Heb. 9:6-15, The Promise of the Cross

We have spent considerable time in our journey through the Gospel of Mark thinking about the things that were “written” of Christ.  Nevertheless, here is yet another reminder, in outline form, of the OT promise of the cross.

1.    Man needs a Savior.  Gen. 3:15 (the seed of the woman), 21 (the tunics provided by the Lord, that required the shedding of blood); 4:3-4 (the Lord’s respect for Abel’s blood sacrifice).

2.    Only God can provide this Savior.  In Gen. 22 (Abraham offering Isaac on Mt. Moriah) Abraham told his son, “God will provide Himself the Lamb” (22:6-7).  Out of that story came a name for God: Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide.  In that story we can see that the Savior would be the Son of God.

3.    This Savior must meet God’s standards.  He must …

a.     Be the perfect Lamb without defect (Lev. 1:3).  Jesus “knew no sin” when He became sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21).

b.    Provide atonement (propitiation, satisfying the wrath of God, Lev. 1:4).  Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world (1 Jn. 2:2).

c.     Pay the price of redemption that our sins will be forgiven (Lev. 16:7-10).  Christ was that Savior (Eph. 1:7).

d.    Be lifted up that all who will may look to Him (Num. 21:4-9).  Jesus satisfied this picture as well (John 3:14-15; 8:28; 12:32f).

4.    Men must by faith accept the Savior God provides (Lev. 1:4, seen in the laying on of hands with the Lamb, transferring their sin to the sin-bearer). 

What we see in the consistence between the Old and New Testaments is not only that God is faithful to His promises.  It also tells us that things are and always have been the same.  The need is always there.  People are always sinners estranged from their Creator.  They are in a hopeless situation, unable to be their own Savior (Ps. 49:7-8).  God Himself, the One offended by the sinner, must come to the aid of the sinner.  But Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God and Son of Man, He meets the need and only Him.  For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Heb. 9:13-14).  God has met our need.  There is nothing for you to do but to receive the Savior, to look away from all other offers and to look to the cross of Jesus.  Whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life.

2 Peter 2:18-25, The Suffering of the Cross

Years ago the Lord sought to instruct me with respect to the way of suffering.  The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis was helpful, along with A Grief Observed by Lewis written after the death of his wife and their short marriage.  At the time Joni Eareckson Tada’s story as well as her response to suffering after being paralyzed in a diving accident.  Another evangelical author at the time, Joe Bayly, wrote The View from a Hearse after the early-in-life death of three of his seven children.  In her book Affliction Edith Schaeffer (wife of Francis) added to my studies.  All this reading was couched in some amazing studies in Scripture, and the answer to the question, “why does our loving God permit us to suffer?” 

Our purpose today is not to deal with that specific question, but rather to gain a simple perspective on the suffering of Jesus.  Today’s passage is clear, that God sent His Son to earth to suffer.  That’s not the end purpose.  It does not tell us the reason for His suffering.  But the life He lived was difficult.  And Peter does say that one aspect of Jesus’ life was that it was an example for us, because we also suffer.  Note the three areas of suffering that is evident when we meditate on the cross.

·       Christ suffered in His body.  Isa. 52:14; 53:7-8; Mk. 15:15-24.  This has been the subject in the last three posts. 

·       Christ suffered in His soul. Isa. 53:2-3; Mark. 15:1-15,25-32.  You have put away my acquaintances far from me; You have made me an abomination to them; I am shut up, and I cannot get out; ⁹ My eye wastes away because of affliction (Ps. 88:8-9).  To me, this is “soul suffering.”  All humans have a soul.  The soul speaks of all that we have in common.  The people cried out to have Barabbas given his freedom and to have the one many of them had celebrated as He entered Jerusalem earlier in the week.  They insulted Him, reviled Him, spit on Him.  This might bring us to tears, but not our Lord.  As Peter said, He did not return the rejection.  But the Psalmist tells us that the soul-suffering was real and felt!

