Friday: The Arrest, Trial and Crucifixion | Rev. Adam Hamilton | Church of the Resurrection

2:14 Over the last five weeks, we've been walking with Jesus through the final week of his life. And today we come to, we're actually gonna return to Thursday night late and move into Friday. And in this service, we're going to remember what happened in the final 24 hours of Jesus' life, after the Last Supper, through his crucifixion and his burial. The service will end today, so I wanna encourage you to just stay with us all the way to the end, because we're gonna end by remembering Jesus' death and by closing the tomb. You won't wanna miss that. So I'd like to encourage you, have your Bible handy. And if you have a Bible handy, go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 26, verses 31 through Matthew chapter 27, verse 61. We're gonna cover all that material today. And we're gonna do that by focusing on several characters. Judas Iscariot, we're gonna focus on Simon Peter. We're gonna turn to several other characters, Pontius Pilate, Simon of Cyrene, and then finally Jesus and his death. And you might want to write down a few notes as we go along the way, because I believe God is going to speak to you.

3:09 You're going to learn some things and the Holy Spirit's going to speak to you in the service of worship. All right, we start with Judas. Judas is a tragic figure within the Christian faith. For three years, he followed Jesus. He ministered with Jesus. He saw all the things that Jesus did. He heard all the things that Jesus said, but we find him at the very end betraying Jesus. Why did he betray Jesus, having been his disciple for three years? Well, this is a great question that people have debated really through the history of Christianity, including in the New Testament. You find people wondering, why was he betraying Jesus? Now, there's a couple of different possible answers that I'd lift up to you today. The first is that it's possible his name, Judas Iscariot, might point toward the reason why he betrayed Jesus. First of all, Iscariot might be pointing to the town of Cariot. Maybe it's Judas from Cariot. It's a town about 30 miles south of Jerusalem. That's possible. But it's also possible that Iscariot is pointing towards a group of people in the first century who were really hyperzealous to end Roman rule in the Holy Land.

4:07 They were called Saqqari. So Iscariot may be pointing towards Saqqari. Saqqari, it was a title that came from a weapon. The weapon was called a sika, and the sika is a dagger. You see it here in this image. The sika is a short dagger. It was kept underneath one's robes. And for these hyperzealots, if they saw somebody who had collaborated with the Romans, a Jew who had collaborated with the Romans, they were, in essence, terrorists. They might slit the throat of that person. or a particular Roman. If they found a Roman soldier, someone else on their own, it was possible that they might try to kill them. We read about this in the writings of Josephus later in the first century. So it's possible that Judas was one of these hyper-zealous people and his real dream, when he answered the call to follow Jesus, he thought Jesus was gonna become the Messiah. He was the Messiah. He was gonna raise up an army. He was gonna cast out the Romans. He was gonna lead a rebellion. And by the time we get to the Last Supper, Judas is really clear. Jesus is not that kind of Messiah.

5:00 Instead of calling people to kill the Romans, to hate the Romans, to drive them out and their collaborators, he had called to be his disciples some of those very collaborators, the tax collectors. Jesus had, instead of telling people to hate the Romans, called them to love their enemies and to turn the other cheek when they were struck on the cheek by a Roman. In essence, he's saying that you're meant to conquer them by love. And that was not the message that Judas had signed on for. This is what some people think. And so when you get to the Last Supper, Judas has realized, this is not going where I want it to go. And Jesus is talking about his death and that's not what I anticipated happening at all. And so Judas decides that he's gonna recoup or recover some of his losses, three years worth of wages that he lost. And he's gonna sell Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver. Now in all four gospels, it's really clear that Judas had sold Jesus for money. So that's clearly part of the motivation. But how much money was enough money to sell out your friend?

