The Easter Story Part 1: Up Calvary's Mountain Series

THE EASTER STORY PART ONE: UP CALARY’S MOUNTAiN

1. Mocked by the Soldiers

Matthew 27:27-30; Mark 15:16-19

1) The Suffering

Jesus, having already been scourged earlier (?), was mocked once more by the soldiers. After this came more suffering. Crucifixion was the most horrible execution known to man. The Persians began using it around 400 BC to instill fear in conquered people motivating them to obey. The victim was stripped, nailed to a cross of wood, placed close to the road for all to see, and left alive, screaming, because of the pain, the hot sun, the insects and the birds. It took about 36 hours for most to die, but some lived as long as six days. Crucifixions were common in the First Century and Jesus, says William Barclay, not doubt witnessed this many times.

2) The Shadow

The Bible Jesus read as a boy and heard preached in the synagogue was full of the cross. It did not surprise Him. He knew it was coming. All the Old Testament sacrifices Jesus read about as a boy were a “shadow” of this (Hebrews 10:1).

In Genesis 3, God covered the nakedness of Adam and Eve by slaughtering an animal to make them coats. There too He told Satan he would do battle with a man born of woman. He would reach out and strike him (the cross), but in so doing, he would be crushed in defeat (3:15).

At some point in His young life, while reading his Bible and praying to His Father, He read Genesis 3:15, Psalm 22 or Isaiah 53 and realized all this was coming; even the shameful, unnecessary treatment by the soldiers (Isaiah 50:6). He told His disciples in Luke 18:31 that He would be mocked, insulted, spit on and scourged. When He read this, is it possible that as a little boy or teen ager, that He cried in the presence of God asking if there might be some other way?

There is a picture of Jesus, as a boy in the carpenter shop.

He is stretching His arms to relieve tension. But the sun shining

through the door, places His silhouette on the wall behind Him in the shape of a cross.

3) The Sadistic Cruelty

In what could be the hardest part of that day’s events, Jesus allows Himself to be shamefully mistreated by the soldiers and made to look like a fool. They took the greatest, strongest man who ever lived and made him their clown.

The soldiers had a job to do. He had already been scourged. Now they could assign four soldiers for the death squad; give Him His crossbeam; take Him through the streets; and crucify Him. But they wanted to have some fun.

They stripped him, exposing His already beaten body, covered with bruises and open wounds from the scourging. Then they began their torment.

A king needs a robe so they found one lying around and put it on Him. “A king needs a scepter so they put a stick in His hand. A king needs a crown so they cut and shaped some thorns and pressed it down on His head as the spikes dug into His head, neck and face. A king needs some subjects. So one by one they bowed down before Him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Isaiah 50:6 says they jerked His beard out of His face.

Jesus was silent so they began to hit Him with their fists and with a stick and since He was a prophet, they asked Him to tell them which one of them hit Him.

4) The Silence

In all this Jesus said nothing. Isaiah 53 says:

“He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. As a sheep before its shearers is silent; so He opened not His mouth.”

Isaiah 50:6 says:

“I offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.”

Few men can resist striking back when taunted and laughed at and slapped by other men; but Jesus did. Brave Peter, the least likely to take insults like this was so impressed by it that he wrote:

“When He was reviled He did not revile back and when He suffered He did not make any threats because He entrusted Himself to Him, the One who will judge fairly.” (1 Peter 2:23)

We are to be like flowers. When they are crushed their beautiful scent is released.

5) The Shield

After 39 lashes that often jerked out pieces of bone, not one bone was broken because the Passover Lamb had no broken bones (John 19:36; Exodus 12). God was there shielding His Son and Jesus knew it. No matter how bad things get; no matter how much we are tempted to believe God has deserted us;