Mark 15:6-16, Vicarious Atonement

We are still thinking about the silence of Christ.  He disregarded any legal attempts to win His case.  He did not seek to challenge the people to take up His cause.  He did not call twelve legions of angels to deliver Him.  He endured the cross, for the joy that was set before Him!  He submitted to the will of Abba Father!

While Jesus was amazingly silent, He did speak on certain occasions.  Caiaphas asked, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”  Jesus spoke clearly: I AM!  “Ego eimi!”  Two simple words He used often to declare who He was and why He had come and what He would mean to you if you were to receive Him!  I AM the Bread of Life!  I AM the door!  Before Abraham was, I AM!  Caiaphas knew the question to ask Jesus by which He would have no choice but to “self-incriminate.”

It was the Father’s will.  But Jesus embraced the cross because, THERE WAS NO ONE ELSE!  He was the One and the only One to do the Father’s will.  And what was the Father doing that required such from His Son?  The Father was loving the world!  The world of sin and sinners.  The world ruled by the prince of darkness.  That evil one had to have his hour (Lk. 22:53).  And we had to have Someone who had no sin to become sin for us become the righteousness God IN HIM (2 Cor. 5:21).

What we are talking about is “vicarious atonement.”  “Vicarious” refers to something endured or done by one person substituting for another.  An example is “vicarious punishment” where one person pays the penalty for another.  That is not just an example; it is what Jesus did!

Abraham knew God would provide another to take the place of his son Isaac to Mt. Moriah (Gen. 22).  Isaac asked, “Where is the lamb?”  Dad answered, “God Himself will provide the lamb.”  And God did.  A ram, caught in the bushes, died in the place of Isaac, and Abraham knew he needed a substitute, as did Moses (22:14).

The Suffering Servant was the substitute (Isa. 53): “… wounded for our transgressions … bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed … all we like sheep have gone astray, and the LORD has laid on Him (the silent lamb led to the slaughter) the iniquities of us all.”

Lest we fail to understand, God provided a live example of “vicarious atonement” the day Christ died.  His name was Barabbas, a terrorist we would say, a murderer.  As for Pilate, how pathetic a man.  Everything was a game and everyone a game piece he could arrange.  “So Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them, and he delivered Jesus, after he had scourged Him, to be crucified.”  As evil as these two men were, God used them to show us what He was doing, what required the only begotten Son of God to give His life on the cruel cross.  I am Barabbas.  Christ’s righteous life was given in exchange for mine, bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood!  “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Ac. 4:12).  There is no one to save us from sin but Jesus Christ.  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”

John 7:25-31, What time is it?

Why did Jesus maintain His silence?  Because He was committed to the will of His Father.  He had settled this in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He had “assumed” this from before the foundation of the world (Psalm 2:6-9).  His life goal was to fully do the will of His Father.  He knew that His hour had come, and while Gethsemane makes it clear that this was not something He embraced without understanding the difficulty of the cross, He nevertheless embraced the cross! 

John Calvin said it like this: “It is certain that Christ was silent when false witnesses pressed hard upon him, not only because they did not deserve a reply, but because he did not seek to be now acquitted, knowing that his hour was come.”  Jesus didn’t even try to correct the false witnesses by explaining what He had meant about “rebuilding the temple in three days.”  He confidently embraced the cross!

It is not a sin for a servant of the Lord to seek to preserve his life when under attack.  David ran from King Saul for seven years.  I heard a “teacher” criticize David for going over to the Philistines because he feared for his life.  The argument was that David knew God’s promise, that he would be king, and that he should have just trusted God.  The Bible does not paint the situation like that. 

On the other hand, why was David convinced he should stand up to Goliath.  He didn’t have to.  He was taking a potentially fatal approach.  Except that David was convinced that the glory of God required someone to do it and no one else seemed willing.  What’s the difference between these two events in David’s life?

Paul, fled Damascus in a basket.  He fled from Antioch to Iconium to Lystra to Derbe.  Paul let local believer talk him out of going before the riotous mob at Ephesus.  Yet, there came a day when he took a legal step to keep himself in prison so he could stand before the emperor.

