Behold the Lamb! (Mark 15:37-39)

When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he proclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” It was during this same time that a voice came from heaven and said of Jesus, “You are My beloved Son; I take delight in You!” These were the proclamations at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry, but it was during the last week of Jesus’s life, Passover Week, that we realize what it meant to be the Lamb of God.

There was great excitement in Jerusalem. Many people from all over the country had arrived in Jerusalem, and they were all looking for Jesus. “What do you think? He won’t come to the festival, will He” (John 11:56)? Imagine the thrill of the crowd when Jesus and His disciples joined the throng of pilgrims streaming into Jerusalem. They cut branches; they spread their coats to make a path for Him as He neared the city. They cried out: “Hosanna! He who comes in the name of the Lord is the Blessed One—the King of the Jews” (John 12:13) *Unwittingly, the crowds chose their Passover lamb on the day the sacrificial lambs were to be chosen.

Exodus 12:5 taught that the Passover Lamb must be without blemish. It was the responsibility of the religious leaders to examine the lambs brought for Passover. Only a perfect, spotless and unblemished lamb would be acceptable. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, Herodians, and scribes each took turns examining Him. They were looking for blemishes, trying to expose a flaw that would disqualify Jesus as the Messiah. However, no one could find any fault in Him. He was without blemish.

On Friday as Jesus hung on the cross, the Temple was crowded with the pilgrims who had brought their lambs to be slain for Passover. At 3 in the afternoon the sound of the shofar would be heard along with the priests chanting, “The cords of death entangled me...precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Righteous One...Open for me the Gates of Righteousness...The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” (Psalm 113-118). *The dead lambs were hung on hooks, forearms spread in a crucifixion pose as they were skinned and prepared for roasting. At 3 in the afternoon Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed His last.

“Then the curtain of the sanctuary was split in two from top to bottom” (Mark 15:38). Behind that veil was the Holy of Holies, the mercy seat, and access to the very throne of God. By the blood of the lamb we may enter into this throne room. Through the lens of Revelation we can look at the throne. There we see the Lamb who is at the center of the throne, and He is there as a shepherd who leads those who enter by His blood to living waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Behold the Lamb! Behold the Son of God in whom He delighted and sent to take away our sins. This same Father will one day wipe away every tear. Behold, the love of God!

*Sar Shaalom Passover Lamb KOEHN 

Seeing the Cross Through a Prophetic Lens (Mark 15:22-36)

“Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot futile things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers assembled together against the Lord and against His Messiah, saying, ‘Let us tear off their chains and free ourselves from their restraint’” (Psalm 2:1-3). By nine in the morning in the city of Jerusalem, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, had assembled together against Jesus; Jesus, who God the Father had declared to be His beloved son in whom He took delight.

In “The Psalm of the Cross” we hear through prophetic voice the words of Jesus when He cried, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me” (Psalm 22:1)? In this Psalm we hear the voice of Him who was adored by angels cry, “Everyone who sees me mocks me; they sneer and shake their heads: ‘He relies on the Lord; let Him rescue him, since He takes pleasure in him’” (Psalm 22:7,8).

Through this prophetic Psalm we not only hear the prayers that Christ cried out from the cross, but we hear the cruel mocking, the scornful ridicule of those who shot out their lips and wagged their heads at Him. In His agony He was surrounded by derisive laughter. As the Saviour hung with His arms wide open. Priest and people, Jews and Gentiles, soldiers and civilians, all united to ridicule Him as He hung dying.

Though the gospel writers don’t go into details of the excruciating pain that Jesus suffered, “The Psalm of the Cross” does. “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed; my heart is like wax, melting within me. My strength is dried up like baked clay; my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth... They pierce my hands and my feet” (Psalm 22:14-16). The Psalm goes on to to tell us, “People look and stare at me. They divided my garments among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothing” (Psalm 22:17,18) *The first Adam made us all naked, and therefore the second Adam became naked that he might clothe our naked souls.

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:4,5). Sometimes to understand what you are looking at you have to see it through the prophetic lens of Scripture.

