Mark
In the name of the One who died so that we might live, dear friends:
Three men are walking down a well-worn path through the
streets of
It is difficult to get a good look at the second man because he is hunched over. He is leaning forward because there is something heavy on his back. It is a piece of wood that will eventually become the instrument of his execution. With each agonizing step he falls farther behind the centurion. He staggers and falls. He can’t make it one step farther. He can’t make it to the end. But he has to.
The third man is trailing behind at some distance. He looks like he doesn’t want to be here, like he is ashamed to be here. He tries to pretend that he isn’t a part of this procession, but he is. In fact, this man was the one who made this trip necessary. When he looks back to see if anyone has spotted him, his face comes into clear view. And when it does you can’t believe your eyes. It is like looking in a mirror because the person who is trying to hide in the shadows is you.
One-by-one these three men pass through the gate leading out of the city. One-by-one they turn off the paved road and slowly make their way up a hill, and as soon as they reach the top they stop. They stop because this is where the path ends. There is no outlet. There is no intersection. The only way to leave is to turn around and go back the way you came.
There is a common term to describe this kind of road. We call it a “Dead End,” and it is a fitting description for this place in more ways than one. The top of this particular hill was a place where many people took their last steps. The Place of the Skull (as it was called) was a place where many a criminal’s life came to an end.
But not today. Not on the day we call Good Friday. This is a sad day. This is a somber day. This is a day when Christians mourn. This day is many things, but it is not the end. Good Friday was a day of death, but it is not…
A DEAD END?
I. Not for the Roman centurion
II. Not for Jesus
III.
Not for us
“This is just another day.” That’s probably what the centurion thought to himself when he got ready for work on Good Friday. There were two executions scheduled for that morning, but the Roman governor Pontius Pilate had just added one more.
That didn’t faze this man. Nothing fazed him anymore. Killing was his business, and he did it with deadly efficiency. He did notice that the crowds seemed to be more interested in one criminal than the others. And even though the people were shouting at this man in their own language, the centurion could tell that their words were filled with hate.
There was something else about this criminal that made him stand out from the others. He was wearing a crown of thorns, and crown that some of his soldiers had placed on his head. The men were just having some fun, he thought. This man claimed to be a king, so they treated him like one. Except when they mocked him to his face. Except when they spit in his face. Except when they beat him over the head with his mock scepter again and again.
When playtime was over, the centurion led the execution
detail outside the city to
As soon as the three crosses were lowered into their holes, the majority of his work was done. All that was left to do was stand watch. All he had to do was to watch and wait for these men to die. And based on his experience he knew that he could be watching and waiting for a long, long time.
“These people claim to be so religious,” he thought to himself. “They claim to be followers of the one, true God. They don’t look very religious to me. And if this is what their God is like, if this is what their God wants from them, I don’t want to have anything to do with him.”
The centurion had seen the worst in man, and he dealt with the worst of men on a daily basis. He had become skeptical. His experiences had made him cynical. Not just about the Jewish god. About the dozens of so-called Roman gods. About the Roman emperors who claimed to be gods. About the very existence of God.
It would take a miracle to change his mind, and so that is exactly what God provided. The centurion began to sense that something wasn’t quite right when the sky became dark in the middle of the day. The centurion was visibly shaken when he felt the ground shaking under his feet. But neither of those things affected him as much as what Jesus said on the cross.
It was no big surprise when criminals cursed the centurion (he was used to that), but it was a complete shock when Jesus asked his Father to forgive him. And it wasn’t just the centurion he treated this way. Jesus assured the criminal on the cross next to him that he would see him again in paradise. And then he made sure that one of his followers would look after his mother after he was gone.
And then there were the final words Jesus spoke before he
died, “Father, into your hands I commit
my spirit” (Luke
And when the centurion heard those words, he was deeply
moved. He realized that Jesus was no
ordinary man. He recognized that this
execution was a mistake. He wasn’t so
sure of himself anymore, but of one thing he was certain (when he declared): “Surely this man was the Son of God” (Mark
15:39)!
Was this a confession of faith? Were these words evidence that Jesus created
a soft spot in this soldier’s hard heart?
We don’t know. We don’t know if the
centurion came to faith. We don’t if he
has joined Jesus in paradise. But at the
very least we can say that this trip to
In our opening hymn this afternoon, we sang: “Oh, sorrow dread! God’s Son is dead” (CW 137:2)! What happened on Good Friday was real. It wasn’t a trick. It wasn’t an elaborate hoax. Jesus didn’t lose consciousness and come to in the tomb a few hours later. He died.
But Jesus didn’t just die. He died a slow and painful death. He died a shameful death. He died for crimes he didn’t commit. He died even though he didn’t commit any crime at all. Jesus suffered willingly and died innocently for one reason and for one reason only. He died for us.
If that makes you feel guilty, it’s because you are. You are guilty. Even if you have never broken the law, you haven’t gone a single day in your life without breaking God’s law. And you aren’t alone. We all have disobeyed God. We have all misused God’s name. Every one of us has hated and lusted and lied and coveted.
In his Word God says: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law” (Galatians 3:10). If you have sinned even once you are cursed. Sin places all of us under God’s curse. And there is nothing we can do about it. We can’t make up for our sin. We can’t get rid of our sin. We can’t reverse the curse, but Jesus can. On Good Friday that is exactly what he did, and this is how he did it: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’” (Galatians 3:13).
Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law by dying on the cross, by dying in our place. From the day he was born he was preparing for this day. And when the day arrived, he didn’t falter. He never wavered. He willed himself down the road that ended at the cross, but when he died death was not the end. Not for Jesus and not for us.
Good Friday has a lot in common with a Christian funeral. The dominant color is black. The mood is serious. The music is somber. Tears are common, and smiles are rare. But Good Friday and a Christian funeral have something else in common, hope.
There is hope on Good Friday because Jesus didn’t stay dead. There is hope at a Christian funeral because our dead bodies won’t stay dead either. There is hope on Good Friday because we know that Jesus rose from the dead. And as a result every Christian funeral is a service of hope because we know that our living Lord will raise us from the dead on the Last Day.
And now I am picturing people walking again, but this time there are two people, and they are walking together. They are walking down streets of gold. They are wearing white robes. One of them is Jesus, and the other person is you.
It’s a beautiful picture, perhaps too beautiful for a day like today. But without Good Friday, this picture would be nothing more than a fantasy. Because of Good Friday, it is a future reality. Because of what Jesus did today, because Jesus died on this day, death is not the end, not for you, not for me, not for anyone who trusts in Jesus as Savior. Even in death Jesus gives us hope, hope for a new life, a better life, eternal life. Amen.