A Blossom Bible Podcast
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A Blossom Bible Podcast
Mark 15:22-32 Between Two Thieves
Well, it is a slow move to the cross, and Jesus has been through several corrupt trials, first the religious leaders there at the house of Caiaphas, and then at Pilate, the Roman governor's judgment seat. Jesus has been accused and condemned, he's been beaten and mocked. So we can picture him in that light face, bloody, back ripped open, spit running down his beard. He stumbled there, it seems. He stumbled there, it seems, and the Romans compelled a man named last week, simon, from Cyrene, the Cyrene, to carry the crossbar to the place called Golgotha and that's where we pick up in verse 22 notice verse 22. And they brought him to the place Golgotha, which is translated place of a skull, and they gave him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but he did not take it. And when they crucified him, they divided his garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take. That was a third hour and they crucified him. So, very simply, jesus is crucified and if we're looking at the screen there, so to speak, we would see in the corner it's 9 am. There is what we're told, 9 am in the Roman reckoning. And he's brought to a place called Golgotha. That's the Aramaic. The word means place of a skull, as we're told there, and that is where they crucified Jesus. Now there's some debate where this is, but at any rate we know it's outside the city. Now it's put rather simply here that they crucified Jesus.
Speaker 1:We're not told a whole lot. Roman crucifixion they would have taken that crossbar and thrown Jesus on it on the ground naked. They would have put huge spikes into his wrists that would have held him on that cross. They would have put one more nail through his crossed feet down at the bottom. But it was not developed as a humane way to execute people, but a torture people to make it as painful and as drawn out as possible. That was crucifixion developed by the Persians a few hundred years earlier. But we'll look at it next week. David in Psalm 22 describes what's going on here and so much of it we'll see again next week. But Jesus' hands and feet were pierced next week.
Speaker 1:But that Jesus' hands and feet were pierced, it was a way of getting people to steer clear of crime, right? We see here today there are two thieves crucified with Jesus, and so Rome would say look, if you don't want to end up like this, don't steal. If you don't want to end up like this, don't mess with Rome. And it was effective, no doubt. But it was torture here. And Jesus is crucified there.
Speaker 1:Now, again in verse 25, we see it's the third hour, that's 9 am. They crucified him. Now look at verse 26. Now look at verse 26. And the inscription of his accusation was written above the king of the Jews. So an inscription is put, a sign to announce the crime Again, to basically steer people away. If you don't want to end like this, don't do these things.
Speaker 1:In Luke 23.2, we remember that this was one of the accusations brought by the religious leaders. They said there in Luke 23.2, that this man is perverting the nation. He's forbidding people to pay taxes. He's saying that he's the Christ. That means he's making himself a king. Well, these are some options that the religious leaders gave as why Jesus should die. But Pilate understood, in verse 10 of Mark 15, that it was really envy that brought Jesus to this place, the envy of the religious leaders. And so Pilate, in a sense, seems to be trolling them in this just a little bit. He places a sign over Jesus' head that simply says the King of the Jews. Now I think personally that Pilate is trying to troll them as they come to him and they say don't say he's the king of the Jews. Say he said he was the king of the Jews. And Pilate says what I've written, I've written, leave me alone. And so there it is over his head. But here's the thing. That was the accusation. But he really was the king. That's what we consider here today. He really was the king. He was of the royal line of David. If he searched his family tree and Matthew and Luke give us Jesus' family tree it would go back to King David. He was a rightful king tree. It would go back to King David. He was a rightful king. The wise men, when they came to visit him as a child, they saw a star, a sign in the east and they said where is this one who's been born king of the Jews? They knew God shared that with them. He was definitely a king, but he wasn't just a regional king or an ethnic king. He was the absolute king.
Speaker 1:Psalm 2 is written about jesus the messiah. You can turn there if you want psalm 2, but notice it says this in verse 1 why do the nations rage and the people plot the vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, his Messiah, saying let us break their bonds in pieces and cast their cords from us Verse 4. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep pleasure and say I have set my king on my holy hill in Zion. I will declare the decree the Lord has said to me you are my son Today. I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations, for Messiah would be the king of Zion.
