The Cruelty and the Compassion of the Cross

The following is from Highland View Baptist Church's AM worship service on March 28, 2010.

Palm Sunday is a day that the Christian world recognizes closely behind Christmas and Easter. Typically, this is a Sunday when most churches will be dealing with the story of the Crucifixion of Jesus. And for us, it will be no different.
At least once each year, we are forced to stop and recount our Savior’s sacrifice.
I believe that every Christian needs to have an unshakable image in the back of their mind. Certainly we want to proclaim the hope that comes through Christ. We want to claim all of the promises that He gives. We need to teach people how to apply the precepts of God’s Word to the activity of daily life. However, in our teaching, in our preaching, in our proclamation, we need not progress so far that we cannot still see the cross of Christ. If we move to the point of losing sight of that image, I believe that we discount and miss the true promise and hope of God’s Word. We cannot ignore the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, because that is the fountain from which those blessings and promises that we claim flow.
I am not pointing fingers this morning. I am not trying to make anyone feel guilty. However, I do have to ask how many of us in this room have on a necklace or piece of jewelry that has a cross on it? One of the most popular, lasting jewelry designs has been the cross. And certainly they can be designed to appear beautiful and lovely.
However, the cross has lost the stigma that it once possessed. It has become a decoration instead of a reminder.
This morning, I want us to make ourselves look at the cross. We need a fresh vision of the cross and what it represents. Now, I am not talking about our clean, polished versions of the cross, but the rough, demeaning, cruel cross on which the Prince of glory suffered.
I believe that many people can live life their own way because they have never really looked at the cross. Let me forewarn you this morning that if you get a real peek at the cross, your life can never be the same again.
I am going to do something I am not very accustomed to this morning. I am not going to go on an outline. Rather, we are simply going to tell the story. Jesus doesn’t need my outline, His cross, His sacrifice speaks louder and more plainly than anything I could concoct.
All four of the gospels record the account of the Crucifixion. All four have areas of similarity, but there are some details that are dealt with more explicitly in each book. This morning, we are going to look at Mark’s account of the cross.

(Read text. Mark 15:24-41)

There has been a great deal happen through the course of the evening before we reach the time of this passage. Jesus has been examined no less than five times by nine in the morning. This seems strangely peculiar considering the fact that law prohibited trial by night. Already, the culture understood the temptation and deception that could come in the night. Nonetheless, it did not stop the trials from happening.
We could actually speculate that things happened even more quickly than we even realize. By nine a.m., Jesus had already been scourged and led away to be crucified. Could you imagine our country if our justice system worked that quickly?
Through the course of the preceding night and the short course of that morning, Jesus has been betrayed by one of his followers and deserted by the rest. He has appeared for examination by Annas. He has been beaten, mocked and punched in the face. Then he undergoes an illegal trial by Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin Council.
The Sanhedrin did at least give nod to the policy of not conducting trials at night. They waiting for dawn to “officially” pass the verdict. However, the assignment of guilt was made far before this. At that time, the rock that the church would be built on denied his association with Christ three times. At some other point in the early hours of the morning, the former treasurer of Jesus’ group of disciples hung himself.
At some point between 5 and 6 a.m., Jesus was taken to stand trial before Pilate. Being found of no fault and longing to save himself, Pilate sent Jesus to stand trial before Herod. After Herod’s inquisition, Jesus was once again returned to stand trial before Pilate again. However, he was dressed up and mocked by Herod’s security force. Standing before Pilate once again, he is found innocent of the charges brought against him. However, a political move is made. Jesus is convicted and sentenced to death by popularity vote.
The jealous crowd, hiding behind their supposedly religious convictions, has asked that a murderer and leader of a rebellion be given to them instead of Christ.
Jesus has been led away to be scourged. Let’s not get this confused with the concept of beating. I can recall several years ago there was a conflict with a foreign country where a young man was caught in thievery. According to their judicial system, he would be caned. Jesus could only wish for that to be the case. Rome had a reputation of unsurpassed cruelty and torment.
