1 Jesus Death “I Gave My Back to Those Who Strike, and My Cheeks to Those Who Pluck out the Beard; I Did Not Cover My Face Fr
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Jesus Death “I gave My back to those who strike, and My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting.” (Isa. 50:6). Prequel: Psalm 22 Lament psalms are composed with generic language appropriate for any who find themselves in a similar situation so that they might use the patterned prayer to make their request to God.1 David composed Psalm 22 as a lament psalm and thus a passionate cry for God’s help in a difficult situation. We don’t know what the situation was out of which he cried these words, but many have found that the psalm describes events that Jesus could have verbalized surrounding His death. The most compelling connection to the psalm is John’s mention in John 19:24 that fulfills the quote from Psalm 22:18 “They divided My outer garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.” Such a Davidic pattern is filled out by Jesus’ situation rather fully. The author of Hebrews even has Jesus own praise from Psalm 22:22 to identify us as His brethren (Heb. 2:12). Other points are sometimes made (the verbal abuse, the exposure, the finishing of the event) but none of the gospels explicitly state that other things from this psalm are fulfilled in J esus’ death. So I include Psalm 22 here as a prequel from David’s life to show some of the level at which Jesus also suffered. For the choir director in the tune of “The Hind of the Morning.” A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. O my God, I cry by day, but Thou dost not answer; And by night, but I have no rest. Yet Thou art holy, O Thou who art enthroned upon the praises of Israel. In Thee our fathers trusted; They trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. To Thee they cried out, and were delivered; In Thee they trusted, and were not disappointed. But I am a worm, and not a man, A reproach of men, and despised by the people. All who see me sneer at me; They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying , Commit thyself to the Lord; let Him deliver him; Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him. 1 Bernard Anderson, Out of the Depths: The Psalms Speak for Us Today (Philadelphia:Westminster, 1983), p. 83 and 1970 edition, p. 59; Claus Westermann, The Psalms: Structure, Content & Message (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1980), pp. 63–64. 1 Yet Thou art He who didst bring me forth from the womb; Thou didst make me trust upon my mother’s breasts. Upon Thee I was cast from birth Thou hast been my God from my mother’s womb. Be not far from me, for trouble is near; For there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They open wide their mouth at me, As a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; it is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my tongue cleaves to my jaws; And Thou dost lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me; They pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my all my bones. They look, they stare at me; They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots. But Thou, O Lord be not far off; O Thou my help, hasten to my assistance. Deliver my soul from the sword, My only life from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion’s mouth; And from the horns of the wild oxen Thou dost answer me. I will tell of Thy name to my brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise Thee. You who fear the Lord, praise Him; All you descendents of Jacob, glorify Him; And stand in awe of Him, all you descendants of Israel. For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Neither has He hid His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard. From Thee comes my praise in the great assembly; I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever! All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, And all the families of the nations will worship before Thee. 2 For the Kingdom is the Lord’s, And He rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship, All those who go down to the dust will bow before Him, Even he who cannot keep his soul alive. Posterity will serve Him; It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They will come and will declare His righteousness To a people who will be born, that He has performed it. Jesus Death as Presented by the Synoptics When an evangelical considers the death of Jesus Christ it is often viewed as vicarious atonement for the believer’s salvation. This understanding is foreign to the synoptics.2 For example, when an interpreter uses Jesus’ words like “the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Lk. 19:10) as referring to the effectiveness of Jesus atonement, the interpreter ignores the contextual meaning of this text. These words do not come in a context of Jesus death, but rather Jesus present earthly ministry to forgive sin.3 That is, they show that Jesus is committed to include among His disciples unto Kingdom, even the unattractive, like a short tax collector named Zaccheus. The synoptic treatment of Jesus death is almost entirely just a straightforward historical narrative. This means that the story of Jesus death is valued on its own merits, without rendering it into a forum of apologetics or a fountain of theological significance. That is, the synoptic death narrative is not repeatedly punctuated by statements of fulfilling Scripture, or miracle, or Spirit fostered prophecy or explanation of a deeper meaning, as in the birth narratives. Therefore, John’s passion narrative, which is punctuated by specifically fulfilling Scripture texts has this additional evidential emphasis not developed by the synoptics (Jn. 18:32; 19:24, 28, 36). It is as though this section of the synoptic gospels has joined Luke’s emphasis in recounting an exact account of what the eye witnesses said occurred (Lk. 1:1–4). The other comments about Jesus death and resurrection are rare in the synoptics but tend to fit into two other basic categories: 1) prediction that Jesus would suffer, die and resurrect, and 2) statements about a cup. This chapter examines these three developments of Jesus death in the synoptics, namely: predicted, cup statements, and the historical story. Jesus Death in Prediction Jesus predicts His death and resurrection as historical events. For example, Jesus predicts that He must suffer many things from the elders, chief priests and scribes, and be condemned to death (Mt. 16:21; 17:12, 22–23; 20:18; Mk. 8:31; 9:12, 31; Lk. 9:22, 44; 17:25; 18:31; 22:22). In the synoptics, Jesus does not explain why this must happen; He just said it must take place. These wicked religious leaders were simply following in the 2 Marvin Pate and Douglas Kennard, Deliverance Now and Not Yet: The New Testament and the Great Tribulation (New York: Peter Lang, 2003) , pp. 316–325, 413–421, 461–467. 3 E.g., Darrel Bock, Luke (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), vol. 2, p. 1523. 3 foolish way to kill the righteous man who showed up their evil ways. 4 Jesus predicts that His death would be by crucifixion and that He would resurrect on the third day (Mt. 16:21; 17:9, 23; 20:19; Mk. 9:31; Lk. 9:22). At times the disciples did not understand what Jesus was saying (e.g., Lk. 9:44). Jesus sets his resolve like flint to suffer (Isa. 50:6–7) because He realized that the Kingdom is only obtainable by going through the Messianic woes (Dan. 9:24–27). It is these Messianic woes that begin His martyrdom and the potential martyrdom of His disciples. Albert Schweitzer developed this briefly as follows: In order to understand Jesus’ resolve to suffer, we must first recognize that the mystery of this suffering is involved in the mystery of the kingdom of god, since the kingdom cannot come until the [tribulation] peirasmos has taken place…The novelty lies in the form in which [the sufferings] are conceived. The tribulation, so far as Jesus is concerned, is now connected with an historical event: He will go to Jerusalem, there to suffer death at the hands of the authorities…In the secret of His passion which Jesus reveals to the disciples at Caesarea Philippi the pre- Messianic tribulation is…concentrated upon Himself alone, and that in the form that they are fulfilled in His own passion and death at Jerusalem. That was the new conviction that had dawned upon Him. He must suffer for others…that the Kingdom might come. 5 These predictions of Jesus’ crucifixion, provide a call to the cost of discipleship and reassurance that the death and resurrection were God’s plan.