Love Grew Where the Blood Fell

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This morning we began our service with a celebration, much like the celebration that happened over two thousand years ago as Jesus entered Jerusalem.  We mentioned last week that Jesus knew what that ride into Jerusalem meant.  This was leading to the cross.  We also mentioned that Jesus did all this with humility and obedience to the Father.  Jesus was submissive to the will of the Father.  One of my pastor friends mentioned this week that everything Jesus did was appropriate for the time and place.

While we started this morning with a celebration, we are going to end up in a completely different place.  As we go through this week, I would encourage you to check out the daily devotions I will be putting up on my blog to take us through this week that we know as Passion Week or Holy Week.  Many things happened to Jesus during that week.  I want to encourage you to attend a special service we will be having on Wednesday night.  It is designed for both students and adults.  It will be much like our Hanging of the Greens service or our Christmas Eve Service.  That evening we will be taking a look at the last twenty-four hours of Jesus’ life and his walk to the cross.  I encourage everyone to be here for that service.  If you are an adult and would like to participate by reading a scripture, please see me.  The song that Joanie sung is a great reminder of why Jesus went to the cross.  It would be good for us to remember what Jesus suffered for us.  To do that, I want to take us to Mark’s gospel, Chapter 15, starting at verse 1

1 Very early in the morning the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law-the entire high council-met to discuss their next step. They bound Jesus, led him away, and took him to Pilate, the Roman governor.

2 Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus replied, “You have said it.”

3 Then the leading priests kept accusing him of many crimes, 4 and Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer them? What about all these charges they are bringing against you?” 5 But Jesus said nothing, much to Pilate’s surprise.

⁶ Now it was the governor’s custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner-anyone the people requested. ⁷ One of the prisoners at that time was Barabbas, a revolutionary who had committed murder in an uprising. ⁸ The crowd went to Pilate and asked him to release a prisoner as usual.

⁹ “Would you like me to release to you this ‘King of the Jews’?” Pilate asked. ¹⁰(For he realized by now that the leading priests had arrested Jesus out of envy.) ¹¹But at this point the leading priests stirred up the crowd to demand the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus. ¹² Pilate asked them, “Then what should I do with this man you call the king of the Jews?”

¹³ They shouted back, “Crucify him!”

¹⁴ “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?”

But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!”

¹⁵ So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

¹⁶ The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the governor’s headquarters (called the Praetorium) and called out the entire regiment. ¹⁷ They dressed him in a purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head. ¹⁸ Then they saluted him and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” ¹⁹ And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship. ²⁰ When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.

²¹ A passerby named Simon, who was from Cyrene was coming in from the countryside just then, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. (Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.) ²² And they brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha (which means “Place of the Skull”). ²³ They offered him wine drugged with myrrh, but he refused it.

²⁴ Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross. They divided his clothes and threw dice to decide who would get each piece. ²⁵ It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. ²⁶ A sign was fastened to the cross, announcing the charge against him. It read, “The King of the Jews.” ²⁷ Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left

²⁹ The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. “Ha! Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. ³⁰ Well then, save yourself and come down from the cross!”

³¹ The leading priests and teachers of religious law also mocked Jesus. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! ³² Let this Messiah, this King of Israel, come down from the cross so we can see it and believe him!” Even the men who were crucified with Jesus ridiculed him.

³³ At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. ³⁴ Then at three o’clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

³⁵ Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah. ³⁶ One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. “Wait!” he said. “Let’s see whether Elijah comes to take him down!”

³⁷ Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last. ³⁸ And the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

³⁹ When the Roman officer who stood facing him saw how he had died, he exclaimed, “This man truly was the Son of God!”

⁴⁰ Some women were there, watching from a distance, including Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James the younger and of Joseph), and Salome. ⁴¹ They had been followers of Jesus and had cared for him while he was in Galilee. Many other women who had come with him to Jerusalem were also there.

⁴² This all happened on Friday, the day of preparation, the day before the Sabbath. As evening approached, ⁴³ Joseph of Arimathea took a risk and went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. (Joseph was an honored member of the high council, and he was waiting for the Kingdom of God to come.) ⁴⁴ Pilate couldn’t believe that Jesus was already dead, so he called for the Roman officer and asked if he had died yet. ⁴⁵ The officer confirmed that Jesus was dead, so Pilate told Joseph he could have the body. ⁴⁶ Joseph bought a long sheet of linen cloth. Then he took Jesus’ body down from the cross, wrapped it in the cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone in front of the entrance. ⁴⁷ Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where Jesus’ body was laid.

Some would wonder why Jesus went through this.  Some would try to make that answer complicated.  Today’s message is really a summary of what we have been hearing throughout this season.  Remember the words of Jesus found in John’s gospel,  16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”

Why would God need to send his Son into the world to save it?  It goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve sinned in the garden.  They disobeyed God’s law.  If you think that you might have fared differently, think again. Paul tells us in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Not one of us is good enough for God.   In fact, because of our sin, we are condemned to death.  Romans 6:23 says, “23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Because of our sin, we have been condemned to death, except through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  His blood paid the penalty for our sin.  The gift of salvation as we just heard is a free gift from God.  We can’t earn it.  We can’t be good enough – we can’t go to church enough – we can’t pray enough – we can’t read the Bible enough to save us.  It is only through God’s grace that we are saved. Paul writes in Romans again,  6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

Jesus’ blood saves us from our sins.  In theological terms we call this atonement.  Jesus blood restores the relationship that was broken in the garden – it makes us at one with God.  If going to church won’t save us and praying won’t save us and reading the Bible won’t save us, how are we saved?

⁵ For Moses writes that the law’s way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands. ⁶ But faith’s way of getting right with God says, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will go up to heaven’ (to bring Christ down to earth).⁷ And don’t say, ‘Who will go down to the place of the dead’ (to bring Christ back to life again).” ⁸ In fact, it says,

“The message is very close at hand;
it is on your lips and in your heart.”

And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: ⁹ If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. ¹¹ As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” ¹² Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. ¹³ For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

The reason Jesus suffered all of the pain, the torture was to save us from our sins – so that we could have eternal life.  This morning you have an opportunity to receive Jesus – if you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that Jesus raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  It is the act of believe and confessing that saves you.  Will you be saved by the blood of