"What Time Is It?"

Mark 15:25-39

John W. Wurster

March 26, 2006

While I wear a watch, I rarely need it. I mostly run my life on "church time," which isn’t very precise. Meetings tend to begin when most people seem to be present and when there is group consensus that the absent others aren’t going to come. Meetings conclude when the agenda is completed or the committee is exhausted. Worship begins when the announcements are done. Worship is over when it’s over. There is no time limit on hospital visits. Needs, questions, concerns that come up in the course of a day cannot be scheduled. They just arise on their own. Crises, by definition, just pop up. Sermons are given as much time as they require to be written. Church time is pretty loose. No watch required. Things happen when they happen.

Much of Mark’s gospel seems that way as we read along. One day, Jesus is here. A few days later, Jesus goes there. One night, he stills stormy seas; another night, he walks across the water. One afternoon he feeds 5000 people; another day, it’s 4000. He casts out demons here and gives sight to a blind man there. So the story goes. At a seemingly haphazard pace, things happen as they happen. Until at last Mark brings Jesus to Jerusalem and time slows down and becomes more definite.

Two days before the Passover, Mark tells us about an unnamed woman who anoints Jesus with costly oil. That same day Judas contracts with the chief priests to betray Jesus. The woman gives up something for Jesus, while Judas receives something for giving up Jesus. Both events happen two days before Passover.

The next day, the day before the Passover, lots of action takes place: Jesus eats with his disciples for the last time, breaking the bread and sharing the cup. After the meal, Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane. There Jesus is betrayed by Judas, then arrested by the religious authorities, then tried by the high priest, then denied by Peter, then convicted by Pontius Pilate and given a death sentence. All of that happens one day before the Passover.

Now with the impending death of Jesus in clear view, Mark slows down the story even more. It’s the passage we read today. In it Mark becomes even more precise in telling time, as if beating a drum. At 9:00 they crucified Jesus. At noon darkness covered the land. At 3:00 Jesus died. With the crucifixion, things just don’t happen. Instead, they happen deliberately and precisely: 9, noon, 3. The details are too important to be indefinite about: 9, noon, 3It happened in this way, at this time, 9, noon, 3. Mark lays it out very clearly for us. This is what the timing looks like: 9, noon, 3. How late, how long will we stay?

Will we stay until 9:00 when Jesus is nailed to the cross, and the passers-by tease him, and the chief priests mock him, and even those crucified alongside him taunt him? Will we join in their derisive words? "Messiah? Well, then, come down from the cross. Some Savior you turned out to be. You can’t even save yourself." It’s not too hard to stay until 9:00. It’s not too hard to join the mockers when Jesus appears to have let us down, when he isn’t what we wanted him to be, when things don’t get better, when the opportunity didn’t come, when the relationship didn’t reconcile. It’s not hard to stay with him until 9:00, is it?

But will we stay with him until noon? Will we stay when the mockers have left and the darkness has come? The darkness is suffocating, thick, unyielding, blocking out light, strangling hope. Mark says it covers the whole land. Period. Nothing happens under this darkness. It is a time of suspension and uncertainty and everything hangs in the balance. We can do nothing about it. It is a time of prayer, a time of fear, a time of not knowing. These are the times when we face the worst-case scenarios: when we’ve had the tests and await the diagnosis; when we’ve offered the apology, but haven’t heard the reply; when we’ve made the tough decision, but it’s still too early to assess the fallout. These are terrifying times. It’s hard to wait with him in the darkness. It’s hard to stay past noon.

Will we wait there until 3:00? Will we be there at 3:00 when the silence is penetrated by a cry of agony from Jesus, who himself feels abandoned by God? Will we still be there at 3:00 when the darkness lifts to reveal what we have feared the most? At 3:00, the terrors are unleashed. Even God seems to have left. Will we still be there? When the bad news has been confirmed and the unimaginable has happened and the unlikely circumstance has come to pass?

3:00 is the time that requires discernment. 3:00 is the time that can easily be misunderstood. At 3, some think Jesus is calling Elijah, but they’ve got it all wrong. At 3, Jesus is giving voice to the depths of human pain and suffering. At 3, Jesus stares into the abyss of betrayal and estrangement. At 3 Jesus is not looking for Elijah to intervene. Instead, Jesus is crying out, "My God, why?" At 3 we find out how much Jesus knows about pain and suffering. Will we wait with him that long? Will we wait until 3?

3:00 is the time to behold the power of God. 3:00 is when Mark says the curtain of the temple was torn in two. This curtain separated the holy of holies, where God was, from the rest of the sanctuary, where the people were. That’s how the temple was set up: God on one side, the people on the other. Until 3, then everything changes. At 3, God tears the dividing curtain. At 3, the barriers are removed. At 3, God reaches out, over, and around the boundaries. At 3, God changes the world.

3:00 is the time for faith. 3:00 is the time when the Roman centurion at the foot of the cross sees all that has happened and confesses that Jesus is God’s Son. 3:00 is the time to echo the centurion’s words. When we get to 3:00 we have seen all the evidence. We’ve followed along through the seemingly haphazard days of teaching and healing and miracle making. We’ve followed along during the more definite days before Passover. We’ve followed through the precise day of crucifixion. We’ve made it through the tauntings of 9:00, the darkness of noon and the tragedy of 3:00. We’ve see it all. We’ve lived it all. It is now time to put our trust in him, to put our lives in him.

We don’t need a watch to know what time it is. It’s time for faith. Don’t be indefinite about it. Don’t be haphazard about. Don’t lackadaisically say that it will happen when it happens. It’s too important. It matters too much.

Thanks be to God!