Life Belongs to God - Mark15:33 - 16:8
Life belongs to God. Your breathing pattern is borrowed. Your heart beats are a gift. You didn't bring yourself into this world, nor did you knit yourself together in your mother's womb. You didn't decide to be born, and you can't choose to wake up tomorrow. Life belongs to God.
You didn't mix your blood, nor order your genetics. And if your physical life is beyond your capability to sustain, how much more your 'ever so mysterious' soul. It belongs to you, but can you even understand it? That which was breathed into you is beyond your control to keep, or to dictate it's destination. Point your soul out to me. Or show me the souls of those whose bodies are in the grave.
If there is life of body, or life of soul, it belongs to God, for life belongs to God.
Sin brought death into the world. And man wields no power that can cancel sin or escape death. So if there is a cure, it is external to you and me. If there is a chance at eternal life it is beyond our power.
Enter One, called Jesus of Nazareth. Crucified, buried, risen. It is my intention today to show you just how pathetic you are (aren't you glad you're reading this?). It is my intention to show you just how inconsequential you are to your own life, your own salvation, your own forgiveness, your own resurrection, and if you are one of the few that inherit an eternal and glorious heaven, you will have had nothing to do with it. This text is my proof. Prepare to experience a drop in significance. For life belongs to God.
From chapter 15 verses 33-41 we have recorded the death of Jesus. Let me preface point one by saying that there are two players in this text that matter, and two alone. The Father in Heaven, and the Son on the cross. Man's presence is insignificant. Man's presence, whether the Roman executioners, or the women watching from a short distance, or those who witnessed the veil of the temple torn, they were there, but mankind is completely excluded from the events that took place. This was between the Father and the Son.
Mankind had their way with Christ up until the sixth hour (noon), then for three hours the presence of mankind, whether in doing good, or evil, was insignificant.
Verse 33 tells us darkness covered the land. The Bible isn't the only record of this darkness, nor the earthquake, it was recorded as far away as Egypt. Where Dionysius wrote, "either the God of nature, the Creator, is suffering, or the universe is dissolving." This was no eclipse caused by the moon, the moon was full and it is impossible for the full moon to eclipse the Sun. I don't know what caused it, but it wasn't man, and man couldn't stop it, perhaps mankind was in darkness in more than one regard. Perhaps the darkness simply sets the stage for the other things I'm going to share with you, that also point to this reality: Man is excluded from Christ's death, this was now between the Father and the Son.
And what does Christ say in verse 34? "Pilate, Pilate, why have you forsaken me?" "Peter, James and John, why have you forsaken me?" "Religious Leaders, why have you forsaken me?" "Mankind, why have you forsaken me?" No. Mankind is excluded. "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"
Speaking of being out of the loop and lost in the darkness. What do some of the ones standing near say? They say, "He's calling Elijah?" Someone's confused. Jesus wasn't kidding when He said, "They know not what they do." That thought carries into point two, but don't rush me.
Before Christ breathes His last, He lets out a loud cry. All of the gospels record this. Let me put it to you briefly. No man, close to death, bleeding out over the last nine hours, enduring the excruciating pain of crucifixion over the past six, dying a death of asphyxiation, being unable to continue to breathe, can cry out in a loud voice moments before death.
That's why the centurion said, "Surely this man was the Son of God." No one dies this way. Man didn't kill Him, Man didn't snuff out His life. He had strength to cry out in a loud voice, man was excluded from taking His life, this was between the Father and the Son and the Son laid down His life.
The early church fathers name the centurion, they say that after the resurrection he becomes a believer and is later martyred because he refuses to deny that the Christ who cried out and died rose from the dead. Perhaps this centurion, Longiuus, understood that man didn't take Christ's life, and this certainly wasn't just an ordinary man that rose from the dead.
The veil to the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom. No man could have done that, not with the constant temple guard, and not with the strength found in human hands. The earthquake was real, recorded also in the neighboring kingdoms as as an AD33 Disaster that levelled homes. Man had nothing to do with these events. The Father placed on Christ the weight of the sin of the world and the Son laid down His life.
His followers had no part. The women were at some distance and the men even farther. Man was excluded from Christ's death. This was between the Father and the Son. Christ gave up His spirit, He laid down His life.