Jesus was scourged with something commonly referred to as a “cat of nine tails.” It was a whip with a wooden handle in which metal or bone would be the tips of leather strands. A prisoner would have his hands bound above his head where his back would be exposed. An experienced scourger could rip flesh from the back, lacerate muscles, and even expose internal organs. In many instances, men were beaten to death.
Jesus was subjected to this torture before he even had to endure the cross. He was constantly ridiculed and mocked through the course of then entire process. Before being led down that road to Golgotha, the soldiers wishing to further disgrace him, hammered a crown of thorns onto his head and proceeded to mockingly bow to him.
Around the neck of this man was his identification and the charge he was convicted of. Jesus’ back was loaded and he was paraded through the streets on public display of the power and cruelty of the Roman government. The battered body of our Christ could not bear the load of the cross that he was commanded to bear. It has been suggested that the beam he would have carried could have weighed as much as two hundred pounds. The soldiers enlisted Simon of Cyrene to bear this load.
I believe that one of the things that we don’t ever think about were the lingering effects of the scourging that Jesus endured. The pain and anguish that he went through were not alleviated when he left the place of his beating. Rather, the effects simply accumulated and became more unbearable. The sweat on his back would have been excruciating. Even walking would have been a challenge like never before. The rough wooden cross beam would have scraped and splintered into his back.
As we walk up that road, I can only imagine what the atmosphere was like. What was the smell? Was the wind blowing? Did all of earth take notice of what was happening?
And then we reach Golgotha.
Each of the four gospels simply states that he was crucified. None of the authors went into detail about what the process entailed. However, I believe that you and I need to understand what he willingly endured for us.
As they laid him out and put the nail through his first wrist, he could have called an end to it, but he didn’t. Rather, with every hammer strike, he continued to illustrate the depth of his love for you and I. With every clang, with every vibration, with every nerve in him crying out, he stayed right there on that cross. He did not endure this excruciating pain once or twice. Rather, he went through this process three times. A nail was put between the wrist bones in both hands, and one through both feet.
As the cross was raised into place, it was released into the hole that was dug out for it. With an abrupt stop, every fiber of his being tensed and screamed out in pain. And there for all the Roman world to see was Jesus. This man that had healed the sick, made the lame to walk and the blind to see, and raised the dead endured the most horrible death that mankind could think of.
One of the things about this process that I cannot understand was the compassion that still filled his heart. Luke’s gospel tells us that at this point, he asked the Father’s forgiveness on behalf of those who were crucifying and mocking him.
Underneath the shadow of the cross were the guards dividing his garments. When they realized that his tunic could not be evenly divided, they proceeded to gamble for the very clothes off his back. However, he never called down a curse on those that dishonored him.
Above his head was a sign that said King of the Jews. This was the proclamation made to the entire world as to what your life amounted to.
As Jesus was spread there on that cross, we cannot begin to image the torment and anguish that he is going through. Even the very breath that he took became a chore. In order to even take a breath, he would have to put his weight on the nails through his hands and feet and push himself up to gain a breath. Several times a minute, he would endure agony all over again.
As he would push up on those nails, as he would struggle to even get a breath, there below him were the crowds yelling their blasphemous insults. There below him were those that mocked him and commanded him to show his power and come down off of that cross. Even those that were deservingly crucified alongside of him took their opportunity to hurl insults. I cannot understand how he didn’t come down from the cross and pass his judgment.
From nine in the morning until noon, he was subjected to the public display and criticism of those under the cross. For three hours, he had to listen to the most ridiculous and blasphemous of humanities’ outcries.
Mark’s gospel does not include the account of the repentant thief. However, at this point after all that Jesus has endured, one of the thieves asks for Christ’s forgiveness. I believe that was something that Jesus knew would come, and could have been a reminder of the reason he was staying on that cross.
