The Good News of Jesus
04/18/2010 - The Crucifixion of Jesus
Psalm 22:1, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? 2My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.
3Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One, you are the praise of Israel. 4In you our ancestors put their trust, they trusted and you delivered them. 5They cried to you and were saved, in you they trusted and were not disappointed.
6But I am a worm, not a human being. I am scorned by everyone, despised by the people. 7All who see me mock me, they hurl insults, shaking their heads. 8"He trusts in the Lord," they say, "let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him."
9Yet you brought me out of the womb, you made me feel secure on my mother's breast. 10From birth I was cast on you, from my mother's womb you have been my God. 11Do not be far from me now, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
12Many bulls surround me, strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. 13Roaring lions that tear their prey, open their mouths wide against me. 14I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax. It has melted within me.
15My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death. 16Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me. They pierce my hands and my feet. 17All my bones are on display. People stare and gloat over me. 18They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.
19But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength. Come quickly to help me. 20Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs.21Rescue me from the mouth of the lions. Save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
These graphic and painful words were written by David about 1,000 years before the crucifixion of Jesus the Messiah. We don't know what was going on in David's life when he wrote them. He must have been going through some pretty rough stuff. But we do know what was going on in Jesus' life when he recites them. This Psalm, among other Scriptures, was very much on the mind of Jesus all through his agonizing crucifixion. And I want these words to be on our minds as well these next two weeks as we attempt to enter into the suffering of our Savior. If you have a Bible turn with me to Mark 15:22 as we continue our slow climb to cross.
Look at verse 22, They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means "the place of the skull").
Last week, we left Jesus stumbling and staggering along the Via Dolorosa, "the Way of Suffering." It was the route that led from the Fortress of Antonia on the east side of Jerusalem to Golgotha, the place of the skull, on the northwest side of the city. It was the longest distance between two points, twisting and turning through streets and lanes and alleys so that as many people as possible could witness what happens to anyone who dared to challenge the empire. It was Rome's ultimate display of power.
Jesus had been up all night, interrogated at six mock trials, beaten and spit upon, tortured and flogged until he was too weak to carry his own cross. And so the Romans enlisted Simon of Cyrene to literally take up Jesus' cross and follow him.
Today if you go to Jerusalem you can participate in a procession that follows the Via Dolorosa through the city. It begins at 3:00 every Friday afternoon and for centuries now it has been a way for Christ followers from all over the world and from all different denominations to enter into the story and reflect on the agony that Jesus suffered for them. It can be quite moving.
There are 14 stations along the way each representing an event recorded in the gospels or contained in church tradition. Station number one begins with Jesus' trial before Pontius Pilate near the remains of the Fortress of Antonia. Station number two is actually near the Stone Pavement where the Roman guards dressed Jesus in a purple robe, pressed a crown of thorns down on his head, and played a sadistic game called "Kill the King." It's also the station where Jesus was flogged and forced to pick up his cross.
Station number three is where Jesus stumbles the first time. Station number four is where tradition says Jesus' mother, Mary, watched her son go by. Station number five is where Simon of Cyrene was forced to pick up the cross. Station number six is where tradition says a woman named Veronica wiped Jesus' face with her handkerchief. Station number seven is where Jesus fell a second time.
Station number eight is where Jesus, in his agony, turned to a group of distressed women and uttered these words found in Luke 23:28-31,"Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children. 29For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' 30Then "'they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!"' 31For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
We looked at those chilling words when we studied Mark 13 and saw them as a warning about the destruction of the Temple and the demolition of Jerusalem and the fate of over a million Jewish people who would die when the city was destroyed in AD 70, about 40 years later. That was going through Jesus' mind as stumbled closer and closer to the cross. Things were going to get even worse he said.
Station number nine is where tradition says Jesus falls a third time. And then the last five stations are found inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, originally built in the year 336 on the traditional site of Jesus' crucifixion. And those five stations reflect on Jesus being stripped naked, then nailed to the cross, dying on the cross, being taken down from the cross, and laid to rest in a borrowed tomb.
They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means "the place of the skull"). Or in Latin, Calvary, which literally means "cranium."
We don't for sure where that was. Many believe that it's the hill where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built. That site is certainly north and west of the Fortress of Antonia and would have been outside the city walls in Jesus' day. But when you're in that building you don't have any sense that you're standing on Skull Hill. It's dark and noisy and in great disrepair. It's filled with candles and art work and all kinds of religious paraphernalia and loud echoes which is why many people are drawn to another location for the site of the crucifixion.
This is called Gordon's Calvary. It's also north and west of the Fortress of Antonia and in Jesus' day would have been well outside the city walls. It was discovered by Major-General Charles Gordon back in 1883 and it looks like a skull etched into the rocky cliff. It actually stands next to a bus station outside the Damascus Gate. But nearby is a garden and in that garden archeologists have discovered a series of caves and one of those caves is thought to be the tomb of Jesus. So this may be the hill that Jesus climbed that day. We don't know for sure. But we do know what happened when he got to the top.
Look at verse 23, Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.
When Jesus got to the top of Skull Hill the Romans offered him a pain killer in the form of wine mixed with myrrh, but he refused to take it. He didn't want to be anesthetized in any way. He wanted to face the pain of the cross and all that it involved head on, with a clear mind, and in full control of his senses. Instead of drinking the wine mixed with myrrh, he drinks the cup of judgment that his Father had refused to take away in the garden.
