Introduction
“We are going up to Jerusalem,” [Jesus] said, “and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him” (Mark 10:33-34).
Text
15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
A Roman scourging was a terrifying punishment. The delinquent was stripped, bound to a post or a pillar, or sometimes simply thrown to ground, and was beaten by a number of guards until his flesh hung in bleeding shreds. The instrument indicated by the Marcan text, the dreaded flagellum, was a scourge consisting of leather thongs plaited with several pieces of bone or lead so as to form a chain. No maximum number of strokes was prescribed by Roman law, and men condemned to flagellation frequently collapsed and died from the flogging. Josephus records that he himself had some of his opponents in Galilee scourged until their entrails were visible (War II. xxi. 5), while the procurator Albinus had the prophet Jesus bar Hanan scourged until his bones lay visible (War VI. v. 3) (Lane, p. 557).
16 The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. 17 They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. 18 And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” 19 Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
The scourging and now the brutal mocking took place indoors away from the eyes of the crowd. The scourging was an official act under supervision of some kind. The next takes place as nothing more than a gang of bullies who have a victim all to themselves. The soldiers given charge of Jesus called together the whole company of soldiers. There is no purpose in this other than to make a party out of brutalizing Jesus.
17 They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. 18 And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” They find the charge against Jesus amusing and play the joke for all they can. They find some old material of purplish color, the color of royalty, and throw it on his back, which has been shredded by the scourging. They take the branches of a thorn bush, weave a crown, and set it on his head so that the thorns drive into his flesh. As the blood streams down his face that mockingly address him as king.
The sport is too much fun. As with bullies who have ganged together against a defenseless victim, the soldiers become more cruel. 19 Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. Again and again they strike him with a wood staff. Again and again they hit him. Jesus must be staggering on his feet, knocked about with each blow. It makes them want to hit him again. He staggers to one side of the circle. They bow before him, then stand and hit him so that he staggers to the other side. They bow and then hit him again. And on it goes until they are ordered to proceed with the crucifixion.
21 A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. 22 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull).
With two other victims, they march Jesus through the streets of Jerusalem as a lesson to the people of what happens to those who fall under Roman justice. The beam of the cross is laid upon the shoulders of each condemned man. As they near the city gate, it is clear that Jesus cannot continue under the weight of the beam and the strain of his scourging and beatings. The soldiers exercise their rights to commission any nonRoman into service, and they grab Simon, probably a Jewish pilgrim for the Passover who had traveled from Cyrene, which is on the coast of Libya. (By the way, that Mark is able to name Simon and his sons probably indicates that they had become believers and well-known in the early church.) With Simon bearing the cross, Jesus is now able to stagger to Golgotha, just outside the city on a low hill where travelers may pass by.
23 Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. “They” may have been women who as an act of mercy would give this mixture to the victims to help deaden the pain. But Jesus refused so that he might bear fully the punishment. Remember that. We will come back to the significance of it.
24 And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.
25 It was the third hour when they crucified him.
The crucifixion begins. The soldiers push him down on the beam, stretch out his arms and nails them to the beam. They hoist him on up on the post, fastening the beam to it; then they drive a long nail or iron bar through his feet into the post. Now there is nothing more to do than for him to hang until he dies. Oh, yes, there is one more thing. The soldiers have first rights to his belongings, which amount only to the garments he wears. They rip up what he has except for his tunic, which they cast lots for. It is nice enough to keep. Besides, the activity makes for a nice sport by which to pass the time.
Jesus begins his dying – the pain of his lacerated back pressed against the rough wooden post, of the nails piercing his hands and feet; the dizziness and aching head from the lack of sleep, the tensions of the trials, the beatings of the leaders and soldiers, the now agonizing thirst, the exposure to the weather and flies, the slow loss of blood; the agony of trying to breath while hanging, having to push against the nails in his feet in order to breath. This is his death which he must endure minute by minute, hour by hour.
And over his head is a sign that serves both to name his offense and to mock him for his pretensions: 26 The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. Jesus has become a joke.
