"And they pressed into service a passerby coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), that he might beat his cross. And they brought him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull. And 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 should take. And it was the third hour when they crucified Him. And the inscription of the charge against Him read, ‘THE KING OF THE JEWS.’ And they crucified two robbers with Him, one on the right and one on the left. And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘And He was reckoned with transgressors.’ And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads, and saying, ‘Ha! You who were 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 along with the scribes were also 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!’ And those who were crucified with Him were casting the same insult at him.
And when the sixth hour had come, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani?’ which is translated, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ And when some of the bystanders heard it they began saying, ‘Behold, He is calling for Elijah.’ And 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 dry, and breathed His last. And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him saw the way He breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’"
(Mark 15:21-39)
Religion can sometimes be the enemy of Christianity. Down with religion! The religion of which I speak has to do with ceremonies and rituals, symbols and traditions. Don’t misunderstand me, there is a place for all of that, but all too often, these things hold a primary place instead of a secondary one.
When too much emphasis is placed on the symbols of Christianity rather than on the substance of it, the symbols themselves lose their meaning. Crosses are a prime example. Around the necks of hundreds of thousands in our society today are crosses of gold and silver. Many of them are beautifully decorated with precious stones – sapphires, rubies and diamonds. The people who wear them, in the majority, blissfully go on their way without even the vaguest understanding of the meaning of the true Cross. The Cross has merely become another item of jewelry. Yet, there were no jewels in the Cross which executed our Lord Jesus. Our culture has lost its understanding of the Cross. How about you? What does the Cross mean to you?
One minister I know of surveyed one hundred members of various Christian churches regarding the difference the Cross made to them. He asked this question: "Would it have made any difference to your life as you are now living it if Christ had not died on the Cross?" Of the one hundred surveyed, forty-five said they did not think so. Twenty-five said they thought so, but that they didn’t understand what difference it made from the theological explanation they had heard. Twenty responded that Jesus’ death on the Cross made all the difference in what they believed and how they lived. And finally, ten said that they had never comprehended what the Cross was all about, so they just didn’t know. And these were all members of Christian congregations. Only 20% apparently understood the real significance of the Cross of Christ.
If you are involved in religion, you may never come to understand the true significance of the Cross. Rather, what you may end up with could be no more than a sentimental understanding of a beautiful golden ornament rather than a rough-hewed instrument of death. In order to understand the real significance of the Cross, you must go to the word of God. In its pages, we are presented with a dramatically different picture of what the Cross really means. It is a picture which, if rightly perceived, has the power to change your life, even as it changed the course of human history.
You see, the Cross has unfathomed promise and power. Because of the Cross of Christ, our lives can have hope. Because of the Cross of Christ, we can experience forgiveness. Because of the Cross of Christ, our lives can find real meaning. Because of the Cross of Christ, we can be made whole. In the Cross there is healing. In the Cross there is deliverance. In the Cross there is power. "Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed." (Isaiah 53:4-5) This is the truth about the Cross. It is the same truth Paul so ably articulated, "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." The Cross can make all the difference in your life.
What does the Cross mean to you? How does it impact your daily living? Today, let’s view afresh from our text, a few of the portraits of the Cross.
Even though Jesus stumbled and fell on His way to the Cross, there was absolutely no doubt that He intended to go there. His whole life had been for this moment, and now it was upon Him. He knew full well what He was doing and where He was going. Only a few days earlier, in the Garden of Gethsemene, He had prayed in agony concerning this event. He knew what the Cross held for Him, but He also knew that it was the only way God’s purpose in the redemption of mankind could be fulfilled. The Cross was top priority for Jesus Christ.
It is no accident that in verse 28 it say, "And the Scripture was fulfilled. . ." The Old Testament is full of prophecies concerning the death of Christ. The Cross was no accident. It was the plan of God. It was the priority of God. From before the foundation of the world, God knew about the Cross. When God created man, in that one creative event, He also ordained the Cross for Himself. I suppose He could have avoided it. Indeed, the choice was His. All He had to do was to forego the creation of man. He knew full well what would happen. It tells us a great deal about the nature of God and about His radical selflessness, that He chose suffering for Himself and life for us.
