Most people understand that Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Christian faith. But today on Truth for Life, we'll find out why the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ are actually the most important events in all of human history. Alistair Begg has titled today's message, The Death of Jesus. I invite you to turn with me to the Gospel of Mark and to chapter 15, where we're going to read from the thirty-third verse, and when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?
which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said, Behold, he's calling Elijah. And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down. And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the younger, and of Joses and Salome.
When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. Amen. Father, we pray now that as we look at these words familiar to many of us, that they may enable us to see the Lord Jesus more clearly, to love him more dearly, and to follow him more nearly. Amen. While we find ourselves on the first day of Holy Week, for those of us who pay attention to the church calendar, some of us have come out of a background where our lives were marked by these different days.
There's nothing wrong or unhelpful about that. Indeed, sometimes the absence of such a record diminishes the impact that it may have upon us. And beginning today and all the way through next Sunday, the events that are recorded for us in each of the Gospels, not only here in Mark but also in John and in Matthew and in Luke, they slow down, as it were, as we've noticed, and each of the Gospel writers gives a tremendous amount of space to these events which have actually altered the course of human history. And here, in the section that we've just read, beginning in verse 33, we find ourselves at what we often refer to as the pivotal event of human history. It's good for us just to think about that for a moment as we recognize where we are. All of us have a starting date.
All of us have a shelf life. There will be a last time for every journey. We will finally come to an end of our earthly pilgrimage. We have read history. We know that the ebb and flow of life has gone on in different ways within our own nation and beyond. And by and large, the study of history has bypassed the fact that at the very heart of our history is the life and death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth—that here on a hillside, outside the walls of Jerusalem, Mark is telling us that the sinless Son of God puts away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
That's what's being recorded for us here. And that is picked up when you get to the epistles and reinforced for us as we discover. I've often acknowledged, and freely so, that I have been helped throughout all of my life by having somebody encapsulate for me big theological ideas in short, pithy statements. And particularly if they have any kind of poetic flavor to them at all. So I am an unashamed reader of children's hymns and songs, recognizing that despite the passage of time, my recollection of these things is enhanced as I consider even more deeply now what I learned in my youth. So, for example, the hymn by Cecil Francis Alexander that begins, There is a green hill far away, somewhat enhances, if you like, the picture of what is really a brutal and ugly scene, but essentially brings us to the essence of things outside a city wall where the dear Lord was crucified, who died to save us all. And then, just in case we're in any doubt that what he was doing was just one of a number of attempts on the part of holy individuals, as it were, to bridge the gap between God in his immensity and in his holiness, and men and women in their sinfulness, she goes on to say, There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. That in his death upon the cross, as a sacrifice for sin, Jesus brought nothing to that save himself. Every other sacrifice that had been offered, leading up to the death of Jesus, had been offered by a priest who brought something—a creature, an animal, a pigeon, whatever it might be—as an emblem of atonement. But when Jesus bears our sin, he does so in his own body on the tree. And it's also true to say that when we come to Jesus, we also come to him with nothing but our sinful selves, bringing to his offer of freedom and forgiveness only the sin that separates us from God.
Now, Mark's description here is, as we've noted all the way through, absent some of the details that we have in other parts of the Gospels. And he moves with relative speed to the very heart of the matter. He's telling us that all the lines that have been moving in this direction now converge in the cross of Jesus. And at the cross of Jesus, the lines that, if you like, diverge. People stand at the cross, and they make their decision. Do I believe that in Jesus there is the only atoning sacrifice for sin, or do I not? As we saw it last time, it is to find ourselves at a very crossroads when we come to these things.
And that's where we are again this morning. Mark is telling us that we believe in a living God who died an atoning death, that the story of the resurrection, the story of him being a living Savior, is essential because there is no salvation unless Jesus is actually alive. But it is also equally true that the living one is only able to be a Savior because he has died. And that's why these days of Holy Week are important for us.
I have for myself a little booklet that I use from the Anglican Communion that helps me through each day of the week, helping me just to stay focused, helping me to stay away from the rabbits and the bunnies and all of the other rabbit trails that go down there—not because I'm just a miserable soul but because it is so easy for me, for us, to be diverted from the essence of what is before us. So let's just follow Mark's description. We'll go only as far as verse 38. We'll save 39–41, the account of the centurion and the women.
We'll save that for this evening. First of all, then, Mark tells us of the darkness that covered the whole land for three hours beginning at noon. That's there in verse 33. This is a matter of significance.
