November 4th

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is Mark 15:21-41, Matthew 27:32-56, Luke 23:26-49, John 19:17-37

Once again, John MacArthur lets us in on some cool facts in his sermon, Characters on the Road to the Cross Part 2, in particular about the man, Simon from Cyrene, father to Rufus and Alexander....

Simon is a common Jewish name indicating that he is a Jew. Cyrene is an area in north Africa which today would be Libya in the area of Tripoli. Josephus tells us, the Jewish historian, that there was a large Jewish community living in Cyrene. And here is one of the Jews from Cyrene who along with a lot of other Jews from Cyrene and a whole lot of other places in the world had come to Jerusalem for the Passover. We also know in Acts chapter 2 and verse 10 that there was a synagogue for Cyrenian Jews in the city of Jerusalem which means there was a significant number of them who came for Passover. This is one of them. He’s not a part of the trial up to now. This may be the first time he ever met Jesus because he’s just coming in from the country, arriving on Passover day to celebrate Passover. He walks in, finds this entourage leading these three criminals to death, and he is by the Roman soldiers seized and given the responsibility of carrying Jesus’ cross.

It might be unusual to have him so identified since he is a rather randomly selected solitary stranger, except for the fact that he is important for us to know because he becomes a believer. How do we know that? Mark introduces him as Simon of Cyrene, the father of Rufus and Alexander. Mark is writing in Rome to the Roman church and by doing that he identifies this Simon and there were many Simons, it would be like the name Joseph, a very common name, and there were many Simons. The church at Rome needs to know this is the Simon from Cyrene who is the father of Rufus and Alexander. That is to say, a familiar family to you. Romans 16:13 refers to Rufus as a choice man in the Lord in the church at Rome.

So, when you put the story together, a stranger plucked out of the crowd by the Roman soldiers follows Jesus carrying His cross, goes to the cross, watches the event of the crucifixion of Christ. Comes to faith in Christ through that rather humanly speaking random event, ends up going back to Cyrene, is used by God to start the church there. The church in Cyrene flourishes so much that the book of Acts says they sent out preachers, Acts chapter 11, to preach the gospel of Christ. One of their preachers ends up in the church at Antioch and commissions Paul and Barnabas to go on a missionary journey.

It’s amazing that what appeared as a random act by the Roman soldiers is, in fact, a divine sovereign work of God. He plucks up this man, leads him to the cross, brings him to faith in Christ, sends him back to Cyrene. A church begins, apostles and preachers from that church are sent out with the gospel. Simon relocates to Rome with his sons and becomes a familiar part of the Roman church.

Nothing is really random at all. The sovereign God oversees everything. (emphasis mine)

Isn't that amazing?! I've certainly never put 2 and 2 together on this one. Nothing is random with God.

Another point made by MacArthur is that none of the gospels focus on the details of the crucifixion itself. They didn't have to, everyone at that time knew exactly what went on in a crucifixion. As 21st century Americans/Canadians we have no idea of the brutality of this type of execution. The truth is, it was a finely tuned torture system of death that brought pain that can only be described as excruciating.

In the Case for Christ, Lee Strobel investigates the medical evidence for the death of Jesus Christ and here is some of the information he discovered (it's long, but I think it is worth the read in order for us to truly know what Christ was willing to suffer on our behalf)...

Roman floggings were known to be terribly brutal. They usually consisted of thirty-nine lashes but frequently were a lot more than that, depending on the mood of the soldier applying the blows.

The soldier would use a whip of braided leather thongs with metal balls woven into them. When the whip would strike the flesh, these balls would cause deep bruises or contusions, which would break open with further blows. And the whip had pieces of sharp bone as well, which would cut the flesh severely.

The back would be so shredded that part of the spine was sometimes exposed by the deep, deep cuts. The whipping would have gone all the way from the shoulders down to the back, the buttocks, and the back of the legs....

many people would die from this kind of beating even before they could be crucified. At the least, the victim would experience tremendous pain and go into hypovolemic shock [which] does four things. First, the heart races to try to pump blood that isn't there; second, the blood pressure drops, causing fainting or collapse; third, the kidneys stop producing urine to maintain what volume is left; and fourth, the person becomes very thirsty as the body craves fluids to replace the lost blood volume... (pg 195, 196)

Then the crucifixion itself....

He would have been laid down, and his hands would have been nailed in the outstretched position to the horizontal beam. This crossbar was called the patibulum, and at this stage it was separate from the vertical beam, which was permanently set in the ground...

