The Burden Of Jesus
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Continued prayer for Israel and their safety and peace. That war is not worse than it must be. But that is is not short of what it needs to be. It is not outside of God’s control. He has made it clear that He knows how and when the final answer to rebelion to Him will come.
But it is hard to see right now. He has meant to give us confidence that HE knows, even while still keeping it clouded from our eyes.
The future is like a far mountain. Approaching it for miles, it seems to not change at all, but you know it’s coming. Then as you arrive, you begin to see it’s magnitude. But only when you seek to reach the summit to you know reality of it.
I recently had the opportunity to explore Catalina Island. One goal I had was to reach the top spine of the island to be able to look East over the ocean towards LA and then West out to the open ocean. Catalina Island is NOT flat. It would take intentionally hiking up some fairly steep terrain for 1.2 miles to reach that summit. The work (and sweat and breathless breaks) WAS worth it! But the view can’t be obtained without cost.
And so for God’s glorious plan. There is a magnitude to our future. I don’t know how near it is, but it could be very close. And the trial to the top will be hard.
Will we trust and depend on Jesus?
Pray
Today we will look not at the end of time, but to the summit of God’s solution for sin. We can see it from far off, but we will never understand the magnitude of Jesus solution. Or we can scale the incline of Jesus’ death, and gain a view worthy of the effort.
21 And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. 22 And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). 23 And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. 25 And it was the third hour when they crucified him. 26 And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” 27 And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. 29 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 30 save yourself, and come down from the cross!” 31 So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. 32 Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.
If you would like to prepare, you can index this passage, and find Isaiah 53, We’ll be back and forth between them this morning.
Mark’s focus in his telling of the event’s of Jesus’ death isn’t all the details. Not that he is wrong. But we can see he leaves out some detail so that he drives us to the one thing he has been motivated by the entire gospel: What will you do with Jesus?
He has focused on Jesus’ uniqueness, His authority, His power. It begins...
1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, 3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ”
And when we get to this one moment in the story when Jesus’ authority as the very Son of the Living God to command the physical and spiritual real would serve Him best, at THIS moment He remains silent, accepting, and wounded.
For this hour He had come. For this pain, for this humiliation.
If John was there to fulfill that prophecy of preparation from Isaiah 40, Jesus stood alone to fulfill the prophecy of substitution.
1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
He was innocent, before the Sanhedrin (the ruling council of Jews) and before the Roman authority. But more importantly, He was blameless before God, who sit’s on an eternal thrown of all power and authority.
Mark simply states: Mark 15:25 “25 And it was the third hour when they crucified him.”
To feel the wight of this moment, I ask you to journey with me near this mountain of Jesus’ crucifixion. To look closely and not turn away. To consider your own place in it. Only then can we respond rightly to this most crucial moment in all history.
The Burden of Suffering.
The Burden of Suffering.
Crucifixion was to torture as the Mona Lisa to Classical painting. There are many sources to immerse yourself in the horror of it. I wont do that this morning.
I’d rather bring us to a summary understanding of His condition. From Is., verses 3-6, what words are used to describe the relational or physical abuse Jesus would take? <Audience Participation>
Now back to Mark, if we look in the passage from last week, in Mark 15:15-20 we see that Jesus had been scourged (or flogged), mocked, his head gouged and tore open with a crown of thorns, struck about the head with a read; spit on and stripped naked. These are but some of the details of that striking, smiting, and affliction from Isaiah. This is His condition before he heads to the cross.
But there’s something in Isaiah I don’t want us to miss. Isaiah 53:4 “4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” Not Smitten by His enemies; not by His people. He is smitten by GOD! Are you abused by a scoundrel? It’s not hard to brush that off - what right do they have to treat me that way anyway? But to be struck by God - He who is good and righteous, who’s knowledge and wisdom has no end. What when GOD strikes you? But this is the burden Jesus bore - stricken, smitten, and afflicted.
Then pierced, crushed, and chastised. Willing Jesus took this on Himself. He bore OUR griefs, carried OUR sorrow. It’s for OUR transgressions, OUR iniquity. The good news is right here in Isaiah 53:6 “6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Jesus suffering is OUR suffering. His pain is OUR pain. He took OUR punishment and God’s hand of judgement. All because of OUR sin.
The Burden of Sin.
The Burden of Sin.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We have all earned our wages. In grand fashion or secret thoughts, none of us would have to look back too far to uncover our falling short of God’s glory. It’s an all to easily recognizable feature of life. We are selfish, prideful, lying, coveting, lusting, and gossiping. If we don’t hate our brother to his face, we often do in our hearts.
This week has been tough for me. I have felt that burden all week. Not some great sin - or any sin in particular. But a world in sin. I sat looking over our city the other night. Beautiful lights in a sea of darkness. Rebellion from God hangs over humanity like darkness at night.
