Mark 15:1-47 Good Friday 2010

¹³ “Crucify him!” they shouted. ¹⁴ “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” ¹⁵ Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.” (Mark 15:13-15)

The Cross. It struck fear in the hearts of the world. It was Rome's means of control. Excruciating torture. Prolonged agony. Humiliating death. According to Roman custom, the penalty of crucifixion was always preceded by flogging. The Romans used a whip made of several long strips of leather. Piece of bone and lead were added to the tips. In Deuteronomy God limited punishment by flogging to 40 lashes to avoid dehumanising the victim. So the Jews reduced the maximum penalty to 39 in case of a miscount. The Romans saw no need for such restrictions. Victims often did not survive. After this initial punishment, you carried your cross, or at least the transverse beam of it, to the place of execution. Besides the physical pain there was also the psychological torture. Crucifixion was a very public form of execution. Crosses were located by the roadside or at an intersection. There was no hiding your punishment.

You were exposed to the jibes and insults of the people who passed by.  Stripped naked, you were bound to the cross with cords and fastened with nails. Finally, a placard called the titulus bearing your name and your crime, was placed above your head. You would not die of hunger or thirst, but you might hang on the cross for several days. To breathe, you must stretch upward.
You must stand to take the weight on your legs and off your arms and chest. So if your legs were broken, death would come mercifully swift with asphyxiation. This was necessary to be able to remove a corpse on the evening of your execution if it was a Sabbath.  But your corpse could not be taken down, unless specially authorized. Permission would also be necessary for you to be buried rather than left till the cross was needed again. 

Mark simply records all this in an understated way with the words, “Pilate had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.” (Mark 15:15).  Lets find out why today is called “Good Friday". Please turn with me to Mark 15 and let us draw out three simple reasons why today is indeed a good day.

1. The Cross was Central to our Salvation

The historical events surrounding the death of Jesus were no accident. In the Hebrew Scriptures, in Psalm 22, Psalm 69, Isaiah 53, for example, God had declared that these things would happen. Through a Passover Lamb, a ransom sacrifice, a substitute, God would rescue humanity from its sin and rebellion.  Today, we think of the cross as a symbol of glory and victory; but in Pilate’s day, the cross stood for rejection, shame, and suffering. It was Jesus who made the difference. The criminal carried his cross to the place of execution. The bearing of the cross was a mark of guilt; and Jesus was not guilty, he was taking our guilt upon himself. ‘There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. The cross was central to our salvation.

2. The Cross was Necessary for our Salvation 

²⁵ It was nine in the morning when they crucified him.  ²⁶ The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS.  ^{27 [28]} They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left.  ²⁹ Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days,  ³⁰ come down from the cross and save yourself!” ³¹ In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself!  ³² Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.” (Mark 15:25-32)

“This is Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.” Wrote Pilate. The chief priests protested the title, but Pilate refused to change it. The fact that this title was written in Hebrew (Aramaic), Greek, and Latin is significant. Hebrew was the language of religion, Greek of philosophy, and Latin of law; and all three combined to crucify the Son of God. But what He did on the cross, He did for the whole world. Without realizing it, Pilate was inspired to write the first “Gospel tract” when he prepared this title. Within hours one of the thieves discovered that Jesus was King, and asked entrance into His kingdom. Some of the people passing by reviled Jesus, no doubt at the instigation of the chief priests and scribes (Mark 15:29-32). When you read Psalm 22, you see how David uses the image of animals to describe the people who persecuted our Lord: bulls (Ps. 22:12), lions (Ps. 22:13, 21), and dogs (Ps. 22:16, 20). And with great respect that is how people behave today when they reject the Son of God. That is what we were before we trusted in Christ. We were enemies of God (Philippians 3:18-19).  Had we been there on Good Friday, it is very likely we too would have mocked Jesus. The Roman army was drawn from conquered races right across Europe. Its very possible some of the soldiers on duty that day were our ancestors. So let us not kid ourselves into thinking it was other people who crucified Christ. 

“We all like sheep have gone astray, everyone has turned to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6).

When people reject their Lord, they become like animals.  When we accept him we become like the angels. The cross was not only central to our salvation, it was necessary for our salvation.

3. The Cross Uniquely Accomplished our Salvation

 “At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.  ³⁴ And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)… ³⁷ With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. ³⁸ The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. ³⁹ And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” ⁴⁰ (Mark 15:33-34, 37-40)

Our Lord knew what was going on; He was fully in control as He obeyed the Father’s will. He had refused to drink the pain-deadening wine that was always offered to those about to be crucified (Matt. 27:34). In order to fulfill the Scriptures (Ps. 69:21), He said, “I thirst.” He was enduring real physical suffering, for He had a real human body. He had just emerged from three hours of darkness when He felt the wrath of God and separation from God (Matt. 27:45-49). There were physical reasons for His thirst (Ps. 22:15), but there were also spiritual reasons (Ps. 42:1-2). One of the soldiers took pity on Jesus and moistened His lips with the cheap vinegar wine the soldiers drank. We must not imagine Jesus hanging many feet up in the air, almost inaccessible.

