2016 Good Friday Mark 15:33-47 The 5Fs (Almost) of Good Friday

Gospel Lessons from the Death and Burial of Jesus

Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,

Earlier in the service, we read from Isaiah 53. Many Bible publishers entitle that passage The Suffering Servant. And we have referred to that passage many times in the Sunday’s leading up to Easter. We have seen how that passage, written around 700 years before Jesus was born, so accurately spoke of all that would happen to Him.

And so, in recent weeks, as we have worked through these last chapters of Mark’s Gospel, we have tried to think about and feel the suffering of Jesus.

And we have noted, taking our cue from Jesus own words in Mark 10:45, that He “came not to be served but to serve others.”

And it is our privilege to see this again today as we come to the last part of Mark 15. We want to see Jesus, again, set before us as the Suffering Servant. But we also want to see, again, that in His suffering is our salvation.

So today we simply consider the two main sections of this passage – The death of Jesus and the burial of Jesus.

And we have five sub-headings. And you will know by now that we ministers try and use alliteration (which means words beginning with the same letter) for our headings, so that hopefully they are a bit easier to remember. But try as I might I could not come up with five sub-headings that all began with the same letter. So I had to cheat a little, as you will see.

So in regards to the death of Jesus, I will make some comments on Phenomena and forsakenness, and then in regards to the burial of Jesus, I will make some comments on fulfilment, finality, and first-fruits. And that ‘ph’ word is why I have called this sermon the 5 Fs (almost) of Good Friday. So if you wordsmiths out there have a word beginning with the letter F that could substitute for phenomena, I would be very glad to hear it afterwards! J

So we begin then with the Lord Jesus on the cross
1. and some comments about phenomena. And boys and girls, phenomena is the plural of phenomenon You have one phenomenon and many phenomena. And phenomenon, in this context, means something amazingly unusual and miraculous. And there are two of them in this passage – the first is the darkness and the second is the tearing of the temple curtain.
  1. So let’s consider both of these phenomena in turn, beginning with the darkness.
    1. Mark tells us in v33 that there was darkness over the whole land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, which means from midday to 3 o’clock – so in the middle of the day.
    2. Now some people try and explain this away as an eclipse. You boys and girls will know that very occasionally the moon can pass in front of the Sun during the day and it gets darker for a few moments. But if you have looked up at the night sky recently, you will have noticed that we have a full moon at the moment. And Easter always falls on a date when there is a full moon. And you simply do not get Solar eclipses when there is a full moon. And I checked this on Google just to be sure! J So this is a supernatural or miraculous darkness.
    3. And this is not the first time we read about a supernatural darkness in the Bible. You boys and girls might also remember that one of the ten plagues that God visited on Egypt was three days of darkness while there was light as usual in Goshen where His people lived.
    4. And from that event we learn that supernatural darkness was a sign of God’s judgment. And darkness as a sign of judgment is further reinforced by a prophecy from the Book of Amos. Amos warned the people of God about a day of judgment that would come upon them if they continued in sin and refused to repent. He said, “‘In that day,’ declares the Sovereign LORD, ‘I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.”
    5. I wonder if you remember the very first recorded words of God in the Bible? We find them in Genesis 1:3. They are, “Let there be light.” So God’s very first creative gift was the gift of light. Jesus, however, must endure the wrath of God against your sin and mine without the gift of light; He must suffer in darkness.

But even as He suffers in darkness, He also serves, as is demonstrated by the second phenomenon, which is the tearing of the temple curtain, from top to bottom, as we read in v36.
1. And it is the words “from top to bottom” which make it clear that this was not an ordinary tear – this was a tear by the unseen hand of God; this was a supernatural or miraculous tear.
2. The Most Holy Place was the very inner room of first the tabernacle and later the temple. It was the place where God dwelled or lived among His people. And this curtain closed off the Most Holy Place. Just once a year, under very strict conditions, the High Priest alone was allowed to go through the curtain and perform a cleansing ceremony in the Most Holy Place. So in effect, this curtain separated God and man.
3. But listen to the words of Hebrews 10:19. “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain…” Up till now God has been hidden behind a curtain. God’s people have not had direct access to God. But now, Jesus offers Himself as a blood sacrifice during these three hours of darkness. And the Father weighs His sacrifice and finds it acceptable and pleasing. So He tears down the curtain giving us access to Him. And unlike the High Priest who would enter once a year and with great fear and trepidation, Hebrews 10 reveals that you can approach God anytime and with in confidence and boldness. That is the power of Jesus’ service on the cross. Believer, you now have full communion with God. You can talk to God, anytime, certain that He is listening. And you can invite others to faith in Christ and a joyful and blessed communion with God.

So we see Jesus as the suffering servant in the phenomena surrounding His death. But we see it next in His Forsakenness, from v34, where Jesus cries out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
1. And you and I could spend our whole lifetime trying to plumb the mystery in how it was possible for God the Son to be forsaken by God the Father, but it is just beyond our comprehension and something we must simply accept in faith as a necessary part of our salvation. So great is your sin and mine that Jesus had to be forsaken by His Father.
2. And this forsakenness was a far greater agony than the whip or the crown of thorns or the jagged nails in His hands and feet. One commentator describes it with these words, “God abandoned Jesus, more and more. What an experience this must have been for Him, for He longed for communion with God more than any other man. No one will ever be able to fathom it. When the bond with God broke, He died a thousand deaths. Complete darkness and hell itself engulfed Him. He suffered eternal death.”
3. But once again, as He suffers He serves.
  1. And His chief service, as we have already noted, is that He satisfied the eternal wrath of God against your sin and mine. And this is demonstrated by the darkness being lifted and the temple curtain tearing in two. So in the suffering of His forsakenness is your salvation.
  2. But there is also something very practical for you to learn in terms of living the Christian life from the forsakenness of Jesus. For there will be times when the believer also feels himself or herself also to be forsaken by God. And many if not all of you will know what I speak of. The Psalmist did. We often find him crying out as he does in Psalm 13, “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”
  3. But take note of Jesus prayer on the cross here, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” In His sorrow, He still called out to and trusted in God as His And the Psalmist did the same in his Psalm 13 prayer: “Consider and answer me, O Lord my God.” He too called out to and trusted in God has HIS God.
  4. So when it feels like the Lord is disciplining you, remember the words of Hebrews 12:6, “The Lord disciplines the one He loves.” Be patient, call out to your God and trust in Him. Preach to yourself these words from Lamentations 3:22-23, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” And nowhere is this seen more pointedly than on the cross of Christ.

