From Mark 15:42-47 / He Descended into Hell – The Apostle’s Creed as it is most often cited contains the phrase “he descended into hell.” Historian and theologian W. G. T. Shedd notes that this phrase was not in the original. Irrespective of the complexities of how it came to be, there is no question as to why it come to be. It was meant to assert that Jesus had really and truly died. Died so as to be buried. Died so as to be truly dead. Not swooning. Not merely nearly dead. Not faking anything. But dead. Life had left His body. He had taken “the wages of sin”, our sin, completely. He left nothing undone in His sacrifice. We cannot, we dare not try to add anything to it. Sometimes when we fail we imagine we need to add some sort of personal suffering to His to deal with our sin. But it is not so. Our faith must be grounded in His finished work in this matter, and not in just having made some sort of entrance that we must then somehow fill up ourselves. As though He wiped the slate clean, but when we sin, we have to wipe it clean again ourselves by some form of penance and personal suffering. The words of Elvina Hall’s grand hymn say it so clearly. Trust Christ and His finished work – alone.

1. I hear the Savior say,
   “Thy strength indeed is small;
   Child of weakness, watch and pray,
   Find in Me thine all in all.”Refrain:
2. For nothing good have I
   Whereby Thy grace to claim;
   I’ll wash my garments white
   In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.
3. And now complete in Him,
   My robe, His righteousness,
   Close sheltered ’neath His side,
   I am divinely blest.
4. Lord, now indeed I find
   Thy pow’r, and Thine alone,
   Can change the *leopard’s spots [*leper’s]
   And melt the heart of stone.
5. When from my dying bed
   My ransomed soul shall rise,
   “Jesus died my soul to save,”
   Shall rend the vaulted skies.
6. And when before the throne
   I stand in Him complete,
   I’ll lay my trophies down,
   All down at Jesus’ feet.
   • Jesus paid it all,
     All to Him I owe;
     Sin had left a crimson stain,
     He washed it white as snow.

From Mark 15:33-41 / Undoing The Fall – Volumes could be written about these few verses, and the wonder and spectacle of Christ’s death on the cross could never, will never be fully mined. Its depths lay only in the deep heart of our triune God. And we are unable to bear the sight of such glory without something to shield us. Redeemed, born again, indwelt by the Spirit, and even in glorification – we will still not be divine. His infinitude, and the unsearchable riches of His grace will no doubt keep our souls and minds occupied in discovery throughout eternity. As 2 Cor. 5:18-20 reads: “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” In the rending of the veil in the Temple which separated the holy place from the holy of holies – it is as if, in Christ, God took the angel with the flaming sword out of the way to the Tree of Life – and then in the Gospel, calls all men to come and return to Him – believing the message that Christ has made atonement for sin, and they might come and be reconciled. If they believe in the finished work of Christ, they can come and have fullness of restoration to the Father. But if they do not believe, or in wickedness do not care because they’ve no desire to be restored and reconciled to the Father – then their blood is on their own heads. He opened the gate. Who will enter in? Have you? Will you?

From Mark 15:21-32 / Unfathomable Love – Rather than give you my thoughts here, I give you those of J. C. Ryle: “The passage we have now read, is one of those which show us the infinite love of Christ towards sinners. The sufferings described in it would fill our minds with mingled horror and compassion, if they had been inflicted on one who was only a man like ourselves. But when we reflect that the sufferer was the eternal Son of God, we are lost in wonder and amazement. And when we reflect further that these sufferings were voluntarily endured to deliver sinful men and women like ourselves from hell, we may see something of St. Paul’s meaning when he says, “The love of Christ passeth knowledge.” “God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Ephes. 3:19; Rom. 5:8.)…Let us leave the passage with a deep sense of the enormous debt which all believers owe to Christ. All that they have, and are, and hope for, may be traced up to the doing and dying of the Son of God. Through His condemnation, they have acquittal,—through His sufferings, peace,—through His shame, glory,—through His death, life. Their sins were imputed to Him. His righteousness is imputed to them. No wonder that St. Paul says, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” (2 Cor. 9:15.)

