When the Immortal Died
WHEN THE IMMORTAL
DIED
Mark 15:33-41
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All my life, I’ve been a Baptist. That’s how my parents raised me, and it is in
this tradition that I have spent my life in ministry. But, in some ways, it’s surprising that I’m
not a Methodist. John and Charles
Wesley, the founders of the Movement, have captured my imagination for quite
some time. If you really know me, it’s
not hard to see the influence. My best
friend in high school was named Wes. For
my master’s project and thesis, I chose to study Samuel Wesley, the remarkable
but little-known son of Charles Wesley.
I even named my own son “Wesley” just in case I might be tempted to not
finish my degree – I’d have to live with my failure the rest of my life.
John and Charles Wesley were the founders of Methodism in the 18th Century. There is much more to their story than what I can share here. John was the great organizer; Charles was the poet and hymn-writer. Both were tireless preachers. It is said that Charles wrote over 6,000 hymns. Even non-Methodist hymnals usually have a dozen or more of his works within their pages. Some of his most well-known hymns include “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing”, “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing”, and “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.” But my favorite Wesley hymn (and it was my mother’s all-time favorite) is “And Can it Be?” This remarkable hymn was written on the occasion of his conversion. As is true with all of Charles Wesley’s hymns, it features personal experience wedded to profound theology. Consider the richness of his words:
An int'rest in the Savior's blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me?
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine!
'Tis mercy all! let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.
That Thou, my God, should die for me!
The mystery of God’s love demonstrated through Christ’s death on the cross is so profound that even angels ponder and wonder at what happened (I Peter 1:12).
Mark 15:33-41
At
noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. Then at three
o’clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?”
which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
Some
of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet
Elijah. One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to
him on a reed stick so he could drink. “Wait!” he said. “Let’s see whether
Elijah comes to take him down!”
Then
Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain in the
sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
When
the Roman officer who stood facing him saw how he had died, he exclaimed, “This
man truly was the Son of God!”
Some women were there, watching from a distance, including Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James the younger and of Joseph), and Salome. They had been followers of Jesus and had cared for him while he was in Galilee. Many other women who had come with him to Jerusalem were also there.
Divine Drama
How
can I rehearse the story of Jesus’ death for you? Its depth of meaning seems best pursued
through the pages of a hymnbook or from the poet’s pen. But still, our efforts fall short for such
profound mysteries. Even the sun refused
to shine when the Light of the World died on the cross.
The
four Gospels together record a total of “seven last words” that Jesus spoke
before he died on the cross. Mark
alludes to his final words, “It is finished”, but only records his cry of
abandonment.
I
have never been completely abandoned. I
cannot imagine the terror of that feeling.
There are some who, being lost at sea or in the wilderness, have
descended into madness in their loss of hope and sense of abandonment. I have felt misunderstood. There were times when I didn’t know what was
going to happen to me. But I have never
felt abandoned. In my moments of
despair, I could always sing with Matt Redman, “Never once, did we ever walk
alone. Never once did you leave us on
our own. You are faithful, God you are
faithful.” I have always had the
assurance of the faithfulness of God. I
cannot imagine living life without that promise.
But
when Jesus died on the cross, God abandoned him. There can be no deeper horror in human
experience than what Jesus knew in that moment.
Jesus, as the Second Person of the Trinity, had always been with the
Father since before time began. He was
with the Father when the heavens and the earth were created. He watched as Adam and Eve rebelled in the garden. Though our songs say that “he left the
Father” to come to earth, the truth is, he never left the Father’s
presence. When he took on flesh as a human
being, Jesus was still intimately connected to the Father. He plainly told those who listened, “I and
the Father are one” (John 10:30). And
yet, when Christ took upon himself the sin of the world, God, in his holiness,
had to turn away. Of all the physical
suffering that Jesus endured, the absolute abandonment that he felt in his soul
must have been the cruelest blow.
The
bystanders, of course, did not understand what was happening to Jesus as he
recalled the dreadful opening lines to Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?” This Hebrew psalm of
lament uncannily describes exactly what Jesus was experiencing in his
crucifixion. But Jesus’ bystanders had
no idea that what was happening before their very eyes was a cosmic battle
between God and all the forces of evil.
They mistook his words for a cry of help to Elijah. Even in this horror, they had no pity. They mocked him again, sarcastically asking
if the ancient prophet himself would come to rescue this so-called “King of the
Jews” who was dying in gory agony.
His
work and suffering complete, according to the Gospel of John, Jesus cried out,
“It is finished!” as he took his last breath.
And then, something miraculous happened.
The
curtain in the Temple that had kept people from the holy presence of God was
torn from top to bottom. By his death,
Jesus destroyed the barrier that kept us apart from God. The Book of Hebrews, interpreting Christ’s
death, tells us: “…dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most
Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and
life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place” (Heb.
10:19-20). By his sacrificial death on
the cross, Jesus provided a way – the only way – for us to be reconciled to
God.
The
Bible was lived and written in a patriarchal society where women didn’t account
for much except for child-bearing and domestic duties. And yet, throughout each of the Gospels, we
see Jesus affirming women and the remarkable faith that they had. And here they are at the foot of the cross,
witnessing the horror and glory of it all, while all the men who had followed
Jesus had fled for their lives. We will
see the women again, first to visit the tomb on Resurrection Sunday. Things will radically change, as men and
women stand on equal ground before God.
Even the Apostle Paul would later recognize that in Christ, “There is no
longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in
[him]” (Galatians 3:28).
