May, 1942
THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NE S S
178
On a Hill Called Calvary M ark 15:33, 34; L uke 23:33-46 MEMORY VERSE: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only be gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). APPROACH: Mary had been reading a story. It was so interesting that she hardly could wait for the end. But as she n e a r e d the Close, suddenly, she threw the b o o k down and cried, “Oh, I- didn’t want it to end like that! I didn’t want the hero to die.” Her mother said, “Finish it, dear, finish it; the last chapter is a happy one.” LESSON STORY: Today we come t o . a very sad chapter in God’s great true story of the Lord Jesus. Our wonder ful Hero, who had walked this earth bringing life and light and peace and joy to all who were in need, was one day led up Calvary’s mountain. There they nailed Him to a cruel cross. On either side were other crosses on which two thieves were nailed. Think of our Saviour being put to death be tween two thieves! But He didn’t shun His evil companions; i n s t e a d He turned and preached to them, and one thief believed on Him. Nobody but the Lord Jesus would be thinking of a dying thief instead of His own agony. It makes us sad to think of the thorns on His dear head, and the nails in His dear hands and feet. It breaks our hearts when we remember His suffering. We want to cry like Mary, “Oh, I didn’t want it to end like that; I didn’t want Him to die!” But wait a minute—this is not all. The last chapter is a happy one. He died that we might live, and then He lived again! He was punished for our sin that we might be free from sin. It was love that nailed Him to the cross. Close your eyes a moment and think of Him hanging there for you. Now can you sing these words? “ I’ll live for Him who died for me; How happy then my s " il shall be! I’ll live for Him who Td for me, My Saviour and my God.” Object Lesson D oors and D estinies OBJECTS: A capital “H,” and a pair of scissors. (Make the “H” by using a piece of paper 8%x21% inches. Fold in the middle Making the size 8%x 10% inches. Fold again to 8%x5% inches. Place another paper 8% x 5% inches on top of the folded paper. With the double fold to the left, the single fold on top at the right, and the whole still' covered by the smaller piece of paper, cut for 5 inches
for any sinner who would come In the God-appointed way (cf. Heb. 10:19-22). “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” These words express the calmness and assurance with which our Lord entered into death. His spirit was fully assured that what had been written of Him would all be fulfilled, and that He would rise from among the dead (cf. Psa. 16:9-11). There was no doubt in His mind; there was no darkness in His spirit. With perfect self-possession He yielded Himself to death, knowing that His sacrifice would be acceptable and His substi tutionary work; accomplished. Points and Problems 1. "And when the sixth hour was come" (Mk. 15:33). Both Matthew and Luke agree with Mark that the period of darkness extended from the sixth to the ninth hour (Matt. 27:45; Lk. 23:44). During this time our Lord was hanging on the cross. But John’s Gos pel sets the “Sixth hour” as the time when the Lord was delivered by Pilate to the Jews (John 19:14). The solution of this seeming contradiction is now well known. The first thyee Gospel writers use the Jewish metliod of com puting the hours. After the exile the Jews divided the night into twelve hours, and likewise the day. Thus the first hour would be our six o’clock in the morning. Mark declares that “it was the third hour” when Jesus was crucified (15:25), which would be our nine o’clock. If the darkness began at the sixth hour and continued to the ninth, this would-be from our twelve o’clock until three in the afternoon. But John seems to have used the Roman and Grecian method of com puting the hours. They began the day at midnight. Thus John’s sixth hour wou/d be our six o’clock in the morn ing, instead of noon, when Pilate fin ished his examination. Our Lord was crucified at nine o’clock; the period of darkness began at twelve and lasted until three, the time of His death. There is a very good reason for John’s adoption of the Roman computation. He was writing in Asia, Minor, far from the land of Palestine, long after the destruction of Jerusalem, arid the people among whom he lived used the Roman method of computing the hours. 2. "There was darkness over the whole land" (v. 33). The darkness here was literal and physical. It would seem almost as if the very face of nature could not bear the sight of its great Creator dying at the hands of wicked men. But this physical dark ness is a symbol of something infi nitely worse, the moral and spiritual darkness of men in rebellion against God. This is the beginning of t£e doom of hell in which the lost are de-
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scribed terribly as “wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved forever” (Jude 13, R. V.). Our blessed Lord entered into this awful darkness when, as our Sub stitute, He was forsaken of God at Calvary. He endured the darkness that we might forever dwell in the light. - “ 3. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (v. 34). There is in the Word of God no passage which teaches more clearly than this the substitu tionary nature of our Lord’s sufferings and death. Those who do not believe that Christ died in the stead of sinners have never been able to explain this cry from the cross. Some suppose that under the terror and pain of the cross He lost His courage and Mistakenly felt that the Father had abandoned Him. But this dishonoring view puts Him beneath the level of the martyrs, and ignores the fact that He died with a shout of victory—“It is finished.” If we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, then we must believe that He spoke the truth when He said God had forsaken Him. But does God forsake good men when they die? The only possible answer is that the perfect Son of God took upon Himself our sin, that He literally ' stood in our place and received our doom. Hence He was> treated as we deserved to be treated’ —forsaken of God. John Robertson, the great Scotch minister, tells of an eloquent professor in college, so learned in Hebrew and philosophy that he was called Rabbi Duncan. A student was reading one day in Isaiah 53, and’ stumbling along through the Hebrew, he read through verses 3 to 7. The student ended, but something noticeable had come over Rabbi Duncan. The students saw him trying to speak, but he could not; at last he put his head on the Hebrew Bible and a sob escaped him. Looking up at length, with a' broken voice, he said: “Gentlemen, do you know what this is? Do you know what Jesus is doing here? It is damnation, - and damnation taken by love.”—-The Bot-, ties of Heaven, by Revilo. Golden Text Illustration I saiah 53:5
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