The Cross says a great deal about the nature of God. The Cross is central to God’s purpose in our lives – not just in our redemption, but also for the living of our lives. The Cross is an instrument of death. I suppose one would liken it to any of the instruments of death throughout the centuries. Whether you speak of the heavy axe of the executioner, the hangman’s noose, the guillotine, the gas chamber, or the electric chair, you are speaking of only one thing – of death by execution. The Cross is a way of death. It was for Jesus, and it must be also for us.
In God’s redemptive plan, the Cross is priority one. Because without it, there could be made no sacrifice for sin. The Scripture teaches that all of us have seen Him, and that all of us fall short of the glory of God. We are sinners, both by nature and by choice. The Bible also reveals that the wages of sin is death. If we were made to pay for our sins, our destiny would be to spend an eternity in hell. Hell, you see, is the second death. The judgement of an all holy God rests upon human beings. That is why Jesus came.
Jesus came to die on the Cross so that we might be forgiven. Jesus came and died that we might live. Jesus went to the Cross because of His great love for us and because of our great need. Jesus went to the Cross because that was the plan of God. It was the plan of God, however, because it revealed the nature of God. The Cross shows us God’s love. The Cross reveals to us the selflessness of God, the holy other-centeredness of God. The Cross shows us that God has our interests at heart. He desires His best for each one of us.
The Cross also is a principle of life for us. Jesus not only died there to pay the penalty for our sin, He died there to show us that we must die as well. The Cross is a principle for living. The Cross speaks to us of being dead to sin and alive to God. The Cross speaks to us of being dead to our selfish desires and living for Jesus. The Cross speaks to us of dying daily to self and living daily for God. The Cross is a way of life for us. It is still top priority.
They led Jesus out to crucify Him, and on a hill called Golgotha, they killed our Lord. Crucifixion was an extremely painful way to die. One is hard-pressed to described the agony experienced in execution through crucifixion. There have been some attempts to do so, but for all the graphic language that can be used, none is probably adequate. The pain of the Cross was all consuming.
You must remember that Jesus was already a bloody pulp by the time He reached Golgotha. He had endured several mock trials. He had been scourged, the very flesh of His body laid open as the thongs of the glagella, impregnated with bone and lead ripped at His naked frame. He had been mocked by the soldiers, a crown of thorns woven and pressed hard upon His brow. He was beaten with a stick, spat upon and struck with many blows. Then the Cross had been placed upon His back as He stumbled to make His way down the Via Dolorosa. Now, He was at Calvary, stretched out upon the wooden, splintery cross. Spikes were driven through His hands. His knees were bent, one foot placed over the other, and a large spike driven through both. The Cross was then lowered into the ground. The torture had just begun.
Dying on a cross could be a long and excruciating torture. The weight of the body would put great pressure upon the medial nerves. Hanging there in that fashion also would cause the lungs to begin to fill up with fluid. Many people died from suffocation. As the pain began to be unbearable, there was enough bend in the knee to push up for a breath of air and to relieve the pain in the arms. But that only caused pain as the feet pushed bone against the metal spike. This could go on, literally for hours. Finally, to put a swift end to the life, the Romans had a practice of breaking the legs of the one crucified after an extended period of time.
Jesus endured all of this physical suffering, with the exception of the breaking of His legs. You cannot imagine the agony He must have felt in His physical body as He hung there between Heaven and Earth, dying for your sins. But let me remind you – the agony Jesus suffered on the Cross was more than physical.
