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Mark 15:16-39 The Death of the Son of God
Mark chapter 15 starting in verse 16. Hear the word of the Lord. 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 purple in it 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 his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him.
And when they had mocked him they stripped him of the purple cloak and 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 from the country the father of Alexander and Rufus to carry the cross.
And They brought him to the palace called 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 divided his garments among them casting lots for them to decide what each should take.
And it was the third hour when they crucified him and The inscription of the charge against him read the king of the Jews and with him they crucified two robbers. One on his right and one on his left.
And those who passed by derided him wagging their heads and saying aha. You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days save yourself and come down from the cross. So also the chief priest with the scribes mocked him to one another saying he saved others.
He cannot save himself that the Christ the king of Israel come down from now from the cross that we may see and believe. Those who were crucified with him also reviled him. And When the six hour had come there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice Eloy Eloy lama sabbaht stani, which means my god my god why have you forsaken me. And some of the bystanders hearing it said behold is calling Elijah.
And Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink saying wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down. And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.
And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and When the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way, he breathed his last he said Truly this man was the Son of God. If the Lord had his blessings to the reading of his word Jesus has been scourged.
His back is probably dripping with blood from the stripes of open wounds. They led him to the governor's headquarters nearby and called together the whole battalion about 600 soldiers. He's a pathetic bruised bloody figure.
What's he done they ask? He's the king of the Jews. They erupt and laughter. Ridiculous another one of those rebels who thinks he can lead Israel back to its glory days. Let's have some fun with him. They think so he thinks he's a king.
So they'll treat him like a king. Sort of they dress him in purple color of royalty. King needs a crown. So they twist together Some thorns and in a circle like a crown and press it down on his scalp.
They had no idea that everything that they were doing had more meaning than they could possibly know. This passage is full of people Doing and saying things that were more true more meaningful than than they knew.
Here a crown that brings suffering and pain they they thought it was just mockery. But the mockery itself was a thorn in Jesus's royal crown. The kingship that he came with brings him suffering and The Roman soldiers portrayed that perfectly brilliantly by their crown of thorns.
If only they knew what they were doing they then put on a parody of royal homage. Saluting him like they would Caesar hail. King of the Jews they gave him a reed as a mock staff and then snatching the reed out of his hand.
They hit him over the head with it. They spat on him and then sarcastically bowing to him your majesty. They gave him pretend praise all the while everything they said was true. He was the king not only of the Jews, but of everyone else.
He was the majesty and when they were done with the pretend praise and their their parody of honor they Stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes back on him and hand him over to The execution squad.
It was their job to crucify him. He was taken from the ceremony of pretend praise to the cruelest crucifixion he would be required to carry his own cross beam to the place of crucifixion, but weakened by all the beatings through that night trial and the scourging He could only make it so far.
And so the soldiers grabbed some some random passerby. Who probably thought he was really unlucky and made him carry the cross beam the rest of the way. That we know his name of this passerby Simon of Cyrene and that mark expects his original readers to know his sons, you know Alexander and Rufus.
He was their dad. That suggests that sort of proves really that what Simon saw that morning this random passerby Snatched out of the crowds by the Roman soldiers what he saw this beaten bloodied Jesus.
That he's seeing the way he died that had such an impact on him. That he didn't just disappear back into the crowd like you might expect. What do you get it far away from this as he could once he could.
After you know, this forced chore was done but he he lingered and He looked for the followers of Jesus to learn more about Jesus. Did he he became part of the little band of disciples who grew into a large church?
It's amazing. Isn't it? Think about that even in this condition When you expect he was totally humiliated Jesus was an apparent failure from the world's point of view an embarrassment to everything He said he was for you would think a man being executed as a criminal among other criminals.
Even in this condition You'd think he he still wouldn't be able to leave an impression that would Positively impact someone they've actually convert someone when you think it would. His royalty would somehow be obscured by all the blood and the scars.
But it wasn't. You could you could think though even if he's innocent the average person may be okay, he's innocent. But when you think Jesus did something wrong at least strategically and his plan. You know to build a growing movement and assembly a church.
Something went awry there, didn't it? But something that Simon saw in Jesus told him that that wasn't the case. That not only wasn't he a criminal. Getting what he deserved what's coming to him that none of this was an accident.
He wanted to know more. Because he's of what he saw in the suffering Jesus on the morning of Good Friday. Suffering Jesus is shuffling along. Simon is carrying the cross beam the soldiers a Platoon of them maybe and some witnesses including some women following Jesus they make it all together.
This motley entourage. To a prominent place a crossroads where the maximum number of people would see him. That's part of what crucifixion was for is for terrorizing the populace. So they did it in the most Prominent place they could find here.
It's called Golgotha the place of a skull. Once they get there they offer him. Someone offers him wine mixed with myrrh to have a narcotic effect of painkilling effect. Jesus refuses it choosing rather to endure the cross with full consciousness.
Besides he had already said that he would not drink again of wine again until the day. He drinks it with us. At that last great feast when the kingdom of God has fully come and he keeps his promise. Well, they crucified him.
