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Good evening. Let’s pray, as we sang just now:

Holy Spirit living Breath of God…Cause your word to come alive in usGive us faith for what we cannot see…Holy Spirit breathe new life in us.In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Please take a seat. So, we come to Mark 15.21-47, and to the crucifixion of the Son of God. As a matter of a fact I find that I can never come to preaching about the crucifixion of Jesus without trepidation. Why? Because it is both so horrendous and so glorious, and because no words can begin to do justice to it. So maybe the best policy is just to be rather matter-fact-about it. That’s really what Mark’s Gospel does. There is no attempt to hype up the suffering of Jesus or the horror of the torture he underwent. There’s just a spare, concise account. For all that, though, it is a multi-layered account, full of significant detail. I want us to come at it through the simple framework for understanding the cross of Christ that the apostle Paul gives us in 1 Corinthians 15.1-4. He summarises there the heart of the gospel message that will turn the world upside down. He says this:

Now I would remind you, brothers [and sisters], of the gospel I preached to you, which you received…and by which you are being saved…For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…

So what is of first importance is that, like Paul, we receive this, and then that we deliver it (pass it on) to others and to the next generation. First importance. That is to say, there is nothing – nothing at all in your life, or in my life, more important than this. I want us to see the four key elements of the crucifixion that Paul draws attention to; Christ died, he died for our sins, and he died in accordance with the Scriptures. Then he was buried. So that’s fact, interpretation, fulfilment – and then the burial. So let’s take each one of those in turn:

1. “Christ died…”

The emphasis here is on the fact of the crucifixion. This is history, not just a gripping story. The historical details that Mark recounts are accurate. They are not comprehensive – this sparse and concise account is highly selective. There is a good deal more in the other gospels. But what we have here is true.

When I watch a TV programme or a film based on true events, I have a habit afterwards of doing some research into what exactly in the programme was true and what was not. I recently watched a Netflix series called Toxic Town about a pollution scandal in Corby in the East Midlands. Some of the detail in it I didn’t need to research. I knew it was accurate. Why? Because we lived there at the time. We saw it. We remember it. We were eyewitnesses. What we have here are eyewitness accounts. Let me give you one or two examples. A man called Simon of Cyrene was forced to carry the cross for Jesus on the way to his crucifixion – no doubt because after his scourging, Jesus was no longer physically able to do so. But there is some beautiful detail in Mark 15.21:

And they compelled a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.

He had just come in from the outlying country, and he had two sons – Alexander and Rufus by name. How does Mark know that? The best answer seems to be that Simon told the church, presumably because he became a believer himself. In fact Paul later writes in Romans 16.3, as he’s signing off his letter:

Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well.

Is that the family of Simon of Cyrene? We’ll know when we get to heaven. But what we can know now is that these are real people experiencing real events. And there are other clear indications of where eyewitness accounts could have come from. Mark 15.40-41:

There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him…

Some of the women who knew Jesus were there watching him die. No doubt what they saw and heard was seared for ever into their memories. The same applies to the burial (Mark 15.47):

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

They saw it happen. They knew his tomb. There are details here of times and places that have the ring of truth. Jesus was crucified (Mark 15.22):

…at the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull).

I went to Jerusalem to a conference and I was blessed to meet a leading scholar of the archaeology of Jerusalem at the time of Christ. He had spent years researching. He said that the traditional site of the crucifixion, just outside the walls of the ancient city, was highly likely to be the spot where Jesus died. One other example of evidence for the reliability of the Gospel accounts. In 1961 an inscribed limestone block was unearthed at Caesarea. On it was carved:

Pontius Pilate…Prefect of Judea…

Physical evidence corroborating the written accounts of the man who condemned Jesus to death. What we have here in Mark’s Gospel are reliable eye-witness accounts. The Christian faith is founded on historical events. So be confident of the facts. Christ died.

2. “Christ died for our sins…”

Facts are vital. But so is interpretation. What is the significance of the facts? What do they mean? We trust (with good reason) that the Bible accounts are God’s word written. So, the interpretation of the facts given here comes from God. God tells us what the death of Jesus of Nazareth means. That meaning is to be found throughout the Bible. The Apostle Paul’s statement that Christ died for our sins is but one example of that. But the meaning of the death of Jesus is stitched into Mark’s account too. To use weaving terminology, if the facts are the warp of this cloth, the interpretation of the facts is the woof. Facts and interpretation together make up the fabric of the Gospel account. Again, let me give you some examples. These Gospel accounts of the crucifixion are full of irony, and it’s deeply ironic that it is the killers of Jesus who unwittingly make clear here who it is that they are killing. So Pontius Pilate has that sign nailed on to the cross (Mark 15.26):

And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.”

Vicious sarcasm and provocation of the Jews is intended but it’s true. Dying here is the King of God’s chosen people, some of whom are among those killing him. And those very people themselves sarcastically and cruelly confirm this identification. Mark 15.31-32:

So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.”

