What Does The Cross Have To Do With Our Shame? | Mark 15:16-47 | Kevin Queen

We're so glad that you're here with us. If you're watching online or at God Behind Bars, we love you. We're so thankful that you're here. Well, today's Palm Sunday and we get to celebrate and honor our King Jesus today. And we're gonna sing the word hosanna, which means God save us, come save us. So let's do that now in honor of him today. We'll sing this out together. I see the king, I see the king, I see the king, I see the king, I see the king, I see the king, I see the king, I see the king, I see the king, I see the king, I see the king of glory. ♪ I see the king of glory ♪ ♪ Coming on the clouds with fire ♪ ♪ The whole earth shakes, the whole earth shakes ♪ ♪ The whole earth shakes, the whole earth shakes ♪ ♪ I see his love and mercy ♪ ♪ Washing over all our sin ♪ ♪ The people sing, the people sing ♪ We sing hosanna. ♪ Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest ♪ ♪ Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest ♪ ♪ Hosanna, hosanna in the highest ♪ ♪ I see a generation rising up to take their place ♪ ♪ With selfless faith, with selfless faith ♪ ♪ I see a revival, I see a near revival ♪

♪ Stirring as we pray and sing, we're on our knees ♪ ♪ We're on our knees, hosanna, hosanna, hosanna ♪ ♪ Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest ♪ We sing hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest. ♪ Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest ♪ Come on, give Him the glory. Hallelujah. ♪ Heal my heart in naked pain, open my eyes ♪ ♪ Open up my eyes to the things unseen ♪ ♪ Show me how to love like You have loved me ♪ ♪ You have loved me, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Break my heart to embrace Yours, everything I am ♪ ♪ Everything I am for Your kingdom's cause ♪ ♪ As I walk from earth into eternity, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Hosannah, hosannah Lift it up, church. So beautiful when we sing. ♪ Hosannah, hosannah Hosannah in the highest We sing hosannah ♪ Hosannah, hosannah Hosannah in the highest We love you. ♪ Hosannah, hosannah Hosannah in the highest Hosannah in the highest ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Welcome to Crosspoint, and so glad that you are with us today as we are beginning the Holy Week, which we begin with Palm Sunday and move toward Easter. And today is Palm Sunday, but I just got to let you know, it's going to be a little different

this year, because we are going through the Gospel of Mark, and we studied the triumphal entry back in January. So we're overachievers around here, already tackled Palm Sunday, but still today we're asking and we're praying, Jesus, would you meet with us? And just as he entered into the city in Jerusalem, he enters into our hearts and he meets us in this place. And my prayer for you is that you'd have an encounter with him today, and Easter is next week. And I'm glad that you know about a discipleship tool that the team has put together for next Friday, for this Friday coming up, which is Good Friday, and the Holy Week, and Good Friday when we remember the cross. And I don't know about you, but sometimes we can get kind of so caught up in the events of the day, the things of the day, we get busy, and I find it, I find myself needing a way to just kind of slow down and remember the events of the cross and the stations of the cross, really. The team has put together a tool that if you text 615, or if you text Friday to 615615, you're going to receive, you'll receive texts that will lead you through content that's going to help bring to mind what kind of the real time, hour by hour, what Jesus went through on the journey of the cross for you. So just to help us slow down on that day and remember what Christ did for us. So you can text Friday to 615615, we'll take care of that. And that will help position our hearts and get our hearts ready for Easter. And as we move toward Easter, the reason we keep this in front of us, and we're continually talking about it, is because it is such a significant day, and studies have shown that our unchurched friends and neighbors, family members, coworkers, that studies have shown that they're 82% more likely to say yes to an invitation for Easter than any other time of the year. So it's just this, it's this moment on the calendar where people are open to an invitation. And the number one reason people don't go to church on Easter is because they're not invited.

