Glory, Irony, and a Crying Savior

I’m late to write this blog, but this time it feels like more of a good thing than usual because I have some things to share from the sermon tonight that I might not have shared this soon otherwise. We were in Mark 15:15-32.

The crucifixion of Christ has some glorious contradictions, as my previous pastor put it years ago. The crucifixion of Christ is filled with glory and irony, as my current pastor put it tonight. Allow me to paint some word pictures of it.

The Creator was abused by His own creation.

Immortality died.

Justice and mercy were fulfilled simultaneously.

Righteousness paid for unrighteousness.

The One who could save Himself didn’t, in order to save us.

The thing that brought humanity our greatest hope is a horrendous act of death by torture.

Now allow me to tell you about some scenes that came to my mind as we talked about the crucifixion. For starters, Jesus was scourged with a multi-corded whip that had metal, bone, and stones braided into the cords. He was tied up in such a way as to expose and stretch out his back, and in a way so He couldn’t brace Himself for the strikes. Jesus’ back was literally torn open to shreds. You have to be pretty sadistic to be the one giving that beating. You also have to be pretty sadistic to do what the band of soldiers did after: they mocked a weakened, bloodied Jesus by blindfolding Him, dressing Him as royalty, pretending to bow to Him, and beating Him up. The royal outfit was made complete with a crown they made of long, sharp thorns. They beat Jesus over the head with the makeshift scepter they’d given Him. They beat Him up while taunting Him to prophesy and tell them which one was striking Him around.

Here my mind pictured Jesus crying. Humans involuntarily cry out vocally and with tears when in enough pain, and since Jesus had become human for us, He had to have cried out in pain with tears for both the scourging and the beating. This thought makes me uncomfortable. It makes my eyes tear up. But it is part of what Jesus did for me, and for all of humanity.

Yet through all the pain and crying, Jesus still found it in Himself to have pity for the souls of the soldiers unjustly and sadistically beating Him, evidenced by a statement I’ll point out in a bit. I wonder which of the soldiers might have been cut to the heart upon hearing Jesus crying. I wonder if any might have been cut to the heart at seeing the look on Jesus’ face when they uncovered it to send Him off to His crucifixion. Maybe Jesus was too bruised for them to read His expression. I wonder if any were cut to the heart by that.

Weakened from both beatings, Jesus was then forced to carry the crossbeam for His execution. Each step would have been agony with the beam on His bloodied, shredded back. Because He was so weakened from pain and blood loss, someone else had to carry the beam for Him. This was hardly a respite, though. There would be more crying out as Jesus was nailed to the cross, likely through bone to make sure He could hang without falling. There would be even more crying out as the cross was raised and the base dropped into a hole, reopening what little closing Jesus’ bloodied back had done and sending fresh waves of pain through Him. I sadly wonder at what point Jesus would have been too tired from pain and blood loss to cry anymore.

But even with all that, Jesus still found and expended the energy to say some important things out loud, like this heart-wrenching statement I mentioned earlier: “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing” (Luke 23:34). This statement was for the religious leaders who had sent Him to the cross with a mock trial, for the Roman leaders and soldiers that had carried everything out to put Him on the cross, for the people there mocking Him, and for the soldiers callously gambling over what was left of His clothes at the foot of the cross. He said it through pain. He might have said it through tears if He had any left.

So there it is in a summary, the glory, the irony, and the Savior crying. All that just for you and me. All that to tell us, “I love you.” As the pastor put it tonight: The cross is the pulpit from which Jesus preached the truth of His amazing grace, His unmerited mercy and love.

Glory, Irony, and a Crying Savior

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