Sermon Tone Analysis

So far we have examined the implications and significance of four of Christ’s sayings from the cross: 1) /The Word of Forgiveness/, 2) /The Word of Salvation/, 3) /The Word of Affection/, and 4) /The Word of Anguish/.

The fifth statement that Jesus uttered from the cross—and the focus of our attention this morning— is referred to as /The Word of Suffering/.

Two simple words: I thirst, paint a graphic picture of our Lord's physical agonies on the cross.

Believers must never forget the awful affliction and anguish and travail He experienced in His death on the cross.

ILLUS.

Some of you are familiar with the Christian allegory called Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan.

The main character is named Christian.

He goes through a series of adventure with a heavy knapsack full of rocks on his back.

It represents the burden of sin all sinners carry.

Finally, Christian comes to a place called Calvary, were, when he looks up at a cross, the burden falls off his back and rolls into an open sepulcher.

Christian is now really a Christian.

But Christian also has a wife and some children, and in time they come to the place of the cross as well where they begin their spiritual journey of living the Christian life.

In one scene the character Mr. Great-heart is leading Samuel—one of Christian’s sons—through the Valley of Humiliation and they have the following conversation:

Samuel.

Now, as they went on, Samuel said to Mr. Great-heart, /“Sir, I perceive that in this valley my father and Apollyon had their battle; but whereabout was the fight?

for I perceive this valley is large.”/

Great-heart.

/“Your father had that battle with Apollyon at a place yonder before us, in a narrow passage, just beyond Forgetful Green.

And indeed, that Green is the most dangerous place in all these parts.

For if at any time the pilgrims meet with any burden, it is when they forget what favours they have received, and how unworthy they are of them.”/

We need to repeatedly tell and retell the story of the cross, lest we find ourselves crossing Forgetful Green and forget what favours we have received through the cross!

So let’s take some time this morning to remember why our Lord’s suffering is important to us.

!

I. WHEN JESUS SAID “I THIRST” /HE REVEALED THE BARBARITY OF THE CROSS/

#. for many in our society the cross is little more than a symbol of adornment or ornamentation

#. the 21st century Christian has forgotten how cruel and hideous crucifixion really was

#. we have perhaps unwisely and sometimes unconsciously glamorized the cross

#. we’ve turned into jewelry of every description

#. we wear crucifixes around our necks, and in our ears, and eyebrows and bellybuttons

#. we place the cross on our steeples and in our baptistries

#. they are the focus of stained glass scenes and the cross adorns the Christian flag

#. what we’ve forgotten is that it was the most hideous and painful method of public execution known to mankind in the first century

#. historians tell us that even battle-hardened Roman soldiers who made up the execution squads could not get used to the horrible sight, and often took strong drink to numb their senses

#. because the cross has become such an accepted symbol of adornment many are tempted to forget what the cross was all about

#. so ... what is it all about?

#.

Jesus endured 6 hours of such anguish, just for us so that we might be forgiven of all our sin!\

* /“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit,”/ (1 Peter 3:18, NIV84)

!! A. THE CROSS WAS AN UNSPEAKABLY BRUTAL INSTRUMENT OF DEATH

* /“When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, ... ”/ (Luke 23:33, NIV84)

#. it’s such a simple, unassuming statement—and there they crucified him

#. the first recorded use of the procedure comes from 519 B.C. when Darius I, king of Persia, crucified 3,000 political opponents

#. the Romans adopted it as a means of executing slaves and non-citizens about 200 years before Christ

#. the Christian Emperor Constantine forbade it in A.D. 337 when Christianity became a legal religion

#. it was not, however, a simple or unassuming way to die

#. in our enlightened day we continually seek ways to humanly execute criminals condemned to death

* ILLUS.

Over the centuries, western culture has repeatedly sought out ways to make execution as humane event as possible.

It was twenty-five years ago that while on a trip to Europe, Linda and I stood in the square where the revolutionary government of France set up the guillotine during that country's Reign of Terror during the late 18th century.

Thousands of aristocratic heads were lopped off in that square.