Now turn your attention to the events that follow His death. We do see acts of faithfulness and acts of love, and it is not my intent to discredit such actions, they are noteworthy and they reveal the hearts of Christ's closest followers and friends. But I can't help but point out that man wasn't helping the Father, nor the Son. Man was not contributing to the plan of God, nor the resurrection of the Son. To be honest, mankind was real busy and rushed once Christ died, then they were forced to be still during the Sabbath, then the most faithful rushed back into more rushing in a frantic manner, and nothing they did helped God.
Again, don't think I'm being critical of acts of faithfulness and love, but it won't fix your sin problem, nor your death problem, for life belongs to God and if anyone was going to fix this problem, well, it wouldn't be man. Man's deeds (though noble) were really worthless.
Joseph of Arimathea, with bravery, asked for the body. Sorry Joseph, Christ wasn't done with it. He wrapped it in Linen. You'll find it folded neatly in the empty tomb in just a couple days. That reminds me, a tomb was provided. A wonderful gift, but Christ wasn't planning on staying in the ground.
They anointed the body to preserve it with pricey ointments and spices, but it wasn't going to see decay.
Everything they did was a worthless contribution to God's plan. Nothing that they did "fit in" with God's plan. They were acts of love and faithfulness, and there is perhaps a difference between where these faithful ones are today and where Judas is today, but it wasn't their actions that brought life, or resurrection, or forgiveness, man is totally excluded from that, both in the death of Christ and the Resurrection. Your acts of love and faithfulness are kind gestures, and they reveal your heart, but mankind did not do anything to assist God in the work of salvation, and still can't today. Man is excluded, and man is worthless in that regard.
So preacher, what can we do? Glad you asked. Our part is simple. Be amazed.
Our text shows that the first ones to the tomb were trembling and amazed because the things they heard and saw were beyond their imaginations and because Christ is more than they ever understood Him to be. Just when you think you know Someone!
They trembled and were amazed because because everything they expected wasn't to be found and everything they never expected they found.
No need to move the stone.
No need to anoint the body.
Even the angel was just sitting there waiting. Nothing to do but wait. Nothing to do but sit and deliver a message.
Even Peter was summoned. The only one summoned by name. Oh friends, Peter's yesterday was ugly. It was dreadful. Peter, as one who walked with Christ, who embraced Christ, who pledged his willingness to stick with Christ even if it meant death, denied Him, and denied Him, and denied Him, he hid and cowered. He was ashamed and scared and faithless, he was a traitor, and for the sake of his own skin the One whom he loved he abandoned. But listen, Peter's ugly yesterday didn't matter, for life has nothing to do with Peter's yesterday, it has everything to do with what God has done, completely and totally apart from works of mankind.
The angel said:
Jesus is not here. He has gone ahead of you. He doesn't need you to carry His body, He doesn't need you to show Him the way, He doesn't need to wait for you, He doesn't need your approval, your spices, your stone rolling skills, He doesn't need your tomb, your pity, your embalming, your assistance nor your permission.
He doesn't need you to be frantically purchasing, nor rushing around at daybreak, nor does He need you to defend His cause or tend to a dead body. "He has gone ahead of you, just as He said."
Friends, people don't die like this, and people don't rise like this, and people can't take life from God, and people can't grant life to God. Life belongs to God.
It is not God but you who have tremendous obstacles to life and the fullness of life. It is you who have a problem with this captivating captive-maker called death. It is you and I whose understanding is veiled in darkness though it be the sixth hour of the day. What do we know of life, the authoring of life, the preserving of life, and the destination of the soul?
Look at the works of man and your own works. Helpless to do anything to bring life or conquer death. All we can do is bury the dead and bow down to death. Mix some spices and wrap in cloth or entomb in a casket and lay in the earth.
It's you that has obstacles to life, not God, for Life belongs to God.
Christ laid His down, and took it back up. He led captivity captive and gave good gifts to men. A mere down payment of the life that is yet to come.
You may have obstacles. But life has been offered as the free gift of God. You don't have to roll away a stone, nor do you have to tend to a dead Savior, He has gone ahead of you, all you have to do is be amazed.
Amazed at His Work. That He would lay down His life. Amazed at His love.
