Mark 15
Last night prepared us for today !( SEE PREVIOUS POST : Thank God - its Maundy Thursday!)
In Mark 14 we saw
Jesus revealed as the Passover Lamb – “the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world “ (John
1 :29,36).
Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to be
that lamb! Previously He had spoken about this in Mark
8:31; Mark 9:31 and Mark
10:33-34. We see it in the institution of
the Lord’s supper (14:22-25) - “This is my body … this is my blood of the covenant
which is poured out for many…”
Well, until now it has all
been theory. Today however, on Good
Friday this is no longer theory. This
is the day on which we remember
that there came a time when
Jesus actually gave
His life as the Passover
lamb – so that the wrath of God would pass over all those who would embrace Him and His
work on the cross. I
trust that the Holy Spirit who has inspired
the Scriptures [1],
will be pleased to show
us the
awesomeness of this event as we meditate on these familiar words once again.
The
key thought is this : Jesus is handed over
to be killed. Consider the following sequence of events as they unfold in Mark 15 :
1. The chief priests ,
the elders and scribes and the whole
council deliver Jesus to Pilate accusing
Him of many things(15:1-5)
2. Pilate delivers Jesus over to the crowd who kept on
shouting “ crucify Him!” (15: 6-15)
3. Jesus is handed over to the soldiers who hurt Him , mocked Him , stripped Him and eventually crucified Him (15:16-20)
4. The soldiers handed
Jesus over to the cross to die
(15: 21- 32)
5. On the cross Jesus
is handed over to
forsakenness and to death (15: 33- 41)
6. From the cross Jesus is handed over Joseph of Arimathea (15: 42-45)
7. Joseph of Arimathea hands Jesus over
to the grave (15: 46 )
All, except the last two points are apparently motivated by sinful, ugly
emotions – but all these points
emphasise the forsakenness of Christ. He was handed over to die. He was handed over to the grave . The
Passover Lamb had been slain !
Now what ? At face value this
all sounds very depressing , doesn’t it ? And who should we blame for his death? For every
death humanity looks for
a guilty party . The relatives of
Malaysian flight MH 370
are blaming the Malaysian
government for the disappearance of their loved ones. The families
of this week’s South Korean
ferry disaster in which up to 300
people (mainly children) are missing,
they are blaming the captain and the shipping line. When a
loved one dies on the operating table
people blame the doctor and
nurses . In a fatal car crash people blame the other driver.
Who
should we blame for Jesus’ death ?
We
saw very clearly that
Jesus had now been delivered by the hands of men - for them to do what they will do with him.
The whole chapter is about men and what they do to Jesus. In this chapter Jesus the Lord , the sovereign King of the Universe ,
is quiet. He does not say a word. He lets men do what
they want to do to Him , although , in
Matthew’s account of the arrest of Jesus He makes mention of this fact : “Do you
think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and He at once send
me more than 12 legions
of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled
that it must be so? [2]
It must be so, and so
Isaiah prophesies : Like a lamb He is led to the slaughter [3].
There are no nice and helpful
people around Him. The disciples have all abandoned Him by this time. The faithful
women who ministered to Jesus stood at a distance and looked[4]. The
crowd shouts at Him. The soldiers mock Him and spit on
Him. They steal His clothes and divide
them. They crucify Him on the cross –naked
and exposed . The by-passers
mock Him and insult Him : “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and
rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” So also the chief priests and the scribes mocked him to one another,
saying, “ He saved others; he cannot save Himself.” Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and
believe. Those who were crucified
with Him
also reviled Him . (15:29-32)
The
only nice man here is Joseph
of Arimathea, “who was also himself looking for the
kingdom of God that took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus … and laid
him in a tomb that had been cut out of
the rock.” (15:43-46). We might have
some sympathy for Simon of Cyrene who was
made to carry the cross of Jesus cross. We are
thankful that one of the thieves crucified with Jesus believed in
Jesus in his dying moments. [5]
We have some sympathy for the Roman
centurion, who after Jesus died
said : “ Truly this man was the
Son of God !” (15:39) Other than this, everything is
very harsh . And we ask : who is
ultimately guilty for delivering Jesus up to His death? There is such a long list of people to blame . Can we find the
real culprit and so perhaps get him to bear the blame for sending the Son of
God to the cross?
