Why Does Jesus Have to Die?

Mark 15:42-47, CEB - Since it was late in the afternoon on Preparation Day, just before the Sabbath,  Joseph from Arimathea dared to approach Pilate and ask for Jesus’ body. (Joseph was a prominent council member who also eagerly anticipated the coming of God’s kingdom.)  Pilate wondered if Jesus was already dead. He called the centurion and asked him whether Jesus had already died.  When he learned from the centurion that Jesus was dead, Pilate gave the dead body to Joseph.  He bought a linen cloth, took Jesus down from the cross, wrapped him in the cloth, and laid him in a tomb that had been carved out of rock. He rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.  Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was buried.

 

                In the reflection on Jesus’s death, we noted that one of the issues Mark was addressing was the rumors shortly after Jesus’s death that Jesus didn’t actually die.  This matter continues to be addressed in the recording by Mark of the specific details of the burial of Jesus’s body.  Furthermore, this account of the burial also confronts other rumors that Jesus’s body was stolen which would explain the empty tomb three days later.  These “theories” persist even in our time thousands of years later. 

                The custodian of the body was Joseph of Arimethea, a member of the Sanhedrin.  This was the same Sanhedrin that played a critical role in having Jesus crucified.  Joseph had opposed the plan, but kept his belief in Jesus secret until this point. This why his action of asking Pilate for the body was described by Mark as “bold.”  His allegiance to Jesus would no longer be a secret.  He is a case study in brave faith in the face of dangerous opposition. Thank God for people like this lesser-known Joseph. 

                Once again, the death is confirmed to Pilate by a Roman Centurion before the body is released to Joseph.  Joesph handles all the burial arrangements quickly before sundown when the Sabbath began.  Nothing could be done after that.  The tomb sealed with a large rock (it’s size is noted in Mark 16).  This was witnessed by the two Mary’s. 

                Why is Jesus’s death so important?  The quick and easy answer is resurrection isn’t resurrection without a real death.  The resurrection is not a conspiracy, elaborate hoax, or outright deception.  The victory over death is only victory if the death really happened.  But the importance of Jesus’s death goes much deeper than this.  It speaks to the deeper and more relevant question?  What does Jesus’s death accomplish?  This is what theologians call atonement.  To make the question even more precise, how does Jesus’s death save us?  Perhaps millions of pages have been written on this very question, so I begin by saying  that I offer no definitive answer.  This theological debate concerning atonement continues today and I have no aspirations to somehow “solve” it.  I simply share my most basic and overarching convictions about.  I invite you to read others’ opinion on this core question of Christian thought and practice.

 

                First, this was a sacrifice to end sacrifices.  We are meant to look upon God’s Son being violently and crudely murdered on a Roman cross and see just how hopeless our proclivities as human beings are.  If humans would sacrifice even the very Son of God for others’ sins, who would not be submitted to the same?  Christ’s battered body and His shed blood are meant to convict humanity of intractable guilt.  This is why we remind ourselves of these details every time we conduct the sacrament of communion.  We can’t be delivered from these proclivities until we see them exposed for what they are in graphic detail.  This why all four gospels all include them. 

                Next, I see in Jesus’s death the limitless nature of God’s love for humanity.  God voluntarily makes a shocking sacrifice instead of simply condemning humanity for its intractable sin.  We are meant to see this and turn from our self-destructive ways.  When we do so, we find God waiting to help us live a different love-driven life.  As more of humanity is brought into this way of living, the world is transformed and redeemed. 

                Taken together, Jesus’s sacrifice exposes the root problem of our world and offers an alternative path of redemption and deliverance.  Jesus submits to death to expose just how corrupt and unjust humanity has become.  Jesus’s opponents meant to scapegoat their own violence by sacrificing Him.  His death, however, served to accomplish the opposite.  They, and their system of scapegoating, is condemned.  The nail in the proverbial coffin of this system is driven when Jesus’s rises from death.  Death is defeated along with all the “dealers” and “systems” of death.  A revolution began on the day Jesus died.

                The revolution continues even now this new approach to humanity’s flaws is lived out by others.  Gandhi submitted non-violently his oppressors to expose the evil of their regime. Gandhi may not have been a Christ follower, but he emulated Christ’s approach to injustice.  Non-violence becomes the very vehicle to expose and convict the perpetrators of violence.  MLK championed the same approach to resist the injustice of systemic racism.  Countless examples of from history abound.  Heroic love and a refusal to respond to sin with more sin is the how the world is changed.  We are invited to join the revolution. . . the revolution that began when Jesus really died.

 

Question:  How do you understand Jesus’s death to be an essential part of how we can be saved?

