Wisdom, Truth, and Silence
Sunday, September 1st, 2024
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Mark 15:16–39
16And the soldiers led him away into the hall, called Praetorium; and they call together the whole band.
17And they clothed him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head,
18And began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews!
19And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him.
20And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him.
21And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross.
22And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull.
23And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.
24And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take.
25And it was the third hour, and they crucified him.
26And the superscription of his accusation was written over, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
27And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left.
28And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.
29And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days,
30Save thyself, and come down from the cross.
31Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save.
32Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.
33And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
35And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias.
36And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down.
37And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.
38And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
39And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.
Prayer
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned every one to his own way;
And You O Father, have laid upon Christ the iniquity of us all.
Heal us by his stripes, cleanse us by his wounds, for we ask this in the name of the great physician of our souls, Jesus Christ, Amen.
Introduction
In Proverbs 29:20, Solomon says, “Do you see a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” And then elsewhere he says, “A fool’s voice is known by his many words” (Eccl. 5:3), and “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking…” (Proverbs 10:19).
- Many words, spoken in haste, are a recipe for much sin. How many of us have spoken in ignorance, many things we wish we could take back?
- Well here as we come to the climax of Mark’s gospel, which is the center of human history and the hinge upon which the whole world turns, we see that the time for words is over.
- In these 39 verses that describe the crucifixion, many words are spoken, but on the whole, they come from the mouths of fools.
- For example: In verses 16-20, a band of Roman soldiers mock and beat and spit upon our Lord, hailing him in jest as “King of the Jews.”
- A little later we find two thieves or rebels, who are crucified with Jesus, one on his left, and one on his right, and they also revile him.
- And then there are the passersby, the common folk, the crowds, who also rail against him saying, “save thyself, and come down from the cross.”
- And then last you have the chief priests, who have finally gotten what they want, and they mock him and goad him saying, “He saved others, himself he cannot save. Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.”
- Many, many, words spoken in haste, uttered in ignorance by the mouths of fools.This is what Jesus who is divine truth who is divine wisdom, endured for six long hours upon the cross.
- Now if we gather together from all four gospels the words that Jesus spoke from the cross, there are only seven sayings recorded. And in Mark’s account, Jesus has only one thing to say, and he only says it at the very last hour (the 9th) just before he dies, he says, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Those are the only “red letters” in Mark’s account of the crucifixion.
- And then it is only after he dies, that we hear a true word spoken from someone other than Jesus, and who does it come from? Not from a disciple. Not from a Jew. It comes from the mouth of a Roman centurion, “Truly this man was the Son of God.”
- This is the whole purpose of Mark’s gospel which he laid out in the beginning: To make us to believe and to say by the end of it, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
- Do you believe this? And will you confess this before a world that hates you even as it hates Christ?
- You see the way that Mark intends for you and I to not only believe that Jesus is the son of God, but also to find the courage to be unashamed of that confession, is not mainly by hearing Jesus’ teaching. For in fact, Mark has omitted most of Jesus’ sermons that we find in Matthew, Luke, and John. Mark’s focus is elsewhere.
- Mark’s focus is upon the actions of Jesus, and here especially he wants to lift our gaze to behold like the centurion, Christ suffering in silence upon the cross. Here more than anywhere else “actions speak louder than words.”
- There is a time for speaking the truth loud and clear, and then there is a time for sealing up what you have taught in blood. This the son of God perfectly shows.
- Christ teaches us how to live, and Christ teaches us how to die. And here by his example we are taught to do both.
Outline of the Sermon
- The outline of the sermon is as follows:
- First, we will look at the Prelude to the Crucifixion.
- And then we will observe what takes place at the beginning, the middle, and the end of Christ’s crucifixion, or as Mark has it: the third hour, the sixth hour, and the ninth hour.
- Those are the three moments that Mark explicitly mentions and so we’ll consider what happens at each.
- So starting with the Prelude…
Prelude & Context
- Recall that it is the day after the Passover and the first day of the Passover feast, which is called the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
- Jesus was arrested in the middle of the night, he wascondemned by the Sanhedrin, and then at first morning light (say 6am), he was interrogated by Pilate, sent to Herod, sent back to Pilate, where he was ultimately sentenced to be scourged and crucified.
- And so in verses 16-24 Mark gives us the prelude: Jesus is dressed up like a king, given a purple/scarlet robe, crowned with thorns, Hailed as king, and worshipped falsely.
- And as usual, we see here Mark’s love for irony. All of these actions are what these soldiers ought to do in truth if Jesus is who He says He is.
- If Jesus is the Son of God, then they ought to clothe him with the most expensive royal robes, they ought to crown with gold and precious stones, they ought to hail him and worship him truly as king of all creation. They should have done what the wise men did at Jesus’ birth. This is what is owed to Christ, and yet these soldiers jest and spit in the face of God.
- And if sinful men are willing to do this to a perfectly innocent man, then we should not be surprised when they do this to us who desire to imitate Christ’s perfection.
- For as Jesus says in Matthew 10:25, “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!”