Finally at noon, at the peak of the day, the skies turned black. For three hours, light did not exist on this earth. I don’t believe that this was darkness like what accompanies a thunderstorm. It was not even a lunar eclipse because the Passover always fell on a full moon. Rather, this was supernatural darkness. For three hours, men received a visual understanding of the darkness of their sin.
I firmly believe that the most difficult and painful part of the crucifixion still has not come. Rather, the most painful part of this crucifixion came at the ninth hour. Through the darkness, God had turned his back on his Son, unable to look at the sin that he became for you and I. Jesus was hurt the most by his interrupted fellowship with his Father.
At this point, his spirit cannot bear it any longer. He cries out to his father the way only an innocent child can cry. In Aramaic, his voiced his cry.
“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
The most incredible hurt and pain of this day did not come through the scourging. It did not even happen when the nails pierced his hands and feet. Rather, the greatest pain came in that darkness when the Father had to turn his eyes from the Son. It came from the righteous wrath of God being poured out on the sin he became for you and I.
Upon hearing his cry, those present thought that he was calling Elijah. This is a part that I do not understand. I understand that Eli can be short for Elijah. However, the name El and its compounds were Old Testament names assigned to God. Eloihim was the plural name for God in the Old Testament. El Shaddai meant “God Almighty.” Elyon meant “God to be lifted up or exalted.” I believe that the miscommunication came from the religious leaders unwillingness to admit that he was God. Eloi carries with it a personal possessive- “my God”. Throughout his life, Jesus claimed unity and relationship with the Father. In fact, he always, with one exception used the phrase, “My Father.” They were unwilling to recognize his unity with God the Father.
Finally, those watching the cross were going to see a sign. However, it would come in a way that they did not expect. Rather than seeing Elijah come to his rescue, Jesus surrendered his spirit.
There is something that we need to note. Every bit of the crucifixion process was voluntary for Christ. Even his death was voluntary. Men typically hung on the cross for days. There were times when men were literally eaten by carnivorous birds and wild beasts. Most died of exhaustion, dehydration, traumatic fever, or suffocation. But that was not the case for our Lord.
John records that the Jewish leaders asked that the men’s legs might be broken in order to speed their deaths. However, when they reached Christ, it was not necessary. He was dead.
Mark tells us that “Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed his last.” The fact that he yelled out illustrated his strength. For someone that has been hanging on a cross for six hours, he had an amazing ability to still communicate. He did not die of suffocation or exhaustion or any other earthly peril. Rather, he offered up his spirit. Jesus willingly gave up his life. He died willingly for you and I.
The story in and of itself sounds depressing and dramatic. However, there was a great promise that accompanied his sacrifice. At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two.
The veil separated the temple from the Holy of Holies. If set apart the most holy place that the priest could only enter once a year to offer a blood sacrifice for the sins of Israel. The fact was that this sacrifice was no longer needed. The blood of a lamb would no longer be required for the sins of you and I. Rather the blood of the Lamb of God covered that separation and did away with the need for that sacrifice.
I believe that the tearing of the veil from top to bottom tells us something as well. I believe that the supernatural hand of God reached down and tore down the barrier between himself and mankind. God desires our fellowship. He desires an eternal fellowship with each of us so much that he sacrificed his own son for us to have the choice and opportunity to pursue a relationship with him. He personally removed that thing that separated us from Himself.
Jesus would have died for anyone in this place this morning. If there was no one else, he would have came for you. I wonder did he see yours or my face while he was on that cross?
Jesus longs for you to join him in eternity.
He endured the agony and the stigma of the cross- because He loved you that much.
This morning, many of you have heard that story time and time again. However, even if you have heard this story a thousand times, we need to be confronted with the image of Christ on the cross. That is our source of hope. That is the basis of the promises that we claim. And in this season, we must remember to celebrate Him.