The Paradox of God's Glory in Jesus' Arrival

The tearing of the heavens is letting us know that a divine revelation is taking place. A revelation straight from God. And the revelation, of course, is that Jesus is the Son of God. That's why the Father speaks, you are my Son whom I love. So God himself is affirming what Mark says in his introduction, that Jesus is the eternal Son of God. But this revelation of who Jesus is is so ironic because it takes place in conjunction with his water baptism. A baptism signifying repentance. And the point, again, is that God is being revealed to the world as the one who identifies himself with sinful humanity. [00:18:36] (32 seconds)


That God is revealed not through our might, not through our triumph, not ultimately through our victories. God is actually revealed through our posture of becoming servants and those who embrace even suffering at times. Jesus says this in the Gospel of Mark 8 .34. Then he called, and in the context of the whole Gospel of Mark and the revelation of Jesus as the Son, what we see is that you and I carrying our cross isn't just how we emulate Jesus as servants. [00:19:49] (32 seconds)


Mark wants to communicate this to us again and again and so there's so many ways to do that. There's something in Mark's gospel that Bible scholars call the Messianic secret. And they call it the Messianic secret because there's this constant occurrence that happens throughout Mark's gospel where Jesus is trying to keep his identity hushed. Again and again, you'll notice Jesus tells people, don't tell people what I did for you. [00:22:31] (20 seconds)


In fact, you see several of those instances of the Messianic secret right here in Mark chapter one. I mean, Jesus comes out of the waters of baptism. The father says, this is my son whom I love. And the very next thing that happens in the narrative is Jesus is driven by the spirit into the obscurity of the world. He goes into the wilderness for 40 days. Like the first thing he does isn't go to Jerusalem and announce himself as king. He goes into the desert for more than a month to face off with Satan by himself. [00:22:51] (24 seconds)


Mark's gospel is divided into two halves. And the first half, Jesus is ministering all throughout Galilee in northern Israel. But when you get to the second half of Mark's gospel, Mark frequently repeats this refrain, on the way, on the way, on the way to Jerusalem, on the way to Jerusalem. Jesus is going to Jerusalem because he knows he's going there to die. And so Mark brings in that refrain, on the way, because he's linking back to what we read in Mark 1. Prepare the way of the Lord. What is the way of the Lord? It's the way to the cross. [00:25:48] (29 seconds)


The way of the Lord is the way of the cross through which all people are drawn. The glory of God is revealed in Christ and His cross because at the cross, the nations see that God is glorious because there is only one God who has laid down His life at the hands of sinners while He was forgiving and cleansing them. And at the cross, the nations see that God is glorious because there is no greater display of love and humility than the Creator of the world laying down His life for creation. [00:32:06] (35 seconds)


And if this picture wasn't already stunning enough, it gets even better. Because on the cross, we don't just see the suffering of God. We also see the triumph of God, the power of God to make all things new. Back at the beginning of Mark's gospel, we saw that John the Baptist proclaimed that Jesus was the spirit baptizer. He would baptize you with the Holy Spirit. That word spirit in Greek is pneuma. And again, it's connected to the arrival of God's kingdom, of new creation, of God's victory. [00:32:41] (33 seconds)


But then after that pronouncement, Jesus shockingly doesn't start baptizing people in the Holy Spirit. Instead, He starts His journey of suffering and serving. But then here at the cross, Mark says that Jesus cried out with a loud cry and breathed His last breath. The word is literally, expire. One Bible dictionary defines it as to give up the ghost. And that's because it's connected to the Greek word pneuma. Jesus gives up His spirit, which can also be translated as breath. [00:33:14] (34 seconds)


And so the spirit that rested upon Jesus at His baptism, at the beginning of His mission to serve, is now depicted here as poured out from Jesus as He reaches the crescendo of His mission to serve. So that in His death, the spirit of life is poured out so that even while He dies, God wins. In fact, when Mark says that the centurion saw how He died, it's the same Greek word, expired. Literally, it's when the centurion saw how He breathed His last breath, he proclaimed, surely this man was the Son of God. [00:33:47] (35 seconds)


We talked a couple of weeks ago when we looked at the arrival of God, according to Matthew, that there's no failure too great, there's no low too low, no person too far, that Jesus could not reach and save them. And Mark is making much the same point here, just with more graphic language. Because you don't get any lower and you don't get any further than to be God forsaken. To be God forsaken is to experience the absence of God. It is to be in a place where God, so to speak, is not. [00:34:36] (31 seconds)


And yet, on the cross, Jesus, the incarnation of God, God in the flesh, on the cross, He is ironically present to the God forsaken by becoming God forsaken Himself. It's as if at the cross, you reach the edge of space. And you cross the threshold only to find out that there is more space where you did not expect to find it. Jesus on the cross is God exactly where you don't expect Him to be. But He's also God where you hope He will be if you ever find yourself there. [00:35:02] (46 seconds)