There were unique and unusual events that surrounded the crucifixion of Jesus.
Darkness covered the land for three hours in the middle of the day. The temple curtain was torn in two. And today on Truth for Life we'll find out why this was an act of divine vandalism. We'll learn what it signifies for God's people even today.
Alistair Begg is teaching from chapter 15 of Mark's Gospel. 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.
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 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. My sin must be absolutely horrendous if it takes the death of God's only Son to fix it. Right? 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, 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.
Mark doesn't tell us what this cry was. He doesn't tell us actually whether he is referring here to one of the other cries that is recorded for us in one of the other Gospels. We know that Luke tells us that Jesus at this point said, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. In other words, he had descended into the very depth of it all. He had been forsaken by the Father. As he goes down into the darkness and deadness of it all, as he experiences, if you like, hell, as it says in the creed, you know, that he descended into hell. And I think in our last Q&A, somebody said, Well, what does that mean, he descended into hell?
Well, if hell is eternal separation from God, if the essence of hell is to be forsaken by God, then here in his death on the cross he is forsaken by the Father, and into that he enters. And in that he triumphs. He bears the curse of sin.
He breaks the chains. He cancels the record. And then he declares his trust as he breathes his last, not with a whimper but with a loud voice, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Or is it the cry of triumph recorded by John in chapter 19, in one word, Tetelestai?
It is finished. Now, what is Mark telling us? He's telling us that Jesus does not die the way other people died. You see, crucifixion was such that it sometimes took people two days to die.
Two days! 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. So their lives ebb out from them. They are going out of consciousness. They're drifting away.
They're finally getting weaker and weaker and weaker. And Jesus cries with a loud voice. 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. In fact, Pilate later on in the record is so amazed when they come and tell them that Jesus is dead, he can't believe that he's died so soon.
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. Thirdly, going back to verse 35, Mark tells us of the curiosity of the bystanders, and there is in this just a hint of compassion. Curiosity with a hint of compassion. Now, the bystanders we've already seen back in verse 29, and those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads, and so on. And in this section, their preoccupation with Elijah has to do with the fact that there was a kind of superstitious notion that Elijah would fulfill the role of the kind of patron saint of sufferers—that if you were really in a real mess, then Elijah could show up and help you.
And so they are very interested now to see whether in fact that is actually going to happen. And it is in that context that you have this very interesting little statement in verse 36 concerning the individual with the sponge and the sour wine. I think there is a hint of compassion in this. Many of the commentators say that this is malevolent, and who's to know? We know that it happened.
We're not told the motivation of the individual who did it. If you read John's Gospel, you will discover that John tells us that there was a jar of this sour wine, which was essentially a form of vinegar—it was a thirst-quenching drink—which was present at the foot of the cross, presumably there to assuage the thirstiness of the soldiers as a result of their exertions and so on. And so they were able to drink out of it. One individual has presumably asked permission to go into that, and in an expression I'm suggesting to you of a measure of compassion motivated in part by their desire to see whether they can prolong the life of Jesus, as if they could, to see whether Elijah is going to come and take him down.
So you have this picture. Now, John also tells us that Jesus said, I thirst. I thirst.
So we've noticed that he refuses the anesthetic potion, but he doesn't refuse this. Those of you who have sat with a loved one as they have died, depending on their circumstances, will be familiar with this kind of picture. You'll be familiar with the fact that eventually there is no feeding tube, there is no yogurt, there is no ice cream. There are only ice cubes. Ice cubes, and then eventually that little stick with the square sponge on the end. And that little stick with that square sponge becomes the only mechanism whereby an expression of tenderness and kindness may be granted from the caregiver to the one whose life is ebbing away. And you've taken that sponge, you've dipped it in those ice cubes, you've created some of that moisture, and you have placed it on their lips. And it may even have been just sufficient for them—just sufficient moisture—so that they might be able to say one final thing before they expire. I wonder, did Jesus express his thirst in all of his humanity in order that he might have expressed to him this kind of care, so that he might have the power and capacity in his voice to say what he says in finishing? And someone filled a sponge with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, Now wait!