The Romans used spikes that were five to seven inches long and tapered to a sharp point. They were driven through the wrists...this was a solid position that would lock the hand; if the nails had been driven through the palms, his weight would have caused the skin to tear and he would have fallen off the cross. So the nails went through the wrists, although this was considered part of the hand in the language of the day.

And it's important to understand that the nail would go through the place where the median nerve runs. This is the largest nerve going out to the hand, and it would be crushed by the nail that was being pounded in....

You know the kind of pain you feel when you bang your elbow and hit your funny bone? That's actually another nerve, called the ulna nerve. It's extremely painful when you accidentally hit it.

Well, picture taking a pair of pliers and squeezing and crushing that nerve...that effect would be similar to what Jesus experienced....The pain was absolutely unbearable...in fact, it was literally beyond words to describe; they had to invent a new word: excruciating. Literally, excruciating means 'out of the cross'. Think of that: they needed to create a new word, because there was nothing in the language that could describe the intense anguish caused during the crucifixion.

At this point Jesus was hoisted as the crossbar was attached to the vertical stake, and then nails were driven through Jesus' feet. Again, the nerves in his feet would have been crushed, and there would have been a similar type of pain....

His arms would have immediately been stretched, probably about six inches in length, and both shoulders would have become dislocated - you can determine this with simple mathematical equations.

This fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy in Psalm 22, which foretold the Crucifixion hundreds of years before it took place and says, "My bones are out of joint".....

Crucifixion is essentially an agonizingly slow death by asphyxiation.

The reason is that the stresses on the muscles and diaphragm put the chest into the inhaled position; basically, in order to exhale, the individual must push up on his feet so the tension on the muscles would be eased for a moment. In doing so, the nail would tear through the foot, eventually locking up against the tarsal bones.

After managing to exhale, the person would then be able to relax down and take another breath in. Again he'd have to push himself up to exhale, scraping his bloodied back against the coarse wood of the cross. This would go on and on until complete exhaustion would take over, and the person wouldn't be able to push up and breath anymore.

As the person slows down his breathing, he goes into what is called respiratory acidosis - the carbon dioxide in the blood is dissolved as carbonic acid, causing the acidity of the blood to increase. This eventually leads to an irregular heartbeat. In fact, with his heart beating erratically, Jesus would have known that he was at the moment of death, which is when he was able to say, "Lord, into your hands I commit my spirit". Then he died of cardiac arrest...

Even before he died - and this is important, too - the hypovolemic shock would have caused a sustained rapid heart rate that would have contributed to heart failure, resulting in the collection of fluid in the membrane around the heart, called a pericardial effusion, as well as around the lungs, which is called a pleural effusion....

The Roman soldier came around and, being fairly certain that Jesus was dead, confirmed it by thrusting a spear into his right side....the spear apparently went through the right lung and into the heart, so when the spear was pulled out, some fluid - the pericardial effusion and the pleural effusion - came out. This would have the appearance of a clear fluid, like water, followed by a large volume of blood, as the eyewitness John described in his gospel...

If they wanted to speed up death - and with the Sabbath and Passover coming, the Jewish leaders certainly wanted to get this over before sundown - the Romans would use the steel shaft of a short Roman spear to shatter the victim's lower leg bones. This would prevent him from pushing up with his legs so he could breathe, and death by asphyxiation would result in a matter of minutes.

Of course, we're told in the New Testament that Jesus' legs were not broken, because the soldiers had already determined that he was dead, and they just used the spear to confirm it. This fulfilled another Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah, which is that his bones would remain unbroken.

Jesus' torture before and during the crucifixion was excruciating.

But not only did Jesus suffer physically, he also suffered emotionally and spiritually.

His friends all deserted him. He walked to the cross with not a friend in sight. It was only later that John and some women watched the crucifixion from afar. He was completely alone.

And then the crowd, religious leaders, Romans and the two criminals made the whole thing the darkest comedy imaginable as they mocked, insulted, derided and scorned Jesus who ridiculously claimed to be God and the King of the Jews.

In his sermon, The King Crucified: The Contrast at Calvary , John MacArthur says....

Without argument, what is being spewed out of these evil hearts and evil mouths right at the Son of God is the supreme blasphemy, the ultimate desecration of holiness, the lowest sin ever committed, wickedness at its lowest. And it is deserving of divine cursing, divine threatening, divine vengeance, divine judgment, divine damnation. This is injustice without parallel, transgression without equal. This is heresy above heresy, irreverence above irreverence, profanity above profanity, sacrilege beyond comprehension. We would expect Jesus to pour out furious denunciations on all of them, to judge them, to make them pay for their outrageous iniquity immediately on the spot. But He doesn’t. Contrary to that He says, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they’re doing.” He asks God to provide forgiveness for them. (emphasis mine)

This is mercy beyond comprehension.

