Series: "… until Christ be formed in us ".

Jesus and Faith.

11. The cross and its history

Amos 5:21-24; Mark 15:33-39

"… Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last."

"… the curtain of the temple was torn in two, 

from top to bottom."

"... 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

What is the ground for following Jesus and letting him shape our life? We have decided to follow Jesus. We want his vision of life and of God to inspire and to guide us. But is there a basis for it all? Is there a well spring that will feed us and that will never run dry?

For Christians that basis, that foundation, that well spring is centred in the heart of God.

And God's heart has been most clearly revealed in the cross of Christ. Christians use the language of worship to confess:

In the cross of Christ I glory,

Towering o'er the wrecks of time:

All the light of sacred story

Gathers round its head sublime.

The story of the cross has given a voice to the death of Jesus.

Events can speak

We know that historical events can "speak". We also know that historical events can be "heard". They can shape personal and national identity. They can inspire people.

• Israel in all its history told the story of the exodus as a nation shaping event; centuries later they could say that it was "us" who were liberated from slavery into a promising future. Their memory was not just remembering an event of the past. It was an awareness of God in their life. The same God who had acted for them in the deliverance from slavery to freedom.
• America in ever new variation tells and sings the story of the day of independence from Britain.
• France, even today lives from the story of the Bastille and the revolution associated with it.
• And we all know what power Gallipoli exercises in the minds and hearts of Australians.

The event that has been the stuff for more stories and more paintings and more works of art than any other event in history, is the cross of Christ.

This morning I would like to invite you to open yourselves to the cross, the death of Jesus, consider its story and resolve again what place you want to occupy in that story.

The death of Jesus

"… Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last."

Historically there is no doubt. Jesus was executed. He was killed for discernable reasons. It was not an error of justice, Jesus did not die of a heart attack or a stroke, and he certainly did not die of old age. He was executed as a blasphemer – his view of God clashed with that of the establishment of his day – and as one who led people astray.

Jesus 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 there was 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 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 of capital punishment in those days.

"… Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last."

That is the historical fact.

The event begins to speak

A fact, an event survives when it is told. Events that are not spoken about sink into the abyss of history. And every teller of the story interprets and embellishes.

Many events "speak", but only those who are "heard" are remembered.

The death of Jesus, more than any other event in history, has been heard and remembered.

The whole nature seems to mourn. In the middle of the day "darkness came over the whole land."

Why has this death, this historical event, been heard and remembered more than any others?

I want to emphasise two parts of the story of the death of Jesus. Two aspects that have lasting influence and therefore also effect us.

"… the curtain of the temple was torn in two,

from top to bottom."

The curtain of the temple guards the Holy of Holies. It is the centre of the temple cult. It is the place where only very select men – like the High Priest – can go and where they were thought to be close to God.

But Jesus' death marks a change. A new way of seeing things. A new way of understanding God.

It had seemed to be the end. "… Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last." End of story. Death seemed to have triumphed over life; violence over love; self-interest over truth. Jesus' understanding of life and of God seems to be disqualified by the historical defeat of his death.

But history underestimated God and God's power of love. Where death seemed to reign. Where human self interest seemed to have triumphed. Where God's Godhood seemed to be at stake, there God did something new. He raised Jesus from death and thereby fulfilled the ancient dream that love would prove stronger than death. Where humanity acts as killer, as servant of death, God acts as lover who knows no end.

And since it is God who assigned death its place, therefore now all people can have access to God without passing religious examination!

Only to hear. Only to let the good news – that God has conquered death – flood our being.

An immediate illustration is given.

"... 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!’"

The centurion Gentile godless person

Who is this person, who not only sees what we all see but who understands. Do we see right? A Gentile, a godless person, looking at Jesus and breathing: "Truly, this man was God’s Son!" A Gentile in the Holy of holies. Unheard off, but true.

The story of the cross is God's pronouncement that we all can come to him.

"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 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. With his death on the cross, 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. It was not an abstract death that somehow atoned for the sins of the world. It was not a deal made between God and God, or God and Satan, to ransom those who are lost in the prison of sin. It was the death 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, ever again 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 that is the wisdom and the power of God.

Conclusion

The God who can do everything, he cannot leave his child on the cross. God’s very being is love, and love 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 a divine moment for celebration.

Our life is grounded in that divine moment. It is a well spring of love that can bear all things and it will never run dry.