Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Oh, we are.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: We're there today.
We're here.
We're. We're at the point in the story.
[00:00:09] Speaker A: This is the moment. The book of Matthew has been moving.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Toward our entire study of it over.
[00:00:16] Speaker A: The last several years.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: We're going to be in Matthew 27 today. If you want to go ahead and turn there. If you don't have a Bible with.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: You today, we have house Bibles around the room.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: You're like, he's getting straight into it.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: I'm getting straight into it.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: All right, we're to the moment of the book, the moment of, of. Of the Gospel story.
We really believe in the importance of access to God's word. So if you don't own a Bible, snag one of our pew Bibles, talk to the pastors, and we'll get you one.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: We're going to be in Matthew 27 today.
And as we've gone through this short series in the end of Matthew, we've, we've looked at the Passion narrative. And even though all of Matthew really is leading up to this point, the Passion narrative really, really draws the eye in, draws us in close and lets us know this is exactly where we're headed, the inevitable moment that is the cross of Jesus. Think about what we've worked through these last few weeks. Just in this section of Matthew, we saw Jesus boldly enter into Jerusalem, claiming his messianic title, worshiped full of Joy, but also unavoidably setting up a conflict.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: With the religious leaders, right?
[00:01:32] Speaker A: And then he steps into the temple and begins to openly defy the religious authority, calling them out.
I mean, he very, very plainly tells a not so guarded parable about exactly how hypocritical and spiritually blind the religious leaders are. Jesus, in that moment, knocks over a domino that does not end until the cross.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: There's no way for it to go another way.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: We saw the moment when, when Judas is drawn aside and decides to partner with these religious leaders to plan out Jesus's death. And then we see how Jesus, who is an entire. Who's entirely in control of the story, like he actually pushes this forward rather than waiting on the scheming of Judas and the religious leaders. Jesus at the Last Supper, calls out Judas, pushing him to the work that he's decided to do, accelerating the timetable that Jesus's enemies have set up, because Jesus knows the. This is his time.
We saw the scene in the garden where Jesus sweats blood, where he does deep soul work with the Father, showing us his humanity, showing us the fact that he's not some ascetic, some stoic who disengages himself from the work of the Passion, but that he actually dreads the coming suffering of the Passion but chooses the glory of God in the.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: Gospel for our sake.
How wonderful.
We saw the scene where Judas shows up in his betrayal with the guards and Jesus is arrested and bound and beaten and drug away to his overnight sham of a trial while his friends scatter into the night and deny that they even know him.
[00:03:22] Speaker A: We watched as this false trial comes to a conclusion and Jesus is drawn away from the religious leaders and taken to the government leaders.
And how the governor Pilate knew instantly that Christ was guilty of no crime and actually sought to let him go until it became mildly politically risky for him.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: Then he capitulates to the crowd and hands Jesus over to an unjust faith that he knows is unjust, that he.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Feels guilt around, that he feels the need to wash his hands of.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: That doesn't work, by the way.
You can't make conscious choices to sin and then wash your hands and say you're good. Doesn't work.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: And we saw the horror of the.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Cross scene begin as Jesus is handed over from the riotous crowd and the religious leaders and Pilate to his Roman executioners who begin to beat and torture him, taking him through an executioner's flogging and then placing a this bramble of thorns upon his head and beating them into his scalp.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: That's as good a time as any.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: To let you guys know that today.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: We'Re talking about the cross.
And so I feel a need to give you a warning.
It's kind of.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: I think this is a weird text to engage because we're going to have to talk about some brutal realities that will. That will feel emotive. And they should be.
You need to have release to know, like, you can cry when you read about Jesus's crucifixion. It's totally appropriate.
It's horrific. Right?
[00:04:55] Speaker A: But we're also going to step back.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: And consider some academic facets of this.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: Text since there's going to be moments.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: Where we zoom in and hopefully your heart engages and you feel it.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: And there's going to be some moments.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: Where we step back and hold the story at arm's length so we can consider it.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: And I just want to pre warn you of the possibility of a little.
[00:05:14] Speaker B: Bit of maybe some emotional whiplash as we do that. But I think it's beneficial for us to do our best to sit in this story, to sit in it, to.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: Not try and Move past it to allow this text to be what it's supposed to be.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: So pray with me.
We're going to talk about this for a few minutes. Jesus, this morning, as we take time to consider the cross, to consider your blood poured out for us, to consider the moment of our redemption, of your sacrifice.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: Father, we ask that you would give.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Us tender and present hearts, that we.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: Would not scoot past this, that we would not avoid the feelings it draws.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Up in our own heart, that we would not shy away from even the.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Guilt we might feel as we consider.
[00:06:09] Speaker B: The weight of sin, but that we would face those things knowing that your spirit is with us, knowing that the.
[00:06:15] Speaker A: Cross was your choice and your plan, and is your love expressed to us.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: May we face it fully today, and may our hearts be changed by your love today.
