The Story of the Cross

Introduction

I want to do things a little different tonight. I tell you, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is I don’t have a sermon tonight. The bad news is what I’m going to do is going to take about as long as a sermon would.

But you won’t need your Bibles. You won’t need notebooks and pens. I want to ask a simple favor of you to just listen. And as you listen, try to picture the events that we’re going to be talking about tonight. Because they’re real events. They really took place. And we’re going to go back in time. Almost 2,000 years ago. It’s almost evening. The darkening shadows are falling, and if you’ve come with me on this journey, you can barely in the darkness make out the moving of figures. Walking. As Jesus and his disciples cross the dark Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives. To an olive grove known as Gethsemane.

1. Father, Let This Cup Pass From Me

I’m going to pray. And you need to pray too that you don’t come into temptation. Leaving them there, he takes Peter, James, and John a little further, deeper into the darkness of that olive grove. And he leaves Peter, James, and John. And he tells them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to the point of death. Wait here. And he goes further alone into the garden and falls down on his hands and knees and prays. He says, Father, if it be possible, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. But not as I want, but as you want. After he prayed a while, he goes back and he finds Peter, James, and John, and he says, he finds them asleep. And he says, Simon, could you not watch with me one hour?

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And he goes back a second time into the darkness of that garden and prays again. At some time in this evening, an angel will come to him and attend to him. And he prays again to his father: if this cup cannot pass except I drink it, then your will be done. As he fell there in the garden, the sweat drops fell from him, as it were, great drops of blood. And he prayed.

2. Whom Do You Seek? I Am He

And he says, Could you not watch with me one hour? And a third time he goes and prays to his father through tears, anguish, and anxiety. But now the time has come, and so he gets up and comes back to Peter, James, and John, and again finds them asleep. They’re just exhausted from sorrow. And they don’t really know what to say. But Jesus says, it’s enough. It is time. In fact, he says, the one who is going to betray me is near. And even as he’s speaking these words to his disciples, the sound of the mob interrupts him. Because Judas is leading a mob that is coming with torches and lanterns and clubs and weapons. And Judas has given them a signal that the one that he kisses will be the Jesus that they’re looking for.

As if they would have trouble identifying him and finding him. As the mob approaches, it’s not Judas that steps forward first, it’s Jesus. And Jesus says to the mob, Whom do you seek? And they say, Jesus of Nazareth. He says, I am He. Those words, the mob steps back and falls to the ground. Possibly afraid. Is this not the one who walks on water and storm, calm the stormy seas and raise the dead? But again, Jesus simply asks, Whom do you seek? And again they reply, Jesus of Nazareth. He says, I am He.

Judas, maybe to fulfill the bargain, steps forward and says, Teacher, and kisses Jesus on the cheek. And Jesus looks at him and says, Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? But what you’re going to do, go ahead and do.

Should we fight? Should we resist? And before Jesus can even answer, impetuous Peter draws his sword and lunges forward and lops off the ear of Malchus, a servant of the high priest. And Jesus says, Enough of this. And touches the ear of that high priest’s servant and heals that ear and tells Peter to put his sword back into its sheath, because he who would draw the sword will die by the sword. And he says to this Jewish mob, Did you come to me with torches and clubs? Like you’re arresting a common criminal, a thief. And he turns again to Peter and says, Peter, don’t you understand that I could call twelve legions of angels from my father? And he could rescue me from this hour. But this is the very purpose of my coming.

3. Are You the Christ, the Son of the Living God?

And I must drink this cup. The chief priest and the elders bind Jesus. And the disciples, every one of them, flee. And they take Jesus from this peaceful garden in a most unpeaceful way. In the middle of the night, they take him to the household of Annas. Annas had previously been the high priest, and now his son in law, Caiaphas, is the high priest, but Annas is still respected. And in fact, they still give him the honorary title of high priest. And so they bring Jesus arrested and bound to the house of Annas. And Annas asked him questions about his disciples and about his teaching. And asks, Who are you? And Jesus says, I’ve always spoken openly. In the synagogues and in the temple, ask the people who I am, and they will tell you.

