THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST
[p. 457] THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST
Mark 15: 33 - 47; Mark 16: 1 - 20
JT The sufferings of Christ are in mind. What especially is to be noted is the abandonment of the Lord Jesus, which is beyond words to describe by human mouth. There is no passage to be more thought of really, than the one we have read. “And when the sixth hour was come, there came darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour; and at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And some of those who stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calls for Elias. And one, running and filling a sponge with vinegar, fixed it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone, let us see if Elias comes to take him down. And Jesus, having uttered a loud cry, expired. And the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom”. The immensity of the sufferings of Christ are seen here. We should think of it, perhaps, more than we ever have done before, for indeed they cannot be measured in human words. Only a divine Person could fully measure them.
SMcC Would the fact that in the type the day of atonement is linked with the crown of the spiritual year, the seventh month, show that it is intended to have an effect on that side of the position as the saints come to the crown of the spiritual year? The seventh month was the climax of the festive months; the tenth day of the seventh month was the day of atonement. I thought it would show that the saints in the full joy of the climax of the spiritual year are to be affected by the sufferings of Christ from this viewpoint.
JT Exactly. If you follow on to the full thought it is the abandonment. There was no support at all [p. 458] directly from the Father or the Spirit; it is complete abandonment. “Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?”. Notice the interpretation; it is not simply the ordinary language of the human race, but what is especially used in this matter. So, I repeat again this thought of abandonment, that God abandoned His beloved Son. “Some of those who stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calls for Elias”. This is a mistake; it is wrong to say that He called for Elias. How erroneous, with the best of intentions, we may be as to the things of God. It is just as well that we have this before us because it is most important that we should be as accurate as we can be in dealing with the holy things of God.
Ques Would there be any time in the service of God where we would give expression to the sufferings in these verses? It has been said that we should not bring the atoning sufferings into the service.
JT I would repeat what I said this morning, that I would hesitate to say that the sufferings of Christ should not be brought into the service.
Ques Have you in mind that only a divine Person could endure the abandonment and come through it?
JT It was complete abandonment. The Lord Jesus went through it as Man. We are not able to convey what it was, it is only by the Spirit of God that we can consider it properly.
Ques Are these sufferings a testimony to His deity?
JT The Man who suffered was God.
Ques In Hebrews 1 the statement is made “Having made by himself the purification of sins ...” ; there is a note which shows that it is an act which throws back the glory on Himself. His having done it alone would bear on who He was.
JT I think it [p. 459] would.
Ques Would these sufferings be considered as Moses viewed the burning bush? He was told to take his shoes from off his feet for the ground on which he stood was holy.
JT That is quite in keeping.
Ques Do you think that J.N.D.’s poem, Man of Sorrows, refers to absolute abandonment? One of the verses says,
‘O day of mightiest sorrow,
Day of unfathomed grief!
When Thou should’st taste the horror
Of wrath, without relief’. (190:3)
That is the expression of a human person.
JT It is not a divine utterance.
Rem I thought that J.N.D. had expressed it in those words as well as any human being could do it.
JT Quite so; that is, a creature.
Rem But your thought is that we are to be affected by the Lord Himself saying what He did at that particular moment.
JT Quite so.
Ques Do you think that there was deliberate intent on the divine side in the choice of the hour in which the Lord entered upon these holy sufferings? When you were reading the verse it appeared that you emphasised “when the sixth hour was come”; and then again, “at the ninth hour”. The sixth hour would be midday, would it not? At midday it became as midnight.
JT “And when the sixth hour was come, there came darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour”. That is simply a fact, we cannot make more of it than that.
Rem Reference was made to the testimony to His deity. Would there also be the testimony to the greatness of His humanity in One who could say, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”.
JT The word ‘greatness’, of course, is a limited [p. 460] thought. You want to be sure that your word is infinite, equal to infinity.
Rem He could say, “My God, my God”, in a way that no other man could.
JT Quite so; but by ‘man’, you mean, of course, as no other but a divine Person could.
Rem A divine Person in manhood.
JT Quite so.
