The cross demands our response

Today is Resurrection Sunday. This is the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus demands our response. There has never been a man like Jesus. Jesus endured a brutal scourging during his trials. Scourging alone was sometimes fatal.

A Roman scourge was a short wooden handle with numerous long lashes of leather attached to it. Each leather strip had a piece of glass, metal, bone or other hard object attached to the end of it. The victim was stripped of all clothing and tied to a post with his hands high enough over his head to virtually lift him off the ground. The feet would be dangling. The skin on the back and buttocks would be completely taut. One or two scourge-bearers (lictors) would then deliver blows, skillfully laying the lashes diagonally across the back and buttocks with extreme force.

The skin was literally torn away and often muscles were deeply lacerated. It was not uncommon for the scourge-wounds to penetrate deep into the kidneys or lacerate arteries, causing wounds that in themselves proved fatal. Some victims died from extreme shock during the flogging.

Despite his great physical sufferings, Jesus responded with words of mercy and grace from the cross. Luke records that Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). With his hands nailed to the cross, Jesus extended forgiveness to the dying thief. “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). At his death Jesus cried out, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

The Bible never focuses upon the physical sufferings of Jesus. It always focuses upon his spiritual suffering. Luke records, “And it was darkness about the sixth hour (noon), and there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour (3 p.m.).” At the moment the noon sun should have been brightest in the sky, a darkness fell over all the land. The darkness remained there for three hours. This was probably not a total blackness but rather a severe darkening of the normal daylight intensity of the sun. “Over all the land” is an expression that might refer to the land of Israel or it could refer to the whole world. I’m inclined to think that the sun was dimmed so the darkness would have been universal and not limited to the local area surrounding Jerusalem.

It could not have been an eclipse because Passover always fell on a full moon. God is certainly able to dim the sun’s light. Throughout Scripture, darkness is connected with judgment. Supernatural darkness of this type signified cataclysmic doom (Isaiah 5:30, Joel 2:2, Amos 5:20, Zephaniah 1:14-15). God the father showed up in judgment. The judgment of God the father fell on Jesus as he bore our guilt. The physical darkness was a symbolic representation that the sin of God’s people was transferred to Jesus the sin bearer. Jesus absorbed the eternal wrath of God upon the cross. He became a curse for us on the cross. He died as our substitute.

Luke 23:47-49 records three responses to the death of Jesus. These three responses came from those who witnessed the death of Jesus. You and I must respond the same.

• The first response was one of confession. Verse 47 says, “Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying, ‘Certainly this was a righteous Man!”’ This hardened Roman centurion led 100 soldiers. He was responsible for the execution of Jesus. He was raised in the atheism and agnosticism of the Roman Empire. This man at the foot of the cross watched the unfolding events with closer scrutiny than perhaps anyone else. Matthew 27:54 records him saying, “Surely this was the Son of God!”

This is the great confession that each one of us must make as we stand at the foot of the cross. This soldier realized Jesus was more than a carpenter. He was more than a teacher. He was more than a revolutionary. He was more than a moral man. He was the Son of God and innocent. He suffered for our sins.

• The second response was one of contrition. Verse 48 says, “And the whole crowd who came together to that sight, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned.” The crowd gathered for the spectacle. But as they observed the way Jesus conducted himself, the manner in which he spoke, the love, the forgiveness, the mercy (and especially the darkness that blocked the sun), they realized this man was different. A heavy sense of conviction settled upon them.

• The third response was one of commitment. “But all his acquaintances and the women who followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching these things” (verse 49). In Luke’s gospel these close followers stood at a distance from the cross. John 19 says they were so close to the cross they could hear the words of Jesus. At first, they stood at a distance and then moved closer and closer to the cross.

You and I must do the same today. We must move closer and closer to the cross of the Lord Jesus with absolute commitment to him. We must be so committed to the Lord Jesus Christ that we would be willing to go anywhere and do anything and pay any price that we might be his fully committed followers.

The death and resurrection of Jesus demand our response. Have you confessed that Jesus is Lord? Do you understand that the sacrifice of Jesus is the only hope for salvation? Have you repented of your sin with deep contrition? Finally, have you made the commitment to follow Jesus and be his disciple? Jesus was the God-Man. He was fully God and fully man. As man, he was able to die for our sins. As God, he was able to offer an infinite sacrifice during those three hours of darkness. Turn to him today.

Ethan Hansen is pastor of Faith Bible Fellowship in Big Lake. He can be reached at ehansen@biglakefaithbible.org