One of the servants of the high priest was offended by this response, and so he lunged forward and slapped Jesus and says, You will not speak to the high priest like that. And Jesus said, If I’ve spoken wrong, tell me what I said. But if I’ve spoken the truth, why do you strike me? Annas sends Jesus still bound to the house of Caiaphas, the current high priest, where the Sanhedrin council is gathered in the middle of the night. This evil conspiracy is coming to fruition. And at the Sanhedrin Council in Caiaphas’ house, they bring witnesses. In fact, they’re all false witnesses. They can’t even agree on the testimony that they’re bringing against Jesus, finally too agree when they say, We heard him say that he would destroy the temple and build it again in three days, but even their testimony didn’t completely agree.

And Caiaphas stands up and speaks and says, Do you have nothing to say? Don’t you hear the accusations that are raised against you? But like a lamb before his shears is silent. Jesus doesn’t open his mouth.

And finally, he says, I put you under oath to answer this question. Are you the Christ, the Son of the living God? Jesus, knowing that his hour is come, says, I am. I am. And the time is soon coming where you will see the Son of God seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds. To this, Caiaphas says, Blasphemy. You hear with your own words, what further need do we have of other testimony and other witnesses? You hear with your own ears that he has spoken blasphemy. What say you? And in unison, as almost as if it was rehearsed, they said, He is worthy of death. And their anger that’s been pent up for so long, their anger knew no bounds, and they blindfolded him.

They spat on him. And they struck him and ridiculed him and said, Oh, prophesy, Christ, who is it? Just hit you. About this time, two of the disciples who had earlier fled from the garden, have followed. One of these, an unnamed disciple, was known to the high priest, and so he made his way through the gate into the courtyard. The other disciple who followed behind was Peter, and this unnamed disciple goes and has the attendant of the gate to let Peter to come into the core. And this young lady who was attending the gate kept her eyes on Peter. It was cool in the darkness of the night, and so some had built a fire of charcoal and were warming themselves over the fire. And as Peter stood there, maybe in the light of the fire, she said, You were one of his disciples, weren’t you?

Peter says, I don’t know what you’re talking about. A little bit later, someone else says, Yes, you were with him. You were with him in the garden. I recognize you. And Peter swore and said, I don’t know what you’re talking about. And about that time a rooster crow. It’s not dawn yet. It’s not the normal time for a rooster to be crowing. That was known as the cock crow. Peter removes himself from the fire, and about an hour later, someone else comes to him and says, Yes, you must be one of his disciples. I can tell by your speech that you’re a Galilean. Surely you were with this man. Peter begins to curse and to swear and says, I do not know him. And the rooster crows again.

It’s now dawn.

Peter remembers that the Lord had prophesied that this very night, before the hour of cock crow, or before the rooster crowed twice, that Peter would deny three times that he knew his Lord. And from a distance the Lord turns and looks at Peter. And Peter runs away and weeps bitterly. Well, now that the sun is up, they can give a semblance of legality of what they’ve done in the middle of the night, so the Sanhedrin is formally assembled again.

Are you then the Son of God? Jesus says, I am.

Judas must have been watching some of these proceedings from afar himself, because when he realizes that Jesus is not extricating himself from these circumstances, he regrets what he has done. So much so that he takes those thirty pieces of silver and brings them back into the temple to the chief priest and elders and says, I cannot keep this money. It’s tainted with blood. And they say, Well, what’s that to us? That’s your problem. And so he throws the money down on the floor and goes away and hangs himself. At some point, the structure on which he had hanged himself breaks, and Judas’ body falls into a field. The chief priest and elders who have just convicted an innocent man, say that the money can’t go back into the treasury because it is blood money, and so they buy a field, the very field that Judas lay in to make it a potter’s field for the burial of strangers.

4. I Find No Crime in This Man

And they name it the field of blood. Early in the morning, the Jewish officials take Jesus still bound to the Praetorium. The Praetorium was in the fortress of Antonia in the northwest corner of the temple.