Jesus, we need you for this work, so we pray it in your name.
Amen.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Our text is picking up today, immediately.
[00:06:36] Speaker B: After the executioner's torture of Jesus. So we're stepping right into the blood and the chaos.
[00:06:43] Speaker A: And in a weird way, as we start this text, Jesus is already dead.
What I mean by that is this. If an army of his followers showed up at this moment and freed him.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: From his Roman executioners, he would almost certainly die. Still, he has endured the executioner's lash, which is not the normal Roman flogging. It is meant to kill.
This is gross, but it strips backs down to bare bones.
Is meant to do that.
He's endured head trauma as guys have taken clubs and jammed thorns down into his skull by beating his head.
That's pretty rough. He's. He's almost certainly already died by the time we're picking up this part of the story.
And it's important to know that, because Jesus is God incarnate, right? He is God and he is man.
And in this moment, his body is actively dying.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: That.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: That aspect of his person, like we.
[00:07:51] Speaker A: Are God, has made us as a unity, right?
[00:07:54] Speaker B: We're not a ghost in a machine. We're humans. In humans, our body, mind and spirit. Our body is a part of us. And that is exactly true of Jesus. And in this moment in our story, we watch his body fail him.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: But you need to know that is not the whole of the story.
[00:08:11] Speaker B: Plenty of people endured the Romans cross.
Plenty of people.
But Christ doesn't just experience physical anguish on the cross. His body, his mind, his emotions, his soul are going through the same experience.
[00:08:29] Speaker A: As you watch his body break down.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: In this text, you need to know that his very spirit is being broken down as well.
There's a weightiness to that. There's a, there's honestly a contradiction to that that we're going to have to sit in and consider to fully engage this text.
What's going to happen here is that they, after their torture, they've put him in this cloak, they've hit him, they've struck him, he's bleeding. They're going to wait several hours and then rip the cloak back off of his back and leave him completely naked and then take the crossbar of his cross. Think about a like a six foot long railroad tie and they're going to lay that across his back and order him to march out of the city. That is the piece of the scene we're stepping into.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: We talk about this a lot at.
[00:09:20] Speaker B: Easter, but the resurrection of Jesus. In fact, we'll talk about that next week. The resurrection of Jesus is the linchpin of all creation. It's the most important truth in all of the scripture. It's the most important narrative in human history. Paul says bluntly in his letter to the Corinthians, if there's no resurrection, the whole thing is pointless. The whole thing is pointless that there's no resurrection.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: That's true.
[00:09:44] Speaker B: All of our faith is built upon the resurrection of Jesus. But it's important to note that Jesus.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: Himself and all four of his gospels rise and fall on this moment.
[00:09:56] Speaker B: They lead us to the cross.
Jesus putting massive emphasis in his ministry on the inevitability, on the purpose, on the importance of the cross.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: And in a weird way that only makes sense in the upside down kingdom of God, Jesus says that his death.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: At the hand of the Romans is his ultimate victory.
At Christmas time we'll often say this little cliche that's really beautiful and it's like good to say when all the decorations are up and, and we have the nativity scene and all the stuff's going on, we'll say Jesus was born to die.
That's true.
It's true. That's more than just a pretty cliche in a song. This moment that we're reflecting upon today is the purpose for which Jesus entered into this world and lived among us. He came here to die on this cross, this humiliating and degrading death.
And in that somehow, ironically, counterintuitively, he defeats Satan, he destroys the curse, he.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: Throws death itself asunder.
[00:11:07] Speaker B: And Jesus saves us through losing his own life.
That is our only point today, the only point of the text today, our.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: Main point is this.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: Jesus saves.
Jesus saves us.
[00:11:21] Speaker A: Could there be any more cliche thing for a pastor to say in the pulpit, probably not, right? But it's so important because the cross of Jesus, this is an intersection of human history.
And I will argue today that you must reckon with the claims of the cross.
The cross of Jesus is going to put claims on your life, makes a claim on you. Right here, right now in St. Louis.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: In 2025, the Cross of Jesus makes.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: Claim on you and you must decide.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: How you respond to it.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: It is impossible to overstate how despised.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: Crucifixion was within the Roman world.
[00:12:05] Speaker A: It's impossible to overstate it. It was so despised in Roman world that Roman historians would use shorthand to.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: Avoid describing the details of it. There were facets of Roman crucifixion that were only theory until we were able to dig up crucified bodies and examine them.
Because the Romans avoided talking about the details of crucifixion because they saw it as so honestly evil, as a complete inversion of their cultural ethos.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: See, the Roman world valued power and triumph above everything else.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: This is an interesting aspect of their culture that we miss. We think of Romans as like just kind of like a brutal empire. And they were.
But they had this very strict moral and ethical code, especially for men. It applied to everyone, but especially for men.
