Joel Brooks: If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Mark chapter 15. We are getting close to the end of our series going through the gospel of Mark. If you don't have a Bible, we have the text there in your worship guide. If you were to go to any of the great art museums in the world, if you were to go over to the Louvre, or the Met, or the Smithsonian, even if you were to go to the Birmingham Museum of Art, one of the things that you will most certainly find are multiple paintings, sculptures, etchings, pieces of jewelry, all depicting the crucifixion of Jesus. The crucifixion of Christ has been portrayed in art more than any other scene in human history, and it's not even close.
And it's appropriate, because, it's what we believe as Christians to be the centerpiece of all of history. And there's something about the crucifixion that speaks deep into the heart, I believe of every human. It's where we can see the blazing center of the glory of God, and it's why we're gonna take 2 weeks to look at the crucifixion. We're gonna look at half of the story this week, and we're gonna look at the other half of it next week. But we'll begin, this time, first by reading from Isaiah 50, and then I'll read from Mark 15.
Isaiah 50 verse 6. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. Mark 15. And the soldiers led him away inside the palace that is the governor's headquarters, and they called together the whole battalion.
And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him. Hail, King of the Jews. And they were striking him, striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. When they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, and they put his own clothes on him, and they led him out to crucify him.
And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. And they brought him to the place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull. And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him, and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them to decide what each should take. And it was the 3rd hour when they crucified him.
And the inscription of the charge against him read, the king of the Jews. And with him, they crucified 2 robbers, 1 on his right and one on his left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in 3 days, save yourself. Come down from the cross. So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another saying, he saved others.
He cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe. Those who were crucified with him also reviled him. This is the word of the Lord. Amen.
Now pray with me. Father, thank you for this word. Thank you for preserving it for us over the last 2000 years. That we might read from it, and we might come to see You and adore You. And I pray that through Your Spirit, that's exactly what would happen in this place.
I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Despite the crucifixion of Jesus being the inspiration for countless pieces of artwork, paintings, movies, when we read about it in the gospels, it's actually remarkably nondescript.
Mark simply tells us in verse 24, they crucified him. That's it. It's a very simple statement. As a matter of fact, all of the physical suffering of Jesus is described without the use of any adjectives, Not just in Mark, but in all the gospels. There's no descriptions, you know, like like we see in the movies if there's a passion scene depicted.
There's no descriptions of of Jesus's back being ripped open, or of blood pouring down his face and down to the ground, or Jesus looking all bruised and beaten. None of those things are there. Those scenes are often depicted in slow motion in the movies, but but Mark doesn't tell us about those things nor do any of the gospels. It's just not the focus. Instead, what we do have are lengthy descriptions of the mocking of Jesus.
Jesus is mocked. He's shamed. He's scorned. He's laughed at. He's derided.
Jesus is seen as an absolute joke here. So it's the shame, not the pain that Mark is focusing on. He's mocked by every group of people too. He's mocked by the soldiers, mocked by those passing by, mocked by even the criminals that are hanging on the cross to his right and to his left. He's mocked by all of the religious leaders.
Everyone joins in on the fun in mocking him. Never has there been anyone who has been so ridiculed or so scorned. As I was studying this, I was thinking, the contrast, of what we see happening here with Jesus, and really with Christians throughout the centuries. And what happened a little over 20 years ago, for those of you who are alive at the time and remember this, a Danish cartoonist depicted Mohammed. You remember that?
And the entire Muslim world went in an uproar. There were riots happening all over the world. An embassy was stormed because the leader of their faith can never be mocked like that. And yet here we see Jesus severely mocked and scorned. And as we'll look at next week, praying forgiveness for those who do it, just as Christians have prayed forgiveness for those who have mocked us over the centuries.
And we as, Christians, we actually see in the mocking of Jesus, we see our salvation being played out here. And we'll see this as we look more into this text. The first group of people to mock Jesus are the soldiers. We read that an entire battalion, which was 600 soldiers, they gathered to take Jesus away to be crucified. Now 600 people is complete overkill to guard Jesus and take him away to be crucified.
But these 600 people weren't there to guard him, they were there because they didn't wanna miss out on the fun. That's why they gathered. They came to mock him. You see, these people despised having been commissioned to live out in hot, arid, little Palestine, where they were surrounded by all these weird religious people who despise them. The Jewish people hated them, and they hated the Jewish people in return.
And now finally, these soldiers are getting the chance to do what they have wanted to do for so long, they finally get to beat up on the King of the Jews. And they unleash their fury on him. You can picture the scene. Jesus is standing there before them. He could probably barely stand because he's been beaten so severely.
