The death of Jesus is recorded in all four gospels. Jesus has spent the night in the garden praying. He has been arrested, accused, and tried by both Pilate and Herod. The soldiers have already beaten and mocked him. They also paraded him through the streets and out of the city where a huge crowd gathered to watch. They have already hung him on the cross, and the crowd has shouted jeers and insults at Him. He has also already interacted with the other two criminals on the crosses next to His.
Up to this point, everything is fairly usual as far as crucifixions go. It’s horrific and gruesome, but other than Pilate having a sign fixed to the cross that says “King of the Jews,” it’s not really much different from any other crucifixion these people have witnessed. Some in the crowd might still be hoping that Jesus will fulfill their expectations and miraculously come down from the cross, drive out the Romans, and reestablish the throne of David in Jerusalem. Some others in the crowd are probably confused as to why this guy who seemed to help so many people has ended up hanging from a Roman cross. A small group of Jesus’ friends are off to the side wondering about all of the things He said and how they agree with what is happening. Crucifixions can take a long time, and everyone is just sort of waiting.
Then we get to Matthew chapter 27 starting in verse 45. “From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. (LUKE puts it this way: the sun stopped shining.) About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.” And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!””
Jesus died. Jesus DIED.
John began his Gospel by telling us that Jesus, the Word, was with God and was God. And yet now here we are – Jesus is dead hanging on a Roman cross. Why did it have be done this way? The answer to this question is THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY. Remember the night in the garden. Jesus prayed all night. He prayed HARD. And in part of that prayer he begged, and begged, for God to find some other way. ANY other way. And yet here he is. Dead. On the Cross. But why did it have to happen in the first place? What did Jesus’ crucifixion accomplish?
In order to answer that question, we’ve got to go all the way back to the beginning. In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve lived in paradise. It was a fantastic, lush garden, but that’s not really what made it paradise. For them it was the ultimate paradise because they lived in the presence of God. They hung out in the garden and lived their lives in true community with God. THAT is the best life possible. Then one day, Adam and Eve SINNED. They chose to disobey God and gain knowledge apart from God’s plan for them. From then on there had to be a separation between them and the God they loved. You see, God is love, and God is mercy, yes. But God is also perfect, and God is pure. SIN is not able to stay in the presence of God. So Adam and Eve had to leave the garden and leave His presence. The problem of sin has haunted humanity ever since. Humanity’s SIN PROBLEM is why Jesus was on that cross.
In Genesis chapter 12, God calls Abraham saying, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” By establishing a relationship with Abraham and his descendants, God created for Himself a people, the Israelites. One of the reasons God did this was to show the other nations of the world that a relationship with God is worth something. In a way, He intended for Israel to be a love letter to the rest of the world declaring how much He missed being in community with them. And yet, Israel still had a sin problem. That’s why they had to continually offer all of these sacrifices in the tabernacle and then in the Temple. They had to deal with this sin problem so they could be in a relationship with God their creator.
But an imperfect people can only offer an imperfect sacrifice. And for a perfect and pure God, that simply isn’t good enough. Fortunately, God had a bigger plan. He decided to send His son to us as a human to make this bigger plan final. Jesus would live among us, as one of us, then offer himself as the sacrifice to deal with the SIN PROBLEM once and for all.
Because the Perfect One offered the Perfect Sacrifice, sin is dealt with permanently.
Jesus didn’t just die on the cross. He was the sacrifice that no other human could ever hope to offer to fully deal with this Problem of Sin. This was way more than a physical sacrifice, though. It is possible that Jesus no longer felt the presence of His Father. He cries out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!” As the perfect sacrifice, Jesus took on all of the sin that humans have committed in the past and will commit in the future. Jesus, now burdened with all of the sin of humanity, had to experience a separation from God that He had never felt before, since the dawn of time. In that moment, Jesus was truly alone.