Speaker 1:Fast forward to the end of the Bible in Revelation, chapter 19. Easy to find if you want to Revelation 19, verse 11. Revelation 19, verse 11. This is how it all comes down in the end. And picture this. This is great, john says.
Speaker 1:Now. I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse, and he who sat on it was called faithful and true and in righteousness. He judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head many crowns. He has a name written that no one knew except himself. He was clothed with the robe dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God. It's Jesus we're talking about there, and the armies of heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses. Now, out of his mouth goes a sharp sword. With it, he should strike the nations and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. Looking back at Psalm 2, there, rod of iron, he himself treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of almighty God, and on his robe and on his thigh a name written Now check this out King of kings and Lord of lords. So we know, ultimately Jesus is an actual king. He's not just king of the Jews, he's king of the universe, right, he's king of all things and in the end he'll practically rule as that. That's what the Bible lets us know.
Speaker 1:But the bigger question is not so much is he a king? Of course he is, but is he our king Now? Pilate again, I believe, is trolling the religious leaders here. But he's giving us an option. Do we receive him? Is he our king Now? I think we see this as we move on here in verse 27.
Speaker 1:Make sure you head back to Mark, chapter 15, verse 27. Let's look on Chapter 15, verse 27. Let's look on. With him, they also crucified two robbers, one on his right and the other on his left. So the scripture was fulfilled, which says he was numbered with the transgressors and those who passed by blasphemed him. Now notice here, in verse 27 and 28, jesus is crucified with two thieves, two robbers, possibly rebels. Perhaps Jesus was taking Barabbas' spot there in the center, but he's fulfilling scripture, being crucified between two thieves. We're told here Isaiah's passage in Isaiah 53, 12, that he was numbered with the transgressors.
Speaker 1:Now we're going to circle back to this in just a second, but let's move ahead, verse 29. And those who pass by blasphemed him. Picture it Wagging their heads and saying you who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself. Come down from the cross. Likewise, the chief priests, also mocking amongst themselves with the scribes said he saved others Himself, he cannot save Save. Scribes said he saved others himself, he cannot save Save. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross. That we may believe. Even those who were crucified with him reviled him. So we see the mocking continues as Jesus is dying on the cross. We see first those that are passing by. They're going their way, doing whatever it was that they needed to do that day and they say, ah, you destroyed that. You said you'll destroy the temple and build it in three days. Why don't you save yourself Now? He could have done that easily. Jesus could have saved himself, but he didn't. He laid down his life to save us. Could have saved himself, but he didn't. He laid down his life to save us. Notice, there the chief priest joined that chorus. He saved others.
Speaker 1:Now maybe they were thinking about Lazarus. It wasn't that long before this that Jesus went to Bethany and his friend Lazarus had died. He was dead for days and Jesus came to the tomb and said roll away the stone. And then he said with a loud voice Lazarus, come forth. And Lazarus was delivered from death. It was a big deal, right. Everybody heard about it. This man who was most definitely dead, raised back to life. Jesus saved him.
Speaker 1:Now the chief priests had trouble with this because everybody was looking to hear Lazarus's story and, believe it or not, they wanted to kill Lazarus. So maybe they were thinking about Lazarus at this point. He saved others. He raised old Lazarus from the dead. Why can't he just take himself off the cross? Maybe they were looking back to a woman who was caught in the act of adultery there in John, chapter 8, as they trapped her and brought her and threw her down in front of Jesus. And you remember the story? Jesus, so tough, he stands up for her and he bends down and quietly writes in the ground. We don't know what he was writing. Some think maybe he was writing their sins, the religious leaders' sins, the Pharisees' sins, on the ground. We're not sure, but whatever it was, there was such power in what he was doing that from the oldest to the youngest, they just backed up and left, right and Jesus delivered her from certain death. And perhaps they were thinking well, he saved that woman, stood up to us, saved that woman, but he can't even save himself.
Speaker 1:The mockery continues in verse 32. They say you know what? Come down off the cross that we can see and believe. So they were saying if you come down right now, we'll believe in you, we'll drop all this stuff and we'll believe in you. Now, that wasn't true. They said we just need more proof. They did not need more proof because in Matthew 18, after the cross, three days later, matthew 18, jesus rose from the dead. And in verse 11, we find that they wanted to cover it up when the soldiers came and said he's gone, he's risen, the stone's been rolled away, they said look, don't tell anybody. Tell him. His disciples came and stole the body. We'll give you some money, we'll pay people off, it'll be fine. So did they need more proof? They didn't need more proof.
