Rene Lacoste, the world’s top tennis player in the late 1920s, won seven major singles titles during his career, including multiple victories at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the French Open. His friends called him “Le Crocodile,” an apt term for his tenacious play on the court.

Lacoste accepted the nickname and had a tiny crocodile embroidered on his tennis blazers. When he added it to a line of shirts he designed, the symbol caught on. While thousands of people around the world wore “alligator shirts,” the emblem always had a deeper significance for Lacoste’s friends who knew its origin and meaning.

The cross, an emblem of Christianity, holds special meaning for every friend of Christ. Whenever we see a cross, it speaks to us of Christ’s tenacious determination to do His Father’s will by dying for us on Calvary. What a privilege to know Him and be included in His words to His disciples: “No longer do I call you servants,…but I have called you friends” (Jn. 15:15).

I can picture a friend of Lacoste seeing the little alligator on someone’s shirt, and saying, “I know the story behind that emblem. Lacoste is my friend.” And I can picture a friend of Jesus seeing a cross and doing the same. – DCM Our Daily Bread, Sept.-Nov. 1997, page for October 5

The word passion now means “sex lust,” but back in the early days it meant deep, terrible suffering. That is why they call Good Friday “Passion Tide” and we talk about “the passion of Christ.” It is the suffering Jesus did as He made His priestly offering with His own blood for us.

Jesus Christ is God, and all I’ve said about God describes Christ. He is unitary. He has taken on Himself the nature of man, but God the Eternal Word, who was before man and who created man, is a unitary being and there is no dividing of His substance. And so that Holy One suffered, and His suffering in His own blood for us was three things. It was infinite, almighty and perfect.

Infinite means without bound and without limit, shoreless, bottomless, topless forever and ever, without any possible measure or limitation. And so the suffering of Jesus and the atonement He made on that cross under that darkening sky was infinite in its power.

It was not only infinite but almighty. It’s possible for good men to “almost” do something or to “almost” be something. That is the fix people get in because they are people. But Almighty God is never “almost” anything. God is always exactly what He is. He is the Almighty One. Isaac Watts said about His dying on the cross, “God the mighty Maker died for man the creature’s sin.” And when God the Almighty Maker died, all the power there is was in that atonement. You never can over-state  state the efficaciousness of the atonement. You never can exaggerate the power of the cross.

And God is not only infinite and almighty but perfect. The atonement in Jesus Christ’s blood is perfect; there isn’t anything that can be added to it. It is spotless, impeccable, flawless. It is perfect as God is perfect. So Anselm’s* question, “How dost Thou spare the wicked if Thou art just?” is answered from the effect of Christ’s passion. That holy suffering there on the cross and that resurrection from the dead cancels our sins and abrogates our sentence.

Where and how did we get that sentence? We got it by the application of justice to a moral situation. No matter how nice and refined and lovely you think you are, you are a moral situation—you have been, you still are, you will be. And when God confronted you, God’s justice confronted a moral situation and found you unequal, found inequity, found iniquity.

Because He found iniquity there, God sentenced you to die. Everybody has been or is under the sentence of death. I wonder how people can be so jolly under the sentence of death. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:20). When justice confronts a moral situation in a man, woman, young person or anybody morally responsible, then either it justifies or condemns that person. That’s how we got that sentence.

Let me point out that when God in His justice sentences the sinner to die, He does not quarrel with the mercy of God; He does not quarrel with the kindness of God; He does not quarrel with His compassion or pity, for they are all attributes of a unitary God, and they cannot quarrel with each other. All the attributes of God concur in a man’s death sentence. The very angels in heaven cried out and said,

“Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.

And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous

are thy judgments.” (Revelation 16:5, 7)

You’ll never find in heaven a group of holy beings finding fault with the way God conducts His foreign policy. God Almighty is conducting His world, and every moral creature says, “True and righteous are thy judgments…. Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne” (Revelation 16:7, Psalm 89:14). When God sends a man to die, mercy and pity and compassion and wisdom and power concur—everything that’s intelligent in God concurs in the sentence.

But oh, the mystery and wonder of the atonement! The soul that avails itself of that atonement, that throws itself out on that atonement, the moral situation has changed. God has not changed! Jesus Christ did not die to change God; Jesus Christ died to change a moral situation. When God’s justice confronts an unprotected sinner that justice sentences him to die. And all of God concurs in the sentence! But when Christ, who is God, went onto the tree and died there in infinite agony, in a plethora of suffering, this great God suffered more than they suffer in hell. He suffered all that they could suffer in hell. He suffered with the agony of God, for everything that God does, He does with all that He is. When God suffered for you, my friend, God suffered to change your moral situation.

The man who throws himself on the mercy of God has had the moral situation changed. God doesn’t say, “Well, we’ll excuse this fellow. He’s made his decision, and we’ll forgive him. He’s gone into the prayer room, so we’ll pardon him. He’s going to join the church; we’ll overlook his sin.” No! When God looks at an atoned-for sinner He doesn’t see the same moral situation that He sees when He looks at a sinner who still loves his sin. When God looks at a sinner who still loves his sin and rejects the mystery of the atonement, justice condemns him to die. When God looks at a sinner who has accepted the blood of the everlasting covenant, justice sentences him to live. And God is just in doing both things.

When God justifies a sinner everything in God is on the sinner’s side. All the attributes of God are on the sinner’s side. It isn’t that mercy is pleading for the sinner and justice is trying to beat him to death, as we preachers sometimes make it sound. All of God does all that God does. When God looks at a sinner and sees him there unatoned for (he won’t accept the atonement; he thinks it doesn’t apply to him), the moral situation is such that justice says he must die. And when God looks at the atoned-for sinner, who in faith knows he’s atoned for and has accepted it, justice says he must live! The unjust sinner can no more go to heaven than the justified sinner can go to hell. Oh friends, why are we so still? Why are we so quiet? We ought to rejoice and thank God with all our might!

I say it again: Justice is on the side of the returning sinner. First John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Justice is over on our side now because the mystery of the agony of God on the cross has changed our moral situation. So justice looks and sees equality, not inequity, and we are justified. That’s what justification means.

Do I believe in justification by faith? Oh, my brother, do I believe in it! David believed in it and wrote it into Psalm 32.

When we talk about justification, it isn’t just a text to manipulate. We ought to see who God is and see why these things are true. We’re justified by faith because the agony of God on the cross changed the moral situation. We are that moral situation. It didn’t change God at all. The idea that the cross wiped the angry scowl off the face of God and He began grudgingly to smile is a pagan concept and not Christian.

God is one. Not only is there only one God, but that one God is unitary, one with Himself, indivisible. And the mercy of God is simply God being merciful. And the justice of God is simply God being just. And the love of God is simply God loving. And the compassion of God is simply God being compassionate. It’s not something that runs out of God—it’s something God is!

*Anselm (1033-1109), a Benedictine monk, became a great philosopher and theologian of his day.

 All heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, all hell is terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings who more or less ignore its meaning. – Oswald Chambers

1. The cross: God’s way of uniting suffering with love. – Georgia Harkness
2. The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
3. The cross is the lightning rod of grace that short-circuits God’s wrath to Christ so that only the light of His love remains for believers.

 

If a “Time Machine” existed, which could take you back to any time and place in history, my first choice would be to go back to a Sunday a little over 2,000 years ago, to a dusty road between Jerusalem and a village called Emmaus. There two men were walking on the day of Jesus’ resurrection when the risen Savior appeared to them. Not recognizing Him at first, they explained to Him their confusion about the events of the last several days.

Luke 24:25-27 (ESV) And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶  Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”
²⁷  And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

If there had been tape recorders then, I would trade the hundreds of books in my library to obtain a tape of Christ (in English!) explaining what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself! I’m certain that in that tape you would hear Him explain Psalm 22. It speaks of Christ’s suffering (22:1-21) and His glory (22:22-31).

On one level, the psalm refers to some event in the life of David, probably when he was being pursued by Saul. But there is no situation recorded in Scripture where David went through trials to the degree the psalm describes.

David is going beyond himself, applying things prophetically to Christ. Thus to do justice to the psalm, we must leave David’s experience and focus on how it applies to the Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. It describes a death by crucifixion hundreds of years before that mode of execution was known. The details of the psalm were fulfilled by the Son of David, Jesus the Messiah, about 1,000 years after they were written.

We are standing here on holy ground. If you’ve ever wondered what Jesus actually said in the Garden of Gethsemane as He wrestled with bearing our sins (the gospels only give a brief synopsis), you probably have it here.