Mark states it plainly bluntly in verse 24. He doesn't adorn it with any description. He doesn't dwell on the gory details like some films. That the details are not as important as the meaning of the crucifixion of why?
Jesus was doing what he was doing now. Sure. Sometimes may be learning something of the barbarity of the crucifixion. How horrendous it was can can help us understand. Of what he went through maybe some meditating on the wondrous cross.
Surveying it the sacred head now wounded is of some value in cultivating. What you my lord has suffered was all for sinners gain. Mine mine was the transgression but thine the deadly pain. Sure, sometimes it's good to learn the details to learn how horrendous That deadly pain was.
William Lane comments that death by crucifixion was one of the cruelest and most degrading forms of punishment ever conceived by human perversity. But mark doesn't dwell on the gory physical details. Do you notice that simple?
Plain statement. They crucified him. He does want us to understand the degradation the humiliation the mockery that Jesus bore. You know, Jesus told us to bear our cross and Often these days we think well because we'll almost certainly not have to literally bear a cross.
We probably won't be killed or in prison for our faith. We kind of think you know, that's irrelevant or that's just a metaphor for Something that it's really not that. Horrible, and so we have the prosperity teachers claiming that if you believe the right thing, not only will you not suffer persecution.
You'll have everything you want everything the world wants. Money and stuff and perfect health and no one around you will be unhappy with you. You'll be popular and attractive. Magnetic even the assumption now is that the more like Jesus you are the more light you will be.
See look very light here in this passage. How popular is he here on Good Friday? It's not only the full-bloom health and wealth gospel teachers that now teach that but many just run a mini run-of-the-mill Evangelical preachers who may not guarantee you the best life now but at least imply that if you follow their steps if you Focus on the family like they say you should you won't really have to Hate your parents or husband or wife or children that if you are following God's plan everyone around you will love you for it.
So when that doesn't happen. When the parents don't like that, you're really saved and taking the Bible seriously or the husband doesn't like that you go to church. Or the wife isn't supporting you and being a covenant-keeping disciple going to a biblical church.
When the kids are hoping you'll sleep late on Sunday morning because they don't really want to go either or hoping you'll skip Good Friday this year. When you're the weird one at school or at work. Maybe you're regarded as a hater or as a bigot.
Because you believe God's Word. When people who have bought into this line, they're being a Christian a follower of Jesus this Jesus Means being well-liked by everyone when they encounter the reality that sometimes the opposite is the case.
But they're just shocked. They weren't expecting this. They must have done something wrong. They think they're bewildered. Sometimes they compromise then to earn approval. They think I must be doing something wrong if getting me this that they aren't married to the church the body of Christ they say they're they're married to the husband of the wife who is leading them away from Christ and so we so they've got a.
They've got to do whatever makes them make those around them happy. They've got to cater them. They think so they compromise maybe they even sin. That's why mark here spends a lot more time. Describing the hostility the mockery the rejection Jesus faced then he does the physical anguish that Jesus felt.
He's preparing us To bear that cross to. Here is the cruelest crucifixion. Mark tells us in a simple unadorned blunt. They crucified him. And then he spends almost all the rest of the time on the crucifixion.
Describing the hatred and the ridicule he faced already were past the passage where the soldiers the battalion mocked him now here at the place. Crucifixion the inscription the little sign Announcing his crime.
It was mocking him the king of the Jews. The passersby Just derided him, you know, just total strangers that just knew whatever. The rumors were around town instead of sympathy for a wrongly executed man.
They just wagged their heads and scoffed. Aha, you would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days come down from the cross. Think you're so powerful. They thought that that proved That he couldn't rebuild the temple in three days.
They thought that any person Who could escape? That suffering Would certainly do it. That no one would voluntarily Stay on the cross. So that Jesus isn't coming down they think then well that proves that he can't Come down and that proves that all that talk about his rebuilding the temple in three days, that's just an empty boast.
He's just all talk. Now look at him Can't do it. It never occurred to them as they were Mangling Jesus's prediction of his own resurrection that the reason that the literal temple would be destroyed Would be because what they are doing at that moment.
It never occurred to them that he is The true temple and he will rebuild it in three days. It never occurred to them as as they wag their heads and scorn Jesus that they were while doing that very thing.
That they were destroying the temple. The chief priests and the scribes the religious leaders. Today the pastors the bishops the Bible scholars Came out to see what they have worked so long for and they join in on the ridicule.
Starting in verse 31. He saved others. He cannot save himself. It never occurred to them that Now he is saving others by not saving himself. And they just pour it on their scorn. They just let it loose.
Let the Christ the Anointed One the King of Israel, huh? Let him come down now from the cross that we may see and believe. They scoffed that he can't be the Christ the real king of Israel and be suffering like this and all these things happening to you.
Gee, this can't have he happening to the real king. Well the Bible scholars they should know better. They should know about the suffering servant who will be despised and rejected by men. That he would be treated like a worm and not a man.
