An Apologetic from the Cross

It is Holy Week. Shouts of Hosanna and praise on Sunday transformed to screams of anguish and hate on Friday and culminated in gasps of unbelievable joy the next Sunday morning. In many ways, the sudden transition from praise to condemnation is still unfathomable today.  That is, until we realize that the people praising Jesus on Palm Sunday thought that he was someone, or something, that he was not.  This stunning reversal plays itself out time and time again on the world stage concerning the person of Jesus Christ. Everyone wants a Messiah.  Our stories, movies, and cultural icons carry messianic overtones.  We seek heroes that represent the everyman, and build these heroes up in our image to carry out tasks that we only dream of doing ourselves. Throughout history and across cultures, we find people fixated on a specific individual: Jesus of Nazareth.  This fixation though, is not often about who Jesus said he was and is, but who people decide he ought to be. Islam claims Jesus as prophet, second only to Muhammed.  So dedicated to this image of Jesus are they that they develop crucifixion theories that often explain away Good Friday as nothing but a mirage, or a divine hoax. Mormons believe Jesus to be the archetype of a god, the example of what we ourselves could attain if only we could reach certain moral heights. Hindus accept Jesus as part of the Brahman and a god worthy of worship, but only as a god. Jews see Jesus as a wayward Jewish rabbi that was made into something that he was not by his disciples.  Today, in a post-religious and self-styled culture of spiritualization, the cult of self describes Jesus as a social justice type that would stand only for those that claim marginalization, oppression, and demand self-actualization as salvation. All these perspectives remake Jesus in their own likeness, avoiding the scriptural messiah for a personally constructed one.  They pervert the identity of Jesus and claim that Jesus should be someone other than he revealed himself to be.  They put words in Jesus’ mouth and remove or misinterpret others.  They build a character model of Jesus so that they may affirm their own beliefs. And what's worse, they assume that they would not have nailed Jesus to the cross had he been around in "their time." https://twitter.com/plasticmartyr/status/1513385560567521284?s=20&t=woSJMjuD7a6cxuLzT-N3Mw In one sense, this tweet grossly misrepresents the Christ of the Bible, and seemingly denies his resurrection, but in another sense, it gloms onto a sliver of truth.  Jesus would embrace all people, but he would not become or condone their sin.  Jesus calls them to something greater than they could ever imagine (see: Biblical Identity Meets Gender).  If only they would let go of their idea of who they want Jesus to be and be open to the reality of who Jesus is.   This Holy Week, we ask the question Who was Jesus? Answering this question is not difficult once the chaff of culture is swept away and the person of Jesus is afforded the opportunity to speak for himself. In Mark 2 Jesus claims divinity by forgiving sins, ministering to sinners, and claiming to be the Messiah all in the span of twenty-eight verses.  Elsewhere, Jesus claims to be the gate of salvation, the way of salvation, the representation of divine truth, and the same, in essence, as the Father who he also declares as God. There is no doubt about who Jesus thought himself to be, and yet, cultures the world over have coopted the name of Jesus to affirm sinful and idolatrous lifestyles in the name of love. The increase of hostility towards the gospel, coupled with the redefinition of Jesus as a person, (such that he would be all loving and affirming towards unrepentant sinners) makes gospel ministry complicated. For encouragement, let us look to Good Friday. I started in ministry as a know-nothing 21-year-old.  I was newly married and had yet to graduate from the Christian college I attended in Omaha.  I was sure of myself and terrified all at the same time.  I look back on my first five years of ministry with fondness and regret. Fondness because of my naiveté concerning the inner workings of church politics and regret for my self-assuredness in things I had no business being sure of.  However, one thing that has kept me grounded in my time in ministry has been a willingness to learn and grow.  I was self-assured but I was not arrogant. This allowed me to grow in my position and faith, and the growth started earlier than I imagined it would. The year was 2008.  The smell of burning pine needles and wood filled my nostrils as I made the trek up to the front of a group of teenagers surrounding a campfire on a brisk June night. Someone plucked gently at their guitar as I fumbled for a flashlight.  It was my first opportunity to speak to this group of teenagers about the gospel, having just been confirmed as an Assistant Pastor of a small church in Omaha, Nebraska the Sunday prior. I read Matthew 27:46 with confidence and proclaimed, “In that moment there was a tremble in the Trinity as, for the first time in eternity, the Father turned his back to the son.  There was a fracture in the Trinity because of our sin.”  I went on to explain the gospel, the substitutionary atonement of Jesus, the reason his death mattered, and of course, the defeat of death in his resurrection. I felt good about the message and had encouraging conversations with students and adults alike after the campfire was over.  However, I noticed that a man, the father of a teen at the camp and an elder of the church, stayed behind in the distance waiting for conversations to die down.  As the students and leaders trickled off to their cabins he approached me with a smile on his face.  