I always feel inadequate to preach, but I feel especially inadequate to speak on a text as profound as this one. We see here something of what our salvation cost the Savior. Though His sufferings go far beyond anything we can ever comprehend, we get a glimpse of the agonies He endured for us. The only proper response is to bow in worship and to submit ourselves afresh to do the will of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

1. Christ suffered on the cross for our salvation (22:1‑21).

The first section consists of three cycles of complaint and confidence:

First Cycle: 22:1‑2 = Complaint (to God)                    22:3‑5 = Confidence (in God)

Second Cycle: 22:6‑8 = Complaint                            22:9‑11 = Confidence and Petition [v. 11]

Third Cycle: 22:12‑18 = Complaint                           22:19‑21 = Confidence and (mostly) Petition

By looking at the complaint sections we can see with prophetic clarity something of Christ’s sufferings on the cross. As we think about the fact that “Christ the mighty maker died for man the creature’s sin,” our hearts should well up in thanksgiving for what He endured for us.

Note what happened to Christ on the cross:

A. He was forsaken of God (22:1).

When Jesus was crucified, darkness fell upon the land from about noon until 3 p.m., when Jesus cried out the haunting words of Psalm 22:1: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46).

We enter at once into the most unfathomable mystery of the gospel. No one can really know what was involved in God’s forsaking Jesus during those three hours of darkness. We know that Jesus bore God’s curse upon world’s sin and that somehow God in His holiness was forced to turn His back upon His Son while He bore that sin.

Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God who knew no sin was made sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13). He bore God’s wrath which we deserved. Thus He was forsaken by God the Father.

So while the physical agony was terrible, the spiritual agony was infinitely worse. We can’t understand, because we have not enjoyed perfect fellowship with the Father from all eternity as Jesus had. Not sharing His holy nature, we can’t imagine what it was like for Jesus to become sin. But that’s what happened on the cross.

B. His prayers were not answered (22:2).

He cried for deliverance from death; that, if possible, this cup should pass from Him. Yet He was not delivered from death or spared the cup. Instead, He went through death and was delivered in the resurrection. How awful it must have been for Him who enjoyed unbroken fellowship with the Father to cry out to Him, only to have Him not answer!

C. He was despised and mocked (22:6‑8).

He calls Himself a worm and not a man. A worm is an object of weakness and scorn. (Can you imagine a sports team calling themselves the “Worms”? We have the Giants, Bears, and Broncos, but no “Worms.”)

The worm referred to is the cochineal, which produces a scarlet color used as a dye when it was crushed. It was used in the Tabernacle to dye part of the coverings and veils (Exod. 26:1, 31, 36).

Jesus was crushed so that His blood might cover our sins. But from man’s point of view, He was scorned and despised. Verses 7‑8 describe the exact actions and words used by Jesus’ enemies when He was on the cross (Matt. 27:39‑43)! They mocked His own claims of trust in God.

D. He was overpowered by ferocious men (22:12‑13).

His enemies are likened to ferocious animals–bulls, lions, and dogs (22:12, 13, 16). (Bashan [v. 12] was an area noted for its well‑fed bulls.) I read about a man who was attacked by pit bull dogs and I’ve heard of David Livingstone’s being mauled by a lion. I’d rather not go through either experience!

That was what Jesus felt like as He hung upon the cross while the Jewish rulers snorted their ridicule and false accusations. Even though He could have called 10,000 legions of angels, the Savior chose to suffer silently.

E. He went through the physical and emotional agony of crucifixion (22:14‑18).

Verses 14‑18 are amazing prophecies of Christ’s crucifixion. I think they prove the divine inspiration of the Bible, since this was written hundreds of years before crucifixion was known to man.

Crucifixion arose as a means of torture somewhere in the East, perhaps with the Medes and Persians. Alexander the Great seems to have learned it from them and brought it West. The Romans learned it from the Phoenicians through Carthage and perfected it as a means of execution reserved for the worst criminals.

It was a brutal, torturous, humiliating means of execution. Note the psalmist’s description, which goes far beyond his own experience:

“Poured out like water” (v. 14) points to the excessive perspiration caused by the suffering plus the feeling of weakness as life slowly ebbed away. This was reflected in Jesus’ cry, “I thirst!”

“Bones out of joint” (v. 14) not literally, but the feeling of being stretched out by the arms as He hung on the cross.

“Heart turned to wax and melted” (v. 14)‑‑the heart struggling to supply blood to the extremities.

“Strength dried up like a potsherd, tongue sticks to roof of mouth” (v. 15) weakness as His life ebbed from Him; extreme thirst as His body was dehydrated.

“Dust of death” (v. 15)‑‑He is all but dead.

“Surrounded by evil men” (v. 16) at the scene of the cross as His enemies waited for His death.

“Pierced hands and feet” (v. 16) the vowel pointing (added by Jewish rabbis in the Christian era) of some Hebrew manuscripts renders it, “like a lion,” but it is difficult to make any sense out of that meaning. Calvin argues that the rabbis changed the text to escape the obvious reference to the cross. The LXX (200 B.C.) translates the Hebrew “pierced.” Two other Old Testament passages (Isa. 53:5; Zech. 12:10) refer to Messiah being pierced.

“Count all my bones” (v. 17) from being stretched out naked on the cross.

“People stare” (v. 17) a public crucifixion.

“Divide my garments and cast lots for my clothing” (v. 18) a specific prophecy of the activity of the soldiers around the cross of Christ.

That’s just a glimpse of Christ’s suffering as seen prophetically by David 1,000 years before Christ. His great suffering shows us our great salvation and how we should respond.

How should I respond to Christ who suffered for me? 

I should see both the greatness of my own sin and the greatness of Christ’s love. My sin put Jesus on the cross. His love made Him willing to go there. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

The famous Dutch artist Rembrandt did a painting of the crucifixion. The focus of the painting, of course, is  the Savior on the cross. But he also painted the crowd gathered around the cross. Standing there in the shadow at the edge of the picture, Rembrandt painted himself! Rembrandt, a participant in the crucifixion!

Rembrandt’s Painting

If you were to look at Rembrandt’s painting of The Three Crosses, your attention would be drawn first to the center cross on which Jesus died. Then as you would look at the crowd gathered around the foot of that cross, you’d be impressed by the various facial expressions and actions of the people involved in the awful crime of crucifying the Son of God.

Finally, your eyes would drift to the left edge of the painting and catch sight of another figure, almost hidden in the shadows. Art critics say this is a representation of Rembrandt himself, for he recognized that by his sins he helped nail Jesus to the cross.

 How true that is! We need to join Rembrandt by putting ourselves there. We need to make it personal. It was my sin which put Jesus on the cross! I was raised in a Christian home and never did many of the gross outward sins that many commit. It’s easy for me to think that I’m not as bad a sinner as others.

But the more I grow as a Christian, the more I discover how much I also needed the love of Christ on that cross. Even good moral people are sinners in need of a Savior!

The way to holiness is not thinking more highly of myself, but rather, realizing more how sinful I am which drives me to cling more tightly to the cross, where I receive God’s mercy.

It’s not popular in our day to emphasize our sinfulness. We want an upbeat message that glosses over sin. Our hymn book has even changed the words of Isaac Watts’s great hymn, so that instead of, “Would He devote that sacred Head for such a worm as I?” it reads, “for someone such as I?” We’re too good to call ourselves worms!

A lady once told me in a Sunday School class, “I’m sorry, but I’m not going to call myself a worm!” I explained that Watts took that line in his hymn from Psalm 22 and said, “That’s what Jesus called Himself when He bore our sins. Don’t you want to be identified with Him when He did that for you?”

Dear brothers and sisters, we need to be careful not to exalt ourselves against the Lord. If you think that you’re a pretty good person and that God just had to give you a little boost to get you into heaven, you won’t love Jesus much. “He who is forgiven little, loves little” (Luke 7:47).

But if you recognize the truth, that you were lost in your rebellion against God and that He saved you from hell in spite of your awful sin, forgiven much you will love Him much.

As Spurgeon put it, “He who has stood before his God, convicted and condemned, with the rope about his neck, is the man to weep for joy when he is pardoned, to hate the evil which has been forgiven him, and to live to the honour of the Redeemer by whose blood he has been cleansed” (C. H. Spurgeon Autobiography [Banner of Truth], 1:54).

So this glimpse of the cross should impress upon me the greatness of my own sin along with the greatness of Christ’s love.

(2) I should submit to and trust Him who ordains suffering to come into my life.

Note 22:15: “You lay me in the dust of death.” The Hebrew verb for “lay” has the nuance of ordain or appoint. Although evil and godless men crucified the Lord Jesus, they did it in accordance with the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23; 4:27‑28). And so in one sense it was the sovereign plan of God which put Christ on the cross.

The confidence sections of the psalm (22:3‑5, 9‑11, 19‑21) show Christ’s response to the Father. Did He malign God or shake His fist in God’s face for ordaining this awful suffering? No!

• He affirms the holiness of God and uses it as the basis for His plea (22:3).
• He recalls God’s faithfulness with others in the past and in His own past experience (22:4‑5, 9‑10).
• And He calls out in faith to God for deliverance (22:19‑21).

How do you respond when trials come into your life? The author of Hebrews says that Jesus “learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5:8).

