The Challenge Of The Cross

Randall Caselman
Bella Vista Church of Christ
March 24, 2002 PM

The Challenge Of The Cross

Reading - Matthew 27.45-54 & Luke 9.23-26

We have spent the day at the cross.
We have seen the darkness over Jerusalem.
We have tried to feel His pain, understand His hurt.
We have seen the blood and tried to comprehend its meaning to us.
We have heard Him say... It is finished.
What does it all mean?

One of my favorite writers is a man named Ken Gire. For our lesson tonight... I want to read from his book... Intense Moments With The Savior. By doing so, I want us to focus on the cross and what was taking place there. I have taken the liberty of editing some of his thoughts to make them fit our lesson this evening. We will be looking at the crucifixion through the eyes of the Centurion... The officer in charge of the crucifixion team... Let's listen:

The centurion was king of the hill. But Golgotha was a small hill... A hill nobody else wanted. For a career soldier like he was, it was a low rung on the career ladder. He surveys the crosses standing as sentinels against the morning sky, making sure the job has been done right, checking to see if the nails are still holding.

He stops to read the plaque above the head of the center cross... KING OF THE JEWS. He ponders the WHY of such a sign. Jesus has hung beneath that indictment since nine this morning. By now His legs are cramping... His back throbbing.. His chest muscles tightening... His arms numb... The tendons are torn from the sockets in His shoulders.

The centurion is intrigued by how this prisoner seems to gather His pain and hold it, keeping it to Himself. Again he wonders... Why? Why doesn't He suffer aloud like the others... Cursing men and lashing out at His God?

He wonders how Jesus ended up here. Exiled to this hill. His five senses tell him that something is different about this man and His death. It's almost noon now and the sun should be at full flame... Burning off the shadows. But it isn't. The centurion looks toward the sky ripening from blue to indigo to violet and finally to black. That's strange.
- It isn't an eclipse.
- It's not a dust storm.
- Or cloud bank.
More like an enveloping gloom.

The raven-colored darkness wings its way across the land... Leaving behind an unexplainable chill. The people grow cold... Some together in small groups. Others grow scared... Thinking this darkness a bad omen. And so the crowd on the hill thins to only a few... But the darkness thickens. For three hours the sun refuses to come out, almost as if it couldn't bear to look anymore. Heaven too, it seems, has looked away on this infamous Passover day. The sin of the world is now settling on the Savior's shoulders. If He is to pay sin's penalty... He must bear its consequences... All of its consequences... Including the most severe... The total abandonment of God.

Jesus has known the abandonment of His family... of His friends... and of His countrymen. But He has never known this kind of abandonment. He and His Father have always existed together as one... So eternally close that now... When fellowship between them is severed... The pain in the soul of the Son is like an amputation without anesthesia. This is the pain He feels as He cries out... My God... My God... Why have you forsaken me?

These three hours are the dregs of the cup given Jesus in Gethsemane. And the fate of humanity comes down to this one final, bitter mouthful of suffering that only God's Son can swallow. And swallowing it... He slumps into unconsciousness. Only to have a javelin of pain wake Him with a start.
- His fever has worsened.
- His eyes are swollen shut.
- His throat is parched.
- His tongue thick and pasted down.
He mutters... I thirst. A sponge of sour wine is poled up to him. He bites it, and wine channels down the sides of his mouth. What little he swallows is a mixed blessing... Stinging and soothing.

He takes a deep breath... Strains against the nails and says... It is finished. It is a cry of victory as the Son of God crosses the finish line. Indeed!!... He has run the race, finished the course... kept the faith. The race He came to earth to run is over.

His head eases back against the cross... His eyes close. He sees his Father's outstretched arms... Father,... Into Your hands I commit my spirit. And then He died. He died as He lived... In the embrace of His Father. His last act, an act of surrender. His last words, a prayer.

The centurion was used to watching men die. But none of them died like this. He wonders who this man under the plaque King of the Jews really was. While he wonders, something else strange begins to happen... The ground begins to shudder and shake beneath his feet.
- Suddenly the earth groans... Rocks are split open.
- Soldiers are thrown staggering to the ground.
- People running for their lives... Praying... Screaming... Falling down.
- Crosses sway in their stone sockets.
- Nails tear through human flesh.
- Screams knifing the air.
- Boulders tumbling... crashing.
- Sealed tombs are miraculously opened.
- The dead are brought to life.
- The Temple curtain separating the sanctuary from the Most Holy Place is torn from top to bottom... As if a mournful Father's hands reached down and tore it.

And then... The earth calms. First from its trembling. Then from its shivering. Then altogether. The centurion pulls himself up from the terror. As the shaken hill begins to settle... His thoughts search for some explanation. First the darkness... then this... What could it all mean? He looks up at Jesus... Whose arms are raised... Whose head is bowed.
- Arms reaching skyward at diagonals.
- A spike through each wrist.
- Lines of blood veining toward His chest.
- A face bruised with fisted abuse.
- Eyes swollen shut.
- A back and ribcage torn and welted from scourging.
- Knees turned to one side.
-A single spike through both feet.
His lifeless body seems to be... An incarnate prayer.

The Centurion falls to his knees in his own prayer. As he finishes the last line of this silent prayer, he brushes away tears. Wondering, hoping, praying that the forgiveness he ignored only hours before is still available. For he truly did not know what he was doing or to whom he was doing it. There is a break in the darkness... A spill of sunlight splashes onto the hill. A handful of soldiers hurry to the centurion's side... Their minds racing with questions. He turns his eyes from the cross to the frantic circle of eyes that surround him. And he gives his explanation... Surely... Surely, He was the Son of God!

