SAT
21 JUL 01
It
says, rather bluntly, on the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s website: “Crucifixion was most frequently used to
punish political or religious agitators, pirates, slaves, or those who had no
civil rights. In 519 BC Darius I, king of Persia, crucified 3,000 political
opponents in Babylon; in 88 BC Alexander Jannaeus, the Judaean king and high
priest, crucified 800 Pharisaic opponents; and in about AD 32 Pontius Pilate
had Jesus of Nazareth put to death by crucifixion.”
Thousands
of people put to death in a rather brutal way.
Thousands of criminals executed for a variety of crimes. Thousands who shared a slow, gruesome death. But when we talk of crucifixion, we usually
think of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, as if it was the only
one. As if being crucified was what
made Jesus special. As if he was the one
horrendously tortured man instead of one among thousands.
So why
focus on this one man? What was so
special about His death? That’s the
subject of tonight’s investigation.
Let’s start in the obvious place – the day Jesus was crucified.
We’re
going to hear a reading now from Luke’s Gospel. If you take the sheet you should have got on the way in, it would
be really helpful if you could follow the reading. It describes Jesus crucifixion.
[Luke
23: 38-43] Great. Thank you very much.
Three
men, all being crucified. But three
very different men. Jesus, the focus of
attention, and two thieves. Jesus is
the focus, because he has spent much of the last three years performing
miracles and saying that He was God’s chosen King. And because of that, the authorities have decided to get rid of
Him. In fact, that is the “crime” for
which He is being punished. Which is
why it’s written on the sign above Him.
And here He is, looking rather helpless and not very much like a
King. In fact He looks in need of a
miracle or two Himself, as one of the thieves points out.
This
thief clearly thinks Jesus is finished.
His colleague, on the other hand, has a different view. He thinks Jesus is innocent and more, he
doesn’t think Jesus is finished. In
fact he thinks that Jesus has hardly begun.
D’you see where he says “Jesus, remember me when you come into your
kingdom.”? This thief believes
that Jesus is God’s King. This
thief thinks that Jesus’ attitude to Him counts. That Jesus is important for his future. And Jesus assures him of his future. “Today you will be with me in
Paradise.” i.e. heaven
Well,
that’s all very well, but how can Jesus possibly make such a claim? Isn’t He staring defeat in the face, on the
verge of death?
Well,
to see the answer, let’s rewind 24 hours.
We join Jesus with his twelve closest friends as they settle down to
dinner.
Take
your Matthew’s Gospels and turn to page… .
[Matthew 26: 19-29]
I want
to take three quick points from this passage.
Firstly,
as you can see in verse 19, they’re celebrating a special meal, called the
Passover. More of that later.
Secondly,
(verse 29) Jesus is confident of victory and that He’ll be in heaven.
Thirdly,
the bit which is most helpful for our investigation of why Jesus’ death is
special. Verses 26-28 “This is my
body” “This is my Blood”. Jesus is talking of his impending
death. He knows it’s going to
happen. And He knows why. Can you see where it tells us why? Look at verse 28. “This is my blood of the new covenant which is poured out for
many for the forgiveness of sins.” Jesus
believes that His death will pay for other people’s sins. But why, what is so special about Him?
Well,
we know that the Bible tells us He’s God’s Son and God’s final judge and ruler
– so he’s pretty special. OK. But that’s not all… The Bible also tells us that He’s something
seemingly very unglamorous. Have a look
at the handout. Do you see where it
says [1 Corinthians 5: 7b]? “Christ,
our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed”.
The author is telling us that Jesus is a lamb – a “Passover” lamb. OK, so is the author being fanciful or does
he really think Jesus is a cute if stupid little animal which gambols bleatingly
around a field? And what does the Bible
mean when it calls Jesus the “Lamb of God”?
And what’s this Passover thing that keeps cropping up? Well, we’ve already done a bit of
time-travel. Let’s do a little more and
rewind a further 1,300 years and move a couple of hundred miles south.
It’s
Ancient Egypt and Pharoah, (when he’s not building pyramids, windsurfing or
buying Harrods), is being your average tyrannical despot, and not being very
kind to his Israelite slaves. So God
explains to His people His Plan to get them out of slavery… As we read, watch for what a Passover lamb
is and does.
[Exodus
12: 1, 3-4, 6-8, 12-14, 21-23, 28-30]
OK,
did you spot what a Passover lamb does?
Firstly, what would have happened without the Passover lambs? They’d all have got zapped wouldn’t
they? Egyptians and Israelites and
all. But the Israelites didn’t get
zapped. Why? Because a lamb died in their place. They deserved judgment and a lamb died in their place. And the smearing of the blood on the doorposts
shows us that they were relying on the death of a lamb to be a substitute for
them. So that they wouldn’t be
punished. So that they would be saved.
Now
that’s a true story and it happened about 3,300 years ago. But it helps to explain the other story we
were looking at, the one that happened 2,000 years ago. Because although the Passover was a real
historical event, it also [because God’s clever like this] pointed to
Jesus. Jesus death was planned by
the authorities a few days before.
It was planned by God before the beginning of time. And the original Passover story helps us to
see what it’s all about. People are
facing judgment. All of us, as we heard
in Billy’s talk the other night. And
there’s nothing we can do about it.
Except.
Except
that Jesus, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. When Jesus died on the Cross, He wasn’t an ordinary robber, He
was God’s sacrifice to allow God’s people to be spared judgment. And in the same way that the Jews celebrated
the Passover every year afterwards, so Christians celebrate the even greater
Passover that happened that first Good Friday two thousand years ago.
Christians
celebrate the fact that because Jesus died, as a substitute for us, we don’t
have to face God’s wrath and judgment.
If. If we trust in Jesus
death. It wasn’t enough for the
Israelites just to hear that God had a plan, or even to have seen the dead
lamb. No, they had to trust that the
death of the lamb and that alone would save them. And they showed this by smearing the blood on their
doorposts. For us, we don’t have to
smear blood, but we do have to believe, to believe that Jesus’ death alone
saves us from God’s righteous anger at our sin.
What
does our investigation this evening mean to you?
Let’s
go back to where we began. Three men,
nailed to crosses. How do you see
them? Do you see them as a failed
would-be king in the middle, a deranged supporter wasting his last breaths, and
a realist? Or do you see God’s Passover
Lamb, a man who will be saved by the death of that Lamb, and a man who will
face judgment because he rejected that Lamb?
Do you
believe that Jesus’s death was a terrible act of the sort Amnesty International
rightly condemns? Or do you see it as
the one way you are saved from the penalty your sin deserves? The one way you get to call God
“Father”? The one way into the
best relationship you can ever have – the relationship for which you were made?