From Mark 15:16-20 / King of the Jews – Jesus is referred to by this title no less than 18 times in the Gospels, but more often in Mark than any other. In fact, He is so called 5 times in this 15th chapter alone. He is asked if He is King of the Jews by Pilate in vs. 2. In vs. 9, Pilate asks the crowd whom they would have released, Barabbas, or the King of the Jews? In vs. 12 Pilate asks what he should do with the King of the Jews – to which they answer “crucify Him”. In today’s text, Jesus is mocked as the King of the Jews by his Roman torturers. And at last in vs. 26, this was the great charge leveled against Him and affixed above His head: “The King of the Jews”. This, in Latin, Greek and Aramaic. All 4 Gospel writers note this fact. Nothing it seems, in all the world, could be lower or more deserving of contempt than to be the King of the Jews. The Jews rejected Him as their King. Pilate disregarded His kingship. Barabbas the murderer was desired above Him as King. The crowd wanted Him executed under the title King of the Jews. The Roman soldiers mocked Him as King of the Jews. And in the end, that is all they could think to write as the charge against Him deserving death – He was, the King of the Jews. And so it is in salvation, the thing which must be recognized and embraced, is His kingship over us. “[God] has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Col 1:13–14. He cannot be your Savior and not also your King, any more than I can be Reid but not Ferguson, or Ferguson but not Reid. The two cannot be separated. Won’t you come to Him today? For He is the sweetest, gentlest, most lovely, just, holy, righteous, forgiving and justifying King. He died for sin, that we might be freed from being its slaves, to be rightly brought under His dear Kingship. Come.

From Mark 15:6-15 / Poison Polls – It is the preoccupation with news gatherers to take polls. To try and get a handle on what the masses are saying. And while there is nothing wrong in that in and of itself, majority opinion alone can never be the final arbiter of right and wrong. Nor can that be left solely to those in power. We see this so graphically in this passage. The public outcry was 100% evil, and needed to be overturned. But Pilate the politician, “wishing to satisfy the crowd” had no means of determining right or wrong beyond himself, and the crowd. If we have no authority above ourselves, all morality and all justice are up for grabs – whatever the whims of the people dictate, and whatever winds move the politicians at the moment. As Steve Brown once quipped, the incarnation teaches us that given the opportunity, man will always murder God. For as in the Garden, we still want to be god – we want to determine right and wrong for ourselves. What grace then that Jesus died according to God’s unchanging justice. That unmoved by fallen human whims, He sent His Son to satisfy all justice on behalf of all who would believe. And contrary to our fallen desires, grants us in the Gospel, what we only come by His grace to see – that eternal satisfaction, for Him and us, is only in the Cross.

From Mark 15:1-5 / Between Two Worlds – Nowhere is the strange way in which Jesus straddles 2 worlds and 2 realities more evident than in these exchanges. Two wondrous things emerge. 1 – So why not a simple, unqualified “why yes I am!”? Because He is the king of the Jews, but not the way Pilate imagines such a King to be. He is not meant to be their present political ruler. He is meant to govern their souls. His kingdom is not of this world in the way they would understand it. He is King of the Jews, yes, but not as Pilate would have understood it. And not as many of His followers then, or even some today would have it either. We seem more interested in power over world systems than power over sin and death. He knows fully “This is My Father’s World.” 2 – Why does He not defend Himself? And here is something truly unfathomable: Because He is willingly taking our guilt upon Himself. He will not defend Himself as not guilty, because He is being counted as guilty for us. So that He might be our substitute. And so that we might go free and be counted righteous in Him. Oh what a Savior!

From Mark 14:66-72 / Loose Lips – This passage is not meant as a polemic against foul language. Yet is is instructive in that regard. How is it, what is the mechanism by which Peter wishes to demonstrate to those accusing him of belonging to Jesus that he is not? Cursing and swearing. It would appear that this mode of language is one of the most identifiable traits of those in the world – of those who are not Christ’s. At least it was so in Jesus’ day and culture. But I wonder if it is not also true today? And I wonder if we take note of how easily we pick up the distinguishing marks of those outside of Christ in the adoption of words and phrases that link us more readily with the world, than with Him. The language of Jesus is blessing, not cursing. It is speaking the truth, not lying. It is in affirming Gospel realities, not seeking to dodge discovery of Christ. It is ennobling, not crude. More than the tag line so common again today of “what say you?” maybe it ought to be – “how say you?” Does your speech betray the reality of one bought by the blood of the Lamb and redeemed from the trench of lostness? Or does it pass easily as the same as the world around us? Are we full of cursing, invective, vitriol and denial? Of gutter language, or that from the streets of Heaven – full of blessing, honoring, love and affirmation of Christ? What tell-tale signs have crept into our daily vocabulary – that prove we are identifying more with the world than Christ? What words and phrases in ordinary conversation would never pass our lips in the pulpit? And are we not duplicitous in this regard? It is something to consider. Especially when it comes to disagreements and public discourse. When conversing with family, friends, on Facebook – and even when discussing – politics. May we glorify Him even in our everyday conversation. He is worthy.

