Eight at the Cross

Sermons

Eight at the Cross

How you see Jesus determines what sort of relationship you will have with him.

Today we're going to take a look at a cluttered picture with Jesus in the midst. Some of you are going to look carefully at this picture, and you're going to walk away not having seen the real Jesus. Others of you are going to be able to pick him out and identify him. What you see is what you're going to get.

Jesus is the greatest demonstration of the fact that God loved the world. He loved the world so much, as John 3:16 states, that he gave us his Son. We're going to take a look at Jesus on the cross. Who was he? Why was he there? Well, it depends on whom you ask.

Matthew focuses on at least eight individuals or groups of people who stood at the base of Jesus' cross.

I'd like to introduce you to eight of those people today. As I interview these folks, ask yourself the question, Which of these eight perspectives most closely resembles my own? Because what you see is what you get.

You may see a random obligation.

[Read Matthew 27:32.]

"Simon, tell us what you saw as you stood at the foot of Jesus' cross."

"I was thinking, How in the world did I get here? I had been entering Jerusalem when Jesus of Nazareth came stumbling through the city gate on his way to the place of execution. He could barely carry his crossbeam another step. I happened to be the nearest available bystander. So guess who got the job? Yours truly."

"Was the cross heavy, Simon?"

"In Jesus' case, after a sleepless night, several grueling hours of interrogations, and a severe beating, it must have weighed a ton. But I could handle it. It was the embarrassment I couldn't handle."

"Embarrassment?"

"Think about it. There I was, a Jew from Cyrene. I had crossed the Mediterranean en route to the Holy City, where I anticipated celebrating the Passover festival. At the very gate of Jerusalem, I was forced to carry a crossbeam before hundreds of onlookers. What did people think of me as I made my way to Golgotha? They must have assumed I myself was a criminal on my way to be crucified. Or even might have concluded I was a Jesus sympathizer."

How did Simon view the cross? Simon saw it as a random obligation. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was not a voluntary Christ follower.

Maybe that's your perspective. Maybe you're here today in response to somebody else's special request. You're here to make your wife or your parents or God happy. That's okay. The point is you're here, and you can never tell what might happen to you as you're taking it in this morning. Your view of Jesus may begin to change. This might be a turning point in your life. It was for Simon. Let me explain.

Mark's Gospel points out that this Simon was also the father of Rufus and Alexander. We assume Mark's readers must have been familiar with them, since Mark says it as a passing comment. They must have been members of the Christian community. How did the sons of Simon become Christ followers? Could it be through their dad? It's a good guess that Simons random obligation, his carrying of Jesus' crossbeam to Golgotha, resulted in his becoming a Christ follower and later passing the faith on to his two sons.

So even if you're here this morning against your will, even if you would rather be reading the Sunday paper, open your eyes, because Jesus wants to show you who he is.

You may see a rewarding opportunity.

[Read Matthew 27:35.]

"I'll bet one of you guys is a gambler, eh?" "Yeah, I was there at the foot of Jesus' cross. I was casting lots for his clothes. You got a problem with that? It's not like these clothes are going to do him any good."

"So you left him naked?"

"Oh, absolutely not, by Caesar. That would have been political suicide. It was customary to lead a prisoner naked to the site of his execution, but in this case it was the time of the great Jewish feast. We would have offended their sensibilities if we had stripped Jesus to the skin. It probably would have started a riot. So we left him his loin cloth."

"And you cast lots for his other clothes? For his inner and outer garment, his belt, his pair of sandals?"

"Oh, size , Judeo leather. I won those myself. I guess you could say I'm grateful to that man for the small contribution he made to my wardrobe."

Do you see Jesus as a rewarding opportunity? None of us would be so crass as to gamble for an article of Jesus' clothing, but do we look at him from the perspective of "what's in it for me"? Is Jesus a potential means to our desired end? Maybe you've heard about people who put their trust in Christ and as a result their marriages were enhanced; or they became successful at business; or their personality blossomed, and they became friendly and confident and outgoing; or they became a star player in the NFL. We hear that and we say wow. We could use stuff like that in our lives, couldn't we?