5:54 There had to be something more. But 30 pieces of silver. Now, there's some debate as to what kind of coin this was. If it was a denarius, it's 30 days wages. If it was a temple shekel, it was four months wages. Now, the average worker in America for four months wages, that's about $20,000. Would Judas have sold Jesus out for $20,000? Maybe. It appears so in this case. In John's gospel, which is the last of the gospels written, he adds one more little note about Judas that helps us understand why Judas might've done this. He says, Judas was a thief. he carried the money bag and would take what was in it. So it's likely some combination of his desire for wealth, maybe some desire for power, and certainly a sort of political difference between he and Jesus, because Jesus is saying, we got to love the Romans. We're not trying to cast them out. Whereas Judas is thinking the Romans have got to go. And so all of these differences lead to him being willing to sell Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver. I watched this last week, the last episode that's been produced from the series, The Chosen. And you remember there's five seasons. This is episode eight of season five. And the very end of it is the story, is the portrayal of Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss. And I want you to watch this carefully. I want you to see in their eyes and in the looks, the expressions on the faces of the other disciples, what's happening and then how Judas ended up betraying Jesus. Take a look.

7:19 And I know I can't go.

7:49 Rabbi, my friend, do what you came to do.

8:19 The stunned looks on the faces of the disciples took their breath away. It was their friend who'd showed up to betray Jesus. I watched that. I just wanted to weep when I saw it. And you see Judas and the feelings, the torn feelings inside, as the tears are welling up in his eyes as he comes to betray Jesus. And then it struck me, Jesus turning to him. And this is what he says, my friend. That's in Matthew's gospel. The words are right there. My friend, he calls him. Do what you came to do. And then Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss. This is stunning. Now, what happens the next day?

9:11 Only Matthew tells us this, that the next morning, Judas, seeing that Jesus was going to be put to death, or assuming he would be put to death. Judas is filled with remorse. He goes back to the temple. He takes the 30 pieces of silver and he says, take this, I have betrayed an innocent man. And they said, well, what is that to us? And he throws the money into the temple and then he goes to a field. And in that field, there's a tree. And Judas hangs himself.

9:38 I've been to this place where it's said that Judas hung himself many times in Jerusalem. It's on the South side of Jerusalem, just South of the Valley of Gehenna. and there there's a tree that's growing up in the middle of that place. It's called the Judas tree. And in the background, there are tombs that were there from ancient times. They're all empty now. I mean, the bones are gone and the tombs are opened up, but I've been there. And when I was there, each time I've been there, I'm reminded of this thought, what would have happened if Judas would have waited three days and not taken his life, but waited to see what happened. And if the resurrected Christ had come to him or he'd come to the resurrected Christ. How would Christ have responded? One year, 2009, so 17 years ago, I preached a sermon there in that potter's field. You can see the graves in the background. Here's just a small clip of it. Take a listen. After the betrayal, what we know is that he was filled with great remorse, filled with such tremendous remorse that he came to this place and he took his own life.

10:37 But part of me has to wonder, with such remorse in his heart, what would have happened if he had just waited three days? If he had just waited three days to when he could see Christ raised from the dead, if he had just come to Jesus and fallen at Jesus' feet and said, Lord, please have mercy on me, what do you think Jesus would have said? What would he have done? Would Jesus not have shown mercy to Judas, even Judas Iscariot? And you know the answer. Of course he would have. If Judas had just waited three days, there is no sin that's so great that Jesus can't and won't forgive us and show us mercy. And can you imagine the testimony that Judas would have had from that time forward, having seen the risen Christ, understanding the nature of his kingdom, if he had just been patient just three days and receiving the mercy of the Lord, can you imagine the kind of preacher Judas would have been? Traveling across the Roman Empire and being able to tell the story of how he'd turned his back on Jesus, how he had betrayed the Lord and sold him out for 30 pieces of silver, and yet Jesus had forgiven him, even him. And here's the question I have for you. If Jesus would have forgiven Judas, Can he not forgive you?

11:41 I wonder, have you ever been Judas? Because I have. And I don't know why you sold Jesus out, why you ended up betraying him, doing something that was just the opposite of what he asked you to do. But what I do know is this, is he's still called Judas his friend. And Judas, had he only waited three days, falling at Jesus' feet, don't you know Jesus would have said, Judas, even you, I forgive even you. And if he would have forgiven Judas for selling him out for 30 pieces of silver, won't he also forgive you and me? And the answer is absolutely yes. Jesus longs to forgive us when we have betrayed him. All right, that leads us to Simon Peter. So Jesus has dinner with the disciples, the Passover. He shares the Last Supper with them, and then he takes them across the Kidron Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane, or the place called Gethsemane.

