Remembering the Cross
Text: Matthew 27:15-54
Please turn in your Bibles and read with me Hebrews 12:1,2
It is wonderful for us to be together today doing what we have been doing in remembering the
events that changed everything! This Lord’s Day we have paid special attention on the Friday of
that great weekend so long ago in the land of Israel at a place called Calvary.
Many people’s
lives are expressed (at least events in the lives) by their relation to a life-changing
experience. You will hear people talk about it must have been before 1993 because it was before
I…you can fill in the blank. Cancer, death, birth, car-wreck, new job whatever it is we
experience major things in our lives and our lives become divided in two.
Part 1- is all summed up as before such and such.
Part 2- after such and such.
We also understand that not only for individuals is this true, but also countries. Wars,
famines, depressions, civil unrest can have a similar effect on a nation as it does on us
individually. The entire world for that matter is no different. There is one word that has
divided our history as a planet and that word is: cross!
Perhaps no greater proof could be given concerning the impact that one Friday so many years ago
had on the world than the fact that today we mark significant events by their distance from the
cross!
As we have sung those beautiful songs and remembered the cross as we are called to around
this table what does it all mean?
The thing that has become our symbol and we see it on chains and even baseball players make the
sign of it before batting makes us stop today and ask why?
Why does the word cross have such significance even 2000 years later?
How do we remember the cross today?
Over 10 years ago my aunt had described for me this book she had read concerning a man’s
recollection of his childhood. One of these memories was going to his grandmother’s country
church. It seemed on this one summer morning- a hornet’s nest was up in the ceiling of the old
building and the singing had kind of got them stirred up that when it was time to pass out the
bread & the wine that a lot of the people had been stung. The writer then paused and made the
observation that maybe for the very first time the people got a little taste of what it was like
for Jesus to have the nails pressed into his hands & feet!
What would it be like for us if we got a taste of the cross?
Today as mentioned crosses are everywhere to be found- on pictures, church buildings &
jewelry. There’s nothing wrong with this of course but many people don’t realize that for the
first couple of centuries after Jesus died- the church did not depict the cross as art.
C.S. Lewis said “The crucifixion did not become common in art until all who had seen a real
one died off.”1
What would it be like for us to get a taste of the cross?
You know, before I die my one dream in this life above all others would be to go to
Jerusalem and walk the Via Dolorosa (the way of sorrow). To simply retrace the steps Jesus took
as he left his trial and walked to his death. What I was kind of hoping we could do is to
place ourselves back in those days and do that very thing this morning!
The Bible is amazing for many reasons but one of the things you will find is that when it
tells the story of Jesus it is quite different than other biographies of great and influential
men. Most people’s stories deal more with their lives than their deaths, but Jesus is different.
(Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Moses, Elijah, Peter & Paul)
For some reason, the four gospels really slow down when it comes to the final week of Jesus’
life. They spend 25 chapters plus dealing with this. Why?
Because it is the final act of his life that he came for!
I don’t want to deal with the entire week this morning; I want us to begin with the night
before.
Read with me Matthew 26:36-50….
Now, we find Jesus in one of the most intense moments of his life up to this point. We begin to
see Jesus as more than just the miracle maker & mighty God that He was. He was also the Son of
Man! He goes to the garden of Gethsemane there to pour out his heart to His Father and he
takes his inner circle: Peter, James & John and then prays to His Father-
‘if it is possible- let this cup pass from me- nevertheless not as I will, but as you will.’
Then, after this agonizing session in prayer- he announces to the three that the one who was
going to betray him is near!
How sad was this?
It is his friend!
What was troubling him so?
Fear of death & pain?
Perhaps these were there, but just for a moment try to figure out if something else could have
been there as well?
In less than 24 hours Jesus goes through no less than 6 different ‘trials’ and as far as we know
receives no sleep.
Finally, at the last Pilate asks the people what he should do with Christ and they simply yell
‘crucify him’, ‘crucify him’!
Now, the Jews hated crucifixion. It was the most shameful death that one could possibly endure.
Deut.21:23- God himself declared that a man hanging was cursed!
Jesus must endure the cross! He must endure a shameful- humiliating death.
Read with me Matthew 27:27-31
Now, Jesus even before being put on the tree had to go through the painful ordeal of scourging
and then they crucified him!
