Randall Caselman
Bella Vista Church of Christ
4/5/98 pm
The Demands Of The Cross
Reading — Luke 23.32-47 & 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. I want to read from his book “Intense Moments With The Savior.” I do this to recall us to 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 morning. Ken is 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 prisoner: 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 arms numb, and His 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 like the others, cursing and lashing out? He eyes behold a king enthroned before him. He wonders how Jesus ended up here. Exiled to this hill. It is 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 it a chill. The people grow cold, and some of them huddle together. Others grow scared, thinking it a bad omen. And so the crowd on the hill thins. But the darkness only 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 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. That 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 on the way down, stinging and soothing.
For three small words Jesus raises himself from the nails one last time. He takes a deep breath, then bequeaths these words as the legacy of His life. It is finished. It is a cry of victory as the Son of God crosses the finish line. 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 wood. His eyes close. He sees his Father’s outstretched arms. He calls to Him: Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit. And then He died. He died as He lived, in the affectionate 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, the ground begins to shudder 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 tearing flesh.
- Screams knifing the air.
- Boulders tumbling, crashing.
- Stones sealing tombs are shaken open.
- The dead are shaken 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 Jesus’ chest.
- A face mottled with fisted abuse.
- Eyes swollen shut.
- A rib cage torn and welted from the scourging.
- Knees turned to one side.
- A single spike through both feet.
- His lifeless body seems to him 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, and 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, outside the Damascus gate, 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. But that was the arrangement. His life was not passed over so that ours could be, so that the timbers of his cross might become our doorway to leaven.
Writing to the young churches at Corinth and in Galatia, Paul said, to the Jews the death of Jesus, the cross, was a stumbling block and to the Greeks, the Gentiles, it was foolishness.
- The Jews misunderstood the cross because they were looking for a king and a kingdom. They expected an earthly kingdom, a throne and a crown. Jesus insisted that He was a king, but that His kingdom was not of this world.
- The Gentiles of old saw the cross as foolishness. They never understood how God could die on a cross. Their Greek Gods didn’t die... Gods don’t die, people do. They questioned, how the blood of one who died as a common criminal could effect their salvation.
The question tonight is how do we see the cross? What will you and your preacher do with the cross?
The cross of Christ and what happened there challenged the Centurion
And what we have seen today challenges us.
Let’s notice 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 with me, 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, crosses are not something to be carried, but something we die on. 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.
This is our cross, not to carry, but to die on... Dying to self, living for Him. Are we willing?
You see, nothing has changed in two thousand years. People still don’t want to talk about crosses. We’re still looking for thrones and crowns. Jesus is still handing out crosses and towels.
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 seem to be awe struck 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. The thief confessed his sins... Acknowledged his sins. So must we.
Church, we will never confess or repent of a single 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 we 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 die, 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 ever 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.
Bailey Smith tells this true story in his book, “Nothing But The Blood.” One night just north of Arkadelphia, a Volkswagen bug was struck by a pickup traveling on the wrong side of the road. The collision was head on. A preacher boy from Quachita Baptist College was pinned in the car. A friend ran to the highway and stopped the first car to ask for help. O’ if you will hurry we can make it to Clark County Hospital. The lady pressed the button in that big luxury car, the window came down about three inches, so as not to lose to much air conditioning. O’ please help hurry! The lady replied, young man, 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 preacher boy was pumped out on the floor of a 1966 Volkswagen, 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 serve the Jesus in others.
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 Sinatra theology... We want it our way. We want truth to be what we want it to be.
We want to respond to our 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! If your flying at 30,000 feet and the hydraulics go out on that aircraft, you are in serious trouble, regardless of how you feel. 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 feel good about it.
We want to bend the truth to fit:
- Our 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 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 Jew wagged their heads and went on to live life by their own tradition, by their own theology.
Jesus contended that the way of the cross was both narrow and straight, and that it was a way that was seldom traveled. Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Paul told his Jewish audience in Acts 4.12, Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. Indeed, the way of the cross leads home.
The greatest decision we will ever make is what will we do with Jesus. What we will do with the cross and what happened there. Will we conform to the Christ of the cross or will we reject Him in INDIFFERENCE?
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.
- Deny self and surrender to Him
- Deal with our sins,
- Submit to a life of serving others,
- Accept Jesus for who and what He is, the way, the truth and the life.
Come to Jesus... Will you come?
