Oct 20, 2013
Mark 15:33-38
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Outline:
Mark divides Jesus’ 6 hours on the cross into two 3 hour sections: first, from 9 AM to noon; and then the second from noon to 3 PM.
During this first 3 hour section, Mark detailed the activities of 4 different groups of people around the cross. Interestingly enough, each group represents the reactions of most who encounter a crucified Christ.
1st: The Pagans were oblivious to the truth.
2nd: The Religious made a mockery of the truth.
3rd: The Masses remained ignorant of the truth.
Final Group: The Transgressors reviled the truth.
In our study last week we also mentioned that during these first 3 hours Jesus would end up making 3 statements from the cross (by the end there will be a total of 7 statements).
[Luke 23:34] “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
[Luke 23:43] “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
[John 19:26-27] “Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother.”
Let’s now examine the second three hours....
[Mark 15:33-34] “Now when the sixth hour had come (noon), there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour (3 PM). And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
1st Consideration: The physical experience of Jesus during these 3 hours.
For hours Jesus is enduring unrelenting pain caused by the nails driven through His wrists and metatarsal bones of His feet. Not to mention, the searing agony as tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber trying to find relief from the cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps.
All the while, Jesus is experiencing intermittent asphyxiation because of His inability to inhale and exhale. Over these few hours His heart begins to struggle to pump heavy, thick, sluggish, oxygen-deprived blood throughout His body.
Over time a deep crushing pain begins to rise deep within His chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and starts to compress the heart.
As He approaches the “ninth hour” His tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. He can now feel the chill of death creeping through His body.
2nd Consideration: The experience of humanity during these 3 hours.
Matthew, Luke, and Mark document an unique, supernatural event: “When the 6th hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the 9th hour.”
Note: Luke’s account says darkness was over the “whole earth.”
3 Theories concerning this darkness:
1. The darkness was a literary invention.
A common view in modern scholarship claims the account in the synoptic gospels is nothing more than a literary creation of the writers designed to heighten the importance of what they saw as a theologically significant event.
One skeptic reasons, “The image of darkness over the land would have been understood by ancient readers as a cosmic sign, a typical element in the description of the death of kings and other major figures.”
Problem: There are no literary indicators that any of the three Gospel authors were utilizing a literary technique in describing darkness when everything else they recorded was to be viewed as literal history.
2. The darkness was a natural phenomenon.
The most common natural explanation of the darkness is that a solar eclipse occurred during the crucifixion of Jesus. *Eclipse occurs when the moon rests directly between the sun and earth blocking out its light.
2 Problems with the solar eclipse explanation:
1. A solar eclipses is to brief to account for three hours of darkness.
The maximum duration of a total eclipse is 7 minutes and 31.1 seconds.
2. The crucifixion occurred during the lunar feast of Passover.
Since there was a full moon, as was always the case during Passover, the moon would have been positioned on the far side of the earth away from the sun making a solar eclipse completely impossible.
3. The darkness was a literal and historical act of God.
The O.T. prophet Amos predicted the very darkness described by Mark: [Amos 8:9] "On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the Sun to go down at noon, and darken the Earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasting into mourning, and all your songs into lamentations."
Aside from the accounts of the Synoptic authors, there were also many contemporaries that documented a prolonged darkness covering the earth.
Tertullian, who lived at the beginning of the 3rd century, wrote about the three hour period of darkness at the Crucifixion in his book “Apologeticus” even suggesting the evidence was still held in the Roman archives.
“At the moment of Christ’s death, the light departed from the sun, and the land was darkened at noonday, which wonder is related in your own annals, and is preserved in your archives to this day.”
Thallus, a non-Christian Roman historian writing in 52 AD set out to deny the supernatural elements accompanying the crucifixion of Jesus; and yet, his writing affirms two key facts of history:
1. Jesus' death was known and discussed by the Rome aristocracy as early as the middle of the first century.
2. He thought it necessary to explain the three hours of global darkness as something that occurred purely as a natural phenomenon.... meaning the event itself was not a matter of popular debate.
Julius Africanus, a Christian historian who composed a 5 volume “History of the World” in 221 AD, wrote extensively of Christ's crucifixion and the darkness that covered the earth prior to His death.
In citing Thallus’ “Third Book of Histories,” he stated that, "During the time of Tiberius Caesar an eclipse of the sun occurred during the full moon."
Africanus continued, “On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down.”
Julius’ historical scholarship so impressed Roman Emperor Alexander Severus (sev-er-us) that Africanus was entrusted with the official responsibility of building the Emperor’s library at the Pantheon in Rome.
Phlegon, a first century secular Greek historian, wrote a historical work called “The Olympiades,” which records that, “in the time of Tiberius Caesar, in the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad (33 AD), there was the greatest eclipse of the sun and that it became night in the sixth hour of the day [i.e., noon] so that stars even appeared in the heavens. There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned in Nicaea.”