In a few hours Passover would be over. Jerusalem would have looked back, remembering the deliverance from Egyptian bondage. They would have looked forward in anticipation of Messiah and a new kingdom coming.
- But today... The lamb that was slain was Jesus.
- And the door posts... Where the blood was smeared... Was the cross.
- When the angel of death came... He did not spare this firstborn son.
- There was not voice to stop the plunge of the knife as on Mt. Moriah...

But that was the arrangement... The plan of salvation... The scheme of redemption from before the world came into being. His life was not passed over so that ours COULD be...So that the timbers of his cross might become our doorway to heaven. Indeed, the way of the cross leads home.

The cross of Christ and what happened there challenged the Centurion. And what we have seen today challenges us. Let's notice four of these challenges quickly...

First... The cross challenges us to deny self and die with Him in total surrender to the will of the Father. Look at our text again... Then Jesus said to them all: If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Church... The cross Jesus is asking us to take up and follow Him with is not some burden we are to bear. He is asking us to take up our cross and die with Him... Crosses are for dying. Paul wrote... I die daily... This is our calling... This is our challenge. Jesus insisted... Whoever wants to save his life must lose it... But whoever loses his life for me will find it.

Paul tells us in Romans that we must indeed crucify the old man and become: Instruments of God... Living sacrifices. Our cross is not something we carry... but to die on... dying to self... living for Him. Are we willing?

Secondly... The cross calls us to deal with our sins. The cross condemns us. A perfect Savior... A lamb without spot or blemish dies in our stead. The thief on the cross seems to be awestruck with the fact that an innocent man was dying. He said... We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.

The thief recognized immediately that... In comparison to this Jesus... He was a sinner... LOST... FOREVER EXILED from the presence of God... Destined to outer and utter darkness... To hell forever. The thief contemplates his sins... acknowledges his wrongs... and confesses Jesus. So must we... So must we. What a shame today that some of us will not experience salvation... Simply because we will not acknowledge our sin and seek His forgiveness?

Listen to me church... We will never forsake and repent of a sin we are not willing to acknowledge.
- Jesus said... I tell you, except you repent... you will perish.
- Peter tells us... We must repent and be baptized for forgiveness to take place.
- James instructs us to confess our faults one to another and pray for one another.
- John promises... If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Question... Have you... Are you and your preacher dealing with our sins?

Sometimes I am asked... Why do those leading in prayer always ask for God to forgive our sins... Aren't we already forgiven? Church... This is one way we can acknowledge and confess our sins and our sinful condition before God. Confess your sins to Him and ask for forgiveness... This is scripture. Are we willing to take up our cross and follow Jesus in total obedience to the will of the Father?

Thirdly... The cross calls us to a life of serving others. Jesus died where we should have died. And we must die also... And here is how we must, like Jesus, die to self and live for others. Listen to Him plead with us to be like Him...

- Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, If anyone wants to be first, he must be the
very last, and the servant of all.

- Again, Jesus called them together and said, You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

- When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. Do you understand what I have done for you? He asked them. You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

- As often as you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto Me.

Baily Smith tell this true story in his book... Nothing But The Blood. One night just north of Arkadelphia, Arkansas, a Volkswagen bug was struck by a pickup traveling on the wrong side of the road. The collision was head on. A preacher student from Quachita Baptist College was pinned in the car. A friend ran to the highway and stopped the first car to ask for help. "Please hurry, we can make it to Clark County Hospital before he dies." The lady pressed the button in that big luxury car, the window came down about three inches, so as not to lose too much air conditioning. "Please help, hurry!" The lady replied... I don't want to get involved. She punched that button again and sped on up highway seven to a weekend in Hot Springs. The life of that teenager was pumped out on the floor of a Volkswagen... All because this lady would not serve the Jesus in others.

The cross of Jesus demands that we become like Him. The cross challenges us to get involved in serving the Jesus in others. Will we die??

Finally... The cross challenges us to acknowledge Jesus as our Savior. The Jews missed salvation because they wanted tradition more than truth. Today... We want to live by a Frank Sanatra theology... We want Life our way. We want truth to be what we want it to be. We want to respond to our personal religious feelings, rather than to God's Word. Folk, feelings are not to be used as a criteria for judging truth. The Jews felt that Jesus was not the Messiah. They were wrong!

You see... We want to bend the truth to fit...
- Our church or family tradition...
- Our situation...
- Our understanding...
- Our own private interpretation of Scripture, rather than to adjust our own lives to conform with the truth of God.

The bottom line here is this... We must rely on God's Word for our truth and adjust our feelings to His truth. Then we will know we are right and will feel good about it.

The crusty... hard-nosed Centurion... Confessed Jesus. The thief on the cross saw himself as he really was... a sinner in need of God's forgiveness. The Jews wagged their heads and went on to live life...
- By their own tradition...
- By their own theology...
- By their own personal preferences.

Jesus contended that the way of the cross was both narrow and straight, and that it was a way that was seldom traveled. BUT... The way of the cross leads home. The question becomes... Are we willing to take up our cross and die there?

Tonight... Come to the cross by becoming a child of God through faith, repentance and New Testament baptism, immersion in water for the forgiveness of sins.

Perhaps we just need to accept the challenges of the cross.

Come to Jesus tonight... as we stand and sing this invitation song... Will you come?