Do you want to be exalted as king, Jesus? Here you are. You are now lifted up with your title displayed over your head. What a fine king you make. You have a royal guard standing at your feet. They honor the very clothes you wear. They have already shown their devotion to you, bowing on their knees before you, giving you your crown and royal clothes, handing to you your royal staff.
You are a joke to them and to everyone. You live in a world that belongs to the true king, Caesar Augustus. Not even Herod the Great with all his pretensions forgot his place. A king indeed. What were you expecting? The Jews to rise up and place you on the throne? This kingdom that you proclaimed was near – how did you expect it to get here? Were you going to lead an uprising? Were you going to be the warrior king who delivers your people? Your own people are the ones who handed you over. King of the Jews! You should be called the Jester of the Jews for the joke you have become.
The Meaning
That is the status Jesus has reached. Whatever opinion anyone held of Jesus, it has become clear that he is nothing more than a man who reached higher than he had any right. Some might be sneering at him, thinking that he got just what he deserved for trying to make himself seem so important and for leading the ignorant astray. Some might be sympathetic, thinking how unfair that he should be treated so horribly. But no one can claim that he is the anointed Messiah, the king of the Jews come to deliver them. Whatever suspicions or hopes in that regard are now blown away. He is a defeated man.
No, Jesus is not a defeated man. Jesus is King and never does he deserve the title King more than at that moment of being crucified, for this is the battle for which he has come. This is the battle for the liberation of his people. No greater battle has ever taken place and no greater warrior has ever fought.
Remember this. Jesus is not the captured prisoner of the Jews. It is not against them or their leaders that he has contended. He is not the victim handed over into the power of the Romans. Neither Pilate nor the soldiers are the enemies that he engages. No one has “got Jesus now.” Jesus stands on the field of battle in the exact spot to his advantage. He has, through his years of perfect obedience to his Father, prepared himself for this exact occasion to bring the redemption that he alone is able to accomplish.
The joke is on the Great Enemy Satan and all the fools that he has deceived into believing that Jesus is a failure. The atonement for the sins of all God’s elect – the past, the present, and the future; the Jew and the Gentile – the atonement for their sins is at this moment being accomplished and there is nothing the enemy can do about it. Satan tried. Throughout Jesus’ ministry, Satan tried to tempt him – sometimes by offering fame and glory; sometimes through his friends such as Peter offering a way out of suffering; sometimes through abandonment of friends discouraging him. One sin – that was all Satan needed. One little sin – one moment of doubt or resentment, one indiscretion, one blemish that would disqualify his sacrifice. The constant slander and criticisms of the religious leaders should have brought out one ill-advised remark or thought. The foolish behavior and remarks of the disciples ought to have elicited some hasty unwise reaction. Maybe even now with the physical barbarity Jesus will give in. But no, every attack of the enemy is thwarted, and now the Great King hangs on the cross for the deliverance of his people. What a magnificent king!
Let’s remind ourselves what deliverance our king is accomplishing on the cross. He is delivering us from sin. Let me get one matter off my chest. Jesus is not delivering us from human injustice, inequality, oppressive political structures, low self-esteem, blindness to our divine potential, and whatever else we are creative enough to add to the list. If he came for any of those reasons then the cross is the symbol of his utter defeat. If the cross resulted because Jesus was too radical or too good or too visionary or too confrontational, then he deserves all the mockery he is receiving. Whatever good we might make of him, whatever good example we derive from him or good lesson we learn, it is what we make, not him. We are our own deliverers; he, well…he made a good try.
But back to his real work, delivering us from sin. What is taking place on the cross? Jesus is making atonement for our sins. It works like this. Sin has separated us from God. We are sick with sin; it has corrupted every bit of us and has made us repulsive to God who is holy and righteous. We might nod our heads in agreement as we think about ourselves, or we might wag our heads in protest thinking that we are not really so bad. How we feel about our condition is as relevant as the feelings of a cancer patient. He might feel sick or very well, but unless something is done he will die.
Satan loves our sin-sickness. He loves it especially because he hates God so much; he loves the idea of men and women made in the image of God perverting that image. He loves the fact that people made to glorify God and glory in that work instead rebel against him and treat him as their enemy.
