Last week, followers of Jesus
celebrated what is referred to in church mumbo jumbo talk as Passion Week.
Passion Week celebrates the events from history that occurred the week between
Palm Sunday, which we celebrated this past Sunday, and Easter Sunday, which we
will celebrate this upcoming Sunday. Passion Week is a time when followers of
Jesus remember Jesus entry into Jerusalem on what we refer to today as Palm
Sunday, Jesus arrest, trial and crucifixion on what we refer to today as Good
Friday, and Jesus resurrection from the dead, which we refer to as Easter
Sunday. And during this week from history that we pause to remember and
reflect, there are three powerful images that capture our attention. And those
images involve a city, a cross, and an empty tomb. So during Passion Week, we spent
our time together in a sermon series entitled “A City, A Cross, and a Tomb.”
During this series we are going
to spend our time together reflecting on the significance that a single city, a
single cross, and a single tomb have had on history. Last week, we looked at
the significance that the city of Jerusalem has had on history. We talked about
the reality that, beginning in 2100 B.C., Jerusalem has had a prominent role in
God’s activity in history. We then looked at an event from history that
occurred in 30
A.D., that once again brought the city of Jerusalem to center stage in history.
In this event from history that is recorded for us in a section of an account
of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Matthew, Jesus entered into the
city of Jerusalem on a donkey in fulfillment God’s promise to send a rescuer, a deliverer, a Messiah.
However, as
the Pharisees and the religious experts observed Jesus stirring things up in
the city by turning over tables and by miraculously healing those who had no
hope of healing; as the Pharisees and the religious experts heard the children
of the city of Jerusalem shouting “Save us now you who are the Son of David the
Messiah” as they became indignant over wrongdoing that they believed was taking
place, these self righteous religious people confronted Jesus. After this
confrontation with the Pharisee’s Jesus and His disciples left Jerusalem to
spend the night in the nearby city of Bethany.
However,
the battle lines for conflict had already been drawn. And over the next four
days there would be confrontation and conflict between Jesus and the self
righteous religious leaders of the day. There
would be confrontation and conflict that would escalate in its intensity and
its impact. Over the week, the Pharisees and other self righteous religious
leaders increasingly attacked and questioned Jesus in a way that tried to trap
Him. And while there were large crowds following Jesus, during those four days,
the crowds became increasingly divided against Jesus.
Then
on Thursday night, Judas, who was one of the twelve disciples, but who had
chosen to reject and betray Jesus, completed His act of betrayal by leading
between 300 and 600 Roman soldiers to the garden in order to arrest Jesus.
Jesus was then brought, in the middle of the night, to face six trials that
would decide His guilt or innocence. You see, for the Jewish religious leaders,
there was no time to waste; Jesus needed to be dealt with quickly and quietly.
After getting nowhere in their questioning of Jesus, the religious leaders,
in desperation, asked Jesus to tell the truth as to whether or not He was the
Messiah that God had promised to bring the Jewish people back to God and back
to prominence in the world. Jesus, being under oath, answered the question
truthfully. Jesus explained that not only was He the Messiah; Jesus explained
that He was God in a bod. The High Priest responded by rejecting Jesus, which
resulted in Jesus being beaten by the crowds who were there to witness the
trial.
Having all the evidence that they needed, the religious
leaders were able to condemn Jesus. However, the Jewish people were not allowed
to exercise capital punishment for a crime. Only the Roman government, who
ruled over the Jewish people, could pronounce and carry out a sentence of
death. So early Friday morning, after the trial before the Sanhedrin, Jesus was
brought before Pilate, the Roman governor. And Pilate,
being concerned with maintaining political points and power; and being a people
pleaser that feared and focused on the approval of men, made the politically
expedient decision to condemn to death a man that had not been found guilty.
And today
we will look at the significance that a single cross has had on history. For
early followers of Jesus, they would find it strange that people would wear
crosses around their necks. For early followers of Jesus, they would find it
strange that the gatherings of followers of Jesus would be held in buildings
with crosses on them. Early followers of Jesus would find it strange because of
what the cross represented. You see, the cross represented crucifixion. And crucifixion was
and is considered one of the most brutal and shameful modes of death ever
invented by humanity throughout history.
The Assyrian Empire, who was the
dominant military and political power in the world from 744-612 B.C. first
originated the concept of crucifixion. The Persian Empire also used crucifixion
after conquering the Babylonian Empire in the 5th Century B.C. During
the Greek Empire, Alexander the Great brought crucifixion from the Persian
Empire to the eastern Mediterranean countries in the 4th century BC. As a
matter of fact Alexander the Great
is reputed to have crucified 2,000 survivors from his siege of the Phoenician
city of Tyre in the 3rd century BC.
It was here that the Roman Empire first
learned about the concept of crucifixion. And the Roman Empire, which often
assimilated aspects of other cultures into their culture, perfected crucifixion
for the next 500 years until it was abolished by the Emperor Constantine in the
4th century AD. During the Third Servile War in 73–71 B.C. when Spartacus led a
slave rebellion against Rome, over 6,000 slaves were captured and crucified on
the main road of the Roman Empire, called the Appian Way, by the order of
Crassus. Their bodies remained there is a token of Roman justice to all who
would attempt to rebel.
The Emperor Caesar Augustus once
made a boast that he had captured and crucified over 30,000 runaway slaves. The
Jewish historian Josephus tells of the Romans crucifying people along the walls
of the city of Jerusalem during the siege of Jerusalem. Josephus wrote that the
"Roman soldiers, out of rage and hatred, nailed those they caught, one
after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by way of jest."