But I think this moment was more than that. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus always refers to God as Father. When He is talking to God or about God, He calls Him Father every time – except for this one moment on the cross. What does He say? “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?” I believe that is an indication that Jesus no longer feels the presence of His Father and is instead feels the immense wrath of His God. But I also believe that Jesus, the master teacher, the ultimate Rabbi, was still teaching his disciples even from the cross – even in that moment.
“My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?” is the first line of Psalm 22. When he said those words, His disciples, and even lots of the other Jewish people standing around, should have immediately recognized them. Those 11 disciples, at least, would have known to look for something about Jesus in that moment and connect it to what Psalm 22 says. Let’s look at Psalm 22.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.
In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
“He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
“let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”
Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.
From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.
The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the Lord will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the Lord
and he rules over the nations.
All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!
He has done it! THAT IS WHAT JESUS IS DECLARING FROM THE CROSS. Jesus is wanting His disciples to look at Him there on the cross and connect it with Psalm 22. God has done it. He has fixed the Sin Problem. Because the Perfect One offered the Perfect Sacrifice, sin is dealt with permanently. Your sin, my sin, everyone’s sin no longer has to keep us apart from God. It’s no wonder the apostles called it the Good News! I mean, could there ever be any better news than this? GOD HAS FIXED THE SIN PROBLEM!
That is what was accomplished on the cross. Nobody made Jesus do anything. Not the Jewish leaders, not the Romans, not even God. Jesus went to the cross willingly because He, just like God, wants to be back in community with His people that badly. The separation caused by sin is no longer the problem. Even the curtain in the Temple – separating the Holy of Holies from the other areas that people could inhabit – even that curtain was torn in two from top to bottom. It’s no longer just the High Priest who gets to experience the presence of God one day a year. Anyone who commits their life to faith in Jesus and God gets to experience the presence of God in their life – just like it was supposed to be all along. When you believe in Him and your life is pointed in a direction that confirms that belief, His Spirit lives right there inside you. No more separation between God and the people He loves so dearly. That is what the death and resurrection of Jesus accomplished. So now that the great obstacle of sin has been removed, what comes next?
With sin no longer holding us back from God, the best part of this Good News is that we now have the honor of living our lives in His presence and beauty. We get to share in His glory. Experiencing Him in this way is magnificent, and it fills our hearts with delight. We are now able to better appreciate how He thinks and feels, what He does, and His infinite power and knowledge. The greatest dimension of God’s glory that we get to enjoy now is His personality—His kindness, mercy, justice, goodness, truth, love, and all His excellencies. It gets even better! Not only do we get to appreciate God more, Paul says that by spending time in God’s presence, we ourselves are being remade. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
You might be a little skeptical. You might be unconvinced. I understand your feelings. I am trying to describe something that is beyond description. I’m attempting to tell you about an experience, but all of the words I know don’t seem adequate. In truth, I am wanting you to consider something that our human minds simply cannot fully comprehend. That is where faith comes in. We live by faith. Hebrews 11 tells us that “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” God’s beauty might be beyond our ability to describe it, and His majesty might be too wonderful for us to fully comprehend. But thankfully we are able to experience it still because we rely on faith. We are able to live our lives in service to God even though we can’t fully know His glory because we have faith. There is a song we like to sing in Memphis called I Stand in Awe. I think it fits well, listen to the words:
You are beautiful beyond description,
too marvelous for words,
Too wonderful for comprehension,
like nothing ever seen or heard.
Who can grasp Your infinite wisdom,
who can fathom the depth of Your love?
You are beautiful beyond description,
majesty enthroned above.
And I stand, I stand in awe of You,
I stand, I stand in awe of You;
Holy God, to whom all praise is due,
I stand in awe of You.
The Gospel is very Good News. The Sin Problem has been dealt with and no longer stands between us and God. With that out of the way, we are able to really live in His presence, enjoying His glory and beauty. As we experience this new way of life, it changes us to be more like Him. God’s plan really is wonderful! Of course it is – God really is wonderful!
~ Clay
Fowlers in Japan 