He doesn't explain the significance, but it is clearly significant. Back in verse 25, you will remember that Mark has told us that it was the third hour—that is, nine o'clock in the morning—when Jesus was crucified. And he breaks this day up in these three-hour intervals, as you will see. So at nine o'clock he is crucified, and now at the sixth hour—that is, noon—there is a darkness that covers the whole land. I'm sure you had this experience.
We certainly did as schoolboys. Every so often there would be some dreadful storm that would come over Ilkley in Yorkshire at a point in the day that was entirely unlikely—enough for all of the lights to have to be turned on in the classroom, because the place just became completely dark. Just dark. And the darkness was eerie, and it was almost palpable. And there was always somebody who, as the teacher turned the lights on, said in a loud whisper, It's the end of the world!
Did you have that experience? Someone said, I think it must be the end of the world. Well, it's not as far-fetched as you might think, because—and I need to leave you to do your own homework on this—if you read the Old Testament, you will discover that in the Bible, darkness during the day—darkness during the day—is a signal of God's displeasure and of God's judgment.
You'll find that, if you're looking in Deuteronomy 28, you'll find it also in Amos chapter 8, you'll find it in other places. That the darkness, a pervasive darkness, is a signal indication of the fact that God is displeased and is executing judgment. Now, some of Mark's readers and some of you will immediately begin to put the dots together. Joining the dots. What dots?
says someone. Well, if you don't know the Bible, you shouldn't feel bad that you don't know where the dots begin. But the dots actually really would begin in Exodus and in chapter 10.
And if you want to turn there just for a moment, I'll point this out to you. Because there we discover that when the people of God were being prepared for their exodus from Egypt, you remember the plagues that God had sent upon the land of Egypt. And the second-last plague was the plague of darkness. It's recorded in Exodus 10, verse 21. Then the LORD said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt. So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. And you will remember that on that occasion, as the final plague was executed—namely, the death of the firstborn in every home—only those who were protected by the shed blood of the Passover lamb were delivered from the angelic visitation that brought about the judgment of God.
And that darkness was an indication of that impending judgment, and in the execution of judgment there was the expression of God's mercy, as there always is, and his mercy is made available in giving instructions to the people, letting them understand that there will be a death in every home in Egypt this night. The only question is whether it will be the death of the firstborn or whether it will be the death of the Passover lamb. And Jesus is the Passover lamb now, nailed upon the cross.
He has explained this to his disciples, although they haven't fully grasped it, when he takes and shares the Passover with them that we saw a few studies ago. Remember, he takes the bread and he says, This is my body. This is a symbol of my body. Clearly, his body was holding the bread.
It wasn't his body-body. This is my body that is broken for you, and this cup that we now drink is my blood. It wasn't his blood, it was the wine that they were drinking. And he was bringing them to an understanding of the fact that he was actually the one who had been expected for all of this time—that the convergent lines of the sacrificial system were now coming together in the person of Jesus. So, for Mark and for his readers, it really wouldn't be a big surprise that God would turn the lights off, if you like, in the middle of the day, expressive of his judgment being executed upon his sinless Son in order that sinful men and women, through turning to him in repentance and faith, may themselves go free. Isaac Watts, in his hymn, puts it as follows, Well, well might the sun in darkness hide And shut its glories in, When God the mighty Maker died For man the creature's sin. In other words, he says, it makes sense, doesn't it, that the sun would be hidden, that the darkness would be pervasive, because here is the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world.
That's the first thing he records for us. He then tells us of the loud cries of Jesus, first in verse 34 and then in verse 37. Here in verse 34 we have the only saying from the cross recorded in Mark. You know, from reading your Bible, that there were a number of things that Jesus said from the cross.
This is the only one that Mark gives to us. Once again, you see how he moves his pace through his gospel as he moves things on. It is now, we're told—and again, he's pinpointed the timing—at the ninth hour, this cry came from the cross.
So we're now at three in the afternoon. So Jesus has been on the cross for six hours. It is six hours since he had faced the physical brutality of the soldiers, the scourging which had preceded it. Time has elapsed since his battle psychologically with the impending reality that was before him.
He has faced the mental anguish that is represented in the denial and desertion of his friends. He has, as we saw last time, refused what was essentially a form of anesthetic in verse 33, wine mixed with myrrh, which he chose not to take. But despite all that he has faced, he has not yet faced this dreadful reality, the reality from which he had recoiled in the garden of Gethsemane, when, in chapter 14, verse 36, you remember, he says, "'Abba, Father, if you're willing, let this cup pass from me.'" If there's any other way that this could be done, if there's any other possibility, and in the perfection of his humanity, because he is all man as well as all God, he looks ahead to what this is going to mean, and he recoils from it. But then he says, however, "'It is not my will but your will that needs to be done.'"