Rem The beloved apostle Paul, who was to fill out the sufferings, says, in 2 Corinthians 4, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels”. Then he says, “Seeing no apparent issue, but our way not entirely shut up; persecuted, but not abandoned” (verses 8, 9). Paul could speak feelingly, through his experience of the unique position of the Lord Jesus being abandoned.
JT That is quite so, but Paul was not abandoned.
Rem We can hardly say very much about these verses. It is a time for worship, is it not, as this thought is pressed upon our spirits?
JT I think that, fully. We do well to do that, because we can worship, if we are equal to it, at any time. God is ready to help us, too, to do it.
Ques Are we to be impressed with the inscrutability of the Lord’s sufferings?
JT I think so, fully. All these things that we now are thinking of and stressing so much ought to be in our minds so that we can gain by this conversation.
Ques In connection with the sufferings, is there any thought as to the cry being in a loud voice?
JT That is to give emphasis to it. The Lord was entitled to do that; He is a divine Person.
Ques Would that loud voice be the extremity of anguish?
JT It may be, but there is more than that.
Ques How is it that such an infinitely sublime matter comes into psalm form in Psalm 22?
JT The Spirit of God is really the author of the Psalms. The Spirit of God is saying it.
[p. 461] Ques Would you say that crying with a loud voice in dying would show that He had power that death could have no abiding dominion over Him?
JT Just so.
Ques Since Mark is the servant’s gospel, is it vital that servants should be clear and accurate in the matter of the sufferings of Christ?
JT That is exactly what I have in mind. Mark is very accurate and more explanatory in certain details than any of the other gospels, as far as I can see.
Ques Would the answer to this question, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” be seen in 2 Corinthians 5, “Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us”?
JT It is indeed. In dealing with these scriptures, we are urged now to be accurate; the Spirit of God is urging us to be accurate.
Ques When it is said, in Hebrews 9, that He offered Himself by the eternal Spirit, would that perhaps have a limited sense, up to this point, before the abandonment?
JT I would not use the word ‘limited’. I would be afraid of that.
Ques Would the Lord offering Himself by the eternal Spirit unto God be prior to this complete abandonment by God?
JT I am afraid to make those distinctions. You may be quite right, in a general way, and we would just be thankful for it, in that sense. But I would be careful.
Ques Would you say that the answer to this profound question, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” may be found in verse 3 of Psalm 22, “Thou art holy, thou that dwellest amid the praises of Israel”?
JT Quite so.
Ques Isaiah 53 reads, “He was taken from oppression and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he stricken”. Does the cutting off mean more than having died?
JT I would think, by comparison, that the allusion is to His death.
Ques What did you have in mind when you referred to “Behold, he calls for Elias”? Then it says, “Let alone, let us see if Elias comes to take him down”. You referred to that as inaccuracy.
JT “And some of those who stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calls for Elias. And one, running and filling a sponge with vinegar, fixed it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone, let us see if Elias comes to take him down”. The answer is that it was a mistake; it was an error to speak that way.
Ques Have you in mind that in our holy and accurate and reverential contemplation of the sufferings of Christ we should all take root downward in view of bearing fruit upward in the contemplation of His glory which follows?
JT Exactly.
Ques Is the centurion brought in at this juncture as an accurate man? He says, “Truly this man was Son of God”.
JT It seems so, but that is about all you can say.
Ques In the next chapter there is hardness of heart and lack of faith in those who were nominally believers. Is that the extension of the mistakes and error?
JT All I would enlarge on in the last chapter is this tendency to unbelief. Let us read from verse 9 “Now when he had risen very early, the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary of Magdala, out of whom he had cast seven demons. She went and brought word to those that had been with him, who were grieving and weeping. And when these- heard [p. 463] that he was alive and had been seen of her, they disbelieved it. And after these things he was manifested in another form to two of them as they walked, going into the country; and they went and brought word to the rest; neither did they believe them”. Let us be ashamed of ourselves with the unbelieving hearts we have: “Afterwards as they lay at table he was manifested to the eleven, and reproached them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen him risen”. In other words, they do not believe the brethren. We constantly find that brethren do not believe each other. We ought to be truthful and transparent in all our conduct and conversation.