Not that He was disobedient before; but you don’t know obedience experientially until you suffer. If you’re going through a hard time, learn to obey by submitting and trusting.

Later, the same author tells us, “For consider Him, who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart” (Heb. 12:3). Jesus endured by entrusting Himself into the hands of a loving, sovereign God. So should we!

(3) I should trust God when my prayers go unanswered.

Jesus prayed for deliverance, but God didn’t answer Him‑‑at that point. God did answer in the resurrection. But Jesus had to go through crucifixion and death before He received the answer to His prayers. And yet He continued to call God, “My God” (22:1‑2, 10) and “My Help” (22:19).

Sometimes God will answer our prayers in a better time and a better way from His perspective. But we may not understand it. But we have to trust Him as our God even though we don’t understand. I’ve had times where I’ve prayed diligently for something that I believed to be God’s will, but it seemed as if things couldn’t have gone any worse if I hadn’t prayed at all! It’s easy to begin doubting God when you pray and He doesn’t seem to answer.

At such times, come back to the miraculous prophecies of this psalm, and let them bolster your faith. If God’s Word could accurately describe a crucifixion hundreds of years before that mode of death was practiced, and predict the specific details of Christ’s death, even down to the words His enemies would say and the gambling of the pagan soldiers for His robe, it’s solid evidence that you’re dealing with a supernatural Book!

There are dozens more such prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Christ. So you can trust in God and His Word, even if you are going through trials and your prayers seem to be unanswered.

So verses 1-21 show us how Christ suffered on the cross for our salvation. But the psalm doesn’t end on the defeat of the crucifixion. It goes on to the victory of the resurrection and the glories which follow.

2. The glories of Christ’s resurrection require proclaiming God’s great salvation to all peoples (22:22‑31).

The psalm doesn’t say in black and white that Christ arose, but several things indicate that the resurrection took place between verses 21 and 22. First, at the end of verse 21 most scholars translate, “You have heard” or “You have answered” (NASB, NIV margin, New KJV). There is a sudden note of confidence.

Second, in verse 22, Messiah says, “I will declare Your name to my brothers.” Jesus never called the disciples His brothers before the resurrection. But immediately after the resurrection, He told Mary Magdalene, “Go to My brothers and tell them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (John 20:17; see also Heb. 2:11‑12).

Third, the results described in these verses are things that resulted from Christ’s resurrection. They obviously go far beyond David’s personal experience. They are:

(1) Fellowship (22:22)‑‑We’re His brothers. He declares God’s name (= His character and attributes) to us.

(2) Praise (22:22‑23)‑‑If Christ only suffered and died, there is no room for praise. We would still be in our sins (1 Cor. 15:17). But Hallelujah! He is risen! We can praise Him!

(3) Testimony (22:24)‑‑God did not abandon His holy one to the grave (Psalm 16:10). He listened to His cry and raised Him from the dead. Now we can testify to God’s deliverance in raising Christ from the dead.

(4) Thank‑offering (22:25‑26)‑‑These verses picture a Hebrew thank‑offering. When God answered his prayers, a worshiper would offer a thank‑offering at the temple. The poor would be invited and there would be a feast giving thanks to God.

The worshipers would greet one another with, “Let your heart live forever!” (22:26). In the same way we have a feast of thanksgiving, the Lord’s Supper (eucharist), where we gather to offer thanks and praise for God’s gift to us in Christ and the del+iverance we have from our sins through His death and resurrection.

(5) World‑wide evangelism (22:27, 30‑31)‑‑The good news of the risen Savior will be proclaimed beyond the Jews to all peoples, and to succeeding generations. There is no good news if the Savior is dead, but there is salvation if He is risen. The message applies to the poor and rich alike (22:26, 29), to all who acknowledge their need.

(6) Kingdom Rule (22:27‑28)‑‑This part has not yet been fulfilled, but it will be soon. He will return bodily to crush all opposition and to rule the nations with a rod of iron in His millennial Kingdom. Every knee shall bow before Him. Just as the other prophecies have been fulfilled, so this one will be. You can count on it!

Conclusion

So the message of Psalm 22 is: Because Christ suffered on the cross for our salvation, we must proclaim it to all nations.

• Put the cross at the center of your walk with God. When I focus daily on the cross, my heart is filled with joy and thankfulness for God’s priceless gift to me. The cross also keeps me aware of my own sinfulness, so that I don’t trust myself, but cling to Christ. Focusing on the cross helps me resist temptation as I remember that I was redeemed with nothing less than Jesus’ blood. How can I sin against Him who so loved me? We tend to forget the cross, which is why Jesus ordained that we come often to His table in remembrance of Him.
• Put God’s heart for the lost as the bottom line of your walk with God. He wants all the ends of the earth to turn to Him and worship Him (22:27). That means that if I’m not actively focusing on world missions, I’m too self-focused. I’m not in tune with God’s purpose to be glorified in all the earth. We have His command to go and His promise that “all the families of the nations will worship” the Lord (22:27). How can they worship Him if they’ve never heard? How will they hear if we don’t give, send, and go?

1 Corinthians 15:1-4: “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. {2} By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. {3} For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance : that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, {4} that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”

There it is. Almost too simple. Jesus was killed, buried and resurrected. The part that matters the most in the world is the cross. No more and no less. The cross.

It rests on the time line of history like a compelling diamond. Its tragedy summons all sufferers. Its absurdity attracts all cynics. Its hope lures all searchers. And, according to Paul, the cross is what counts.

What a piece of wood! History has idolized it and despised it, gold-plated it and burned it, worn and trashed it. History has done everything to it but ignore it. That’s the one option that the cross does not offer.

No one can ignore it! You can’t ignore a piece of lumber that suspends the greatest claim in history. A crucified carpenter claiming that he is God on earth? Divine? Eternal? The death-slayer? No wonder Paul called it “the core of the gospel.” Its bottom line is sobering: if the account is true, it is history’s hinge. Period. If not, it is history’s hoax.

Dying is a dreadful thing from the human point of view; no amount of beautiful music or kind words can soften the blow.

We might work to camouflage the pain and deny the reality of it, but it is a grim, harsh, ugly, inescapable fact with which to reckon.

What is true for us today was true for our Lord when He faced the facts in His day. Being fully human, He did not relish the ultimate end of His earthly life: a crucifixion death.

But He accepted it. Isaiah 53:7: “like a lamb that is led to slaughter.”

Further background

Corinth was a Greek, city, and the Greeks did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. When Paul had preached at Athens and declared the fact of Christ’s resurrection, some of his listeners actually laughed at him (Acts 17:32). Most Greek philosophers considered the human body a prison, and they welcomed death as deliverance from bondage.

This skeptical attitude had somehow invaded the church and Paul had to face it head-on. The truth of the resurrection had doctrinal and practical implications for life that were too important to ignore. Paul dealt with the subject by answering four basic questions.

Are the Dead Raised? (1 Cor. 15:1-4)

It is important to note that the believers at Corinth did believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ; so Paul started his argument with that fundamental truth. He presented three proofs to assure his readers that Jesus Christ indeed had been raised from the dead.

Proof #1—their salvation (vv. 1-2). Paul had come to Corinth and preached the message of the Gospel, and their faith had transformed their lives. But an integral part of the Gospel message was the fact of Christ’s resurrection. After all, a dead Saviour cannot save anybody. Paul’s readers had received the Word, trusted Christ, been saved, and were now standing on that Word as the assurance of their salvation. The fact that they were standing firm was proof that their faith was genuine and not empty.

Proof #2—the Old Testament Scriptures (vv. 3-4). First of all means “of first importance.” The Gospel is the most important message that the church ever proclaims. While it is good to be involved in social action and the betterment of mankind, there is no reason why these ministries should preempt the Gospel. “Christ died… He was buried… He rose again… He was seen” are the basic historical facts on which the Gospel stands (1 Cor. 15:3-5). “Christ died for our sins” (author’s italics) is the theological explanation of the historical facts. Many people were crucified by the Romans, but only one “victim” ever died for the sins of the world.

When Paul wrote “according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3) he was referring to the Old Testament Scriptures. Much of the sacrificial system in the Old Testament pointed to the sacrifice of Christ as our substitute and Saviour. The annual Day of Atonement (Lev. 16) and prophecies like Isaiah 53 would also come to mind.

But where does the Old Testament declare His resurrection on the third day? Jesus pointed to the experience of Jonah (Matt. 12:38-41). Paul also compared Christ’s resurrection to the “firstfruits,” and the firstfruits were presented to God on the day following the Sabbath after Passover (Lev. 23:9-14; 1 Cor. 15:23). Since the Sabbath must always be the seventh day, the day after Sabbath must be the first day of the week, or Sunday, the day of our Lord’s resurrection. This covers three days on the Jewish calendar. Apart from the Feast of Firstfruits, there were other prophecies of Messiah’s resurrection in the Old Testament: Psalm 16:8-11 (see Acts 2:25-28); Psalm 22:22ff (see Heb. 2:12); Isaiah 53:10-12; and Psalm 2:7 (see Acts 13:32-33).

