The Cross of Jesus

Sermon preached by Pastor C. John Steer

Autumn Ridge Church, Rochester, MN

August 30 & 31, 2008

 

 

Scripture: John 19:1-27

No. 22: Series on John’s Gospel

 

 

Today I want to talk to those who are checking out the Christian faith and wondering if you should follow Jesus Christ.

John chapters 19 and 20 are essential for those seeking God for they focus on the central themes of Christianity, which are the death and resurrection of Jesus.

So please turn to John chapter 19 in your Bible and to the message outline as we consider The Cross of Jesus.

 

In this passage John gives us five reasons why Jesus was killed and why he is qualified to be our Savior.

First Christ can save us because JESUS IS THE KING.

His kingship is a constant emphasis in this passage.

We read, “The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’” (2-3)

 

Pilate presents Jesus to the people with these words: “Here is your king.” (v 14)

 

Now most of this was done in mockery but Pilate and his soldiers had it right for once. For Jesus is the king.

The scriptures, songs and slogans of Judaism had spoken for a thousand years of the coming Messiah as God’s true king.

Pilate had asked Jesus, “You are a king then?” (John 18:37)

Jesus had replied, “You are right in saying I am a king.

In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world.” (John 18:37)

 

Jesus’ kingship was acknowledged at his birth by a star that signified that a king had been born and by the gift of gold brought by the Magi.

But, of course Jesus is no ordinary king.

 

He explained to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world . . . my kingdom is from another place.” (John 18:36)

That is why Jesus was such a threat to other rulers.

Herod understood this which is why he tried to kill Jesus while he was still a baby in Bethlehem.

 

Jesus came to usher in a kingdom of righteousness and peace but in order to do that he needed to die for the sins of his people. The method of his death contrasted with his regal identity. Crucifixion was the most vile form of execution, reserved for slaves and the lowest classes of people.

It was invented by the Persians, developed by the Carthaginians and perfected by the Romans.

 

Josephus refers to crucifixion as, “The most wretched of deaths.” Cicero called it, “The most cruel and terrible penalty. . . incapable of description by any word for there is none fit to describe it.”

Yet this great king accepts this disgusting death, such is his love for you and me.

 

Throughout this Good Friday, Pilate is acting with God’s permission and according to his purposes.

It is helpful for us to remember this in times of great tragedy when we ask, “What is God doing?”

The answer may well be “his Sovereign will.”

Jesus explained this to the governor when he said, “You would have no power over me if it were not given you from above.” (v 11)

 

Guided by the Spirit of God, “Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened it to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. . . the sign was written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek.” (v 19-20)

 

This tells us something very important about Jesus’ kingship.

Greek is the language of culture, beauty and scholarship.

This is a world that Jesus claims.

Human creativity is God’s gift to us.

As we bring our artistic abilities to him he ennobles and enriches them and uses them for his praise.

 

Latin is the language of government and law.

King Jesus claims that world too.

He uses a life surrendered to his lordship to bring the salt and light of his kingdom to areas of public life.

 

Hebrew is the language of religion.

Christ claims this world as his own for he alone is the truth.

He calls us to acknowledge him and to reach in his name the millions who follow the empty gods of other religions so that they may bow the knee before the king who is exalted on a cross.

 

Second Christ can save us because JESUS IS THE MAN.

There is that dramatic scene where Pilate brings out Jesus wearing his crown of thorns and his purple robe and declares to the crowd, “Here is the man!” (v 5)

It is “Ecce Homo” in Latin.

 

Now what is the significance of saying that Jesus is the man?

Let’s remember that John is writing a new Genesis.

In the Genesis story Adam is created on the sixth day.

Adam is made in the image of God and for the first time the creator can say, “Here is the man!”

 

In the first chapter of his gospel John tells the story of creation and a new creation. He then makes the extraordinary statement, “The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (John 1:14)

Now on the sixth day of Holy Week Jesus, the new Adam representing the new humanity, is introduced with these words, “Here is the man!”

 

That is what Jesus is. The true image of the true God.

