MARK 15:22-41   Lesson # 44

THE CRUCIFIXION: THE CHALLENGE TO COME DOWN

I. Greetings:

II. Introduction: Today’s text covers the crucifixion. This is not an easy subject to cover because it is so important.
Oswald Chambers says: “The reason we are so shallow and flippant in our presentation of the Cross is that we have never seen ourselves for one second in the light of God. When we do see ourselves in the light of God, there is only one of two refuges–suicide or the Cross of Christ” (Highest Good, p. 98.)

III. Put To Torture. Mark 15:22-25.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 15:22-25.
Note: Most commentators believe that the wine mixed with myrrh was a sedative. It was offered to Jesus by pious Jewish women of Jerusalem to lessen the horrible pain of crucifixion. Notice, Jesus did not take what was offered.
Note: Josephus described crucifixion as “the most wretched of all ways of dying.” Cicero called crucifixion, “the grossest, cruelest or most hideous manner of execution” (Lane, p. 561).
Note: The hanging on a gibbet was for idolaters and blasphemers who had been stoned. They were already expired and were hung for humiliation, not execution.
>>>> Have someone read Deuteronomy 21:23.
>>>> Have someone read Galatians 3:13.
Q Was the crucifixion a side-light or the center of Mark’s view of Jesus’ life?
An = It was the center. Remember the five times Jesus predicted His death in chapters 8-10. Remember also how Jesus’ awareness and acceptance of His crucifixion dominated all of chapter 14. Remember his refusal to let the miracles become the center of His ministry in the chapters before that.
Q Why was something so horrible and painful described with such restraint in Mark?
An = Lane (p.564) thinks it is because everyone knew the horrors of crucifixion. However, we have also seen that Mark was carefully written. It could be that the author wanted his readers to focus on something else. Let us see what Mark gave us; what Mark wanted his readers to focus on.

IV. The Humans Act: The Call to Come Down. Mark 15:26-32.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 15:26-32.
Note: Notice, Mark took longer to describe how they divided His clothes than how they crucified Him. It stressed that they took His clothes like a common criminal. It was Roman policy for the state to confiscate the property of a man convicted of treason. Jesus had so little that the soldiers were allowed to have His clothes.
Note: Mark gave us the charge leveled against Jesus: a royal pretender, (15:26), yet Mark also presented Jesus as executed like a criminal.
Q What was Mark trying to say by mentioning those with whom Jesus was crucified?
An = Barclay reminds us that “Jesus was crucified between two thieves. It was the symbol of His whole life that to the end He companied with sinners”(Barclay, p. 381). One thing is evident; Mark was not presenting Jesus in a good marketing light! Jesus’ reputation was trashed! He was killed as a convicted criminal with His property confiscated; His charge or crime was clearly portrayed, and He was tortured as a criminal among other criminals.
>>>> Have someone re-read Mark 15:29-32.
Q What is the overall stress of these verses?
An = Humiliation and verbal abuse. Again they added insult to injury. Two types of challenges were given to Jesus, by two different groups.
Q The by-passer opened the verbal abuse with what type of challenge?
An = If you are so powerful, so as to destroy the great temple, come down from the cross.
Q What was the challenge of the religious leaders?
An = If He can save others, let Him now save Himself, no doubt referring to His healing ministry.
Note: However, their mockery had a profound meaning, for if Jesus did come down from the cross then He could not have fulfilled His mission. >> Have someone read to the group Mark 8:31 (Lane, pp. 568-569).
Note: The taunting of the chief priests and the scribes brought to an end a long sought after goal: to destroy Him (See Mark 3:6, 11:18, 12:12, 14:1-2, 14:10-11, 14:64, 15:1, 15:3, 15:11 Lane, p. 569). Oswald Chambers reminds us that it was not the sinners of the town that wanted Jesus dead, but, “the refined, cultured, religious, moral people who refuse to sacrifice the natural for the spiritual.” He goes on to say that those who let their “natural goodness” stand in the way of their understanding, and refuse to acknowledge that they need something beyond their own goodness, become those who detest the Cross of Jesus. Many people today want to admire Jesus, but there is often great antagonism to His death on the cross. Barbaric religion some call it.
Note: Barclay quotes General Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, who said: “It is because Jesus did not come down from the Cross that we believe in Him” (Barclay, p. 381).
Barclay goes on to note two things. 1) His death was absolutely necessary. If He did not die, we could not be forgiven. 2) If He loved us any less than He does, He would have come down from the cross and ended their humiliating, belittling of His glory. He does love us, and He bore the indignity and shame (Barclay, p. 381).
Chambers adds, “The Cross is the secret of the heart of God, the secret of the Person of the Son of God, the secret of the Holy Ghost’s work.”
Note: One of the hardest things about Christianity for me is bearing humiliation. It is only when I sense His love that I can take it. What is funny is when I am in His love, I know it is the right thing to do and bear it well. Until I give up my right to my agenda I can never get there. What is also true is that when the “death” is over, the real joy of my life begins.

