Mark 15 Part 2: Who Is Yeshua?

Yeshua is the Most Important Man Who Ever Lived. The Most Important Man brought the world the Most Important Message, a message that must be believed for human beings, who are alienated from God and headed to Hell, not Heaven, to death, not life, to be reconciled to their Creator and live forever. And being reconciled to our Creator is our greatest need.

Everything Messiah did, everything He said, every interaction with others that has been recorded for us in the divinely inspired book of Mark, is extremely important. We want to understand as much as we can about the Most Important Man and His Most Important Message. We want to line up our thoughts and lives with the Most Important Man and His Most Important Message. We want to tell as many people as we can about this Most Important Man and His Most Important Message.

We’re getting close to the end of Messiah’s most amazing life and most amazing ministry. Everything is intensifying. Everything is building to a fantastic climax resulting in some of the most important events in history.

It’s still the first day of Passover. After having observed His last Seder; eaten His last meal; drank His last wine; gave the bread and the wine new meaning about Himself and His greater redemption; after having prayed in the garden and been disappointed by His disciples, betrayed by one of His disciples and abandoned by the rest; after having been arrested by sinners doing something wrong – Yeshua was tried before the Jewish leaders and condemned to death for speaking the truth – that He is the Messiah and the Son of God. Then, after being beaten and humiliated by the Jewish leaders and turned over to the Roman governor and accused of being the king of the Jews; after being tried by Pilate, who knew Yeshua was innocent of rebelling against Rome; after being rejected by a crowd stirred up by the high priests, the Roman governor sentenced Yeshua to death. Then Yeshua was given a torturous whipping, and was beaten and humiliated by a company of Roman soldiers.

Yeshua is then forced by the soldiers to carry His cross to the place of execution. But, something very important happens along the way. A certain man from Cyrene (a city in North Africa which had a Jewish community), Simon (who is almost certainly Jewish, not African), the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. The cross was heavy and Yeshua had been weaken by the whipping and beatings, so the Romans forced Simon to help the Son of God carry His cross in His time of suffering. What an very special honor! To help the Son of God as He is in the process of bringing salvation to the world. The Holy Spirit is telling us that each one of us needs to be a Simon of Cyrene!

The Son of God is still in the process of bringing salvation to the world and He wants our help. When we sacrificially proclaim the Good News to a God-rejecting world; when we give ourselves sacrificially to build up Messiah’s Community, we help Him carry His cross. Helping Him won’t be easy. It won’t be without pain, but it will be tremendously beneficial and a great honor. Yeshua needs more Simons of Cyrene!

They brought Yeshua to the place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). Then they offered Him wine mixed with myrrh (the myrrh made the wine bitter. This was another way the Romans mocked Yeshua and added to His sufferings), but He did not take it. And they crucified Him (one of the cruelest ways to kill someone. Fallen human beings can be very cruel). They humiliate Him even more by removing His clothes and then gambled for them. Dividing up His clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.

The King of Glory is stripped naked and shamed – for us.

The Heir Of All Things loses His last possessions – for us.

The One who clothes us with righteousness is stripped of His clothes – for us.

Who is Yeshua? The One who fulfills the amazing prophecies of Psalm 22. My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from saving Me, so far from My cries of anguish? … Trouble is near and there is no one to help.

Many bulls surround Me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle Me. Roaring lions that tear their prey open their mouths wide against Me. I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within Me. My mouth is dried up like a broken piece of pottery and My tongue sticks to the roof of My mouth; You lay Me in the dust of death. Dogs surround Me, a pack of villains encircles Me; they pierce My hands and My feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over Me. They divide My clothes among them and cast lots for My garment.

The crucifixion is a real, historical event. Mark gives us the time it began on this Passover. It was nine in the morning when they crucified Him. The written notice of the charge against Him read: the king of the Jews. The crime that the Roman empire found Yeshua guilty of? Being the king of the Chosen People. Throughout history, the god of this world and most of the people of this world have hated the Jews and the king of the Jews. And they still do. But God wants the world to end their rejection of the king of the Jews and their hatred of the Jewish people – and the world will, one day.

Who is Yeshua? The king of the Jews who will one day rule Israel and the nations. And if you are wise, you will end your rebellion against Him and your rejection of Him before that happens. And, you had better stop disliking and mistreating His relatives. The king of the Jews is loyal to His relatives and will punish those who harm them.