The man who has brought God’s wisdom into the world.

As N.T. Wright puts it, “Here is the living embodiment of God, the one who made the invisible God visible.”

This is what it means that Jesus, the eternal word, took our flesh.

 

What a man Jesus is.

He is a dangerous man. He is not safe to be around.

Those who follow him get into all kinds of trouble.

Some even lose their life.

That is why Jesus gave the warning that to be his disciple involves taking up our own cross every day.

 

How wise Pilate was to get rid of Jesus.

How insightful were those Jewish leaders to insist on his death. For Jesus is a revolutionary.

He doesn’t accept the status quo.

He wants to change us and our world.

 

We don’t like change and the safest thing is just to nail this man to a cross and obliterate his memory.

The problem is he won’t lie down.

He rises up on the third day and creates a new humanity.

 

Last week Dr. David Scholer died.

David was raised in our church.

He became a world famous theologian.

He put Autumn Ridge on the map.

 

For the last six years David has struggled with cancer.

But I know David Scholer and I can tell you that David is more alive today than he has ever been.

He is more of a man than he ever was because Jesus the man became his Savior when David was a member of our youth group back in the 1950’s.

 

Third Christ can save us because JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD

The Jews insist, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”

(v 7) The Law is probably Leviticus 24:16: “Anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord must be put to death.”

 

The Jewish leaders considered this claim blasphemy for which the penalty was death.

But there was no crime for Jesus’ claim was true.

He is the Son of God sent by the Father to deliver us.

 

That is why his was no ordinary death.

You can’t kill God without consequences and the gospel writers tell us that when Jesus died the earth shook, the sun was darkened, the Temple curtain was torn, the graves were opened and people came back to life.

 

When we remember that Jesus is the Son of God, the punishment he received from brutal men is all the more extraordinary.

John tells us, “Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.” (v 1)

Flogging preceded all crucifixions.

 

It has been described as follows. “The victim was stripped, bound to a post or pillar and beaten by a number of torturers until the latter grew tired and the flesh on the victim hung in bleeding shreds . . . the leather thongs of the whips were often fitted with a spike or several pieces of bone or lead joined to form a chain.

It is not surprising to hear that prisoners not infrequently collapsed and died under this procedure.”

That was done to the Son of God. But why?

 

Last week while we watched our daughters play soccer Andy Vaughan asked me a riddle that consisted of two questions.

What’s wrong with the world?

What’s right with the world?

Andy added intriguingly that the answer is the same to both questions.

 

I missed half the soccer game trying to work out the answer and eventually gave up. Andy cried delightedly, the answer is “I AM.”

 

Apparently Andy thought of this during my sermon last week

which makes me wonder what the rest of you are doing while I am busy preaching.

But this riddle is brilliant.

 

What’s wrong with the world? I AM.

That echoes G.K. Chesterton’s famous answer in his letter to The London Times.

Sin is what is wrong with the world and I am a sinner.

I am part of the problem.

 

But what’s right with the world? I AM.

That is what Jesus told the soldiers when they came to arrest him in Gethsemane, “I AM.”

It is the divine name that he has used seven times in this gospel. Because he is the Son of God he is the solution to the world’s problem. He alone can deal with my sin and your sin.

 

Fourth Christ can save us because JESUS IS THE MEDIATOR

This truth is hidden in the text although John has already expounded it in the last chapter.

 

We read, “When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. Let’s not tear it, they said to one another. Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” (v 23-24)

 

The trial of Jesus formally concluded with Pilate pronouncing the formula, “Ibis ad curcem” meaning “you will go to the cross”. Jesus was then taken into the custody of the execution squad which was made up of four Roman soldiers.

 

The condemned man was then forced to carry the horizontal cross bar. It is probable, as crucifixions were fairly common, that the upright posts were permanently in place at the execution site beside the main highway just outside the city.

 

As Jesus sets off on that terrible last journey carrying the wooden beam we witness a reenactment of Genesis 22, that took place on Mount Moriah, the very hill on which the city of Jerusalem stood. Then another son called Isaac carried the wood for an altar in which he was to be secured as the victim.