12:37 It is an olive press at the base of the Mount of Olives. And Jesus takes them there. And on the way, this is what he says. He says, tonight, all of you will fall away because of me. Now, remember, Judas has already left the meal to betray Jesus, to get the temple guards to arrest Jesus. So it's the 11. And he says, all of you will fall away because of me. And Simon Peter speaks up. He says, if everyone else stumbles because of you, I'll never stumble. I love that boldness about Simon. The rest of these guys are going to fall away, but I won't do that. And then Jesus says, before the cock crows tonight, you will deny me three times. Peter responds, and would you just say this out loud with me? Let's all be Simon Peter for a moment. Even if I must die alongside you, I won't deny you. Let's say that again. Even if I must die alongside you, I won't deny you. Well, Jesus loved Peter.

13:30 John tells us in John's gospel that he was the beloved disciple, that John was the beloved disciple, but I'm not sure I buy that. When you look at the gospels, what you find is Simon seems to be the one closest to Jesus. He's the one he gives the keys to the kingdom to. Simon Peter is named more often in the gospels than all of the other disciples combined, way more often, probably twice as much as all the other disciples of the disciples combined. Jesus has a special affinity for Simon Peter. And what I love about Simon, so I wrote a book about Simon Peter a few years ago called Simon Peter, Flawed but Faithful Disciple. And that's what he was. He was flawed. I mean, you see his flaws. And I think this is why we love his story so much, because we can identify with Simon Peter. We are all Simon Peter. And so we all blow it sometimes and we all lack courage sometimes. And yet, ideally, we're all striving to follow him. Even if we get it wrong sometimes, we're striving to follow him. So Jesus is arrested. Judas Iscariot betrays him with a kiss.

14:22 The guard arrests him. They take him to the place called Peter in Galakantra. That's what it's called today. It was the high priest's house. And there was a prison underneath the high priest's house. Pastor Scott referred to it last week. Jesus is arrested, taken there. And Simon Peter is out in the courtyard. Now you see all the other disciples, they fled. They deserted Jesus, but not Simon Peter. By the way, John tells us he was also there. But Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they'd say it was just Simon Peter. So Jesus has been arrested. Simon Peter stays in the shadows and he follows along. He's not going to desert his friend. So he makes his way to the courtyard outside the high priest's house. Now this is probably midnight. There's a fire going and he's standing there warming himself at the fire. And this is when it happens. there's a servant girl who comes up. She says, you were also with Jesus, the Galilean. And Matthew records this, but he denied it in front of all of them saying, I don't know what you're talking about. Then a second woman comes to accuse him of being with Jesus.

15:16 And he makes a solemn pledge. And he says, I don't know the man. And shortly after this, others came. A group of people came to Peter and said, you must be one of them. The way you talk gives you away. His accent was the Galilean accent. and this time Matthew records then Peter cursed and swore I don't know the man at that very moment the rooster crowed And Peter remembered Jesus' words, Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. And Peter went out and cried uncontrollably. In my book on Simon Peter, I tell the story of Paul Plummer. Paul Plummer was a disciple of Jesus who found himself afraid. You see, Simon denies Jesus three times, not because he longs for money or power or because he has a political beef with Jesus, Simon Peter denies Jesus because he's afraid. He's just afraid, right? And Paul Plummer, he was afraid. This story I tell, he had grown up in St. Joseph, Missouri. He worked at the local IGA there, the grocery store. It was 1933. And there was a crowd of 7,000 people that gathered outside of the jail in St. Joe to lynch a 19-year-old black man named Lloyd Warner.

16:34 He'd been arrested and accused of something. Later, the woman who accused him said she wasn't sure they got the right man. But that crowd was sure they had the right man. They broke up in the jail. Law enforcement couldn't stop them. They broke up in the jail. They dragged this man away, this young man away, and they lynched him. And then they lit his body on fire and burned him. Now, Lloyd, excuse me, Paul Plummer, he was there that day. He was working in the grocery store and he ran out to see what was going on. And he describes what happened in a sermon that he preached as a lay person. It was the church in Frankfort, Missouri, Frankfort Methodist Church. And he described 30 years later the experience he had. The sermon he had titled, Standing on the Edge of the Crowd. And he said this. He said that he stood there as a young boy, and he watched, and he saw what was happening, and he knew it was wrong. He knew it was wrong, but he was too afraid to say anything.