And so we want to be aware this week, I just want to encourage you to pray, God, would you show me, would you show me moments and opportunities, names and faces to invite to Easter this year? Because we, I don't know if you know it, but we're living in a time in the world right now where people are desperately in need of hope. And we are, we are in need of hope in our world. And on Easter, we get to talk about the hope that only Jesus can bring. So I want to encourage you to stay aware for that this week. And speaking of awareness, I, when I was in college, in grad school, there was an awareness test that I saw. And so what I want to do is I want to, I want to, are you guys open for, ready for a test? Is it okay if I give you an awareness test? So I want to show you a video, and it's only going to take about a minute, but we're going to give you an awareness test. So I want to encourage you to check this out. This is an awareness test. How many times has the team in white passed the ball? If you answered 13 passes, you are correct, but did you see the moonwalking gorilla? Come on. So here's the point of that. The point of that video is this, and if you're taking notes, here it is. It's easy to miss the things you're not looking for. It's easy to miss the things you're not looking for, and it's not just in a video. It's in life. It happens all the time. In parenting, we see the acting out or we see the behavior, but we miss the cry for attention. In marriage. We can get caught up in dispute or in challenges, and we can miss the reason that we fell in love

in the first place. At work, we can see the coworker walking down the hall in silence, but we miss the weight that they're carrying. In the neighborhood, we can see that neighbor, and we know their car, and we know their wave, but maybe we don't know their name, and it's not until we see an ambulance in the driveway that we realize that we miss the things we're not looking for. Ree and I, we saw this, we experienced this. A while back, we went to The Cookery, which is this great restaurant in Nashville, great ministry, and we were talking with the founder, Brett. In the conversation, he shared with us about the Dollar Club, what we were able to do with the Dollar Club. His story with the Dollar Club, we were able to help him go back to Australia. He's from Australia, to go back to see his dad, and he had been estranged from his dad for decades. And because of the Dollar Club, he was able to make that trip back and to see his dad, because his dad had terminal illness. And he said it was in that week of conversation with his dad and there had been all kind of brokenness and all kind of addiction and struggles that his father had had. But he said it wasn't until that week that he realized that the deluge of, these were his words, the deluge of generational trauma that his father was protecting him from.

And so they were able to reconcile and he came back to the States and his father died that next week. And I was just thinking about that. It's like, it's easy to miss the things that we're not looking for. And that's exactly what we're gonna see in the text today. We're gonna be looking at Mark chapter 15. If you've got a Bible, I wanna encourage you to turn there with and follow along. And in Mark's gospel, what we encounter is that the people that you would expect to see Jesus, the people that you would expect to realize who he is, the religious authorities, the theologians, the scholars, the political people, you would expect them to recognize Jesus, but they didn't see him. They didn't see who he is. They're the ones who miss him. So today we're gonna be looking at the crucifixion. We'll be reading the story of the cross. I'm just gonna tell you, this is overwhelming. It's overwhelming to preach the reality that Jesus is, he is our savior and that he encountered this, that he went through this for us, that he went through this for you. I mean, the moment in history that changed everything, the moment in history that changed everything and that gives us an opportunity to be reconciled, to be made right with God, where we find forgiveness,

where we find grace, where we find mercy and we find hope. And to know that Jesus really experienced and endured the pain and the shame of the cross. And it's personal. I'm gonna tell you, it is weighty to preach, to try to somehow with my words, communicate what Jesus endured. So we don't need my words, we need his words. As I just wanna ask, if you would, that you would pray with me, that God would meet us in this time as we enter into his word. Father, we thank you. Thank you that you so love us and you so loved us that you gave your son. Jesus, thank you that you loved us so much that you laid your life down. Holy Spirit, would you come, would you give us eyes to see? Today, we look for you. We pray for a fresh encounter with you. Pray today that you would break off shame. Pray today that you bring forgiveness and freedom and hope. Pray today for a new life. That we would meet you in a way where each of us would walk out different than we walked in. We need that kind of encounter with you and we need your grace to have it. We pray in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Now, I'm just gonna go ahead and let you know,