* DEATH WAS A CONSTANT COMPANION FOR JESUS.

1. HIS PURPOSE FOR COMING.

The shadow of the cross stretched more deeply across His path every day of His life. He had no other option except to face this premature death at about age 33, a time when most of us are just entering career paths and beginning to smell success in the distance.

His goal was to accomplish the mission of redemption… that He go to a cross and be nailed to its splintered surface… that His blood be poured out and that the cross-death be the answer for uniting man with God.

Luke 10:10: “For the Son of fan came to seek and save what was lost.”

Mark 10:45: “For even the Son of Han did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Luke 9:28-31: (at His transfiguration: notice what they were talking about).

“About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. {29} As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. {30} Two men, Moses and Elijah, {31} appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.”

2. COMMENTS DURING HIS MINISTRY.

Matthew 16:21-23: “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. {22} Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” {23} Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.””

Having declared His person, Jesus now declared His work; for the two must go together. He would go to Jerusalem, suffer and die, and be raised from the dead. This was His first clear statement of His death, though He had hinted at this before (Matt. 12:39-40; 16:4; John 2:19; 3:14; 6:51). “And He was stating the matter plainly” (Mark 8:32, nasb).

Peter’s response to this shocking statement certainly represented the feelings of the rest of the disciples: “Pity Thyself, Lord! This shall never happen to Thee!” Jesus turned His back on Peter and said, “Get behind Me, adversary! You are a stumbling block to Me!” (literal translation) Peter the “stone” who had just been blessed (Matt. 16:18) became Peter the stumbling block who was not a blessing to Jesus!

What was Peter’s mistake? He was thinking like a man, for most men want to escape suffering and death. He did not have God’s mind in the matter. Where do we find the mind of God? In the Word of God. Until Peter was filled with the Spirit, he had a tendency to argue with God’s Word. Peter had enough faith to confess that Jesus is the Son of God, but he did not have the faith to believe that it was right for Jesus to suffer and die. Of course, Satan agreed with Peter’s words, for he used the same approach to tempt Jesus in the wilderness (Matt. 4:8-10).

Today the cross is an accepted symbol of love and sacrifice. But in that day the cross was a horrible means of capital punishment. The Romans would not mention the cross in polite society. In fact, no Roman citizen could be crucified; this terrible death was reserved for their enemies. Jesus had not yet specifically stated that He would be crucified (He did this in Matt. 20:17-19). But His words that follow emphasize the cross.

He presented to the disciples two approaches to life:

deny yourself	live for yourself
take up your cross	ignore the cross
follow Christ	follow the world
lose your life for His sake	save your life for your own sake
forsake the world	gain the world
keep your soul	lose your soul
share His reward and glory	lose His reward and glory

To deny self does not mean to deny things. It means to give yourself wholly to Christ and share in His shame and death. Paul described this in Romans 12:1-2 and Philippians 3:7-10, as well as in Galatians 2:20. To take up a cross does not mean to carry burdens or have problems. (I once met a lady who told me her asthma was the cross she had to bear!) To take up the cross means to identify with Christ in His rejection, shame, suffering, and death.

But suffering always leads to glory. This is why Jesus ended this short sermon with a reference to His glorious kingdom (Matt. 16:28). This statement would be fulfilled within a week on the Mount of Transfiguration, described in the next chapter.

Further comments

Following the incident in which Peter acknowledged Jesus as being the Christ, Jesus began preparing his men for His imminent suffering, death, and resurrection.

Peter’s response: “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to You” Jesus said: “Get behind He, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in nind the things of God, but the things of men.”

16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.^NIV The phrase “from that time on” marks a turning point.

In 4:17 it signaled Jesus’ announcement of the kingdom of heaven. Here it points to his new emphasis on his death and resurrection. The disciples still didn’t grasp Jesus’ true purpose because of their preconceived notions about what the Messiah should be. While they may have understood that he was the Messiah, they needed to prepare to follow him and to be loyal to him as he suffered and

This cross saved and converted the world, drove away error, brought back truth, made earth Heaven, fashioned men into angels. Because of this cross, the devils are no longer terrible, but contemptible; neither is death, death, but a sleep. John Chrysostom

died. So Jesus began teaching clearly and specifically what they could expect so that they would not be surprised when it happened. Contrary to what they thought, Jesus had not come to set up an earthly kingdom. He would not be the conquering Messiah because he first had to suffer many things . . . and . . . be killed. For any human king, death would be the end. Not so for Jesus. Death would be only the beginning, for on the third day, he would be raised to life.

Jesus’ teaching that he must suffer corresponds to Daniel’s prophecies that God’s plan for redemption could not be thwarted by any actions people might take: The Messiah would be cut off (Daniel 9:26); there would be a period of trouble (Daniel 9:27); and the king would come in glory (Daniel 7:13-14). The suffering also recalls Isaiah’s prophecy of the suffering Servant in Isaiah 53. His rejection looks back to the rejected “stone” in Psalm 118:22.

Jesus knew from what quarters the rejection would come: the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law (also called “scribes”). The “elders” were the leaders of the Jews who decided issues of religious and civil law. Each community had elders, and a group of them was included in the Council (or Sanhedrin) that met in Jerusalem. “Chief priests” refers not only to the present high priest, but also to all those who formerly held the title and some of their family members. Teachers of the law did just that—taught the law. They were the legal experts. These three groups made up the Sanhedrin, the Jewish supreme court that ultimately sentenced Jesus to be killed (27:1). Notice that opposition came not from the people at large, but from their leaders—the very people who should have been the first to recognize and rejoice in the Messiah’s arrival.

 

TRIUMPHALISM

“Triumphalism” is a word that describes the kind of Christianity that seeks political prestige, social recognition, and temporal power. It forces itself on populations and begins to dictate on matters far removed from Jesus’ word. It says, “God will not let us lose because God cannot tolerate loss.” It presses toward victory by any means. It likes success. It is modern Christianity mimicking Peter’s advice to Jesus when he tried to talk him out of his mission.

But Jesus describes the path of faith in much humbler terms: injustice, misunderstanding, suffering, and death. These terms typify true faith for Jesus more than black-tie banquets celebrating multimillion-dollar fund-raising campaigns. When you think of what faith means, focus on Jesus, not on brochures, media presentations, or hyped-up public relations press releases.

16:22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”^NIV This was too much for Peter. Having just confessed his heartfelt belief in Jesus as “the Christ, the son of the living God” (16:16) and having been given great authority in Jesus’ kingdom (16:18-19), Peter certainly found it most unnerving that the King would soon be put to death. His actions show that he really didn’t know what he was saying. If Jesus were going to die, what did this mean for the disciples? If he were truly the Messiah, then what was all this talk about being killed? So Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. The word for “rebuke” is a strong term meaning that Peter was rejecting Jesus’ interpretation of the Messiah as a suffering figure.

Peter, Jesus’ friend and devoted follower who had just eloquently proclaimed Jesus’ true identity, sought to protect him from the suffering he prophesied. But if Jesus hadn’t suffered and died, Peter would have died in his sins. Great temptations can come from those who love us and seek to protect us. Be cautious of advice from a friend who says, “Surely God doesn’t want you to face this.” Often our most difficult temptations come from those who try to protect us from discomfort.

16:23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”^NRSV Peter often spoke for all the disciples. In singling Peter out for rebuke, Jesus may have been addressing all of them indirectly. In his wilderness temptations, Jesus had been told that he could achieve greatness without dying (4:8-9). Peter, in his rebuke of Jesus’ words about dying, was saying the same thing. Trying to circumvent God’s plan had been one of Satan’s tools; Peter inadvertently used Satan’s tool in trying to protect his beloved Master. Although Peter had just proclaimed Jesus as Messiah, quickly he turned from God’s perspective and evaluated the situation from a human one. This would be a stumbling block to Jesus. Peter was speaking Satan’s words, thus Jesus rebuked Peter with the words, Get behind me, Satan! This didn’t make sense to Peter, who, Jesus said, was setting his mind not on divine things but on human things. This accusation provides us with an important principle for following Jesus today. We know, from God’s Word, Jesus’ true identity as God’s Son, but it is so easy for us to limit his impact on our life when we are preoccupied with earthly goals. It is so natural and comfortable for us to set our minds on human comfort, security, success, and prosperity that we forget our divine call to sacrifice and service. So we can see that Peter’s perspective was wrong. God’s plan included suffering and death for the Messiah. Jesus would fulfill his mission exactly as planned.

3. STATEMENTS TO HIS DISCIPLES John 14:1-3

(John 14:1-3)  “”Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me. {2} In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. {3} And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

This section opens and closes with our Lord’s loving admonition, “Let not your heart be troubled” (John 14:1, 27). We are not surprised that the Apostles were troubled. After all, Jesus had announced that one of them was a traitor, and then He warned Peter that he was going to deny his Lord three times. Self-confident Peter was certain that he could not only follow his Lord, but even die with Him and for Him. Alas, Peter did not know his own heart, nor do we really know our hearts, except for one thing: our hearts easily become troubled.