So we see Jesus as the Suffering Servant in the phenomena and the forsakenness that surrounded His death. But we see Him as the Suffering Servant also in His burial.

And we note this first of all in connection with fulfilment.
1. vv40-41 speak of the women who had followed Jesus during His public ministry in Galilee and Jerusalem. And two of them, as we see in v47, were there also when Jesus’ body was laid in the tomb. But the person chiefly responsible for the burial of Jesus was Joseph of Arimithea, who we are told was “a respected member of the [Jewish] council, who was himself looking for the kingdom of God.” It was he who went to Pilate and was given permission to bury the body of Jesus.
2. And the aspect of fulfilment comes out in v42. For there we are told that Joseph asked for the body of Jesus “since” or because it was “the day before the Sabbath.” John’s Gospel puts it like this: The Jews did not want the bodies of Jesus and the two robbers to “remain on the cross on the Sabbath.” Why? Why did they want these bodies buried before the Sabbath? Well, according to the law of God in Deuteronomy 21, the body of someone who had been executed for a capital crime was to be hung on a tree. However, the law continued, “his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day.” V34 tells us that Jesus died at or around the ninth hour, which is 3pm. And for the Jews, a day went from Sunset to Sunset. So the Sabbath Day, the next day, would begin at 6pm that evening. Thus, Joseph had just 3 hours so that Jesus could be buried on the same day, as required by God’s law.
3. So even though Jesus is dead, we see His continued service on our behalf. You see, the thing that separates mankind from God is sin, which is both the breaking of God’s commands and the failure to keep them perfectly as we should. And sin makes us deserving of eternal punishment. But Hebrews 9:14 describes Jesus as “without blemish.” And “without blemish,’ boys and girls, means spotless or perfect. Even in His burial, Jesus serves and saves by fulfilling the law, perfectly.

But we see Him also as our Suffering Servant as we consider the Finality of His burial.
1. We are specifically told in v44 that Pilate had the death of Jesus confirmed by a centurion. He then “granted the corpse to Joseph.” And there is lots of evidence from the other Gospels that we could consider also that add up to Jesus being 100%, verifiably dead. But His burial is the final part of that evidence.
You boys and girls will know that there is one word that you hear at the end of every sermon that tells you that the sermon is finished. What is that word? “Amen.” Well, Jesus’ burial is the Amen on the ‘sermon’ of the Suffering Servant. He has been forsaken of God as He suffered the agony of hell on the cross. He has fully paid for all the sins of those God chose unto salvation. And He has died. All that remains now is the AMEN of burial. Just as your dead body and mine will one day be swallowed up by the grave, so this burial tomb has swallowed the dead body of Jesus.
Jesus, the one by whom this whole universe was created, because He must be like you and me in every way except for sin, must now suffer the finality of burial.

And yet, there is also a very real sense in which His burial and your and my burial is not And we see this as we consider Jesus lastly as the firstfruits.
1. It was typical in those times for the bodies of those crucified to be either left on the cross for the crows or thrown into a mass burial pit for crucified criminals. Earlier we read from Isaiah 53:9, which speaks of the Suffering Servant having a grave assigned “with wicked men. Yet He was with a rich man in His death.” Jesus died next to criminals and He ought to have joined them in the common burial pit. However, as we have seen, Jesus was no criminal. He was innocent of any crime. And so, the Father does not allow Him to undergo the disgrace of being thrown into a common burial pit. Instead, Joseph, the respected member of the Jewish council, is allowed to place His body in a “tomb that had been cut out of the rock”; the type of tomb that only the rich could afford.
2. And when you read the Books of Kings in the OT, you read about the lives and deaths of the Kings of Judah who were all sons of And again and again, you read words like this: King so-and-so “died and was buried with his fathers in the city of David.” But Jesus, despite the fact that He is the kingly Son of David, was not buried with His fathers in Jerusalem.
3. And these two things are shouting out a loud message: Though Jesus is truly dead He does not belong in death. For Him the grave is just a temporary resting place.

Dear friends, we will no doubt hear more about this on Easter Sunday, but 1 Corinthians 15:20 says this: “Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Because of who Jesus is and What He has done, the grave is not the end of the story for believers. Yes, as a human, you are unbreakably connected with Adam and his sin. And that means that you will die. No one can escape that. But 1 Corinthians 15 goes on to say that if you are connected to Jesus, you shall be “made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ.”

And to be connected with Christ means to have Jesus as your Saviour and Lord. To have Him as your Saviour means that you believe that all He did on the cross He did so that your sins could be forgiven. And to have Him as your Lord means that you live a life of dedicated obedience to Christ.

Jesus is the Suffering Servant. We see this in the Phenomena of darkness and the tearing of the curtain, and His forsakenness in death. We have noted that even His burial fulfilled the requirements of the law. We have spoken of the finality of His burial as a seal on His death. The question is though will Jesus Christ be the first-fruits of resurrection in relation to you? Are you confident that when Jesus returns to earth, your body will rise to eternal life just as His did? Amen.