The Glory in a Gruesome Death

In 1992 Michael W. Smith and Wayne Kirkpatrick asked the question in a song, “Tell me why you wear your cross of gold.” The questioning went like this:

Is it a flame? Is it a passion? A symbol of love living in you? Or is it a game, Religion in fashion, Some kind of phase you're going through? For some it's simply something to wear around your neck, Just a chain, Jewelry. Is it decoration? Is it an icon? Or proclamation? For some it's simply something to wear around your neck, Just a chain. It means a lot more than that to me Tell me why you wear your cross of gold!

While we would never glamorize the hangman’s noose, the firing squad’s bullet, the executioner’s syringe, or the electric chair, the cross has become an icon that marks graves, adorns architecture and is worn on lapels and necklaces.

Why the difference? What is it about the executioner’s method used on Jesus that makes it distinct from all other forms of capital punishment? I believe the difference is that there is a certain glory that can be seen in the gruesome death of our Savior.

I am more of an action movie guy than Shakespearean theatre, but a line from Shakespeare’s King John has inspired a common phrase that I have not been able to get out of my head as I prepared this sermon. Shakespeare’s character says, “to gild refined gold, to paint the lily / to throw a perfume on the violet… / is wasteful and ridiculous excess.” The word pictures by King John have been combined into the more popular, “don’t guild the lily”; which Webster defines as “to add unnecessary ornamentation to something beautiful in its own right.”

Throughout history preachers have embellished the story of the cross with memorable rhetorical devices. I think of S.M. Lockridge repeating, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s Coming” or Carmen counting backwards in the song, “The Champion”. I’ve heard sermons that describe the weapon and the number of stripes endured in the scourging. I’ve heard messages that detail the extreme humiliation of Roman crucifixion. I’ve heard lessons depicting the length of the thorns, the placement of the nails, and the texture and weight of the cross.

As I worshipped in the message of these verses, the Holy Spirit kept repeating, “don’t gild the lily, don’t add unnecessary ornamentation to something beautiful in its own right.”

As I meditated within this text, I kept looking for Dr. Luke’s unique perspective. After all, the fact that he was a physician played a role in the Holy Spirit inspiring Luke to give more pregnancy details than all of the other gospel writers combined. So I expected the Physician to reveal physical nuances that are absent from the others. But I was surprised to read very little about they physicality of these events.

Several years ago I was introduced to an artist, Michael Murphy, whose specialty is 3 dimensional art that appears to be one thing when a person looks from one position and something very different when a patron views from a different angle.

In the next minute, let’s look at a few examples of what Murphy calls anamorphic art. https://youtu.be/SKfpYVK_r0E

As I thought about the various interactions in today’s text, at first it looked like one of Murphy’s sculptures from the side. But as the Holy Spirit moved me from the perspective of a physician to the posture of a worshipper I began to see Luke’s focus upon the Glory of this gruesome event

Transition:. The first glory I noticed is…

The Glory of Compassion (vv.26-31)

Simon (v.26)

1. I first started to consider the possibility of compassion when I read in the New Bible Commentary, “A crowd always attended executions out of curiosity or compassion.”[i] So while, Simon’s being compelled to carry the cross may not be an act of compassion, the very fact that he was present in order to be conscripted into service was evidence of some level of compassion.

2. You are free to disagree with me that there is any compassion demonstrated in this verse. Some see this act as motivated more by impatience, than compassion. They conclude that the soldiers compelled Simon simply so they could “get on with things” and get the crucifixion over.

3. When we get to v.47 we will find a centurion who agrees with verdict of Herod and Pilate that Jesus was innocent. As the officer in charge of the detail, I choose to believe that the possibility they were committing an injustice is rolling around as a possibility in his mind, so he overrules the brutality of his soldiers and seizes Simon into service.

4. Some see Rufus (identified as Simon’s son in Mark 15:21) as the same Rufus mentioned by Paul in Romans 16:13, so it may require some connecting of dots, but I see it as reasonable that a man driven by curiosity or compassion from Northern Africa would bring his sons to see Jesus and that one of those sons would be named as part of the early church in Rome.

Women of Jerusalem (vv.27-31)

1. It is not insignificant that Jesus speaks directly to these women. By identifying them as daughters of Jerusalem, they would not have been the disciples who followed around Galilee or those to accompanied him from Jericho before the Triumphal Entry.

2. The disdain of Jewish leaders for women would have meant that women were totally excluded from the meetings in Caiaphas’ home and the appeals to Pilate. It is possible that they were among the locals who cried Hosana on Palm Sunday. Their disagreement with the Romans and the Religious elite revealed their compassion for Jesus.

3. The fact that Jesus addresses them reveals His compassion for them and their descendants.

4. Jesus is saying, “If the Romans allow this to happen to an innocent man, there are days coming (prophesied in Hosea 10:8) when Jewish residents will be considered outlaws, and just wait to see how they will be treated.

Transition: From the glory of compassion expressed between Jesus and the spectators, I next notice…

The Glory of Forgiveness (vv.32-34; 39-43)

The Mob (33-34)

1. 5x in 2 verses I read they. Some think they refers to the soldiers. I see rather a combination of the Roman detail AND the they mentioned 3x in vv.21-25.

2. The religious zealots who thought they were carrying out Deuteronomy 13, the soldiers carrying out Pilate’s orders, and the mob driven by the emotion of seeing Pilate’s weakness all combine as the target of Jesus’ forgiveness.