Perhaps the heaviest blow of all was the realization that Jesus was going to leave them (John 13:33). Where was He going? Could they go with Him? How could they get where He was going? These were some of the perplexing questions that rumbled around in their minds and hearts and were tossed back and forth in their conversation at the table.

How did Jesus calm their troubled hearts? By giving them six wonderful assurances to lay hold of, assurances that we today may claim and thus enjoy untroubled hearts. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you may claim every single one of these assurances.

You Are Going to Heaven (John 13:36-14:6)

Jesus did not rebuke Peter for asking Him where He was going, but His reply was somewhat cryptic. One day Peter would “follow” Jesus to the cross (John 21:18-19; 2 Peter 1:12-15), and then he would follow Him to heaven. Tradition tells us that Peter was crucified, though he asked to be crucified head-downward because he did not feel worthy to die as his Master died.

Just as Peter was beginning to feel like a hero, Jesus announced that he himself would soon become a casualty. The message not only shocked Peter, but it also stunned the rest of the disciples. After all, if brave Peter denied the Lord, what hope was there for the rest of them? It was then that Jesus gave His message to calm their troubled hearts.

According to Jesus, heaven is a real place. It is not a product of religious imagination or the result of a psyched-up mentality, looking for “pie in the sky by and by.” Heaven is the place where God dwells and where Jesus sits today at the right hand of the Father. Heaven is described as a kingdom (2 Peter 1:11), an inheritance (1 Peter 1:4), a country (Heb. 11:16), a city (Heb. 11:16), and a home (John 14:2).

The word Father is used fifty-three times in John 13-17. Heaven is “My Father’s house,” according to the Son of God. It is “home” for God’s children! Some years ago, a London newspaper held a contest to determine the best definition of “home.” The winning entry was, “Home is the place where you are treated the best and complain the most.” The poet Robert Frost said that home is the place that, when you arrive there, they have to take you in. A good definition!

The Greek word monē is translated “mansions” in John 14:2 and “abode” in John 14:23. It simply means “rooms, abiding places,” so we must not think in terms of manor houses. It is unfortunate that some unbiblical songs have perpetuated the error that faithful Christians will have lovely mansions in glory, while worldly saints will have to be content with little cottages or even shacks. Jesus Christ is now preparing places for all true believers, and each place will be beautiful. When He was here on earth, Jesus was a carpenter (Mark 6:3). Now that He has returned to glory, He is building a church on earth and a home for that church in heaven.

John 14:3 is a clear promise of our Lord’s return for His people. Some will go to heaven through the valley of the shadow of death, but those who are alive when Jesus returns will never see death (John 11:25-26). They will be changed to be like Christ and will go to heaven (1 Thes. 4:13-18).

Since heaven is the Father’s house, it must be a place of love and joy. When the Apostle John tried to describe heaven, he almost ran out of symbols and comparisons! (Rev. 21-22) Finally, he listed the things that would not be there: death, sorrow, crying, pain, night, etc. What a wonderful home it will be—and we will enjoy it forever!

Further comments

After predicting Peter’s denial (13:38), Jesus spoke to the deep concerns of the disciples. They were confused; he encouraged them to trust. They needed to anchor that trust in Jesus. He indicated that he and the Father would prepare a place for them while he was gone, but that he would return to gather them.

The disciples could not comprehend Jesus’ comments about leaving. Their question about his destination enabled Jesus to identify himself not only as their eternal companion, but also as the very means for them to see the Father. He claimed to be the unique and ultimate resource when he said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (14:6 niv).

Characteristically, the disciples responded to Jesus’ revelation with a question that reveals how inadequately they grasped Jesus’ divine nature. In answering them, Jesus described four aspects of his unique identity: (1) Jesus and the Father share characteristics in such a way that anyone who has seen one has also seen the other. (2) Jesus and the Father are united in such a way that Jesus could speak of either of them being “in” the other. (3) Jesus gives special abilities to those who trust him to accomplish even greater signs than the disciples had already seen. (4) Requests to God made in Jesus’ name will be answered.

After this intimate opening dialogue, the Last Supper discourse began. The next several chapters have been among the most treasured of those who follow Jesus. They not only draw us close to him; they also give us compelling reasons to invite others into that fellowship with our Savior. By recording this private discussion between Jesus and his disciples, John hoped to attract all people to Jesus.

14:1 “Let not your heart be troubled.”^NKJV In the Greek, the pronoun your is plural; therefore, Jesus was speaking to Peter (whose denial of Jesus had just been predicted—see 13:38) and to all the other disciples. According to Luke, Jesus had told Peter, “Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat . . .” (Luke 22:31 nrsv). All of the disciples must have been troubled about Jesus’ predictions of betrayal, denial, and departure. After all, if Peter’s commitment was shaky, then every disciple should be aware of his own weaknesses.

 

STRONG WEAK PEOPLE

Jesus did not want his followers to imitate Peter’s impulsive self-confidence. Potential weaknesses and possible failures trouble us. So we don’t like to think about them. Peter denied his own frailty and claimed more faith than he had. Jesus’ solution for troubled hearts requires us to trust in him. Trust does not mean pretending we are strong; it means recognizing our weakness and need for God’s help. If we believe for a moment that we can follow Jesus in our own strength, we will fail as miserably as Peter.

“Trust in God; trust also in me.”^NIV Jesus urged his disciples to maintain their trust in the Father and in the Son, to continue trusting through the next few very difficult days. Jesus later told the disciples why he gave them glimpses of the future that would soon follow: “I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe” (14:29 niv). They would not need to be afraid because all that he promised would come true.

14:2 “In my Father’s house are many rooms.”^NIV The traditional interpretation of this phrase teaches that Jesus is going to heaven to prepare rooms or “mansions” (nkjv) for his followers. Based on that imagery, entire heavenly subdivisions and elaborate “mansion blueprints” have been described. Many commentators think that Jesus was speaking about his Father’s house in heaven, where he would go after his resurrection in order to prepare rooms for his followers. Then he would return one day to take his believers to be with him in heaven. The day of that return usually has been regarded as the Second Coming.

The other view is that the passage primarily speaks of the believers’ immediate access to God the Father through the Son. The “place” Jesus was preparing has less to do with a location (heaven) as it had to do with an intimate relationship with a person (God the Father). This interpretation does not deny the comfort of heaven’s hope in this passage, but it does remove the temptation to view heaven purely in terms of glorious mansions. Heaven is not about splendid accommodations; it is about being with God. The point of the passage is that Jesus is providing the way for the believers to live in God the Father. As such, the way he prepared the place was through his own death and resurrection and thereby opened the way for the believers to live in Christ and approach God.

According to this view, the Father’s house is not a heavenly mansion, but Christ himself in whom all the believers reside. By expansion, the Father’s house is Christ and the church (see 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; Ephesians 2:20-22; Hebrews 3:2). The believers don’t have to wait until the Second Coming to live in this house; once Christ rose from the dead he brought them into a new, living relationship with God (see 20:19-23). He would be the means whereby the believers could come to dwell in the Father and the Father in them. As such, the promise in 14:2-3 relates to the corporate fellowship that would be possible through Christ’s departure and return in the Spirit. In this view, the “many rooms” would be the many members of God’s household. Christ went to prepare a place for each member in God’s household (1 Chronicles 17:9)—the preparation was accomplished by his death and resurrection.

TRUST IN ME?

When we face troubling times we often feel overwhelmed by fear, doubts, grief, and conflict. Our outer resources may evaporate and our inner strength may prove inadequate. Though faced with possible or certain failure, we have assurances in Jesus’ words to remain calm and hopeful:

l God is trustworthy, and he has sent Christ, who is also trustworthy, to us. No one else deserves our trust.

l God has a gracious welcome and plenty of space in his “house.” We need not fear exclusion or separation from him.

l Jesus spoke the truth. His description of the future was realistic. He has never been proven wrong. We can rely on both Jesus’ teaching and his promises.

l Jesus did exactly what he said he would do, return to the disciples after the Resurrection. In so doing, he guaranteed our entrance into God’s presence and our place in God’s house.

l Jesus is always with us, and someday we will be face to face with him. Whatever the future holds, Jesus promised to be our companion. We know who Jesus is and how much he loves us.

The Greek word for “rooms” (monai) could be better translated “abodes” because it shares the same root as the Greek word for “abide” (meno). It simply means “a dwelling place.” The word mansions in the nkjv is misleading because it connotes spacious, luxurious houses. Incidentally, early in church history Origen made popular a similar belief that Jesus was speaking of “stages” or levels of heaven, through which believers advanced as they continued to “develop.” But Jesus’ words imply no value judgment between “rooms.” The “prepared place” is with Christ.

