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The Gospel According to God
Mark 15:15-32
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The suffering and Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ is tough to handle. We know the story, of course, and we know how it ends. But seeing the cross of Jesus and how He responds to the cross is part of the story that is not easy to take. This is not how we would write the story. You see, we like the story where the good guy comes out on top. We like the story where justice and fairness overcome villainy. We like it when people get what they deserve. A little show of divine power, some well-aimed wrath and retribution—that’s the story we would write. And it would include a glorious scene where Jesus emerges victorious with His enemies groveling at His feet.
Of course, that’s not the story we get. Good Friday’s showdown does not end with deafening cheers and a blaze of glory descending upon the hero. It seems that what Jesus shows Pilate, Herod, the Sanhedrin, the soldiers, the crowd, and us is defeat: resignation, weakness, humiliation, and surrender. This is not the image we want for our hero. But this is what Jesus seems to display. This is the portrait of the crucified Christ: naked, bloody, suspended with nails hammered through His wrists and feet, struggling for breath. It left the eyewitnesses in a state of disbelief. The soldiers stationed in Jerusalem saw a compliant, silent Jesus; their mockery and scorn were violent and blasphemous.
The religious leaders of the Jews did no better, though they should have known better. They had no sympathy for their countryman who was enduring the worst Rome could hand out. In fact, the Sanhedrin and the priests were the ones who sought the death of their promised Messiah. After all, what kind of Messiah could Jesus be? He seemed powerless before the might of Rome, when He was supposed to be the mighty King to deliver Israel from her bondage. He was unwilling to live according to the statutes of the Pharisees, and He opposed the religious leaders of the Jews—those men who thought they would be the closest allies of what they would consider a real Messiah. No, this Jesus couldn’t be the fulfillment of the promise. They would only believe what they wanted to believe. And when it came down to it, they couldn’t help but wonder what kind of Messiah would allow Himself to be nailed to the cross and die.
It was a fair question. Not even the disciples could answer that question. The men who had heard the truth right from the mouth of Jesus Himself could not comprehend what Jesus was doing. It took little more than the arrest of their Rabbi for them to be thrown into terror and driven into hiding. The Christ of the cross was an image they did not want to see; it was a story they did not want to witness. What Jesus revealed at Golgotha did not seem to be the sort of thing that would create faith or encourage devout worship. All these witnesses of Golgotha saw, but they did not believe.
But Jesus was showing them—and us—exactly what it means to be the Messiah. He revealed Himself as God in flesh. Golgotha on Good Friday is resplendent with the glory of God, but it does not come in the way that sinful man expects. We can appreciate how the cross displays love and compassion—after all, it was love and compassion for His creation that drove Jesus to endure the cross and the shame and agony and suffering. But the full reality is that it is precisely on the cross and by the cross that Jesus shows the world exactly who the Son of God is. He is the Lord, the One by whom all things were made, the supreme Lover and Savior of creation. The cross is His throne. Jesus takes His place as the Lord over His kingdom. He is crowned as the God who redeems His creatures. Only God can love like this. Only God can give Himself so absolutely to those who despise and reject Him. And it’s ironic that it is only the centurion who sees and knows the truth. He confesses, “Truly this was the Son of God,”
So the glory is there on the cross, but it’s not the kind of glory we’re used to seeing. The power and strength and victory we long to see on display from our Lord actually are on display, but they are taking a form no man could have imagined. At Calvary, on the cross, Jesus shows us God. He shows us the reality of what God is. He shows us the core of our faith: trust in the God who gives His all for His creation, even His own life. This is not the God who writes the story the way we would write it. And it is so much the better than the story we would tell, because this is the story where the victorious Lord is displayed in the glory of the cross, suffering and dying for the sake of the love He bears for His creation, winning the victory by the power of His blood. And we are the ones who bow at His feet—not in terror, but in humble thanksgiving. In the name of the Father and of the (†) Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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