Have you ever noticed how people are attracted to the scene of tragedy? There was a time in our country, when there was going to be a hanging, that people gathered with picnic baskets and children to watch a criminal die. Once a tornado cut a path of destruction through a town in North Georgia. When Sunday afternoon came, there was a huge traffic jam of curious tourists. And even here we are not so different. When there is a traffic accident we slow down to look, and we even return later to examine the wrecked vehicle. The people of Jesus' day were no different. In today's text we are told that they had all gathered atop Golgotha to witness Rome's grizzliest handiwork. The attraction that had drawn them from their jobs, their homes, was a crucifixion. Three men criminally convicted and condemned were tied and nailed to rough wooden crosses. The blood spurted and oozed, the groans of the dying permeated the air, and all the while, the text says, "The people stood by, watching." They had been drawn to the execution as if it held some magnetic power. Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth was dying. He was the man in the middle. He was the preacher, the miracle worker, the prophet. He was the Son of God, the Savior. And he was dying before the eyes of the crowd.

The Indifferent

There were many characters watching atop the mount that day. There were many attitudes there just as there are many attitudes here this morning. First of all, there were the indifferent. They were soldiers mostly. Caesar's orders had made them come, otherwise they'd have been sleeping in the barracks or gaming in the taverns. They resented being told what to do.

Especially did they dislike crucifixion duty. It wasn't a pleasant sight to watch nails driven into human flesh. Even the most battle-hardened soldier was horrified by it. And it took so long for a man to die. The hours crept by like an arthritic turtle. So the men, indifferent to the death of Jesus, began to gamble for the few belongings of the convicts. It was their way of passing the awful time away.

The soldiers are also here with us today. The church has in its membership indifferent souls. They come to church out of duty and are thoroughly bored. They would rather sleep late or be off playing at some game. And quite often the indifferent ones are the youth of the community. They wouldn't set foot inside a church but their parents make them come. Like the soldiers they are under orders of Caesar. And they gamble their time away at the foot of the cross.
 Stop and think about this for a moment. Calvary! The Son of God dying! The horrible power of sin broken! How could anyone turn his back and gamble at a time like this? How could anyone be indifferent?

Perhaps it was ignorance. Perhaps it was blindness. The Son of God was dying for their sins and they were indifferent. They simply gambled. And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." On the East Coast, there is an old drawbridge. Over it pass cars and trains and under it pass great ships. Years ago an old man and his son operated the bridge. The boy used to play along the spans of the bridge while his father stood dutifully at his post. One day while the bridge was open to let a ship pass, the father got a signal that a train was fast approaching. Quickly he began to lower the bridge into place. But suddenly he noticed that his son had slipped and fallen into the joint of the bridge. The man had to make a quick decision. To allow the bridge to fall into place would crush his only son to death. To stop the bridge and rescue his son would mean a train wreck and the loss of many lives. The father, his heart aching, sacrificed the one for the many. His son died as the bridge connected and the train sped by. Imagine the grief of the father as he watched the faces of the people in the coaches as the train passed. Some were eating and joking, smoking cigars in the dining cars. Others were reading magazines. They were indifferent! His son had died for them! And they could not care less. How like that crowd on the train were the soldiers. How like their indifference is our indifference today. We come to church yawning and indifferent. The Son of God died for us and we don't take it seriously. We are blind and ignorant.

The Hateful

Yes, the crowd stood by watching. God was dying on the cross for the sins of the world. And some were indifferent. But they were not the only ones there that day. There were others. There were the self-righteous. They were the Pharisees. And they didn't need Jesus. They had their own religion. And full of jealous hate, they had gathered atop Golgotha to watch him die. The self-righteous were all there that day. Dressed in their long robes, with their arms folded, they smiled approvingly. Some of them had received gifts from his hands, food and wine. Some had received healing from his touch, leprosy gone, sight restored. Christ had been good to them, but now they cursed him; they taunted him; they hurled his sayings back at him. Mr. Carpenter, you have nails in your hands ... You cannot build the temple up there! ...  He saved others; let him save himself! The Pharisees, the self-righteous, the pious -- they were all there that day. And they didn't need Jesus. They believed they were good enough without him.

Yet Christ called them whitewashed tombs. He said that for all outward appearances they were like the clean, polished marble of a tomb. Yet on the inside they were rotten and full of dead men's bones. It is true of us today, is it not? Outwardly we can appear moral and upright. When we pass, people say, "Ah, look at him. He's the backbone of the town, a righteous man indeed!" Yet inside we are full of lust and deceit. We are rotten with prejudice and malice. The Bible says, "Let any one who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12 RSV). This is not bad advice today. Let us examine ourselves to see if we are sinners. Let us not parade around in arrogant self-righteousness. Let us not pretend to be more moral than we are. Rather, let us examine ourselves before God. It may be that, like the Pharisees, we need Jesus more than we think. Have you seen the television commercial where the store clerk says confidently, "Impossible! I couldn't have perspiration problems." Then he takes off his jacket, sniffs, and admits, "My coat told me I need a new deodorant." Perhaps you are like a Pharisee. Take off your self-righteous mantle and look inside. Do you judge others for the same things from which you excuse yourself? Are you a critical person? Are you insecure in how good you are in comparison to others? Do you feel like you don't need Jesus very badly? If so, look inside. The thoughts and attitudes you find there may tell you something. You may find yourself saying, "Whew! My sins told me I'm not as good as I thought. I need Jesus Christ now more than ever!"