“If it were not so, I would have told you.”^NKJV Jesus’ words give us great encouragement. Throughout his life he had warned the disciples of opposition (see 16:2). He never held back the truth from them. Because he always told the truth, we can trust him with our future as well.

14:3 “I go and prepare a place for you.”^NKJV According to what has been discussed in 14:1-2, there are two ways to understand this statement. Either Jesus was speaking of preparing heavenly dwellings for the future life of the believers, or Jesus was preparing the way for the believers to live in God. Of course, the two views are not mutually exclusive. Now, we live in God because of our living relationship with Christ; in eternity we will live with Christ in the glory he shares with the Father. Eternal life begins in Christ now, not just at some future date when we get to heaven.

In either interpretation, Jesus offers spiritual comfort that begins immediately when we believe. And his Father’s many-roomed house represents gracious welcome and provision for us as we live in union with him.

 

ETERNITY TODAY

There are few verses in Scripture that describe eternal life, but these few verses are rich with promises. Here Jesus says, “I go to prepare a place for you,” and “I will come again.” We can look forward to eternal life because Jesus has promised it to all who believe in him. But we can actually begin to enjoy eternal life now, for it became ours the moment we believed in Jesus. We can live today with a new destiny in mind. Although we do not know all the details of eternity, we need not fear because Jesus is preparing us to share with him the eternity that he and the Father have prepared for us.

“I will come again and receive you to Myself.”^NKJV There are three ways to understand this: (1) Jesus’ coming again to the disciples would be realized in a short while. This is confirmed by 16:16, “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me” (nkjv)—note the similar use of again. When Jesus said, “I will come again,” that coming again occurred on the day of his resurrection. (2) Jesus’ “coming again” is the Second Coming. (3) This “coming again” refers to both the Resurrection and the Second Coming—the former foreshadowing the latter. Those who hold this view, therefore, extract a double meaning from Jesus’ words in verses 2 and 3; they say the passage speaks both of the believers being brought into the risen Christ as the many “rooms” in the Father’s house, and of the believers being brought by the returned Christ into the Father’s house in heaven. It does seem that both meanings merge. Christ has us completely in his care.

4. HIS ARREST AND TRIALS. (Matt. 26:36-46).

(Matthew 26:36-46)  “Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” {37} He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. {38} Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” {39} Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” {40} Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. {41} “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” {42} He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” {43} When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. {44} So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. {45} Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. {46} Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!””

26:36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”^NRSV After eating the meal, the disciples left Jerusalem and went out to a favorite meeting place (Luke 22:39; John 18:2). This gardenlike enclosure called Gethsemane, meaning “olive press,” was probably an orchard of olive trees with a press for extracting oil. The garden was in the Kidron Valley just outside the eastern wall of Jerusalem and just below the Mount of Olives. Jesus told eight of the disciples to sit down and wait, probably near the garden’s entrance, while he went farther in to pray. The disciples must have been physically and emotionally exhausted from trying to comprehend what would transpire. Instead of watching, however, they gave in to their exhaustion and fell asleep.

URGENT PRAYER

When pressed with a difficulty, what’s your first instinct: blame your mom? blame your kids? call 9-1-1? Jesus prayed.

When you’re sick with grief, worry, or guilt, prayer should be first on the list. In prayer, you settle things with God, and God strengthens you. It takes the sting from an emergency. It shares the burden with a big-shouldered friend. Pray first, especially when trouble is close at hand. Pray with others. There you will find strength and support.

26:37-38 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”^NIV Jesus then took the other three disciples, his inner circle (Peter, James, and John), farther into the garden with him. To these closest friends, Jesus revealed his inner turmoil over the event he was about to face.

Jesus was sorrowful and troubled over his approaching death because he would be forsaken by the Father (27:46), would have to bear the sins of the world, and would face a terrible execution. The divine course was set, but Jesus, in his human nature, still struggled (Hebrews 5:7-9).

His coming death was no surprise; he knew about it and had even told the disciples about it so they would be prepared. Jesus knew what his death would accomplish.

He also knew that the means to that end would mean taking upon himself the sin of the world, alienating him, for a time, from his Father who would be unable to look upon sin: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21 niv).

Jesus bore our guilt by “becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13 niv). As the time of this event neared, it became even more horrifying. Jesus naturally recoiled from the prospect.

Early in Jesus’ ministry Satan had tempted him to take the easy way out (4:1-11); later Peter had suggested that Jesus did not have to die (16:22). In both cases, Jesus had dealt with the temptation soundly. Now, as his horrible death and separation from the Father loomed before him, he was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

So he asked Peter, James, and John to stay with him and keep watch. Jesus knew Judas would soon arrive, and Jesus wanted to devote himself to prayer until that time came. Jesus also wanted them to stay awake and participate with him in his suffering.

Spiritual vigilance is a vital part of discipleship and a key theme in this book. Jesus wanted these disciples to understand his suffering and to be strengthened by his example when they faced persecution and suffering.

26:39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”^NKJV Jesus went still farther into the garden to be alone with God. His agony was such that he threw himself on the ground before God in deep spiritual anguish, praying that if possible let this cup pass—in other words, he was asking the Father to let the mission be accomplished some other way not requiring the agony of crucifixion, when he would become sin and be separated from the Father.

In the Old Testament, “cup” stood for the trial of suffering and the wrath of God (Isaiah 51:17). So Jesus referred to the suffering that he must endure as the “cup” he would be required to drink. Yet Jesus humbly submitted to the Father’s will. He went ahead with the mission for which he had come (1:21).

With the words “let this cup pass from Me,” Jesus was referring to the suffering, isolation from God, and death he would have to endure in order to atone for the sins of the world.

We must not think that it was the fear of death that made our Lord so agonize in the Garden. He did not fear death, but faced it with courage and peace. He was about to “drink the cup” that His Father had prepared for Him, and this meant bearing on His body the sins of the world (John 18:11; 1 Peter 2:24). Many godly people have been arrested, beaten, and slain because of their faith. But only Jesus experienced being made sin and a curse for mankind (2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13). The Father has never forsaken any of His own, yet He forsook His Son (Matt. 27:46). This was the cup that Jesus willingly drank for us.

Jesus was not wrestling with God’s will or resisting God’s will. He was yielding Himself to God’s will. As perfect Man, He felt the awful burden of sin, and His holy soul was repelled by it. Yet as the Son of God, He knew that this was His mission in the world. The mystery of His humanity and deity is seen vividly in this scene.

TRUE PRAYER

In times of suffering, people sometimes wish they knew the future, or they wish they could understand the reason for their anguish. Jesus knew what lay ahead of him, and he knew the reason.

Even so, his struggle was intense—more wrenching than any struggle we will ever have to face. What does it take to be able to say “as God wills”? It takes firm trust in God’s plans; it takes prayer and obedience each step of the way.

This is the heart of true prayer and should be our basic response to trials. Trust God that his way is best, even when it doesn’t seem like it.

God did not take away the “cup,” for the cup was his will. Yet he did take away Jesus’ extreme fear and agitation. Jesus moved serenely through the next several hours, at peace with God, knowing that he was doing his Father’s will.

PEACE

Some people believe their troubles are caused by bad people, bad germs, or bad luck. But Christians know that God rules, so we rightly make our appeal to his will, which

• takes the bitterness out of the cup we may face, though it doesn’t always remove the cup. God’s will for each of us includes some pain, some loss, some struggle;
• never breaks us or makes us feel hopeless or abandoned;
• always assures us of God’s presence and care; and
• ever promises reunion and relief.

Take comfort in God’s will for you. Pray sincerely, “Your will be done!”

Jesus was not only asking that they pray for him, but also that they pray for themselves. Jesus knew that these men would need extra strength to face the temptations ahead—temptations to run away or to deny their relationship with him.

“Enter into” could also be translated “fall into.” Jesus wanted the disciples to pray that their faith would not collapse. The word “temptation” can mean testing or trial. Jesus wanted his disciples to pray for strength to go through the coming ordeal. The disciples were about to see Jesus die. Would they still think he was the Messiah? The disciples would soon face confusion, fear, loneliness, guilt, and the temptation to conclude that they had been deceived.

“The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”^NKJV Many have interpreted “spirit” to mean the “human spirit.” Thus, it would mean that while their spirit might be willing, their flesh would be weak. Their inner desires and intentions would be, as they had previously boasted, to never deny Jesus and to die with him. Their relationship with Jesus had made the disciples eager to serve him in any way possible. Yet their human inadequacies, with all their fears and failures, would make it difficult to carry out those good intentions. A willing spirit (see Psalm 51:12) needs the Holy Spirit to empower it and help it do God’s will.

Jesus used Peter’s drowsiness to warn him to be spiritually vigilant against the temptation he would soon face. The way to overcome temptation is to stay alert and to pray. This means being aware of the possibilities of temptation, sensitive to the subtleties, and morally resolved to fight courageously. Because temptation strikes where we are most vulnerable, we can’t resist alone. Prayer is essential because God’s strength can shore up our defenses and defeat Satan.

