Princeton Presbyterian Church

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1707

November 9, 2025

Mark 15.33-47            Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)

 

“...Was Crucified, Died, and Was Buried”

 

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

 

• Psalm 22

 

If you have not been with us the last two Sundays, it may seem odd that we are reading and hearing from Mark 15 and the passion of the Christ. We have been working through this gospel for some time and it has worked out that we are coming to the conclusion of this gospel in November. But, as I have said before, there is never a bad or wrong time to read about Jesus’ suffering and death. He died so that we might live. He suffered for us and shed His blood for the forgiveness of sins and victory over sin and death.

As we pick up the story today, we are at the cross. Jesus was hanging on that cross. Just a few moments before He breathed His last He quotes from Psalm 22. But let’s pause for a second to talk about crucifixion. It was one of the worst ways someone could die and under Roman rule the procedure was to flog the person and they used a whip with sharp pieces of stone or maybe broken pottery which would tear the flesh apart. This alone would nearly kill someone. Once brought to the place of crucifixion, the person was nailed by hands and feet to the wooden cross. Most died by suffocation, a long and slow death. They would become unable to hold their body up and the lungs would be pressed down causing the person unable to breath. This is why the soldiers would sometimes break the legs of the crucified so that they could not push themselves up to breath, thus speeding up their death. It is hard to imagine the physical pain Jesus endured and He also endured a great deal of emotional pain as He was abandoned by His disciples, mocked by the soldiers, and faced a crowd of people who called for His crucifixion.

At three o’clock in the afternoon, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Again, difficult to imagine the loneliness Jesus experienced on the cross; the emotional pain may have been greater than the physical torture. The weight of His body crushing his lungs and the weight of the world upon His heart finally ends as Jesus breathes His last breath. He cried out a passage from the Old Testament, Psalm 22.1. That Psalm laments God’s absence in the first two verses, but in verse three through five we read, “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.”

Psalm 22 also includes similar language from the scene at the cross, “...scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him...they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots” (22.6b-8, 18)!

Then the Psalm casts a confession of faith, “Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother's breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God” (22.9-10).

 

Yes, Jesus quoted an expression of lament in the midst of the horrors He endured, but He also had in mind a Psalm of praise and expression of faithfulness. In essence, “I’m going through all this torture and anguish, and yet You, O God, have delivered and will deliver again.” This is why I wanted to begin our worship today in Psalm 22 as our silent time of reflection, for Christ quoted a Psalm that is both a lament and praise, struggle and hope.
 

You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.”

 

• Gentile Confession

 

In Mark 15.39 we see the confession of one of the soldiers. The centurion, who stood before the cross and heard Jesus cry out and breathe His last breath, made a confession of faith - And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” I think this is one of the many astonishing things that occurred at the cross. First of all, what would a Roman centurion know about the Son of God? Had he heard something about Jesus before hand? Had he heard Jesus preach or seen a healing or witnessed something that would have finally convince him of who Jesus was? We can only speculate. But the proclamation is included in Mark’s account.

Secondly, there was and is something about the cross that draws people to Jesus. For the centurion, it was how Jesus died. Jesus died rather quickly compared to most people crucified. It took a long time to suffocate on a cross. But Jesus breathed His last in such a way that must have looked extremely different, and we know that is true. They did not take His life, but He gave His life. Even in how Jesus died, He gave witness to who He was.

Third, it speaks to the general understanding that Jesus was called to Israel but also to the Gentiles, to those who were not of the Jewish faith. Jesus died for all whom He has called. He did not just come to save Jews, but all peoples of the earth.

 

 

 

 

• Jewish Belief

 

Along with the Gentile/centurion confession, we have one particular Jewish leader who steps up in an act of faith. Joseph shows us that not all Jewish leadership rejected Jesus. It is said of Joseph that he was respected in the council and that, more importantly, he was looking for the kingdom of God. Then we read of his courage as he “went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died.” Clearly Jesus’ early death on the cross was a surprise to everyone, even Pilate. “And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph.” Was this the same centurion who just professed Christ as the Son of God? I would imagine so as he would have been the one before the cross verifying Jesus’ death. “And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.”

We know that Joseph was not the only religious leader to show faith and belief in Jesus as the Messiah, Nicodemus, who met with Jesus in John 3, is also noted in John 7 as standing up for Jesus before the council, “Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?”They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” Later in John’s gospel, chapter 19, Nicodemus is mentioned again supplying the materials needed for Jesus’ body,

“ Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight.”

Two respected and powerful leaders in the religious establishment showing faith in Jesus. We tend to look upon all religious leaders of Jesus’ day as opposed to Jesus, but these two, and if two there were probably more, offer us a glimpse of hope for those leaders.

 

• Was Crucified, Died, and Was Buried

 

Jesus is taken down and buried in a borrowed shroud and a borrowed tomb. Our confession today, the Apostles’ Creed, testifies that Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried (and descended to the dead). We affirm Him both the Son of God and the Son of Man. We acknowledge His humanity, His bodily form, and He hung on a cross, nails driven into his hands and feet, a crown of thorns on His head, stabbed in the side with a spear, and He breathed his last. This is the Son of God, crucified, died, buried. To further confirm his dying, he was buried in a tomb. In essence the story and the creeds of the Church affirm three times that Jesus is dead – crucified, dead, and buried.

This death, as we will see next Sunday, is not the final word. There is more to come and the Bible testifies many times to the significance of the cross. Paul in particular, but others as well, tell of this significance.

 

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3.21-26)

 

Notice the phrase in verse 22, “for all who believe”. For Jew, for Jewish leaders, for Gentile, for Roman centurions, for male and female, young and old...for all who believe. We are all in the same boat, all have sinned and fall short. It is only through the cross that we have been saved and set right with God. We have been reconciled through the death of Christ (Romans 5.10).

 

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).

 

Our tendency, from the triumphal entry in Jerusalem through the passion of the Christ, is to jump quickly to the good news of resurrection and Easter Sunday. And yet, this suffering and death that Jesus endured was done for us. We cannot and should not gloss over it too quickly for the sake of Easter. In fact, to reflect on this portion of the gospels is to make Easter morning all the more spectacular and astonishing. Is it not amazing that the cross, a painful reminder of what Jesus went through for us, is seen today as a beautiful expression of God’s love? We look to the cross with thanksgiving. We look to the cross seeing the ugly physical affliction Jesus endured, but we look to the empty cross seeing the meaning behind what Jesus did for us and the cross becomes a beautiful reminder of God’s love for us and Christ’s obedience to endure this pain and suffering.

 

Crystal Lewis sings a song entitled “The Beauty of the Cross.” The refrain includes these words,

 

The cross, stained by blood
The beauty of the cross
Healing for the lost

Healing for the lost, redemption for the lost, love of God expressed, it is all there in both its stain and beauty. The beauty of the cross is in what Jesus did for each one of us. The cross is painful to behold when Jesus still hangs there, but the beauty of the cross comes alive when we see what Jesus has done and when we see the empty cross, for He is risen! We too can look to the cross and come away with the confession, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” Even better, “Truly this man is the Son of God!” Contemplate today His suffering and death and all that it means for our life and life eternal! Amen.