March 20: Jesus our sacrifice

Wiley Richards is a retired professor of theology and philosophy at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.

We have come to use the word “sacrifice” in such ways as to empty the word of all religious connections. Some speak of the loss of life at the Twin Towers or those who die in the war against terrorists as a sacrifice. In New Testament Palestine, the people understood the concept because a lamb was sacrificed morning and night on the altar in the temple courtyard. We use the word that way in speaking of Jesus, our sacrifice.

• To anyone watching the crucifixion of Jesus, He suffered (John 19:28-29). John’s account lists four of the final sayings of Jesus on the cross. Of particular interest for our study is the saying in Mark 15:34, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The words express the moment when He bore our sins by being forsaken by God the Father. In the words of 1 Peter 2:24, He bore “our sins in his own body on the tree.”

His cry, “I thirst” comes from His human need for water as much as for His suffering the pangs of torment. A dying body cries out for water. He thus suffered spiritually and physically for us.

• Our Lord also died (vv. 30-34). The other three Gospels say “Jesus cried with a loud voice” before He died (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34; Luke 23:46). John tells us what He said. In the Greek language it was one word: “Finished!” All the promises from Genesis 3:15 to the cross were fulfilled. The indebtedness for every sin was paid in full, nailed to His cross. To certify His death, the soldiers took two precautions. First, they customarily broke the legs of a crucified person when the need arose to hasten death. Once the legs were broken, the hapless person suffocated, unable to push against the nailed feet to allow to lungs to expand. In the case of Jesus, they realized He was already dead, not necessitating the broken legs. Second, a soldier pierced His side with a sword as a final gesture of contempt.

The certainty of His death curtailed an issue to be raised by skeptics in years to come. Some argued He only swooned on the cross until His disciples could retrieve Him from the cross. As the Roman soldiers affirmed, He died.

• Jesus not only died, but He was observed (vv. 35-37). He was on the cross long enough that witnesses, including the writer of John’s Gospel, vouched for the fact that Jesus, and not some other unlucky victim, was on the cross. On a deeper level, the scrutiny of Jesus by the onlookers fulfilled the prophecy of Zecharia 12:10, a prophecy which also foretells the time when the house of David, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, shall see the crucified Messiah in a new light of understanding. Many scholars believe this event will take place in conjunction with the second coming of Christ.

• We close this study with the mysterious, but certain, teaching, that Jesus is now enthroned (Heb. 9:22-26). The word “enthroned” does not appear in the Hebrews passage, but it catches the majestic mood described there. The Bible pictures a heavenly scene which somehow parallels the earthly tabernacle (v. 21), where blood was shed in sacrificial offerings. Jesus died on earth, but He also presented Himself in the presence of God (v. 24), but why? The Bible says the “copies of the things in the heavens” had to be purified (HCSB). The heavenly sanctuary did not need purifying in the earthly sense, but it was necessary for Christ, in His humanity, to appear as a perpetual representation of His sacrifice before the presence of God the Father. He has now appeared once before the Father, an act never again to be repeated (v. 26).