my goal is to cover verses 16 through 47 today and that's a lot of real estate. So we need God's help for that. We're gonna need to lock in in this, but I wanna go ahead and give you the five movements. First, we've got the mocking and then we've got the carrying of the cross and then the crucifixion and the death and the burial. And as we go through these, I wanna lift out three realities that people that day that they did not see and that I don't want you to miss because it's these realities that give us hope because it's these realities that give us freedom and forgiveness and enable us to drop the shame that so many of us tend to carry. So before you jump into the reading for the day, let me just remind you where we left off last week. We left off last week with Pilate making the decision. that Jesus would be flogged and then crucified. Now you just need to know, he didn't have to flog Jesus. It wasn't required that Jesus would be flogged. Pilate was playing to the crowd. He was wanting to appease the crowd and flogging was, it was a horrific event. They would take a wooden handle and tie leather straps to it and fasten to those leather straps, bone and metal. And it was designed to rip the flesh away,

to tear into the muscle and to cause severe bleeding. Many people didn't even survive the flogging. And so Jesus experienced, he experienced the flogging and that's where we pick up today in verse 16 with the mocking. Since the soldiers led Jesus away into the palace, that is the praetorium, and called together the whole company of soldiers, it's about 600 soldiers would be a company. And they put a purple robe on him and then they twisted together a crown of thorns and they set it on him. And they began to call out to him, hail King of the Jews again and again. They struck him on the head with a staff and they spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him and they led him out to be, to crucify him. Now I wanna pause right there. I want you to remember three times we've been going through Mark, three times, Jesus told them what would happen. He let them know about the events of his death, burial and resurrection in Mark chapter eight, in Mark chapter nine, in Mark chapter 10 is what he said. He says, we're going up to Jerusalem. He said, and the son of man will be delivered

over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law and they will condemn him to death and we'll hand him over to the Gentiles. That is the non-Jews who will mock him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. And three days later, he will rise. What I want you to see is that Jesus knew what was coming. This is not merely an execution or an assassination. This is an atonement. This is sacrifice. They're not taking Jesus' life. He's willfully laying it down. He knew what was coming. And I want you to see he was specific with the mocking. See the Romans, they were experts at crucifixion. That word excruciating, it means from the cross. They were experts. The Persians invented the cross around 500 BC. The Romans perfected it. They knew how to cause the extreme torment. They knew how to cause the maximum level of pain. And some of that pain was the pain of shame. They had constructed this in such a way where the person who was being crucified, where they would experience prolonged shame and humiliation. So 600 soldiers gather. It's a bit overkill for 600 soldiers to gather in front of Jesus, but 600 sets of eyes that are on him that are watching.

And they strip him of his clothes. And they put purple. They put a purple robe on him because purple was the color of the emperor. It was the color that the emperor would wear. So what they're doing in this is they're mocking Jesus. To the Jews, they're saying to the Jewish people, here's your king. And so they took and they put a staff in his hand. And then they took a crown of thorns that they constructed and they put a crown of thorns on his head. And they took the staff and they rammed the thorns into his head. And so they're mocking Jesus in this moment. And they're mocking the people. They're saying, here is your king. And they spit on him and they bow to him. And this humiliation that Jesus experienced. It's because Jesus is taking your shame. He's taking my shame. He's taking our shame. Jesus did not just die to deal with our sin. He died to deal with our shame. And that's one of the things that people miss that day. Verse 20, it says, and when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe. So that robe that had become dried to his wounds on his back. And they ripped the robe off of him. And they put his own clothes on him.