The tragedy of evil and cowardly attacks against Israel. The hate from the response of so many. The lostness of soles in the Gaza strip culminating in such evil leadership as Hamas.
A sensitivity in my soul to the lostness, brokenness, and pain all around. Neighbors, and friends divorcing. How people respond to one another without considering others more highly than ourselves. The lies and deceit that stands in for news - what can we even believe? Homelessness. Drug use. Mental health epidemic. The utterly incoherent transgender movement resulting in the twisting and contorting of young minds and bodies. Wholesale acceptance of sin as something to celebrate.
And disease. Bodies degrade, minds unravel. Cancer in young and old. Our physical burden is as much a result of sin as our spiritual state of separation from God.
Why did the Spirit lay this burden on me? I can’t know in whole. But I do know that part of the answer is that for this very brokenness of heart over the sin of creation Jesus chose to take the burden. “They crucified Him”. He chose to take not only the burden of pain and suffering, but also our burden of sin.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
His burden wasn’t just to commiserate. It was to take our place. When our sins are laid on Jesus it means that they are not counted toward us. An unlike exchange - the innocent for the guilty.
This tension of Jesus’ suffering for our guilt is central to faith in God. I suspect most Christians are never completely out of view of it. But when we are satisfied of the view from 100 miles (or 161 km if any of you prefer metric) we allow it to become background and not central.
Jesus died for my sins.
There is no other focus for any portion of our lives that carries more weight. Yet we spend so much time figuring how we can make ourselves right in God’s eyes. HE HAS MADE YOU CLEAN! Go serve your Lord while it is still day.
Climb again and again the urgency of Jesus, the tragic death He died for you, the victory from sin and death He is working in you. Make much of Jesus!
The Burden to Respond.
The Burden to Respond.
What hope is there to see the burden, if we don’t also know how to respond?
As tragic as Jesus death was, it’s purpose and power are greater! What is our response? Let’s spend the rest of our time in Mark. There are several people present and participating at Jesus’ crucifixion. There’s Simon of Cyrene, there’s two others being crucified, there’s the mocking onlookers.
The world sees Jesus and mocks. They scorn Jesus and those who proclaim Him because they don’t know Him. To them, His claims of divinity are absurd. To Him they cry, “There is no God, and if there is, it’s not you!”
My first challenge this morning is for those who might fall in this category. Will you consider the testimony of Jesus? A man who claimed to be God. Mark wrote to a disbelieving world, giving names of people present to prove these claims true. Jesus died to take the punishment for sin. Will you consider following Him today?
Romans 10:13 “13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”” God forgives those who call out to Him because of Jesus’ sacrifice for them.
There were two thieves on the crosses on either side of Jesus. At first, they both mocked Jesus. They were getting their punishment they deserved. We ALL deserve that punishment. At some point, one of these men understood who Jesus was.
Luke 23:39–43 “39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.””
While Jesus was suffering He had a heart to forgive. For those of us who have been forgiven by Jesus, what is our heart for that message that saved us? Our challenge is to be about the Lord’s business. He gave up everything to redeem rebels! Do we wait for ‘just the right moment’ before we share that message of forgiveness? I stand right in the middle of those who know they need to do better.
May we be like those robbers. Face to face with Jesus, knowing that we can trust Him, or fall short of God’s glory receiving the punishment we are due. Today, every day, choose to trust in Jesus.
But to often I fear we make ourselves not like the robbers on the cross, but like Simon of Cyrene. I’m actually fairly sure he became a follower of Jesus later in life, and his two sons. But at this moment, He was in the ‘wrong place, wrong time’. Simon was pulled out of the crowd gathered for passover to fill in for Jesus. Too weak to cary his own cross, and likely too week to walk to Golgotha himself, Simon found himself carrying the implement of execution.
What do I mean by this comparison? That we think, I fear, that Jesus needs US to help Him with His purpose. That we place ourselves either in too high a place.
Or that we consider Jesus too little. ‘Well, I’ll help this poor guy along. He doesn’t seem to be of much use Himself.’ It’s doubtful Simon would have been fully up to speed with what Jesus had done and who He claimed to be. Most of Jesus’ ministry was way up north. Simon was from Cyrene in northern Africa. Simon’s initial indifference could be excused by ignorance.
But do we, too, treat Jesus with indifference? If this is where you’ve found yourself, I challenge you to bear the burden of response by seeing Jesus suffering with new eyes. And when you start to see that, remind yourself that HE is in YOUR place.
We stand in right relation with God only because we have been found guilty. Stop pleading your innocence. Jesus has taken your shame and guilt. Of Jesus, Isaiah says that by his anguish, many will be accounted righteous. Stand confidently before our God. But stand humbly, we are redeemed by the burden Jesus bore for us.
Pray