Sunday School Lesson 19

Once more, greetings again to all of you who are joining us now for the study of the Gospel.

Of Mark.

The Humiliation of Jesus and God’s Judgment in Mark 15

We, of course, are at the very end of the Gospel, we're in that section where Mark records for us the death and the resurrection of Jesus, his humiliation and his glory. And up to this point, we have walked with Jesus as he is mocked and scourged.

He has gone through the Sanhedrin, he's been tried before Pilate, he now is being nailed.

To a cross.

And in all of it, you find great humiliation as all of those around him mock him, including those who are crucified with him. And now in chapter 15, verse 33, is where we begin this week. You see God's complete judgment on his son.

Now I'm assuming, of course, that you have read the text already. And so we're going to look at that. Now before we do, let's just pray and ask God to bless our time together. Father, thank you for our time and I pray now that this would be profitable.

Help us to understand more of our Lord and Savior, Jesus, as we consider what you have recorded through Peter and Mark about his death. Thank you now as we look at this together, in Jesus' name, amen.

So now we come to verse 33 of chapter 15, and here you see God's complete judgment on.

His son.

Now darkness descends on the land from noon until three o 'clock in the afternoon. Here you find expressed the displeasure of God against his own people. Now the prophet Amos had already predicted this many centuries before.

In Amos chapter 8, verse 9, the prophet pictures this happening. And there he says, God presented himself to God's people and they rejected him. And here as well is God's judgment on his own son. Out of the darkness, Jesus raises his voice and he cries out in desolation.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? As he dies, Jesus cries out the very words that are recorded by David in Psalm 22, verse 1. But the words of David as he suffers takes on a whole new universe of meaning.

As Jesus, the son of God, the king, utters these words. Jesus' loneliness is now complete. From his agony in Gethsemane, through his trials, and even now, he has been without human support. But at least he had the comfort of the father's presence.

At Gethsemane, he questioned the will of the father, but at least he had the presence of his father. But now, he no longer has the presence of the father. That too is gone as the father turns away from his own son, repulsed by the sight of sin which he bears, punishing him in the sinner's place.

And Jesus experienced hell as he suffered the curse of the law, as the sins of God's people were heaped upon him and punished there. In that cry, note, in that cry, the horror of the world's sin and the cost of our salvation are revealed.

But the misunderstanding and the mocking continues. Now, Jesus cries out, Jesus cries out, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Here again, he is misunderstood.

The Hebrew word for my God is Eli, or Eli, as it is here. And so Jesus, again, he is misunderstood. Some wine vinegar cut with water is offered to Jesus. This may have been an act of kindness to relieve the pain.

But the response of the Jewish bystanders was anything but kind. Stop giving him something to drink. Let's see if Elijah will indeed save him. Now, in Jewish folklore, since Elijah did not die, remember in the Old Testament, Elijah did not die.

He was carried to heaven. He was carried through the skies in a chariot. And so in Jewish folklore, he was considered almost like a patron saint. Recall as well that the Old Testament said that Elijah would precede Messiah.

And we know from earlier in the book that Jesus clearly identified John the Baptist as the one who fulfilled the prophecy of Elijah preceding the Messiah. But these mockers stand there thinking that Jesus is calling out for Elijah to rescue him.

Or they think that Jesus is so deluded in his messianic pretensions that even now all he can think of is Elijah to come and prove that he is the Messiah. The last words Jesus hears before he dies, note, are words of ridicule and mocking.

The very last words in his ears before he dies are words of ridicule and mocking. Here you find the last snapshot of Israel's response to Jesus. At the end of the old era, the promised Messiah was rejected by his people who had no ears to hear and so misunderstood him.

At last, Jesus cries out one more time and he dies. But at that moment, you must see the dawning of a new age. The last snapshot of Israel's response to God in Christ is a nation that rejects him, refuses him, who will have nothing to do with him.

And as he dies, the old age passes and the new age dawns. Verses 38 and 39. Those who are in the temple courtyard across the way from Golgotha suddenly hear that heavy veil which separated the most holy place from the holy place.

They hear that veil rip, tear from top to bottom. And when that veil ripped, God pronounced judgment on the temple. No longer would it be the meeting place between God and man. No longer would man meet God in that place.

God says in that torn veil, it's over. The kingdom exclusive to Israel is now ended. When that veil ripped, God said, there is now immediate access to me through Jesus. Jesus is now the temple. Jesus now becomes the meeting place between God and man.

And through this one man's obedience, the sacrificial system is fulfilled and canceled. When Jesus died, there was no more payment to be made for sin. And so the temple now is useless. Jesus has fulfilled it all.

The dawning of a new era has come. The meeting place between God and man is now the person, Jesus. The temple can no longer serve that function. And so out of the darkness of that day comes free access to God.

The victory, the triumph of grace. Now, when all that transpires, the centurion in charge of the execution squad exclaims, surely he was the son of God. Now, why is this here? Why would Mark tell us about the centurion saying these words?

Here's why.

Jesus immediately produces conversions and in the most unlikely place, as opposed to the mocking of the Jewish bystanders, this Gentile soldier confesses Christ. Now again, in Psalm 22, verse 1, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

In that very Psalm, you find pictured, the very Psalm that pictures Jesus' desolation speaks of the world worshiping the Lord. In Psalm 22, verse 27, all the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord.

And all the families of the nations will bow down before him. For dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. The moment the veil ripped, the pagan world started coming to faith. And so the very first convert in this new age is what?

A Gentile, a Gentile sinner who confesses the true nature of Jesus. You know what else you see? You see certain women also there to the bitter end. And remember that women were not highly respected in Jewish society.

