Did He Not Die? (Mark 15:21-39)
In high school, I was on the speech and drama team, and we often had tournaments on Saturday. At one tournament, I was sitting in a classroom waiting for the next round to start when a guy began telling a joke about Jesus’s crucifixion. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to forget this joke, and it’s the most disgusting joke I’ve heard in my entire lifetime. In fact, the joke was so vile that—while I’ve never been able to forget it—I’ve never told Tammy, and unless it’s something confidential, I tell Tammy everything. But I have told Tammy in the past, and I tell you: I will never tell Tammy that joke.
How many of you have heard someone make fun of Jesus’s crucifixion? Maybe you’ve also heard a vulgar joke. Ever seen a movie where the Lord’s death is made a joke? Someone in your family might treat Jesus’s death as a joke by his lifestyle.
Everybody at the cross treated Jesus’s death as a joke; everybody but a Gentile, that is. Learn: “The death of Jesus prompts either derision or devotion.”
Scripture (Mark 15:21-39)
verses 21-32:
A plaque detailing the condemned man’s crimes was placed on the cross. Jesus’s placard condemned him of treason, for the people only had Caesar as king.
Golgotha was near a road, for “those who passed by derided him.” A Roman crucifixion was a public spectacle, and people often gathered to curse and jeer the dying. The crowd mocked Jesus’s claim to destroy and rebuild the temple in three days, for they misunderstood his teaching.
The chief priests and the scribes also jeered Jesus. Jesus, of course, was dying to save the chief priests and the scribes and everyone else.
verses 33-38:
Jesus cried out, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani.” Jesus was made sin for us (2 Cor 5:21), and a holy God cannot abide with sin. Thus, for the only time in all of eternity, Jesus was separated from his Father.
Crucified folks died by asphyxiation, for the position placed stress on the diaphragm and breathing became increasingly more difficult. But death normally took a few days.
But not with Jesus. He couldn’t have uttered a loud cry if he were suffocating. The Father had given Jesus power to lay down his life and power to take it up again (Jn 10:10). Once he had achieved propitiation for man’s sins, Jesus gave up his spirit.
verse 39:
When he saw that Jesus died like no other man, the centurion exclaimed, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” A Gentile—not a Jew—looked upon Jesus’s death with awe and wonder.
Application
“The death of Jesus prompts either derision or devotion.” When you survey that old rugged cross, how do you respond?
You can respond with Derision.
Do you treat Jesus’s death with Derision? Where is your heart at the Lord’s Supper? “Whoever . . . eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor 11:27). If you think about lunch or wonder how long the preacher will go or simply daydream during communion, you might as well have been those who cursed Jesus when he died.
Those who live in sin “are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt” (Heb 6:6). Further, the one who lives in sin “has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified” (Heb 10:29). If you’re living in sin, you might as well have been one of the soldiers who took a spike and rammed it through those sinless hands.
Do you respond to the cross with Derision?
You can easily respond with Devotion.
When the centurion saw Jesus die, he responded with Devotion: “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
Do you respond with Devotion? Paul did: “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14). Do you demonstrate Devotion by boasting only in the cross? In other words, what’s most important in your life? Do you puff yourself up like you’ve accomplished so much when you are nothing but a worm for whom Jesus died because your sins are so vile?
Do you respond with Devotion by living for Jesus? “He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:15). Is your entire being centered in Jesus? Do you live as he lived? Do you love as he loved?
Conclusion
In elementary school, I had a little dog named Daisy. I loved that dog. When I got home from school, she was at the door wagging her tail. If I woke up in the middle of the night, she’d be in bed with me. If I got spanked, Daisy was there to lick my tears.
When I was around eight, Daisy started getting old. She could barely get up the steps to come inside the house. She started going blind. She couldn’t hear a thing.
As Daisy continued to decline, Mom and Dad decided it was time to put her out of misery. We couldn’t afford a vet, but Dad had a gun. One evening when Dad got home, we three boys said our goodbyes to Daisy before he took her to the field behind the house. I remember screaming and crying and holding that precious dog—Dad had to pry Daisy out of my arms.
We three boys gathered around Mom, and she tried to hold all three of us. Dad went as far away as he could, but we still heard that gunshot. Oh, how our little hearts were broken!
Every word I’ve told you is fiction. There was no dog named Daisy. There was no gun. But you were moved. Yet, when I tell about the sinless Son of God who really died for you, you sit there as though it’s fiction. It ought not be so! Where is your heart this morning?
This sermon was originally preached by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., at Church of Christ Deer Park in Deer Park, Texas.