17:27 And he looked around, and he saw a whole crowd of people around there. and most of the people were too afraid to say that what that group of people who lynched this young man was doing was wrong. Here's a photograph from the newspaper from that day. And you see that whole crowd, they got their straw hats on, some of them in their suit and ties, women in their dresses. And some of them were Judases who totally did the wrong thing, but some of them were just too afraid to speak up. I wanna ask you this question. Has there been a time when you've been afraid to be identified with Jesus? When you were afraid to speak up for the things that Jesus would want you to speak up for, you were afraid what other people would say about you or what other people would do? Have you ever been afraid, too afraid? And that happens sometimes in really simple things. Like, are you willing to pray before your meal in a restaurant? Or do you only do that at home because you're afraid what other people might think? Even with friends who may not be Christians, you know, you can just bow your head for a moment. That's a tiny little thing.

18:22 Are you, you know, courageous enough to have, you know, to be identified as a part of a church or as a follower of Jesus? But beyond that, are you willing to speak up when you see things that are not right? Are you willing to do something to be able to be identified with Jesus and the values that he held and the ideas that he stood for? Are you willing to face people's criticism and disappointment or frustration or harsh words about you because you're trying to do the thing that Jesus is calling you to do? Are you willing to do that? Are you going to be afraid? Can I just tell you, I have been afraid at times. Even as a pastor, there are times I've kept my mouth shut when I should have said something. There were times I was worried about the nasty emails I was gonna get or the people who were gonna be mad at me if I said the thing that I thought needed to be said and I just kept silent. Have you denied Jesus? Have you been Simon Peter?

19:13 All right, so while Peter was denying Jesus, the religious leaders were trying Jesus. And so these are people who should have known better, but they had a hard time recognizing that Jesus was the son of God. You see, he taught things they disagreed with. They were frustrated by this. Like, you know, they didn't think Jesus was really the son of God. They didn't think he was the Messiah. And they were really frustrated when he began to step on their toes in the temple courts. But even before that, he had taught things that were inconsistent with what they taught. Their theologies did not always line up. And there came a point where they felt jealous of Jesus' popularity, angry at the way that Jesus had said things that were harsh or judgmental towards them, or at least made them feel like they were being judged by Jesus. They did not like him. and they wanted to be done with him. So they paid their 30 pieces of silver to get Judas to betray Jesus. And now they'd brought him to the high priest's house. While they were doing this, they were testing him and they were asking, are you the Messiah?

20:10 Tell us. And by the way, they brought in all kinds of people to testify against Jesus. So there were all kinds of folks that they found who were willing to say bad things about Jesus. They just couldn't get two people to agree. You see, people are quite happy to make up things about other people or to take a certain interpretation of what they've said or done. This happened with Jesus. And so they brought all these accusations, but they couldn't find two people who agreed. And that was required by the law. Until finally, the high priest just asked, are you or are you not the Messiah? And Jesus answered somewhat cryptically. And then he quoted the prophet Daniel. He says, talking about the son of man, and he said, you know, you're gonna see the son of man coming on the clouds of glory. And right after that passage in the book of Daniel, you read about the son of man. And Daniel says this, he was given authority, glory and sovereign power. All nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. When Jesus referred to the Son of Man coming on the clouds of glory, they knew that passage, and they ripped their clothes, and they said, he's a heretic. He's a blasphemer. He is blaspheming, claiming to be the Son of God, claiming to be the Messiah. Do we need to hear anything more?

21:17 And then this is what they did. They spit in his face, chapter 26, verse 66. They spit in his face and struck him with their fists and others slapped him saying, prophesy, which one of us is, what's our name? Which one of us has slapped you? and then they decided he had to die. He had to die. So the next morning, they took him to Pontius Pilate, and Pontius says, are you leading a rebellion? Are you the king of the Jews? Are you trying to stand up against Caesar and cast out the Romans? Well, Jesus was the king of the Jews, but his answer was somewhat cryptic. He said, it is as you say, or you are the one who's saying it, but in essence, Jesus is the king of the Jews, But he's not like the king that the common people are looking for. They were looking for somebody who was going to lead an army, right? Just like Judas. They were looking for somebody, the Messiah, who would cast out the Romans. Jesus wasn't like that.