The Scripture reveals that surrounding Him were people who cruelly mocked Him. Verse 29 and 30 say, "And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads, and saying, ‘Ha! You who were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!’" Even the two thieves, between whom He was crucified, began to mock Him. Below, the soldiers were casting dice for His garments. Insults heaped upon abuse – all at one who had never had an evil thought, who had never committed a single sin, who was pure and spotless, like a lamb without blemish.
But the pain of the Cross extends even further. Verses 33 and 34 record this: "And when the sixth hour had come, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, Laama Sabachthani?’ which is translated, ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’"
Do you see what is happening? It is not enough that His body was racked with physical pain. It is not enough that insult upon insult was heaped upon Him. Now, because He, in His body, was bearing the sin of humankind, God Himself had turned His face from Him.
Can you conceive of it? Do you understand what this meant to Jesus? Here was the Son of God, the Savior of mankind. Here was God the Son, the Word made Flesh. He was one with God. There had never been a time in all of history, there had never been one instant, not one billionth of a second when the Father and the Son had ever been separated. From before the foundation of the world, Jesus had enjoyed perfect and unbroken communion with His Father. But now, because He had taken our place on the Cross, and had borne in His body the sin of all mankind, the Father, too holy to look upon sin, had turned the countenance of His glory away from His Son. How that must have hurt!
"My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" in agony Jesus cried. "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" This was the worst pain of all. The physical and emotional torment must have paled by comparison. Now He was alone, cut off from the One who had never before forsaken Him. The Scripture says, "Greater love hath no man than this, than He lay down His life for a friend." Oh, the love of God put Him there, and the love of God kept Him there. He could have called ten thousand angels, but because He loved us, he endured the Cross, despising the shame, for you. "Amazing love, how can it be? That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?"
When Jesus breathed His last, an amazing thing happened. Verse 38 records it: "And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." This is the power of the Cross.
As Jesus breathed His last breath, on the hill called Golgotha, outside of Jerusalem, back inside the walls of that city, the veil separating the Holy and the Most Holy place in the Temple was town in two. It was torn from top to bottom by the hand of God. The veil which separated free access to the Most Holy place by the priests was now torn asunder. They way was opened for all of us to come to God.
The power of the Cross makes it possible for all of us to deal directly with God. The proscription of religion are done away with and the possibilities of a relationship with God are opened up. The Scripture teaches that we can now all become priest unto God. There is now a priesthood of all believers, wherein we can come to God for ourselves. We need no priest or pope, no mediator between God and man except the One and Only Mediator, Jesus Christ. We don'’ need to pray to dead saints, we can be living saints, praying to a living Lord, the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls.
There is power in the Cross of Jesus Christ – power to set us free from our sin, power to change our lives, power to give us peace within, power to give us eternal, abundant life. When Jesus died on the Cross, the power of God was unleashed to break down every obstacle between God and man. The way has been opened, the debt has been paid. The free gift of grace is now offered to all through the power of the Cross.
What does the Cross mean to you? Have you experienced its power in your life? Is the Cross merely an historical event, which happened almost two thousand years ago? Is the Cross merely a sentimental story you heard once in Sunday School? Is the Cross not more than an ornament worn around your neck? Do you see what Jesus did there for you?
See Him hanging there upon that cruel tree. See Him suffering there in undiminished agony. Yet, in His face, swollen and bruised, there is a glimpse of the love. He has for you and me. Can you see Him there?
At the foot of the Cross, throughout it all, was a Roman Centurion. No doubt, he had witnessed many crucifixions, but this one was different. Looking at the Savior, dying there for the sins of mankind, this centurion had seen something which he had never seen in any other man. Perhaps he saw the peace in the midst of torture. Perhaps he saw the love of God. Here was one not struggling to be free, but even in this time of sheer torment was thinking of others. He’d said to John, His disciple, that he should take care of His mother. Even as He hung there, these words came from His lips, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And at the last, as His life ebbed away, feeling the unimaginable pain of being forsaken by His Father, He said, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." And He died. "And when the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him saw the way He breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’" What does the Cross mean to you?
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