For March 23

Sermon: Words From the Cross: Why?

Intro: We’ve been talking about Jesus’ dying words from the Cross. We’ve seen how deathbed confessions can be very revealing about the state of one’s soul. Jesus’ initial dying words revealed compassion for those who were not understanding what they were doing to God’s Son. In spite of the excruciating pain they were inflicting on Him, physically and emotionally, He asks His Father to forgive them. Last week we saw the thief and murderer being crucified with Jesus, on his deathbed, ask Jesus to remember him when He entered His kingdom. Jesus pardons him unconditionally, without repentance, or atonement, just faith that this dying, bloodied, ridiculed man next to Him was the One who could grant his last request. Jesus showed him Love beyond mere compassion for his suffering, promising he would be with Him in paradise that very day.

 

I. Abandoned

A. Today, however, Jesus reveals something his soul had never experienced. Complete separation from His beloved Father. There, on that Cross, suspended between heaven and earth, he had been abandoned by His disciples, His most beloved friends on earth, one betraying Him for 30 pieces of silver, the purchase price of a slave, and another cursing while denying He had even known him. Only one disciple had even come to the crucifixion site, at least comforting His weeping mother having to bear His shame of being crucified like a criminal. Soldiers gambled for His clothing, His last earthly possessions. Religious leaders who had known the many prophecies of His coming, seen Him perform miracles only God could have done - like resurrecting Lazarus, healing incurable lepers, the blind, and paralytics - and still they considered Him to have committed the most grievous of sins, blasphemy, considering oneself equal to God. How many of those hurling ridiculing insults had once crowded around Him for healing?  How many had been in the palm waving crowd just 5 days ago as He humbly rode into Jerusalem?

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II. Psalm 22:1-22

A. Sometime during His human life, Jesus had known what His Father was asking Him to do. In fact, in our OT lesson from David’s 22nd Psalm, is a grim prophesy of the Crucifixion written 1000 years earlier, long before the Romans introduced their cruel capital punishment. The prophecy describes nails piercing a victim’s hands and feet, bones coming out of joint, severe dehydration drying out his mouth, people staring and gloating at him, others dividing his clothes among them. Even taunting Him “He trusted in the Lord, Let the Lord deliver him!”  The victim in David’s psalm cries out for the Lord to be his strength, to rescue him from the sword and the enemies encircling him. Having studied Scripture, and a personal witness of many crucifixions, Jesus would have been very aware of what lay ahead for Him.   

B. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed more fervently than you or I will ever pray not to have to go through this. But with the absolute

obedience of the Son who loved His Father so deeply, He consented to His Father’s will, fully aware of what He was consenting to.

C. In the OT, darkness carried the meaning of judgement and sin. There on the cross, Jesus had become the sin of all mankind, the worst of all sinners-Hitler, Manson, Timothy McVeigh, Saddam Hussein, wrapped up in one flesh! The sky had become eerily dark, as if evil had taken over, and His Father no longer present. Darkness suggesting the gravity of the moment as Jesus took upon Himself the sins of the world. The enveloping darkness revealing the strong presence of evil forces taking this final opportunity to destroy their strongest enemy.

D. As a child, did you ever get separated from a parent in an unknown place? Or, feel so homesick and alone that all you could do was cry and feel miserable? I still remember vividly going school shopping with Mom and my younger brother, who was probably about 6 years old then. My brother always had a strong need to feel near Mom. But, in a large, crowded downtown Cleveland store, he got separated from us. But not for long, because everyone in the store could hear him loudly screaming for Mom. Although he hadn’t strayed very far, it was a trauma that stayed with him for a long time. But these incidents were minor compared to the separation from His Father that Jesus experienced.

E. On the cross, in the fearful darkness, feeling totally forsaken, Jesus cries out loudly, indicating the intensity of His physical and spiritual suffering, in the words of David’s psalm, but in the daily used Aramaic language,”Eloi, Eloi lema sabachthani? (“My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?”) Speaking in His native dialect emphasizes the personal/intimate nature of His plea to God. Gospel writers still continue to record that plea in Jesus’ own words that give those words an even deeper, far more personal meaning. Jesus’ use of that opening phrase from David’s psalm reveals the impact of those words for His soul.

F. In this trauma of separation, He feels distant, unloved, even forsaken by the Father He had known so intimately throughout His earthly life. He addresses His Father in the formal way, as God, rather than Abba, the loving, familiar form of address that Jesus, like most Jewish children, used for their loving fathers. Not that He felt His Father didn’t love Him, but feeling forsaken as the consequence of the grim reality that His Father could no longer look upon Him at all. Feeling as if He had been totally consigned to the outer darkness of Hell, consistent with the darkness that now surrounded Him.

G. Children might cry due to a variety of fears -  doctor’s shots, trips to the dentist, or facing the first day of school. Any parent finding it difficult to hear those cries just wants to hold their child, comforting it. The intense cries of their child’s serious trauma may even leave a parent wishing they could take their child’s pain on themselves. On a much greater scale, the Father must have been heartbroken to hear His beloved Son suffering and crying out in such a heartfelt lament, knowing it was necessary, but as the Holy God, unable to even look on His Son while He was bearing the sin of mankind.