·       Christ suffered in His spirit.  Isa. 53:4,6,10; Mk. 15:33-34.  Note how clearly the prophet Isaiah says: God put Him in the place of suffering (v4).  God put our sins on Him (v6).  God made Christ our guilt offering (v10).  Now, stop and meditate on Psalm 22:1, the words of “complaint” from Jesus on the cross: My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?  There is no relationship in the universe any tighter than the Trinity.  “Tight” is really not the word because they are “One image” (Gen. 1:26-27), diversity in absolute Oneness (Dt. 6:4), each being the fullness of Deity (Ex. 34:6-7).  Interestingly, together in the Godhead, they understood “good and evil” (Gen. 3:22).  And yet, on the cross, in the hour of darkness, as Jesus bore our sins, He also bore the estrangement that we have known because of our sin.  I just need to think on this.  There is no greater pain in the cross than Mk. 15:33-34!  There is no greater pain in the cross as that which was brought about by my sin and God's love.

Luke 23:26-43, The Passion of Christ (3)

·       15:22 (crucifixion): “It was 9:00 when the melancholy procession reached Golgotha.  Avowedly, the punishment was invented to make death as painful and as lingering as the power of human endurance.  First the upright wood was planted in the ground … not high … the feet of the Sufferer were not above one or two feet from the ground … Next the transverse wood was placed on the ground, and the Sufferer laid on it … His arms were extended, drawn up, and bound to it.  Then a strong sharp nail was driven, first into the right, then into the left hand.  Next the Sufferer was drawn up by means of ropes, perhaps ladders; the transverse either bound or nailed to the upright, and a rest or support for the body fastened on it.  Lastly, the feet were extended, and either one nail hammered into each, or a larger piece of iron through the two … And so might the crucified hang for hours, even days in the unutterable anguish of suffering, till consciousness at last failed.”

v35: crucified:  The one to be crucified was stripped of his clothing, then laid with arms outstretched on the crossbeams.  A spike was driven through the centerpart of the palms into the beam, then another through each foot (though sometimes one large spike was driven through both feet).  A death by crucifixion seems to include all that pain and death can have of the horrible and ghastly—dizziness, cramp, thirst, starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, tetanus, publicity of shame, long continuance of torment, horror of anticipation, mortification of untended wounds, all intensified just up to the point at which they can be endured at all, but all stopping just short of the point which would give to the sufferer the relief of unconsciousness. (Smith's Bible Dictionary)

CRUCIFIXION was in use among the Egyptians, Gen. 40:19, the Carthaginians, the Persians, Esther 7:10, the Assyrians, Scythians, Indians, Germans, and from the earliest times among the Greeks and Romans. Whether this mode of execution was known to the ancient Jews is a matter of dispute. … It was unanimously considered the most horrible form of death. Among the Romans the degradation was also a part of the infliction, and the punishment if applied to freemen was only used in the case of the vilest criminals. … The victim was in full reach of every hand that might choose to strike. … The unnatural position made every movement painful; the lacerated veins and crushed tendons throbbed with incessant anguish; the wounds, inflamed by exposure, gradually gangrened; the arteries, especially of the head and stomach, became swollen and oppressed with surcharged blood; and, while each variety of misery went on gradually increasing, there was added to them the intolerable pang of a burning and raging thirst.—Farrar’s “Life of Christ.”

And if I may add, the one “complaint” of the Lord Jesus was not the physical pain but the forsaking of His Father.

Psalm 96

Again, what a blessing to be in the Psalms.  This great Hymn not only leads us to praise; it teaches us what our lives are all about.  Let us begin with the immediate context.  Israel was called to witness to God’s greatness and glory, a message that was to go to all the nations.  That is the essence of this song.

·         96:1-3: The redeemed are called to sing a new song, a song that proclaims the good news of salvation and the glory of the name of the Lord! This proclamation is to go to all the earth, among the nations and all peoples.

·         96:4-6: This song would simply be the expression of the way it is.  The Lord alone is great for the Lord alone made the heavens.  He is real!  All the gods of the people are idols (Heb. eliyl, meaning nothing, good for nothing, vain, worthless).  But God made the heavens.  Honor, majesty, strength and beauty fit Him perfectly.

·         96:7-9: Thus the families of the peoples are called to come join in the worship of the Lord, to tremble before Him, to give Him the glory due His name.