What you think of just a loincloth. And then they led him out to crucify. Now it was common in that day that a crucified person would carry their own cross. That they would carry their own cross. Not the whole cross, just the cross beam called the patibulum. And this was 75 to 125 pounds. And they would carry that beam through the streets. Public execution, a public display of shame. Jesus took that walk of shame, it was a walk of shame, through the crowd. As Jesus carried that cross, it tells us in verse 21, a certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. Now I want you to remember, Jesus has been up all night. He's been through two trials. He's been beaten multiple times. He's been flogged. He's been mocked, extreme loss of blood. He's exhausted. He can barely move forward. And in that moment, a Roman soldier calls for, calls for this man, Simon, to carry the cross. Now remember, by law, Roman soldiers could require, could require someone who was not a Roman citizen to carry something for a mile. This is why Jesus said,

if somebody asks you to carry something one mile, you carry it two. He said, when somebody is abusing or using their power in such a way, he said, you carry it two miles, because that second mile is grace. And so Jesus has already talked about, this is what's going on. So they could require one mile, and so they call for this man named Simon from Cyrene. Now Cyrene is a country in North Africa. Now remember, it's Passover, so Jews from all over, and there was a large Jewish population there, and Jews from all over would travel to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. And so we can, as we read this, what we know about him is that he had two sons, and Mark gives us his boys' names, Alexander and Rufus. Now, you wanna see something wild? All right, thank you. I'll show you. So in Romans chapter 16, verse 13, now who is Paul writing the letter Romans to? Trick question. It's Rome. Okay, so Paul is writing Romans to Rome. Now, who is Mark writing this gospel to? We've talked about this. Who is Mark writing this gospel to? He's writing it to the church at Rome. I wanna show you something.

In Mark chapter, I'm sorry, in Romans chapter 16, verse 13, Paul writes, greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord. Rufus, that was not a common name back then. Not a common name today. Not a common name back then. And so Rufus, Paul says, greet Rufus in the Lord. Well, Mark doesn't mention, if you'll remember through the Gospel of Mark, he doesn't mention a whole lot of names, especially he doesn't throw, I mean, Mark's a short book, and he doesn't just throw names around. When Mark lists a name, it's like list, it's like source material. It's like listing a footnote. Like he's just like, hey, go back and ask him. And so here, Mark is writing this gospel to the believers in Rome, and he mentions Rufus. It's like when this letter, when the gospel would be written, Rufus is in the room. Everybody looks back, they're like, we know Rufus. So what Mark is saying is like, Rufus, you can just ask him. You got a testimony. You got a witness of what happened that day. Rufus's dad carried the cross. Verse 22, until they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means place of the skull. And then they offered him wine and mixed it with myrrh, but he did not take it.

So it's designed to be a sedative, and Jesus is fully sober, fully aware of what he's enduring on the cross. He wanted to be fully present for you. Verse 24, and they crucified him. They drove nails into his feet and hands, stretching his body out on the cross, and dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get. Now, I wanna show you something. In Psalm chapter 22, Psalm chapter 22, this was written 1,000 years before the crucifixion, 1,000 years. It was written 500 years before crucifixion was even invented. And what's wild is that when you read Psalm 22, and I would encourage you to spend some time with it this week, it reads like a play-by-play of the cross. It's this prophetic, this messianic prophecy of what will happen at the cross. And in Psalm 22, it says this. It says, they divide my clothes among them. They cast lots for my garment. So the psalmist is giving us this prophetic word about what will happen at the cross, and that's exactly what was taking place. And what's wild to me is that these Jewish leaders, they knew Psalm 22, had it memorized, but they missed it,

because it's easy to miss what you're not looking for. And they already had their minds made up on Jesus, so they couldn't see Him for who He is. And some of you already have your minds made up on Jesus, so you cannot see who He really is. But He is the Christ. He is the Son of the living God. And so we have the Psalms telling us this. We've got this moment coming together where we see Jesus lifted up on the cross. They divided His clothes, cast lots for His garments. Leads us to verse 25. And it was nine in the morning when they crucified Him. The written notice of this charge against Him read the King of the Jews. And they crucified two rebels with Him, one on His right and one on His left. 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, come down from the cross and save yourself. 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 Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe. Those crucified with Him also heaped insults on Him. What Mark wants us to see is the shame that's taking place. What you see is that everyone is heaping shame.