This
was a death that was reserved for the worst criminals and for enemies of the
Roman Empire. Crucifixion was designed for maximum humiliation and maximum
suffering. As a matter of fact, crucifixion was so abhorred by society that it
was not even depicted in early Christian art. Historians have discovered that
the first depictions of crucifixion only occurred after all those who had ever
seen a live crucifixion had died. This is why early followers of Jesus would
find it strange that people would wear crosses around their necks. Early
Christians did not need a picture of a cross because the image of a cross and
what it meant was an all too present reality in their lives.
And it
is with this backdrop that we will look at the significance that a single cross
has had on history. And that single cross is recorded for us in an account of
Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Mark. So let’s jump into this
event from history, as Pilate condemned Jesus and handed
an innocent man over to be crucified, beginning in
Mark 15:15:
Wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after
having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified.
At that
point, Jesus was stripped of clothing. Jesus hands were tied to a post above
His head. The whip that was used in a scourging was made of several pieces of
leather with pieces of bone and lead embedded near the ends. Two men, one on
each side of the victim, usually did the scourging, which was limited to a
maximum of forty stripes.
The
whip would be brought down again and again across the shoulders, back, and legs
of the person being scourged. At first the heavy thongs cut through the skin
only. Then, as the blows continued, they cut deeper in the subcutaneous
tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of
the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying
muscles. In many
cases, after a flogging, the skin of the back would be
left hanging in long ribbons and the entire area would be an unrecognizable
mass of torn, bleeding tissue. Mark records what happened next in verses 16-20:
The soldiers took Him away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium), and
they called together the whole Roman cohort.
They dressed Him up in purple, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put
it on Him; and they began to acclaim Him, "Hail, King of the Jews!"
They kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting on Him, and kneeling and
bowing before Him. After they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off Him
and put His own garments on
Him. And they led Him out to crucify Him.”?
After
scourging Jesus, the Roman soldiers slammed a crown of thorns onto His head and
dressed Him in a purple robe in order to mock Him. The soldiers then placed
Jesus own garments upon Him and gave Him the large cross beam to carry. This
evening, I want us to picture ourselves in
the crowd watching as Jesus, after He had been beaten beyond recognition, had the
heavy beam of the cross is tied across His shoulders.
As
Jesus walked toward the place where He would be crucified, the weight of the
heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by the loss of blood,
causes Him to stumble and fall. Jesus has no way to protect Himself, so the
full weight of His body and the wooden beam crash down on His chest and face. The
rough wood of the beam gouges into the lacerated skin and muscles of the
shoulders. Jesus tries to rise, but cannot. Mark gives us a glimpse as to what
happened next in verse 21-28:
“They pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of
Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross. Then they
brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull. They
tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh; but He did not take it. And they
crucified Him, and divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for
them to decide what each man
should take. It was the third hour when they crucified Him. The inscription of
the charge against Him read, "THE KING OF THE JEWS." They crucified two robbers with Him, one on
His right and one on His left. And the
Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And He was numbered with
transgressors."
At the place where He would be crucified, the beam is placed
on the ground and Jesus was quickly thrown backward with His shoulders against
the wood. The Roman soldier drove a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through
the most sensitive areas of the wrist and deep into the wood. The beam is then
lifted in place at the top of the post. Jesus left foot is then pressed
backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail
is driven through the arch of each.
As Jesus pushed Himself upward to avoid the stretching
torment, He would place His full weight
on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of the nail
through His feet. As Jesus arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the
muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps
comes the inability to push Himself upward.
Hanging by His arms, Jesus fought to
raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Jesus body spasmed as He
is able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in the life-giving oxygen.
For hours Jesus experienced the limitless pain, joint-rending cramps,
intermittent partial asphyxiation, and searing pain as tissue is torn from His
lacerated back as He moved up and down against the rough timber.
Then another agony begins as Jesus
experiences a deep crushing pain deep in the chest as the area around the heart
slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. The compressed heart begins
to struggle to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues. Mark reveals
how the crowds that traveled past Jesus responded to what was happening to
Jesus in verse 29-32:
Those passing by were hurling abuse
at Him, wagging their heads, and saying, "Ha! You who are going to destroy the temple and
rebuild it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!" In
the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes, were mocking Him among themselves and saying,
"He saved others; He cannot save Himself. "Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now
come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!" Those who were
crucified with Him were also insulting Him.”?
At this point, Jesus tortured lungs were making a frantic
effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send
their flood of stimuli to the brain. Jesus gasps, “I thirst.”. Mark records
what occurred next in verse 33-37:
“When the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the
ninth hour. At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "ELOI,
ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" which is translated, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY
HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?" When some of the bystanders heard it, they began saying, "Behold, He is
calling for Elijah." Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put
it on a reed, and gave Him a drink, saying, "Let us see whether Elijah
will come to take Him down." And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed
His last.”?
You
watch as, with one last surge of strength, He once again presses His torn feet
against the nail, straightens His legs, takes a deeper breath, and utters “It
is finished.” And then Jesus dies. And to make doubly sure of death, you watch
as a Roman soldier drove his spear in the space between the ribs and into Jesus
heart. Immediately there came out blood and water.
This
served as proof to the soldiers that Jesus died, not the usual crucifixion
death by suffocation, but of heart failure due to shock and constriction of the
heart by a buildup of fluid. That is why Jesus died before the two thieves
died. That is why Jesus did not have to have His legs broken. You watch as
Jesus dies of a broken heart.
So
here is a question to consider: Why do we call Good Friday Good Friday? What is
so Good about Good Friday? You see, it was in a single city, on a single cross,
that a cosmic conflict took place. A cosmic conflict over the power of
selfishness, sin, and death: A conflict that would shape the course of history
and eternity: A conflict that would shift our focus in a single city from a
single cross to another single powerful image.
Tomorrow
we will pause to ponder that image and its significance on history…
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