Friends, these are all good things, and for the most part they are occasional byproducts of following Christ. But Jesus wants to be followed for his own sake, not for what we can get out of him. In fact, the Bible has a word for using God to get our desired end: idolatry. Idolatry is wanting something else more than we desire God. Do you want Jesus, or do you want what Jesus will hopefully lead to?

You may see a route out.

[Read Matthew 27:38, 44.]

Matthew's account of the two robbers does not include the whole story. While Matthew lumps the robbers together, Luke tells us one actually became sympathetic to Jesus. Maybe it was the hours of hanging on the cross that softened his heart, but he acknowledged that Jesus was innocent, and he asked Jesus to welcome him into God's kingdom.

"Now, which one of the robbers are you? Are you the robber who eventually repented, or are you the insulting one?"

"I'm not a robber, you idiot. I'm a zealot."

"And I can tell which zealot you are."

"Stuff it, preacher boy. Your Matthew may call me a robber. I won't say I never stole anything, but you don't get hung on a cross for being a burglar. My robbery was conducted against the blasted Romans, and I would have as soon slit one of their throats as rob them. Well, I did."

"So you were a murderer?"

"You can't murder a swine. Call me a butcher. That's why Rome had me crucified."

"But why insult Jesus? What did Jesus ever do to you?"

"What did Jesus ever do for me? All I said was, 'Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself. Save us.'"

"Ah. So you wanted him to rescue you, to get you off the cross?"

"Of course I wanted him to rescue me. It's a painful way to die. Nails through your hands and feet. Your body slumps. Your chest cavity is compacted and you can't breathe. So you pull yourself up by hands and feet just to take a breath, but you can't hold that position for long. So your muscles relax and your body drops and your back, which has been cut open by a Roman whip, is rubbed raw by the splintered wood of your own cross. Should I go on?"

"No, thank you."

John's gospel tells us this robber did such a good job of keeping himself alive, pulling with his hands, pushing with his feet, taking one more breath, that the Roman soldiers eventually broke his legs. That was common practice. It put an end to the pushing, and it put an end to the breathing.

Crucifixion victims often died by suffocation. It was either that, cardiac arrest, or loss of blood. Sometimes it could take days to die, but in this case the Romans wanted to hurry up the execution. Passover was to begin within a few hours. They didn't want to offend Jewish sensibilities by leaving dead bodies in public view, so they broke the guy's legs. No wonder he taunted Jesus with the challenge, "Save yourself. Save us."

Do you see Jesus as a ticket out of trouble? What do you want out of this morning? Debt? A job? Maybe you want out of an addiction or stress or some destructive relationship. Can Jesus rescue you? He can.

But let me warn you that Jesus can also see through any selfish motives. Jesus can see through any foxhole faith that believes in him as long as the going is rough but dumps him once the struggle is past. Both the robbers asked for salvation. One was sincere, and he ultimately got what he . The other guy just wanted a route out, and his request was denied.

You may see a religious outrage.

[Read Matthew 27:3943.]

"You must be either a chief priest, a teacher of the law, or an elder."

"Chief priest. And I'll thank you to address me with the appropriate tone of respect. I am, after all, a religious leader, not some upstart rabbi who's followed around the countryside by a crowd of ignorant peasants."

"Like Jesus?"

"Yes."

"I take it you didn't stand at the foot of the cross with tears in your eyes."

"Only tears of satisfaction. God was vindicated there. Real religion triumphed. All could finally see Jesus' true colors."

"All could see, all right. Golgotha was on the main Roman road, wasn't it?"

