THIRD QUARTER 2024
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #12
SEPTEMBER 21, 2024
"TRIED AND CRUCIFIED".

 

This week's Sabbath School Lesson looks at Mark 15, where the trial of Jesus comes to a dramatic end. The Roman governor Pilate knows Jesus to be innocent, yet he succumbs to the rule of the mob provoked and instigated by the religious leaders and ultimately by Lucifer himself.  “Crucify Him” was the cry that went out over and over again, bringing the elite leader of Rome to his moral knees, feeling forced to do what in his heart he knew was wrong.  He would send Jesus to be crucified upon a Roman cross.  

So for a few short moments let us shift our gaze onto Jesus, considering the things He says and does as the Cross unfolds in Mark 15.

It is as you say

“Immediately, in the morning, the chief priests consulted with the elders and scribes and the whole council; and they bound Jesus, led Him away, and delivered Him to Pilate. Then Pilate asked Him, ‘Are You the King of the Jews?’ He answered and said to him, ‘It is as you say’” (Mark 15:1-2, NKJV). 

Jesus used words not to agitate, challenge, or threaten Pilate but to affirm what he said.  Here Jesus takes a posture of humility with a primary concern for Pilate and not for Himself.

The words “It is as” are supplied and the text just says, “You say.”  The King James Version simply says it this way:  “And he answering said unto him, ‘Thou sayest it.’”

Consider the following insight.  “Jesus did not directly answer this question. He knew that the Holy Spirit was striving with Pilate, and He gave him opportunity to acknowledge his conviction. ‘Sayest thou this thing of thyself,’ He asked, ‘or did others tell it thee of Me?’ That is, was it the accusations of the priests, or a desire to receive light from Christ, that prompted Pilate's question? Pilate understood Christ's meaning; but pride arose in his heart. He would not acknowledge the conviction that pressed upon him. ‘Am I a Jew?’ he said. ‘Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered Thee unto me: what hast Thou done?’” —Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 726.

Even at this critical hour for Jesus, as the weight of sin was pressing upon His soul, He was more concerned about Pilate than Himself.

He Answers Nothing

“And the chief priests accused Him of many things, but He answered nothing. Then Pilate asked Him again, saying, ‘Do You answer nothing? See how many things they testify against You!’ But Jesus still answered nothing, so that Pilate marveled” (Mark 15:3-5).

Jesus answers nothing to all of the false accusations, insults, and abuse. This silence of Jesus in contrast to the onslaught of attack toward Him caused Pilate to marvel with admiring wonder.

“It was as if the heavy surges of wrath, rising higher and higher, like the waves of the boisterous ocean, broke about Him, but did not touch Him. He stood silent, but His silence was eloquence. It was as a light shining from the inner to the outer man.” —Ibid.

Most of us find it very hard to not correct or retaliate in some fashion to false accusations, verbal assault, and wrongs done.  We defend ourselves, justify ourselves, and/or rectify, chastise, or come back with accusations of our own against the malefactors in some way.  To remain silent is the last thing our hearts will do.  Save ourselves, protect ourselves, prove ourselves to be right—these are the ways of the fallen. But not so for the Son of Man.  He did none of this. He simply remained quiet.  With words, less is more.  And it was His silence that spoke to Pilate of His innocence and revealed His kingly character.  Pilate witnessed anti-Christ and Christ side by side that day.

“Pilate was astonished at His bearing. ‘Does this Man disregard the proceedings because He does not care to save His life?’ he asked himself. As he looked at Jesus, bearing insult and mockery without retaliation, he felt that He could not be as unrighteous and unjust as were the clamoring priests.” —Ibid.

He received scourging, insults, humiliation, and degradation

“Then the soldiers led Him away into the hall called Praetorium, and they called together the whole garrison. And they clothed Him with purple, and they twisted a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and began to salute Him, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ Then they struck Him on the head with a reed and spat on Him; and bowing the knee, they worshiped Him. And when they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him” (Mark 15:16-20).