 

Prayer:  God, we unknowingly, and sometimes knowingly, participate in systems of scapegoating and death.  You died to help us see that truth clearly.  Show us the way forward.  Deliver us from habits that simply exchange one sin for another. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who are imprisoned unjustly for crimes they did not commit.

 

Song:  Glorious Day (Living He Loved Me) – Casting Crowns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqrqPGt11bA

Jesus Dies

Mark 15:34-41, CEB At three, Jesus cried out with a loud shout, “Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani,” which means, “My God, my God, why have you left me?”

After hearing him, some standing there said, “Look! He’s calling Elijah!”  Someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, and put it on a pole. He offered it to Jesus to drink, saying, “Let’s see if Elijah will come to take him down.”  But Jesus let out a loud cry and died.

The curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. When the centurion, who stood facing Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “This man was certainly God’s Son.”

Some women were watching from a distance, including Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James (the younger one) and Joses, and Salome.  When Jesus was in Galilee, these women had followed and supported him, along with many other women who had come to Jerusalem with him.

 

                Today, we reach the point in Mark where Jesus dies.  Surrounded by strangers (no disciples present in Mark’s gospel), enemies, and contingent of Roman soldiers, Jesus makes His last statement lamenting God’ seeming absence. Then, with an agonizing guttural cry, He breathes His last breath.  Even this last statement is misunderstood by those present, making the loneliness even more profound.  I invite you to spend a few moments meditating on those last moments from Jesus’s point of view.  This is difficult, if not painful to do, but it helps us grasp the depth of the gift God gave us in this moment. 

                Mark, as well as other gospel writers, note that in this moment, “The curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.”  Whether this physically happened of not, what is being conveyed is that, in the moment of His death, Christ’s achieves a monumental achievement.  Before this moment, only the High Priest could safely enter (and even then, only once a year) the most sacred part of the Temple, the Holy of Holies.  This small inner sanctum of the Temple was where the Ark of the Covenant was kept and the section was walled off by an enormous curtain wall.  This is where God was believed to be present.  By declaring this curtain wall “torn in two,”  Mark is announcing that no intermediary (ie…the High Priest) is needed to access the presence of God.   Christ’s sacrifice makes it possible now for anyone to approach God directly. 

                Mark makes sure to highlight the fact that the only person present to recognize that this is an incredible, world-shifting event is a Roman centurion.  He does so by marveling, “this man was certainly God’s Son.”  This only magnifies what we just noted about anyone being able to have a direct relationship with God, for even a Roman soldier now has been given the spiritual sensitivity to recognize that everything has now changed.  Others, who are looking for Elijah to show up, have missed the import of the moment altogether. 

                Finally, we have the women, standing off at a distance, who have watched all this take place.  It is surprising and significant that Mark even mentions this detail, but He does so for important reasons.  First, these are the witnesses to the fact that Jesus actually died.  It was not a trick or a hoax.  Real people saw Jesus die.  Rumors persisted even to the time of Mark’s gospel first being circulated that Jesus’s death was somehow staged or faked.  Mark puts these rumors to rest with eyewitness testimony.  The fact that the witnesses are women makes the same point that John makes in multiple other ways in his gospel.  No longer are women on the sidelines of religious life.  Their testimony is a crucial part of the sacred scriptures now.  This will change the status of women forever.  We can trace the embrace of women clergy and other central leadership in the church back to this moment.

                Spend some time contemplating these aspects concerning the moment of Jesus’s death.  Compose your own prayer today in response to that time of reflection.

 

Questions:  What questions do you have about the death of Jesus?

 

Prayer:  I encourage you to write your own prayer for today based on your experience of this passage.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for women in leadership of all kinds today.

 

Song:  Were You There – Andrea Thomas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpSScICWJ9M

“My God, My God, Why Have You Left Me?”

Mark 15:33-36, CEB - From noon until three in the afternoon the whole earth was dark.  At three, Jesus cried out with a loud shout, “Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani,” which means, “My God, my God, why have you left me?”

After hearing him, some standing there said, “Look! He’s calling Elijah!”  Someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, and put it on a pole. He offered it to Jesus to drink, saying, “Let’s see if Elijah will come to take him down.”    

 

            Earlier in Mark 15, we were reminded of the fact that the details of the crucifixion recall many Old Testament texts such as Psalm 22 and 69.  The most poignant of these allusions is Jesus’s last words from the cross in Mark:

            “My God, my God, why have you left me?”(Psalm 22:1)

Psalm 22 is a the lament of a righteous sufferer.  Originally, it referred to David, but after Christ’s quoting of it from the cross, it is forever the owned by Him. 