In Jesus’ case, His life was in danger long before the cross.  “Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand” (Jn. 10:39).  Later, “Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews” but fled to Ephraim for safety (Jn. 11:53-54). Jesus did not intentionally put Himself in a situation where the Father had to bail Him out so to speak: “Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God” (Mt. 4:7).  But now, before Caiaphas and Pilate He was unwilling to flee, even though there might have been a way of escape.  Previously “they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not come” (Jn. 7:30).  Something about an encounter with certain Greeks told Him, through the Spirit, that “the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified” (Jn. 12:23).  It was Passover (Jn. 13:1), He was in Jerusalem (Lk. 13:32f), and there would be no escape!  He knew His Bible.  He was filled with the Spirit.  So He embraced the cross!  That is how we will know what hour it is in which we are living!

Mark 14:53-65, The Silence of Christ (2)

Peter confirmed the silence of Christ, speaking of the Lord Jesus, who when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously (1 Pt. 2:23).  But let’s ask why?  Why did Jesus not answer His accusers?  Why was He as a sheep before its shearers is silent?  I want to begin with some negatives.

For example, sometimes in Scripture we are told to be silent as a means to making peace.  A soft answer turns away wrath (Prov. 15:1).  Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles (Prov. 21:23).  Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath (Jas. 1:19).  But Jesus was not silent in an attempt to make peace.  It’s not that Jesus was and is not a “peace-maker.”  As prophesied, He is our peace … And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near (Eph. 2:14-18; cf. Isa. 9:6-7; Ps. 85:10; Ac. 10:36).  He blesses the “peacemaker” (Mt. 5:9; James 3:17-18).  But Jesus is not making peace.  He knows that the Jewish leaders are the “workers of iniquity,” the ones who are God’s tools to bring about the cross. 

Furthermore, Jesus’ silence is not His way to file a claim against injustice of the Jewish leadership.  Without a doubt, there were countless miscarriages of justice, as we call them.  Here are a few of the violations of Jewish law committed by the chief priests and scribes:

1.    No trial of the Sanhedrin was to begin at night (v53).

2.    No trial of the Sanhedrin was to convene on a feast day or the eve of a feast day.

3.    No trial before the Sanhedrin was to convene except before a formal meeting.

4.    No trial of the Sanhedrin except at their meeting place (v54).

5.    The Sanhedrin must remain impartial (v55).

6.    A guilty verdict was to be made on the basis of 2-3 witnesses (v56-59).

7.    No guilty verdict could be rendered until the next day (v63-64).

8.    There was to be no prolonged death in capital punishment, and no scourging (v65).

Jesus was denied justice in many ways.  His response to this was not to stay silent, to act as a martyr in the face of men who had already decided His fate and just needed to find a crime to back up their verdict. 

In a similar vein, Jesus’ silence was not about His suffering.  He did not stay silent to bring attention to the severity of His trial.  As Peter said, when reviled, He did not revile in return.  Jesus was insulted as Israel’s Prophet (Mk. 14:65, they blindfolded Him, hit him with their fists, and called on Him to prophesy who did it), King (15:16-20, the Romans clothed Him in purple and placed a crown of thorns on Him) and Priest (15:29-32, the mob ridiculed Him, that He saved others but could not save Himself).  Jesus was silent in all of this, but not because He wanted to call attention to His trial.  There was something else!

Mark 14:55-63, The Silence of Christ (1)

The most well-known prophecy of the “silence of Christ” comes from Isa. 53:7: He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.    I want you to see it in Ps. 38.  Read this “Psalm of David” below and see the “cross of Christ” as you read.  My comments are in ( ).

38 O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your wrath, Nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure! ² For Your arrows pierce me deeply, And Your hand presses me down. (The cross is about the wrath of God on sin and sinners, wrath taken by Christ.)

³ There is no soundness in my flesh Because of Your anger, Nor any health in my bones Because of my sin. ⁴ For my iniquities have gone over my head; Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. ⁵ My wounds are foul and festering Because of my foolishness. (Jesus was numbered with the transgressors.  He made our iniquities and foolishness His so He might make His righteousness ours.)

⁶ I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. ⁷ For my loins are full of inflammation, And there is no soundness in my flesh. ⁸ I am feeble and severely broken; I groan because of the turmoil of my heart.  (Heb. 5:7!)

⁹ Lord, all my desire is before You; And my sighing is not hidden from You. ¹⁰ My heart pants, my strength fails me; As for the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me.