The Sorrowful

Yes, there was a crowd watching God die that day. And in that crowd was almost every attitude. There were the indifferent and there were the self-righteous. And there were also the sorrowing, those who could not understand. John the Beloved was there. So were Salome and Mary, the mother of Jesus. They were there watching, the faithful, those who could not understand. They heard the heavy hammer blows as the nails were driven into place. They saw the cross as it was lifted into position and fell with a thud into its hole. And they turned their heads away and sobbed uncontrollably. God, why! Why? What had Jesus ever done? He taught the blind to see and the lame to walk. He fed the hungry and made the grieving to sing. God, why?

Have you ever walked in on the middle of a movie? You did not see the beginning. And the ending is still a mystery to you. All that you know is what you see going on directly before you. And the cast is a jumble of unknown characters. The plot is confusing. The same is true of our human predicament. We have walked in on the middle of a grand drama of sin and salvation, death and deliverance, pain and progress. But we only see what is before us. We missed the beginning of the drama. The ending is still a mystery to us. Like Mary the mother of Jesus, we stand at the foot of the cross and witness the awful carnage of innocent suffering. The question that keeps choking in our throats is: "God, why?" Why does my loved one suffer so? Why is my career ended when my dreams are for bigger and better things? God, why? Why the pollution, the earthquake, the famine? Why cancer and car wrecks? God, why?

Like the faithful disciples who stood by watching and grieving, we need to get the whole picture. We need to see the beginning of the drama, a world created by God and called good. We need to see man's rebellion and disobedience after the example of Satan. And we need to see man so broken that God had to come himself to heal us. We need to stand at the foot of the cross and look up to Jesus and remember at what a high price our salvation is bought. But we must not stop here. We must see Good Friday, but we must also see Easter. We must view the cross, but also see the crown! The tomb goes with the resurrection. As the rainbow follows the storm, so the ascension follows the crucifixion. Get the big picture! Listen to the whole story! There's a new world coming! Man will not only look into the open, freshly-dug grave. He will look out from the empty open tomb at Paradise!

Yes, on Calvary, as they watched the Son of God die, there were those who did not understand. The Bible predicted the crucifixion. Jesus told them plainly time and time again that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, and die. They should have expected it. God had previewed the coming events for them. Yet when it all happened, they were just as surprised as if he'd never told them. And now their grief was excessive. They could not comprehend it all. God, why?

The Faithful

The indifferent, the self-righteous, those who could not understand; they were all there that day. They watched as the Son of God died. But there was at least one other person watching atop Golgotha that day. He was a common thief. He was dying on a cross just like Christ, except that he deserved to die. He was a sinner. But unlike the rest of the onlookers, this thief was the one who understood what God was doing at Calvary.

"Jesus," he called painfully, "remember me when you come into your kingdom." And Jesus, with great effort, lifted himself and turned to look upon the face of the thief. His words formed slowly, yet firmly, "Truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

The thief recognized what God was saying from Calvary. The cross was not an X-mark placed across life, a divine judgment on a human error. The cross was a divine plus-mark for all men. God was saying, "I count you worthy of this!" You will recall the old song, "Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree." It is a ballad about a prisoner who had been released from jail. Not sure that his wife still loved him and wanted him home, he wrote to her and said, "Tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree and I'll know I'm welcome home when I see it. If it is not there, I'll keep going." Well, you recall what happened. The ex-convict was on a bus when he passed the house. And what did he see but a hundred yellow ribbons tied around the tree. The thief recognized something of the same in the cross. God had tied a scarlet ribbon around an old cross tree. And he was saying to the world, "You can come home now!"

This is what the thief saw that the others missed. The cross was an open door home. God was loving the world so much that he was sacrificing his only begotten Son so that whoever believed in him might have everlasting life.

Conclusion

Yes, the crowd stood by watching. Some were indifferent. Some were self-righteous. And some did not understand. But there was at least one who saw what was going on and he believed. And did you know that every attitude expressed atop Mount Calvary is still expressed in our world today? You and I are represented by at least one of those characters from Golgotha's crowd. Are you indifferent? Are you self-righteous? Do you feel like you don't need Jesus? Do you not understand the world in which we live? Is God, why? your constant thought? Or are you like the thief? Have you lived a life of sin and hurt? Broken every law? But do you now see the error of your ways? Will you pray, "Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom"?

Surely we were all there atop Calvary. Surely we can find ourselves in the crowd. The soldiers, Mary, the Pharisees, the dying thief -- if we are honest we will see something of ourselves in each of the characters at the cross. The truth of the matter is that we are the crowd atop Golgotha. I am sometimes indifferent like the soldiers. I have been self-righteous as any Pharisee. I have again and again cried out, "God, why?" But like the thief I have also been penitent. "Jesus, Lord, remember me...." Yes, I was there at Calvary. Were you?

God saw man at his worst on Calvary. But there we see God at his best, a most divine and loving Savior. The cross is the key that unlocks an imprisoned world. It was the best sermon God ever preached to man and all it said was: "You can come home now. The door to Paradise is wide open. The cross was for you and you and you. So why don't you come on home?"