Mark 15:22-32
On A Hill
Next week will be Easter, the day—almost 2,000 years ago—that Jesus
rose from the dead. But before we can celebrate the resurrection, we
need to dwell on the crucifixion for without Jesus’ death, there
could be no resurrection.
God’s first description of Israel was as a land flowing with milk and
honey \\#Ex 3:8\\. It must have been a beautiful land for the Bible
describes it as having fertile fields, abundant agriculture, and
abounding wildlife. The land is nothing like this anymore. Because
of Israel’s continued sin and the judgments it brought, the land of
Israel became barren, arid, dry, and mostly rock. It is much better
today as the present-day Jews are working hard to make it a beautiful
and bountiful land once again.
With that in mind, let’s focus on one particularly hard and rocky
spot of land in Israel this morning. Let’s focus on Golgotha. It has
been my privilege to visit Israel twice. In those travels, I have
seen the two most likely places in Israel where Jesus might have been
crucified. I prefer to think of Gordon’s Tomb as the place of Jesus’
crucifixion, but honestly, we can’t know for certain.
So let’s consider what the Bible says of the place where Jesus was
crucified.
I. \\#22\\ Golgotha means the place of the skull.
A. As with so many facts in the Bible, the Bible does not
elaborate on exactly where this location was or what it
looked like.
1. We are left to speculate on some of the details.
2. I believe the Bible indicates that during the late hours
of Wednesday night and the early hours of Thursday
morning (sunset to sunrise time), our Lord was examined
by Caiaphas, Annas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate, Herod, and
then finally condemned by Pilate.
3. Plotting these locations on a city map, they are scattered
cover the southern and central area of Jerusalem.
4. Knowing those locations, we can see that it is possible
that Jesus was then taken out of the city through the
northwest gate, called the Damascus Gate, to be crucified
near the site of what today is called Gordon’s Tomb.
5. Gordon’s Tomb is on a hill side and the hill itself bears
an eerie resemblance to a skull.
6. This spot was rediscovered in the 1800’s by General
Charles Gordon and because of the skull image, it is
accepted by many non-Catholics as the likely location of
Jesus’ crucifixion.
B. But even without knowing for certain the exact spot where
Jesus was crucified, from the name alone we can deduce that
it was not a desirable place.
1. It is a place associated with death itself.
2. A skull is the boney remains of a human head.
3. Some believe that the place a common execution spot for
criminals, perhaps not only for the Romans but also for
the Jews.
4. Some even speculate that the place got its name from the
many unburied skulls and bones scattered about the place.
5. If that is at all true, it would have been a place where
Jews would not have gone for to be around the bones of
the dead would have left them unclean.
6. This place was then associated with death.
C. \\#22\\ "they bring him." Golgotha was not a place the good
people voluntary went to and those who were brought there
did not have good prospects for the future.
1. Jesus did not lead the way to this place.
2. He was taken, without resistance to be sure, but being
forced to walk that path as a sheep being lead to the
slaughter.
3. And why was this journey being forced upon Him? Because
Jesus had a rendezvous with death at this place.
4. Those taken to the Place of the Skull do not walk back!
D. The skull is associated with death and those who were brought
to this place DIE. So who are the people brought here?
II. \\#28\\ It was the place for the transgressors.
A. Those who were brought to this place were criminals,
murderers, sinners both before man and God.
B. These were transgressors and they had transgressed the law.
1. Transgressed means to step over or to brake out of.
2. The law, man’s and God’s, is a book of rules.
3. It sets boundaries.
4. Those who are under the law are supposed to stay within
the boundaries.
5. If you go outside the boundaries, you have transgressed
the law (i.e. stepped over the boundary or broken out of
the boundaries.)
C. Those were supposed to be the only kinds of people brought to
Golgotha.
1. \\#27\\ So it is that two thieves were brought to this
place.
(a) They had taken things which did not belong to them.
That was against the law. They broke a boundary,
one set by God and agreed to by Rome.
(b) Notice, the Bible did not tell us what they stole or
why they stole it.
(c) Perhaps they had a reason—maybe even a good reason.
(1) Was it food because they were hungry?
(2) Was it a tool to perform a task?
(3) Was it money that they were going to spend on
their family?
(d) There is no mention of what and why they stole
because the law does not concern itself with such
things.
(1) The law just draws the boundaries and punishes
those who step out of it—who transgress it.
(2) Many think that the law will take into
consideration the reasons we transgress. If
they have a good reason for doing so, they
assume the law will be merciful,
BUT THAT IS NOT TRUE.
(3) Those considerations are the discretion of the
Judge—not the law.
(4) If you want your reasons and considerations to
be taken into consideration, you better pray
for a merciful judge!
(5) The law only looks at the boundary and gives
the same punishment to all who transgress it.
(6) Transgressors belong on Golgotha.
2. \\#Luke 23:39-40\\ tells us that one of the thieves also
railed on Christ. That is, he doubted and mocked Jesus.
Luke 23:39 And one of the malefactors which were
hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ,
save thyself and us.
40 But the other answering rebuked him, saying,
Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the
same condemnation?
(a) No doubt, the man did not believe that Jesus was God,
but his ignorance did not excuse the fact that he
blasphemed God.
(b) That too was a violation of the law.
(c) In fact, blasphemy was the main charge the religious
leaders used to hang Jesus on that cross.
(1) They said that Jesus was the blasphemer because
He made Himself to be God.