¹¹ My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague, And my relatives stand afar off. ¹² Those also who seek my life lay snares for me; Those who seek my hurt speak of destruction, And plan deception all the day long.

¹³ But I, like a deaf man, do not hear; And I am like a mute who does not open his mouth. ¹⁴ Thus I am like a man who does not hear, And in whose mouth is no response. (The silence of Christ! And why?)

¹⁵ For in You, O Lord, I hope; You will hear, O Lord my God. ¹⁶ For I said, “Hear me, lest they rejoice over me, Lest, when my foot slips, they exalt themselves against me.” (Because, as Peter said, He entrusted Himself to the righteous judge, 1 Pt. 2:23).

¹⁷ For I am ready to fall, And my sorrow is continually before me. ¹⁸ For I will declare my iniquity; I will be in anguish over my sin. ¹⁹ But my enemies are vigorous, and they are strong; And those who hate me wrongfully have multiplied.
²⁰ Those also who render evil for good, They are my adversaries, because I follow what is good.

²¹ Do not forsake me, O Lord; O my God, be not far from me! ²² Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation! (He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth.  Not to His accusers.  Because He had already opened His mouth to His Father in Gethsemane.)

Psalm 94

In Acts the gospel preached to the Gentiles mentions the fact that the risen Lord Jesus would be the judge of all men.  Peter preached this to Cornelius and his house (Acts 10:42).  Paul preached it to the crowd on Mars Hill (Acts 17:31).  Keep that in mind as you think of this wonderfully reassuring Psalm. 

This Psalm may have been occasioned by some difficulty experienced by the writer.  But it seems to have more in mind the general pride and seeming triumph of the wicked.  As we look around our society we also may think that the wicked seem to be winning.  But the mystery of God is that His Son will rule over His enemies.  The victory is His: promised by His Father and assured by His death and resurrection.  If we have the same confidence in the same Lord we will, in the multitude of anxieties within us, delight our souls in His comfort (94:19).

·         94:1-3: Calling on the Judge.  There are several things to think about.  In v1 vengeance belongs to God; that is why He is addressed in this situation.  The Judge of the earth is Christ (John 5:22-23).  And in v3 the Psalmist utters the prayer of the saints: how long until You judge the wicked (Rev. 6:9-11).

·         94:4-7: The Problem with the Wicked.  The wicked proclaim arrogant words (v4), make life difficult for God’s people (v5), and make life difficult for the weak (v6).  But then they deny that the Lord sees what they are doing; they are confident they will not be called to account (v7).

·         94:8-11: The Stupidity of the Wicked.  How senseless they are and foolish to think that the God who created ears and eyes and who has all wisdom does not hear, see and know the thoughts of the wicked. Their plans will fail.

·         94:12-15: The Blessing of the Upright.  On the other hand the Psalmist knows the certainty of God’s promises and plans for His people, for those He instructs.  They will experience relief as needed until the wicked fail.  Even in the times when God uses the wicked to chastise His people, He will not cast off His people nor forsake His inheritance (v14).

·         94:16-19: The Confidence of the Upright.  In Whom do the righteous trust?  In the Lord who has been their help (v17) and Who is merciful (v18).

·         94:20-23: The Hope of the Upright.  As he looks forward the Psalmist is sure of a good outcome.  In v20 there is a great description of what was happening that should ring a bell with us today.  The throne of iniquity was devising evil by law.  Christians see this today: laws passed that contradict their Biblical values.  The righteous and innocent are hurt by these (v21).  But judgment will come from the Lord in His time.  He will bring about the law of the harvest (i.e. He will bring on them their own iniquity, v23).  From Deut. 32 there is the important reminder: God is the Rock of Israel; He will be our defense and refuge (cf. Deut. 32:4,15,30-31).

Let us trust in our Rock today, the Rock of our salvation!