He is the Christ. Not any king, but God’s chosen and anointed eternal King. Then the very man who is in charge of the brutal process of crucifixion, once Jesus has died, no doubt without fully understanding what he was saying, adds another dimension to our understanding of whose dead body hangs there. Mark 15.39:

And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

This man from Nazareth who was hanging there was God’s anointed Messiah, and God’s own Son. Fully man. Fully God. Why then was he hanging there? Last week Ramzi spoke about the great exchange that is taking place, symbolised by the freedom that is given to the murderer Barabbas in exchange for the death of the sinless Christ. Do listen to that if you missed it. Maybe there’s a hint of that here when Jesus refuses the anaesthetising wine. Mark 15.23:

And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.

Jesus knows that he already has a cup to drink – the cup of God’s holy and just wrath against sinners, which he is drinking in our place. That is why Jesus prays at the Garden of Gethsemane (this is Mark 14.36):

“Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

And what does it mean for Jesus to drink this cup? We can hear that in the cry that Jesus gives from the cross. Mark 15.34:

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

The Son of God forsaken by God the Father. God forsaking God. God forsaken by God. Ever since my early teen years when God took hold of my life through the gospel of the cross and resurrection, I have never understood how it is that at this God-forsaken moment the entire cosmos did not implode.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Why? As Jesus knew, it was for our sins. To set us free from sin, and Satan and death. It was the only way. And the nature of that freedom he paid for is so vividly shown by what happens in the Temple. Mark 15.37-38:

And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

That closed curtain into the Holy of Holies, the dwelling place of God on earth, unpassable for unholy sinners Jewish and Gentile alike, symbolised how our sin separates us from the living God. It was torn from the top. Only God could do that. And it was torn from top to bottom, leaving it wide open for anyone to go through. The death of Jesus has opened the way for us to return to our heavenly Father, and given us open access to the throne of grace for all eternity. So why did Jesus die? Christ died for our sins. Be confident of the facts. Be thankful for the reason.

3. “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures…”

Facts. Interpretation. And then, fulfilment. Christ died in accordance with the Scriptures. The crucifixion of the Son of God was the vilest sin and the greatest crime humanity has ever and will ever commit. It was also, at the same time, from beginning to end, all in God’s plan for the salvation of the world. That is the mystery of God’s sovereign power and purposes. His prophets had been prophesying about it for centuries. That too is so clear in Mark’s account. So for instance, Mark 15.24:

And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take.

Written a thousand years before by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, giving voice to God’s anointed King as he is killed, here is Psalm 22.17-18:

I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me;they divide my garments among them,and for my clothing they cast lots.

Then Mark draws attention in Mark 15.27 to how:

…with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left.

And as he does so he surely has in mind Isaiah 53.12, where the prophet prophecies about the Suffering Servant of God:

he poured out his soul to deathand was numbered with the transgressors;yet he bore the sin of many…

Then Jesus himself, as he cries from the cross “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” is directly quoting from Psalm 22 and applying it to himself.

Our daughter Katy has in her little green Gateshead garden a cherry tree that’s in the wrong place. But every time it is cut down, it keeps coming up again. It has deep and powerful roots. The more we understand the Old Testament prophecies and promises fulfilled in these New Testament events, the deeper go the roots of our faith. And those deep roots help to make our faith in Jesus indestructible however hard Satan’s stratagems and the suffocating pressure of our Godless culture try to squeeze the life out of it. God fulfils his promises. His timing is not ours. He might wait centuries. But what God says will happen, one day happens.

Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. Be confident of the facts. Be thankful for the reason. Believe God’s promises. Then:

4. “…he was buried”

1 Corinthians 15:3-4:

I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried…

There’s a powerful comment about the quiet disciple Joseph of Arimathea in Mark’s account of how Joseph took possession of the body of Jesus. Mark 15.42-43:

And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the Council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

Joseph must have known that what he was about to do was potentially dangerous, making him a marked man, because he was identifying himself with the followers of Jesus. But he didn’t let that stop him. He took courage. And went. And spoke up. He was, says Mark, a respected member of the Council. But by this move he was jeopardising that respectability for the sake of Jesus. If we are not only going to receive but also deliver on to others the good news of Christ crucified and risen, we’re going to need to take a leaf out of Joseph’s book. We too need to take courage. Take courage to follow Jesus faithfully.

On that visit to Jerusalem I mentioned, our scholar guide took us into an ancient blackened room in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, told us that not many people came to it, and indicated a low doorway cut in the stone wall. He invited us to bend down and look through. Inside were tombs cut into the solid rock. Not, he said, possibilities for the tomb Jesus was laid in, but nonetheless similar tombs dating from the same period. Breath-taking. Mark 15.46:

And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking [Jesus] down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.

A tomb brings home the reality and finality of death. So does Mark. Look back up to what he says in Mark 15.44-45:

Pilate was surprised to hear that [Jesus] should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph.

Died. Dead. Dead. Corpse. Jesus was dead. Mark brings home to us the reality and finality of death. Final, that is, apart from the defeat of death and glorious resurrection. But that’s for next week. Let’s pray:

Heavenly Father, we praise and thank you for Jesus, who died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was buried. Help us by the power of your Spirit, and by trusting your word, to be confident in the facts of his death; to be thankful for the reason for it; to be full of faith in your promises; and to be ready to overcome our fears and take courage to follow him faithfully. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, Amen.