            Most commentators on this cross moment highlight the fully human aspect of Christ’s lament – the feeling of despair, loneliness, and absence of God’s presence.  This is entirely appropriate, for Jesus almost certainly felt all of those things.  In Mark’s account, no a single disciple is present for this terrible moment; all of them have abandoned Him.  He has no allies in this crowd.  His physical suffering is incomprehensible.  How could anyone NOT feel that God had abandoned them?  In this moment, Christ connects with our darkest moments of despair and then some.  He knows our situation all too well.

            Yet there is more to this Psalm 22 quote than just abandonment and despair.  Mark intends for us to hear not just Psalm 22:1, but the whole Psalm.  This is why all the allusions to Psalm 22 are included in Mark’s account.  Let’s recall them once more:

Dogs surround me,

             a pack of villains encircles me;

              they pierce my hands and my feet.

All my bones are on display;

            people stare and gloat over me.

They divide my clothes among them

            and cast lots for my garment. (Psalm 22:16-18)

The villains, the piercings, the people gloating, and the gambling for clothes are all tied together by Jesus’s utterance of verse 1 just before He dies.  Not only those parts of Psalm 22, but all of it.  Hear the end of the Psalm. 

            Every part of the earth

             will remember and come back to the Lord;

            every family among all the nations will worship you.

Because the right to rule belongs to the Lord,

            he rules all nations.

Indeed, all the earth’s powerful

            will worship him;

            all who are descending to the dust

            will kneel before him;

            my being also lives for him.

Future descendants will serve him;

            generations to come will be told about my Lord.

They will proclaim God’s righteousness

             to those not yet born,

            telling them what God has done.(Psalm 22:27-31)

 

            My encouragement today is for you to read the whole of Psalm 22 again and meditate/reflect on how all of it describes the meaning of this moment on the cross in Mark 15.

 

Question:  What is God doing in your spirit and mind as your explore the connections between the crucifixion and Psalm 22?

 

Prayer:  (adapted from the end of Psalm 22) Jesus, what You on the cross is known in every corner of the world.  Billions have come to You because of what You did.  People from every nation on earth worship You.  Every new generation will be told of Your sacrifice until Your kingdom is made complete.  Praise be to Jesus forever and ever. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for leaders in government (local, state, and national).

 

Song:  At the Cross – Chris Tomlin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUvpBphq5og

How is Such Cruelty Possible?

Mark 15:29-32, CEB - People walking by insulted him, shaking their heads and saying, “Ha! So you were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, were you?  Save yourself and come down from that cross!”

In the same way, the chief priests were making fun of him among themselves, together with the legal experts. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself. Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross. Then we’ll see and believe.” Even those who had been crucified with Jesus insulted him.

 

            Meditating on this passage allowed me to notice a surprising detail I had always missed before now.  The chief priests begin their mocking of Jesus, by saying, “He saved others. . . “ They freely admit that Jesus saved others.  They knew and acknowledged Jesus had saved others, yet they were determined to see Him killed nonetheless.  This makes the irony in their next statement pretty thick:

            “Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross. Then we’ll see and believe.”

They just acknowledged they had already seen and believed.  In their attempts to mock Jesus, they inadvertently condemn themselves. 

            It is particularly curious anyway, the disposition of people comfortable with publicly mocking a man hanging on a cross taking their last breaths.  As I try to take my own frequent advice and put myself in the place of the villains in the story, I imagine that in order to do such a thing, I would have had to nurture and develop an intense hate for someone.  To revel in another human being’s horrific demise, I imagine that I would have to see them as something other than another human being.  And as soon as I realize that truth, I realize that I am capable of such awfulness. This is because I know I have been guilty at times of dehumanizing my foes. 

            Doing so is a defense mechanism, a way of convincing myself of my rightness in feeling so hateful towards another.  This defense persists admirably until I see clearly in these narratives of Jesus on the cross that Jesus never allowed Himself such mechanisms.  Jesus had more reason to foster hate for these people standing around Him gawking at His suffering than I ever I have in all of my half-century of life.  He had been beaten and battered until He could no longer stand.  He had a crown of thorns shoved into his skull.  He is hanging on one of the most tortuous execution devices ever devised.  And having innocently endured all of that, He is now being mocked and teased by people who have just admitted His amazing deeds, yet want Him dead anyway.  Putting myself briefly in Jesus’s place, I cannot imagine not intensely hating the people doing this. 

