Dominic Steele explains the lasting and personal significance of Easter in an extract from his Easter and the City address at this week’s City Bible Forum.
Lasting significance?
Monica Lewinsky, O.J. Simpson, Anita Cobby.
They were big names in the news in the 1990s.
But if I asked my children today to tell me about Monica Lewinsky, OJ Simpson or Anita Cobby they would stare at me blankly.
My kids, aged 11, 9 and 7, aren't much interested that an intern had an affair with the President, an American footballer shot his wife or that a nurse was murdered by a western Sydney hoodlum gang.
Despite the fact that these events in the 1990s dominated our news agenda for months (someone described the OJ Simpson case as "the news event of the decade') my kids see those incidents as happening "out there' and "back then' with no real relevance to them.
They don't have lasting significance. Indeed in 100 years I don't think anyone will remember any of their names.
The murder and subsequent resurrection of Jesus - that we mark this Easter is different to any other event.
There are some similarities: Jesus was an innocent person, brutally abused and killed by a gang on a rampage.
But Easter is different in that it has lasting personal impact for each of us.
The differences have to do with: who Jesus is (God's king on the planet); what happened at Jesus' death between Jesus and his father (God the father abandoned his son); The benefit that Jesus death has for me (direct access to God for me).
Who is Jesus?
Jesus was born a Jew 2000 years ago. He was a descendent of the Israelite patriarch Judah. All through his life there had been allusions to the fact that he might be the longed for Jewish Messiah (King).
At the time of his execution the local Roman Governor (who in our terms would have the same status as the Mayor of Parkes) who was overseeing Jesus' execution, ordered that above Jesus head be placed a written notice of the charge against him: THE KING OF THE JEWS (Mark 15:25)
I think the governor was being sarcastic, meaning something like: "this (a brutal, humiliating death) is what happens to people who set themselves up as rival kings, against the great king Cesura (my boss) in Rome.'
Pilot was speaking not sarcastically but with pinpoint accuracy.
For looking back, the Old Testament is scattered with predictions of a Messiah, King or Ruler - and Jesus fulfilled those expectations to the letter.
Jesus is the only person who has ever been able to effectively rule God's planet.
What happened to the relationship between the Father and Jesus when Jesus died?
At the moment of the death of Jesus he was abandoned - not just by Judas (who betrayed him), his mates, the soldiers (who stripped him naked, flogged, whipped him, spat at him and struck his face) but more significant than that that he was abandoned, forsaken by his Father.
Here's how the Bible writer Mark describes what happens to the relationship between the Father and the Son at the moment of Jesus' death:
At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And 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?” (Mark 15:33-34)
Centuries earlier, just after God used Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, God gave the Israelites instructions on how they (a sinful people) could approach him (their Holy God).
The instructions outlined in Leviticus 16 outlined a ceremony in which a pure goat (a scapegoat) would be sent out from the Israelite camp into the desert to die.
But, importantly before the goat was abandoned there would be a symbolic transfer of the sins of the people onto the head of the goat.
The people were therefore understood to have been forgiven because the rightful anger of God at their sin had been atoned for, by the shedding of a goat's blood in their place.
Just as the goat was abandoned and then died in place of the Jews of Moses' time (so that God's wrath could be turned aside), so we are to see that Jesus was abandoned by his Father and died in place of us.
I find this very hard to get my head around. I love my dad and my dad loves me. I enjoy spending time with him and have no trouble honoring him. But he's not the perfect dad and I have not been the perfect son. And yet here is the perfect father (God the Father) who has been in perfect relationship with his son Jesus for all eternity abandoning on his only son. I can't imagine my dad not stepping in to rescue his son. But here is the perfect father holding back as his son was executed. Such was God's love for me.
Jesus' willingness to go to the cross doesn't lessen the horror of the pain of this awful moment. The pain here is primarily relational pain as the father heaps on his son all the punishment for all the wrong ever done (sin).
Significantly, this is not divine child abuse (as some have blasphemously described it) as Jesus is not a child and Jesus is not an unwilling participant but is willingly going to his death - in fact the Father, Son and Spirit were acting in unity in this ultimate act of selfless love for me (and you).
What happened to the relationship between the Father and me when Jesus died?
