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Series: The Cross
"Truly, this man
was God's Son!"
Mark
15:33-41
"... when the centurion,
who stood facing him,
saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said,
'Truly this man was God's Son!'"
Introduction
There is a new symbol on
Canberra's sky. Some like it and some don't.
It is the Great Cross at the
Australian Christian Centre in Barton. You see it well when you drive
over King's Bridge. It is not as tall as the Australian/American
"Eagle" in Russell or as the Flagpole of Parliament house. But
it is tall – 25 m!
Some don't like it, because they see the
Cross as an aggressive, divisive and intolerant symbol – and who would
not agree that we need love, tolerance and compassion today. But at the
same time, it is true that Jesus was opposed, captured, tortured tried
and killed.
Others don't like it, because they feel
that in a time of religious pluralism, we should be reticent to show our
colours too clearly. They are right in the fact that religions must
begin to work together for peace and justice if they want to be helpful
in a needy world. But it is an illusion to think that that can be
pursued by not showing your colours.
For the Australian Christian Centre it
was a deliberate decision – in which I had the privilege of
participating – to show our colours. We wanted people to know to whom
we belong. We wanted to show our Christian identity.
At the same time we want to recognize, of
course, that our God is not a tribal deity. "The earth is
the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live
in it" (Psalm 24:1)
To experience this God and
to think God and the world together, means:
Firstly, that where God is concerned
you are talking "ultimate concern". Our relationship
to God is not a matter of taking or leaving it. It is a matter of life
and death.
Secondly, when we think God and the
world together, we think mission. Mission in the broad sense of
reflecting the wideness of God's mercy which is like the wideness of
the sea.
So my friends, faith as an ultimate
concern means that we can't hide our colours. Christians cannot be
anonymous. Anonymity is against the very nature of faith. Faith, like
love and hope, needs to be shared in order to be what it is. The apostle
Paul has it right:
"… if you confess with your
lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised
him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the
heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so
is saved." (Rom 10:9f.)
But at the same time and with the same
passion, in our outward journey, in our mission, we need to echo
the being of God who is love?
Here our identity is at stake. And by
erecting the Great Cross on Canberra's sky we want to say – hopefully
with humility – that we want to echo the being of God, who is the God
of the world and whose nature is love. That is what the CROSS
means to us.
Cross
The cross is the central symbol of the
Christian church. We can't change that. It features in the various New
Testament traditions. It has given hope and comfort to people through
the ages. "In the cross of Christ I glory," we sing and the
apostle Paul, introducing himself to the church in Corinth said: "…
I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him
crucified." (1 Cor 2:2)
But we can ask what that symbol stands
for. What is its meaning?
I will preach a series from a number of
New Testament texts that open different and varying windows into the
meaning of the cross.
Opposition
Today we turn our attention to the high
point in the Passion Story of the Gospel of Mark.
Jesus is crucified. He had tried to flesh
out the first commandment. He wanted to let people know, he wanted to
let people feel,
- that God was not a legalist,
but a liberator;
- that God was not a moralist,
but a healer;
- that God was not concerned with religion,
but with life.
But it was too much for them - for all
of them.
- For the religious establishment
– they had too much to lose;
- for the political establishment
there was the danger of social unrest.
- Even his closest friends could
not bring it together in their minds and in their hearts that this
man who took God seriously and who really lived for and
with others could be the true representative of God.
Jesus was accused, arrested, tried and
found guilty. They crucified him – a known form not only of capital
but also of political punishment in those days.
Crucifixion
And then the event begins to speak.
With great sensitivity the theologian
whom we call "Mark" paints the scene:
- The whole nature seems to mourn. In
the middle of the day "darkness came over the whole land."
Here is an event that not only touches our personal journey, that is
not only of national significance – but it has universal
consequences.
- The "loud cry" with
which Jesus died, is interpreted with the prayer of Psalm 22,
which gives hope to all people, that even when we experience the
absence of God, God will not let his people go.
- The curtain of the temple was
ripped from top to bottom, to show what religious legalism leads
to, and that God cannot be pleased with religious ceremonies.
And then we come to the climax of the
narrative:
"... when the centurion,
who stood facing him,
saw that in this way he breathed his last,
he said,
'Truly, this man was God's Son!'"
Let us meditate for a moment on this
moving word-picture, which is Mark's way to fathom the meaning of the
Cross.
The centurion
There is, first of all, the centurion,
who not only sees what we all see - but who understands.
Do we see right? Do we feel the shock? A Gentile,
a godless person, looking at Jesus and breathing: "Truly,
this man was God's Son!" Strange!
- Why did Peter (disciples) not
understand?
- Why did Caiaphas (religious
establishment) not understand?
- Why did Pilate (political
establishment) not understand?
- Why did not even Mary and some
other of Jesus' female followers,, who made it further than the
rest of the disciples, understand?
I don't know.
But I do know that the evangelist Mark
want to send us an important message. The Cross breaks our preconceived
ideas. The cross is a challenge to all of us.
It is strange and unusual – it was so
then, and it is so now – to mention "God" and a
"crucified person" in one breath.
We love to thank God when all goes well
and we are on the winning side of life. We love it when our prayers for
healing and for success are heard. But what when they are not?