As horrible as the physical pain was, as hard as it would have been to suffer alone while His friends deserted Him, as hard as it was to endure the blasphemous insults mercilessly being shouted by the people, by far the worst was still to come - taking on the sins of the entire world and suffering God's wrath, enduring separation from God.

In another sermon, MacArthur expounds on this fact.....

from noon to three, hell came to Jerusalem and Judea. God showed up in wrath. And the interesting thing is, it wasn’t wrath on the Romans and it wasn’t wrath on the Jewish leaders, and it wasn’t wrath on the people. It was wrath on the Son. God unleashed the full extent of His fury on Jesus Christ. As Isaiah put it in Isaiah 13:9, “Wrath with fierce anger.” Hell came there.

What is hell? Hell is where God punishes people forever. Hell is where God pours out His fury on people forever. God is the power behind the punishment in hell. When you say that hell is being separated from God, only in the sense of His comforting presence, not in the sense of His punishing presence. He is the one who destroys both soul and body in hell. He is the king of hell, Satan is not. And God who is the punisher of all the souls in eternal hell shows up in the darkness of Calvary to punish His Son. And He gives His Son eternal hell on behalf of all who would ever believe.

This is the cup that Jesus anticipated in the Garden with such revulsion that He asked if there was any way He could avoid it. During those three hours there’s no comedy, folks, there’s no sneering, there’s no scorning, there’s no mocking, there’s no blasphemy, there’s no taunting recorded. No one said anything, not even Jesus. Jesus doesn’t speak for these three hours, neither does anybody else. In these three hours Jesus suffers the eternal hell for all who would believe.
So the darkness is not the absence of God. It is the opposite. It is the presence of God in full judgment vengeance and fury, infinite wrath moved by infinite righteousness releases infinite punishment on the infinite Son who can absorb an eternal hell for all who will ever believe in three hours. It is here that He bears in His own body our sins. It is here that He is made sin for us who knew no sin. It is here that He is wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. It is here that He is made a curse for us.

These are the three hours of the wrath of God on Him. It is a stunning thing to think about it. All the people who will spend forever in hell will spend forever there because they will never be able to pay for their sins...and yet Jesus in three hours could pay in full for all the sins of all the people who would ever believe. How? Because an infinite amount of wrath could only be absorbed by an infinite person. Stunning.

It says, “Darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour.” At the ninth hour, it was gone. Three hours, three o’clock in the afternoon and the light returns. Mark tells us what Jesus said. He speaks. Mark 15 verse 33, “When the sixth hour had come,” same thing Luke says, “darkness fell over the whole land till the ninth hour.” At the ninth hour, three o’clock, darkness is now gone, at that ninth hour darkness has disappeared, Jesus cried with a loud voice, “ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI? which is translated, MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”

How are we to understand this? Theologians have thought and talked and written volumes on this. I certainly don’t expect to have a more profound understanding of this than they. But I don’t think it’s as complicated as some have tried to make it. Perhaps the expectation of Jesus the Man was when the darkness was over, and He had borne in full to the satisfaction of God the fury of God on behalf of all who would believe that there would have been immediate comfort. There would have been instantaneous affection from the Father. That He would have not sensed the judgment presence of God, but He would have sensed the sweet communing comfort of fellowship with God. But He doesn’t...He doesn’t.

The wrath is done. God has been there in full presence. He hasn’t been absence, He’s been present, pouring out His wrath. But when the darkness fled, so did God in some inexplicable divine way.

I think what our Lord is saying is, “Where’s the comfort?” There was a moment after the judgment was over, after He had borne all the fury of God’s judgment presence that He expected sweet comfort, and it wasn’t there. In the unimaginable exhaustion after the darkness, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” That’s a fair question. Why didn’t God bring Him instant comfort? Instant sweet communion?
Well, it seems to me that this is the final suffering of hell. This is a reminder to all sinners that while hell is the full fury of God’s personal punishment presence, He will never be there to comfort. He will never be there to show sympathy. He will never bring relief. And if Jesus is to endure a full hell, it is both the punishment of God and the absence of comfort. This is hell. And hell came to Calvary that day in its fullness. (emphasis mine)

I feel emotionally spent from these discoveries.

And I haven't even had time to talk about the amazing faith of the one criminal who turned to Christ in his final moments (what faith to believe that Christ was going to usher in a kingdom as He hung on the cross!), or the temple curtain being torn in two.

Tomorrow's passage: Mark 15:42-16:13, Matthew 27:57-28:15, Luke 23:50-24:12, John 19:38-20:18