Everyone is mocking Jesus. This was prophesied in Psalm chapter 22. In Psalm chapter 22, it says, I'm a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone. Scorned by who? Everyone. Scorned by everyone, despised by the people. All who see me mock me. They hurl insults, shaking their heads. And what Mark wants us to see is that everyone is mocking Jesus. The Roman soldiers are mocking Jesus. The Jewish religious leaders mocking Jesus. The criminals that are on the cross next to Him, they're mocking Jesus. The passerbys are mocking Jesus. When people were crucified, they weren't placed high up on a cross. They were about a foot or two feet off the ground, eye level, where people could see them, could spit upon them, could curse them. It was designed in such a way where they would endure shame and mocking. People could see Him up close, but there were many who could not see Him for who He is. There are people who see Him up close who come to church every single week as a form of religion, but do not see Him for who He is. They couldn't see. Verse 33 says,

"'At noon, darkness came over the whole land "'until three in the afternoon.'" The darkness is the Father's way of speaking, heaven's way of mourning. Verse 34, "'And at three in the afternoon, "'Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "'Aloi, aloi, lama sabachthani, "'which means, my God, my God, "'why have you forsaken me?' So in the lowest moment of the cross, all of our sin, all of our guilt, all of our shame, all of our crimes was placed on His heart. And He cried out, "'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' I wanna show you there's something more going on. Go back to Psalm chapter 22, the first verse. "'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'' Jesus is quoting the Psalm. He knows what's going on. He knows what's going on. He knows what's going on. He quotes the Psalm to let us know that this is the moment, this is the moment that the prophets, this is the moment that the prophets have looked, where this is the moment in history that changes everything. He's saying, I am the one you've been waiting for.

Do you see me? Question today is, do you see it? Do you see Him for who He is? Verse 35, it says, when some of those standing near heard this, they said, listen, He's calling Elijah. Some ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff and offered it to Jesus to drink. Now leave Him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to take Him down. They still can't see. And with a loud cry, Jesus breathed His last. Now normally with a crucifixion, people would fade slowly, but Jesus is not fading. This is, He is in control. And in this moment, this is the moment. And He offers up His spirit. And when He does, verse 38, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. In that culture, when a father would lose a child, tear the rope as an act of grief. And here we have the curtain in the temple that separated the people of God from the presence of God. And that curtain tore from top to bottom because it was not human hands that tore that curtain. A curtain that stood 60 feet tall, four inches thick, was ripped. That in this moment, we need to be able to see. We now have access to God, to the presence of God,

the holy God through the holy one who laid down his life for us. And when the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus saw how he died, he said, surely this man is the son of God. And some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and the younger, and of Joseph and Salome. In Galilee, these women had followed him and cared for his needs. And many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there. It was preparation day, that is the day before Sabbath. So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the council who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus's body. Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead and summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. And when he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen and placed it in a tomb cut out of the rock. And when he had rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.

Now, what's interesting is Mary and Joseph play an interest, they play a role in Jesus at the end of his life as well. Different Mary, different Joseph. We have Joseph of Arimathea who was a wealthy man, a man of status, a man of position and a man of power who put everything on the line out of his devotion for Jesus. A tomb back in that day, it was an unused tomb, a tomb would have cost somewhere around $100,000, today's dollars. And he gave that tomb. Now he didn't know Jesus was just gonna rent it for the weekend. He didn't know that he was only gonna be there for a little while. But I want you to see, he took what was his, what had been entrusted and out of generosity. He said, Jesus, you can use, even in his death, Jesus, you can use what I have. He went to Pilate, there was a boldness that Joseph had. I mean, think about that, as one of the Sanhedrin, the one that had shame, had been shamed, Jesus, Joseph said, I'm not ashamed of you. He was not ashamed to be identified with Christ. And they put his body in the tomb because it was Friday. The Sabbath starts at sundown. Now here's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna give you three realities of the cross that the crowd missed that day