In Roman society, a man was defined by his power and his success. And this was literal.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: The very worst thing in Roman society.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: Was to be imposed upon.
To submit to the power or will of another was to lose some of your value as a person. You were duty bound in Roman culture.
[00:13:19] Speaker A: To rise to the absolute height that.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: Your power and cunning allowed you to. And to do less was to fail your society.
In this world, crucifixion was an absolute debasement, powerlessness.
It was the death of slaves and refugees. It was illegal for Roman citizens to be crucified because it was too undignified for someone who claimed citizenship within the Roman world. This is why Peter, who's a subject of Rome, was crucified. But Paul, his co pastor, who was a citizen of Rome, was beheaded because citizens weren't allowed to be crucified.
Crucifixion is the depth of humiliation within Roman society.
And this is how Jesus chooses to inaugurate his kingdom and take his throne.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: There's something to that, guys, that I really think like, I think it's genuinely.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: Hard for us to understand how countercultural Jesus's choice to die on a cross was.
I want you to consider that as we read through this text, Jesus is dying the death of a slave he's dying. The most anti Roman, the most anti power, the most anti masculine death. You could die in Roman society.
Let's look at this text. We're in Matthew 27. We're going to start in verse 32.
As they were going out, they found a Cyrenian man named Simon, and they forced him to carry his cross, him being Jesus.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: When they came to a place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull, they gave him wine mixed with gall to drink.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: But when he tasted it, he refused to drink it.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: After crucifying him, they divided his clothes by casting lots.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: Then they sat down and were guarding him.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: There, above his head, they put the charge against him in writing. This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Then two criminals were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: And those who passed by reelling insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself.
If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: And in the same way, the chief.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: Priests and the scribes and the elders mocked him and said, he saved others, but he cannot save himself.
He's the king of Israel. Let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Takes pleasure in him.
[00:15:50] Speaker A: For he said, I am the Son of God.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: In the same way, even the criminals who were crucified with him taunted him.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: I want us to do our best.
[00:16:01] Speaker B: To imagine this scene as we walk through it.
There's some physical brutalities we need to consider.
You have to remember the text is much more than gore.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: So let me take us through a.
[00:16:13] Speaker B: Couple painful but necessary aspects of this story.
So as we begin here, Jesus is struggling to carry his crossbar. Most Roman crosses, by the way, were actually T shaped.
We don't know what Jesus was. Some were shaped in the traditional way that we consider crosses. Some were X shaped, but the most common was T shaped. It involved a pole that was permanently affixed to the ground that had a slot kind of built into the top where a crossbar could be dropped into place that had kind of a hole cut into it.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: And this is the crossbar that would.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: Have been handed to the victims to carry to their execution spot.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: And this is where we see Jesus's.
[00:16:54] Speaker B: Body is beginning to give in. He's been awake for 48 hours.
He's been actively beaten for the last 12 hours. He's literally at this point, guys, minutes, separated minutes from Having his back stripped to the bone and receiving multiple head injuries.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: And so he attempts to carry this.
[00:17:14] Speaker B: Massive chunk of wood. But at some point between the governor's palace and Gal Gotha, he collapses and the Romans grab a random passerby and co opt him.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: Simon was most likely simply visiting the.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: City for Passover, by the way, church history tells us that him and his family became actively involved in the early church. How could you not be affected by being drawn into this?
[00:17:39] Speaker A: But, but he's probably just here visiting.
[00:17:40] Speaker B: For Passover and he's drawn in. The Roman soldiers force him to carry Jesus's cross.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: By the way, totally legal.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: Roman soldiers had the ability to co op subjects, not citizens, into carrying heavy loads. For them they would have to carry.
The implication here is that their job is the execution and they realize that Jesus's body is getting out and so someone's got to carry the thing and it eventually it would fall to them. And you can imagine this moment of these soldiers being like, I'm not doing that. Grab that guy. And they grab some random guy and they draw him in and he walks alongside Jesus carrying his crossbar.
They arrive at the place of crucifixion, Golgotha. And two things happen kind of simultaneously that we need to talk about.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: Jesus is offered wine and, and he's affixed to the cross. It may seem like a strange place to park, but I actually think Matthew.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: Is loading some symbolism in here that we actually need to take a moment to engage. I think these two details are actually really important, so we're going to kind of talk about them in turn.
First, the wine. Jesus will be offered wine twice during his death. Once now by the soldiers and once later by an onlooker. He refuses the wine of the soldiers. He accepts the wine of the onlooker. And there is an interesting but horrific debate about this aspect of the story.
[00:18:57] Speaker A: I'm going to briefly introduce you to.
[00:18:59] Speaker B: The debate and give you kind of my thoughts on it.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: So going back to like the mid.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: 19Th century, there was a shift in understanding of this text where it generally became accepted that what's happening here is that Jesus is being offered painkiller by the soldiers before they actually crucify him.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: They offer him wine mixed with gall.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: Or myrrh or frankincense, depending on which of the gospels you're reading. And they offer him before they actually crucify him.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: And by the way, that kind of makes sense. It's true that wine wicks with a.
