The King On The Cross

The King on the Cross

Mark 15:16-32

There are 969 chapters from Genesis 3 where Adam sinned with the tree in the garden which caused man’s separation from God;

…until the time of the other tree which seemed so brutal to Jesus but bought our freedom and rectified all the sin issues of mankind, that the fall of Adam, brought upon us!

This morning, we are in the chapter of scripture which speaks about the second brutal tree so, please open your Bibles to Mark 15, as we return to that study.

Last time we learned about Jesus’ false trials before Pilate and how the religious leaders asked for a murderer to be set free and Jesus was condemned to be crucified.

In the passage we studied last time, it was about 5 a.m. and Jesus had already been brutally beaten at the High Priest’s house.

The religious leaders had already broken many of their own laws with the trials and beating of Jesus and they wanted to stone Jesus themselves, but they didn’t have the authority to do so.

The religious leaders sent Jesus to Pilate, who did not want to upset the Jewish leadership again, for fear of another uprising.

I think Pilate was hoping to appeal to the masses by asking the crowd if they wanted Jesus released. But the religious leaders manipulated the crowd who asked for Barabas to be released.

Not only did Pilate think Jesus was innocent, but his wife had a vision in a dream and told Pilate not to touch that innocent man.

Pilate did not want a political catastrophe on his hands so, Pilate ordered Jesus flogged before He was sent off to be crucified.

This morning, we will pick up the narrative where the soldiers came and led Jesus away to be crucified at Golgotha.

I. Mock worship of the King.

Read Mark 15:16-20

The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace which was the governor’s residence and called the whole company together.

The Gospel of Matthew tells us this was a cohort, which was 600 Roman soldiers.

Titus Kennedy said, “The Praetorium was in the palace of Herod since that is where Pilate initially installed the golden shields for Tiberius.”

Notice the Roman soldiers dressed Jesus in purple and gave Him a crown of thorns. Purple, of course, was a sign of royalty.

Mark Wessell in his commentary said, ““It was probably a scarlet military cloak, ‘a cast-off and faded rag, but with color enough left in it to suggest the royal purple.”

Jesus wore a purple robe, a crown of thorns, and was given a reed for a scepter. A scepter represented the authority and power of a king. They gave Jesus these items to mock our King.

Matthew 27:29 When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. NKJV

The soldiers placed a reed in Jesus’ hand as if it were a scepter, then they took it out of His hand and hit Him in the head with it, adding insult to injury against Jesus.

Soon the mocking turned to more brutality as Jesus was beaten, spit upon, and as they pretended to pay homage to Him as a King, the soldiers salute Him and say, “Hail, King of the Jews”.

The Roman soldiers would greet the emperor with, “Hail, Caesar”, because it was believed the emperors were divine.

One of the charges against Jesus was He claimed to be a King, so, these soldiers mock Him saying, “Hail, King of the Jews”.

After all the trials, beatings, and mockery, Pilate declared Jesus not guilty of any crime, yet He still took the cross for our sin.

Here the soldiers were beating Him, spitting on Him, and harassing Him with mock worship. But there has never been any one like Jesus, He is the perfect One and the only God-man.

Imagine Barabbas and the other criminals looking on as all of this was happening to the innocent Lamb of God. Barabas was the murderer insurrectionist who deserved what Jesus received.

This is a tough portion of scripture, because as we sit here and listen to all that happened to Jesus, we realize that like Barabas, we actually deserve what Jesus was receiving for our sin.

After the mock worship, beatings, and humiliation, the soldiers finally led Jesus out to be crucified.

II. Would you carry the Cross for the King?

Read Mark 15:21-24

The book, “Cold Case Christianity” discusses many different opinions on what the cross of Christ would have looked like.

The book said Justin Martyr from 100 AD expressly described the cross of Jesus as being constructed from two beams.

Jesus had been awake for over 24 hours. He suffered at Gethsemane and endured all of the illegal trials and beatings.