and that I pray that you don't miss today. We're taking notes, you write it down. The first one that on the cross, we see Jesus died to deal with your shame. Jesus died, he didn't just die to deal with our sin, he died to deal with our shame. Not some of our shame, but all of our shame. What do you do when failure is public? What do you do when other people can see? What do you do when other people know? Maybe it was an affair or DUI or a failed marriage or financial bankruptcy or a collapse, maybe you cheated and got caught or maybe you flunked out or maybe you dropped out or maybe got kicked out or maybe got locked up. When your failure is public, maybe you were fired from your job or maybe you experienced abuse or maybe there were all kinds of sexual experiences in your past or maybe there was addiction or what you did in the past still haunts you. I want you to see this, Jesus died to take your shame. See, guilt says I did something bad, shame says I am bad. Jesus died to deal with that. He came for both. Jesus took the walk of shame so you don't have to. And I put it this way, Jesus was exposed so you could be covered.

Jesus was rejected so you could be accepted. See, grace doesn't just forgive you, grace gives you a new identity. If you are in Christ, you are a new creation. You are a child of God, you were chosen, you were loved, you've been made new. Your worst day does not define you, you are not the sum of all your bad decisions of what you did or what happened to you. Jesus died to take your shroud of shame and give you a robe of righteousness, clothe you in his righteousness. So now, because of the finished work of the cross, and Jesus said it is finished, now because of the finished work of the cross, he has taken your shame and he has given you his righteousness. And so now when God looks at you, he does not see your sin and shame, he sees his son. You need to know God loves you as much as he loves, the father loves you as much as he loves Jesus. You've been brought into that relationship. Jesus died to deal with our shame. Maybe there's somebody I think, so I've been praying over this, there's somebody you're watching online, not because you're traveling out of town, you're watching online, because the enemy has you wrapped up in shame from your past and it's hard to walk into a building.

Can I just tell you, all of us here, we're all sinners. We're all sinners in need of God's grace. This is not, and I'm just gonna tell you, we say everyone's welcome because nobody's perfect because nobody's perfect. And with Jesus, anything's possible. And what happens is God heals us and he loves the shame off of us through the power of the cross and through the power of community, through being with other believers. And so my prayer for you today, my prayer is that you would receive that grace and that you would come worship with us because we're not a museum for people who haven't put together. We're people in desert, we're a hospital for sinners and we are all in need, in need of God's healing work in our life. So I wanna say, if you're traveling out, and you're traveling and that's why you're watching online, that's why you come see us when you're back. But there's something that happens when we gather with God's people and we worship together. Jesus wants to love the shame off of you. Number two, at the cross we see Jesus reverses the curse. The thorns, I hadn't seen this before this week, but the thorns, the nakedness, the separation, all of that points back to Genesis chapter three with the fall.

You remember one of the results, consequences of the sin of the fall of Adam and Eve was that there would be thorns and thistles. And so in making this crown and being placed upon Jesus' head, Jesus takes that curse, the judgment of God, he takes that curse upon himself. He willingly takes the judgment of God, the divine judgment for our sin, he takes upon himself. In Deuteronomy 21, verse 23, it says, "'Cursed is anyone who's hung on a tree.'" Galatians 3, 13 says, "'Christ became a curse for us.'" Curse means he took God's judgment for our sin. The just for the unjust, the righteous for the unrighteous. Forgiveness is not free, somebody has to pay. Tim Keller used to, he gave an illustration, something like this. He says, suppose somebody takes a baseball bat and smashes your car. Don't get nervous, this is just a story, okay? Suppose somebody takes a baseball bat and they smash your car. If that happened, you can demand justice. You say, they have to pay. And that is demanding justice, you can make them pay. That's choice, that's justice. The second option is to offer forgiveness. And you say, I forgive you. Even if you forgive, here's what you'll see.