(2) Interestingly, they were crucifying Jesus for
the very crime that they were committing!
(3) And do it is. Jesus was being crucified for the
sins the people who crucified committed.
3. While we are considering transgressors, we need to
consider another who was headed for the cross that day,
but he did not make it, Barabbas.
Mr 15:7 And there was one named Barabbas, which
lay bound with them that had made insurrection
with him, who had committed murder in the
insurrection.
(a) The Bible says that Barabbas was an insurrectionist
and a murderer.
(1) An insurrectionist is one who wants to overthrow
the government.
(2) Again, that was a crime that Jesus was accused
of.
(3) However, it also says that Barabbas was a
murderer—that is something no one can accuse
Jesus of!
(4) In fact, Jesus came to give life.
(b) It was not merely Roman law that said Barabbas had
done these things. God wrote in the Bible that
Barabbas had done them—so it was true!
(c) Yet Barabbas did not get hung on the cross. A cross
was built for him. It was staked out in on
Golgotha. His name would have been attached to the
top of it, but it never happened.
(d) Why? Because Jesus hung on Barabbas’ cross.
(1) Here is a literal substitution.
(a) The guilty man, Barabbas, was set free and
the innocent Man, Jesus, was crucified.
(b) The insurrectionists was let go and a Man
falsely accused of insurrection was hung
in his place.
(c) This is what the substitution of the cross
is all about.
(2) But there is also a strange irony here.
(a) Barabbas had killed. He had taken human
life; but Jesus came to give life.
(b) In fact, at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion,
He had already raised at least three
people from the dead (maybe there were
others that the Bible did not speak of).
(c) The irony is that the Giver of Life was
killed and the man who took life was let
go.
(d) Yet, by taking the Giver of life’s life, He
gave life to all who would call upon Him.
(e) What an irony!
D. Yes, this place is the place of the transgressors.
III. The place of judgment.
A. That is only logical based on what I have already said.
1. I called it a place of death and a place of the
transgressors.
2. That only makes sense that it is a place of judgment.
3. But I want to make sure you understand that this earthly
hill became on that day, much more than merely a place of
man’s judgment.
4. It was a place of God’s judgment.
B. We like to think of the earthly and spiritual being completely
separate from one another, but they are not.
1. Golgotha was a place of both earthly and heavenly
judgment.
2. Men could see the earthly judgment, but no human eye could
see the heavenly fire that was being poured out upon
Jesus as He hung on that cross.
3. We read of the physical agony that Jesus endured—and it
was great.
a. Isaiah tells us that He was beaten with a cat-of-nine-
tails until He was not recognized.
b. History tells us that spikes were driven into what we
would call His wrists and feet to secure Him to the
cross.
c. Science tells us that His heart worked hard to pump
what little blood remained in His body through
whatever veins and arteries remained in tact.
d. Physicians tell us that He would have struggled to
breathe, pushing His body up and down the wooden
cross until His heart gave out or He smothered to
death.
e. The Bible tells us that this went on for six hours and
then Jesus gave His spirit permission to leave His
body.
4. But what the Bible does not elaborate on is that while man
was punishing Jesus’ body, God was pouring the furry of
hell upon His soul.
a. The price of sin could not be paid with mere physical
punishment.
b. Many were the men and even women who endured the agony
of the cross—although I believe Jesus felt much more
of the pain because His body did not die. Every
nerve, every cell, every muscle, every tendon, every
bone—felt the last blow, the last lash, prick, the
last twitch of pain as the much as the first.
c. But even so, it was not the physical torment that paid
for our sins, it was the spiritual.
d. God poured out our hell upon Jesus, the Christ.
e. For those six hours, Jesus endured the torments of our
eternal damnation—and what they means, I have no
idea.
(1) Did God stop time so that Jesus could endure a
timeless damnation in what seemed like six hours
to those there.
(2) Did God condense an eternity of damnation into
just six hours and pour it all upon Jesus in
that short time frame?
(3) Or was Jesus, because of His holiness and
divinity, able to endure in six hours of
separation from God what would equal or even
exceed an eternity of separation for all of us?
(4) I do not know but I do know that there was more
judgment on that spot of earth than in all of
other spots of earth combined!
IV. The place of a proof.
A. \\#32\\ A challenge was dropped. It was a vain challenge for
even if Jesus had come off the cross, they probably still
would not have believed.
B. Jesus would actually prove that He was the Christ in just
three days—not by coming off the cross but by coming out of
the tomb, but should be next week’s sermon.
C. But Jesus staying on the cross did prove something.
1. It proved how much God loved fallen man and to what
extreme God would go to redeem him.
2. Thus Jesus spoke in John.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.
D. You think what you will about the cross of Jesus Christ, I
know some things to be true.
1. I know that Jesus was God in the flesh.
2. I know that Jesus lived a sinless life.
3. i know that Jesus died a substitutionary death.
4. I know that Jesus did it all because He loved us.
E. Our sign had these words written on it for several weeks.
"Jesus knows me, this I love."
1. Of course, by writing that familiar line that way, it
evoked two great thoughts.
2. Because the way we normally say it is, "Jesus loves me
this I know," it reminded us of God’s great love for us.
3. But the way it was written also reminded us that God
knows us and we ought to love that as well.
Today, as we remember the place where Jesus died, let us remember
God both knows us and loves us. He proved it on the cross.
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