            Yet Jesus never indulged the hatred.  In Mark’s account, he simply absorbs the animosity and remains silent.  He persists in loving all, even those who hate in return.  We often proclaim the cross as the God-designed victory over death.  Of course it is that, but it is also the victory of love over hate.  Mark’s message to the heavily persecuted church that he wrote this gospel for is that Christ’s victory over hate can be theirs as well.  Obviously, that powerful message is for us as well. 

 

Question:  Is there any resentment built up in your heart that perhaps you need to let go of in order to choose the path of Christ instead?

 

Prayer:  Jesus, we praise You for the perfect love You showed in Your life and in Your death.  We confess we fall short of loving the way You do.  Empower us by Your Spirit to let go of our resentments and be free of the toxicity that poisons our soul.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people you are tempted to harbor resentments toward today.

 

Song:  He Never Said a Mumbalin’ Word - Tesfa Wondemagegnehu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM8SULN_G_w

Led to Golgotha

Mark 15:22-27, CEB - They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means Skull Place.  They tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh, but he didn’t take it.  They crucified him. They divided up his clothes, drawing lots for them to determine who would take what.  It was nine in the morning when they crucified him.  The notice of the formal charge against him was written, “The king of the Jews.”  They crucified two outlaws with him, one on his right and one on his left.

 

            I intend to keep my words few in commenting on today’s passage.  What I encourage you to do is to see and spend some time in contemplation on the purposeful allusions to the Old Testament Mark includes in his crucifixion account.  We encounter a couple of them in our text above.  The wine mixed with myrrh is recalls Psalm 69:20-21:

            I looked for sympathy, but there was none,

             for comforters, but I found none.

They put gall in my food

             and gave me vinegar for my thirst.

Allusions to Psalm 22 can be found throughout the crucifixion narrative (including Jesus’s last words, which we will talk about at a later date.  But another striking reference to David’s Psalm is found in our text for today:

Dogs surround me,

             a pack of villains encircles me;

              they pierce my hands and my feet.

All my bones are on display;

            people stare and gloat over me.

They divide my clothes among them

            and cast lots for my garment. (Psalm 22:16-18)

Psalm 22 and 69 are classified as psalms of the righteous sufferer – someone who is guiltless yet made to suffer nonetheless.  In their Old Testament setting, they are the words of David, a flawed man whose cause was righteous but was opposed by King Saul.  However, they are even more poignant in describing Jesus, who is righteous in every way possible. 

            The tendency of us human beings, when confronted with undeserved suffering, is to (1) escape it somehow and (2) appeal to appropriate authorities/courts to make us “whole” again.  Jesus does neither.  Mark takes great pains to remind us that Jesus chose this path freely and never turns away from it.  He expresses His suffering but does not seek revenge or restitution.  In profoundly poetic irony, Jesus’s righteous suffering makes it possible for US to be made whole again. 

            Spend some time meditating on the scriptural imagery and truth today.  Allow the Spirit to impress upon you the power of what Jesus is doing here on the cross.

 

Question:  What truth concerning Jesus’s suffering seems to be foremost in your mind as you contemplate these scriptures today?

 

Prayer:  The prayer today is made up of quotations from Psalm 22 and 69:

Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.(22:11)

But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me. (22:19)

But I pray to you, Lord, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation. (69:13)

Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for those who are suffering through no fault of their own.

 

Song:  When I Survey the Wondrous Cross – Loma Linda University Church Choir

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_AujOpMljQ

Rufus and Alexander, Sons of Simon

Mark 15:21, CEB - Simon, a man from Cyrene, Alexander and Rufus’ father, was coming in from the countryside. They forced him to carry his cross.

 

            I wish we knew more about poor Simon, the man conscripted to carry a cross that had overwhelmed Jesus.  There are many stories and traditions that have grown up around him since that fateful day, but none rooted in verifiable evidence.  We don’t know if Simon of Cyrene was a Jew, a sympathetic gentile to the cause of Jesus, or just a bystander who happened to be by the path of the the awful procession to the cross that day.  In any case, Mark intentionally mentions him by name.  The question is why.

            Most likely, it was because of Simon’s sons, Alexander and Rufus.  By the time the Gospel of Mark is written and begins to be circulated, Alexander and Rufus are adults and are followers of Jesus.  Mark mentions them because Mark’s audience would have known who they were.  Alexander and Rufus were living breathing connections to the account Mark is giving of Jesus.  They were witnesses to the crucifixion.

            What a ghastly thing for children to witness.  I feel quite sure that terrible images were burned into their little brains that day that would be with them the rest of their lives.  What fear must have strangled their hearts as their father is torn away from them to get involved in this atrocity known as Roman crucifixion.  I can’t think about very long without having to distract my mind with other thoughts.  Children should not see such things.  Yet children often do even to this day.