Understand this correctly. We think that Satan gets his thrills over our blatant sins – drunkenness, sexual perversion, murder and violence. It is true that he would delight in such open rebellion against God’s laws, but don’t make the mistake that the town who “outlawed Satan.” That is a town that has fallen directly into Satan’s trap. Just what he wants is a town that thinks the righteousness of its people can keep him at bay. As long as a people treat sin in such a trivial manner only needing some warning signs and laws to deal with it, Satan is as happy as he can be.
We are all sick with sin however we might seem to ourselves or others. We are all the servants of Satan however in control of ourselves we might seem, or in the service of God. The best that a “loving” person or a “moral” person might do without Christ is to show that Jesus’ work on the cross isn’t necessary. The “good” person who sets Jesus aside makes as much a mockery of Jesus as his persecutors.
We are sick with sin. We are in bondage to sin. We are slaves to sin, prisoners of the law of sin. Our condition is hopeless. Meditation won’t free us; channeling won’t free us; doing good works won’t help; disciplining ourselves to be moral won’t do it; becoming a church person won’t help. Nothing can free us from our bondage, nothing but a champion to take up our cause, and that champion is Jesus.
How does he free us? This is tricky. The problem is not that Satan has captured us. Satan delights in our condition, but he is not our captor. He did not take Adam and Eve by force. He did not force forbidden fruit into their mouths. He simply suggested, appealed to our parent’s feelings, and took advantage of their own lapse of judgment. So Jesus overthrows Satan (as he will someday), our sin-sick condition remains and we are still separated from God. Indeed, as much as we like to blame Satan and his demons for our troubles, we could carry on in our rebellion very nicely without him, thank you.
What needs to be dealt with is the guilt that our sins have brought on us – not guilt feelings but the very real guilt incurred from breaking the law. We are guilty and something must be done. If God were to wave his hand and pardon our guilt, then he could not be God, for God is righteous. It might seem nice, but to pardon guilt without cause is unjust. Should Osama ben Laden be caught and brought to trial, I doubt that the most ardent pacifist would be pleased with a judge who pardoned him just because the judge was feeling merciful.
The guilt of our sins must be dealt with if justice is to exist. But how then can God show mercy to us? How can he be both just and merciful? Surely our situation is hopeless. It is impossible to make ourselves worthy to be pardoned, and it seems that even God is in a quandary over how to save without compromising his very nature. Satan has won. He has tricked us and let us walk into an unbreakable trap. We need a champion – one who can satisfy justice and with mercy reconcile us to God.
There he is, hanging on the cross. He is satisfying justice. He has lived a perfect life, never faltering once. He has earned the right to fight for us. And now, in his great strength, he is taking upon himself the guilt of our sins so that the just wrath of God might come upon him than us, that we might then receive the mercy of God. That’s the purpose of the cross; that’s why he submitted to these silly men who think they are powerful. That’s why he silently endured the bullying of the soldiers. It was to get to the cross and fight his great battle for his people.
If there is anyone desperate now it is Satan. This is his last chance to get Jesus to falter. Maybe he can get Jesus in his pain to rail against the Father now; maybe Jesus will spit back at the soldiers. Maybe Jesus will call out to his Father to avenge him, maybe even do what he said he could – call down legions of angels to rescue him. If only he would, then Satan would have the victory.
But our King is our true champion. He will not falter; he will deliver us. This is a king worthy to be followed and to receive our homage. If you have faltered; if you have held back from devotedly following Jesus because you didn’t want to give up whatever you thought was so important – partying, money, popularity – I ask you, who or what else is worthy of your life? Go deeper than these superficial reasons for holding back. Don’t you want a life that means something? Don’t you want to be connected with something or someone worthy of all that you can give? A king who leaves his own position in glory to take on the sins of his people – that is a king worthy to follow. A king willing to be despised that we might be exalted by our God – that is a king worthy to worship. That sign above Jesus’ head was wrong. It should not have read King of the Jews. It ought to have read King of Glory.