·         96:10-13: The one thing the nations need to know is it is the Lord who reigns and He is therefore the One before whom they will stand when He judges the people righteously.  The rest of creation will rejoice to see that day!

This song, in its entirety, was part of a larger psalm sung by David and the people of Israel as the Ark of the Covenant was brought into Jerusalem (1 Chron. 16:23-33). It makes perfect sense that they would want to proclaim the glory of YAHWEH at that time.  He is Israel's God but He is the great God for all the nations.

What a great testimony!  It is not that complicated.  Just call attention to Him, giving Him the glory for the good things of life.  As a matter of fact, this approach to witnessing was practiced by the Apostle Paul and thus commended it to us in our context.  I am talking about Acts 17 in his sermon on Mars Hill.  But it’s not necessarily a sermon; he is bearing testimony, giving God the glory. 

·         17:22-23: Gentiles (the nations, the families of the peoples) tend to be religious.  But they have not found the true God.  Yet!

·         17:24-28:  The true God made everything and gave life to all.  He is, as the Psalmist said, a God of honor, majesty, strength and beauty.  He has made us and enriched our lives so that we might seek Him.

·         17:29: They ought not to think God is like their useless images.

·         17:30: Rather they should repent, turn away from that ignorance and turn to the true God.

·         17:30: Because the day is coming when they will stand before the judge, the Man who was God come in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see how the Apostle declared God’s glory to the nations.  That is how our testimony should begin: by word and deed that indicates we are living for the glory of God!  Declare His glory among the nations.  Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.  For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised.  Like Israel we, the redeemed Church, are God’s witnesses to the nations. 

John 19:17-27, The Passion of Christ (2)

·       15:20: “Once more was He unrobed and robed.  The purpose robe was torn from His wounded body, the crown of thorns from His bleeding brow.  Arrayed again in His own, now blood-stained garments, He was led forth to execution. … terrible preparations were soon made: the hammer, the nails, the cross, the very food for the soldiers who were to watch under each cross, the whole being under the command of a centurion.”

The procession now began to Golgotha.  At the head was someone carrying a board indicating the crime for which the criminal was to be crucified.  Then came the criminal carrying his cross.  There were three types of crosses: X T and †, probably the latter. 

·       15:21: (Simon) “Unrefreshed by food or sleep, after the terrible events of that night and morning, while His pallid face bore the blood-marks from the crown of thorns, His mangled body was unable to bear the weight of the cross … So Siman enlisted.  He seems to have been well known, at least afterwards in the Church – and his sons Alexander and Rufus even better than he.”

 

GALL. Mereerah, denoting “that which is bitter”; hence the term is ap-plied to the “bile” or “gall” (the fluid secreted by the liver), from its intense bitterness, Job 16:13; 20:25; it is also used of the “poi-son” of serpents, Job 20:14, which the ancients erroneously believed was their gall. 2. RoÆsh, generally translated “gall” in the English Bible, is in Hos. 10:4 rendered “hemlock”; in Deut. 32:33 and Job 20:16, roÆsh denotes the “poison” or “venom” of ser-pents. From Deut. 29:18 and Lam. 3:19, compared with Hos. 10:4, it is evident that the Hebrew term denotes some bitter and perhaps poisonous plant. Other writers have supposed, and with some reason, from Deut. 32:32, that some berry-bearing plant must be intended. Gesenius understands poppies; in which case the gall mingled with the wine offered to our Lord at his crucifixion, and refused by him, would be an anæsthetic, and tend to diminish the sense of suffering. Dr. Richardson, “Ten Lectures on Alcohol,” p. 23, thinks these drinks were given to the crucified to diminish the suffering through their intoxicating effects.

They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall, an allusion to Psalm 69:21. This was customarily given to condemned prisoners to serve as a kind of anesthetic or anodyne. It was literally a drugged “wine” (Gr oinon.) The statement that He would not drink indicates that our Lord refused any mitigation of His sufferings on our behalf.