"That's right. The Romans do that with their places of execution so the public understands crime doesn't pay. But it serves God's purposes as well, because the Law of Moses clearly states in Deuteronomy 21:23, 'Anyone who is hanged on a tree is under God's curse.' Jesus was cursed. And now everyone knows that.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus' stiffest opposition came from religious people? Why is religion so antagonistic toward Christ? It's really quite simple. They're diametrically opposed to each other. Religion is spelled , do. You do this and you do that, and if you do these things often enough, maybe God will let you into heaven. Christianity, on the other hand, is spelled , done. In fact, one of Jesus' final expressions on the cross was, "It is finished."

What was finished? The job he'd come to earth to do. What job? The job of bearing the penalty for our sin. The job of enduring God's righteous judgment, the judgment we deserve. That's what Jesus was doing on the cross. And when he died, his job was finished. And now the Bible invites us to put our trust in Christ. It's by grace you're saved. The apostle Paul wrote: By grace through faith. It's not of yourselves. It's not of works, so that no one can boast.

Mr. Chief Priest was right in one sense. Look at verse 42. When the chief priest said, "He saved others, but he can't save himself," in one sense he was right. Jesus couldn't save himself, not if he wanted to save you and me, because saving you and me required that he give up his life.

Now, why should this offend religious people? Because religious people don't want anybody doing for them what they feel they're perfectly capable of doing for themselves.

Do you need a savior? Can you save yourself, spiritually speaking? Could you be good enough? If your good deeds were put on one side of the scale and your transgressions were placed on the other, would the scale point in your favor? If it would, then you don't need Jesus. In fact, the very notion that he died a horrible death to take your place, to bear your sin, is pretty insulting, isn't it?

You may see the of God's omnipotence.

[Read Matthew 27:5053.]

One Bible scholar comments on this incident: "This is perhaps the most unusual event in all of the Gospels."

"Do any of you have anything to say about that?"

"Man, was that a rush! No one was more surprised than I was. I knew I'd been dead. I'd been cleaning up my donkeys stall, when he nearly kicked me into kingdom come. It took me almost a week to die. While I slipped in and out of consciousness, I could hear my family making funeral arrangements.

"But you did die?"

"Oh, yeah, dead as a doornail. But not for long. The earthquake came. The tomb split apart. I opened my eyes and there I was in Shady Acres. I couldn't wait to go tell my family and friends the good news. They told me it was all Jesus' doing, and I believed them. He's omnipotent, you know."

"So you sought Jesus out so you could pledge yourself to following him the rest of your life?"

"Well, not exactly. I was way too busy. Everybody wanted to hear my Jerusalem Chronicle, the Rotary Club. I was even on Letterman."

Letterman? Matthew doesn't tell us if these resurrected people were just reanimated like Lazarus had been, if they went on to live normal lives and to eventually die again, or if this was their final resurrection and God whisked them to heaven a few days after testifying to his power in Jerusalem. We don't know.

Something I'm even more curious about is this: Did these recipients of such an unusual miracle seek Jesus out and begin to follow him? Verse 52 says they had been holy people in their first life, so I'm going to assume most of them believed in God. But it is possible, isn't it, to believe in God, even to point to miraculous things he's done in your life, and still not be a Christ follower?

I was talking to such a guy this past week. We were both admiring a particular aspect of God's handiwork in creation, and this guy said to me, "How can anybody deny there's a God?" But I happen to know this guy absolutely resists the leadership of Christ in his life. He is by God's omnipotence but not willing to follow Jesus.

You may be able to point to bona fide miracles that God's done in your remission or an automobile accident you survived or a long awaited surprise pregnancy or alcohol recovery. But if these miracles haven't prompted you to trust Christ, they're absolutely worthless.

You may see a revered .

[Read Matthew 27:54.]

At first glance the centurion sounds like a real convert. But if we dig a little deeper, that's probably not what he meant by his exclamation.

"Is one of you guys a soldier?"

"Sir."

"Ah, Mr. Centurion. By the way, what does centurion mean?"

"I'm in charge of 100 fighting men, sir."

"I see. You're a leader of warriors. Probably seen a few skirmishes in your time. Done a little combat. Would you consider yourself to be a courageous man?"

"I'd like to think so, sir."

