Through the Sundays of Lent, we have been remembering Jesus’ last week, the few days that have done more to shape our walk with God more than any other time.  Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem to the cheers of the crowd, it was Palm Sunday. Monday, Jesus trashed the temple.  Tuesday, he returned to the temple to teach. Wednesday, Judas cut his deal with the temple leaders. Thursday, he led his disciples in the experience of the Lord’s Supper and he was arrested.

Today is Friday in the last week of Jesus’ life. Today is the last day of his life as we know life in this world.

I need to say that each of the four gospels tells the story in its own unique way. Rather than trying to fit all of the pieces of all of the gospel stories together, I am going to simply follow the events as Mark tells them in his Gospel.

Mark divides the day into four equal parts; six to nine in the morning, nine to noon, noon to three in the afternoon and from three to six in the evening.

SIX TO NINE:

Jesus has been held prisoner in Caiphas’ house, probably in a basement holding cell. He has been tortured, beaten and humiliated by the temple guards. Now they tie him up and take him to Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate has come to Jerusalem specifically for the Passover celebration, not because he believes in anything Jewish, but because this is a time of potential turmoil, even rioting, in the city and he needs to be there to keep the lid on things. Sure enough, the temple police bring an apparent insurrectionist to him for execution.

In the course of the examination, Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Pilate knows that Jesus is not the King of the Jews. Jewish Kings are always appointed by the Roman authorities. Jesus answers, “You say so,” which, if you think about, it is no answer at all. It appears that Jesus is challenging Pilate to do the right thing and Roman governors are not used to being challenged by peasant prisoners. He is particularly not happy to be challenged by one who is accused of wanting to be King, which means that he has hopes of overthrowing the Roman government in Judea.

The temple leaders begin to bring accusations against him. Mark doesn’t bother to list them. He does not want to dilute the central charge that Jesus is being accused of being “The King of the Jews.” After listening for a time, Pilate turns to Jesus again, “Don’t you have anything to say?”  Jesus says nothing, a silent challenge to Pilate and to the temple authorities and to the entire process.

The question is, who really is the King here?  Who has legitimate authority to rule?  Pilate has the power of Rome to back up his claims to authority.  The temple authorities have both the power of Rome, their leaders were appointed by Rome, and they have the authority of the tradition of the temple. What authority does Jesus have? 

I’ll tell you the secret to the story. Mark believes that Jesus really is King! And his authority resides in the way that his life and teaching genuinely reflect the character and intention of God. Even without the armies of Rome to support him, he really is a threat to the rule of Rome because of his unique  authority. He is a threat because the character of his life challenges the moral and spiritual degeneration by which Rome lives and rules. As we remember the story, look at the way that the degeneracy of Rome and the temple authorities is revealed as Pilate deals with Jesus. With no coercive power to back him up, Jesus’ character brings judgment against the way that the government and the religious institutions use their “authority.”

Pilate tries another tactic. He calls for the jailers to bring up a political revolutionary named Barabbas. This man was a proponent of violent revolution and has led an insurrection. Jesus was also a revolutionary, but he never advocated the use of violence. “Which one do you want me to release,” asked Pilate, “the insurrectionist or ‘The King of the Jews?’” And the crowds shouted for Barabbas. Release the one who has led the insurrection, they said. Could it be that they saw the non-violent Jesus as a greater threat to their abuse of power than the insurrectionist?  I think so.

You may remember that thirty years later the people of Judea mounted a large armed insurrection, a revolutionary war, against Rome. They were crushed and their temple was destroyed and the nation of Israel was never to be the same again. The Romans knew how to handle violent revolutionaries. But three hundred years later, the Emperor Constantine turned the Roman Empire to Christianity.

After the crowd had selected Barabbas for release, Pilate asked, “What do you want me to do with the King of the Jews?” And the crowd answered, “Crucify him.” Pilate said, “What evil has he done?” The crowd answered, “Crucify him.”

Pilate turned him over to the soldiers who began the systematic process that led to crucifixion. They tortured him by flogging him with a whip. Then they tormented him. They put a purple cloak on him. They twisted a vine of thorns into a crown and pushed it onto his head.  Then they began to salute him and say to him, “Hail, King of the Jews.” (Do you hear a theme?)  They mocked him and spat on him and slapped him around, all to prepare him for the crucifixion.

For the gospel writer, the truth is in the irony. As the soldiers mocked him, they revealed his true nature, his true identity. To all with eyes to see, Jesus really is the King!

They put his clothes back on him and led him out to crucify him. On the way, they singled out a man from Cyrene named Simon to carry his cross. Simon is identified as the father of Alexander and Rufus, who probably became well known Christian leaders. Why was a man conscripted to carry the cross? It was not an act of compassion! Given the torture of the night and morning, Jesus probably did not have the physical strength to do so. With Simon carrying the cross, the little band of soldiers with Jesus under guard makes its way through the city gate to a little hill called Golgotha, the place of the skull.  This was the place where the Romans held their public executions. This was the stage for official terrorism.

NINE TO NOON

It was about nine in the morning when Jesus was hung on the cross and the soldiers settled in to wait for him to die. Most victims were crucified naked, another part of the process of humiliation, so the soldiers gambled for his clothing.

