Good Friday Meditation

If you would open up your Bibles to Mark chapter 15, I'll be preaching from verses 33-39 and I'll read those in just a second.

Mark 15 · chapter mention

! But leading up to this moment, Jesus has been betrayed.

Jesus has been abandoned.

His disciples abandoned Him.

In fact, in Mark 14, Jesus tells them that they would abandon Him.

Peter denies Him three times.

And then on 9 a.m. on that Good Friday, after being mocked, He was brought out to Golgotha and He was nailed to a cross.

And then there was these passerbys.

And they said this, wagging their heads and saying,

Aha, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross.

So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked Him to one another, saying,

He saved others.

He cannot save Himself.

Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.

Those who were crucified with Him also reviled Him.

Now, which brings us to 33 through 39.

Hear God's Word.

And when the sixth hour had come, that's noon,

there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 3 p.m.

And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice,

Eloi, Eloi, leme sednachthani.

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 was facing Him saw that in this way He breathed His last,

He said, Truly, this man was the Son of God.

Multiple times leading up to Jesus' last breath,

we have people saying,

If only He would come down.

If only He would come down from the cross.

What if Jesus had come down from the cross?

What if Jesus said from the cross,

Enough is enough.

You all don't get to kill me.

It's time to show you who's boss,

and then He calls down legions of angels.

That would be quite a different end of this story.

It would be quite a show of force, wouldn't it?

This Good Friday service wouldn't be so much of a service with hints of sadness and hints of sobriety,

but it would be a Good Friday service where we would celebrate the power.

But He didn't come down from the cross.

Why not?

Verses 33 through 39 record the historic account of Jesus' last moments.

It's leading up to His death.

It records His very last breath.

He stayed on the cross until He breathed His last.

And Mark, who wrote this gospel, shows us why.

Tonight I'm going to walk you through this account,

and what I want to help you to see is why Jesus stayed on the cross.

Jesus' death accomplished something unexpected,

and Jesus' death revealed someone extraordinary.

So let me walk you through this account,

account starting with this darkness.

In verse 33,

And when the sixth hour had come,

there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

This was an untimely and all-encompassing darkness.

Now what makes it even more odd

is that this darkness rolled in at high noon,

where the sun would have been at its peak,

it would have been the brightest time of day,

so this is unusual, and it's ominous.

Untimely, all-encompassing darkness.

We know what this is like.

Summertime in southeastern Wisconsin,

July 3 or 4 p.m.,

and a big old thunderstorm starts rolling in.

You know what it's like.

It's been bright and sunny all day,

and then it gets dark,

and things get a little ominous,

and you start wondering where your kids are.

It's time to come in, kids.

Because we all know,

when a thunderstorm rolls in,

that there is something bigger and far more powerful

than any human being on the planet.

And it's making its presence known.

This untimely and all-encompassing darkness

that occurred here at the sixth hour

was not a thunderstorm rolling in,

but something bigger and more powerful than that.

But the thing is, we're not told what it is.

But what I just want you to see,

it is connected to this man

who has been nailed to the cross.

Which brings us to verse 34.

This man on the cross cries out in this darkness.

This darkness has enveloped the land.

It's enveloped Jesus on the cross.

And then he cries out,

Eloi, Eloi, lame sebechtani.

He's quoting from Psalm 22, verse 1.

Psalms 22:1

And Mark keeps Jesus' words in the original Aramaic

for emphasis.

He translates it,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And so what we have here is Jesus

quoting from a Psalm of David,

one of Israel's greatest kings.

And this quote is actually explaining

what is happening.

The darkness is the visible manifestation

of God his Father

forsaking him.

If you're familiar with the start

of the Gospel of Mark,

Jesus is baptized,

and that is baptism.

The heavens open up,

and God the Father speaks.

He says,

This is my beloved Son

with whom I am well pleased.

So why is he forsaking his Son now?

Why is God the Father,

who is pleased with his Son at his baptism,

forsaking Jesus,

God the Son,

here?