            Some of the images that are burned into my brain for the rest of my life come from walking through an exhibit at the MLK Center in Atlanta some years ago.  It was a special collection of pictures drawn by the children of Sudan depicting the horrifying things they had seen in the genocidal campaign of the Janjaweed (translation, “Devils on horseback”) during the ongoing Dafur genocide.  I remember tears streaming down my face as I looked at the stick figure drawings showing their family members and friends being raped, brutalized, and burned alive.  Even as I recall it now as I write, the tears fall again. 

            Simon and his sons were forever changed by a seemingly minor detail of the passion of Jesus recalled in one verse in the Gospel of Mark.  I take comfort in the fact that this wretched moment became a catalyst for their journey towards God and the early Christian church.  I pray for similar outcomes for children all over the world who have “seen too much.” 

 

Question:  What are images “burned into your brain” that have changed you forever?

 

Prayer:  Lord, please protect, redeem, and deliver Your children who suffer even now.  Help them to know Your presence and transforming power.  Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for children in our country and around the world who have “seen too much.”

 

Song:  Jesus Loves the Little Children - Wilson World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzK-bBCBHUI

When This Happens, We Should Take it Personally

Mark 15:15-20, CEB - Pilate wanted to satisfy the crowd, so he released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus whipped, then handed him over to be crucified.

The soldiers led Jesus away into the courtyard of the palace known as the governor’s headquarters, and they called together the whole company of soldiers.  They dressed him up in a purple robe and twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on him.  They saluted him, “Hey! King of the Jews!”  Again and again, they struck his head with a stick. They spit on him and knelt before him to honor him.  When they finished mocking him, they stripped him of the purple robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

 

            We live in a culture that is de-sensitized to violence.  The large majority of the top TV shows and movies have an abundance of it.  We’ve even learned to tolerate actual violence.  Lawmakers, in the shadow of more than one mass shooting a day in this country, do nothing to address the problem.  Lest you think I am scapegoating them for the rest of us, I remind you and myself that we keep electing the lawmakers that have done nothing to address the problem and we keep watching those violent shows and movies that get top ratings. 

            I do notice people who are different than this.  They tend to be people for whom violence is personal experience.  The most passionate activists for change are often people who have lost loved ones to violence or who have experienced it personally.  When it’s a problem that has affected other people whom we don’t know or have a relationship, we can distance ourselves and disconnect to protect ourselves from it.  People who know violence up close do not have that luxury. 

            In today’s passage, God Himself encounters the violence and cruelty of which of human beings are capable.  Jesus is whipped on orders from a Roman Governor that stated publicly that Jesus had done nothing wrong; Pilate gives the order to satisfy the bloodthirsty crowd.  Jesus is then mocked, tortured, and spit upon by a whole company Roman soldiers.  They were careful enough not to kill Him though.  For the real show of violence was still to come.  We’ll talk about that more next time.

            My point today is when we hear things like “turn the other cheek,” love your enemies,” and “do not take vengeance” coming from the lips of Jesus, we can know that He doesn’t say such things from a position of someone for whom violence is very personal thing.  When families are torn apart by the brutality “out there,” God knows the terrible idiosyncrasies of that experience.  When a spouse is verbally and/or physically abused, Jesus knows that terror.  When a missile explodes through an apartment complex full of innocent civilians in a country racked by war, God knows the incredible weight of that loss. 

            Despite our culture, violence should be personal for every follower of Jesus because it is personal for Jesus Himself.  So don’t read the above passage as would a story in a book or watch “The Passion of the Christ” as you would watch the latest episode of “Yellowstone.”  Your brother Jesus is the one getting beat up here.  The God who is our Father is losing His son here. When they mock, tease, and spit on Jesus, it should be as though they were doing it to us.  This is as personal as it gets. 

 

Question:  How has the suffering of real people in the world and of Jesus touched your life?

 

Prayer:  God, we confess that we have a complicated relationship with violence.  We have found ways to de-sensitize ourselves to it so it doesn’t overwhelm us.  But it has also distanced us from the violence You Yourself experienced.  Break our hearts for the things that break Yours.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the victims of specific occurrences of violence of which you are aware.  Pray for those people as you would a brother, sister, parent, or child in the same situation.

 

Song:  Towards the end of this song, hear these lyrics that are a prayer:

Heal my heart and make it clean, open up my eyes to the things unseen,

Show me how to love like you have loved me.

Break my heart for what breaks Yours, everything I am for Your kingdom’s cause

As I walk from Earth into eternity.

Hosana – Hillsong:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVPYVXITk5w