Cornelius Tacitus, Roman historian writing in 70 AD, stated that Jesus had been crucified by Pontius Pilate, and that Rome was in darkness during the reign of Tiberius the Caesar in AD.33.
Johannes de Sacrobosco, 12th century astronomer most known for the creation of the Gregorian calendar and his thesis declaring that the earth was round, wrote in his “The Sphere of the World” that "the eclipse was not natural, but, rather, miraculous and contrary to nature".
Imagine what it must have been like for those standing at the cross or going about their business across the Kidron in Jerusalem when “darkness” covered “over the whole land” for a period of three hours?
For the religious leaders the symbolism should have been inescapable:
[Exodus 10:22] “So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.”
The 9th plague produced a darkness that covered Egypt for a period of 3 days.
Then we’re told the Passover lamb was slain, before the 10th plague (The Angle of Death) was unleashed killing all the first born of Egypt. As a direct consequence of this final plague the people of God would finally be freed from their bondage.
3rd Consideration: The spiritual experience of Jesus during these 3 hours.
It’s not an accident that Webster’s defines “darkness” not only as “being devoid of light” but also as “arising from or showing evil traits or desires.”
“Darkness” can be synonymous with “evil and wickedness.”
Metaphorically, when the Bible mentions “darkness” it can refer to both “the human condition of sinfulness, ungodliness, and immorality” as well as “the wrath of God as a consequence for these things.”
[Psalms 22] might provide additional clues as to what’s happening to Jesus during these three hours in darkness (verse 6): “But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people. All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, “He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”
“But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts. I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s womb You have been My God. Be not far from Me, For trouble is near; For there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me (could be a reference to demonic beings). They gape at Me with their mouths, Like a raging and roaring lion.”
“I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.”
I am convinced that during these three hours of “darkness” Jesus is experiencing the full effects of human sin (conviction, guilt, dirtiness) as He bears the sin of all humanity.
Then, from out of the darkness, came the 4th statement from the cross: “Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Psalms 22:1)
The phrase “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” is Aramaic (Jesus’ natural language) and is an intense cry of terror. We must consider what horrified Jesus?
Consider the words: “My God, My God why....”
Because Jesus has become sin, for the first time He is experiencing sins most basic consequence.... separation from God.
In the midst of His suffering, pain, and torment Jesus ask God “why?”
Jesus has been cut off from fellowship with God, and being out of touch with the Father was the only thing that frightened Him!
May we consider what terrorizes us? Sadly, we’ve grown so accustomed to being out of touch with our heavenly Father that the same horrifying effect of sin Jesus feared the most doesn’t have the same effect on us!
One of the great theological mysteries is how was Jesus separated from the Father? How could the triune Godhead splinter and the universe remain in tact?
In considering this very concept after sitting in solitude for several hours the great reformer Martin Luther said, “God forsaken by God.... who can understand this?”
Though Jesus positionally remained God for that had always been His true nature, it is an inescapable reality that, in this one moment, He found Himself practically separated from God as a human being guilty of sin!
[Mark 15:35-36] “Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, “Look, He is calling for Elijah!” Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink, saying, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down.”
When Jesus cried out from the darkness “Eloi, Eloi” Mark tells us those at the cross mistakenly thought he was “calling for Elijah.”
In Psalms 22 Jesus said “my tongue clings to My jaws.” This detail could very well contribute to the idea it was hard to understand what Jesus was saying.
[John 19:28] includes the 5th statement of Jesus occurring between verses 35 and 36, “After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!”
As the darkness gives way to light, John tells us that Jesus “knowing that all things were now accomplished” declares from the cross “I thirst.”
Aside from the fact Jesus wants something to drink so He can utter His last two statements for the world to hear, the spiritual implications of these two words “I thirst” coming from the mouth of Christ continue to present the idea that Jesus has been separated from His Father.
Note: Never before have we ever read that Jesus “thirst.”
[Mark 15:37-38] “And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”
With one last surge of strength, Jesus once again presses His torn feet against the nail, straightens His legs, takes a deeper breath, and cries out before “breathing His last.”
Once again John and Luke provide the account of what Jesus “cried out.”
6th Statement - [John 19:30] “So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.”
7th Statement - [Luke 23:46] “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’” Having said this, He breathed His last.”
“It is finished” was a common cultural phrase meaning “to bring to a close.”
In regards to economic transactions is meant “paid in full.”
In regards to legal affairs when a prisoner had finished his sentence the words would be nailed onto the prison door signifying the “debt completed.”
Note: The phrase itself was in the perfect tense.
Literally, “It is finished. It has been finished. It will always be finished!”
In order to fully comprehend this phrase you must first define “It....”
You see the work that Jesus finished on the cross was the work of redemption.