[00:19:29] Speaker B: Large amount of frankincense. Or myrrh could get you kind of high, right? And so it could kind of function as a bit of a painkiller.
[00:19:36] Speaker A: And so the idea here was that.
[00:19:37] Speaker B: The soldiers are starting to realize, like, man, this is. This is kind of a little more brutal than maybe what we normally do. This is maybe a little much. And so they're trying to offer Jesus a slight reprieve before they ramp things up. And Jesus, according to this interpretation, is actively choosing to say, no, I will feel the full brunt of this physical pain.
That's been kind of a large way this text has looked at for the last hundred years or so. I don't like that reading of it. I think it messes up the text a little bit.
Everything we see in the text and everything we know historically leads me to believe the soldiers would have done nothing to give Jesus a break or reprieve.
And this is brutal, but these men are professionals. This is their job.
They're good at it.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: In fact, the second scene where Jesus.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: Is offered and receives wine, and then.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: Immediately after that, when the executioners seemingly.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: Convert, those bits are kind of messed up. If you understand, the soldiers is offering Jesus mercy right now in this moment.
[00:20:38] Speaker A: Stick with me. This is weird, but.
[00:20:40] Speaker B: But it will make sense.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: I think what's actually going on here.
[00:20:42] Speaker B: Makes the scene much worse.
[00:20:44] Speaker A: See, if we read this part of.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: The Passion account in all four Gospels, we find a couple things.
Offering wine and affixing Jesus to the cross are basically happening simultaneously. It's giving us two pieces of the scene, but these pieces are happening at the same time. So let's understand Jesus's being connected to the cross.
[00:21:04] Speaker A: They would have laid his bare shoulders.
[00:21:06] Speaker B: Down on the crossbar. It would have grabbed one of his arms and pulled it taut. And the nail would actually be driven not through his hand, but at the lower part of his wrist here between the two bones of the arm. That way, the structure of the wrist could bear weight. If you put it through the hand, it would just rip out. I know that's gross, but that's the truth of it. So it would have been done here between these two bones.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: And once that was nailed in, his.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: Other arm would have been grabbed and.
[00:21:32] Speaker A: Pulled as tight as it could have.
[00:21:34] Speaker B: Been pulled close to the point of dislocation. It was important for the victim to be taut between their two arms and then nailed down. The reason is because their shoulder blades then push their chest forward so that they're kind of leaning like this when they're up on the cross. It's necessary for the form of execution.
And so once this happened, the crossbar would then be lifted up and either slotted into the notch of the standing bar or slid on top of it to slide down into the notch, depending on if it's this kind of cross or this kind of cross, Right.
[00:22:08] Speaker A: But once the crossbar is in place.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: He'S kind of hanging by the nails. And so the feet are turned in a painful way so that the. The bumps of the ankles are lined up, and then the third nail is driven through the two ankles one at a time. This forced the victim to push down on the nail of their feet and pull on the nail of their arms to position their chest in such a way to actually take and inhale a breath.
Brutal.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: It was in this part of the.
[00:22:37] Speaker B: Execution that the soldiers were apparently offering Jesus some of their wine.
Now, Roman soldiers always carried a drink called pasca. Posca is a sour wine. It's water mixed with red wine vinegar and then a mixture of herbs, including a small amount of myrrh and frankincense, as well as honey. And they were given this. Roman soldiers were given this as their ration instead of water because it was cheap.
You could get drunk if you drank enough of it, but it was hard to get drunk on it. But it sanitized drinking water for soldiers from all over the world who traveled all over the world.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: And so they were given large amounts.
[00:23:12] Speaker B: Of pasca as part of their daily ration. Every soldier would have carried this in their canteen on their belt rather than straight water. And so you can imagine the scene with the kind of men who've been with Jesus for the last hour, who would have done the flogging, who would have done the crown of thorns, who would have done the robe that is there nailing him to the cross, laughing as they splash wine in his face and offer him a drink.
But once Jesus crossbar is affixed, they can't reach him.
So they tell us the sponge is pushed into his face, soaked with wine. The text says Jesus tasted it and turned away and refused it.
This is likely, I believe, because this is meant as a further aspect of his humiliation, not to offer him reprieve. You see, Roman soldiers would use a tool at their latrines called a xylospungium. There was a sponge on a stick kept in a bottle of red wine vinegar that when you use the latrine, you would then use it to wipe yourself and scrub down the latrine for the next person and drop it back into the jar of vinegar for Sanitation.
And I think what the text is getting at here is that these soldiers grab this from the nearby latrine and pour their wine on it and smear it into a space as a form of further humiliation.
And this is why Jesus turns his face away from it.