3. Jesus offered the bread and the wine to Judas and Peter, knowing their pending failures. Jesus extends forgiveness to the mob on the basis of their ignorance.

The Malefactors (32, 39-43)

1. We all have seen the crying mother attempt to defend her son in front of the news cameras claiming, “He isn’t bad boy, he just…”

2. The word translated as criminals here is literally “One who customarily does bad things”.

3. Luke intentionally avoids terms that he could have used that appear elsewhere in the NT to speak of evildoers: foxes, dogs, wolves, vipers, devils, those who dwell in darkness.

4. I conclude that Luke is not isolating these two as extreme, habitual, violent offenders. He frames these two as all those who repeatedly do wrong (all of us!). And he extends forgiveness to all of us who demonstrate the repentance of both admitting our own sinfulness and His unique innocence.

Transition: As Jesus demonstrates unbelievable compassion and inconceivable forgiveness, I also note that he doesn’t force acceptance. He makes room for…

The Glory of Personal Response (vv.35-38, 44-49)

The Gentleman of Heaven will not force your response. We are not programmed robots. One of God’s greatest gifts is the freedom to choose a positive response to His initiative. One glory of the Scriptures is that it presents both the initiative of God to redeem man, AND the requirement of personal response.

The Religious rulers responded by building their own reputations. (v.35)

1. In response to v.34 where Jesus acknowledged that they don’t know what they are doing, the rulers reject the benefit of the doubt and essentially claim “See! We told you so!”

2. If you are who you say you are, you will do what we say you will do.

3. They are so eager to defend their own reputations as the arbitrators of all things related to God that they can’t for a moment accept Jesus’ offer of forgiveness.

The Soldiers responded by attempting to soothe their consciences (vv.36-38)

1. While it is true that the soldiers join in the mocking of the rulers, I sense that they are doing it out of a different motivation.

2. Many soldiers in many conflicts have been forced into impossible situations. In an attempt to save their own sanity, some adopt an alter ego when down range.

Many soldiers for the Third Reich later had to face charges for war crimes for carrying out orders that were unjust.

3. I see the soldiers mocking as different from the rulers mocking for 3 reasons:

a. The sour wine they offered could serve as an anesthetic to dull the pain.

b. While the rulers mocked him, the soldiers mock you. As if to say, “you did this to yourself”

c. By hanging the title of Jewish King, it was as if they were saying “We’re only being good soldiers, eliminating a threat to our King.”

The Triune God responded by opening Access (vv.44-46)

1. The veil was originally intended as a measure of protection so that the glory of God would not overwhelm those doing service in the holy place.

2. When the righteousness of Christ is imputed to believers we are no longer overwhelmed by his Glory, though it continues to make us marvel, because His glory in a limited degree now dwells in us!

The Centurion responds with a true proclamation (v.47)

1. The Judicial innocence that was first proclaimed by Pilate & Herod is now being seen in the military commander of the garrison charged with carrying out the orders.

2. It is the response of a truthful witness here that leads me to conclude there was a measure of compassion earlier.

The Crowd responds as culturally expected (v.48)

1. The crowd responds respectfully (as those of us who pull over for a funeral procession, but they were unchanged by the events of the day)

2. As they walk away I’m confident that the Holy Spirit was at work in many of them setting up the response that Peter gets on Pentecost.

3. Yes, Peter had Holy Ghost power in his preaching, but I think many in Jerusalem spent those 50 days in reflection of what they witnessed on this Friday.

His Acquaintances responded in disbelief (v.49)

1. While Peter denied after being in the darkness alone, These (plural) are taking notice from a distance.

2. Disbelief is different than despair. We don’t have much detail to assign motives to these witnesses.

3. Luke does not use the word for disciples, but rather those who knew Him and were known by Him. This word for knowledge is often connected to experience rather than content.

4. Those who had experience with Him were standing back taking notice of what all was going on.

5. I see confusion, more than desperation, because many are still together on Sunday when the women return from the tomb.

Application

1. Notice the way Dr. Luke frames events. Chapter 1 begins with Elisabeth and Mary as central characters. As Jesus makes his way toward Calvary, he engages the women. As Jesus breathes his last, Luke mentions the women who are witnesses to the events.

2. I also notice Luke’s de-emphasis upon the physical pain. As a physician I would think the physical elements would catch his attention.

a. There is no mention of the scourging or the crown of thorns.

b. There is no mention of Jesus crying out in thirst – a medical symptom of dehydration.

c. There is no mention of the blood and water coming out when the spear is thrust into Jesus’ side

d. It seems like Luke goes to great lengths to avoid sensationalizing the details that revival preachers emphasize.

3. It is as if Luke is trying to shift the focus from Jesus’ physical distress toward the variety of responses people were having to the compassion and forgiveness that his pain was proving.

Conclusion:

Luke’s purpose, instead, was to show that Jesus was the forgiving Messiah even as He died. Jesus asked the Father to forgive those who were killing Him (v. 34), and He forgave one of the men sentenced to die with Him (v. 43). Even in death Jesus had power to make people right with God.[ii]

What is your response to Jesus’ Compassion and Forgiveness?

[i] I. Howard Marshall, “Luke,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson et al., 4th ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 1017. [ii] John A. Martin, “Luke,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 262.

Related Media

Related Sermons