Speaker 1:The sad thing is, so many times we say things like oh, if God would just roll the heavens open and, you know, wave at me, then I'd believe. But it's not more proof that we need, it's our hearts. We resist God and we turn from God. It's not more proof. And these guys, they prove that for us.
Speaker 1:But notice, here we turn our attention back to these criminals, these thieves. Notice verse 32, at the very end. Even those who were crucified with him reviled him. So picture it these two thieves. They know they're going to die. There is absolutely no hope for them on those crosses. At that point they knew they were going to die. There is absolutely no hope for them on those crosses. At that point they knew they were going to die. Every time that they would have to take a breath, they would pull up on those nails and kind of resuscitate there, but they used their breath to curse Jesus and ridicule. That word reviled means that they did it continually right. So in every breath that they had left, they were saying you can't even save us. Why don't you save us? Save yourself. And these two thieves were in a bad place, but it didn't stop them from mocking Jesus.
Speaker 1:Now let's see the rest of the story, because most of you know it. But let's turn to Luke, chapter 23. And we're not coming back to Mark today, but Luke 23, verse 39. And we notice some of the same things. We can back up to verse 38. And an inscription was written over him in letters of Greek, latin and Hebrew this is the King of the Jews, now one of the criminals who were hanged, blasphemed him saying if you are Christ, save yourself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked him saying do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation and we, indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said to Jesus Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus said to him assuredly. I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.
Speaker 1:So here we see that moments later, after spending all this energy ridiculing Jesus, one of them seems to have a change of heart and notice, there, in verse 39, one of them, one of them continues and says if you're the Christ, save yourself. But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying do you not fear God? We're under the same condemnation, do you not fear God? We're under the same condemnation and we indeed justly so. Notice. One guy has a change of heart and he realizes you know what. We're guilty. He's not, we deserve everything that we're getting. And it's that idea of he was numbered with the transgressors.
Speaker 1:A transgressor is someone who willfully sins. It's a little bit like trespassing. A little bit like trespassing. It's when you see the sign do not trespass and you go. You know what? I think I'm going to trespass, and that's where these guys were at as transgressors, to trespass. And that's where these guys were at as transgressors. They understood what was wrong and they decided to do it anyways. But isn't that all of us, maybe even this last week? We understood the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do and we looked at it and we even maybe weighed the consequences of what we were going to do and we said you know what? I think I'm going to do it anyways, and that's all of us. And we're guilty, and this man here realizes I'm guilty. Now, we're guilty, whether it's willful or an accident.
Speaker 1:Yesterday I was driving down Girl 195 there I was going to get something from home Depot to fix a septic tank. You needed to know that. No, you didn't Um and and I was just kind of spaced out, got to get there, get back, you know, get it fixed. So I don't spend my my day doing this. And you know what I saw very quickly, quickly, highway Patrol lights and it's. You know it's funny, you know, confessing this in front of so many law enforcement people in the room. But you know, you know what's weird I've learned. There was a day when I'd see those lights and I go, oh man, you know, just hands in the air. When I see those lights I'm like click right over to the side because I know, I know I'm busted, I know I was doing it. I don't even know how fast I was doing. If they asked me how fast, do you know how fast you were going? No idea, but I'm pretty sure it was over the speed limit, because everybody does it there, you know. But I was guilty, you know, and I was unaware.
Speaker 1:Either way, aware or unaware, we're guilty, whether we meant to do it or we sinned and broke God's law on accident, we're guilty. And this guy comes to that conclusion. We're right there with them. There with them All have sinned Romans 3.23. And the wages of sin Romans 6.23, is death. And here's this guy and he realizes it. We deserve what we're getting here. We absolutely do. Let's consider, though, jesus' perhaps final ministry there to them.