It's easy, I think, to understand Jesus somehow as, like, ascetic in this. Like, oh, I just want to feel all the pain.
I don't know. I think Jesus is experiencing every moment of this, guys.
I don't think he's having to put it on extra hard mode, right?
[00:24:49] Speaker A: And I know I've lingered on this detail for a while, but I think it's important because this perfectly illustrates what.
[00:24:55] Speaker B: This aspect of the crucif shows us.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: Which is that Jesus has been abandoned and is isolated both physically and emotionally. Everyone is against him.
The soldiers mocking him, they're just. They're just the cherry on the pie of this horror.
I mean, look how this part of the scene progresses. The same crowd who took from him when he had stuff to give now jeers at him. The high priest who should have enthroned him mocks him.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: Even the criminals crucified with him are mocking him.
No one is on Jesus's side at the cross.
He's relationally abandoned. He's emotionally deserted.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: I want you to think about what's.
[00:25:43] Speaker B: Going on in his head at this moment.
Everyone has left him.
No one has mercy for him.
No one has kindness for Him.
He's fully human.
A man like you and I, like person like us. The author of Hebrews says, experiences all the temptations we experience. He knows how we think, how we feel.
How would you feel in that moment?
It's very similar, likely, to what's going through Christ's mind as he endures this.
He's giving every ounce of his person for the sake of us sinners.
And in the midst of that pain, in the midst of the cowardice, in the midst of the injustice, a laughing soldier smears used toilet paper and wine in his face, and all he does is refuse to drink and turn away.
In the midst of his suffering, in the midst of his evil, this evil, it's important to know.
For all the sorrow, for all the evil, for all the suffering, for all the isolation, Christ is still in control.
He's still choosing this moment because this.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: Is who Jesus is.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: This is the depth of his love for us.
He endures, endures the humiliation of the cross, for the joy set before him.
Read on with.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over the whole Land. About three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, eli, Eli, lema sabacheth.
That is my God, my God, why.
[00:27:22] Speaker B: Have you abandoned me?
[00:27:25] Speaker A: When some of those standing there heard this, they said, he's calling Elijah. And immediately one ran. One of them ran and got a.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: Sponge and filled it with sour wine and put it on a stick and offered him a drink.
But the rest said, let's see if Elijah comes to save him.
But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.
[00:27:44] Speaker A: And suddenly the curtain of the sanctuary.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: Was torn in two from top to bottom.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: The earthquake. The rocks were split. The tombs were also opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And they came out of the tombs after his resurrection and entered the holy city, appearing to many.
[00:28:01] Speaker B: When the centurion and those with him who were keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they were terrified and said, truly.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: This was the Son of God.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: And so now we get to the moment.
For hours, the text tells us, for hours, Jesus hangs on the cross, suffering.
And the very creation responds to this injustice. As humanity slays its Lord and creator.
The world goes dark, darkness over the land.
And Jesus speaks this line, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Jesus was abandoned by his friends.
He was abandoned by everyone who should have known who he was. He was abandoned by everyone who protected him. He was ravished within his own heart. And now he faces real spiritual abandonment as the Father himself turns away from Christ.
And this may surprise you, but that line is actually hotly debated by theologians.
It's deeply.
It's deeply talked about back and forth. Many theologians, especially in the Presbyterian and Lutheran traditions, would say that, well, the.
[00:29:16] Speaker A: Father cannot forsake the Son.
[00:29:18] Speaker B: He can't turn away because the Trinity is perfectly unified.
And so they'll go on to say Jesus is simply quoting Psalm 22 here and making a theological point about his suffering and God's overall plan. And if you go and you read the rest of Psalm 22, you can see what Jesus is referencing and what he's pointing us to in this moment.
[00:29:38] Speaker A: Here's the thing.
[00:29:40] Speaker B: Jesus is quoting Psalm 22 here. You can go read Psalm 22. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That is the opening lines of that psalm.
But I would posit that Jesus is not making a clever theological point here about the fulfillment of prophecy.
He's dying.
He's worse than dying.
[00:30:00] Speaker A: He's holding the weight of the sin of the world on his crumpled and broken and bleeding shoulders.
Jesus quotes Psalm 22 in this moment because he's absolutely broken with pain and sorrow. And in that moment I believe his heart reaches for something familiar, something comforting, the right words and a well known psalm comes to mind.
Many of us can attest to moments.
[00:30:27] Speaker B: Of sorrow and hurt and darkness when scriptures and song lyrics pop into your mind as you pray or try and process through.
I think our well meaning brothers and sisters miss a crucial point here.
And I'm not speaking against those brothers and sisters. I think they love the Lord, but I think they're dup too deep in this theology for their own good.
I think there's a moment where we need to stop and take this story at face value.
I believe Jesus cries out these words from Psalm 22 because he means them, because this is what he's experiencing.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: Jesus says this because he feels the absence of the Father who cannot even look upon sin.