His feet were perhaps three or four feet from the ground, so it would be easy for the man to put a sponge at the end of a reed and give Jesus a drink. Our Lord made seven statements from the cross. They are known as “the seven words from the cross.” First, He thought of others: those who crucified Him (Luke 23:34), the believing thief (Luke 23:39-43), and His mother (John 19:25-27). The central word had to do with His relationship to the Father (Matt. 27:45-49); and the last three statements focused on Himself: His body (John 19:28-29), His soul (John 19:30; and see Isa. 53:10), and His spirit (Luke 23:46). All that Jesus achieved in his life and all that Jesus accomplished in his death are summed up in his very last word from the cross. “It is finished!” In Greek, just one word tetelestai. It means, “It is finished, it stands finished, and it always will be finished!” Here is the greatest word ever spoken. And here is the explanation as to why this Friday has for 2000 years been called ‘Good’. First, it was finished because:

1. The Consummation of the Prophetic Scriptures

Prophecy foretold that he would be despised (Isa. 53:3); that He would be rejected (Isa. 8:14). There was the betrayal by a familiar friend, the forsaking by his cherished disciples, the being led to the slaughter, the being taken to judgment, the appearing of false witnesses against him, the refusal on his part to make defence, the unjust condemnation, the sentence of capital punishment passed upon him, the literal piercing of his hands and feet, the being numbered with transgressors, the mockery of the crowd, the casting lots for his garments - all predicted centuries before. And all fulfilled to the very letter. The last prophecy of all which remained before He committed His spirit into the hands of His Father had now been fulfilled. He cried "I thirst" and after the tendering of the vinegar and gall all was now "accomplished"; and as the Lord Jesus reviewed the entire scope of the prophetic word and saw its full realization, He cried, "It is finished." The consummation of the prophetic scriptures.

2. The Culmination of his Personal Sufferings

"It is finished" was not the despairing cry of a helpless martyr. It is the declaration of a Sovereign Lord who willingly suffered in our place. Suffering at the hands of men, at the hands of Satan, and at the hands of God. Pain inflicted upon him by enemies and accepted by His Father. In the gospels we see how the cross was ever before Him. At the marriage-feast of Cana, where all was gladness and merriment, He makes solemn reference to "His hour" not yet come. When Nicodemus interviewed him at night the Saviour referred to the lifting up of the Son of man. When James and John came to request from him the two places of honour in his coming kingdom, he made mention of the "cup" which he had to drink. When Peter confessed that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God, he turned to his disciples and began to show unto them "how that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day" (Matthew 16:21). When Moses and Elijah stood with him on the mount of transfiguration it was to speak of "his departure which he was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem." (Luke 9:31)

On the cross itself, the physical sufferings were agonizing but even this was nothing compared with the anguish of His soul. Now the closing hours come. The darkness over the land. There had been the terrible experience in Gethsemane followed by His appearance before Caiaphas, before Pilate, before Herod, and back again before Pilate. There had been the scourging and mocking by the brutal soldiers; the journey to Calvary; the fastening of his hands and feet to the cruel tree. There had been the reviling of the priests, the crowd, and the two thieves crucified with him. But then, as he bore our sin, He was forsaken of the Father. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Then… “It is finished” . At last the suffering is ended. The awful storm of God’s wrath has ended. The darkness is ended. The wages of sin have been paid. The prophecies of his sufferings are all fulfilled. The cross has been "endured." Divine holiness has been fully satisfied. With a cry of triumph - a loud cry, a cry which reverberated throughout the entire universe –

the Saviour exclaims, "It is finished." The consummation of the prophetic scriptures. The culmination of his personal sufferings.

3. The Completion of the Perfect Sacrifice

The mission upon which God had sent his Son into the world was now accomplished. The Son of Man had come "to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10). Christ Jesus came into the world "to save sinners" (1 Tim. 1:15). He came "to take away our sins" (1 John 3:5). All this he accomplished on the cross. Once for all people. Once for all sin. Once for all time. "It is finished." Although the word tetelestai may be unfamiliar to us, it was an everyday word used by traders and merchants to declare: “The debt is paid… the bill is paid in full” When Jesus gave Himself on the cross, he fully met the righteous demands of a holy law; He paid our debt in full. None of the Old Testament sacrifices could take away sins; their blood only covered sin temporarily. But the Lamb of God shed His blood, and that blood has taken away the sins of the world (John 1:29; Heb. 9:24-28). This is why, at the moment Jesus died, the Temple curtain was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now the way to God was open. "It is finished." The consummation of the prophetic scriptures.The culmination of his personal sufferings.The completion of the perfect sacrifice.

4. The Conquest over the Power of Satan
To human appearances it looked like the moment of Satan’s greatest triumph, yet in reality, it was the hour of his ultimate defeat. It is true that Satan has not yet been chained and cast into the bottomless pit, nevertheless, sentence has been passed (though not yet executed); his doom is certain; and his power is already broken so far as believers are concerned. For the Christian the devil is a defeated foe. He was defeated by Christ at the cross - "that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil" (Heb. 2:14). For the believer, Satan should be treated as a defeated enemy. No longer has he any legitimate claim upon us. Once we were his captives but Christ has set us free. "It is finished." Here is the triumphant answer to the rage of man and the enmity of Satan. It tells of the perfect work which meets sin in the place of judgment. All was completed just as God would have it, just as the prophets had foretold, just as the Old Testament sacrifices had foreshadowed, just as divine holiness demanded, and just as sinners need. "It is finished" cries the Son of God - who then would dare to doubt or question it. "It is finished." Are you trying to add something of your own to the finished work of Christ?  The Father is satisfied with the work of Christ, are you? Repent, believe & be saved. So you can say this is Good Friday.