GOOD FRIDAY
April 2, 2010
Pastor Timothy J. Spaude
Text: Mark 15:33-41

“PORTRAITS OF OUR SAVIOR”
DYING THE SINNER’S DEATH

Mark 15:33-41 (NIV) “At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 35When some of those standing near heard this, they said, "Listen, he's calling Elijah." 36One man ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down," he said. 37With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. 38The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!" 40Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.”

I’ve seen some pretty nice portraits of the crucifixion scene. The artists usually do a fair job of portraying Jesus’ wounds but the scene is often painted softly. Generally you can still sense the tenderness between Jesus and His mother. Most movie presentations in the past have chosen not to show much of the brutality of the crucifixion with the notable exception of the more recent “Passion of the Christ.” The last hymn we will sing today, “Were You There” urges us to paint in our minds the picture of the death and burial of Jesus. In truth there were some people who were there. Mark tells us of some of them, ”Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.” These women were there. What did they see? They saw the Savior dying the sinners’ death.
And in seeing that they saw sin is ugly. “At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 35When some of those standing near heard this, they said, "Listen, he's calling Elijah." 36One man ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down," he said.” Brothers and sisters notice the details in this portrait of our Savior. Look at the ugliness of sin! See the anger of God poured out on His Son. For three hours an unnatural darkness as the Son of God is punished for sin. Look at the Savior’s agony as He suffers Hell, that place that is totally absent of any goodness of God. Forsaken.
It’s this portrait of the ugliness of sin that inspired the hymn writer Thomas Kelly to pen these penetrating words: “If you think of sin but lightly, nor suppose the evil great, here you see its nature rightly, here its guilt may estimate.” And still we have this nasty habit of taking sin lightly, don’t we? Pastor Martin Luther put it this way. “When we should cry and wail, we laugh.” He’s talking about the way we treat some sins. When someone gets drunk there is laughing and joking and mocking , teasing instead of rebuking, shame, sorrow, repentance. Children use foul language, dirty words, tell dirty jokes and is there crying and sadness that filth came from a Christian mouth? No you laugh and think it’s funny. When a brother or sister falls or has a weakness do we cry with them, help them, pick them up, cover over their weakness like we want others to do to us? No. We gather like hens in the barnyard and pick and pick and tear down and take unholy glee that someone’s not as good as me. Look! Look at your Savior and see the ugliness of sin. When we ought to weep we laugh.
And when we ought to laugh and rejoice, we weep. Our portrait of our Savior continues by showing us that sin is paid for. “With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. 38The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!" With a loud cry. We know what that was. The triumph cry. “It is finished!” What is finished? Being punished for the sins of the world. Jesus breathed his last as He committed Himself into the loving hands of His father. The temple curtain was torn in two. God’s way of showing that the barrier of sin that separated man from God was now gone. The Roman centurion who saw Jesus dying the sinner’s death was forced to a conclusion. "Surely this man was the Son of God!" Sin is paid for.
When we ought to laugh we cry. That’s kind of the conundrum or the paradox of Good Friday, isn’t it? We call it good yet our liturgical color is the black of mourning. We are happy that our sins are paid for yet all the Good Friday hymns and songs I know of are written with sorrowful or more solemn melodies. The last half of our service will follow that tone. And while it is good for us who live in a society that likes to gloss over sin and act like it’s no big deal to actually spend some time in sorrow over our sins we do get to have joy because this portrait of our Savior shows us that sin is paid for.
Your sin and my sin. Let me show you another portrait of our Savior. Some of you have seen it before. It’s made up of the pictures of our school children from a couple of years ago. It’s neat what computer imaging can do. What God did is better! Do you remember the last verse of the last hymn we sang? “We were there on Calvary. We were pardoned, saved, set free. Saved to live eternally. Blessed Calvary.” Amen.