[00:31:11] Speaker B: Paul described it to the Corinthian Church.
[00:31:12] Speaker A: By saying he made him who did not know sin to become sin for us.
In those moments in the cross, the sin of all of creation falls upon Jesus back up to Leviticus.
[00:31:30] Speaker B: It's like the scapegoat wandering out of the camp with the sin of Israel upon its bloody forehead.
In that moment, the sin of Adam and Eve and Cain, Lamech, Seth, Noah and Shem and Abram and Isaac and.
[00:31:53] Speaker A: Jacob and Joseph and Ephraim and Ruth and Naomi and Samson and Jesse and David and Samuel and Saul and Nathan and Solomon and Jeroboam and Elijah and Ahab and Hezekiah and Esther and Nebuchadnezzar and Zerubbabel and Nehemiah and the Maccabees and Mary and Joseph and Peter and Paul and Timothy and Titus and Phoebe and all of history to you and to me. All of it, beloved.
Every ounce of it poured out on his shoulders.
[00:32:24] Speaker B: The weight of every wrong, the weight of every lie, every harm, every betrayal.
[00:32:31] Speaker A: Every assault, every evil placed on Jesus.
[00:32:38] Speaker B: He's given the guilt of all of it.
And our sweet Jesus becomes sin.
He's so drenched in it that it becomes his defining characteristic.
It's who he is.
In that moment. Christ becomes disgusting.
He becomes wretched.
He becomes the most evil creature you can think of.
The most debased and evil sins that would turn your stomach.
[00:33:08] Speaker A: The people who you hate.
The people who you wouldn't blink if.
[00:33:12] Speaker B: You found out they were burning in hell.
That is who Jesus becomes in this moment.
It's all on him.
So yes, yes, I'm pretty sure that Broke something in how we understand the Trinity.
The Father turned his face from such evil, abandoned Christ to the just reward of that sin.
Beloved, he became sin.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: And the Father whose holiness lights the angels ablaze, the Father whose holiness consumes lazy priests could not be in the presence of his own son, his own self.
[00:34:00] Speaker B: And Jesus became the scapegoat for our sin.
And as Christ cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
The crowd mishears him in Aramaic. My God sounds like the name for Elijah.
And some folks hear Jesus crying out. They believe he's crying out to the.
[00:34:24] Speaker A: Spirit of the prophet for aid.
[00:34:26] Speaker B: After all, Elijah never physically died, so his spirit's probably still hanging around Israel. Maybe he helps people who are in need.
And so someone runs off and grabs a clean sponge and Jesus is offered a second drink of wine. And this one is a true kindness.
Clean sponge with clean wine.
And knowing his work is accomplished, Jesus drinks.
John goes out of his way to let us know that this sponge is nestled into a bunch of hyssop.
Hyssop was the same plant used by Israel during Passover to spread the lamb's blood across their doorpost to signal their redemption.
And in this moment, when Christ's work is accomplished, the wine, the blood put on the hyssop put against his face, he drinks.
And for whatever reason, at his absolute lowest moment, in complete defeat, in abject humiliation, in total abandonment, even from the Father Jesus, who said, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until I drink it again in my kingdom.
In this moment on the cross at his lowest, says, now I am in my kingdom and now I will drink.
And Jesus sighs.
And he dies.
He dies.
His heart stops. His body stills begins to cool down.
The Creator is slain by the creation and this is his victory.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: This is his win.
This is his Kingdom come.
[00:36:15] Speaker B: Yes, 100% beloved.
[00:36:18] Speaker A: This is the power of Christ.
[00:36:21] Speaker B: This humiliation, this loss, this death, this.
[00:36:24] Speaker A: Beloved, is the victory.
[00:36:27] Speaker B: This is his power.
This is Jesus saving you and saving me because this is our cross.
[00:36:36] Speaker A: He died our death.
[00:36:39] Speaker B: Scripture says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin are death.
[00:36:44] Speaker A: Right?
We all learn that so we could share the gospel on mission trips. Romans road, right?
Wages of sin is death. And all of us have sinned. That means all of us get one wage death.
[00:36:57] Speaker B: All of us have earned our cross.
All of us are stuck and unable to connect to the God that we were made to connect with.
There can be no justice without death, without the price paid, the curse Must have its due. And so Jesus pays in full for you and for me.
Pays every ounce of it. And here's the thing, beloved.
Like, this is the amazing part about this, because even as I describe sounds.
[00:37:27] Speaker A: Nuts, like, if you remove, like the.
[00:37:30] Speaker B: Fact that we're all in a Christian church, we've grown up in a world where we've heard this story a bunch of times. If you take our cultural bias out.
[00:37:35] Speaker A: Of it, this is a crazy story that somehow one guy could just go.
[00:37:40] Speaker B: And die a terrible death and that's going to fix the fact that I lied to my mom when I was a kid.
When I was a kid, not anymore.