22:09 Pontius Pilate could tell. And so he begins to look for a way to let Jesus go. Now, in the Gospels we read, in all four Gospels we read, something that we don't read about anywhere else in history, and that is that the Roman governor had the leeway to let a political prisoner go free at the Passover in order to sort of calm the crowds down. So they would do them a favor. If they had a favorite prisoner they wanted to have released, a political prisoner. So he thinks, okay, I have a political prisoner. His name's Jesus Barabbas. Barabbas means son of the father, Jesus, son of the father. And then I have Jesus of Nazareth. And so he asked the crowd, which one of these two would you like to have me release? Here's how it is in chapter 27, verses 17 and 18. Whom would you like me to release to you? Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ? He knew that the leaders of the people had handed him over because of jealousy. So he's expecting that many of the people are going to look at Jesus. They're going to say, wait, he's the healer. He's a good guy.

23:01 He cared about people. He taught in the temple courts. The paralyzed were made well and the blind were made to be able to see. Surely he's going to choose Jesus of Nazareth. But instead, the people who are there cry out, we want Barabbas. Give us Barabbas. Now, who was Barabbas? He was a known criminal. He had tried to lead a rebellion. And as he was leading the revolt, he murdered people. He's a violent criminal. give us Jesus Barabbas. What do you want me to do with Jesus of Nazareth? Crucify him, they said, crucify him. I want to pause here for a moment. Pastor Scott mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, but this passage of scripture has been sometimes used throughout history to support anti-Semitism. The people are shouting, crucify him. Well, and so it was said, well, the Jewish people wanted Jesus crucified. Listen, you missed the point if that's the way you read this passage. humanity was choosing Jesus Barabbas instead of Jesus of Nazareth. If you had been in the crowd that day, it's likely that you would have shouted the same thing. Somehow there's a crowd mentality that begins to take over. You begin to look and see, what do you want? What kind of leader do you want? Do you want the kind of leader who's going to use violence to accomplish his means? Somebody who's strong and tougher? Or would you actually go with a leader who's compassionate and kind and a peacemaker? Like most of us want the tough guy. We're maybe not that interested in the guy who's compassionate and seeking to bring peace. Crucify him. It wouldn't have just been the call of the Jewish people. Throughout history, it was a call of humans, including many Christians, who were willing to pursue a course of life that lined up much more with the crowd that day than what Jesus was looking for in his followers. That leads us to Jesus. So we've seen Judas, we've seen Simon Peter, we've seen the religious leaders, we've seen the crowd.

24:52 That leads us to Jesus. Now Matthew's account of Christ's final 24 hours stands in stark contrast, I'll say, to John's account. In John's account, Jesus is the divine son of God. He is the word made flesh. He is powerfully, comes to the end, and you don't hear in John's gospel anything about Jesus praying, let this cup, you know, pass from me. You don't find Jesus anxious or fearful or falling on the ground or perspiring drops of blood. No, Jesus is strong in John's gospel. He is the divine son. And that's a really important picture of Jesus. It's just not the picture we find in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And in those gospels, we find Jesus, the son of man. We find his humanity on display in the last 24 hours of his life. So I want to take you to what happens after he is sent to Pontius Pilate. Pilate is trying to get him off the hook. That's not going to happen. So Pontius Pilate finally sentences him to die, first to be beaten and then to die. This is what we read in chapter 27, verses 27 through 31. The governor's soldiers took Jesus into the governor's house and they gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a red military coat on him. They twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head.

26:00 they put a stick in his right hand then they bowed down in front of him and mocked him saying hail king of the Jews after they spit on him they took his stick and struck him struck him in the head again and again and when they had finished mocking him they stripped him of the military coat put his own clothes back on him and they led him away to crucify him now we find not just Pontius Pilate in the crowd. We find these Roman soldiers. Like here's a man who's been sentenced to die, who's done nothing wrong. And what do they do? They insist on mocking him, on spitting upon him, on beating him, on dressing him up as though he's a king, putting a crown of thorns and pressing it into his brow. Why? Because there's something terribly wrong with human beings. It's interesting, this entire scene, everything I've described to up to this point. You know, we look at it, we say Jesus is on trial. No, Jesus is not on trial.