Jesus had already experienced

a variety of different kinds

of forsakenness,

of forsakenness,

betrayed by Judas,

abandoned by his disciples,

denied by Peter,

and now God the Father?

Forsaking him,

abandoning him,

deserting him?

What did Jesus do

to deserve that?

I hope in your mind

you're saying he didn't do anything.

Jesus is the only human,

fully God,

fully human,

to live on this planet

without ever sinning.

Jesus did nothing.

He did nothing

to deserve this

dark God-forsakenness.

You know who did deserve it?

We deserve that.

For all of our sin,

God's just wrath.

You see,

this darkness

is not just abandonment.

It's God's just punishment

for all of our sin

poured out in full

on Jesus.

That's what this darkness is.

And it's unexpected.

If you heard that Jesus,

if you were in Jerusalem that day

and you heard that Jesus

was being crucified

and you wanted to see a spectacle,

you'd go and see it,

but you were not expecting

this darkness.

You were not expecting

this cry of forsakenness.

This cry in the darkness

is an explanation

of what this darkness is.

But there are some bystanders

watching this

and they hear Jesus

cry out,

Eloi, Eloi,

and they think

he's saying Elijah.

Elijah.

They think he's

saying something else.

And so in verses 35 and 36,

we have this spectacle.

These bystanders

in verses 35 and 36,

they're onlookers.

They see this crucifixion

as a kind of event,

as a kind of a spectacle

to come and watch.

And maybe something interesting

is going to happen.

And so this Eloi, Eloi,

Lame, Sebechtani,

they hear Elijah.

Elijah was an Old Testament prophet

and he was the one

who was taken up alive

by a chariot of fire

into heaven

and the Jews of the time

expected him to come back.

So one of the bystanders

who hears Jesus,

thinks he hears Jesus

crying for Elijah,

he goes and grabs something

for him to drink

and he says,

he's saying,

wait!

Let us see whether Elijah

will come take him down

or not!

He's not there to see Jesus.

He's hoping for a show.

Now, if Elijah comes

and takes Jesus down,

delivers him from the cross,

boy, that would say a lot

about Jesus with these folks.

And he's got some connections.

He's connected to Elijah.

If Jesus was delivered by Elijah,

man, that makes Jesus

into someone special.

But Elijah doesn't come.

And if you were there

looking for this spectacle,

what happens next

would have been very disappointing.

Because what happens next

in verse 37

is that Jesus breathes his last.

His last breath.

And Jesus uttered a loud cry

and breathed his last.

Boy, if you're hoping

for Jesus to come down

from the cross,

if you're hoping

for Elijah to come,

and he breathes his last

and he dies,

that would have been anticlimactic.

It would have been disappointing.

Elijah doesn't come.

Jesus doesn't come down

from the cross.

He doesn't save himself.

He dies.

Now, some would have been thinking

if he was the true Messiah,

the Christ,

the true King of Israel,

why would he allow himself

to die this way?

There were many in attendance

who were hoping

that he would come down

from the cross.

But he stayed on the cross

until his very last breath.

And here there's a pivot.

Because what happens next

in verses 38 and 39,

they happen immediately

after he breathes his last.

He dies,

and then two things happen.

Two results happen.

The first is in verse 38,

and at his death,

his death accomplished

something unexpected.

unexpected.

And the curtain of the temple

was torn in two

from top to bottom.

Now, if I were making

a movie out of this,

I would have had a close-up

on Jesus in verse 37,

breathing his last.

Ah!

And he dies.

But then,

the scene would completely change.

And all of a sudden,

my camera would be in

the temple,

the Jewish temple,

and it would be looking

at the curtain.

It would be moved

from the cross,

which would have had

a line of sight

on the temple,

and would have gone

right into the temple.

And so let me just

kind of explain

what's going on

in the temple.

There are two rooms

in the Jewish temple.

And if you were to walk

in the front door

of the Jewish temple,

you walk into

the holy place.

