the creative cross

I preached twice last weekend, once on Saturday and on Easter Sunday.  This year, deciding to stick with the gospel in the lectionary, I chose the passion-resurrection narrative from Mark.  In this post, I’ll share some things I learned from the crucifixion of Jesus in Mark 15:25-39.  In the next post, I’ll share about the resurrection narrative, Mark 16:1-8.

Mark 15:25-39 encompasses the time that Jesus actually spent on the cross.  The text begins with a reference to time: “It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him” (v. 25).  It follows through with references to time, tracking Jesus’ last hours in this way.  So we read that at “noon, darkness came over the whole land” (v. 33).  Moreover, this darkness lasted “until three in the afternoon” (v. 33).  Finally, three o’clock gets another mention: “At three o’clock Jesus cried out . . .” (v. 34).  There may be multiple reasons for tracking the death of Jesus in terms of time, but one possibility hit me for the first time in my years of hearing and reading this story.  If Jesus’ dying on the cross was from 9 am to 3 pm, then Jesus hung there for six hours.  This invites a comparison with other biblical “sixes”, most notably, the number of “days” God took to create “the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1; 2:1).  Along these lines we might also remember how Mark has chosen to frame his entire gospel, that is, with explicit reference to the story of Jesus being like the story of creation.

“This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mk 1:1).

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth . . .” (Gen 1:1).

Consequently, it is not impossible that Mark is making the claim that Jesus’ death is something of a labor, a work, of creation again, or new creation.  Just as for six days God, through God’s brooding spirit and enlightening Word (Gen 1:2,3), ordered a world, so Jesus, through his breath and with his voice (see 15:34, 38) gave that world a new beginning.

How does Jesus’ breath, that is, his spirit, and his voice, that is, his word, constitute for us a new beginning?

This question leads us to the heart of the text.  For 15:25-39 revolves around the speech of Jesus, and specifically the speech of Jesus in contrast to the other speeches uttered at the cross.  Indeed, whereas those who look on while Jesus is crucified speak, derisively, about Jesus, Jesus directs himself only to the Eternal Spirit.  The only words upon his lips pertain to God, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (15:34).  Of course, in saying so, Jesus was also speaking God’s Word (Psalm 22).  This sets Jesus apart from the other human characters in the story.  They spend these six hours harassing a dying person, ridiculing his claims to kingship (15:32) and priesthood, one with authority over the temple (15:29).  Their words also assume the failure of his status as prophet, since his hanging on the cross in the face of the temple’s persistence negates the truth of his words.  In fact, however, the age of the temple is quickly passing—and much sooner than anyone at the cross could have feared.  With Jesus’ last breath and loud cry, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (15:38).  Thus for the followers of Jesus thereafter, the curtain that marked entrance into the very presence of God (“the holy of holies”) would truly be “his flesh”, his body, that which was crucified (see Heb 10:19-20).  He himself, and no place in particular, would be the means by which, through whom, we worship and live.  All of this he effected because of his faithfulness to his loving Father—because of the steadfastness of his word even to his dying breath.  “When he was abused he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly” (1 Pet 2:23).  He might have entrusted himself to someone else or to some other means.  Indeed, the mockers also believe, in spite of his confession to God, that Jesus is calling Elijah for help (15:35).  But as it stands, Jesus, with no derision toward his fellows, commits his life, his death, into the hands of God.

In this way, Jesus is our model in suffering for others even as his unstinting perseverance in love reveals that something much more than a human was inhabiting his flesh.  God was in Christ reconciling us to himself, not counting our trespasses against us (2 Cor 5:19).  And that is why those six hours on the cross were for us the work that made creation new.

-Joe   

now is the time

A text which I have thought a lot about since being in South Africa, Jesus' story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), came up again last Sunday in the sermon of Pastor Ntapo. Some of his key insights are below.

• The time for salvation is now. It is unwise to put off those difficult things in life which we must do. The rich man, in the pastor's words, "never took time to consider his life" because he was "caught up in the things of the world", caring more about his purple robes and fine feasts (v. 19) than the essence of life itself. Though the pastor himself did not say this, by implication that essence of life which the rich man should have considered was available to him in the person of Lazarus, that "poor man at his gate" (v. 20). By opening his eyes to see the poor man, "covered with sores" (v. 20), the rich man might have realized his own vulnerability and ultimate fate as one subject to death. He realized his own pain only after death, "tormented in Hades" (v. 23), when it was too late for him to amend his ways.
• The laws of God's creation are fixed. When the rich man finally realizes his own vulnerability, he wishes that Lazarus might be sent to him in Hades with water to cool his tongue (v. 24). "Father Abraham", the one to whom the rich man makes his request, denies it, in part on the basis that "between ["Abraham's bosom where Lazarus resides after death] and [Hades where the rich man resides after death] a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us" (v. 26). This point thus reaffirms the first point: the time that the Creator has set for human obedience is between birth and death--not after. This is a reality that we might want to protest but have absolutely no power to change. But realizing the order of creation, we do have the power to live life harmoniously, joyfully within it, in spite of life's struggles.
• A person remains in death what he or she was in life. Even if more chances to get life right, that is, after death, were available to us, they would come to nothing. Even torment in Hades could not change the rich man's behavior. He still imagined that he had the power to command Lazarus in the manner of many who are rich--he still imagined that Lazarus existed to serve him. Thus the rich man called out to Abraham, "send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames" (v. 24). This point is also related to the previous two: because the time is now by order of God, those who seek comfort in death in relation to others must seek it in life in relation to others. If the rich man in death now wants to see Lazarus, albeit from an assumed position of superiority, why would he not see him in life who "lay at his gate" (v. 20)? In order to relate to others in death, we must be related to them in life. If we shall live with them then, we will live with them now.

In summary, therefore, the emphasis lies in this life. All roads lead to the present. By the grace of God, righting the wrongs of the past now will secure for us a goodly future.

-Joe