What I did not know at the time, was that the guillotine was invented by a French doctor trying to devise a more humane way of executing prisoners!

Considering that the alternatives of that day was slow strangulation, being beaten to death with a club or burned at the stake, I suppose the guillotine was considered more humane.

So it has been with every modern instrument of death.

The hangman's noose, the gas chamber, the electric chair, and now lethal injection.

All of these have been attempts to more humanely execute criminals.

#. not so the cross

#. crucifixion was the epitome of man's barbaric imagination

#. no other means of death equal the hideousness of the cross

#.

Jesus would have fully aware of savagery

* ILLUS.

About the time when Jesus was a teenager, there was a small Jewish revolt against the Romans in Galilee.

The Roman Legion stationed in Israel crushed the rebellion and took just over 1,700 Jewish prisoners.

They crucified every one of them.

Along Galilee’s main highway, they spaced a crucified victim every 30 feet for over ten miles.

#. it must have made an indelible impression upon the mind of our Savior

#. crucifixion was a way of maintaining control through state-sponsored terror

#. it was Rome’s way of saying, /“Behave yourself, or this could be you!”/

#. the routine of crucifixion was always the same

#.

when the case had been heard and the criminal condemned, the judge uttered the fateful sentence: /"ibis ad crucem"/ which is Latin for /“You must go to the cross”/

#. the condemned person was whipped to within an inch of his life and then placed in the center of four Roman soldiers who often lashed and goaded the victim along the road as he carried the very cross upon which he was to be suspended

#. before the victim walked an officer with a placard on which was written the crime for which the condemned was to die

#. on the way to execution the victim was led through as many streets as possible to increase his shame and increase his suffering

#. the actual crucifixion was filled with unspeakable horrors—it was not a swift death

#. victims were usually stripped naked, their arms were tied to the cross piece and they were then lifted up into place to die a slow death

#. some victims took three or four days to die

#. if the Roman soldiers wanted to be especially brutal they drove spikes through the victims wrists instead of tying them

#.

once the victim had been lifted into place his feet were crossed and a 12 inch spike was driven through their heels to help hold them in place

* ILLUS.

Frederick Farrar, in his book The Life of Christ, writes this about crucifixion: /"... death by crucifixion seems to include all that pain and death have to offer ... the unnatural position [of the body] made every movement painful; the lacerated veins and crushed tendons throbbed with incessant anquish; the wounds, inflamed by exposure, gradually gangrened; the arteries—especially at the head and stomach—became swollen and oppressed with surcharged blood; and while each variety of misery went on gradually increasing, ... all were intensified just up to the point at which they can all be endured at all, but all stopping just short of the point which would give ... the relief of unconsciousness ...there was added to [all these] the intolerable pang of a burning and raging thirst.”/

#. a thousand years before the crucifixion took place, the Psalmist wrote about our Lord’s agony on the cross

* /“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me.

My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.

Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.”/

(Psalm 22:14–16, NIV84)

* ILLUS.

The Church, I think, owes a dept of gratitude to director/actor Mel Gibson for his production of The Passion of the Christ released in 2004.

It largely covers the final twelve hours of Jesus' life beginning with the Agony in the Garden and ending with a brief depiction of his Resurrection.

The scenes of his scourging and crucifixion depict, with gruesome reality, what the event might have been like.

I cannot read 1 Peter 2:24 that tells us by his wounds you were healed without seeing in my minds eye, Jim Caviezel’s portrayal of Jesus.

#.

When Jesus Said I Thirst He Revealed the Barbarity of the Cross

#. the amazing aspect of this is that our Lord willingly surrendered his life to this death

* /“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.

This command I received from my Father.”

”/ (John 10:17–18, NIV84)

!

II.

WHEN JESUS SAID "I THIRST" HE REVEALED AN UNDERSTANDING OF HIS OWN SUFFERING

#. the great miracle of the cross is that God took the most dastardly act ever committed by man and used it as the very means to reconcile men unto Himself

#.

Jesus knew exactly why He was dying and what He was dying for