“24 Hours that Changed the World: The Torture and Humiliation of the King”
Mark 15:15-23
I remember it well.
It was the first day of high school; I was a skinny and frightened 9th grader.
After the first ring of the bell, students poured out into the hallway as kids moved quickly in opposite directions—heading for their next class.
The first day of high school is intimidating, to say the least.
In our particular school district, two middle schools from two separate towns come together into one high school.
So, you only know half the kids in your one class.
And, as a freshman, by the time you get to the Seniors, you really don’t know any of them.
So, I’m walking down this strange, new crowded hallway.
I’m not sure where I am going, and I am trying hard to hang onto and balance the huge stack of books and papers under my arm.
I’m also in a hurry, because the high school is big, and you only have 5 minutes to get from one end to the other.
And then I see him, he is tall, staring right at me with a smirk on his face and he’s walking toward me—fast.
And before I know it, he has swiped one of his big hands across my books, and papers and they all drop to the floor—flying every which way.
As I bend over to begin trying to pick them up, other kids are rushing by me, stepping on papers, notebooks, and knocking textbooks further down the hall as they pass.
(pause)
There are many dimensions to the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.
Among them is the fact that in Jesus’ suffering and death, God was fully identifying with us and was experiencing what we go through as human beings.
God knows what it means to feel small, to be attacked mentally and emotionally, and to be physically abused.
Matthew, Mark, and John tell us about the humiliation Jesus experienced at the hands of the Roman soldiers.
“The soldiers led Jesus away into the courtyard of the palace known as the governor’s headquarters, and they called together the whole company of soldiers.”
This was the entire cohort—some three hundred to six hundred soldiers.
They stripped Him naked, mocked Him, crowned Him with thorns, struck Him, and spat on Him.
Jesus stood there naked, accepting the meanness, the hate, the cruelty.
Can we envision the strength of Jesus, staring at His tormentors with determination and pity—even love?
The accounts of Jesus’ torture and humiliation follow closely the prophetic Words of Isaiah 50:6: “I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.”
The Gospels tell us little about the form of Jesus’ flogging.
We do know, from reading other sources, however that oftentimes people died in the midst of being beaten by the Roman bodyguards with their whips and rods.
These sources also tell us that the flesh was torn from the bones when the guards used whips with leather that was embedded with sharp objects.
It’s likely that Jesus was stripped and forced to bend over a post to which He was strapped, with His hands tied down.
If you have seen The Passion of the Christ you will remember much blood and gore.
A number of scholars say that even though that movie was gross and intense—it didn’t even come close to the reality of how brutal and disgusting Jesus’ humiliation, flogging and crucifixion really were.
Two or more men would have taken turns striking Jesus with these horrible whips.
One historian from the 3rd Century said that in Roman flogging, often, “the sufferer’s veins were laid bare and the very muscles and tendons and bowels of the victim were open to exposure.”
This was a serious punishment for wrongdoing—to say the least!!!
But for whose wrongdoing was Jesus being punished?
From the Proclamation that David read at the beginning of the Worship service from Isaiah 53 we get a prophetic picture of what happened to Jesus:
“He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.”
In Jesus, the God of Love volunteered to take upon Himself the punishment that rightly belongs to us.
Jesus could have destroyed them all with a word.
Instead, He bore the shame and the humiliation, so that we may be saved by the costliness of God’s grace!!!
(pause)
There can be no doubt that the events surrounding the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life on earth speak of the brokenness of humanity.
The disciples fell asleep, then fled in fear as Jesus was arrested.
Judas betrayed Jesus.
Peter denied Him.
The Sanhedrin wanted Him dead.
The crowds preferred a messiah preaching violence to a messiah preaching love.
Pilate wanted to satisfy the crowd, and the soldiers seemed to enjoy torturing and dehumanizing an innocent Man.
This is the story of what human beings did when God walked among us, and if we look hard enough all of us can find ourselves in this story.
There can be no doubt that there is something deeply wrong with us, that we are broken and in need of forgiveness.