*The Treasury of David by Charles H. Spurgeon 

Whose Cross Was Simon Carrying? (Mark 15:21)

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” This quote from John Lennon came back to me as I considered the encounter that Simon, a Cyrenian, had with Jesus when Jesus was on His way to Golgotha. “They forced a man coming in from the country, who was passing by, to carry Jesus’ cross” (Mark 15:21). How random. What an example of bad luck! If only Simon had lingered over breakfast, or if he could have quickened his pace, he might have escaped this misfortune.

Cyrene is the present-day Libya. It is probable that he had made the journey of almost 800 miles to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem. He was “coming in from the country,” he was “passing by.” There is no indication that he wanted anything to do with this gruesome execution. However, he was forced to lay aside his plans and take up the cross of Christ. He was not in charge of his destiny. Who was in charge? 

If we look at this scene from simply a human perspective, it appears that his plans were hijacked by the tyranny of Rome. But if we use the lens of Scripture we see a different picture. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delights in his way” (Psalm 37:23). Look at what this verse is telling us. It is not only the path that is directed, it is the steps. His steps led him directly to the cross of Christ. 

Jesus had taught His disciples that if anyone wanted to come with Him that he must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Jesus. We know from the gospel of Luke that the soldiers seized Simon, put the cross on him, and made him carry the cross behind Jesus. Perhaps, as with all the other disciples, it wasn’t Simon who chose Jesus, but Jesus who chose Simon.

Whose cross was Simon of Cyrene carrying? Was it his cross or was it Jesus’ cross? The answer is, both. Every morning I pray a verse from the book of Philippians. My prayer is that I might know Christ the Messiah intimately. I ask that I might know His resurrection power. Last of all I ask that I might share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death. Jesus Christ laid aside His celestial robe and instead He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. Today, Jesus still invites anyone who would follow Him to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Him. We know Simon’s name because the Sovereign Lord knew Simon’s name. He knows the name of all who follow Him. 

The Shame of the Cross (Mark 15:15-20)

“He was like one people turned away from; He was despised, and we didn’t value Him” (Isaiah 53:3). From among the twelve that Jesus chose to be His closest followers, one betrayed Him, all forsook Him, and Peter denied that he knew Him. When Jesus revealed to the Sanhedrin that He was the Messiah, “They all condemned Him to be deserving of death. Then some began to spit on Him, to blindfold Him, and to beat Him saying, ‘Prophesy.’ Even the temple police took Him and slapped Him” (Mark 14:64). Why did Jesus endure this?

When He was judged before Pilate as the King of the Jews, the crowd chose a murderer to be released instead of Jesus. Pilate handed Jesus over to be flogged and then crucified. “Then the soldiers led Him away into the courtyard (that is, headquarters) and called the whole company together. They dressed Him in a purple robe, twisted together a crown of thorns, and put it on Him. And they began to salute Him, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ They kept hitting Him on the head with a reed and spitting on Him. Getting down on their knees, they were paying Him homage. When they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the purple robe, put His clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him” (Mark 15:15-20). Why didn’t Jesus stop them?

Only in the honor-shame culture values of the New Testament can we begin to fully appreciate the suffering of the Messiah. Why did He do it? “Yet He Himself bore our sickness, and He carried our pains, but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; the punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds. We all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished Him for the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-6).

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). It’s been a year since I’ve seen my only son Andrew. The week before he was to return to the United States, I received word that because of Covid-19 he would be unable to come home. I will need to wait several more months to see him. With this longing in my heart for my son, I consider the love of God the Father when He sent His son to atone for my sins.

Jesus was cursed, shamed, scorned and humiliated. Why? We find the answer in Hebrews 12:2: “Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne.” Jesus had come as the Messiah to bring salvation. He had come to declare the coming of the kingdom of God. Jesus accomplished these things on the cross. On the cross Jesus bore our sickness and carried our pain. We are healed by His wounds and through His sacrificial love we find ourselves welcomed into the kingdom of God!