Now it's interesting and let's not lose sight of this, especially in our circles where we react against feminism, where we react against people who want to, in their view, elevate the position of women.

Those of us who tend to react ought to see this clearly. It is interesting that the disciples, the men, are nowhere to be found. That it was the women, those who supported the ministry of Jesus, who remained there to the end.

It's the women who remained there to the end. It's the women who were faithful to the end. But then God uses the lowly and the despised things of the world to shame the wise and the strong, doesn't he?

As he says in 1 Corinthians 1. And in the beginning of the new era, these women show what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. They show what it means to be a follower of Christ. One Christian writer put it this way, The Christians' main vocational responsibility is to be there.

Fidelity. Faithfulness. The twelve are conspicuous by their absence. But there were there some faithful women, standing a respectful distance away, watching everything. The quintessence of Christian discipleship is simply being there, showing up, not calling in sick, reporting for duty.

Fidelity.

In this gospel, the accolade heard by those pleasing the Lord is well done, good and faithful servant. Discipleship is what this new era is about. The faithful following of the Lord Jesus. The old era of Israel was the history of an unfaithful people, while the new era dawns with the story of committed, faithful disciples of Jesus.

Jesus’ Burial and the Empty Tomb

Now we come to the glory of Jesus. In chapter 15, verse 42, through chapter 16, verse 8. We are at the lowest ebb.

Jesus is dead.

These women have watched him die, and they have witnessed his burial. A man by the name of Joseph, from a village, a town called Arimathea, comes to claim the body of Jesus. He is a courageous man. Now, although he was a secret disciple of Jesus, by this action, he now identifies himself with Jesus, which no member of the Sanhedrin would do.

Remember, he's a member of the Sanhedrin. And so he comes and he claims the body of Jesus. He approaches the Roman governor to ask for the body of Jesus. Now, the Romans had a practice at crucifixion.

And that is, they would leave the bodies nailed to crosses until they rotted. They really wanted to make the point when they crucified someone, don't be like this person. But Joseph goes and asks Pilate for the body of Jesus, contrary to the Roman practice, contrary to what he knew is what they would want to do.

Pilate gave him the body of Jesus, and so he took it and he cared for it. Claiming it and taking responsibility for it, when none of the disciples would do that. And note, as you look at your text, those faithful women witnessed all of this.

They witnessed it all. They were there seeing it all. This is the lowest point, the point of complete defeat and humiliation. The deliverer is dead. He can no longer deliver. But then, then the glory of Jesus' resurrection bursts upon us.

The women who had seen him die, the very same women who saw him buried, are the ones who are the first to see him alive. Now notice, they had no idea what had happened. They had no idea what had happened.

The angel in the tomb is a messenger from God who gives them God's authoritative interpretation of the evidences. This is the explanation for the empty tomb. This is what they needed to hear. This is how they needed to understand.

They had no idea what had happened, and so God gives them the proper interpretation of what they see. This empty tomb shows that Jesus is alive. And the angel, who we assume is an angel, said to them, do not be alarmed.

You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.

And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. So here they are. The ones who had seen him die, the ones who had seen him buried, are now the ones who see that he's no longer in the grave.

By the way, let me just explain something to you. This is more than Jesus coming back to life. This is more than Jesus coming back to life. We have seen this in the scriptures before. Jesus raised people from the dead.

The prophets, Elijah, Elisha, raised people from the dead. Dead people had been raised. And so, but they were all raised to die again. Jesus has been raised in a body that is incorruptible, in a glorified body that will never die again.

This is a body from the age to come. This is the arrival of the end, if you will. The resurrection that the Orthodox Jewish people were looking for was a resurrection, not just a resuscitation of a corpse.

But now, what would come with a new and glorious age? Well, Jesus had arrived with a body from that age. This is something absolutely new. And the angel said, look, Jesus has risen from the dead.

He is alive.

Go tell his disciples. And there's a word of grace here to Peter. In his resurrection, Jesus wants communicated to Peter a word of grace. This risen Lord is a Lord of grace. This risen Lord is the one who ministers the grace of God to those who follow him.

And so suddenly, now, they are astonished. They are unbelievably alarmed, amazed, in bewilderment. And they go to tell Peter and the disciples, but they don't say anything to anyone else. And thus ends the Gospel of Mark.

Now, you might say, wait a minute, there's more here in my Bible. That's true, and you'll notice the note there. Some of the earliest manuscripts do not include verses 9 through 20. I believe that verse 8 is the last verse of the Book of Mark.

This amazing ending, where the people are amazed, and they're in wonder. And so that's where Mark leaves us. Now, look, I'm going to take one more session to explain to you the ending of the Book of Mark.

But until then, let's see this. This is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. He is alive. He is alive this very moment, from that day forward. He is alive in a human body. He is the God-man who reigns from heaven.

He is the one who is our Savior. And he is our Savior only because he's been raised from the dead. And so we can thank God that he gave us the Lord Jesus. And that by believing in him, we can be saved.

We can be reconciled to God. A dead person could not do that. If he had not been raised from the dead, his death would mean nothing other than here was a poor man who died a martyr's death. But because he's alive, God declared that his payment is sufficient.

And that he is alive today to save us. What an amazing gospel. What great news. Let's pray, shall we? Father, thank you again for all that you have done for us in Jesus. We thank you that you are still doing these things because he is alive.

And now intercedes for us, offers his sacrifice for us. We might be reconciled to you. Thank you for the Lord Jesus, who is our righteousness. Who is our wisdom. Who is our redemption this very moment.

Thank you, in Jesus' name.

Amen.