And one of the soldiers probably says, hey, I've got a great idea. See that purple cloak over there, that old one? Yeah. Grab it. Let's put it on him because, you know, he is royalty after all.
And somebody else says, oh, I got I got a great idea. Since he's king, every king needs a crown. And so they they get some thorns, and they weave a crown, and they smash it on his head. Matthew says they gave him a reed to act as a scepter. Here, we read that they would take the reed away, and they would begin to smash him on the head with it.
Every blow, of course, driving in those 4 to 6 inch thorns deeper and deeper into his brow. I mean, you could picture them just taking turns, one after another, just kneeling before him, oh, hail, king of the Jews, and then spitting and then hitting him, and then next in line, over and over. As these soldiers, they placed the crown of thorns onto Jesus's head, they saw weakness, but we actually see something, something much greater happening. It's hard to read those words and not think of Genesis chapter 3. Back after Adam sinned, the result of his sin was God brought a curse upon this world.
He cursed the ground, and we read that that's where the thorns and thistles came from. We actually read these words that God says to Adam. He said, cursed is the ground because of you. In pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.
Ever since then, thorns have been the symbol of this cursed world. And here, Jesus is carrying that curse on His head. What they see as weakness, we see the strength of our King carrying away the very curse of this world. After beating and mocking Jesus for some time, the soldiers, they lead Jesus away to be crucified. Now normally, one would have to carry their own cross or carry the the horizontal beam that would be attached to the vertical pole later, but Jesus had apparently been beaten so severely that he couldn't carry it.
He could probably let alone walk or walk let alone carry such a heavy item. So they find some bystander nearby, a man named Siren of Cyrene. And they commission him into service and they force him to carry the cross of Jesus. And a very unusual detail for Mark, as we've seen him as we've gone through this gospel, rarely are there extra details. So in a very unusual detail for him, we're not only given the name of Siren of Cyrene, we're given the name of his children, Alexander and Rufus.
Now, the only reason Mark would ever give us the names of his two children is if those two children were actually known to the people of the church. Apparently, that these 2 had become Christians, possibly even after this event or because of this event. And so Mark here, he essentially gives them a shout out. You guys know Alexander and Rufus? The apostle Paul would later give Rufus a shout out in the end of his, letter to the Romans.
In Romans 16, he does a special greeting to Rufus, who apparently grows up to become a leader within the church. But I think, actually, the reason that Mark gives us the name of siren Simon of Cyrene is well, it's for a different reason. I think he he wants to point out that there should have been another Simon there. There should have been Simon Peter. When Jesus had earlier talked to Peter after Peter he had told Peter that he was going to be killed, and Peter was like, no.
Far be it. Don't do this. Do you remember what Jesus said to Peter on one of those occasions? Peter, if any man wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Here was Peter's chance to literally take up the cross and to follow Jesus, but Simon Peter cannot be found.
And someone else had to take his place. So here we are reminded that Jesus was abandoned by absolutely everyone, even his closest friends. They brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha, which is place of the skull or a skull. In Latin, it's called Calvary. And there, they were to crucify him, but first they offered him, wine mixed with myrrh.
This was essentially a pain killer. It was a drug that they would give as an act of mercy, a little bit of mercy, to take some of the edge off of all of the pain. And so this is offered to Jesus, and Jesus actually refuses it. The reason he refuses it is because he has already committed himself to drink another cup. He's already committed himself to drink the cup of his father's wrath that will be unleashed towards sin.
He also made a promise. He told his disciples, back, in the upper room, he told them that, he would not drink of the fruit of the vine again until he drank it with them anew in his kingdom. Well, his kingdom is not gonna come before the cross. His kingdom is gonna come after the cross. And so he withholds from drinking of that cup.
So Jesus refuses the pain killer, and then we read in verse 24 that they crucified him. Simple statement, they crucified him. The Romans were experts at killing people. Crucifixion was by far their most ingenious, painful, and humiliating way they ever devised to do it. It's beyond horrific.
Women and children were not allowed to witness a crucifixion. It was about bringing maximum pain and maximum shame, to the person they killed. For Rome, this wasn't just supposed to be an execution. This was a advertisement if you will. It was an advertisement to the world saying that Rome wins, this person loses.
A matter of fact, this isn't even a person. This is a less than nothing. We're wiping his name from the earth. They're like a bug we will just squash. Now the Romans, they invented crucifixion around the 3rd century B.
C. So they've been perfecting this art for about 250 years, but what I find absolutely fascinating is how the Old Testament prophets were already speaking about crucifixion, and that this is how the Messiah would suffer and die. King David, who lived 1000 years before Jesus, and who lived 700 years before the Romans began crucifying people, he wrote this in Psalm 22. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs encompass me. A company of evildoers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and my feet.