With Crimson Wings (Mark 15:1-15)

He had been tried, found guilty, and was condemned to death. Not just any death, but the torturous, cruel death of crucifixion. He had no hope. All he could do was to wait. He knew his guilt, he knew the condemnation that was his. What he didn’t know was that there was someone who would go to the cross in his place. Isaiah 53 had spoken of a Savior who would be “pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Barabbas experienced the fulfillment of this prophecy in his encounter with Jesus Christ.

Jesus had been declared undeserving of death by Pilate. Yet, when Barabbas’s shackles were removed and he had been declared free, his ears were filled with the cry, “Crucify him!” The crowd was not, however, crying for his crucifixion. It was demanding instead that Jesus be crucified. Barabbas hadn’t been one of Jesus’s followers, and yet Jesus took Barabbas’s place on the cross. When I think of this I’m reminded of Romans 5:8: “But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” What was true for Barabbas is true for me; it’s true for you.

Barabbas is acquitted while the sinless Savior dies. In the Old Testament when a someone was cured of leprosy there was a rite of cleansing  that involved two birds. *The one bird was killed, and its blood was poured into a basin; the other bird was dipped in this blood, and then, with its wings all crimson, it was set free to fly into the open field.

The bird slain well pictures the Savior, and every soul that has by faith been dipped in His blood flies upward towards heaven singing sweetly in joyful liberty, owing its life and liberty entirely to Him who was slain. It comes to this—Barabbas must die, or Christ must die; you the sinner must perish, or Christ, Immanuel, the Immaculate, must die.*

This is the gospel. We soar on crimson wings. This is the place we must return to again and again. This is truth we are called to walk in. When our enemy tempts us to despair by reminding us of our guilt and shame, we are to remember that because the sinless Saviour died, our sinful soul has been counted free. Every day we are to tell ourselves the gospel and soar on crimson wings.

• *Barabbas preferred to Jesus by Charles Spurgeon

 

•  https://youtu.be/4MUNywhsZPU

The Choice (Mark 15:6-15)

They had a choice between a man who had led a violent uprising against the authority of Rome and in the process had committed murder, or Jesus. Jesus who had said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which spitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). During Jesus’ ministry He had taught them to *suffer any injury that could be borne, for the sake of peace, committing your concerns to the Lord’s keeping. 

Rome was not the first country to enslave the children of Israel. They had spent 400 years in bondage to Egypt. God appointed Moses to lead His people to freedom. When Moses was forty years old he had committed murder in an attempt to rescue and avenge his Israelite brother from an Egyptian, but this was not God’s chosen way. Release from Egypt did not come by a violent uprising and murder. Instead, God’s people were set free by the shed blood of the Passover lamb.

“At the festival it was Pilate’s custom to release for the people a prisoner they requested” (Mark 15:6). What was the festival? It was the Passover. The lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world stood before them. But He had no form or majesty that the people could see, even though Pilate presented Him as “the King of the Jews.” He stood before them having spent the night being spit at and abused, and He had no beauty that would soften the heart of the mob. They despised Him and rejected Him. 

The choice was made. “Give us Barabbas!” Give us a man who will fight against the heel of Rome. Give us a man willing to murder in his zeal. And what about Jesus? When Pilate asked the mob they shouted, “Crucify Him!” “Then Pilate said to them. ‘Why? What has He done wrong?’ But they shouted, ‘Crucify Him!’ all the more” (Mark 15:14). How did Jesus respond? “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). 

When I was a child my grandmother taught me the Bible verse, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). I struggled with this verse. I wanted to gain eternal life on my own merit and by my own efforts. Again the Bible says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). In the presence of the lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world, how many will cry, “Give us Barabbas”?

*Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary 

Decide (Mark 15:1-15)

Things are not always as they appear. The Sanhedrin tied Jesus up and led Him away, and handed Jesus over to Pilate. Why? They had judged Him guilty of blasphemy and they wanted Pilate to judge Jesus deserving of death. Pilate looked at the man standing before him. He was bound, with fresh bruising on his spit-stained face, and Pilate asked, “Are You the King of the Jews” (Mark 15:2)? 

