Mark 15:22-32 - He Saved Others

This is part 2 of the crucifixion narrative. Here’s how I introduced this sermon:

“If we were to approach the gospel of Mark as a skeptic, we might smirk at how hard Mark tries to paint his crucifixion story in a way as to make us believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of what was written in the Psalms and Isaiah and Zechariah. We might say that he isn’t giving a true account, he is purposefully molding the details to be in conformity with what was written in those places in order to spin this tragic misstep of Jesus (getting himself crucified) into something that was planned all along. 

And in this age of spin, where news is opinion, and where information is so hidden within the mounds and mounds of misinformation that it becomes hard to separate truth from propaganda, we might be tempted to dismiss what Mark writes on this basis. After all, it does look as if Mark is on purpose telling his story in such a way as to lead us to conclude that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that he is the fulfillment of all that the prophets had spoken. Is Mark just spinning? Or is he accurately reporting? And the answer is ‘both.’ Mark obviously has an agenda. He announced it in the very first line of his gospel. But what if his agenda is true? What if what he is telling is both true to the historical accounts and at the same time the fulfillment of what was written in the prophets?

Something that lends credibility to Mark is the fact that the idea of a suffering Messiah was so foreign to the Jewish conception of the time. It was nowhere to be found, either in the popular thinking of the day or in the rabbinical tradition. So this twist, then, this idea of a suffering Messiah is something that blindsides them. It comes out of nowhere.

But not exactly nowhere, because it is to be found in the Psalms and Isaiah and Zechariah. It was there all along, it was just ignored or missed by the students of those Scriptures in that day. But Mark feels justified to point it out, and if it were there all along, as it was, and if it were being ignored, as it so clearly was, then who can blame Mark for recording those events of the crucifixion in such a way as to highlight their correlation with what had been written in the prophets? Wouldn’t you and I have done the same? While bias is always grounds for suspicion, bias by itself is never sufficient grounds for the rejection of a truth claim.

And here is the Christian truth claim. Here is the gospel as defined by Paul some ten to fifteen years before Mark wrote. 

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,—1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (emphasis mine)

This is the Christian gospel—that the death of Christ was the plan all along and that it happened exactly according to the eternal decree of God as revealed by the prophets. Jesus was not the victim of circumstances beyond his control. Jesus is the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.”

To listen to this sermon just click the link below. It will take you to the page on SoundCloud where the audio recording is located. You can stream it there or download it for later. God bless.


Click here: Mark 15:22-32 - He Saved Others


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