And though they are betraying and are asking for the crucifixion of an innocent man, they won’t defile themselves by going into the praetorium. Because to do so would defile themselves and they would be unable to partake of the Passover proceedings that are to follow. And so Pilate obliges them and comes out to them. Seeing Jesus in this mob, he says, Why have you brought this man to me? And their reply is, if he weren’t an evildoer, we wouldn’t have brought him to you. But we have a law, and by that law, he ought to be put to death. And so Pilate says, Well, then take him yourself and judge him. And they say, He is worthy of death, but we are not allowed to put him to death.

And so we have brought him to you. Because he has said that he is the king of the Jews. Pilate goes back into his palace and calls Jesus to him and says, Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus says, Is this your question? Or are you asking that because of what you’ve heard? And Pilate says, Am I a Jew? Are you the King of the Jews? Jesus says, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my disciples fight to have me delivered from this hour, but my kingdom is not of this world. I’ve come to bring truth. In fact, whoever wants to know the truth will listen to me. Pilate scoffs and says, What is truth? And he goes back out to the Jewish mob and says, I find no crime in this man.

But they clamored for his blood. Jesus standing there, and Pilate looks at him and says, Don’t you hear these accusations? Don’t you have anything to say? But Jesus remained silent. The mob is stirred up. And they’re clamoring and saying, This man has brought trouble to this land. He’s leading us astray. He’s told us that we shouldn’t pay taxes to Caesar, and he claims to be a king. He has spread this doctrine all over Judea, starting from Galilee, now into Jerusalem. And Pilate’s ears perk up when he hears Galilee. Is this man a Galilean? And they assure him that he is.

Maybe to see a miracle. And so he asked him questions about his disciples and about his doctrine. But again, Jesus is silent. The soldiers surrounding Herod began to mock Jesus. They put a robe on him and ridicule him. And Herod sends him back to Pilate. Pilate again brings Jesus out to the mob and says, I find no crime in this man, and neither does Herod, but he sent him back to me. Sometime in these proceedings, Pilate’s wife sends a message to him and says, Don’t have anything to do with this innocent man. Because I’ve had a very troubling dream about him.

And so Pilate comes back out to the group and says, Who would you have me released to you? Jesus, the king of the Jews or Barabbas, the terrorist, the murderer. Somehow the Jewish officials had anticipated this choice, and they had prompted the crowd to cry out, Release unto us Barabbas. Pilate says, Then what would you have me to do with Jesus? Crucify. Crucify.

But I will scourge him. And then him release him to you. And so Jesus is sent away to be scourged.

His upper garment would have been removed from him, and most likely would have been tied down or stretched so that the skin of his back was very taut. And then men who were trained at this procedure would have taken whips with either metal or shards of bone at the end of them and beaten. The exposed back of Jesus. Historians tell us that many times this itself would have resulted in the death. But he’s brought back. And in a mockery is given a robe. And they make a crown of thorns and place it upon his head and give him a reed as a scepter for, after all, isn’t he a king? They spat on him and they strike him. They bring back this beaten and humiliated man to Pilate, and Pilate brings him before the audience and says, Look at the man.

And they again cry out, crucify. Pilate says, You take him and crucify him. And they said, We have a law, and he has violated that law because he has made himself the Son of God. Those words scare Pilate, and so he takes Jesus back into the palace and says, Who are you? Where are you from? But Jesus doesn’t reply. And Pilate says, Don’t you understand that I have the power to release you or to crucify you? And Jesus looks up with his bloody face and says, The only power you have is that which has been given to you from above. And so those who have delivered me to you are guilty of the greater sin. Pilate comes out again in an attempt to release Jesus, but they use their most potent argument against him.

They say, if you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. But this is your king. Crucify him, they cry out again, We have no king but Caesar. Pilate, seeing that he’s getting nowhere, ceremonially brings out a basin of water and washes his hands and says, I wash my hands of this innocent man. And they reply with the most ominous words, let his blood be upon us and upon our children. And Pilate issues the order for Jesus to be crucified.