It’s easy for us to look down on the Sanhedrin, the disciples, Pilate and the soldiers and judge them.
But haven’t we all been guilty of similar things, even if what we’ve done wasn’t nearly as cruel as what the soldiers did?
How many of you have been to the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.?
I’ve been there to see the photos, the video footage, and the exhibits documenting the atrocities that occurred under Hitler’s “final solution.”
The museum is a testament to the gross inhumanity of the Nazis; but it is also a witness to the millions of ordinary people in Europe who refused to resist this evil, including many leaders in the church.
The Holocaust is an indictment not only upon the Nazis, but upon the entire human race.
And Jesus’ suffering and death are also an indictment…
…a mirror, if you will, held up to our souls, a reminder of the jealousy, pettiness, self-centeredness, spiritual blindness, and darkness that lurks in all our souls.
But greater still, it is a mirror, held up in order for us to see the love of God, and how far God is willing to go to save the ones God loves.
Paul says in Romans 5:8, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”
Amazing as it is, the Cross is God’s vehicle for showing us the full extent of God’s love for us.
On that Cross, Jesus took upon Himself every sin that you and I have ever committed.
He took upon Himself the accusations of Satan against the entire human race.
He paid the penalty for our rebellion.
Jesus took on the entire world system that is in rebellion to God.
On that Cross, Jesus took upon Himself the entire original creation that is fallen and corrupt.
He took upon Himself, our flesh, our old Adamic nature.
On that Cross, Jesus took on the very power of Satan himself.
In short, Jesus died with us, instead of us, and for us.
Jesus took the Roman instrument of torture and transformed it into the instrument of deliverance, salvation, and ultimately peace—peace with God, peace with others, peace with ourselves, and peace with creation!!!
And through it all “he never said a mumbalin’ word.”
(pause)
On my first day of high school, as I knelt on the floor, humiliated and hurrying to try and pick up my paper, textbooks, notebooks, pens, pencils…
…as the crowds of other kids, all in a hurry themselves and ignoring my plight, stepped on, tripped over and further scattered my materials, I noticed a stranger who had also knelt down and began to help.
He was a Senior himself.
And as he was picking up my stuff, he was apologizing for the other young man’s actions.
He quickly got me back on my feet with my books in my hands and some of my dignity restored.
I later learned that he was a Christian, and after high school he went on to college and then seminary.
That was a long time ago, but I remember it as a witness to the light, the love, the grace and the difference Jesus Christ makes in the lives of human beings who decide to follow in His footsteps.
I remember that it was a step along the way in convincing and convicting me that “Hey, I want to be like that, I want to be a Christian too!!!”
Are we living out our Christian faith in such a way that our lives are so different from the indifferent crowds, and the mean insufferable bullies that others are touched, changed, and transformed by what we do?
Between 300 and 600 soldiers stripped Jesus naked, then they “dressed him up in a purple robe and twisted together a crown of thorns” which they crushed into his head causing more bleeding and pain.
They laughed as they, “saluted him, ‘Hey! King of the Jews!’
Again and again, they struck his head with a stick.
They spit on him and knelt before him to honor him.
When they finished mocking him, they stripped him of the purple robe and put his own clothes back on him.
Then they led him out to crucify him.”
For every child who has ever been picked on, taunted, humiliated, bullied, Jesus stood there that day.
For every man and woman who has ever been made to feel small by others, Jesus stood there that day.
For every victim of abuse, torture, for everyone falsely condemned, for all who carry a heavy burden Jesus stood there that day.
And for those of us who have done the hurting, the hitting, the mocking, the harassing, the abusing, the bullying, the hating—Jesus stood there that day.
As Isaiah foretold some 700 years before, “Due to an unjust ruling he was taken away…
…Like someone from whom people hid their faces, he was despised…
…It was certainly our sickness that he carried, and our sufferings that he bore, but we thought him afflicted, struck down by God and tormented.
He was pierced because of our rebellions and crushed because of our crimes.
He bore the punishment that made us whole; by his wounds we are healed.”
Praise God.
Amen.