26:59 Humanity is on trial. Humanity, Judas, Simon Peter, the disciples who deserved him, the religious leaders, the political, you know, the politician designed, you know, who's supposed to ensure justice, the Roman soldiers, the crowd of people, Jewish people who could very well have been Gentile people there, all of them are on trial in Jesus' final 24 hours. All right. So we read, as they were going, so they're taking Jesus to Calvary, to Golgotha, to crucify him. As they're going, they found Simon, a man from Cyrene, and they forced him to carry Jesus' cross. Now in John's gospel, Jesus carries the cross. Remember, he's strong, he's powerful, he's the divine son of God. He can be beaten, and then he can pick up the cross. But in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, It's Simon of Cyrene who picks up the cross. Simon of Cyrene. So I want to remind you of something about the crosses.

27:54 So this is a part of a Roman, well, we've created to be part of a Roman cross. The Roman crosses had two elements. They had the patibulum, which is the cross beam, and the stipes, which you'll see in a moment, is the vertical element. That element was so heavy, it couldn't be carried from one place to another. They were left in the places of crucifixion. but the patibulum could be taken back to where someone was sentenced. And you can feel the pain of this. The person who's about to be tortured to death on a cross was forced to carry the instrument of their own crucifixion. And so there is the patibulum. This one weighs about 85 pounds. And you could imagine if Jesus had been beaten, how hard it would be to carry this 85-pound piece of wood. And so as Jesus is walking, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he's not carrying it.

28:45 Simon of Cyrene carries it. Luke tells us that Jesus went in front of Simon and Simon picks up this cross beam and he carries it to the place of crucifixion for Jesus. That's interesting. He, in Mark's gospel, we learned that he has two sons, Alexander and Rufus. Why in the world were they named? Except that Mark's gospel is written in Rome and Rufus happened to be a leader in the church of Rome. Paul mentions him in Romans chapter 16. So clearly Simon of Cyrene, if his sons grew up to be Christians, as he stood there at the cross and watched Jesus crucified, he himself put his faith in Christ. All right, I'm going to put this down.

29:24 And we imagine... I imagine Simon carrying that cross. And as we think about that, there's two things I want you to notice. First of all, Peter, James, and John were not there to carry the cross, right? They were all in hiding. Simon was pressed into service to carry the cross. And the second thing I want you to remember is Simon and Simon represents us as well. So you remember Jesus in Matthew's gospel says, if any of you would be my disciples, you must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. And so Simon Cyrene literally did that as a picture of what we might do in our lives. What does it mean to take up your cross and follow Jesus? You're not gonna be crucified. It means taking up Jesus' work, taking up the mantle of his ministry. It means taking up compassion and mercy. It means the things that you sacrifice and you do in order to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

30:20 Would to God that we would all be Simon of Cyrene. I wonder, are you willing to deny yourself and take up Christ's cross and follow him? All right. So we read this. When they came to a place called Golgotha, which means skull place, they gave Jesus wine mixed with vinegar to drink. But after tasting it, he didn't want to drink it. Now, Mark tells us that it was wine mixed with myrrh, which would have been analgesic. It would have been deadening the pain. But instead, in Matthew's gospel, it's wine mixed with vinegar. It's actually gall and it's something bitter tasting. And he tastes it and he realizes he's not to drink this. They were trying once more to mock Jesus and to give him something that was unpleasant to taste just before he was crucified. Then they stripped Jesus naked. They gambled for his clothing. They nailed him to the cross along with a sign over his head that said, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews.