Jesus satisfied the price for sin so that we might be forgiveness.
But then you must also understand how “It is finished.”
Consider this basic question: Who killed Jesus?
Early Christians blamed the Romans (specifically Pontius Pilate). Later Christians blamed the Jews (justification for antisemitism). There are those who blame Satan. Today, many evangelicals preach that you and I are really guilty of such a crime.
The answer might shock you: God killed Jesus!
To understand this rather radical concept you need to understand a few overarching truths presented in Scripture concerning God:
God is holy and just, therefore, He must righteously judge and punish sinners. God made it clear the “wages of sin was death” and the execution of this divine judgment is referred to in Scripture as the “wrath of God.” But, God is also known by His love and He desires reconciliation with sinners.
Q: How can God save the sinner yet still righteously judge the sin?
A: God can pour out His wrath on a substitute sacrifice.
Biblical Requirements for a permanent Substitutionary Sacrifice:
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Sacrifice must be human.... only a human can be an adequate sacrifice.
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Sacrifice must be sinless.... the substitute can’t be equally guilty.
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Sacrifice must be willing.... a forced participation would nullify the effects.
Scripture tells us that Jesus willing chose to be our substitute sacrifice.
That in order to both demonstrate His hatred of sin and His love for sinners, the Son of God sacrificially took upon Himself the wrath of God by dying on the cross.
[Philippians 2:8] “And found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
[Romans 5:9] “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
Understand, the horrors Jesus experienced (including the scourging, humiliation, and crucifixion) encompassed the full wrath of God towards sin.
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Yes, the Jewish leaders instigated Jesus’ death. Sure, Pontius Pilate sanctioned His execution. Indeed, it was the legionnaires who carried out the dastardly deed. Undoubtedly, Satan gloated over Jesus’ pain and torment. But never forget.... “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”
What makes the section of Scripture we’re been examining so holy is that the wrath of God poured out on Jesus was wrath God had reserved for you! His wrath had you in its sights. It just so happens that Jesus stood in your place.
The punches Jesus took from the Temple guards were meant for your face. The lashes Jesus endured from the flagrum were meant for your back. The cross Jesus was laid upon had your name upon it. The nails which pierced His flesh had been sized for your hands and feet. And yet, Jesus willing took it all upon Himself for you.
Mark tells us of the immediate effects of the work of Jesus on the cross: “Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”
According to Josephus, the veil was 80 ft high and woven 10 inches thick.
Imagine the Scene: It’s 3 PM the time for the evening sacrifices. As Jesus is crying out “It is finished” the Temple is filled with priest busy about their duties.
I figure the first indication something was happening was the noise the tearing of such a massive piece of fabric would have created. Then they see this veil is being “torn in two from top to bottom” indicating a supernatural occurrence.
As the tear continues it begins to reveal the small room it was designed to conceal (Holy of Holies), the priest begin to run out of the Temple for their lives.
You see once the tear in the veil was completed the Holy of Holies (the throne room of God) would have been opened to the masses for the first time in human history.
The purpose of the veil: The veil that divided the Temple into two sections did not exist to protect God from man. The veil was designed to protect man from God. The veil was designed to distance and shield sinful humanity from God’s righteous holiness.
Example: Once a year the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. If found in sin, this man would be killed on the spot.
The veil being rent in two didn’t mean man could now approach God because the sin barrier that separated him had been removed. Instead, man could now approach God because God’s wrath towards sin had been satisfied in Jesus.
Understand: A sinner man approaching a righteous God is still risky business.
If you’ve accepted that God’s wrath towards you was satisfied in the sacrificial work of Jesus on the cross, then as we’re told in [Hebrews 4:16] “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
However, if you reject Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross and choose instead to approach a righteous God on your own merit, then according to Scripture you will experience the righteous wrath and judgment of God for the wages of your sin have not been paid or satisfied! Your payment isn’t finished. It’s just beginning.
Because Jesus declared “It is finished” and the veil of separation was torn, humanity was provide a new way to approach God:
You can still choose to stand in the crosshairs of the wrath of a righteous God on your own, or you can now kneel at the cross of Jesus Christ and accept the grace and atonement of a righteous Savior who bore God’s wrath for you.
[John 3:36] “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him."
In 1829, Pennsylvania native George Wilson was convicted of mail robbery and murder. After being found guilty, he was sentenced to death. Later pardoned by President Andrew Jackson, Wilson refused the pardon. Confusion reigned among all who were concerned about the case.... What were they to do with a man who refused a pardon and chose to die on the gallows instead?
Finally, in “United States v. Wilson” the Chief Supreme Court Justice, John Marshall, ruled: "A pardon is a deed, to the validity of which delivery is essential, and delivery is not complete without acceptance. It may then be rejected by the person to whom it is tendered; and if it be rejected, we have discovered no power in a court to force it on him.”