Yeshua was not the only one crucified that Passover. They crucified two rebels with Him, one on His right and one on His left.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who, even in His death, is with fallen humanity, in the center of fallen humanity, identifying with fallen humanity so He can save fallen humanity.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who died between rebels so we could be forgiven for our great rebellion against God.

The Jewish leaders had beaten and mocked Yeshua. The Roman soldiers had whipped, beaten and mocked Yeshua. The mocking continues while Yeshua is suffering on the cross. Those who passed by hurled insults at Him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save Yourself!” They were mocking Yeshua for claiming to be able to do something powerful yet being unable to save Himself.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who is powerful and who could have come down from the cross and saved Himself, but resisted that temptation and chose not to save Himself – in order to save us.

The Jewish leaders had Yeshua arrested, put Him on trial, condemned Him to death, beat and mocked Him and arranged for the Romans to kill Him. Their humiliation of Him was not over. In the same way the chief priests and the Torah teachers mocked Him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but He can’t save Himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” And He could have come down from the cross, but He resisted that temptation – in order to save us.

And a day is coming when those very same men will see Yeshua off of the cross, and on that day they will know He is the Messiah and the Son of the Blessed One and their judge – but then it will be too late for them – if they didn’t change their minds and believe in Him before they left this world – which some of the leaders of Israel did.

One might think that those being crucified with Yeshua might express sympathy for one suffering with them. That didn’t happen – at least at this point. Those crucified with Him also heaped insults on Him.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who was despised and rejected by the people of Israel and by the people of the world, and even by those being crucified with Him – all in order to save us.

The One who fulfills the amazing prophecy of Isaiah 53: He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem. Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted.

For three hours Yeshua endured insults, shame and horrific pain. When the sun was at it’s height, something amazing happened. At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.

Who is Yeshua? Yeshua is Someone who is surrounded by darkness while taking upon Himself the dark sins of the world.

The light of the world. Someone who is more glorious than the mighty sun, who made the sun, and before whom the mighty sun dimmed its light

Three more hours passed. And at three in the afternoon Yeshua cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”).

Who is Yeshua? Someone who is quoting Psalm 22, and pointing us to Psalm 22, while He is fulfilling Psalm 22.

Yeshua is Someone who is quoting the beginning of Psalm 22: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me – which seems to express a lack of faith, complaining that God has abandoned Him; but by the end of the psalm, the one feeling abandoned by God is seen to be a person who does not lack faith but has great faith. Like the one described in Psalm 22, Yeshua feels abandoned by God but is trusting God in the midst of great suffering and knows He will be vindicated by the God who only seems to have forsaken Him.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who became the ultimate sacrifice to atone for our sins, the ultimate Passover Lamb who takes way the sin of the world. Yeshua is Someone whom God the Father, who is infinitely holy, abandoned – but only for a time, while Messiah was taking upon Himself the sins of the world.

Who is Yeshua? The Sin-bearer. The Atonement Maker. The One who fulfills the amazing prophecy of Isaiah 53: He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed … We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all … by His knowledge My righteous servant will make many righteous, and He will bear their iniquities … He poured out His life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

When some of those standing near heard this (Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani – My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?), they said, “Listen, He’s calling Elijah.” But Yeshua wasn’t calling for Elijah. These people misunderstood the words of Yeshua – as so many have and still do because they don’t know Him and are not in touch with Him they way they should be and so are unable to hear what He is really saying. Make sure you are not one of them.

Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Yeshua to drink. “Now leave Him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take Him down,” he said. This man’s offer of cheap, sour wine was probably meant to be a taunting gesture, to prolong the life and agony of Yeshua, long enough to provide more time for Elijah to come and rescue Him – which he and the other onlookers doubted would happen.

With a loud cry (maybe a cry of agony, but definitely not a cry of fear or despair; perhaps a cry of victory knowing He accomplished His great mission of redemption, and knowing that He would be soon resurrected), Yeshua breathed His last. The One who breathed life into the first man, breathed His last breathe. The One in whom is the breathe of life, took His last breath – having lived the most amazing life ever lived and having accomplished the most amazing task of providing salvation for fallen humanity. The One who, by means of breathing His last, will breathe new life, eternal life into God’s chosen ones.