Let's just see whether Elijah will come to take him down. This, for me, is one of the saddest parts of the whole record. This, for me, is so representative of a kind of person that comes to Parkside, a kind of person that is a nice person that I meet, that you meet, you may be one of them, the kind of person who, when brought face to face with the story of the cross, when brought face to face with this reality that Jesus now is bearing the punishment of sin, instead of saying, Now, that is absolutely remarkable and wonderful, and I certainly need a Savior, because I am a sinner, instead of the person saying that, they say, You know, that's very interesting.
I read a thing just the other day in Search and Search magazine. It was about a gospel—not one of the four gospels, but about… And they'll launch off into all kinds of strange, esoteric, and superficial diatribes concerning the nature of Jesus and God and so on. They're standing, as it were, before the very cross of Christ, and they can't see it.
These people were right there. They are at the epicenter of God's intervention in the world. And they're more intrigued by their superstitious notions that Elijah may show up than they are in seeking to find a Savior for their sins. "'O you that pass by,' writes Wesley, "'O you that pass by, to Jesus' drawn eye, to you is it nothing that Jesus should die? Our ransom and peace, our surety he is, come see if there ever was sorrow like this.'" You remember that poem by the old English guy, you know, when Jesus came to Calvary, you know, they hung him up on a cross, but when Jesus came to Cleveland, they didn't do any of that. They just passed him by and left him hanging in the rain. They didn't get into any of the badness.
No, we would never do those bad things. You see, it's only the Spirit of God that allows a person to look at this scene here in Mark chapter 15, and the Spirit of God says, It was your sin that held him there until it was accomplished. He is dying on that cross, because you are a sinner, because I am a sinner. He has taken that punishment that God must execute upon sin if he's going to be true to himself as a just God.
He's taken that punishment which God executes upon sin for God to be true to himself as the God who loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son. And finally, Mark tells us in verse 38 of what I want to refer to as an incident of divine vandalism. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. If this was the large outer curtain, it would have been eighty feet high. We're not talking about some flimsy curtain here. We're talking about a curtain that defines what it means to be a curtain. It would be impossible even for the strongest human being to take that curtain from the bottom and tear it apart.
You know that, because you've tried to open a bag of peanuts lately. There's no way that you're gonna take that curtain and tear it apart—an eighty-foot high curtain. It isn't torn from the bottom to the top. It's torn from the top to the bottom. Who tore it?
God tore it. Tore his own curtain, wrecked his own temple, chastised his own son, rendered obsolete the sacrificial system, opened up the doorway, disbarred the gate of heaven, welcomed all who would come with the open arms of the cross. Yes.
Yes. Mark, you see, doesn't tell us the significance of it. He's expecting once again that his readers will have also understood what the writer to the Hebrews makes perfectly clear—that Jesus was dying in the place of sinners. He told his disciples, Jesus had, that the temple was going to come down, it was going to collapse. They couldn't get it.
The Jews resented it. And here, at the very moment when Jesus utters a loud cry and breathes his last, the curtain of the temple was torn in two. I finish where I began with a children's song. There's a way back to God from the dark path of sin.
There's a door that is open, and you may go in. At Calvary's cross is where you begin when you come as a sinner to Jesus. We're not talking about a religious person beefing up their religiosity.
We're not talking about a well-meaning soul trying to add a little spirituality to their life. No, we're talking about somebody who says, When I look upon that cross, I see why it was that Newton finally encapsulated his Christian experience with the two statements, I know two things, that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior. That is the statement of the converted man or woman. A whole new view of Jesus, a whole new understanding of mercy, a whole new appreciation for what was happening on the cross. And what about for those of us who believe?
What is the takeaway from this incident? Well, we don't need to be in any doubt about it. In fact, the writer of Hebrews tells us that since these things have happened—since, he says, we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus. Why do we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus? Because previously the holy place was disbarred. The Gentiles certainly couldn't come in. Jewish people couldn't come in unless they brought a sacrifice for sin, unless a high priest went in in front of them, unless somebody, a holy person, could do something on their behalf. But we now have confidence to enter the holy places.