 

The place of execution was named Golgotha which in Aramaic means the place of the skull. In Latin it is Calvary.

Today there is a hill outside Jerusalem by the bus station that looks like a skull and people wonder if this is the place that Jesus died?

 

There Jesus was laid out on the cross piece and fixed to it by iron nails driven through the top of his wrists.

The cross piece was then raised on a ladder or pulley and nailed to the upright. The feet were placed one over the other and nailed to the cross.

 

The victim was then left to die.

It could take days of slow agony which was finally ended by suffocation as the victim was unable to relieve the constriction of their chest.

 

Victims of crucifixion were stripped naked.

Their clothes became the bounty of the four man execution squad.

Jews wore an outer robe and head covering, a belt and sandals.

Each soldier would get one item.

However, the fifth piece of Jesus’ clothes was a seamless undergarment.

Perhaps made for him by his mother, Mary.

 

The Old Testament tells us that the high priest’s robe was also seamless. So once again we see Jesus identified as our great high priest. He is the one who can mediate between God and humanity. He is the one who can intercede for us.

He is the one to whom we can bring all our shame for he has already taken care of it in his own body.

 

The fifth reason that Christ can redeem us is that JESUS IS THE COMPASSIONATE SAVIOR.

There is a wonderfully tender scene that takes place just before Jesus breathes his last.

John tells us, “Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Dear woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.” (v 25-26)

 

Four women stand by the cross.

Three of them were called Mary.

There was Mary from Magdala from who Jesus had cast out seven devils.

There was Mary the wife of Clopas of whom we know nothing and there is Mary the mother of Jesus.

 

William Barclay suggest that the fourth woman was called Salome.

She was Jesus’ aunt. His mother’s sister.

She was the mother of James and John.

 

In the excruciating agony of his crucifixion Jesus looks at his mother and thinks of the days ahead.

It appears that Mary’s husband Joseph is dead.

Jesus couldn’t commit her to the care of his brothers because they didn’t believe in him yet.

 

So he turns to John, who was his cousin and was the disciple whom Jesus loved.

Jesus committed Mary to the care of John, and John to the care of Mary so that these two should comfort each other’s loneliness when he was gone.

 

It is remarkable that Jesus should think to do this while on the cross but we shouldn’t be surprised for he is the compassionate Savior.

Not only was he looking out for Mary’s future needs but in a very real sense he was looking out for ours.

 

As Jesus gazes down the centuries he sees your face and mine and he makes arrangements for us to be taken care of.

He wants to ensure that we will not be in need.

 

We need forgiveness so he dies for our sins.

We need eternal life so he dies that we might live.

We need to belong so he adopts us into his family.

We need significance and so he calls us into his kingdom.

 

The presence of God in our suffering is one of the supreme distinctives of the Christian faith.

In Jesus we have a God who enters into our suffering and shares them with us.

 

Let me give you two examples.

Perhaps we have been abused.

Then let us remember that on the cross Jesus was abused.

His body was violated.

He is the God of the abused.

 

Perhaps we are disabled.

Paraplegic Joni Eareckson-Tada writes, “I discovered that the Lord Jesus Christ could indeed empathize with my situation.

On the cross for those agonizing horrible hours, waiting for death, he was immobilized, helpless, paralyzed.

Jesus did know what it was like not be able to move, not to be able to scratch your nose, shift your weight, wipe your eyes.

He was paralyzed on the cross. Christ knew exactly how I felt.”

 

So John shows us why Jesus died and why he is qualified to be our Savior for he is the King, the true Man, the Son of God, the Mediator and the Compassion Savior.

 

Jesus died as a blasphemer and a traitor.

These two crimes are at the heart of human sinning.

Sinners blaspheme because we want to be like God and sin is treason because we rebel against God’s rightful rule.

 

But because Jesus died we don’t have to.

Because he lives we can live forever.

Because he saves completely we can enjoy this life that he has given us.