I promise.
That makes no sense.
And yet, beloved, it worked.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: Jesus's death is sufficient.
[00:38:05] Speaker B: It's enough to actually save us. Jesus's death changed the world.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: It throws Satan, the curse and death itself for a loop.
[00:38:14] Speaker B: I mean, look at these three miracles that Matthew points out to us after Jesus's death. Each of these has a point toward his accomplished work is actually effective. First, we're told the curtain in the temple tore clear in half. This curtain separated sinful man from the holy God. And Jesus is showing us that because of his death, religion will never be the same. No longer are we kept from God, but as the author of Hebrews says, we can approach the throne of God with confidence and expectation.
[00:38:42] Speaker A: The very earthquakes reminding us that the creation is being ransomed back in Jesus death. Satan is the prince of this cursed land, but Jesus death has dethroned him.
He may still roam and seek to kill and devour, but the land itself rebels and groans, awaiting its restoration under Jesus authority.
[00:39:03] Speaker B: The Matthew tells us the very dead are raised. The earthquake cracked open the stone tombs around Jerusalem. And dead people started getting up and visiting their relatives and saying hi. Because Jesus throws death for a loop, can't keep up with him.
And Matthew caps it all off with this picture of his executioner's realization.
Those cruel, evil soldiers.
The death of Jesus converts his executioners.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: The same Romans who flog and beat and mock see in his death that.
[00:39:41] Speaker B: Jesus is no common criminal, but is God himself. That he is exactly who he claimed to be. Beloved Jesus death is not his loss. It is his victory.
And it's ours as well.
Read on with me and we'll end out with this in verse 55, many.
[00:40:00] Speaker A: Women who had followed Jesus from Galilee.
[00:40:02] Speaker B: Looked after him, and looked after him were there watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.
[00:40:11] Speaker A: When it was evening.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: A rich man from Arimathea named Joseph came, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. He approached Pilate and asked for Jesus body. Then Pilate ordered it to be released. So Jesus took the body, wrapped it in clean fine linen and placed it in his new tomb, which he had cut out of the rock. He left after rolling a great stone against the entrance of the tomb.
[00:40:32] Speaker A: Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were.
[00:40:33] Speaker B: Seated there, facing the tomb.
The next day, which followed the preparation day, the chief priests and the Pharisees.
[00:40:39] Speaker A: Gathered before Pilate and said, sir, we remember that while this deceiver was still alive, he said, after three days it will rise again. So give orders the tomb be made.
[00:40:47] Speaker B: Secure until the third day. Otherwise his disciples may come steal him and tell the people he's been raised from the dead. And the last deception will be worse than the first.
[00:40:55] Speaker A: You have a guard of soldiers.
[00:40:56] Speaker B: Pilate told them, go and make it as secure as you know how. And they went and secured the tomb by setting a seal on the stone and placing guards.
Guys, Jesus's death changes everything.
It can't be ignored.
I love what we see in this text in just this brief moment, how it empowers his followers and frightens his enemies.
Jesus death is a victory.
[00:41:21] Speaker A: It drew faithful old and bold new followers out into the light.
The women who never gave up and a man who'd followed quietly, suddenly both arise.
[00:41:31] Speaker B: And here's the best part. They still think they've lost.
[00:41:35] Speaker A: They think it's over.
[00:41:37] Speaker B: They have no idea that this Roman execution is their victory. Hindsight's 20 20.
[00:41:44] Speaker A: And yet Christ's death emboldens them.
[00:41:48] Speaker B: In this moment. They honor Christ with love because that's what Jesus does.
His immense love for us overflows out of us and empowers us even when we don't fully realize it. So they rise to the occasion. They provide Jesus's dead body with a grave and mourners who will give him an honorable barrier. But even Jesus's enemies act upon his death.
[00:42:10] Speaker A: They're worried about a scam. They're worried about his cowardly followers stealing his body and causing more problems. So they set up guards. Both of these illustrate to me the important point that we can land out today.
[00:42:21] Speaker B: Beloved, you can pretend that Jesus's death is just. A man who died can try and move on with your life.
But the reality is the Bible claims that Jesus's death has fundamentally changed this world. And ultimately, you must reckon with that claim.
Band, if you want to come back up, you must answer the question Was.
[00:42:43] Speaker A: Jesus nothing or was he everything?
There's not really an in between.
[00:42:48] Speaker B: There was Jesus nothing.
[00:42:52] Speaker A: Is he a kind but wrong teacher and miracle worker in the ancient world who ticked off the wrong people who died, and it needs nothing more than any other person killed under a brutal, unjust government?
[00:43:06] Speaker B: Or was he actually who he claimed to be?
Did his death actually change something in this world?
You must reckon with this, beloved.
You can choose to ignore it.
I don't care about ancient unbelievable stories.
[00:43:19] Speaker A: Okay, That's a choice. But hear this. That's a choice of how you're reckoning with it.