How come? By the blood of Jesus. His blood has made atonement for our sins. What has happened, well, is by a new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain.
And he's mixing his metaphors here. That is, he says, through his flesh. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, here's what. One, draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. I need no other sacrifice.
I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. So when the devil tells you during the week, you know, you are a miserable wretch, and it's the third time you kicked the cat this week, and I can't believe you thought that, and you did this, and you said that, and what are you gonna enter in your defense?
There's only one thing you can enter in your defense. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free. For God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me. As I was inviting somebody to the Easter services this last Sunday, as I drove within the car, the man asked me, he said, Now what is the difference between this kind of church and that kind of church? And I said, Well, this kind of church says, Try and do all of this, and maybe you'll be accepted.
And this kind of church, understanding the gospel, says, In Jesus you are accepted. Now go out and do all this. Since, draw near, hold fast, consider how to stir one another up to love and to good works. How can I stir you up to love and good works?
Well, here's his application. Don't neglect meeting together. Try the evening service for once in your life.
There's a point of application. Consider how to stir one another up to love and good works. Well, I don't really go in the evenings.
I know you don't go in the evenings. Have you ever considered what your presence in the evening means to others? To young people when they see your example?
To teenagers? To those who are struggling on the sea of life? Consider how you may love and encourage one another—not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some.
It's perfectly obvious. But encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day drawing near.
So, the takeaway is straightforward. If you have never come to trust in Jesus, then today would be a great day to do that. To once again take the words of Wesley and make them your own. For sinners like me, he prayed on the tree, through his intercession the sinner goes free. That sinner am I who on Jesus' rely and come for the pardon God cannot deny.
That's the starting point. And for those of you who believe, since this is true, make the application of Hebrews 11. And then tonight, we'll take a look at the Centurion and these fantastic women. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg.
Alistair returns to close today's program in just a minute. Well, today is a great day to trust Jesus. And if you just did that, we'd love to pray for you.
You can email us at letters at truthforlife.org, or you can speak to someone at Truth for Life by calling 888-588-7884. And if you still have questions about the gospel, or you know someone who does, we have several resources that will help you gain a clearer understanding of who Jesus is and what he's done for you. You can watch a short seven-minute gospel film called The Man on the Middle Cross. This is a dramatic video that illustrates the power of the gospel to bring hope into real-life situations.
You'll learn why you don't need to clean yourself up before you come to Jesus. The Man on the Middle Cross film can be watched or downloaded and shared for free. Go to truthforlife.org slash middlecross. We also have another video that presents God's salvation plan in a six-minute animated feature. It's called The Story. It explains God's perfect creation, how it all became spoiled, and how it will be renewed. Most importantly, you'll learn how you can become part of God's eternal story. Watch, download, or share the story video for free.
Go to truthforlife.org slash story. By the way, the story comes as a small booklet. It's an excellent resource for introducing others to the gospel. It's available for purchase at our cost of just 50 cents each.
You'll find the booklets and much more in our online store at truthforlife.org slash store. Now here's Alistair. Father, thank you for the Bible. Thank you that it is a lot clearer than some of our sermons, and thank you that the Spirit of God opens our eyes to grasp what we have never seen, even though we've read it many times. Thank you that the Spirit of God convicts us of our sin, not in order that we might be condemned but in order that we might be forgiven, set free, liberated, transformed.
Thank you that the Spirit of God inclines us to a consideration of the death of Jesus so that we might know that he is our great high priest, so that we might know that he has made a complete atoning sacrifice for sin, so that we might then hold fast our profession of faith, assured of the fact, so that we might then continue to encourage and exhort one another, so that in generations yet unborn they may arise to hear this wonderful story and come to trust in Jesus also. Hear our prayers, O God. Let our cry come unto you.
For Jesus' sake. Amen. Thanks for listening today. Tomorrow we're calling the witnesses to the crucifixion to hear their testimony. I hope you'll join us as we consider the unique perspectives of the centurion and the women. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.
