32 On their way out of the city, they met a man from Cyrene. His name was Simon. They forced him to carry the cross. 33 They came to a place called Golgotha. The word Golgotha means the Place of the Skull. 34 There they mixed wine with bitter spices and gave it to Jesus to drink. After tasting it, he refused to drink it. 35 When they had nailed him to the cross, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 36 They sat down and kept watch over him there. 37 Above his head they placed the written charge against him. It read,
This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
38 Two rebels against Rome were crucified with him. One was on his right and one was on his left. 39 Those who passed by shouted at Jesus and made fun of him. They shook their heads 40 and said, “So you are going to destroy the temple and build it again in three days? Then save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” 41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders made fun of him. 42 “He saved others,” they said. “But he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross! Then we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him. He’s the one who said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” 44 In the same way the rebels who were being crucified with Jesus also made fun of him.
Jesus Dies
45 From noon until three o’clock, the whole land was covered with darkness. 46 About three o’clock, Jesus cried out in a loud voice. He said, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” This means “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?” (Psalm 22:1)
47 Some of those standing there heard Jesus cry out. They said, “He’s calling for Elijah.”
48 Right away one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar and put it on a stick. He offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, “Leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
50 After Jesus cried out again in a loud voice, he died.
51 At that moment the temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook. The rocks split. 52 Tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs. After Jesus was raised from the dead, they went into the holy city. There they appeared to many people.
54 The Roman commander and those guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened. They were terrified. They exclaimed, “He was surely the Son of God!”
55 Not very far away, many women were watching. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to take care of his needs. 56 Mary Magdalene was among them. Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, was also there. So was the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
Jesus Is Buried
57 As evening approached, a rich man came from the town of Arimathea. His name was Joseph. He had become a follower of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59 Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. 60 He placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb. Then he went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there across from the tomb.Introduction
We are looking at the last day of Jesus’ life on earth, before his resurrection. As we have done so, we have seen how the powers of darkness gather around Jesus. People have made plans against Jesus. They have come with violence. They have betrayed Jesus. We have seen sins such as despair, hypocrisy, false kingdoms and false religion all at war with Jesus. Human sin comes against Jesus. It as though hell on earth meets the Son of God. The darkness is trying to overcome the light. But the scriptures are being fulfilled. God’s vast, eternal plan is greater and more powerful than all the work of hell. We can compare this to a tornado, where vast powers in the atmosphere gather and touch earth with overwhelming force. Here the sin of the world is touching the earth at the crucifixion of Jesus.
Today we will look at Jesus under three different headings: The king of all people. The slave of all people. God over all people. We will see how these three ideas hold together.
Firstly, Jesus was the king of all people.
As we saw last week, many times during the last day of Jesus’ life, people say something true even when they don’t understand it. The soldiers offer false honour to Jesus. They dress him up like a king, and speak to him as a king. They are mocking him. The creation is mocking its creator. The same is true of the sign above Jesus. It says ‘this is Jesus, King of the Jews.’ It is an accusation, and yet it is the truth. The Jewish leaders say that if he is the true king of Israel, he should come down from the cross. Jesus is crucified with rebels. They have rejected the authority of Rome. They are suffering for it. The true king is the Saviour of Israel, and the Saviour of the world. As they reject Jesus, they reject his authority and they reject his power to save.
All of creation has rebelled against its creator. Each one of us has dishonoured our master. Our king went to the cross because we rebelled against him. Jesus calls each of us to give up our rebellion and to bring our lives under his authority. We might be tempted to look at another person and think ‘I’m better than them.’ We might think ‘my life isn’t as bad as theirs.’ Yet we are all rebels. Is there an area where you are rebelling at the moment? Is there any area which is not under Jesus’ control?
Secondly, Jesus is the slave of all people.
Crucifixion was a punishment reserved for slaves. Jesus is treated like a thing. Without being found guilty of any crime, Jesus is brutally flogged. Then the soldiers bring Jesus into the barracks. They mock him and spit on him. He is something they use to amuse themselves. Jesus belongs to other people. He does not belong to himself. Today we see terrible cruelty in places like Sudan. But this cruelty in reality lives in each of us. Jesus has no control over his own movement. He is controlled by others. He has no property. They take even his clothes. They temporarily force someone else (from Libya) to carry the cross. But Jesus is forced to go to his death. Even when they offer Jesus wine mixed with a bitter spice, Jesus will not drink it. The bitter spice was a narcotic. It would have blurred Jesus’ thinking . Jesus is still at work, even on the cross. Sin itself is like a narcotic. It might blunt our pain, or give us pleasure, but it confuses us and takes us away from reality. Jesus’ experience on the cross is recorded in Isaiah 52 and 53. We will read those words.
Jesus became the slave of all people because he loved us. To understand what Jesus did, we should pause and say ‘Jesus did that for me.’ The soldiers, the priests, and the passers-by all dishonoured Jesus. Our reaction should be awe and worship.
We find it hard to follow Jesus here. We find it hard to accept that we should serve others. Perhaps we can serve God, but serving other people is hard. We should pray for the power to serve as Jesus did.
Prayer pause: Lord, help us to understand how much you love us, how much you did for us as our slave. Help us to follow you.
There are signs of hope here. Simon, they man who carried the cross, probably became a believer later on. Hundreds of millions of people like him have chosen to carry the cross, the way Jesus did.
Thirdly, Jesus is God over all people.
Jesus is the Son of God. But he has given his life over to God the Father. He is perfectly obedient. He submits to God the father. Jesus says ‘your will, Father, not mine.’ Jesus is the eternal word of God, and he has made himself an obedient slave. This is how God the Word, or God the Son, submits to God the Father.
Jesus quotes a Psalm here. It is Psalm 22: in that Psalm, someone is tortured, yet they put their trust in God. This Psalm contains many prophecies about the crucifixion. Jesus died for us. He took our sin on the cross. Jesus alone could do this. No ordinary created man could do this. The penalty for all our sin was on Jesus. The obedient submission of God the Son comes from his deep love for the Father. This is the enigma of God’s nature. The Father and the Son are one, yet the Son submits to Father. God the Father will rescue Jesus. He will bring him back from death. As Philippians 2 says, Jesus will have the name above every name. That name is the name of God himself. Jesus trust and submission in God the Father was perfect and completely effective. And this is how we meet God. We meet God the Father in Jesus. As the Father and the Son are one, they invite us, through the Holy Spirit, to come into a relationship.
There are many signs of this at the end of the passage: the temple curtain was split in two. That means that the separation between God and people is at an end. Jesus has brought us together. The earth shakes: the whole world was made through Jesus. The dead rise, because Jesus will bring the dead from their tombs.
This relationship was bought at huge cost. Will you come? Do you want to know God? Jesus is the only way.
Conclusion
Jesus is God. Yet he became the slave of all people. The depths of his love are beyond our understanding. We lay our lives down at his feet.
Jesus is God. He is the king of all people. All sin is rebellion against God. At the cross we see the sin and evil of people in rebellion against the true king. Yet we reserve part of lives for ourselves. We too are rebels called to surrender.
Jesus is God. He is the only way to the Father. Through his obedience on the cross, we meet God.
The cross is the place where all human evil meets the holiness of the one true God. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