The Roman soldier overseeing Jesus’ death sensed that this was no ordinary man. Indeed, the Gospel of Matthew tells us that at the moment when Jesus breathed his last, that the earth shook, rocks were split, and tombs were opened. Moved by what he witnessed, the Gentile soldier said the saving words that are required of all of us, “This man truly was the Son of God!”
No Ordinary Death
Jesus’
death on the cross was no ordinary death.
It has been called “the hinge-point of history.” It was at that moment when Evil’s grip on the
world was finally loosed and the curse of sin was broken. Men and women could now be reconciled
directly to God through faith in Jesus Christ and what he accomplished through
his death.
Jesus
was crucified on a hill, the highest of the three crosses that stood
there. In those hours, Jesus fulfilled
his destiny. He did for us what Israel,
God’s chosen people, could not do. He
did for us what priests and Levites could never do. He did for us what we could
never do for ourselves. On another hill,
not much more than a stone’s throw away, stood the great Jewish Temple, the
place where God was to meet with his people.
It now stood under a curse of judgment and its curtain to the holy of
holies had been destroyed. Jesus, on the
cross, had taken the place of Israel in fulfilling the covenant through his
obedience and the Temple through his sacrificial death.
But
the cross was not a place of defeat for Jesus.
His life wasn’t taken from him; he laid it down willingly. His death was
more than atonement for the sins of the world.
It is that, to be sure. But he
didn’t die on the Day of Atonement. No,
he was crucified during Passover, the feast that celebrates victory and
deliverance. “Cursed is he who hangs on
a tree”, (Duet. 21:23) the Law declared.
On the cross, Jesus willingly took the curse of our sin upon himself and
broke its power. Satan had mustered all
the powers of evil against Jesus and they met on Golgotha’s hill. Evil was fully exhausted as Jesus died in
perfect obedience to God’s will. The
curse of sin and death had played itself out and lost. Three days later, Jesus would rise in
victory, granting salvation and freedom to all who would believe.
In
this year of darkness, the gospel shines even brighter. The political acrimony and the ugly struggles
for power: Jesus took that evil upon himself and exhausted it at the
cross. The hatred that has expressed
itself through destruction and violence across our land: Jesus has overwhelmed
it with his love. Jesus even confronted
the sickness that causes world pandemics through his suffering and death; “by
his stripes we are healed.” It is obviously true that we still struggle with
the brokenness of our world. But one
day, we will see the fullness of the victory he has achieved through his death
as God’s ultimate plan is revealed as “… he will bring everything together
under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth” (Eph.
1:10).
The cosmic event on that hill outside Jerusalem two thousand years ago is full of paradox and irony. The Immortal died. What appears to be wrong is right. Christ died so that we might live. Victory was achieved by losing. Glory would come through shame. God’s power was revealed through weakness. God’s justice came through man’s injustice. God’s love was ultimately manifested by human hatred.
Let angel minds inquire no more.”
Grasped Only by Faith
Charles
Wesley was an ordained clergyman in the Church of England before he experienced
the saving power Christ. He knew the
biblical story. He could recite the
Church’s creeds and liturgy by heart. He
and his brother John were so passionate and disciplined about their religious
vocation that their fellow students at Oxford made fun of them, derisively
calling them, “Methodists.” In their
efforts to please God themselves, John and Charles crossed the stormy Atlantic
Ocean to serve in the American colony of Georgia. John was a missionary to the indigenous
peoples and Charles served as the secretary to the British governor. They failed miserably and returned home to
England discouraged and disillusioned in the religious vocation that they had
committed their lives to.
When they arrived home, both John and Charles wrestled with the question of whether or not they were truly saved. They began to listen to other preachers talking about the necessity of a personal experience – of being born again. On Pentecost Sunday in 1738, as Charles wrestled with his deep questions and lay sick in bed, he heard a voice call out to him, “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, arise, and believe, and thou shalt be healed of all thy infirmities.” Something resonated deep in his heart and he declared, “I believe! I believe!” Wesley had finally found peace with God through the work of Jesus Christ rather than his own efforts towards justification. He wrote:
You
can know the gospel story intellectually.
You can be a member of a church.
As the lives of John and Charles Wesley demonstrate, you can even be a
minister. But until the Holy Spirit
enlightens your spirit with the gospel ringing true in your heart and you
responding in faith, you are not a Christian.
You must face the cross alone and determine what you will do with
Jesus. Will you receive his death on
your behalf for your sins or will you simply play along with the religious
game? In the end, your eternal destiny
is dependent upon your response.
The
late cardinal archbishop of Paris, Jean-Marie Lustiger, used to tell a story
about three boys who played a trick on the local priest. They went into the confessional and told all
sorts of wild and lurid stories. Two of
them ran off before the priest could assign them a proper penance for their
crimes. Wise to the ploy, the priest
gave this surprising instruction to the boy who remained: “Go to the far end of
the church and gaze up at Jesus dying on the cross. And then I want you to say these words three
times, ‘You did all that for me – and I don’t give a damn.’” The boy went to do what he was told. “You did all that for me,” he said, “and I
don’t give a damn.” He said it a second
time. He began the third time, but
couldn’t finish. He broke down and
wept. He left the church a changed
person. And the reason that the
Archbishop could tell that story, he would conclude, was “I was that young
man.” We must all face the cross one
day. Today just might be your day.
So, let me ask you as we contemplate the cross together this morning: “What does the cross mean to you?” Do you understand that it was your sins that put him there? Do you know that his death has defeated the power of sin that holds you in its chains and the curse of death that hangs over your head? His word to you this morning is the same that it was to Charles Wesley, “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, arise, and believe, and you will be saved.” And then you will be able to sing with him,
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