Mark 14:66-72, Jesus’ Effective Prayer (4)

Now we return to the Garden of Gethsemane, where the disciples of Jesus are unable to stay awake to pray with and for Him, or even themselves.  Jesus prayed and availed “the good confession.”  What did the “no-praying” disciples avail?

o   14:66-72: Denial.  They did not witness the good confession, none of them.  The story centers on Peter, even though they had all professed loyalty to Jesus with a promise to never deny Him (14:31).

o   Before we talk about Peter we should talk about roosters.  Some are bothered by the Gospel record saying “before the rooster crows twice” (Mk. 14:30 which is fulfilled in 14:68,72) and “before the rooster crows” (Mt. 26:34 which is fulfilled in 26:74). Some cry “an error in the Bible.”  Others of us say, “you (Mark) have not spent much time on the farm.”  What the rooster does can be called “crowing” (singular) though it might involve several “crowings” (plural) before he completes his sometimes obnoxious job of awakening the hens to their duty, of whatever he is doing.  The crowing (singular) is not finished until he completes all the verses (crowings, plural) of his song.  Enough said, from my point of view.

o   Now, note the ways of “denial.”  Peter first said, “I know nothing” (v68).  Then, when pursued by the same servant girl, Peter said, “I am not one of them” (denied being part of the group of disciples).  Then, “I do not know this Man of whom you speak,” to which he added “f” and “d” and “s” words.  Forgive me if you are offended at even the veiled mentioning of these words, but you ought to understand this is what the Bible says: “he began to curse and swear.”  That is what we do when we do not have the truth on our side.  We throw in all the words we can think of and raise our voices and make wild gestures.  Peter did all he could to convince people of his lies.  But then …

o   14:72: God spoke through the rooster.  And now look who is crying!  Jesus entered the Garden in sorrow but left in godly confidence.  Peter cried out in fleshly confidence, “I will never deny You.”  Now he is in tears.  You may want to look at Peter and say, “how depraved is this ‘friend’ of Jesus.”  I look at Peter, and sadly see myself, but then see Peter in tears over his sin.  For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of this world produces death (2 Cor. 7:10).  Without question, the one who betrayed Jesus expressed the sorrow of the world when he regretted what he had done and committed suicide (Mt. 27:3-5).  Peter’s tears were uncontrollable, the expression of a soul in shame, of a soul for whom Jesus had prayed (Lk. 22:31-34).  Is my sorrow over sin regret or repentance?

Mark 14:53-65; 15:1-5, Jesus’ Effective Prayer (3)

Again, what was availed through Jesus’ fervent prayer.

·       14:53-65: The Apostle Paul called it “the good confession” (1 Tim. 6:11-16).  The “good” confession is the one where we declare who we are and our lives match with our words.  Paul said that to do this requires that we “pursue” the life we profess, that we “fight the good fight of faith,” “until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing”.  Don’t misunderstand this.  The life we pursue is the life that Jesus lives in us (Gal. 2:20).  The good fight is a fight of faith, not our good works but God’s work as we trust Him.  In Gethsemane, Peter tried to fight with the sword of man.  Jesus fought with the “sword of the Spirit,” the word of God.  The result was that Jesus “witnessed the good confession.”  He glorified His Father by His obedience to death, even death on the cross.  This had been His prayer, as the Apostle John tells us: Father, the hour has come.  Glorify Your Son that Your Son also may glorify You (Jn. 17:1).  What did this good confession look like?

§  14:53-54: The setting for this confession began at the house of Annas, the previous high priest, and then to his son Caiaphas, the current high priest.  As the dawn approached the Sanhedrin gathered there as their meetings were required by law to be during daylight hours.  Eventually Jesus would be handed over to Pilate, perhaps at the Fortress Antonia that overlooked the temple area.

§  14:55-62: The “good profession” was one of a blameless life.  It was blameless in that the Jews could not find any witnesses to declare anything that Jesus had done wrong.  In the end they made up things, such as the misinterpretation of His words about destroying and rebuilding the temple.  Certainly Caiaphas knew they had no offense that would stick against Jesus, which was why he would eventually compel Jesus to indite Himself by His words, the words of His good confession (14:61-62).  Pilate, more than once, declared he could find nothing worthy of death in Jesus.  As Peter tells us (1 Pt. 2:19-22), Jesus set an example for us in that He did not suffer for wrong-doing but suffered for doing good, and He took it patiently. 

§  14:63-65; 15:1-5: Jesus also confessed the good confession in that He was blameless in the courtroom itself.  For the most part He was silent, even as false charges were filed against Him.  Again, to quote Peter, who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed (2:23-24).  He did this for our salvation, but at the same time, set an example for us.  The key was, He did not do this in the flesh but in the strength He received from His Father when, in fervent prayer, He committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.  Ah yes!  This Righteous Man availed much through fervent prayer!