Readings: Zechariah 9:9–12 | Philippians 2:5–11 | Mark 14-15
Text: Mark 14-15
The Passion of our Lord is stark and cruel. There’s no painting it with a nice gloss to make it more attractive. It forces us to gaze deeply and uncomfortably at something grotesque: an innocent Man arrested and falsely accused, with no one to come to His aid either in heaven or on earth, who had nothing but love for all people beaten and mocked and killed.
As we have just faced this again, it is helpful for us to deeply examine what is happening as the Lord Jesus gives up His life. Words are important, but often we use them carelessly and without thinking very deeply about what they mean. Here are a few examples:
Godforsaken, as in, “Who would want to live in this godforsaken place?” We call something godforsaken when it’s desolate and undesirable. But has God in fact forsaken a place because its condition is adverse? Has God forsaken you because your days are unpleasant toil, your marriage is a painful mess, or you can’t seem to catch a break no matter how hard you pray?
If you want to see what godforsaken looks like, look to Jesus, who is betrayed by His friends. He is said to be God’s Son, yet God does not come to His aid. He is falsely accused in the name of God, and yet nothing silences those mouths. He is innocent, and yet injustice prevails, the Roman judge saves his own hide and releases a murder.
With His dying breaths, Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mk. 15:34) because He truly was forsaken, despised and rejected, cut off from His people. The answer to His cry, “Why have you forsaken me?” is so that no other believing child of God would ever have to wonder—He hasn’t! And you can be sure of this because God has set His seal on His beloved, Jesus. That way, we can confidently believe what He says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5 citing Joshua 1:5)
Damn – “Damn it, them, those…” Oh how we love to fix our problems in the utmost! Yes, we might try to soften it and supposedly make it kid-safe with darn or dang, but the force is the same: We want whatever it is gone from our life (and the earth for that matter)—the group we see as harmful, the implement that doesn’t work right, the person who’s hurt and angered us. But we don’t have that kind of authority, to go condemning him or her or this or that. Only God does.
And what is God doing, He who does indeed have that power and authority? He doesn’t condemn the sinner; He damns His Son. He condemns Him as the singular worst sinner. For all the lies, cheating, murders, fornication, slander, idolatry—Jesus is damned. It was so that He would not damn you who believe. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21)
“Why won’t God answer me?!” When you pray and pray, and the answer doesn’t seem to come, you might ask this. And while those who mock God and put Him to the test shouldn’t think they’ll have an answer, the Passion points us to our Lord Jesus’ experience. Throughout His passion in Mark, heaven is silent. “He said, ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.’” But there is no answer; only the snores of His disciples. He faced abuse before the Council, and when He declared Himself to be the Christ, the Son of the Blessed who will come on the clouds of heaven (Mk. 14:62), God allowed Him to be abused. As He hung between heaven and earth, with passersby wagging their head and saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself,” there was only darkness. All on earth appeared to abandon Him, and heaven seemed not to care.
But when He uttered a loud cry and breathed His last, heaven declared with certainty that His suffering and the despair He endured were not in vain: “The curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.” God spoke with actions that the sacrifice of His Son was acceptable in His sight, now more than all whole burnt offerings and incense. Heaven may have been silent during that hour, but the Father and His holy angels were keeping eager watch, to give the pronouncement that access to God is opened by Christ—“God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Gal. 4:4-6) In the Passion, behold what God has done for each one of us. Repent of your blasphemous thoughts of God’s way toward you, and see in His Son delivered up that He will never leave or forsake you, that you who believe have passed out of judgment, and that He now delights to hear you call Him Father in prayer. Amen.
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