It is a surprise to read in the middle of Mark's graphic account of Jesus' crucifixion a line that on first glance appears to be a strange insertion:
When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.” One 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. With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. (Mark 15:36-38)
When I first read that line about the tearing of the Jerusalem temple curtain I thought that reporter Mark (sitting at his laptop writing down the account of Jesus' life, death and resurrection) had accidentally pressed paste at the wrong moment - and had carelessly inserted a line about the tearing of the temple curtain (15 kilometers away).
I thought it was like listening to the radio news and hearing the presenter say:
There's a riot on here in the Police Holding Cells at Sydney Police Centre.
Inmates are rioting, they are kicking and punching at the officers. It is bedlam.
Out at Parramatta a flag has just been ripped in strong winds at Old Government house.
One of the jail wardens here at the Sydney Police Centre has called in the Tactical Response Group Officers they will shortly be moving in with battens.
The line about the flag being ripped does not fit among the details of the police holding center riot - and was sloppy editing.
But in Mark's case it wasn't sloppy editing. It was theological gold!
For the Jews the temple was the place where the people could approach the Holy God.
But because of their sin the Jews' access to the inner parts of the temple was generally barred.
In fact the inner most part of the temple, the "Holy of Holies,' was only accessed once a year - by the high priest.
And, there were such stringent regulations access that he would have a surfboard style leg rope so if the high priest had a heart attack he could be dragged out by the leg-rope.
So, far from sloppy journalism, Mark is making the crucial theological point that at Easter - when the Father applied the punishment for sin to Jesus - he tore down the curtain - spectacularly making it possible for our free access to God.
I heard years ago about a burglar breaking into London's Buckingham Palace, getting past all the security and making it all the way into the bedroom of the Queen. Apparently he woke up our gracious sovereign lady and had a 30 minute conversation before she was able to call security (this was a long time before the war against terror).
The story was significant because we are used to prominent people being inaccessible. Prior to Jesus' death, access to God was barred by the curtain. But as Jesus took the wrath of his father, God flung open access wide.
What will we do?
When Jesus died - abandoned by his father - to open up the way for us to God - there were all sorts of reactions.
Some mocked.
The professional thug soldiers, playing a cruel game of blind man's buff with Jesus as the victim, put a crown of thorns in his head, a mock purple robe and hitting him, taunting him to tell them who hit him.
But it wasn't just the soldiers, it was the religious leaders and the crowds as well:
27 They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left. 29 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days ..."
This was a twisted misquote of something Jesus said earlier in his life. The temple was the place where God and people met. Jesus is the new place where God and people meet. Jesus was predicting that after his death he would rise again. Something he did in fact do.
The scoffer's words - meant as a put down - were ironically strangely predictive.
In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him. (Mark 15:29-32)
Again the irony here is amazing. Of course Jesus could have saved himself! Jesus was God's king on the planet. But he chose to save others (opening the access way for us to God, taking God's wrath on himself). But significantly, what Jesus couldn't do was save others and himself.
Similarly today there are many people who like the soldiers, crowd and religious leaders poke fun at the death of Jesus and miss its significance and the benefits.
However, significantly there was another reaction to Jesus death. There was present as Jesus died one Roman Centurion:
And 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!” (Mark 15:39)
I have often wondered if this centurion knew that he was watching the most important moment in world history - and that he would become the most famous centurion in world history (people are still writing and reading about him 2000 years later).
But the irony is - that when the Jewish passers by and religious leaders misjudged the importance of Jesus death - a Roman Centurion analysed correctly what was happening.
The key to right standing before God is not religious pedigree, but a right grasp of who Jesus is (God's king on the planet); what happened at Jesus' death between Jesus and his father (God the father abandoned his son to pay for my sin); the benefit that Jesus death has for me (direct access to God).
The challenge this Easter is not to be a mocker and miss out on the benefits of Jesus' death. But rather to be someone who understands the significance of what Jesus was doing and personally puts their trust in Christ.
I'd recommend saying something like this to God:
Dear God,
I'm sorry - I've been a mocker like the crowds and the religious leaders.
Thanks that Jesus didn't save himself - but saved me instead.
Thanks that he died to take the punishment that I deserved.
Please help me from now on not to underestimate or mock but to treat Jesus properly as who he really is - my Lord.
Amen.