- So notice that from a human perspective living in the moment, this looks like the worst shame and dishonor a man could ever suffer. But from heaven’s perspective, this is the moment of Christ’s glory. The restraint and patience of Christ is here most honorable and admirable.
- And so it is whenever you suffer shame for Christ’s sake.
- Now after this theatre of mockery, Jesus eventually makes it to Golgotha/Calvary, and he is assisted by Simon of Cyrene who helps him carry the cross.
- There are various theories as to why this Golgotha was named “The Place of the Skull.”
- One legend is that the skull of Adam, the first man, was buried there. But that is doubtful unless Noah brought it with him on the ark.
- Another theory is that this is where David buried Goliath’s head. And thus, the imagery is that Christ, the son of David is here crushing the skull of the serpent, the greater Goliath, sin, death, and the devil.
- In either case, it is fitting that God should conquer death at a place so named.
- Summary: So that is the long Prelude, and now we arrive at the beginning of the crucifixion.
Verses 25-32 – The Third Hour
25And it was the third hour, and they crucified him.
26And the superscription of his accusation was written over, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
27And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left.
28And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.
29And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days,
30Save thyself, and come down from the cross.
31Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save.
32Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.
- In our reckoning, the third hour is roughly 9am, or three hours from when the sun rose.
- And it is interesting that while Mark could have emphasized and foregrounded the physical agony that Jesus was in (he doesn’t even mention the nails in his hands and his feet), instead he emphasizes the cruelty and reviling of those around him.
- First above his head reads the legal reason for his execution, that he is “King of the Jews.” And this of course is the way that Rome enforced Pax Romana. Peace by force. Peace by crucifying and making bloody examples of traitors.
- Second, we see two actual traitors crucified with him, one on his left hand, and one on his right hand. And in these two thieves is signified the entire human race.
- Adam stole the fruit from the tree. And here Jesus makes restitution for that theft and rebellion.
- Of this repayment it says in Psalm 69:4, “They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: They that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: Then I restored that which I took not away.”
- What humanity stole, Christ restores.
- We also have signified here that the cross is the throne from which God judges.
- In Matthew 25:33 it says, “And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.”
- And as we learn from Luke’s account, one of these rebels who at the third hour reviles Christ, later repents, and is told, “today you will be with me in Paradise.”
- So you can either die unrepentant like the rebel on the left, or you can die with faith, hope and love in your heart for Jesus, and have all your sins removed. You are going to die either way, so what kind of death shall you choose?
- For those who believe, the cross becomes the throne of mercy where all our sins go to die.
- As it says in Psalm 85:10, “Mercy and truth are met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; And righteousness shall look down from heaven.”
- The cross is that meeting point between mercy and truth, between righteousness and peace. Between God and sinners. And those who look in faith to Jesus, shall see righteousness smiling down upon them from heaven.
- In this sense, God’s judgment becomes our greatest hope.
- So three hours go by, and in Mark’s account Jesus ears are filled with reviling. And then in verse 33 it says…
Verse 33 – The Sixth Hour
33And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
- The sixth hour is what we would call noon. The time at which the sun shines brightest and highest in the sky. But this is no ordinary day. It is the day of the Lord. It is the day of judgment. It is the day spoken of and foretold by the prophets.
- It says in Amos 10:9, “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, That I will cause the sun to go down at noon, And I will darken the earth in the clear day.”
- Likewise in Zephaniah 1:14-15, “The great day of the Lord is near, It is near, and hasteth greatly, Even the voice of the day of the Lord: The mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, A day of trouble and distress, A day of wasteness and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness…”
- These oracles of God’s judgment upon the land are taken up and applied to the body of Jesus. For Jesus is the new holy land. Jesus is the new Israel. Jesus is the temple that must be destroyed in order to be rebuilt three days later. This is how Christ fulfills the Old Testament prophesies (by not saving himself he is able to save others!).
- This is the moment that Psalm 88 describes when it says, “For my soul is full of troubles: And my life draweth nigh unto the grave…Loved one and friend You have put far from me, And my acquaintances into darkness.”
- For three more hours it is darkness and silence. Mark tells us nothing of what happens during this time. And then finally in verse 34 we read…
Verses 34-39 – The Ninth Hour
34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
35And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias.
36And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down.
37And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.
38And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
39And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.
- Here are the only words that Mark places on Christ’s lips. This is what wisdom and truth shouts from the darkness, the question, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
- What is the meaning of this Why question?
- First, let me give you the four incorrect interpretations you must avoid (if you don’t want to be a heretic).
- 1. The first error, which is the heresy of Arius, says that Jesus is a creature and not the eternal son of God in the flesh. And so for Arius, the created Word/Son replaced the soul in Christ, and so when Jesus says “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Arius interprets it as a proof that Word/Son is lesser than God, because he calls him
“my God.”
- 2. The second error, is that of Nestorius, who said that the creature Jesus was indwelt by God according to grace (similar to how the prophets possessed the spirit of God), and therefore when Jesus cries “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” it is like a prophet lamenting the loss of the Holy Spirit’s presence in him.