"But Matthew says you were terrified."

"I'm not ashamed to admit it, sir. Earthquakes. Total darkness. Graves popping open. I knew here was the great god, the revered . He must have been angry at what we did, at what I did. I was the one giving the orders to nail Jesus to his cross."

"Luke's gospel records that you began praising God."

"Oh yes, sir. I started shouting every reverential word I had ever learned. I didn't want the earth to open up and swallow me."

What was it the centurion was really concerned about? In my Bible I have an explanatory footnote as to why the centurion burst out in praise to God. It says, "He did it out of fear, to appease the heavenly judge and thus ward off any divine penalty for having carried out this unjust judgment." The centurion, to put it bluntly, was afraid of getting zapped.

Do you hope God doesn't zap you? Is your acknowledgement of Jesus nothing more than fire insurance?

God isn't fooled by superficial faith. God knows our hearts. God knows whether we're truly devoted to his Son.

You may see a redemptive offering.

[Read Matthew 27:55.]

"Now, I would guess one of you is probably named Mary, eh?"

"That would be me."

"You were standing at the foot of Jesus' cross until...?"

"Until they took Jesus off of it to bury him."

"Standing sentry like that, Mary, must have taken a great amount of courage, especially considering that the male disciples had all cut and run."

"I guess the soldiers didn't see us women as a threat. They didn't bother us. But if they had, I wouldn't have left Jesus' side."

"What inspired such commitment?"

"When Jesus first found me, I was insane. I'd lost my mind. Jesus saw that my life was dominated by demons, to be exact. He cast them out. He healed me and redeemed me from sin's stranglehold. I became a new woman. I'll be forever in his debt."

Mary Magdalene, last at the foot of the cross, first at the empty tomb, because in life Jesus had released her from the power of evil, and in death he redeemed her from the penalty of her own sin. Mary seemed to catch on to these truths more quickly than most of Jesus' other followers. The more poignantly aware we are of our own spiritual need, the more clearly we see who Jesus really is.

"Was Jesus condemned though innocent?" one Bible commentator writes. "It was that we might be acquitted though guilty. Did Jesus wear a crown of thorns?" he continues. "It was that we might wear the crown of glory. Was Jesus stripped of his raiment? It was that we might be clothed with everlasting righteousness. Was Jesus mocked and reviled? It was that we might be honored and blessed. Was Jesus declared unable to save himself? It was that he might be able to save others to the uttermost. Did Jesus die at last and that the most painful, disgraceful of deaths? It was that we might live forever and be exalted to the highest glory."

That's what it means for Jesus to be a redemptive offering. Have you ever put your trust in this Jesus? You'll know if you have because you'll be overwhelmed by a sense of deep gratitude. You will be committed to following him, to staying by his side no matter what.

Have you gone public with your allegiance to Jesus?

[Read Matthew 27:5761.]

"Joseph of Arimathea, what a bold, brash act. You march up to Pilate, demand the body of Jesus. You take it off and you bury it. Surely you are a guy with guts."

"Not really. If you read John's Gospel you'll discover I'd been a follower of Jesus for some time prior to his death. But I never had the courage to let that be known, to stand up and be counted."

"So Joseph, this was your first bold step in following Christ."

"I guess you could say that. Maybe it wasn't boldness so much as respect. When I first met Jesus, I saw him as an outsider. After all, I was a ruling member of the Jewish council, the Sanhedrin. Jesus was a nobody, but I learned over time that I was the real nobody, the outsider. Jesus, he was the inside track to God himself. So when they crucified Jesus, I couldn't bear the indignity of seeing his body left hanging on that cross, especially with Passover just hours away."

"And so you buried him."

"Yeah, with the help of a good friend, Nicodemus. He too was a timid C up to that point. But we both decided it was time to go public with our allegiance to Jesus."

What about you? Have you ever gone public with your allegiance to Jesus?

Jim Nicodem is founder and pastor of Christ Community Church in St. Charles, Illinois.

Jim Nicodem