Crossan and Borg refer to the process of crucifixion as “state sponsored terrorism.” It was used to maximize pain and humiliation and to deter others from following the same path. In Israel, as a deterrent, it was a dismal failure. Israel was home to constant rebellion until the year seventy, when Rome crushed Israel and destroyed the temple.

Crucifixion was a form of execution that was used, almost exclusively, as a deterrent to revolution and insurrection. It was the punishment that was used against those who tried to overthrow the Roman government. At the prompting of the temple authorities, the Romans saw Jesus as this kind of threat. On the top of his cross they pinned the charges that were being brought against him, “The King of the Jews.”  The Romans crucified him as the man who would be king!

He was crucified between two bandits. For much of my life, I have seen these men as common thieves or thugs.  The scholarship of the past twenty years or so has suggested that they probably belonged to a group of people called “social bandits.”  A little like Robin Hood, they stole to support the poor in their communities and they used thievery as a weapon against the imperialism of Rome. They were religious and political revolutionaries.  

As Jesus hung on the cross, we hear mostly from his tormentors. Some said, “You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself.”(15:29-30)  And the Chief priests and scribes came along and mocked him and said, “He saved others; he cannot save himself.  Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.” (15: 31-32)   Once again, those who mocked him revealed his true identity.

Here Mark tells the story a little differently from the others. As Mark tells it, both of the bandits taunted him.

NOON TO THREE

Now it is noon and Jesus is hanging on the cross. Mark tells us that darkness has settled over the whole land until three in the afternoon. Notice how the same words can mean two things at the same time, both of them true. On the one hand, he may be telling us that the light of the sun was dampened and that there was the visual gloom of a darkly cloudy day.

And he may be telling us that there was a great spiritual darkness that settled over the people, a profound sadness and gloom that falls when the greatest injustice that the world has ever seen is happening. Something terribly wrong is under way and the emotional and spiritual world is being made dark.

Jesus quotes the first words of the twenty second Psalm, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  (I suggest that you go home and read the 22nd Psalm) This Psalm speaks first of defeat and abandonment and then rises to declare the ultimate victory of God.  I think that Jesus experienced both, both the absence of God and the anticipation of God’s victory. And we who give ourselves to discipleship also experience both. If you have ever felt the presence of God in a holy and profound way, then the chances are that you have also experienced God’s absence.  There are moments of defeat or sorrow or simple spiritual confusion when it happens. Every mature Christian I know has at one time or another cried with Jesus, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 

Then, Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. At this moment, the veil in the temple was torn from the top to the bottom.  Again Mark uses words that mean two things at the same time. He may have been talking about the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple. It may have been a material thing. At the same time, he is telling us that the moment Jesus died, the barrier that separates God from God’s people has been forever torn. There is no longer a barrier. Each one of us may enter directly into the presence of the Holy One.

The Centurion in charge watched him die and said, “Truly, this man was God’s Son!”  Do you remember that Caesar called himself “god’s son?” Rome had built its worship around the worship of Caesar as god and the son of god. And here he is, the representative of Caesar saying about Jesus, “This man, Jesus, was God’s Son!”

THREE TO SIX

Now it is three in the afternoon.  Jesus’ lifeless body hangs suspended from the cross.  If we look around, off in the distance, we see the women who supported him in Galilee. They must have come to Jerusalem with him. Now, they are standing by, watching this gruesome execution. They are with him, as near as they dare to be, to the terrible end.

We cannot help but wonder, where were the men?  They were keeping a low profile. Why? My best guess is that since Jesus was being executed as “The King of the Jews”, as a political insurrectionist, if they had identified themselves as his disciples, they ran the risk of crucifixion too.  Later, following the resurrection each one made the decision to accept the risk and all but one became a martyr in the cause of Christ. But today, this Friday, they were keeping a low profile.

Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin, goes to Pilate and asks for permission to take the body of Jesus down from the cross and, strangely enough, Pilate agrees. Usually the body was left on the cross for the birds and dogs to mutilate. The refusal to allow burial was a part of the humiliation inflicted on the victim and his family. But this time, Pilate said yes.  So they took his body down and wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid it in a nearby tomb. 

It is six O’clock on Friday, nearly time for the Sabbath to begin, and Jesus’ body is lying in the tomb.

One has to listen carefully to hear the gospel in all of this. On Friday, it comes to us incognito, but it here to be heard.  The Temple Priests mock him and say, “Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.” (15: 32) The soldiers put a purple cloak on him and a crown on his head and they saluted him saying, “Hail, King of the Jews.” (15: 17) Pilate, Caesar’s man in Jerusalem, hangs a sign on the cross, “The King of the Jews.”(15:25)  The centurion watches him die and says, “Truly, this man was God’s Son.” (15: 39) Except for the centurion who supervised the execution, they all meant to mock and abuse and belittle and in the process, each one spoke the eternal truth that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God, and Lord.

We leave him now in that dark and lifeless tomb. But make no mistake, we shall return. We have not come to the end of this story.  This man is “The Son of God.”