What does it mean to judge? To judge is to decide. Jesus now stood before Pilate, and he had to decide what to do with this man. When Jesus stood before the high priest and claimed to be the Son of Blessed One, the high priest had judged Jesus to be deserving of death. Pilate didn’t seem to be as anxious to put Jesus to death. When the crowd pressured him to crucify Jesus he asked, “Why? What has He done wrong” (Mark 15:14)?

I believe that we are all in the position of Pilate. We must all make a decision about what we are going to do with Jesus Christ. At some point in our lives we must all judge the claims of Jesus. We know from the book of John that Jesus told Pilate that His kingdom was not of this world. Jesus even told Pilate that He was born for the purpose of the kingdom. When Jesus had begun His ministry, He had proclaimed that the kingdom of God was near. Pilate tried to wash his hands of this judgment. He didn’t want to make the decision about what to do with Jesus Christ.

In not making a decision he made a decision. Why do we even know the name of Pontius Pilate? He would have been an insignificant blip in history except for his encounter with Jesus Christ. He is memorialized in the Nicene Creed when it says, “He suffered under Pontius Pilate.” Jesus told Pilate, “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37). The truth was and is on trial. No one can escape judgment.

Pontius Pilate saw a man standing before him waiting for judgment. In truth it was Pontius Pilate standing before the Judge. Everyone will one day give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. Pilate tried to escape judgment by turning his back on Jesus and asking, “What is truth” (John 18:38)? But, when he turned his back on Jesus, he made his decision.

Sifted (Mark 14:54,66-72)

Do you know what it means to be sifted? It’s a farming term, a process by which the wheat is agitated or shaken until the chaff is separated from the grain. Jesus told Peter that Satan, the prince of evil, had asked permission to have Peter so that he could sift him like wheat. This is reminiscent of a scene from the book of Job where Satan asks permission to test Job. With Peter, as with Job, Satan was given permission to sift them like wheat.

Those God has allowed to be sifted are forever changed; changed in how they see themselves as well as how they see God. At the end of Job’s season of testing he declared, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5,6). How was this true for Peter since his eyes did see Jesus, God incarnate? How was Peter’s view of both himself and Jesus forever changed after the prince of evil had finished sifting him?

On the night before His crucifixion Jesus had told His disciples, “All of you will run away, because it is written; I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered” (Mark 14:27). Peter was indignant. Hadn’t Jesus Himself changed his name from Simon, meaning “reed,” to Peter, meaning “rock”? Peter insisted, “Even if everyone runs away, I will certainly not” (Mark 14:29)! Jesus responded to Peter and said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat” (Luke 22:31). However, if there was one thing Peter was sure of, it was his love for and his devotion to Jesus, so he told Jesus, “If I have to die with You, I will never deny You” (Mark 14:31)! Peter’s understanding of who he was and his relationship to Jesus was forever changed that very night.

When the mob came with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders, to take Jesus by force, just as Jesus had said, Peter and all the disciples deserted Him and ran away. However, Peter followed at a distance, right into the high priest’s courtyard. The predawn chill and the horror of what was taking place chilled Peter to the core of his being, and he sought warmth by sitting with the temple police by a charcoal fire. Jesus was being spit on, beaten and slapped by the very ones with whom Peter had been warming himself. What was Peter doing? He began to deny Jesus to a slave girl. The third time Peter denied Jesus he did it by cursing and swearing an oath. Immediately, the rooster crowed. At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Jesus’ words flashed through Peter’s mind. Peter was shaken to the depth of his being, and he wept bitterly.

Jesus gave Satan permission to sift Peter but not to destroy him. After the resurrection there was another charcoal fire where Peter warmed himself. The sense of smell, probably more than any of our other senses, is closely linked to memory and can trigger emotions. It was here that Jesus asked Peter three times if Peter loved Him. Peter didn’t use the same Greek word for love that Jesus used. The experience by the charcoal fire where he had warmed himself with temple police and had denied Jesus had humbled him. Peter now had a clearer understanding of who he was and who Jesus was. It was here, with the smell of the charcoal fire in his nostrils, that Jesus redeemed the memory of Peter’s greatest failure. Peter had been sifted, now Peter could strengthen his brothers and shepherd Jesus’s sheep.