26:42 Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”^NKJV Jesus left the three disciples and returned to his conversation with the Father (26:39).

26:43-45 And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.^NKJV Jesus came back once again to the three disciples and found them asleep again. Despite his warning that they should be awake, alert, and praying not to fall to the coming temptations, their eyes were heavy, and all three went back to sleep. So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.^NKJV Jesus continued his conversation with his Father, as before (26:39, 42). During these times of prayer, the battle was won. Jesus still had to go to the cross, but he would humbly submit to the Father’s will and accomplish the task set before him.

Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”^NRSV Jesus went away to pray a third time, only to come back and find the disciples still asleep. After much time in prayer, Jesus was ready to face his hour, which conveyed that all he had predicted about his death was about to happen (see John 12:23-24). The disciples had missed a great opportunity to talk to the Father, and there would be no more time to do so, for Jesus’ hour had come. Thus, Jesus did not again tell them to pray. Jesus had spent the last few hours with the Father, wrestling with him, and humbly submitting to him. Now he was prepared to face his betrayer and the sinners who were coming to arrest him. “Sinners” was the term used for Jews who did not live according to God’s will and for Gentiles, who were viewed collectively as sinners because they didn’t live by God’s law. Jesus probably used the term to refer to the priestly authorities who were disobeying God in their treachery, and to the Romans who were participating in Jesus’ arrest, mockery, and death.

26:46 “Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”^NIV Jesus roused the three sleeping disciples (and perhaps the other eight as well) and called them together. His words “rise, let us go” did not mean that Jesus was contemplating running. Instead, he was calling the disciples to go with him to meet the traitor disciple, Judas, and the coming crowd. Jesus went forth of his own will, advancing to meet his accusers rather than waiting for them to come to him. Jesus’ betrayer, Judas, had arrived. Judas knew where to find Jesus and the disciples because Gethsemane had been a favorite meeting spot (John 18:1-2). It was to this quiet garden in the very early hours of the morning that Judas brought a crowd to arrest Jesus.

Some speakers use impressive words, but they are weak on content. Some preachers make the Bible marginal in their sermons in order to hold people’s attention. Even Bible studies give less focus to the Bible than they do to fellowship.

Paul stressed solid content and practical help for his listeners. He wanted them to be impressed with his message, not just his style. You don’t need to be a great speaker with a large vocabulary to share the gospel effectively. The persuasive power is in the story, not the storyteller.

In this series we will seek to make Christ the center of our preaching, rather than trying to be impressive.

1:18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Paul had not come to Corinth to make disciples for himself; he had come to “preach the gospel” (1:17). But this preaching was not according to the world’s wisdom or desires—it was not filled with philosophical arguments or supernatural acts.

Paul’s preaching was the message of the cross—Jesus Christ crucified on behalf of sinners. Such a message always has two results, for ultimately all of humanity will end up in one of these two classes.

(1) The gospel message sounds foolish . . . to those who are on the road to destruction. For those who desire worldly wisdom, the message of the cross seems stupid. “Who wants a crucified king?” they might ask.

(2) But for those who are being saved . . . [the gospel message is] the very power of God.

Paul wrote to the Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek” (1:16 nkjv). The gospel message is more than a true story and a good way to live; it is “the very power of God.” Only with such power can the gospel message redeem sinful people and transform them into God’s people.

1:19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Paul summarized Isaiah 29:14 to emphasize a point that Jesus often made: God’s way of thinking is not like the world’s way (normal human wisdom).

“The wisdom of the wise” and “the intelligence of the intelligent” refer to world-centered wisdom and intelligence. These are not wrong, but they are worthless as a means of salvation. The context of the passage in Isaiah is that God hates those who Isaiah 29:14 (ESV) “therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.

God says he will destroy their wisdom and intelligence because it can never help them find him. People can spend a lifetime accumulating human wisdom and yet never learn how to have a personal relationship with God. They must come to the crucified and risen Christ to receive eternal life and the joy of a personal relationship with the Savior.

Whether they use their “wisdom” and “intelligence” to search for God or to attempt to dismiss him, they will only find themselves doomed to frustration and, ultimately, to eternal separation from God.

1:20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

No human wisdom or intelligence can either discover or disprove God. No human reasoning can bring salvation. So all those who have lived by their own wisdom—the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters—will be left with nothing.

God had already made them all look foolish and showed that their “wisdom” was no more than useless nonsense. Some have suggested that the “philosophers” (also translated “the wise ones”) may have been an allusion to the Greeks. The “scholars” (also translated “scribes”) may refer to the Jewish professionals who were skilled in God’s law. The “brilliant debaters” (or “philosophers or disputers of this age”) could refer to either Jews or Greeks who thought that any issue could be solved by human reasoning.

Paul may have been thinking of such distinctions, or he may have been simply using three different terms to describe people who think they are learned. For all their learning, God would show them to be fools. Their wisdom would be “useless” because it could do nothing to provide salvation. That can come only through the cross.

1:21 21  For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

In his complete sovereignty and in his wisdom, God decided that people would never find him through human wisdom. Instead, he chose a crucified Savior and a message of salvation preached by weak and fallible human beings to save all who believe. This looks like absurdity to the “high and mighty” of this world.

Many people of Paul’s time, and many today, mocked the message of the gospel. In their human wisdom, they wanted to reason “above and beyond” and experience more than what they felt was offered in the foolish preaching of believers. In reality, the worldly wise will not find God; those who accept the message of the cross will find him and be saved.

1:22-24 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23  but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24  but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Many Jews considered the Good News of Jesus Christ to be foolish because they thought the Messiah would be a conquering king who did many spectacular signs and miracles.

Although Jesus had performed many miracles during his ministry on earth, many Jews who observed his miracles firsthand had refused to believe. Jesus had not restored David’s throne in the way that they had expected. Besides, he had been executed as a criminal—how could a criminal be the Savior? This proclamation of Christ crucified was a contradiction of all that they believed, and it became a stumbling block to them.

The Greeks (also here called Gentiles) did not believe in a bodily resurrection; they did not see in Jesus the powerful characteristics of their mythological gods, and they thought no reputable person would be crucified. To them, death was defeat, not victory. It did not make sense—in their worldly wisdom—that any god would do such a thing as come to earth to be killed. The Greeks worshiped wisdom and revered their great thinkers and philosophers. To them, the gospel message just didn’t measure up; to them, the proclamation of “Christ crucified” was foolishness.

While some Jews and Greek tripped over the message of “Christ crucified,” it was a different story for those who are called—those who embraced and believed the gospel. Many people, both Jews and Greeks, will not stumble over the message but will find that the gospel of Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God (see 1:18).

Our society worships power, influence, and wealth. Jesus came as a humble, poor servant, and he offers his kingdom to those who have faith, not to those who work hard or improve themselves. This may look ridiculous to the world, but Christ is our power, the only way we can be saved. Make sure you know Christ personally; then you’ll have the greatest wisdom anyone could desire.

1:25  For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

This verse provides the key to Paul’s words in chapters 1-3. The message of Christ’s death for sins sounds foolish to those who don’t believe. They believe that they, by their own wisdom, can find the “ultimate reality” or make for themselves the best life; however, they will be woefully disappointed. Their wisest plans cannot even compare to God’s most insignificant act.

Paul’s words do not imply that God could ever be foolish or weak; instead, he was making the point that human wisdom and human strength cannot begin to compare to God. What the world sees as foolishness (Christ’s death for our sins as a display of God’s power) is God’s truth. The cross was reserved for criminals in Paul’s day. How could such an act have any power?

Death seems to be the end of the road, the ultimate weakness. But Jesus did not stay dead. His resurrection demonstrated his power over death. And through what had appeared to be weakness, Christ accomplished what no amount of human strength could ever accomplish. By his death, people are saved from eternal death and given everlasting life—if they trust him as Savior and Lord. The “foolish” people who simply accept Christ’s offer are actually the wisest of all, because they alone will live eternally with God.

    1:26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

The Corinthians had a tendency to be “puffed up” with pride (1 Cor. 4:6, 18-19; 5:2). But the Gospel of God’s grace leaves no room for personal boasting. God is not impressed with our looks, our social position, our achievements, our natural heritage, or our financial status. Note that Paul wrote many, not any. In the New Testament, we do meet some believers with “high social standing,” but there are not many of them. The description Paul gave of the converts was certainly not a flattering one (1 Cor. 6:9-11).

Paul reminded them of what they were (v. 26). They were not wise, mighty, or noble. God called them, not because of what they were, but in spite of what they were! The Corinthian church was composed primarily of ordinary people who were terrible sinners. Before his conversion, Paul had been very self-righteous; he had to give up his religion in order to go to heaven! The Corinthians were at the other end of the spectrum, and yet they were not too sinful for God to reach and save them.