I can count all of my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them. And for my clothing they cast lots. Isaiah, who lived in the 8th century, well, he wrote this more than 500 years before Rome invented crucifixion.
In Isaiah 53, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. Zechariah, who lived in the 6th century BC, he wrote this in Zechariah chapter 12. And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him.
Isn't that amazing? Well before the Romans ever came up with the idea of crucifixion, the prophets had already foretold that this must happen to the Messiah. Jesus dying on the cross had been planned out long ago by God. Before crucifying Jesus, the soldiers would have stripped him of all of his clothing, as a further way of shaming him. Those who were crucified were, they were crucified naked, exposed.
Jesus would then have to have the indignity of watching them play a game to see who got his only possession, his clothing. Large nails or spikes would have been driven through Jesus's hands or the top of his wrist. Then nails would have been driven through his feet. And then Jesus would have been raised up, hung up, to where he would have died by suffocation. Those who were crucified, they didn't die from blood loss or anything like that.
They died from asphyxiation. You see, when you're you're hanging there, it it puts a tremendous strain on your lungs, making it very hard to breathe. The only way to breathe is this is to lift yourself up to take a breath. But think of the pain. Every time you lift yourself up, you're pushing down against your your feet, which have been pierced with nails.
And every time Jesus also would push up your back that's been scourged, it's just rubbing against that rough hued wood. The pain would have been absolutely horrific. Jesus though, and all the pain that he suffered, that was not the focus of Mark. The gospels don't focus on this. As horrible as crucifixion was, it actually was not a death that was unique to Jesus.
1000 upon 1000 and 1000 of Jews were crucified just like him. We actually read that when, Rome was laying siege to Jerusalem about 30, 40 years later, they crucified 500 Jews a day. At one point, they ran out of wood to do it with. They actually began just nailing Jews to trees, and then they ran out of trees. Another time, they lined up 130 miles of the road leading to Jerusalem, hanging crosses and crucified people the whole way.
Once again, they were experts at killing. So this death though, as terrible as it was, wasn't actually a unique experience to Jesus. But what was unique was this, No one has suffered more humiliation or shame. No one has ever been shamed or as despised as him. Absolutely everyone mocks him.
Everybody around him thinks he's an absolute joke. He's pathetic. MOTS by even those hanging on the cross next to him. I mean, look at verses 25. And it was the 3rd hour when they crucified him.
And the inscription of the charge against him read, the king of the Jews. And with him, they crucified 2 robbers, 1 on his left and one on his right. And in verse 32, we read that even those crucified next to him began to deride him. That word, robbers, there that describes them, same word we saw last week. It's the word that's used to describe Barabbas.
It can mean insurrectionist. Today, we might translate it terrorist. But Jesus is taking Barabbas's spot. And so he's hanging alongside the other insurrectionists. And even they mocked him, which is which is astounding.
I mean, just think. They decided to do with their last few breaths on earth, they wanted to scorn Jesus. I've been trying to think of that and and imagining what would they say. Likely, they they would probably scorn him saying things like this. Hey.
How's that peaceful revolution going, Jesus? Hey. I think that bit about loving your enemies is really working. You fool. You're gonna die just like one of us.
We read that not only did the criminals mock him, but even those who were just walking by, they derided him. They were wagging their heads saying, you actually thought you could tear down the temple, rebuild it in 3 days? Oh my gosh. How pathetic. Yeah.
How about this? How about you get off the cross, you you save yourself, and then maybe we'll believe that? Finally, we read that Jesus was mocked yet once again by the religious leaders. Look at verse 31. So also the chief priest but the scribes mocked him to one another saying, he saved others.
He cannot save himself. But the Christ of the King of Israel come down now from the cross that we may see and then we'll believe. Saying that you can almost says they're saying it to one another. You kinda picture them just like rimming one another like, look what a joke. I mean, yeah.
Yeah. I mean, maybe he helped some others, but Yeah. Where's that power now? Is for our salvation. So he's mocked by the soldiers, mocked by the criminals, mocked by just normal peaceful walking by, mocked by all of the religious leaders.
He's mocked by those who have power and those who are without it. He's mocked by the morally upright, and he's mocked by the thugs. Absolutely everyone joins in in mocking Jesus. Has there ever been a man in history so abandoned by his friends, so cheated by the judicial system, so derided, so treated with less dignity, and so treated less than he deserved. Never.
And what we see happening here is that Jesus is taking our shame. You know that guilt, the shame that you feel after you've committed the same sin for the 100th time, the thousandth time? I can't believe I did it. You feel that shame? That's what Jesus is taking upon himself.