By making the centurion the main
character of this scene, and by reporting that the temple curtain
was torn into two from top to bottom, we are confronted with
anti-religious character of the cross.
Recognising God not in religious cult or
religious customs but in face of the Crucified One, means:
- That the crosses of our life are
graced by God's unconditional favour.
- That we can discover a word from God
in unexpected places.
We thank the centurion, the Gentile, the
godless person, for reminding us that God can speak something new into
our lives, if there is any room and time left for God.
"in this way"
What did the centurion see that moved
him? The death of Jesus is told with unsentimental dignity: "...
Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last." What do we make
of this cry?
Yes, we remember the words of Psalm 22:
"My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" There in the
Psalms it is a prayer of the righteous sufferer. And many a Christian
through the ages has taken comfort in the fact that even in the crisis
hour, Jesus' hands were firmly anchored in the hands of God. That in the
hour of darkness, he knew that God would neither leave him nor forsake
him. But the Psalm also spoke words of trust and praise, which
do not appear in the crucifixion narrative.
My friends, it is possible that Jesus on
the cross experienced the world as an eternal dark Friday. That
the so-called prayer was no prayer. That it was not even a lament,
but that it was a complaint: "My God, my God, why have you
not kept the promise that if I am faithful, you will reward me." In
that sense: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken yourself?"
Have I not served you? Have I not denied myself for your
kingdom? Have I not resisted temptations to make your work
credible? Have I not knelt in the garden and honestly prayed from my
heart: not my will, but yours be done? And now this! Where is
your divine power and justice and fairness?
And some of us can tune in! Some
of us have had intimations of an "eternal dark Friday". The
cynicism of the atheist and the scepticism of the agnostic are chicken
play, when it comes to the "eternal dark Friday". I can still
see it: the gaping look of the parent whose child has been ripped out of
their life; the disillusionment of the Christian for whom the church is
no support in the hour of the night of the soul; the deep anger of the
young person who wanted to believe so badly, but felt that she can't. On
Good Friday Jesus has become the brother of us all.
"was"
The centurion looks through the cross. He
remembers that there was a life that led up to the cross. His confession
is: "Truly, this man was God's Son!" The cross is seen
as the result, as the consequence of Jesus' life. On Good Friday
we don't think of an abstract death that somehow atoned for the
sins of the world. We don't think of a deal made between God and God, or
God and Satan, to ransom those who are lost in the prison of sin. On
Good Friday, we remember the life of a person who fleshed out
"God", and who claimed in and with that life that "God is
love".
Why was Jesus opposed and arrested and
tortured and killed? Because his understanding of God clashed with the
contemporary religious views of God. Jesus was not opposed and killed by
the atheists and agnostics. He was opposed and killed by those who
constantly waved the flag of God in front of him. "God" stood
against "God". Who was right: Jesus and his God who
loved the leper and the tax collector and the many other sinners of his
day; or his opponents whose God rewards the righteous and those
who adhere to the religious rules and play the political games?
Jesus was accused of blasphemy and
of leading people astray. And so, this non-violent messenger of
peace, this prophet of the poor, this representative of the kingdom of
love, was arrested and tried and nailed to a cross.
"Son of God"
And there the Gentile sees what the
disciples and the crowd fail to see. His confession resounds through the
ages: "Truly this man was God's Son!"
The Cross confronts us with the question:
"Who is God?" and: "Where does God meet us"?
And the answer is: not in the temple, but in Jesus, that
particular Jesus who ended up at the cross and thereby revolutionised
the whole God-debate through the ages; he is God's Son.
What is a stumbling block to the Jews,
what is foolishness to the Greeks, what is beyond comprehension to
success cultures for whom Casinos are more important than the unemployed
and the aged and the down and outs, what under normal conditions none of
us can comprehend - that is the wisdom and the power of God.
And so again, as of old, Jesus is not
only saviour, but also judge. Humanity is divided. We are
divided. There are the opponents through the ages: "Crucify
him" - they cry in word and deed; there are the mockers:
"He saved others, but he can not save himself". There are the sceptics
who in silent reflection and with a smile on their lips look at what is
going on. There are the despondent and paralysed who wonder
whether there is any meaning in life left.
And then there is the centurion, the Gentile,
who announces the transfiguration of reality, who promises that
it is worthwhile to follow the way of Jesus. Against all the
evidence, against the scoffers and sceptics, he confesses that Jesus
is God's Son. In the darkest hour of humanity, God has shared his
life with Jesus. The potential "eternal dark Friday"
has been transfigured into an "eternal Good Friday".
Conclusion
That is good news for each one of us.
There will be the moments when we don't experience God; or when God
seems to be far away, more like a black hole than a friendly and
affirming face. There are times when we feel outside, pressed to the
margin of life, forsaken - at those times it is good to be reminded that
the Cross did not become an "eternal black hole". The God who
can do everything, he cannot leave his child on the cross. God's very
being is love, and lover is stronger than death. Therefore the God who
can create something out of nothing, who can forgive sinners, he has
raised his Son from the dead - and thereby transfigured the dark hour of
humanity into the divine moment of a new reality.
Thorwald
Lorenzen 25 January 2004
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