Mark informs us about a very significant event that took place the same time Yeshua died. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. There are strong connections between Yeshua and the temple. The temple was the most important place on Earth. It was where God revealed His presence on Earth in the most special way. It was the place where the principles of sacrifice and atonement were most clearly seen. The curtain, which separated the holy place, where only the priests were allowed to enter, from the Most Holy Place, where God manifested His presence on Earth in the greatest way, and in which only the high priest could enter, was torn in two – revealing that the barrier preventing access to the presence of an infinitely holy God had been removed. God was now allowing all of humanity access to His presence – but only if they come to Him through the One who died the same time the veil was torn – through Yeshua.

Who is Yeshua? The One who makes possible a new and better and eternal access to God – when we know who He is, and that He died to make atonement for us and is alive now, and we transfer our loyalties to Him.

Mark also informs us about a significant statement made by a Roman officer who was there. And when the centurion (an officer in charge of 100 soldiers), who stood there in front of Yeshua, saw how He died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

This Roman officer witnessed the whipping, beating, mocking, spitting and crucifixion. He heard the insults of the people at the cross. He saw Yeshua suffer with courage and with grace. He saw the eclipse of the sun. He heard Yeshua’s last cry. The centurion was powerfully affected by Yeshua – whom he declares to be the Son of God, probably his way of saying Yeshua was some sort of divine being.

And the centurion was right – righter than he knew when he made that statement. Yeshua is the Son of God, but the one and only Son of God who uniquely shares the divine nature of His Father.

Who is Yeshua? Someone whose amazing story will reach the Romans, impress the Romans, even the officers and nobility and eventually change the history of the mighty Roman empire, the greatest empire the world had ever seen.

Almost of the action has been done by men. Mark lets us know that women were participants in some of these great events involving the life and the death and resurrection of the Son of God. Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed Him and cared for His needs. Many other women who had come up with Him to Jerusalem were also there. Thank God for women who are loyal to God and loyal to men who follow God; who are able to be there and help and support and encourage and care – sometimes when men can’t.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who created women and likes women and welcomes the ministry of women.

It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council (it’s good to know that not all the Jewish leaders rejected Yeshua. There was a remnant who were loyal to the miracle working Rabbi), who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Yeshua’ body. Pilate was surprised to hear that He was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Yeshua had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where He was laid.

Yeshua truly died – crucified between two rebels. And Yeshua was truly buried – in a rich man’s tomb.

Who is Yeshua? The One who fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah 53: He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.

So, who is Yeshua according to this part of the 15th chapter of this divinely inspired book of Mark?

Someone who is looking for more Simons of Cyrene, who will sacrificially proclaim the Good News to a God-rejecting world; and gives themselves sacrificially to build up Messiah’s Community.

The Heir Of All Things who loses His last possessions – for us.

The King of Glory who is stripped naked and shamed – for us.

The king of the Jews who will one day rule Israel and the nations.

Someone who, even in His death, is with fallen humanity, in the center of fallen humanity, identifying with fallen humanity so He can save fallen humanity.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who died between rebels so we could be forgiven for our rebellion against God.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who could have come down from the crossed and saved Himself, but repeatedly resisted this temptation and chose not to save Himself – in order to save us.

The king of glory who was mocked by Jewish leaders, Roman soldiers, some near the cross and even the two being crucified with Him.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who was despised and rejected by the people of Israel and by the people of the world – in order to save us.

Who is Yeshua? The light of the world. Someone who is more glorious than the mighty sun, and who made the sun, and before whom the mighty sun dimmed its light.

Someone who is surrounded by darkness while taking upon Himself the dark sins of the world.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who became the ultimate sacrifice in order to atone for our sins. Someone whom God the Father, who is infinitely holy, abandoned – for a time, while Messiah was taking upon Himself the sins of the world.

Someone who breathed life into the first man, and who, by breathing His last breathe on the cross, is able to breathe new life into God’s chosen ones.

Who is Yeshua? The One who makes possible a new and better and eternal access to God – when we know who He is, and that He died to make atonement for us and is alive now, and we transfer our loyalties to Him.

Someone who impressed the Roman centurion, so much so that the officer proclaimed Him to be the Son of God.

Someone whose story will reach the Romans, impress the Romans and eventually change the history of the mighty Roman empire.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who created women and likes women and welcomes the ministry of women.

The One who fulfills the amazing prophecies of Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53.

Yeshua is amazing. He is the Most Important Man Who Ever Lived. The Most Important Man brought the world the Most Important Message.

May God enable Yeshua to be all these things to us and may we respond faithfully to all that He is and become all that we should be. Amayn? Amayn!