Even if you forgive, somebody has to pay. You absorb the cost. That's grace, that's mercy, that's forgiveness. Forgiveness is not free, somebody always pays. And on the cross, Jesus absorbs our debt, our sin debt against God. He absorbs that on the cross and he reverses the curse. And then on the cross, we see Jesus as King. Man, I'm gonna show you something. Blew my mind this week, looking through and came across a theologian named Thomas Schmidt who did some work, he's an Oxford scholar, did some work studying the Roman coronation ceremonies. When they would inaugurate a Roman emperor as King, there was this process that they would follow. And he brings that out and he shows the parallels with what Mark gives us in Mark chapter 15. So I'm gonna put them up on the wall and just kind of read through them. So the first thing that would happen is the Praetorian guard would gather. 600 soldiers would gather, Praetorian guard. Then the King would be clothed, the King is clothed. So they would put a robe on the King. They would give him a scepter, put a crown on his head. Are you tracking? Number three, the procession begins. They would march through the streets publicly. A sacrifice would follow. They would often sacrifice an animal, a bull or an ox,

but here Jesus is the sacrifice. They would arrive at Capitoline Hill. Capitoline means head hill. Jesus was crucified at Golgotha at the place of the skull. The emperor would be offered a bowl of wine to be refused and he would pour it out. He would demonstrate authority over the world. for life and death, prisoners would be brought to Caesar to execute judgment. In public acclamation, people would say, hail Caesar, Lord and God. And then there would be a sign from the heavens. They would wait for a cosmic sign. And John Mark is a Jewish writer, and he's writing to the Roman church, to the church at Rome. And he's writing them to, and he's letting them know, he's letting them know what's going on. And can I ask you a question? Who was the first person to recognize this is the Christ, this is the son of God? A Roman centurion, a Roman soldier that stood there, who had seen many people crucified, who had been personally responsible for their deaths, who had watched people suffer, and he said, I've never seen such grace. I've never seen such forgiveness. I've never seen such mercy and such gentleness and such love. And Mark is giving us this because he's answering

what he set out to do in the very beginning. And Mark, if you'll remember in Mark chapter one, the first verse where we began this journey, Mark said, in the beginning of the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, Jesus, the King, the son of God. And so we have this book in where he's going, I'm gonna tell you that Jesus is the Christ. And the person that tells us that Jesus is the Christ is this Roman centurion. He sees who Jesus is. My question today is, do you see it? Because everything depends on it. Your life depends on it. Your hope depends on it. Eternity depends on it. Your security depends on it. Your forgiveness, your peace, your joy in life. Do you see it? Do you see that he has taken your shame so you can live in freedom? You don't have to carry it anymore. Can you see that he's taken your punishment so you can stop punishing yourself? In Christ, you are unpunishable. He's taken your punishment. He's given you a new heart so that you can love him and so that you can love people. He's given you new eyes so that you can see people for who they are to him. He's given you his righteousness.

He's given you the capacity and you've been forgiven so that you can have the capacity to forgive others and to serve him faithfully and to do the thing that he made you to do, you've been put here to do. Man, I'm so burdened today because we can become so blinded, become blinded by familiarity, blinded by religion, blinded by politics, blinded by the things of this world. Prayer is Jesus where we see you for who you are. And when we devote our lives to follow the one who was worthy, that he is the king and his sovereignty is our sanity. And so Jesus knew that we would have a tendency to forget and so out of his love for us, he gave us a meal. So I'll invite you to get the elements in your hands. I wanna lead you, I wanna lead you through these elements, a reminder that Jesus took our shame, that Jesus reversed the curse. And that Jesus is king. I was talking with a friend this week, we were talking about how in the world, people tend to drink to forget because of shame. People tend to drink to forget, but as followers of Jesus, we drink to remember, to remember that we've been forgiven, that we've been set free, that we've been made whole, the realities of the cross. And so I wanna invite you into this moment

and let you know that this is for followers of Jesus. This is how we remember. It's one of the things that Jesus told us to do, to remember him well. If you're not yet a follower of Jesus, this can be the first thing that you do as a follower of Jesus. And you say, Jesus, I wanna follow you and partake today. If not, you can just let this moment pass, but we would extend an invitation to you, an opportunity. Before we partake, I'm gonna ask you to stand in just a moment, if you can. Before we partake, I wanna give you a moment seated to just begin to ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart. Is there anything that you need to confess? Is there anything that you're holding on to? Any shame or any lie from the evil one? That you need to put at the foot of the cross? Any bitterness or unforgiveness that you need to receive His grace for? Is there any forgiveness that you need to give? Is there anywhere where you need healing in your heart? Come to Jesus. I wanna invite you to stand with me. In the night, He gathered with the disciples in that upper room. He knew what was coming. And He gave them bread. So I wanna invite you to get the bread in your hands. He said, this bread, it represents my body.