And then he has walked forward. But now, this loud cry, this loud voice rings out in the darkness, or the end of the darkness. And Mark tells us what this actually means. He translates for us the Aramaic. There are a number of occasions when Jesus cries out in what is essentially the vernacular.
It's his heart language. He's actually quoting the Old Testament here. He's quoting Psalm 22, verse 1. Jesus knew his Bible. But he doesn't quote it in the original Hebrew. He quotes it in the language, in the everyday language of his life.
There's no surprise in this. It speaks to the essential passion of it all. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? From the lips of the friend of sinners comes this cry, because he now enters into a realm he's never experienced. And there is a paradox in this, because the essential union of the Trinity is not broken, and yet here we have God forsaken by God. He is now bearing sin in the presence of the sinless God. Cranfield says the burden of the world's sin, his complete identification with sinners, involved not merely a felt but a real abandonment by his Father—a real abandonment by his Father. It's interesting, isn't it, that he does not refer to God as his Father in this cry of desolation?
He doesn't cry Abba as he did in the garden. He cries, My God, my God. This is a cry of dereliction. It's a cry of separation. It's a cry of bewilderment.
It is a cry of forsakenness. And it is in this cry that the essential nature of sin, in all of its badness and in all of its horror, is revealed. Here we are at the very essence of what it means that we are sinners before God. You see, only the Spirit of God brings about conviction of sin. Only the Spirit of God, through the Word of God, confronting us with the Son of God, brings us to this place, brings us to the cross, brings us to the point where we don't say, Well, I've made a few mistakes, or I don't think that was the best decision I could have made, or whatever else it might be.
Just ways of skating over the reality of what we are. Only the Spirit of God helps us to see that the real issue with sin is not what sin has done to me or even what my sin has done to you, but the essential issue is what our sin has done to God. And that this cry from the cross takes us to the very heart of the matter. This, my sin, must be absolutely horrendous if it takes the death of God's only Son to fix it.
Right? My Lord, what love is this that pays so dearly that I, the guilty one, may go free? You see, until the Spirit of God shows me that I am the guilty one, the story of a freedom that is found in the death of Jesus means very little to me. We can pass lightly over it, as if it were simply a formula, a mathematical equation.
But it's a flesh-and-blood reality. That's the first cry. My God, my God, my Son, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He cried with a loud voice. And in verse 37—let's skip 35-36 for the moment—and in verse 37, Jesus uttered another loud cry, and he breathed his last.
Now, what is Mark telling us? He's telling us that Jesus does not die the way other people die. You see, crucifixion was such that it sometimes took people two days to die. In order to hasten their death, the soldiers would come and break the legs of the individuals. Why would they break the legs of the individuals? Because the legs of the individuals were propped on a little plinth that gave them the only opportunity to prevent themselves from the pulmonary collapse that was inevitable for them. Because essentially, they're dying of asphyxiation.
They're finally getting weaker and weaker and weaker. And Jesus cries with a loud voice. As we'll see tonight, that was one of the things that made the centurion sit up, because he marveled at the manner at which Jesus died.
Well, why are we surprised? Jesus says, I have the power to lay my life down, I have the power to take it up again. Nobody takes my life from me. Jesus dies in full control of his faculties. Jesus dies in full control of his voice. You're listening to Truth for Life. That is Alistair Begg considering the significance of Jesus' final moments on the cross.
We'll hear more tomorrow. As Alistair mentioned, this is Holy Week and in the busyness of our day-to-day lives, it can be easy to get distracted from the significance of the historical events that led up to the first Resurrection Sunday. If you'd like to bring your focus back to Jesus and all that he accomplished on the cross, let me recommend you sign up for the Man on the Middle Cross Reading Plan. This is a seven-day reading plan that will prepare your heart for Easter.
You'll receive a series of seven daily devotionals sent via email beginning with the unique experience of the thief on the cross and wrapping up with the empty tomb. It is free to sign up for this one-week series of emails at truthforlife.org slash reading plans. While you're on our website, if you haven't already requested your copy of the book we're recommending, you'll want to do that soon. The title is, Is Easter Unbelievable?
Four Questions Everyone Should Ask About the Resurrection Story. And tomorrow is the last day we'll be offering this book for a donation. When you support Truth for Life, we will send you three copies of this book so that you can give two copies away to unchurched or unbelieving friends. Ask for the book bundle when you donate to support the ministry of Truth for Life at truthforlife.org slash donate. Thanks for joining us today to study God's Word. Tomorrow we'll investigate an episode of Divine Vandalism. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.