Jesus, the agent of creation, the maker of earth and sea and sky, subjected Himself to the treatment of His creation.  This He saw, before the incarnation, how He would be treated by those He would come to save.  Knowing all of this He would still freely come and give Himself for the lost world.  Furthermore, in the moment of the insults and degradation by those He made, He did not call for their destruction. No! He didn’t ask for an apology.  He simply received the mistreatment and evil instigated upon Him by the enemy of souls himself.  No reparations were called for and there was no confrontation of the deep wrongs committed, but only a heart of forgiveness that was bent on saving every last one of them with a continual posture of self-emptying love that we can scarcely comprehend.

He endured the cross

“Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him. And the inscription of His accusation was written above: THE KING OF THE JEWS. With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left. So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’  And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, ‘Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!’. Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, ‘He saved others; Himself He cannot save. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.’ Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him” (Mark 15:25-32).

It was nine o’clock in the morning when He freely allowed His hands and feet to be bound like Issac on Mount Moriah.  Only in this case, He was not bound with cords but bound to a tree with spikes to be lifted up for all to see what was happening.  And here is the greatest irony of Mark 15.  What the people saw that day was the punishment and humiliation of One who they had come to despise.  Others saw their greatest hope for deliverance from the tyranny of the government lost.  And a few saw the Son of the Most High God killed by the hands of men—a shameful, humiliating end to what was a promising ministry.

And so also today, most see the physical suffering and torture of the cross and come to see the crucifixion of Jesus as little more than a sacrifice not much different than any other pagan sacrifice made down through the ages to any of the multitude of pagan gods.  At least those are the terms and descriptions for which most settle.

But there was something infinitely different and more profound that has escaped the notice of many.  “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32).  These were His words knowing the death that He would experience.  Therefore He willingly faced all that happened that day so that He would be lifted up for all to see.  The lifting up on the cross was not the means of death but rather the means of displaying a very different kind of death that He would die for the sins of the world.

“As man's substitute and surety, the iniquity of men was laid upon Christ; he was counted a transgressor that he might redeem them from the curse of the law. The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon his heart; and the wrath of God, and the terrible manifestation of his displeasure because of iniquity, filled the soul of his Son with consternation. The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour, in this hour of supreme anguish, pierced his heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man. Sin, so hateful to his sight, was heaped upon him till he groaned beneath its weight. The despairing agony of the Son of God was so much greater than his physical pain, that the latter was hardly felt by him.” —Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, November 25, 1889. 

Jesus did not die from a crucifixion that day.  He died from the sins of the world pressing upon His heart, eclipsing and extinguishing the sense of His Father’s presence, causing separation.  Sin is a separating and destructive force that makes free communion, love, and joy in God’s presence an impossibility.  Jesus shows us exactly how destructive this foreign element to God’s kingdom is, and thereby pays the ultimate price by giving His eternal life, for that is the wage and cost of sin.

But wait a minute. His eternal life? Jesus didn’t die forever but would be raised on the third day.  Jesus even testified "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19).

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

“And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ which is translated, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?…’ And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last” (Mark 15:34).

Why have you left me?  What an incredibly sad moment as the Light of the World has lost sight of Him who was His Light.  Separated from the One with Whom for all eternity past He had intimate communion.  Cut off from the One with whom He had grown in wisdom and in stature. The final ember of the Father's presence was so completely obscured from His consciousness that there was no light left for Him.  And without the Light, there is only darkness, and then comes death.

“Satan with his fierce temptations wrung the heart of Jesus. The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father's acceptance of the sacrifice. He feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal.  Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father's wrath upon Him as man's substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God.” —The Desire of Ages, p. 753.

And this is why I wrote that He paid the ultimate price in giving His eternal life.  The sin of the world, my sin, and your sin, eclipsed all hope, all sense of His Father’s presence as He faced death from the wage of sin that pressed upon His heart and soul.  He could not see the resurrection on the third day. As far as Jesus could see at that moment was His eternal death and separation from His existence and from the Father.

 

And all the while the temptation came over and over, “Come down from the cross,” “Save yourself.”  In His mind, the choice was to come down or eternal separation.  Save yourself or save others.  It was not as if He could not save Himself. He could have called all the heavenly hosts at any moment.  Instead, He gave Himself and chose Pilate, those religious leaders who accused Him, the soldiers who humiliated Him, the disciples who abandoned Him, and the thieves who were next to Him.  And He chose you, me, and every lost son and daughter of Adam because He loved us more than He loved Himself.  “‘Herein is love.’ Wonder, O heavens! and be astonished, O earth!” —The Desire of Ages, p. 49.