 

Mark 15:1-5,15-20, The Passion of Christ (1)

There have been various “accounts” of the crucifixion of Christ given by medical experts.  Those can be helpful.  But when it comes to providing background information on anything in the Gospels I have come to appreciate Alfred Edersheim, the Jewish convert to Christ in the 1800’s.  He is most known for his treatise, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.  We will let him be our source as we continue to work our way through the Gospel of Mark and also as we are approaching Passover and the time of Jesus death and resurrection.  Additional notes will be placed in boxes with the source.  Otherwise, we have a few days with Edersheim.

·       15:15: “flogged” (scourged).  “… the scourging … when … the scourge of leather thongs was loaded with lead or armed with spikes and bones, which lacerated back and chest and face till the victim sometimes fell down before the judge, a bleeding mass of torn flesh. … scourging was the terrible introduction to crucifixion – the ‘intermediate death.’  Stripped of his clothes, His hands tied and back bent, the victim would be bound to a column or stake, in front of the Praetorium.

15:16-20: The scourging ended, the soldiery would hastily cast upon Him His upper garments and lead Him back into the Praetorium.  Here they called the whole cohort together, and the silent, faint Sufferer became the object of their ribald jesting.  From His bleeding body they tore the clothes, and in mockery array  Him in scarlet or purple.  For a crown they wound together thorns, and for sceptre they placed in His hand a reed.  Then alternately, in mock proclamation, they hailed Him King or worshiped Him as God and smote Him or heaped on Him other indignities. (Note: there have been various trees that have been suggested as the source of the thorns.  The traditional thought is the Ziziphus spina-christi tree, a picture of which we have included .)

          CROWN OF THORNS, Matt. 27:29. Our Lord was crowned with thorns in mockery by the Roman soldiers. Obviously some small flexile thorny shrub is meant; perhaps Capparis spinosa. “Hassel-quist, a Swedish naturalist, supposes a very common plant, naba or nubka of the Arabs, with many small and sharp spines; soft, round, and pliant branches; leaves much resembling ivy, of a very deep green, as if in designed mockery of a victor’s wreath.”—Alford.

Isa. 52:13-53:12, Servant Song #4

Servant Song #4, Isa. 52:13-53:12

We now come to the last, and probably the best known of the Servant Songs.  I say “best known.”  But many don’t realize the song actually begins with the stanza at the end of Isa. 52.  The Song begins, “Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently” (52:13).  And we often refer to this as “the Song of the Suffering Servant.”  But I hope you realize we have already seen in the previous songs it was the will of the LORD that the Servant would suffer.  Let’s take a quick journey through the 5 stanzas of this powerful Song.

·       52:13-15: The Servant is humble and yet effective. The Song begins with the end: the Massiah will be exalted.  But then it quickly moves to His humiliation.  These songs center primarily on the Incarnation, that descent of the Son of God from being “in the form of God” to taking on the “form of a bond servant.”  He will win the day, shutting the mouths of the arrogant kings (Ps. 2:1-3), not by His appearance as a man but by His

·       53:1-3: The Servant is called “the Man of Sorrows.”  But the gist of this stanza is that in all His sorrows, added to them will be His rejection by the ones He came to save.  Notice how Isaiah the prophet identifies with the nation (“our,” “we”).

·       53:4-6: The point of the Man of Sorrows is not simply to suffer.  All of His suffering is not for Himself but for “us.”  Again, the prophet identifies himself with Israel through possessive and collective pronouns.  This stanza has a strong description of our sinfulness.  We don’t fully appreciate what Christ has done for us unless we recognize our sinfulness.

·       53:7-9: He was oppressed, yet He will be honored.  I see the righteousness of Christ in this stanza.  In v7 His silence before those who put Him to death is evidence that He was committed to the will of His Father.  Verse 8 presents us with the mystery: because He took our sin on Himself He has died.  That seems to be the end of any thoughts about His glory and exaltation.  And yet, the crucified Man had a rich man’s burial because the sin He bore was ours until He graciously took it upon Himself. 

·       53:10-12: Two things in v10 are critical.  First, all this was and is God’s plan. The Servant, the LORD’s Servant, is the Man of Sorrows because it was the Father’s will.  And second, that “will” was to make an offering for sin.  Because God so loved the world He sent the Servant to suffer and die.  His being counted with the sinners is at first incriminating (the Father forsakes Him), but then receives a reward.  Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed (Ps. 85:10).