[00:43:24] Speaker B: That's pretending it doesn't matter.
[00:43:26] Speaker A: That's a choice.
[00:43:27] Speaker B: It's an assertion that the story is.
[00:43:29] Speaker A: Meaningless, that Jesus is not, in fact.
[00:43:31] Speaker B: Who he claims to be. But I beg you in this room to consider what this story claims.
If Jesus is who he says he is, if his death accomplished what he said it would accomplish, what the whole of the Bible claims it will accomplish, what could that mean for you?
I promise you it means something.
I would say it means everything.
We must all reckon with the cross. And I beg you to do that today.
If you're in this room and you're already a follower of Jesus, can you please. Will you please consider the cross afresh?
You can come to Jesus in thanksgiving.
You can come to the cross in renewed repentance and pursuit.
All of us who follow Christ go in and out of seasons of greater life and joy and greater staleness and separation and dryness.
It doesn't matter where you're at today. You can come to the cross fresh, beloved. Jesus gave himself for you.
So be Joseph of Arimathea, be the ladies. Allow his death to move you to greater obedience to kingdom work.
You may have been a quiet follower like Joseph up until math.
He may have been the one that goes, yeah, I believe this stuff, but, you know, I mean, I got a lot going on. Oh, it's weird.
You can allow the death of Jesus to draw you into the light, to draw you into boldness for the sake of your faith.
You may be a follower, like these women who've been hurt, who've been beat down by the reality of life.
You can let the cross draw you to fresh kingdom work. Even in the midst of your hurt, you can still give Jesus your yes, even when you're hurting, because Jesus knows you're hurt.
He knows your exhaustion. I promise you, he sympathizes.
The cross reminds us that Jesus is always our great sympathizer.
He knows what it is to be you so turn to him afresh.
Let his work on the cross heal your wounds.
Let his work on the cross draw you to new life again.
Maybe you're in this room and you don't even know Jesus yet.
Maybe even kicking around the tires of faith, maybe you grew up hearing these stories and you've just said, I don't know, it just seems too out there.
Never made that formal leap to receive Jesus as your savior. Maybe here in this room and you're an incredibly religious person and you still never made the leap to actually make Jesus your savior.
Beloved, today is the day of salvation.
You must know salvation is not about your religion.
Doesn't matter how many Bible facts you know, doesn't matter how many Bible studies you're a part of. It doesn't matter how faithfully you attend church. Those are wonderful things and you should do them.
[00:46:29] Speaker A: But at the end of the day.
[00:46:30] Speaker B: You can know a lot about Jesus and not know Jesus.
You can know a lot of facts about him.
But until you come to him in real repentance, come to him at the foot of the cross and say, I am a sinner.
You're bearing the weight of my sin on that cross and I can't do it. And I need you to take that for me.
I need you to forgive me of my sins. I need you to be not just my Savior, but my Lord. And you bow your knee to him.
Until you do that.
It can be religious, but you're not in Christ.
I would bet that in a space like this, some of us need to make that leap from knowing about Jesus to knowing Jesus. And beloved, that invitation is for you today.
You can come to the cross.
You can find life and forgiveness in Christ. It is there for you.
All you need to do is pray to him and ask.
And maybe you've just literally never done this. Maybe you're just kicking the tires. Maybe you found this online and you're listening to it. Who knows? When the invitation of Christ is there for you, you can come to him afresh and come to the foot of the cross. You can find life.
I'm going to invite you guys to take just a minute in reflection.
I want to encourage you to get into a posture of prayer. If you can do that in your seat, that's fine. If you want to get on your knees somewhere, that's fine. If you want to come up, that's fine.
I want to encourage you to connect with Christ.
Consider what it means to come to the cross afresh today.
Consider what it means to receive gospel life today from Jesus to reconnect yourself to his work accomplished on your behalf for the first time or the hundredth time.
And if you're in this space and you need a pastor to pray with you, if you're that person who's like, look, I've been religious, but I've not actually made the leap, I would urge you to consider Christ's invitation to you today.
Any one of our pastors, myself, Craig, Jim, we're here in the room.
He'd love to sit with you and pray with you and walk through that experience with you.
Let's take a few minutes to connect with the Lord as our heart needs. And when you're ready, for those of you in the room who are in Christ, I'd encourage you to continue your response with communion.
Communion is this way that we palpably act out what we're talking about.
We remember the cross. We declare his death, his body broken, his blood poured out. Every time as believers, we take the elements. We're considering the cross afresh.
We're considering how sufficient his work is for us afresh.
When your heart gets to that place this morning, I'd invite you to come up front, take communion. If you're sitting somewhere and you can't come up front, you can raise your hand. Pastor Jim will bring you some elements.
But when you're ready, take communion.
And then we'll sing and we'll lay down our time. Beloved, do the work you need to do with Christ this morning.