· Can we blame PILATE? Pilate was perhaps one of the most
powerful and influential men in Jesus' day in Judea. He was a Roman procurator,
the administrator of Judea. He had the political power to stop the killing of
Jesus. Moreover, as Scripture makes clear, Pilate was convinced of Jesus'
innocence[6]. Three times he declared publicly that he could find no basis of
accusation against Jesus. He wanted to avoid sentencing Jesus[7], but before his hands were dry, he handed Jesus over to be crucified.
He really wanted to free Jesus, but he also wanted to please the crowd.
Pilate's conscience was ultimately drowned out by the loud shouts of the crowd.
Should we not accuse him?
· Should we blame the ROMAN SOLDIERS? They mocked Him[8], and
they ultimately crucified Him. Can we
accuse them? Possibly, but we need to realise that this was their job. They did
what they were commanded to do.
· What about the JEWISH
PEOPLE and their PRIESTS? Here we have quite a strong case. On the day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter
makes it very clear, that he considered the Jewish people and their rulers
guilty of this crime.[9]
Should we not blame them?
· What about JUDAS ISCARIOT? After all, he betrayed Jesus
directly into the hands of the Jewish people and their priests. Isn't he the
guilty one - ultimately?
WHAT DOES THE
BIBLE SAY?
The Bible has two responses to this
dilemma :
1. Human Responsibility
: The fact that so many people
could be blamed should cause
us to think very carefully, and if
indeed we would consider the
verdict of the whole Bible, then
we shall discover very quickly that the
Bible teaches the corporate guilt of humanity.[10] When it comes
to putting the blame at someone's feet, the Bible actually points to all of us,
even though it is true that those who actually committed the deed are guilty of
a greater sin. Pilate, the Jewish people and their priests, who shouted, "crucify him" clearly have a lot
more to answer for.[11]
Horatio Bonar [12]
wrote an excellent hymn that expresses the corporate guilt of mankind:
‘Twas I that shed the sacred blood,
I nailed Him to the tree
I crucified the Son of God, I joined
the mockery.
Of all that shouting multitude, I
feel that I am one;
And in that din of voices rude, I
recognise my own.
Around the cross the throng I see, mocking the sufferer’s groan
Yet still my voice it seems to be, as
if I mocked alone.
It is deeply entrenched in our
sinful human nature to deny our personal guilt
and to point fingers at someone else,
but the Bible says that the whole world
is responsible for Jesus’ death. He died because we all put Him there!
2. Divine Sovereignty : Jesus died because it was His
Father’s will. Jesus died to fulfil the
Scriptures (14:49) . Jesus died
because the Father’s love took Him there : For
God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but
have eternal life." (Jn. 3:16) – see also Romans 8:32 . Octavius Winslow summed it up in a neat statement: “Who delivered up Jesus to die ?
Not Judas , for money; not Pilate, for fear ; not the Jews for envy - but the Father – for love! [13]
So, we need to look at the cross
in two ways :
On a human level all of us are responsible
for Jesus’ death. Our sin took Him there
.
On a divine level God the Father gave Him up to die for us.
Acts 2 :23 is a key verse in this respect. Peter preaches
on the day of Pentecost :” … this Jesus,
delivered up according to the definite
plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless
men .” Here you find both , human
responsibility and divine sovereignty
So , why did Jesus die ?
1.
He did not die . He was killed !
2.
He was not killed. He died, giving
Himself up for us
to do His Father’s will.
That is why we speak of the day on
which He died as Good Friday! Why good? Because something very good happened
there. Christ died to deal with my and
your sin – in two ways : (i) Christ decisively
dealt with our sin by
freeing us from its power (expiation) - no more condemnation (
Rom 8:1) ! (ii) Christ
dealt with the righteous anger of God towards us. (propitiation)
Thank God for Good Friday !
[1] 2 Tim 3:16 “ All
Scripture is breathed out by God …” ( Gr. theopneustos)
[2] Matthew 26:53
[3] Isaiah 53:7 “ He
was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb
that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is
silent, so he opened not his mouth.”
[4] Matthew 27:55,56
[5] Luke 23: 40-43
[6] Lk
23:4,14,22
[7] Lk
23:4,14,22
[8] Lk
23:11
[9]
Acts 3:12 - 15
[10]
Rom 3:9 - 23
[11]
Mk 14:21
[12]
Horatio Bonar, a Scottish Hymn writer,
lived from 1809 - 1889
[13] John Stott: The Cross of Christ ,
p. 61
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