If you can, just imagine as they get to the place of the skull (Golgotha), Jesus is laid down and
his arms are stretched out. Now, we know that Jesus is doing all this with remarkable
submission. He has come for this very purpose (John 12:27). He could have resisted, he could
have fought back (Matthew 26:53). And as his arms are stretched out an old Roman nail is
placed at the appropriate spot on Jesus hand and driven right through. And as the pain is
searing through him- the same goes with the other arm and finally the legs. Once this is done
Jesus is hoisted up and left to suffer & die! All the while this is happening people walk by
spitting and cursing and mocking him. Some even challenge him and yet, he does nothing!
‘God is on a cross. The creator of the universe is being executed. Spit and blood are
caked to his cheeks, and his lips are cracked and swollen. Thorns rip his scalp. His lungs
scream with pain. His legs knot with cramps. Taut nerves threaten to snap as pain twangs her
morbid melody. Yet, death is not ready. And there is no one to save him, for he is sacrificing
himself.
It is no normal six hours…it is no normal Friday.
Far worse than the breaking of his body is the shredding of his heart.
His own countrymen clamored for his death.
His own disciple planted the kiss of betrayal.
His own friends ran for cover.
A witness could not help but ask:
Jesus, do you give no thought to saving yourself?
What keeps you there?
What holds you to the cross?
Nails don’t hold gods to trees. What makes you stay?’2
From what we know about the cross- Jesus hung on the cross for 6 hours. 3 of those hours
the scene was simply dark. We also know that Jesus spoke 7 messages that are recorded for us.
3 were spoken before the darkness and 4 were spoken afterwards.
There are three cries I want us to focus on:
Matthew 27:46- the only cry the original writers left in the original language.
‘My God, My God why have you forsaken me?’
This is the only time that Jesus ever addressed God above as God and not Father! As we think
back to the time of Gethsemane and the anguish that Jesus was feeling- perhaps some of it had to
do with this idea of being God-forsaken! As Jesus was bearing the full weight of the cross-
he was also bearing the full weight of all our sins and becoming that curse! (2 Cor.5:21,
Galatians 3:13)
Don’t you find God’s self-restraint amazing here?
We wonder at times where God is when evil acts out in our lives. Where was God during 9-11?
Where is God when children are being abandoned and hurt?
Where was God when Hitler, Stalin and many more like them are wreaking havoc on their people
with seemingly no resistance?
None of these questions come close to the question of where exactly was God when His own Son was
crying on the tree?
You know what, who cares if the newspaper boy doesn’t say hi back to me if I see him in the mall?
Who cares if someone I know fairly well is in to big a rush to pay attention to me?
What would it mean if I got a message from the school or the hospital saying my daughter was
dying and she just needed me to hold her and I didn’t bother answering?
How could God hold back when Jesus was suffering in such an unjust way?
What does this tell us about the cross?
Luke 23:34- Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
You ever wonder when Jesus said these words?
Did he say them a little while into the experience?
Did he say them just as the nails were being driven?
Whenever it was the plain fact is that Jesus was saying it! The plain fact of the cross and the
reason God remained silent is that there was no other way for our sins to be forgiven than
through the blood of the old rugged cross!
We sing ‘the old rugged cross’. We would never think of singing I love the old gas chamber, or I
love that old electric chair or I’ll cherish the hangman’s noose. But because of who died
there and why he died there and how he died there I can sing with every ounce of my being that I
love that old cross where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain.
Jesus prayed Father forgive them, and the answer was I have through your blood.
John 19:30- It is finished and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
What did Jesus mean by this?
God’s eternal plan to save man had found its completion! God’s plan to destroy the power of sin
had been fulfilled.
In language for you and I:
there is an end to being down & out!
It is amazing that God chose the way of weakness to make us strong. God chose the path of
hopelessness to bring us hope. God chose the suffering on the cross to bring us the glory of
His throne.
There is a story Jesus told just before he died about a king who prepared a wedding feast and
all the people he invited refused to come. Instead of canceling the feast he gave an instruction
to his servants:
Matt.22:9,10- invite all you can both good & bad to come to the wedding feast.
My friends, when Jesus uttered those words ‘it is finished’ it was not just a sign that the
horrible suffering on the cross was coming to an end. But also, a sign that the horrible
suffering for you and I could also come to an end.
God didn’t just love the rich, the good, the perfect American family; it says He loved the
world.
God put an end to injustice & unfair treatment having the last say.
God put an end to the ideas of second class or not being worthy.
God put an end to once you’ve fallen you can’t get back up.
‘It is finished’ and through the cross, that terrible instrument of pain & torture Jesus offers
us all an opportunity to live with him in glory!
2 Cor.5:21-
Are you ready?
1. Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995)
p.202,203
2. Max Lucado, Six Hours one Friday (Oregon: Multnomah Books, 1989) p.20,21
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