V. God Acts: The Sky Darkens and The Son of Man Speaks. Mark 15:33-34.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 15:33-34.
>>>> Have someone read Psalms 22:1-2.
Note: Chrysostom (Chrysostom, p. 520) thinks this should have given them some hint that God was not pleased. He also points out that it could not have been an eclipse, it lasted too long. They had seen eclipses in their day, and this was not an eclipse. >>> Have someone read Amos 8:9, 10.
Q What other time in Israel’s history had the sky darkened?
An = Lane (Lane, p. 572) points out that such a darkness over the land has its earlier example in the darkness that passed over Egypt (Exodus 10:21-22). The darkness is the sign of the coming of judgment and the sign of coming salvation for Israel. The darkness was the sign of both salvation and judgment.
Q What did Jesus’ cry, the only speech Mark quotes of Jesus from the cross, mean?
An = It could be Jesus expressed His humanity and despair. Others see it as a statement of triumph, for He quotes Psalms 22:1 and the first verse implies the rest of the Psalm which ends in triumph (especially 22:22-31).
However, the key emphasis is that the darkness and the cry indicate that “The sinless Son of God died the sinner’s death and experienced the bitterness of desolation. This was the cost of providing `a ransom for the many'” (Lane, p. 573).
Note: The repetition of the phrase “My God, My God” points to the depth of His pain; whereas the personal pronoun “My” shows us that even in Jesus’ deepest pain He was still saw His Father as His God. He died honest, but not bitter. He spoke the truth to God, but He did not abandon God’s will. Some of us have deep confusion and pain, and the Bible teaches us to tell God the truth, but to do so and remain loyal.

VI. Human Response: Curiosity, Taunt, Wonder and Love. Mark 15:35-41.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 15:35-41.
Note: “Eloi, Eloi” sounds much like “Eli, Eli” and as Jesus was grasping for breath it could sound very much like Eli-ya-hu (Hebrew) or Elijah. There was a Jewish custom that said Elijah would come to save righteous men. So the first response to Jesus’ speech misinterpreted His quotation of Psalm 22. Then someone ran to give Him a drink with the taunt: let us see if Elijah can get Him down. Here was the third (actually fourth, if you count the other thieves on the cross 15:32 b) time Jesus was challenged to come down from the Cross. This time they taunted Him with the prospect that if He was really righteous, Elijah would get him down. The other times they goaded Him with the taunt that if He was truly powerful, He would come down by His own power.
Q What do you think Jesus cried in 15:37?
An = Obviously we do not know, but many think He cried “Finished” (John 19:30). Whatever He said, it ripped the temple curtain and caused the centurion to exclaim: Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39). The centurion had no doubt seen many men die, but there was something about the dying of this man Jesus that caused Him to see God.
It is often in our weakness and our willingness to serve in a costly and humiliating manner that reveals God to people in no other way. If we refuse to suffer, maybe we refuse to communicate the truths the world really needs to see. Jesus refused to use His power to come down and escape the suffering that led to our salvation, but rather used His power to bear His suffering well.
Q Why were the women mentioned?
An = They were loyal. Many times when some are driven away by fear or confusion, others, though bewildered and heart-broken, will not leave. Barclay says: “Love clings to Christ even when the intellect cannot understand” (Barclay, p. 385).
Note: The curtain was torn. That which separates God’s holiness from sinful man was torn. Barclay notes, “No longer was God hidden. No longer need men guess and grope. Men could look at Jesus and say, `That is what God is like. God loves me like that'” (Barclay, p. 385).
Note: Jesus’ death was like no other. Only God Himself could die for our salvation. Only a perfect man could be a perfect sacrifice for our sins. Our call is to identify with His death and die “to our right to ourselves.” We need to sacrifice our agenda for His agenda.
Oswald Chambers puts it so well, “I have to take up that cross daily and prove that I am no longer my own. Individual independence has gone, and all that is left is personal passionate devotion to Jesus Christ through identification with His Cross.”[:]