All of our shame, all of our guilt is being laid on him. A number of years ago, I had a young man, come and talk to me. He had a really bad week. He, he had his girlfriend over to his apartment, and she came along with a bunch of her friends. They were all gonna go do something later that evening.
And while, while they're all over there, his girlfriend asked if she could use his computer for something. Said, sure. Just open it up right over there. And she opened it up, and instantly, the porn that he had been looking at popped right up on the screen and began playing. And there was for his girlfriend just to see, all of her friends looking at it.
And he said, they all looked at that, and then all of them turned and looked at him. And he said the shame he felt in that moment is like I I can't describe it. I will always remember the look that they gave me. They looked at me like I was less than human. And he he didn't know what to do with that.
And I said, do you know what? In Jesus, that's not how God looks at you, because He has taken away that shame. That's what he's experiencing. He's taking all of that. He's taking all that crap, if you will, that everyone's throwing at him.
He's taking all of it upon himself, and he's gonna leave it at the cross. So he's carrying away our shame, and he is giving us his righteousness. He's taking away all the disgust, all of the derision that we deserve. It's all being laid on the person who knew no sin. Now we read in Hebrews chapter 12 how and why Jesus was able to do this.
We actually read these words. He despised the shame. He despised the shame because of the joy that was set before him. Here's the exact way the author of Hebrews says it. For the joy that was set before Jesus, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
It's a very unusual phrase, isn't it? I've never heard it used anywhere. To despise the shame. That word despised, it means to not even take something into account. To to just despise you don't even consider it.
I actually read one of the commentaries, and it it explained it this way. The shame that Jesus received was not even worthy of his consideration because of the joy that was set before him. So all of the shame and guilt that was flung at him, that he's carrying He's like, it it wasn't even worth consideration. And we rewind. Well, because he knew the joy that was coming.
And that is the joy of our salvation. Us being with him forever. That joy was his fuel. It's like he did not even consider the insults as he went to the cross. When Jesus thought about what he was accomplishing through his sacrificial death, all the insults and derision that he received were not worthy of comparison.
As we read about all this mockery and all this fury unleashed onto Jesus, we do have to ask a question, why? I mean, why was he exactly so derided and scorned? And hear me, if you don't understand the why, you won't understand who Jesus is, and he certainly won't understand the crucifixion, why he was crucified. I've actually talked to many non believers over the years, and I've asked many of them what they think about Jesus then. Tell me what you think about Jesus.
If you don't believe he's the Lord, like, what do you think about him? And I have never heard a negative thing, ever. I I I'll ask people, you know, they they can be atheist, you know, whatever, secular professors, and they'll say, well, I think Jesus was a great guy. I think he was a good moral teacher. I think he was a humble man.
I think he went around teaching love and forgiveness. He was a great leader. Those things don't get you killed. It's not like people were were punching Jesus and saying, hey, that's for the sermon on the mount. You know, they they weren't whipping him in the back or spitting in his face and saying, hey.
That's for saying love one another as you love yourself. Take this. That's for the golden rule, Jesus. I mean, you don't mock and kill somebody for those things. So if that's what you kinda believe, that Jesus was just kinda that, and that's all he was, that's foolishness.
Jesus was killed and mocked like he was for one reason. Because of who he said he was. He said, he was the son of God. And when people hear that, when they hear somebody make a claim that another has absolute authority over their life, I tell you that's when the rebellion comes up and you're like, who exactly do you think you are? Because nobody tells me what to do.
That's why Jesus was so scorned, and mocked, and killed. It's because he claimed to be God in the flesh, and all of our sinful resistance bowed up against him. But the good news is Jesus wasn't lying. He was God in the flesh. He just wasn't the type of God that we expected because what he was is a God of such incredible love that he would actually endure all of this for us.
All of it. He would take all of the hostility of the human heart, and he would take it upon himself and take it to the cross. He takes our shame. He gives us His righteousness. He takes death.
He gives us life. I want to end with these words from Isaiah chapter 53. He was despised, rejected by men. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men actually hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. And yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.
And with his wounds, we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Pray with me.
Jesus, the words, thank you are completely insufficient, but I don't know what else to say. So thank you. Thank you for taking all of my guilt and all of my shame, taking it to the cross. Thank you for the immense love that you have shown me. You've shown everyone here in this room.
Lord, I pray that you would teach us to have your same heart. We would love others. We love our enemies like you did. We would offer forgiveness even from the cross. And Lord, that we would take up our crosses and we would follow you.
Thank you Jesus for the redeeming work that you have had in this world. And we pray this in your name. Amen.