Looking Deeper at the Cross

Luke 23:44-49

Introduction

On the day that we call Palm Sunday, Jesus entered into Jerusalem. This is often called the triumphal entry because it looked like Jesus was at the height of his ministry. People were cheering, they were throwing their cloaks and waving their palm branches and it looked like some of them were ready to crown Jesus as king. If we didn’t know the rest of the story, we would think that Jesus was about to experience the best week of his like.

But we do know the rest of the story. We know that the road to Jerusalem was also the road to the cross. This is an example of seeing one thing on the surface but something different happening deeper down.

The same principle is true when we look at the cross. It is possible to see one thing when we look at the cross and yet there being a deeper meaning that not everyone sees. Let’s take a look.

What People Saw

I want you to transport yourself almost two thousand years ago into the past. There you are at Golgotha, the place of the skull where Jesus is being crucified. He was already nailed to the cross when you got there. Jesus’ body is battered and broken from the beating he received before he was even crucified. Things are looking pretty grim but it is only going to get worse.

It gets to be about noon. It should be the brightest time of the day as the sun is at its highest. But instead of it getting brighter, it is getting darker. The sun seems to fail and the place becomes dark, almost like light. This is no normal darkness. It looks like the powers of darkness are finally winning. Darkness is a universal symbol for evil. I’m a big fan of the Lord of the Rings. In the story, as the evil being Sauron is looking to become victorious over Middle-earth, darkness covers the land. It gets to the point that there is only a sliver of light at sunrise and sunset. It looks like something similar is happening in Jerusalem. The land has become dark because evil is about to win.

Suddenly you are transported to the Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple is much more than a place of worship. It is where heaven touches the earth. It is the place where God’s presence dwells so that it is the only location where sacrifices can be made. You are at the Holy of holies, the most holy spot, the place where only the high priest can be. Then you hear the sound of fabric ripping and you look up to see the curtain being ripped in two. Is this God’s punishment? Is God so angry for the crucifixion of his Son that he is cutting off all contact with humanity, removing his presence from the Temple. This looks terrible.

Then you are back at the cross. Jesus looks worst than he did before. His breathing has gotten more laboured. It takes every ounce of his strength to lift his body for that next breath. It won’t be long now. Then, somehow, Jesus gets the strength to say something. You listen carefully. “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Jesus has given up. Even Jesus could only fight the inevitable for so long. Jesus is dead.

Everything you have seen over this time from noon until three in the afternoon has been discouraging. The reign of darkness. The ripping of the current. Jesus giving up on the cross. How can anyone build a faith on this.

What Really Happened

Now let us return to those events and attempt to go deeper. Something was happening on the surface but perhaps there was more to the story.

We may think of darkness as being a sign of evil winning but it doesn’t have to be that way. In the Old Testament, most of the references to the sun failing and darkness appearing are about the Day of the Lord. What is the Day of the Lord? In the Old Testament it was acknowledged that things were not the way they were supposed to be. The right suffer and the wicked prosper. The Day of the Lord was to be the intervention of God into history. Theologians would call this an eschatological event. I’m not saying the crucifixion of Jesus was the Day of the Lord. The New Testament tells us that the Day of the Lord will be when Jesus returns. But the crucifixion of Jesus was the first stage of the Day of the Lord, the necessary first act. It was intervention by God to begin to deal with the evil in the world. Darkness may be scary for many of us, but from a biblical perspective it is also a sign of hope, a sign that God is acting in history to ultimately bring the destruction of evil.

Then we have the ripping of the curtain in the Temple. We already saw that the Temple was much more than our church buildings are today. It was the only place that one could truly worship and experience God’s presence. The ripping of an important item like the curtain could look bad. It could look like God turning his back on humanity. But it doesn’t have to be. This was not about God removing access to his presence but rather expanding access. No longer would people require the physical Temple to experience God. Now people would have direct access to the Father through Jesus. In many ways, Jesus is our Temple, he is Emmanuel, God with us. This is good news, literally. At this moment we are not able to meet physically together because of the current pandemic. We are watching or listening to the service online instead of meeting in the building. This is disappointing to us. We have a beautiful church building with amazing woodwork and stained glass windows. That is fine but our building has nothing to do with us connecting with God. You can be sitting in bed, wearing your pyjamas and still experience God as much as if you were sitting in a pew wearing your Sunday best. Why? Because of Jesus. Jesus gives us full access to god, anytime and anywhere.

What about Jesus giving up on the cross? First, we need to remember that Jesus didn’t try and survive the cross and failed. Jesus began his journey to Jerusalem with the full intention of giving his life for our sake. In terms of what he said on the cross, listen carefully to the words. “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Those are powerful last words and they are not words of defeat. What does it mean to commit his spirit. What Jesus was doing was handing over his life to the Father for safekeeping. It would be like us going for a long trip and handing our prized possession with our closest friend so that we would know it would be safe for us until we return. Jesus handed his life over to the Father but the Father was going to give it back to him on the third day. Jesus’ words were not of defeat but of complete trust.

Conclusion

If I had to sum up the message of Christianity, it would be that things are not what they seem. This is true of the Christmas story. It is true of Jesus’ ministry. It is true of the triumphal entry that we think of on Palm Sunday. It is especially true of Jesus on the cross. We read in the Apostle Paul’s letters that many struggled with the message of the Gospel. The reason was that a crucified Messiah just didn’t make sense. Being crucified was a clear indication of defeat and failure. And that is reasonable, at least at first glance. But when we look closer, we see that things are not as they seem. Through the foolishness of the cross, God’s wisdom was made manifest. When we look closer at the cross, we can see God’s plan and we can receive all of the blessings that go with it.