looking at that is to say, “God was there”
-we learn that in our suffering, when there is no light, when no one
apparently cares...God is there
--because of the cross, we have a Savior who
has been there
--and we know God is not angered by our cries of helplessness,
instead He is moved by our brokenness and need
The real Jesus accepts suffering
Jesus states simply in John
19:28, “I thirst.”
-this is Jesus' only
request, His only "complaint" if you will
--He has already told His followers clearly, “In this world you will
have trouble”
-on the cross, Jesus
demonstrates how we are to respond to that
--not with
violence, but with love and grace
--not with anger,
but with forgiveness
-imagine the scene a
few hours earlier as Jesus was being beaten
--do you think His own teachings come back to
Him?
Read Mark 15:16-17
Remember, He's already been mercilessly beaten with a whip
embedded
with bone/metal
-flesh is cut to ribbons, blood flows freely and soaks through robe
Do you think He remembers when He said, “You have heard that it
was said, "An
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," but I say to
you, "Do not
resist one who is evil."
Back then, on that hillside with the large crowd of admirers, it might
have
seemed like a pretty harmless thing to say...just like: “You
have heard that it
was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate
your
enemy." But I say to you,
"Love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute
you."
Sure, those words are easy to say when you are popular...but what
about
when, as we go on to read in Mark
call out to Him,
"Hail, king of the Jews!"?
What about then?
-tell me, Jesus, is it still true?
--do You still stand by Your word when You said, If you love those
who love you,
what reward will you get? Are not even
the tax
collectors
doing that? And if you greet only your
brothers, what
are you doing
more than others? Do not even pagans do
that?
Or what about when à Again and again they struck [You] on the
head with a staff ? What about when they spit on [You]?
Do You still stand by Your words: Do
not condemn, and you will not
be condemned ?
OK, but when the soldiers fell on their knees and they paid homage to
[You]?
Do You still believe...Forgive,
and you will be forgiven ?
Really, Jesus?
Mark
purple robe and they
put his own clothes on Him. Then they led
Him out to crucify Him.
Did You really mean it when You
said, “Blessed are you when people
insult you,
persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you
because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your
reward
in heaven, for in
the same way they persecuted the prophets who
were before you.”
Did You really mean that?
-because You see, Jesus, when I first read those words, I thought
You were talking about like when someone cuts in front of you in
line at the deli counter...but now, after the cross...well, Your words
aren’t
nearly as easy as I thought they were
The real Jesus completes His mission
Jesus’ last words from the cross are either an admission of final
defeat or a proclamation of ultimate success
-John
--not
"I am finished", but “It is finished!”
-see, the cross
wasn't a mistake
--it wasn't a big “oops,” a surprise God
hadn't anticipated
We must remember that He has the power to walk away...to refuse
the
beatings, the nails, the cross—but He chooses to endure
-how often are we tempted walk away when things get tough?
-how many times have we watched people check out of school,
out of marriage, out of their faith, or out of living life?
If Jesus had rejected the cross with its suffering and its shame, we
would still be lost in our sin...but because Jesus opts to carry it
through to the end, we have life
The real Jesus dies
Luke
-Jesus dies in every
way that we die
--heart
stops beating, lungs quit pumping, brain ceases waving
-not only are we to seek that kind of faith, the kind of faith that can
say,
"Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit."
--but we can know that when we face death, Jesus has already
been there
-a hospice physician told Phillip Yancey à "When my patients pray,
they are talking to someone who has actually died—something
that's
not true of any other adviser, counselor, or death expert.”
--among everything else, the cross also means you do not have to
face death or any other crisis alone!
The cross of Christ is an incomparable, real-life ethics lesson
-but I cannot allow myself to be fooled into thinking—as some
theologians have claimed—that Jesus was only setting an example
...that He was merely showing us how to die
--do not fall for that lie
-Jesus suffered the cross because it was the only way to bring me
back into a right relationship with God...a relationship I'd broken
because of my sin
The brilliant Christian ethicist, John Howard Yoder, describes it this
way
à Here at
the cross is the Man who loves His enemies, the
Man whose righteousness is greater than that
of [the religious
leaders], who being
rich became poor, who gives His robe to those
who took His cloak,
who prays for those who despitefully use Him.
The cross is not a detour or a hurdle on the
way to the kingdom, nor
is it even the way
to the kingdom; it is the kingdom come.
As I said to you last Sunday morning...Pontius Pilate asks the most
important, eternity-defining question of all time...he asks a question
each one of us must ask and answer
-we read it in Mark
Mark’s Gospel gives us three responses
-we can follow
Pilate’s example à Read Mark
-or there’s Simon of
Cyrene (Mark
Jesus’ cross
--maybe that’s you...you came this morning, but you weren’t
expecting this...and now you can’t ignore it any longer...and
you are forced to consider the cross of Christ
-or there’s the
Roman centurion à Read Mark
For you, which will it be?