When I saw that word "myrrh" I couldn't help but think of the wise men who worshiped Jesus in Bethlehem when he was a baby and offered him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Myrrh was gummy oil like resin that was used to anoint and embalm the bodies of the dead. It was certainly an odd gift to give to a baby, but as we talked about at Christmas it was a prophetic gift that spoke of things to come. And so here we see myrrh offered to Jesus again, but this time he won't take it.
They crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.
Crucifixion was humiliating in every way. Jesus would have been stripped naked and stretched out on the ground. His hands would have been pressed against the cross beam and spikes driven through his wrists to hold him there. He would then have been hoisted up on the vertical beam which was already in place and dropped on a peg called the saddle that would take the weight off his hands while the cross beam was set in place. And then after that a spike would have driven through his feet.
Psalm 22:16-18 says, Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me. They pierce my hands and my feet. 17All my bones are on display. People stare and gloat over me.18They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.
At a typical crucifixion four Roman soldiers under the direction of a centurion would have been assigned to each victim that was crucified. Soldiers weren't well paid by Rome and so one of their perks was to keep the belongings of those they executed. Jesus didn't have much. In fact, the only thing he owned was the clothes on his back.
A Jewish man would wear five articles of clothing - a pair of sandals, a loincloth, a tunic which was like a long shirt, a turban, and an outer robe or coat. So John tells us in his gospel that they divided his clothes up into four shares, one for each soldier, and then they gambled to see who would get the fifth item, his seamless coat because they didn't want to tear it up.
Look at verse 25, It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. 26The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS.
It was nine in the morning when Jesus was crucified which gives us an idea how long the procession took. Jesus could have spent a good hour or two staggering along the Via Dolorosa. And after they had him hanging firmly in place they nailed the placard to the vertical beam above his head that read, The King of the Jews. John tells us that it was actually written in three languages - Aramaic, Latin and Greek - perhaps as a sign that his death had implications for the whole world, not just the for the nation of Israel.
Look at verse 27,They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left.
There were three men on crosses that day with Jesus in the middle. The cross that Jesus was on was intended for the third rebel to be executed, a man named Barabbas, Jesus Barabbas, Jesus the son of the father. That's what his name literally means.
But Jesus Barabbas wasn't on that cross. He'd been released by Pilate that morning. He'd been set free. Perhaps he was standing in the crowd watching the spectacle. We don't know. But he wasn't on his cross, instead another Jesus hung there, Jesus the son of God the Father. So Jesus the son of the Father dies for Jesus the son of the father.
Barabbas' life is spared. Jesus becomes the rebel who dies in his place. Jesus lived his life hanging out with rebels and outcasts and low life's and dies with them too. And so Barabbas becomes the first of many whose life was saved by the cross. Barabbas is the poster child for all us rebels who have been set free by the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah!
Jesus is hanging there between two rebels and through it all the mocking continues. Look at verse 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, 30come down from the cross and save yourself!"
Do you see how important the Temple was to the Jewish people? That's the one statement that they keep bringing up again and again and again. They can't let it go. The Jewish Temple would be destroyed eventually, but when Jesus made that statement he wasn't talking about the Jewish Temple. He was talking about the temple of his body that would be destroyed, but in three days he would raise it up again out of the grave.
He's taunted to come down from the cross and save himself. And that may have been his greatest temptation because if he came down from the cross and saved himself he could have ended the pain and proved beyond any shadow of a doubt who he really was. He could have powered up on all his critics and proved them wrong.
But if he saved himself, he couldn't have saved us. He had to go through with the plan to exhaust the powers of evil and pay the price for our sin in full. "Tetelestai!" he'll shout when it's over. "Paid in full!"
And we're reminded of Psalm 22:6-8, But I am a worm, not a human being. I am scorned by everyone, despised by the people. 7All who see me mock me, they hurl insults, shaking their heads. 8"He trusts in the Lord," they say, "let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him."
He's a worm hanging on that cross. Not even treated like a human being, but something to be stepped on and ground into the dirt. All who see him mock him, hurl insults at him, and shake their heads. I love what General William Booth who founded the Salvation Army says about this scene, "It's precisely because Jesus didn't come down from the cross that we believe in him." How true!
In the same way, we read in verse 31, the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! 32Let 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.
And again we read in Psalm 22:12-14, Many bulls surround me, strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. 13Roaring lions that tear their prey, open their mouths wide against me. 14I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax. It has melted within me.
That's a sacred window into some of the agony that Jesus experienced on the cross. And he did it for you and he did it for me and for everyone who ever lived or ever will live. It wasn't the nails that held Jesus to the cross it was his great love for us. And his love will triumph over Rome's power and sin's power and death's power and Satan's power as well.
That's what the apostle John writes in 1 John 4:9-10,This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Don't miss that. Amidst all the agony and the gore Jesus is doing it all out of love for you and for me providing a way for us to have life and to be forgiven and to be at peace with God.
In his commentary on this passage William Barclay writes, "The death of Jesus was absolutely necessary for him to show us the love of God. If he had refused the cross or in the end had come down from the cross, it would have meant that there was a limit to God's love, that there was something that love was not prepared to suffer for us, that there was a line beyond which love would not go. But Jesus went the whole way and died on the cross to show us all that there is literally no limit to God's love. When we look at the cross Jesus is saying to us, 'God loves you like that, with a love that is limitless, a love that will bear every suffering earth has to offer.'"