- Both of these errors make Jesus less than God, or turn him into two persons and not one, and therefore the Roman Centurion is a far superior theologian when he simply confesses in verse 39, “truly this man was the Son of God.”
- 3. There is a third error more common in evangelical circles which says that when Jesus died, the divine nature was severed from the human nature (in other words, the hypostatic union was destroyed on the cross).
- But this misunderstands two things: 1) what human death is, which is the separation of the soul from the body, and 2) it misunderstands the nature of the hypostatic union or Incarnation.
- The death of Jesus was his voluntary and willful separating of his soul from his body (he truly died!), but because Jesus is a divine person (he is fully God) even his dead body remained united to His Person, and it was this very union of his dead flesh to His Person that effected his resurrection three days later.
- This is what Jesus is referring to when he says in John 10:18, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”
- It was easier for Christ to lay down his life and take it up again, than it is for you and I to go to sleep and wake up again. Because Jesus is the Eternal Son of God. Even his dead body is an instrument of his power.
- 4. A similar and fourth error is that on the cross, the unity of the Trinity was “ruptured” when the Father “turns his face away” from the Son.
- And this is one of those places where how you interpret a metaphor can either make you a heretic or keep you orthodox.
- If you say there was a breach or rupture in the Trinity, you are contradicting what Scripture says everywhere about God’s essence, namely that He is One, that He is unchangeable, that is He is perfect, that He is omnipotent.
- To posit that the death of Jesus “breaks” something in God’s essence is also to confuse the two natures of Christ.Remember, only Christ’s human nature dies (the soul is separated from the body), and his divine nature remains divine (perfect, invulnerable, etc.). The divine nature by definition cannot die, and therefore because the Son is wholly God, no such “rupture in God” is ever possible.
- Alright, so there is a sampling of errors and heresies to avoid when thinking about Christ’s death and these words of dereliction, what then is the orthodox and correct interpretation of “My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?”
- First notice that these words are a quotation from the opening line of Psalm 22. And if you read Psalm 22, you will see that it describes in vivid detail everything that Jesus is experiencing: the piercing of his hands and feet, the casting of lots to divide his garments, his being surrounded by bulls of Bashan, by wicked dogs, his heart being turned to wax, etc.
- But how does Psalm 22 end? It ends with God ruling as king and all the nations bowing down to serve him.
- Psalm 22:27-29 says, “All the ends of the world Shall remember and turn to the Lord, And all the families of the nations Shall worship before You. For the kingdom is the Lord’s, And He rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth Shall eat and worship; All those who go down to the dust Shall bow before Him, Even he who cannot keep himself alive.”
- And so Jesus has chosen these final words very carefully, because his death is the answer to the great Why question of human suffering. And his death is the explanatory path for how we go from feeling forsaken by God to worshipping at His feet.
- So Jesus says “my God, my God” first,according to his true humanity and second as a spokesperson for the church who is his body, and in doing so he teaches us how to call upon God just like the psalmist did.
- And then when he asks, “why have you forsaken me,” He is asking the Father, “why have you willed that I should be handed over to suffering, and that these men should be darkened?” Jesus of course knows the answer (according to both his human and divine knowledge), but he says this to teach us how to pray and talk to God in our suffering.
- Or to put it another way, Jesus is asking on our behalf why God permits such evils to afflict our world. Why does God permit the righteous and innocent to suffer?
- That is the great Why question that Psalm 22 and the death of Christ gives answer to. And Jesus wants to provoke that “problem of evil” with his dying breath.
- So how does the death of Christ answer this question that Jesus poses?
Conclusion
When you or I feel forsaken by God, it is the most natural thing in the world to ask God, why? Where are you? Why have you abandoned me? That is where Psalm 22 starts.
- And then depending on how long the darkness seems to prevail, and heaven seems to remain silent, our faith in God is tested.
- This is where Christ upon the cross becomes the great hope and anchor of our soul.
- Because first we see what we deserve as sinners (a painful and bloody death for our treason), and therefore however much physical pain we might be in, the pain we deserve is far greater. And further, while our sins deserve eternal punishment, everlasting pain and torment, the death of Christ means our pain as Christians is only ever temporary. It will not last forever!
- Paul says in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
- And in 2 Corinthians 4:16-17 he says, “though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”
- So what makes our sufferings light and momentary (when they feel anything but) is our comparing them to 1) what our sins deserve (eternal conscious torment in this life and the next), and to 2) what Christ’s death has purchased for us (eternal conscious happiness beyond anything our heart could imagine).
- The death of Jesus puts an exclamation mark and a deadline on all of our pain. And so when God permits the righteous to suffer, as the book of Job teaches, it is only to reward us more richly afterward. The pain is temporary, but God’s love is forever.
- And so I close with the promise of Isaiah 54:7-8, “For a mere moment I have forsaken you, But with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; But with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you,” Says the Lord, your Redeemer.”
- May God show you this grace.
- In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen.