I braced myself for another “well done, that’s why we wanted you” remark but instead he said, “You spoke well but I would encourage you to study Psalm 22 in relation to Jesus’ words on the cross.” After the initial shock wore off, I asked what he meant.  He proceeded to ask me a very simple but transformative question, “What do you think Jesus was trying accomplish in that moment?” I was stunned, first by my own ignorance, and second by the simplicity of the question.  Jesus lived an intentional life.  Everything he said and did that was recorded in the gospels had weight to it.  I realized, in that moment, that I had constructed a version of Jesus on the cross that fit a particular picture, but not necessarily a biblical one.  Not only had I been lazy intellectually, but I had also been selfish and lazy theologically. I am not saying that every pastor that said similar words to mine was guilty of the same.  Nor am I saying that there was not tension within the godhead during that moment.  For all I know, there was, but I do not believe that Jesus’ exclamation in that moment was only about his personal agony. What if it was a last-ditch effort to get those who saw him as Messiah on Palm Sunday to understand who he truly was? In Jesus’ dying moments he was not fixated on his pain; he was fixated on the lost ones around him, and he desperately wanted them to understand who he truly was. As I studied the events of Jesus’ crucifixion, I came to the realization that this man had gently guided me towards the truth. Jesus’ words during his crucifixion were constantly focused on others.  In Luke 23 Jesus seeks forgiveness for his accusers, he pardons a thief being crucified next to him, and he commits his spirit into the Father’s hands (a strange thing to do if the Father had turned his back on him). In John 19 we read about Jesus caring for his mother, asking for a drink, and screaming “it is finished.”  Mark and Matthew both recount Jesus’ words on the cross as being “My God, My God why have you forsaken me,” but in both instances the direct quote is transliterated into Greek from Aramaic. This conveys something to the reader.  Jesus was not just saying how he felt, he was seeking to communicate something to those around him, and by transliterating the words instead of simply translating them so was the author of the gospels! In Jesus’ day many Jewish people memorized Psalms.  They would often refer to Psalms by the first line or phrase rather than chapter and verse.  It is my belief that this is what Jesus is doing here, and the context clues in both situations seem to bear this out. Those around him, even prisoners being crucified alongside him, disparaged, and curse him and “wagged their heads” at him, the Jews were angry about him being glossed the King of the Jews by Pilate’s own hands, they divided up his clothes among themselves, they gave him a drink because he was thirsty, they pierce him through upon death and did not break his bones. All of this is reflected in Psalm 22! Jesus is not merely stating a painful fact that the Trinity is in tension, but he is using his last breath to try to reveal who he truly is to those around him!  Jesus quoted a lament Psalm about himself to the people watching him suffer and die so that they might believe and live! This is so much more amazing than simply crying in agony over perceived abandonment! Psalm 22 is about Jesus and Jesus knew it, and while it was being fulfilled, he quoted it in hopes that some might understand who he really is, not who Pilate said he was, not who the Pharisees or the thieves on the cross said he was but who he said he was. Jesus was concerned about the salvation of others while he was agonizing on the cross. That seems to ring more closely to the character of Jesus than a concern about division in the godhead, as if he was not aware such a tension would occur. This realization changed the way I saw Jesus’ time on the cross.  Instead of seeing him dying for my sins while simply narrating his way through his own death, I found myself drawn to the fact that, in the midst of excruciating agony, Jesus’ focus was not on himself but on his mother, on the thief who believed in his innocence, and on the observers that might be able to sift through Psalm 22 while they stood there.  Imagine being a person who hurled an insult at Jesus as he suffered on the cross, only to have Psalm 22 quoted at you a moment later, and as the Psalm ran through your head you realized Psalm 22:6-7 was fulfilled by you, as you hurled an insult at the man dying on the cross.  As the song says, “ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers.” Then Psalm 22:17-18 was fulfilled as the man died on the cross and the soldiers pierced him through and divided his clothing by casting lots. Jesus’ actions and words on the cross were not merely descriptive. They were intentional. They were apologetic.  They were evangelistic. They were true. This Easter, as we think about how to define Jesus, I would encourage us to do the same thing for others as that elder did for me.  Challenge them to allow Jesus to define himself and then ask them the question, “If Jesus is who he says he is what does that require of you?”  In the first few chapters of Acts we find thousands of people, many of whom might have been mocking Jesus just days prior, answering that question for the first time.  And, perhaps, they still had Psalm 22 running through their heads as they did so. Do not lose hope as the world's hostility becomes ever more noticeable.  Instead, unabashedly point people to the truth and the fulfilled words of scripture so that, perhaps, they may be won over in time. Just as Jesus did with his dying breath. It was a good Friday indeed. Mark 2:1-28John 10John 14:6John 18:37John 14:6-11John 1:18Matthew 27:38-44John 19:20-22Matthew 27:35, John 19:23-24John 19:28John 19:33-37