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III. Mark 1:32-37

A. The first word of Jesus’ lamenting cry is Why?  Parents are often bombarded with that question from their children. Many of us are guilty of having driven our parents nuts with why? Jesus knew what His mission was and that it was necessary for Him to die. He had even told His disciples He was going to Jerusalem to be killed by the chief priests, but that He would rise again from the dead. But perhaps the human side of Jesus may have still questioned why. Other questions might have also plagued Him throughout His ministry. Why do these people choose to sin? Why can’t they see how much the Father loves them?  Why won’t they believe the Father sent me to tell them?  Let’s look at a few of those ‘why’ questions we might have about the Crucifixion.

B. First of all, Why did Jesus have to die? Isaiah 53:4-5 prophetically describes The Suffering Servant, providing us with a brief understanding of His dying for our sakes: “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”  Then adding in verse 10, “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and ... make(s) his life an offering for sin.. and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.”  He had to die for our sake, to prosper the Father’s Will

C. But Why did Jesus have to die by Crucifixion? That answer would first require knowing why God had chosen this particular time and place in Israel for Jesus’ human ministry, which we don’t. But Crucifixion was the Roman means of death at that time, and had been evident in God’s plan for His Son from the beginning, even foretold in Psalm 22, 1000 years earlier. The Messiah’s life had to happen exactly as God had said it would, which God continued to reveal in prophecy.

D. Then, Why did the Crucifixion have to take place in Jerusalem? Jerusalem had become the capital of Israel. It was the site of the Holy Temple, the focal point of Israel’s worship of God. The required sacrifices, like the Passover Lamb for Israel’s sins, were offered there by the Levite priests. A thick veil separated man from God in the Temple, until Jesus became the Perfect Lamb of Sacrifice on the Cross, who would then be the righteousness of God to lead His people through the Temple Veil to gain access to God. Jerusalem, Zion, the site of the Holy Temple, would seem to be the appropriate place for God’s Son to offer the Holy Sacrifice, and be the Sacrifice, that would reconcile humankind with God through Jesus.

E. Why then, not later?   Even Jesus’ arrival at Jerusalem met prophecy, even the exact day of His arrival there. While an exile in Babylon, Daniel prophesied that the Anointed One would enter Jerusalem in 70 weeks of years, or 490 years, from the time the exiles in Babylon would be given the order to rebuild Jerusalem. Although the prophecy has some complications in understanding the timelines, scholars’ calculations have shown that Jesus entered Jerusalem on the exact date according to that prophecy. Zechariah had even further prophesied how the Messiah would enter Jerusalem, on an unridden colt of a donkey. That day, of course, we know as Palm Sunday. We’ll talk more about those prophecies on Palm Sunday, but for now suffice it to say that Palm Sunday would also begin another chain of events that led to the Crucifixion on Friday, the day of the Passover celebration.

F. The Crucifixion was strongly linked to Passover, when the Angel of Death passed over Israel in Egypt for those protected by the blood of a sacrificed perfect lamb. Passover foreshadowed Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice of the Passover Lamb, whose blood would allow the Angel of Eternal Death to pass over those choosing to be protected by His blood.

G. Jesus hung on the Cross from noon until 3 PM, with the darkness during these hours suggesting the Father’s looking away while Jesus bore the weight of sin on behalf of humanity. At 3 PM, Jesus gave up His life, having taken on the sins of humanity to His death. At 3 PM each Passover, the Chief Priest would sound the trumpet announcing the Passover Lamb had been slain as the sacrifice for Israel’s sins. By His simultaneous death at 3 PM, Jesus became the Chief Priest, as well as the Perfect Lamb sacrificed for the sins of humanity, greatly expanding the Passover concept of salvation from the Angel of Death.   

H. Crucifixions usually took several days, maximizing the suffering of the criminals. But, the crucifixion taking place on Passover, a high holy day, meant ending the crucifixion early enough so the bodies could be taken down for hasty burial without violating the Holy Sabbath, which began at sundown. Although Jesus gave up his life at 3, piercing his side to reach the heart ensured He was actually dead. By then, Sabbath restrictions didn’t allow His body to be prepared for proper burial. and His body would remain undisturbed in the tomb over the prophesied three days before His Resurrection.

I. Jesus had cried out, feeling forsaken on the Cross. But the Father had planned this in impeccable detail and significance. Jesus felt the forsakenness of being separated from the Father for the first and only time in His life, but the Father hadn’t forsaken Him. Jesus had perfectly fulfilled The Father’s plan of salvation for humanity. Despite the heartbreak of seeing His Son suffer, He wouldn’t forsake us as sinners. He had to let Jesus take our place on that Cross, to pay the full price of our sin, then to emerge victorious from that tomb.

 

Conclusion: We can look back and understand why Jesus had felt forsaken. But Jesus suffered that forsakenness so that we never need to. Words to remember whenever we need assurance that God will never forsake us. Perhaps like the late Kris Kristofferson’s song “Why me, Lord?” we should ask why Jesus would even consider us as deserving of even one of the pleasures we have known in Him  May we gladly live for Him, who died for us. Amen