Speaker 1:Both men are guilty. Notice Luke 23, 41. We justly, we receive our due reward for our deeds. They're convicted. He's convicted somehow Now. He was convicted when Rome convicted him of the crime. But we know from what John tells us the Holy Spirit convicts the world, that's all of us, of sin. The Holy Spirit lets us know when we're wrong. This one man is convicted of his sin, and one resisted. One of these two, I'm just going to assume he was convicted of the crime and he was convicted of the Holy Spirit, but yet he resisted and continued to mock. But one is different. He's convicted and notice he confesses. Notice he confesses. He says it. Right, there, we're deserving. Everything we're getting here, that's confession.
Speaker 1:Confession means to say the same thing. God says what you did is wrong and we say I confess what I did was wrong. We agree with God and that's important because we have a hard time with things like confession in our world, to say that we're wrong. We're like the Fonz from Happy Days. You probably don't remember that, but the Fonz from Happy Days I was, you know, and he can't say it, you know. And it's the same way with us. We live in a world where there's a high priority on self-esteem. Right, jails are filled with people who have committed terrible crimes but did nothing wrong. Right, you can murder someone and feel like you did nothing wrong because everybody has such great self-esteem. Right, but confession is admitting God. You're right and I'm wrong.
Speaker 1:1 John 1.9,. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins, confession is necessary. We see this man also has repentance. Repentance is a big Bible word but we need to understand it. Repentance means to turn and go the opposite direction, a 180. We're going towards sin. We turn and go the other way.
Speaker 1:Now check it out this guy. You know he didn't have a whole lot of time and energy to really do some serious repenting. We have trouble with this guy right, because he hasn't gone out and done good works. He hasn't gone and changed his life and his habits. You know, he hasn't even gotten to study the Bible. He's going to be dead. We have trouble with him, many have trouble with him because he didn't have time to get baptized before he died, and you go.
Speaker 1:Well, what did he do to deserve salvation? Nothing, nothing at all. But he repented. And we see that because at first in Mark, they're both ridiculing Jesus. They're both hard-hearted, and then somehow, all at once, in Luke 23, he says you know what? How can you talk like that? We deserve everything we're getting. This man has done nothing. Lord, remember me, remember me when you're coming into your kingdom. Did he understand what he was saying? Probably not. But there, in a moment, he puts all of his chips on Jesus, he leans on Jesus, he rests in who he is and the light bulb comes on.
Speaker 1:Now notice verse 43. Did it work? Yes, jesus says in verse 43, assuredly, I say, into this guy's life. Now, what was the rest of his day like, I don't know, but I'm sure it was rough. But he really took that confidence into it. Jesus said I'm going to be with him. And we don't know what it was. But Jesus wouldn't have said it if it wasn't true, right. And there's this spark of faith, this spark of trust in this man as he leans on Jesus.
Speaker 1:Very simply, he didn't demonstrate any acts of repentance other than that little bit of change of heart there. He didn't get baptized, he didn't do good works, he didn't go on a mission trip, he hasn't given any money, he hasn't studied verses and memorized them, he hasn't even broken old habits. But Jesus says you'll be with me. And I think that's really important, because we put a lot of stock in what we do and how good a person looks on the outside, and Jesus says that's good, that's sanctification. Right, I mean, he doesn't say that, but we understand sanctification.
Speaker 1:God grows us through life and we're not the person that we were yesterday or a year ago. He makes us different from the inside out, but it's not about being perfect. It's about trusting and leaning and putting all your weight on Jesus. Salvation can never be more real than the first time we simply trusted. Never more real than the first time we simply trusted, never more real than the first moment that we trusted. And that's just an amazing grace that we see here as Jesus. He's being crucified, he's paying the price for our sins. And yet he takes the time to point this one guy in the right direction and a change is made.
Speaker 1:God, I don't understand it. I don't even necessarily think it's fair that you would save us and save people without works. But, god, that's the way it is. It's all about you and what you've done for us, absolutely not anything about what we do for ourselves. God, you do change us and you make us a different person. The old man is gone and the new one is in Christ. We're so grateful for that. But, god, I just pray that in this time, we would just trust you with everything, even like that thief. Just trust you for who you are, god, that you would be our king. God, you'd be our savior. God, thank you so much for coming to us and finding a place with the transgressors. God, we needed it so much. We pray that we'd understand this just a little bit more, not just in our heads, but in our hearts. God, thank you. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen, thank you.