From Mark 14:53-65 / Respect – While these verses reveal the utter heartlessness and injustice on behalf of those appointed by God to see justice is done – there is one verse which always grips my own heart the most: “And some began to spit on Him and to cover His face and to strike Him, saying to Him, Prophesy! And the guards received Him with blows.” It is the utter disregard, the disdain, degradation and indignity with which Jesus was treated that makes my heart weep. When Jesus taught us to pray, He placed the hallowing – the reverencing of His Father’s name and reputation as having the highest priority. All of sin and the Fall came from angelic and human creatures not seeing Him for who and what He is, and not giving Him the reverence due His name. Making the very mention of God sacred. And at this point in human history, the whole of that wicked capacity in us to try and shame and degrade God Himself is cast upon Jesus’ sweet shoulders with the utmost contempt. The One who surrendered all of Heaven’s glories to take on the likeness of our fallenness, that He might suffer the Father’s just wrath in our place – spit upon and mocked as a fool. In this my fellow Christian, is the willingness of our Christ to take on the worst of human sin on our behalf – set in its greatest relief. Oh how He loves you and me. Read this passage, and let your heart melt. How we so violently recoil at the pettiest of slights against our persons. And how He uttered not a word of self-defense in this wicked, cruel moment. That we might be reconciled to the Father. What a Savior is this!

From Mark 14:51-52 / Following Jesus – These 2 verses have spawned endless speculation, especially as regards the identity of this “young man.” There is a long tradition that it is Mark himself. But in truth, we have no idea. The text simply does not say. Nor need we know to glean something of use here. That the young man was clothed with nothing but a linen cloth almost certainly speaks to his being roused from his bed by the commotion surrounding Jesus’ arrest. Whether he knew Jesus before this or not we do not know. But for some reason, whether just curious as to the spectacle or whatever, He followed Jesus for a time, until the persecution spilled over to his person. And then he cared for nothing but to run so as not to suffer any harm. And so it is there are many who seem to follow Christ for a season. In their youth and with a sort of sleepiness of thought about them, they are curious as to what He is all about. Striking out after Him, though ill-prepared, as soon as the cost of following Him appears, they flee. And in their fleeing they are exposed for who and what they really are. No better, and no worse than Jesus’ own professed disciples. Both, in desperate need to be clothed with the righteousness of sinless Lamb of God. Nothing less will quit us to stand before the judgment bar of the Living God. “The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear! what the Spirit says to the churches.” Re 3:4–6.

From Mark 14:43-50 / Earnestly Wrong – I identify with the Jesus’ sword wielding disciple. Here is the one he thought to be the Messiah – as he conceived the Messiah to be. He had walked with Him for years. Heard Him speak. Watched His miracles. Partook of miraculously multiplied bread. Seen Him perform countless miracles. Anticipated serving under Him in His Kingdom. Loved Him. Left home and family for Him. It was only natural that everything within him would rise up against this perceived threat, and respond in righteous indignation and defense with genuine and vigorous earnestness. But to step in here, no matter how logical and earnest, would be to act counter to the Scripture’s fulfillment. He did not yet understand the mission of the Redeemer in its fullness as the Old Testament had laid it out. And I wonder if we too can fail to respond to the threats, dangers and challenges of our culture and generation, in earnest and vigorous ways, which fail to understand how things will be in the earth until the King returns to take up His earthly throne. To act almost as though we are to bring the Kingdom about through politics and power, rather than through the transformation of men’s souls by the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Have we forgotten that Jesus Himself told us that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against His Church? And have we forgotten, victory is through the Cross, not the voting booth? Preach and live the Gospel. This is our call. Lift up Christ. And as it is written concerning His resurrection: “He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.” Believe it. It will be so.