For further study please read Psalm 22:1-22 and Psalm 88:1-12 from where these thoughts are developed.

He came down with darkness under His feet

“Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour” (Mark 15:26).

“The pangs of death surrounded me, and the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me.  In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken, because He was angry. Smoke went up from His nostrils, and devouring fire from His mouth; coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down with darkness under His feet...He made darkness His secret place; His canopy around Him was dark waters and thick clouds of the skies” (Psalm 18:4-11).

The Father was at the cross as well.  While sin eclipsed the view of the Father from Jesus and the wage of sin crept upon His soul as He gave his life for the world, the Father was right next to His Son.  He did not simply watch from afar with folded arms.  No! No! He felt the lashing on His back, the spit running down His face, the insults and derision hurled without measure.  The nail piercing and the agony of the cross were all experienced.  Psalm 18 speaks to the cry of His Son coming up before Him and at the sixth hour, He went to His side in answer to His prayer. 

As we have already pointed out, it was not the insults or physical suffering, as difficult as those things were, that wrung the heart of Jesus.  And so likewise with the Father, almost as if all of these other things weren’t even happening, the Father felt with the keenest agony the separation from His Son, letting the weight of sin have its way with Him.  If “Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race” (Ibid., p. 753), doesn’t it stand to reason that God felt the anguish that He will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race?  How could He not feel it all, with infinite precision and clarity?  

Like any earthly father who would be at his son's deathbed, but in much greater ways, was God at the cross with Jesus.  As the Son cried out in the delirium of the weight of sin, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”,  I can almost hear the Father whispering in His ear, choking back the tears, “I’m right here Son. I’m right here.”

All this was done in a cloud of darkness—darkness not to hide embarrassment or pain as we might want to think—but rather darkness in mercy for those who were there that day, to veil them from His presence and to protect them.  The darkness allowed Him to be at the side of His Son as He was perishing in answer to the prayer of Jesus, the One who knew no sin but became sin for us.

Ponder that thought. If the Father would leave heaven and come to the dying side of Jesus, the representative of humanity and the second Adam in His darkest hour, please know that wherever we may find ourselves and however dark our circumstances He will likewise be at our side as well.  For “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them,” and “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (2 Corinthians 5:19), (Romans 8:32).

But God forbid that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ

Finally, I want to leave you with these thoughts. There is nothing that is more essential than an understanding and an experience that only the Cross of Christ can bring. This alone will prepare a people for the second coming of Jesus and to stand in the time that proceeds that event. I would venture to say that every problem in the church and every point of contention and disunity that comes can be boiled down to the fact that we still are in great need of understanding and experiencing the cross. 

“It is because the cross is shunned by the Christian world that they are so weak and inefficient. The earnest, constant view of the sufferings and death of God’s dear Son is the only means by which we may conceive of the depth of His love and the value of even one soul for whom He paid the infinite price. Remove the cross from the Christian and it is like blotting out the sun which illumines the day, and dropping the stars and moon at night out of the firmament of the heavens.

“The cross of Christ brings us nigh to God, reconciling man to God, and God to man. The cross, the Father looks upon it, upon the suffering He has given His Son to endure in order to save the race from hopeless misery and to draw man to Himself—He looks upon it with the relenting compassion of a Father’s love. The cross has been almost lost sight of, but without the cross there is no connection with the Father, no unity with the Lamb in the midst of the throne in heaven, no welcome reception of the wandering who would return to the forsaken path of righteousness and truth, no hope for the transgressor in the day of judgment.

“Without the cross there is no means provided for overcoming the power of our strong foe. Every hope of the race hangs upon the cross. In full view of the cross, taking in all that it embraces, the Christian may advance with the step of a conqueror, for light is before him in the cross, shining amid the woeful, discouraging darkness that enshrouds the world. When the sinner has indeed reached by faith the foot of the cross, when he looks to Christ who was lifted up to save him, then he may rejoice, for he has pardon. In his prostration at the foot of the cross he has reached the highest elevation to which man can attain.” —Ellen G. White, Manuscript 58, August 14, 1900.

May the Lord help us to this end.

 

~Kelly Kinsley