It isn’t easy to focus in on the last hours of Jesus life. Something in me wants to look away. I don’t want to think about his suffering. But without the stark reality of the sorrows of Jesus, the gospel loses its meaning and power.
As we follow Jesus on the way to the cross in Mark 15, several things of vital necessity are taking place.
- Jesus is offering his body as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins.
- Jesus is experiencing the full range of human temptation and weakness so that he might be our merciful and faithful high priest.
- Jesus is setting an example of sacrificial obedience and love for us to follow.
Friends, we have a merciful High Priest in Jesus. He is more than willing to take away your sins. He is more than willing to help you in your lowest moments of burden and weakness. He is more than able to empower you to live a life of sacrificial love.
“Was it out of any love to suffering that he thus refused the wine-cup? Ah, no; Christ had no love of suffering. He had a love of souls, but like us he turned away from suffering, he never loved it…
Why, then, did he suffer? For two reasons: because this suffering to the utmost was necessary to the completion of the atonement, which saves to the utmost; and because this suffering to the utmost was necessary to perfect his character as ‘a merciful High Priest’ who has to compassionate souls that have gone to the utmost of miseries themselves; that he might know how to succor them that are tempted.” –Charles Spurgeon
Tom Brown is the planting pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Wichita. Tom and his wife, Mandy, have worked together in ministry for 18 years and have four children. More about Pastor Tom Brown