And the holy place

is where the Jewish priests

would enter and gather

and go about

their ministry responsibilities.

But then,

there was the inner sanctum,

the holy of holies,

where the ark was.

And that was believed

to be where God himself dwelt.

God's present dwelt.

And separating the holy place

from the holy of holies

was this massive,

thick,

ornate

curtain.

God required it

to separate

him and his holiness

from sinners,

even the priests.

And so when we read here

that Jesus breathed his last,

he dies,

and then the curtain

in the temple

is torn in two,

that is cause and effect.

The death of Jesus

opened the way

for sinners

to come into the presence

of a holy God.

And do you notice

it was a rending

from top to bottom?

What that means is

it's not man accomplished.

This is God wrought.

God rending.

God making a way

into his presence

through the death

of God the Son.

If this was the first time

we were reading

the Gospel of Mark,

and maybe this is the first time

you've heard this,

this would have been

totally unexpected.

Through this man's death,

God has opened a way

into his presence.

But that's just

the first result.

The second result

is that Christ's death

revealed someone extraordinary.

In verse 39,

standing opposite Jesus

on the cross,

watching this whole thing

unfold,

was a Roman centurion.

centurion.

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.

What you need to understand

is that

this Roman centurion,

he's a non-Jew.

He's a Gentile.

And he's in charge

of 100 men.

That's what a centurion is.

And apparently,

he had responsibility

for execution duty

that day.

Which means

he would have been

no stranger to death.

Likely,

he had executed many.

He had seen

many a person die.

And he sees the way

that Jesus dies

and he confesses,

truly,

this man was

the Son of God.

You see,

the death

of Jesus

reveals

someone extraordinary

that he is

the Son of God.

It's not by

bringing himself

down from the cross

that shows

he's the Son of God.

It was

remaining on the cross

until his death

that revealed

that he's

the Son of God.

what's surprising

in the Gospel

of Mark

is that

this centurion

is the only

human being,

the only

human being

who saw

and confessed

Jesus

as

the Son of God.

The only one.

And he had a role

in putting Jesus

to death.

For him to say

that Jesus

is the Son of God

is to say

that Jesus

is God.

And that is why

the curtain

was torn in two.

Only God the Son

could bear the wrath

of God the Father

in order to

reconcile

sinners

to himself.

Only God

could do that.

This is God

in the flesh.

Because Jesus

is God,

he alone

was able

to open

the way.

His

substitutionary

death

removes

the penalty

of our sin

and his

sinless

life

grants us

acceptance

in God's

sight.

He is

extraordinary.

His death

reveals him

to be

someone

who is

one of a kind,

God himself.

himself.

So when he

breathes his

last,

the curtain

is torn

in two.

This is

something

unexpected,

our salvation.

And

the centurion

confesses,

truly this is

the Son of God.

This is

someone

extraordinary.

extraordinary.

So what if

there was no

darkness?

What if

Jesus never

cried out,

Eloi,

Eloi,

leme

sebectani?

What happens

if Jesus did

come down

from the cross?

He didn't

die.

He lived to

an old age

of 80

and enjoyed

retirement.

What happens

if he didn't

breathe his

last on

the cross?

There would

be no

salvation

for us.

There would

be no

payment made.

There would

be no

opening,

rending of

the curtain.

Why didn't

Jesus just

say enough

is enough

and come

down from

his cross

to display

his power?

Because it

wasn't loving.

that would

not have

been loving.

Our

loving

king

stayed on

the cross

to bear

the full

venting of

God the

Father's wrath

to remove

the obstacle

of sin

so that we

could enter

into

an eternal

and life-giving

relationship

with God.

It's only

because he

stayed on

the cross.

He had

two.

He is

the Isaiah

53

suffering

servant.

This was

God's will

from before

the foundation

of the

world.

And why

would he

do it?

How deep,

how vast,

how great

is his

love.

How deep

is his love.

How deep

is his love.

How deep