Rev. David Holwick Roxbury Community
First Baptist Church Good Friday service
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 21, 2000
Mark 15:39
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I. "You're in the army now."
A. Growing up in a military family.
1) Living in Germany, daily protests against Vietnam and army.
2) Return to States while dad is sent to Vietnam.
a) Black armbands at school to protest war.
B. What do you think of soldiers?
1) War monger, uptight, hate-filled killer?
2) Disciplined, hardened, self-sacrificing patriot.
C. New Testament impression.
1) They were occupiers and prone to extortion and abuse.
a) John the Baptist told them not to extort money from
civilians and be content with their pay.
b) Jesus mentioned how they forced civilians to carry
their equipment. "Instead of one mile, go two!"
2) But many soldiers were humble and pious.
a) Often looked up to in Jewish community.
II. The military and the crucifixion.
A. They arrested Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.
B. On Pilate's order, they led Jesus to the palace.
1) The whole company is mobilized.
2) They mocked him with a purple robe and crown of thorns.
a) Strike him and ask, Who hit you, prophet?
b) Bow down before him.
C. Led him to Golgotha.
1) They crucified him. [stark statement]
a) Two others as well.
b) Offered him wine and myrrh. (kind or cruel?)
2) They divided and gambled for his clothes as their "cut."
III. The testimony of a centurion.
A. In charge of one hundred men (nominally).
1) Position gained through experience on battlefield.
2) Given crucifixion assignment.
B. Jesus was different, and he acknowledges it.
1) A righteous man? Luke 23:47
a) Realistic for a soldier.
1> Emphasis is on Jesus' innocence.
b) Yet Luke adds that he "praised God."
2) Son of God? Mark 15:39
a) Would have meant same thing to a first-century Italian.
b) Yet Mark seems to invest it with more.
1> Like others in Mark's gospel (Simon of Cyrene, 15:21)
did this sergeant become a believer and member
of the church?
IV. Views of Jesus of Nazareth are still mixed.
A. Jesus was a good man.
1) He did good things. Acts 10:38
a) Healed people.
b) Multiplied food. (Even beats ShopRite's Can-Can sale.)
c) Blessed little kids.
2) Problems:
a) The Bible also reveals a hardness about Jesus.
1> He whipped people.
2> Cursed a fig tree.
3> Preached more on Hell than anyone else in Bible.
b) Jesus was too extreme to be "good."
1> He had radical ideas about God.
2> He had radical ideas about himself. John 10:30
A> He separated himself from disciples.
1: My God and yours; not "ours."
2: (not "one of boys")
B> Claimed to be God, in words and actions.
B. Jesus was a religious teacher. [Newsweek article]
1) Even most Jews in this area would see Jesus as a
misunderstood reformer of first century Judaism.
a) Much in common with OT, especially prophetic tradition.
b) Some of his teaching is unique.
1> Golden Rule: do unto others. Actively love others.
A> (Jews had negative version)
c) But they cannot accept more than this.
Rabbi Neusner recently wrote a book entitled "A Rabbi Talks With Jesus."
He imagines himself, as a Rabbi, meeting up with Jesus.
He then says, "I can see myself meeting this man, and, with courtesy,
arguing with him.
It is my form of respect, the only compliment I crave from others,
the only serious tribute I pay to the people I take seriously.
I can see myself not only meeting and arguing with Jesus, but
challenging him on the bases of our shared Torah.
I can also imagine myself saying, "Friend, you go your way, I'll go
mine, I wish you well -- without me.
Yours is not the Torah of Moses, and all I have from God, and all
I ever need from God, is that one Torah from Moses."
Neusner concludes, "We would meet, we would argue, we would part
friends -- but we would part."
#5446
Other religions readily accept Jesus:
2) Hinduism - another guru. #5444
a) A common story is that Jesus slipped away from
his parents and visited India.
b) He learned yoga and meditation, then went home
to be the guru of Israel.
c) The most famous of modern Hindus, Gandhi, was drawn
to Jesus' virtues of compassion and nonviolence.
d) But Jesus is no more than a guide to self
realization.
1> All of us, like Jesus, have the potential
to discover our own inherent divinity.
3) Islam - a great prophet, only surpassed by Mohammed.
a) Jesus performed miracles, which Mohammed did not.
b) Jesus was born of a virgin and ascended to heaven.
c) But he did not die on the cross.
4) Problem:
a) Jesus saw himself as the only way to God.
b) He was not giving good advice, but absolute truth.
C. Jesus was insane.
1) Those closest to him believed this. Mark 3:20-21
2) So do some modern scholars.
a) Albert Schweitzer - Jesus was a deluded visionary.
He thought he was the Messiah, but was wrong.
b) Others: Resurrection stories are due to funny mushrooms
at the Last Supper.
3) Problems:
a) Could an insane person come up with these teachings?
1> They are impossible, yet have grabbed imaginations
of people for 2000 years.
2> Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Leo Tolstoy.
D. Jesus is God.
1) Only reasonable choice.
C.S. Lewis wrote:
"It is a very foolish thing when people say,
"I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher,
but I don't accept His claim to be God."
That is the one thing we must not say.
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus
said would not be a great moral teacher.
He would either be a lunatic -
on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg -
or else he would be the Devil of Hell.
You must make your choice.
Either this man was, and is, the Son of God:
or else a madman or something worse.
You can shut Him up for a fool,
you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon;
or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.
But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His
being a great human teacher.
He has not left that open to us.
He did not intend to." #931
V. Acknowledging and obeying.
A. Accept who Jesus is.
B. Do what Jesus says.
1) Ultimate example of faith - chain of command.
2) A centurion's request for healing of servant:
Matthew 8:8-10
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The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under
my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell
this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say
to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following
him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such
great faith.
3) Do you have this kind of faith?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[adapted from a sermon by me on January 11, 1998]
# 931 "Mere Christianity" by C. S. Lewis, page 56.
#5444 Rev. Brett Blair in Illustrations by Email, April 9, 2000,
www.sermonillustrations.com; Blair is adapting from
"Visions of Jesus: How Jews, Muslims and Buddhists View Him,"
Newsweek magazine, March 27, 2000.
#5446 Ibid.
These and 5,500 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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