Having shown the difference between God’s wisdom and what people of this world call wisdom, Paul urged his readers to remember that few of them had any worldly achievements when God called them. Few would have been considered wise in the world’s eyes (Greek, sophoi, referring to the intellectuals or philosophers). Few were powerful or influential (Greek, dunatoi, referring to the politicians and decision makers in government). Few were wealthy (Greek, eugeneis, literally “those of noble birth,” referring to the aristocracy).

Among the earliest disciples, five were fishermen, one was a tax collector, and the careers of the rest are unknown. None had the status of education or wealth (though Matthew may have had some money, he had gotten it through tax collection, not high status by any means).

By using these three terms, Paul was pointing out that intellectual, political, and social position are not necessary qualifications for being chosen by God. In fact, just the opposite was true. Yet they had been called by God.

Clearly, God does not seek out the people whom the world admires; instead, he reveals himself to humble and searching hearts, regardless of their worldly position. God can use us no matter what our position or status. To the worldly wise, it would have made more sense for God to call the leaders and the influential people. But God does what seems foolish to the world—he calls those who do not have these characteristics and achievements. Paul explains why in 1:27.

1:27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong

God “called” (1:26) and God chose—both of these works refer to conversion, God’s “call” on a person that draws him or her to salvation. God’s call and choice did not go out to the high and mighty; instead, God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. . . what is weak in the world to shame the strong. Upon those “foolish and weak” people, God showered his mercy, giving them “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1:24). God would shame those thought to be wise and strong by the world by choosing not to reveal himself to them.

This sounds strange to the world. Why would God not choose leaders and influential people who could make sweeping reforms and be followed by the masses? God does not choose as people choose. His sovereign choice is not based on anything that people can do or achieve. No amount of human knowledge or influence can replace or bypass Christ’s work on the cross. Our trust in God will sometimes open us to the accusation of acting superior. When that happens, we must calmly assert that our confidence is not in ourselves. Our unashamed confidence is in God. Live with confidence. Boast in Christ.

     1:28-29 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29  so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30  And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31  so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

 God chose the foolish and the weak, the things despised by the world, so that those chosen can never boast in the presence of God. This choosing of ordinary people was a major theme of the Old Testament. God used Moses (Exodus 3), Deborah (Judges 4-5), Gideon (Judges 6-8), and many other people of humble origin to show that success came through his power, not theirs.

The foolish and weak can never say that God chose them because of their talent or intelligence. Instead, God chooses those who are counted as nothing at all by the world and turns them into great people for him. People’s abilities, social standing, or knowledge have nothing to do with God’s choice.

Skill and wisdom do not get a person into God’s kingdom—faith in Christ does—so no one can boast that his or her achievements helped him or her secure eternal life. Salvation is totally from God through Jesus’ death. No one can do anything to earn salvation; people need only accept what Jesus has already done for them.

1:30-31 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”^NRSV Here Paul reminded the Corinthian believers that God alone is the source of . . . life in Christ Jesus. He used the word “your,” speaking directly to his audience of believers.

These believers in Corinth had received eternal life in Christ Jesus, not because of who they were or what they did but because of Christ Jesus alone, the “source of life.” God is the source of believers’ existence and the reason for their personal and living relationship with Christ. Their union and identification with Christ results in having God’s wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3), possessing right standing with God (righteousness, 2 Corinthians 5:21), being made holy (sanctification, 1 Thessalonians 4:3-7), and having the penalty for their sins paid by Jesus (redemption, Mark 10:45).

Because salvation is completely by God’s grace, any boasting before God is sheer nonsense. If believers must boast, they must boast in the Lord. These words come from Jeremiah 9:23-24 and refer to saved people glorying in the Lord’s acts on their behalf. So the redeemed people of the New Testament boast not in their salvation, but in God alone, who provided that salvation through his grace alone.

I expect to be amazed by three things when I first arrive in heaven. I will be delighted by those I find are actually there. I will be shocked to note who isn’t there whom I assumed I would see. And then I will be speechless with wonder as I realize that by God’s grace I am there! Charles Spurgeon

We often hear the phrase “the crux of the matter” or “the crux of a situation.” The word crux comes from Latin and simply means “cross.” Why has the word crux come to be associated with a critical juncture or point in time? Because the cross of Jesus Christ is truly the crux of history. Without the cross, history itself cannot be defined or corrected.

There is another word we often hear when we are in the throes of indescribable pain—the word excruciating. That, too, derives from Latin and means “out of the cross.” Across time and human experience the cross has been the historical event that intersects time and space and speaks to the deepest hurts of the human heart.

But we live with more than pain and suffering. We also live with deep hungers within the human heart. These existentially gnaw at us with a desperate constancy. There are at least four such longings. The hunger for truth, as lies proliferate. The hunger for love, as we see hate ruling the day. The hunger for justice, as we see injustice mocking the law. The hunger for forgiveness, when we ourselves fail and stumble. These four stirrings grip the soul.

As I see it, there is only one place in the world where these four hungers converge. That is at the cross. I dare say, therefore, that in this mix of pain and longing the divine answer is restoring and sublime. For within the paradox of the cross is the coalescing of our need and God’s provision.

“Here Is Love.”

The melody is almost haunting, the words capturing the paradox of the cross.

Here is love, vast as the ocean Loving kindness as the flood When the Prince of Life, our Ransom Shed for us His precious blood Who His love will not remember?

Who can cease to sing His praise? He can never be forgotten Throughout Heaven’s eternal days On the mount of crucifixion

Fountains opened deep and wide Through the floodgates of God’s mercy Flowed a vast and gracious tide Grace and love, like mighty rivers Poured incessant from above
And Heaven’s peace and perfect justice Kissed a guilty world in love No love is higher, no love is wider No love is deeper, no love is truer

No lover is higher, no lover is wider No love is like Your love, O Lord

This is the paradox of the cross: Perfect peace and perfect justice became united in one death on a Friday afternoon over two thousand years ago. The thief who repented while hanging on the cross next to Jesus understood the paradox. No one else knew so well the physical agony of what Jesus was suffering in crucifixion. And the thief knew that he deserved his pain and suffering. He knew the fear of God. But he received the assurance of pardon from the blameless Man hanging beside him.

In this opening lesson, “The Cross Is a Radical Thing,” we exhort the believer to resist the downgrading of the cross to a mere symbol. If the cross has become to us a humdrum ornament to our faith, we have not understood it, and we have not felt its offense.

We need studies like this one in our day because we must understood the death of Christ in both its timeliness and timelessness.

The Apostle Paul captured this timelessness when he exhorted the Corinthian believers: “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come” (1 Corinthians 11:26). All the tenses were captured there—the present, the past and the future. The moment Christ died was an actual point in time in the past. He presently offers to live within us and promised to return.

Combined with the tenses are our tensions. Many of our modern-day sensibilities are offended by the brutality of a Roman crucifixion, and some people have even become persuaded that the atonement is a remote and irrelevant doctrine.

Never has it been more obvious that this world needs redemption, and that redemption is costly. The cross more than ever, in our language and in our longings, is necessary to bridge the divide between God and us. Without the cross the chasm that separates us all from truth, love, justice and forgiveness can never be crossed. The depths of mystery and love found in the cross can never be fully plumbed, but it must be the lifelong pursuit of the Christian to marvel at its costliness and to celebrate its meaning.

Crucifixes Banned in Poland

The government of Polish Prime Minister Jaruzelski had ordered crucifixes removed from classroom walls, just as they had been banned in factories, hospitals, and other public institutions. Catholic bishops attacked the ban that had stirred waves of anger and resentment all across Poland. Ultimately the government relented, insisting that the law remain on the books, but agreeing not to press for removal of the crucifixes, particularly in the schoolrooms.

But one zealous Communist school administrator in Garwolin decided that the law was the law. So one evening he had seven large crucifixes removed from lecture halls where they had hung since the school’s founding in the twenties.

Days later, a group of parents entered the school and hung more crosses. The administrator promptly had these taken down as well.

The next day two-thirds of the school’s six hundred students staged a sit-in. When heavily armed riot police arrived, the students were forced into the streets. Then they marched, crucifixes held high, to a nearby church where they were joined by twenty-five hundred other students from nearby schools for a morning of prayer in support of the protest.

Soldiers surrounded the church. But the pictures from inside of students holding crosses high above their heads flashed around the world. So did the words of the priest who delivered the message to the weeping congregation that morning. “There is no Poland without a cross.” Chuck Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict, pp. 202-203

1. Jesus was crucified, not in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves. – George F. MacLeod
2. The cross cannot be defeated, for it is defeat. – Gilbert K. Chesterton
3. There will be no crown-wearers in heaven who were not cross-bearers here below. – Charles Haddon Spurgeon
4. We need men of the cross, with the message of the cross, bearing the marks of the cross. – Vance Havner
5. Christ’s cross is such a burden as sails are to a ship or wings to a bird. – Samuel Rutherford
6. He came to pay a debt He didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay. – Anonymous
7. The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it. A.W. Tozer