My body that has been broken for you. Just offer gratitude. Just thank Jesus for His body that was broken. As you meditate and think upon the cross, what we've just read, He endured that for you. Even if you were the only one, He would have done it for you. He looks at you and says, friend, do this in remembrance of me. As we partake. Would you open the cup with me? With a cup, He said, this is the new covenant. I fulfilled you so that you can live in the new. His blood poured out for us. As you meditate and think about how His blood washes you pure and whole and cleanses you from all unrighteousness. We just thank Him for the blood. And it is a covenant. It is a forever promise. Thank you that you keep your word. He said, do this in remembrance of me. As we partake. And after they shared that meal together, they sang a psalm. They sang a psalm together. They worshiped together. And then they walked out of the upper room. And so let's give Him our praise. Let's give Him our worship.

Let's give Him our gratitude and thanks for what He did on the cross for us. Let's praise Him. ♪ Away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ What can make me whole again ♪ ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, precious is the flow that makes me whole ♪ ♪ Makes me white as snow ♪ ♪ No other fount I know ♪ ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ Nothing but your blood ♪ ♪ This is all my hope and peace ♪ ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ This is all my righteousness ♪ ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow ♪ ♪ That makes me white as snow ♪ ♪ No other fount I know ♪ ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ Sing oh precious. ♪ That makes me white as snow ♪ ♪ No other fount I know ♪ ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ There was a moment when the lights went out ♪ ♪ And death had claimed its victory ♪ ♪ The king of love had given up his life ♪ ♪ The darkest day in history ♪ ♪ The darkest day in history ♪ ♪ There on a cross, there on a cross they made for sinners ♪

♪ For every curse His blood attained ♪ ♪ One final breath and it was finished ♪ ♪ But not the end occurred, no ♪ ♪ For the earth began to shake ♪ ♪ And the heavens swooned ♪ ♪ What sacrifice was made as the heavens roared? ♪ Come on we lift up His name. ♪ All hail King Jesus ♪ ♪ All hail the Lord of heaven and earth ♪ ♪ All hail King Jesus ♪ ♪ All hail the Lord of heaven and earth ♪ ♪ All hail the Savior of the world ♪ ♪ Yes, thank you Jesus ♪ Come on let's go. ♪ There was a moment when the skies lit up ♪ ♪ A flash of light breaking through ♪ ♪ When all was lost He crossed eternity for you ♪ ♪ The King of life was on the moon ♪ ♪ Yeah, we're in a dark and cold tomb ♪ ♪ Where our Lord was laid ♪ ♪ One miraculous breath ♪ ♪ You're forever, we're forever changed ♪ ♪ You're forever, we're forever changed ♪ ♪ Please say Jesus, all hail King Jesus ♪ ♪ All hail the Lord, all hail the Lord, all hail the Lord ♪ ♪ All hail King Jesus, all hail the Savior of the world ♪ ♪ All hail King Jesus, all hail the Lord, all hail the Lord ♪ ♪ All hail King Jesus, all hail the Savior of the world ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Let every knee, let every knee come out before the King ♪

♪ Let every tongue confess that He is the Lord ♪ ♪ Lift up your shout, let us join with our hearts and sing ♪ ♪ We sing, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Can we cry out holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy ♪ Sing it holy, sing it holy, holy ♪ All hail king Jesus ♪ All hail the Lord Yes ♪ All hail Jesus ♪ All hail the savior of the world ♪ All hail the savior ♪ All hail the savior of the world ♪ All hail the savior of the world