Jesus Crucified

Mark 15:22-39

GOLDEN TEXT: “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.”—Isaiah 53:5

THE apostle, bids us who are Christians to consider Him who “endured such great contradiction of sinners against Himself.” (Heb. 12:3) A great deal of this “contradiction” was heaped upon the Master while He was hanging upon the cross. Jesus was the King of the Jews. He was sent of God to be King over all the earth “in due time.” But the Jews didn’t believe this, nor did the Roman authorities, who were the agents’ in His crucifixion, believe it. And while He hung there, they derided Him, challenging Him to come down from the cross and thus to prove His claim of being King.

Jesus was content to die without convincing the crowd that He was right. He was indeed a King, the One who will yet be recognized as “King of kings and Lord of lords,” but had He yielded to the contradictions heaped upon Him while hanging upon the cross, and to justify Himself in the eyes of His accusers had come down from the cross, He would have lost the divine approval and hence lost everything.

In this we have a wonderful example to follow. If what we believe is the truth, and our lives are in harmony with that truth, we do not need to be anxiously concerned with what others may think about our beliefs or about us. A noted Christian character of years ago, who had many enemies, was asked one day why he didn’t try to answer his accusers, and he remarked that if one stops to kick every little dog that barks at his heels he could never make any progress.

The goal of Jesus’ earthly life was to die. Without His death the world could not have been redeemed, and it mattered little to the Master what people thought of Him as long as He could accomplish His Father’s purpose. He knew why He was dying, that His death would provide the means to obtain life even for those who were shouting their accusations against Him. He knew, therefore, that it was better for them and better for Him not to try to justify Himself or to prove that they were wrong.

What did matter to Jesus was to have His Father’s approval. His prayer, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me,” was the expression of a broken heart—broken because for a short season He lost the sense of His Father’s presence and favor. This was a necessary part of the Master’s experience, as the Redeemer of the world. In His death Jesus took the sinner’s place. The sin-cursed and dying race had been cast off from divine favor, and in order for Him to pay the full penalty of sin, it was necessary for divine favor to be withdrawn from Him also, even if it were only for a few moments. This trying experience, then, as well as all that He endured, was for us and for all mankind, even as stated by the Golden Text. He was indeed a “man of sorrows,” but oh, what a Savior!

The prayer, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me,” is quoted from the 22nd Psalm. This whole Psalm is a prayer, and in a remarkable way depicts the experiences of the Master while hanging upon the cross. Doubtless the whole prayer was in Jesus’ heart while He was hanging there, but He was too weak to utter any more of it audibly. This prayer, while an acknowledgment of the withdrawal of the Father’s favor, is nevertheless, an expression of triumph. Verses 27 and 28 read, “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. For the Kingdom is the Lord’s; and He is the governor among the nations.”

Perhaps it was this part of the prophetic prayer that gave Jesus His inspiration to reply to the thief as He did. The thief asked to be remembered in the Kingdom, and Jesus, reassured by this prophetic prayer, knew that even though sin seemed to be triumphing for the moment, the Lord’s Kingdom was to be established and all the kindreds of the earth would yet worship the true God. In great faith, then, He could say, “Thou shalt be with Me in paradise.”

The Old Testament Scriptures served as a complete guide to the Master, pointing out to Him the course He should follow under all circumstances. Being wholly obedient to the Word, its many promises and prophecies served also as witnesses of the Spirit to comfort and encourage Him. Through the prophets the Spirit had testified concerning His suffering and death, hence, in these experiences also, He had the comfort of knowing that His Father’s blessing was upon Him.

Patience in and submission to unjust opposition and persecution leave a brilliant testimony to those who witness them without prejudice. When Jesus finally died, a centurion who was on guard, remarked, “Truly, this was the Son of God.” Had Jesus come down from the cross to establish this fact at the behest of the clamoring crowd, they probably would even then have been unconvinced. But, by carrying out the terms of His covenant by sacrifice, and finishing His course faithfully unto death, at least this one centurion was greatly impressed. Later, His lifting up will cause all men to be drawn unto Him, even those who pierced Him. How we should appreciate the Master’s sacrifice for us and for the world. May we follow His example faithfully unto death.

QUESTIONS:

Explain how Jesus endured “contradiction of sinners.”

Do Christians, who serve the Lord faithfully and in harmony with the truth, need to be specially concerned over what others may think of them?

Why was it necessary for Jesus to experience the temporary loss of His Father’s favor?

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