31:17 And then they hoisted the cross into the air. as the crowd watched, as Jesus could hardly breathe standing there, as his mother was standing at the foot of the cross and several other of the women. and there he was at 9 a.m. crucified. I'll wait to look at this cross for a moment. This is about the height of a Roman cross. Mary could have stood and touched her son while standing at the cross. We often picture them, you know, high up in the air. This is what the Roman cross looked like. From noon until three, there was darkness that covered the land, and at three o'clock, Jesus spoke, and in Matthew's gospel, these are the only words he speaks from the cross. And this is what he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I want you to picture Jesus hanging on the cross saying those words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He felt forsaken by God at that moment. Now there are some people who try to, you know, try to say, well, no, it's because the weight of the world's sins was on him and a father turned away when Jesus was dying because he carried the sins of the world. I don't believe that. I don't think the father ever turned away from Jesus, but I think he felt that the Father turned away from him. In that moment, with the cruelty, the inhumanity, the insults that were being hurled at him, the physical pain that he was in, the exhaustion that he was feeling, in all of that, he could not sense the presence of his Father. I love that Matthew and Mark have included this. Luke and John, they don't tell us this part of the story. They have other words that Jesus says at the end, but I love that Matthew and Mark have told us this. They help us to see Jesus' humanity and to know that he understands when we're walking through hell on earth. Listen, in 36 years as your pastor, I've been with a lot of people who have walked through really hard times. I was thinking this week, as I was meditating upon this passage, I was thinking of a family, their daughter and two other girls were in a car, struck a power line, a power pole on Metcalf. This has been 20 years ago, probably. And all three

33:25 girls were killed. And I was sitting there with his family. And you talk about feeling like, where is God now? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Or I thought about a family who, a couple who had been, you know, struggling with infertility for years, and they were now in their mid-30s, and they finally had a baby, and it was such an exciting and wonderful time. And then he went to the doctor one day. Dad went to the doctor one day, and he finds out he has an incurable form of cancer, a terminal form of cancer that's going to take his life before his daughter can walk. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? or so many other stories in this congregation, in the lives of people where I've walked with them and been so grateful that Jesus had said these words, spoken first by King David in Psalm 22, verse one, because it gave them permission to be there too. Jesus understands what you're walking through. I think about a woman I went to see. She was in the psychiatric hospital after her son had taken his own life and to sit by her, by her side, she couldn't even talk.

34:24 But to remind her, it's okay. It's okay. Jesus understands what it's like to be overwhelmed. He understands what it's like to feel like God is nowhere to be found, but he is with you. He was with Jesus while he was hanging on the cross. He is with you. And what he did with Jesus' death on the cross was to force something good and beautiful to come from it. He used it for the salvation of the world. He used it to show us how broken we are and how much we need mercy and grace, and that God gave us that mercy and grace on the cross. Jesus said he would ransom us. He would purchase us. He would deliver us. He would offer us forgiveness and grace. It is death on the cross. He would demonstrate the depth of God's love. All of this and more is what Jesus was doing on the cross. But at the moment, all he could feel was the forsakenness of God. Listen, God has the amazing capacity. He doesn't cause these horrible things to happen in our lives. It's not his will that something terrible happens.

35:17 But he has the capacity to force something good and beautiful to come from it. If only we allow him. And listen, it's okay to cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's okay to be angry with God for a time. God can handle that. He didn't will this horrible thing that happened in your life. It's part of what happens in the world, but he's with you through it, even if you can't feel him. I'm telling you today, he's with you through whatever you're walking through. He has not abandoned you. He's not forsaken you. And then what I want you to remember, even though we end on Friday with Jesus praying those words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? those would not be Jesus' final words. No, they wouldn't. And the cross was not the end of Jesus' story, which is why we can say even on Good Friday, in the light of Easter, we can look at our crucifixions, we can look at our Fridays, and we can know that Sunday is coming. And we remember that because of the crucifixion and resurrection, the worst thing really never is the last thing.

36:19 we've all been Judas. We've all been Simon Peter. We've all been the religious leaders and Pontius Pilate. We've been the crowd caught up in the anger and the hate. And we've been the Roman soldiers. but that's not the end of the story. Not for you, not for me, not for us. I want to invite you to put your trust in the crucified King, to be able simply to say, Jesus, I need what you offered and I accept the gift of your saving grace.

36:56 Forgive me and help me to deny myself, take up my cross and follow you. Would you bow in prayer with me? And I'd like to invite you just to quietly whisper this under your breath. Just, Jesus, thank you. Thank you for your love and grace. thank you for your suffering for me. thank you for the depth of your love. Thank you that you're with me always. Thank you. Help me to deny myself. to take up my cross and to follow you. I pledge my life to you.