5. It Is Finished

And the soldiers make Jesus carry his own cross. And somewhere along the road, they compel Simon of Cyrene to take the cross the rest of the way. Surely this beaten man has fallen under the load. A mob is following after them as they go to the place of the crucifixion. And some women are crying out to him. And Jesus turns to them and says, Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. Because the day will come when they’ll say, Blessed are those who never had children. And they’ll ask the mountains to fall on them and the hills to cover them, because if they’re doing this while the fig tree is green, what will they do when it is dead?

And so they bring him to the place in the Aramaic known as Golgotha. The Latin term is Calvary. It literally means the place of the skull. And Jesus is there crucified between two thieves. They offer him wine mixed with gall, but he refuses.

Common languages of that day. This place of crucifixions on a common road, and as the Jewish officials pass by, they object to Pilate. Don’t write this as King of the Jews, but write that he said, I am the King of the Jews. But Pilate says, What I have written stays written. The passerbys began to taunt him, ridicule him. The soldiers join in the chorus and they say, Save yourself. You said you could destroy the temple and rebuild it in three short days. Surely you can save yourself. If you are who you claim to be, come down from that cross. If you’re the Son of God, surely God will save you from this moment. But in that audience are those who aren’t taunting him. Among them are three women named Mary.

One of them is Mother. Upon seeing his mother and seeing the disciple whom he loved, he says, Woman, behold your son. And to the disciple he loved, he said, Behold your mother, making sure that his mother was going to be taken care of. As she looked on his beaten, bloody body. Don’t you imagine she remembered the words of the prophet Simeon some 33 years earlier? Who said at his birth that your soul will be pierced through with many a sorrow. The thieves who had been joining in the chorus of taunting him, one of them started again and said, Save yourself and save us, but the other thief had a change of heart. And he said to this fellow thief, Don’t you fear God, understanding we’re under the same sentence of death as him?

And we justly so. But this man has done nothing. He turns to Jesus and says, Will you remember me when you come into your kingdom? Jesus, having the power to forgive sins while he was here upon the earth, turns to him and says, Today you’ll be with me in paradise. It’s about noon. And the sky turns dark and remains dark till about three in the afternoon. Jesus cries out with a loud voice, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And again he says, I’m thirsty. And there’s some sour wine there that the soldiers would drink, and someone grabs a sponge and a stick and gives him some of that sour wine to drink. Others thought he had called out for Elijah and said, No, leave him alone.

See if Elijah will come and rescue him. Again, Jesus simply says, It is finished. Father, into thy hands I give my spirit. And he dies.

The temple would have been busy at three o’clock in the afternoon as the priests were preparing the evening sacrifices and the burning of incense. The earth began to shake. And the veil of the temple that separated the holy place from the most holy place is torn in two from top to bottom. And the shards of that beautiful curtain expose the most holy place. And rocks are torn in two, and graves are emptied. And the centurion who’d been in charge of the Roman soldiers commissioned with crucifying Christ, said, Surely this was the Son of God. The people who’d been there at the cross went on their way, beating their chest. The work that Jesus had come to do had been accomplished. We’ve talked this week about hearing and doing the Word of God, about being the example that we ought to be, and being happy as a Christian.

Conclusion

But I want us to never forget that everything that we do, everything that we have, and every hope that we would rest upon are all because he drank that cup so that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Thank you for listening so well this week, and thank you for being a blessing to me and Deedra. Never forget the drunk, the cup that he drank for you that night. You’re not a Christian. The blood of Christ was shed for your sins so that you might have life, so that you might be forgiven of every sin that you’ve ever committed, no matter how many, no matter how big. He died for you. Maybe at some point in the past you rendered obedience to the gospel and became a Christian, but the cross lost some meaning to you, and your faith has waned.

Then why not let this love of Christ compel you tonight to rededicate yourself to his service, to confess any sins that you might have that would stand between you and eternity, and to make your life right tonight, to live a life worthy of that cross. If we can help you in any spiritual way, why not come right now as together we stand and together sing?