He would be scorned by people. You would think that the scribes of all people would remember Psalm 22 and they would see themselves in it. All who see me mocked me. They make mouths at me. They wag their heads.
Just what it says they were doing here. He trusts in the Lord and him deliver him. Let him rescue him for he delighted him same things. They were saying you think they would see you would think that that those Scribes and the priests when they saw those Roman soldiers dividing Jesus's garments by lot in verse 24.
That that would have jogged their memory. They would have remembered Psalm 22 verse 18. They divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots. But they were so wrapped up in there in their mockery.
They didn't see that their mockery Was fulfilling scripture. They say they will believe if he comes down from the cross. But they don't understand it is precisely by him staying on the cross and being ridiculed.
By them that is the proof that he is the Christ. Finally, not only is he mocked by the inscription rejected by Passers-by scorned by total strangers scoffed at by the religious leaders. Even the two criminals Executed with him says reviled him notice that strong term in verse 32.
They reviled him. They heaped insults on him and it's a continuous action that they kept doing it. It wasn't like one word here or there. They just they poured it on for a while insulting him. Now we know and probably like we like to focus on the fact that what did it we'd learn from another gospel that one of the other criminals one of them came around and Eventually came to believe in Jesus, but for a time Both of those crucified men with him were scorning him, too.
Mark here is preparing us for bearing our cross. Showing us that if we are to share in Christ's sufferings, we might have to share in his rejection, too. We might get so low That even the other outcasts of society the other losers everyone else Loves to insult.
Even day we're so low even they join in in insulting us. That's the cruelest crucifixion and we're being warned that We might have to taste it too. Then comes the cry of dereliction. About noon when the Sun is supposed to be at its height.
It becomes dark. We don't know, you know, whether it was an eclipse or the clouds became unusually thick. I saw some unusually thick clouds in Danville today if they cover the whole sky. It could have made it dark here, but it was it was whatever happened.
It was dark in the middle of daylight hours. It was like a plague the plague of darkness and before the first Passover in Egypt the sign that God had cursed that land that he wasn't Here that he wasn't going to look.
That it was literally God forsaken. Three hours of darkness six hours on the cross. Jesus cries out the only words of Jesus from the cross in Mark. Eloy Eloy Lama Sabbath study. From Psalm 22 verse 1 my God my God.
Why have you forsaken me? This is what Christians have called the cry of dereliction. The son feels abandoned by the father as the father made him to be sin who knew no sin. Father placed on him the iniquity of us all and so the father could not Have fellowship with him.
And this was the worst. This was the bitterest dregs of that cup that Jesus begged not to have to drink in the garden. This was worse than the scourging and the battering and the nails and the ridicule.
This was the feeling of abandonment by the father himself being condemned. Not just by hypocritical religious people not just by a weak man with power who cared more about pleasing the crowds than doing justice.
Not just by people who the people that common people now mocking him but condemned by the father himself as he as if He were a sinner. And so he cries out derelict in our place alone he hung and cried.
But even when he feels abandoned by God the father He did not abandon God. His cry of dereliction is also an anguished prayer of affirmation of faith. The father is still My god my god the mockery callousness and caring.
The total misunderstanding never stops. People around him misunderstand him in Hebrew. My god is Eli. They thought they think he's saying Elijah calling for Elijah's help someone runs to go get a sponge soaked in sour wine.
He puts it on a stick to get it up to Jesus's mouth wanting to help Jesus to stay alive a little longer. Not really because he cared about Jesus not wanted to relieve his pain or sue them in any way. But so they could mock him some more.
Let's see. Let's keep him alive so we can see if Elijah will come for him release. They mean so he'll see that Elijah's not coming. This is prolong his agony. So he knows how abandoned he is. Then Jesus exclaims a loud cry a shout.
Now that's unusual. Crucifixion killed by a asphyxiation by slowly Suffocating its victims by exhausting them with the agonizing exertion it took just to breathe particularly to exhale until they couldn't breathe anymore their lungs just got full of.
You know gases they can't get rid of as one got closer to death then. Breath and so speech become more and more difficult. And so that Jesus could muster up the strength to utter a loud cry basically to shout out.
Proves that he was not yet physically near death. That he should be able to linger on for many hours perhaps days. But he doesn't need to. He's been on the cross for six hours. It's been dark for three.
Even his cry of dereliction was with a loud voice my god my god. Why have you forsaken me? He's borne the wrath of God and so now He's done. It is finished. No more suffering need be endured. He doesn't have to die again for our salvation either in the Lord's Supper or in any other way.
There's nothing we need to do to add to it. He's done it and so he utters a a loud cry a final shout proving that he's not physically near death and then. Then There is the death of the Son of God. He breathes his last.
Mark wants us to know what that means. We don't have to dwell on all the gory physical details. We need to be prepared for the rejection that following him might bring. But what does his death mean? He was abandoned crying out derelict.
From the father himself bearing sin, what does that mean for us? Well in verse 38, we're told in a picture Across town not really far from where they were in the temple the curtain is separated. Sinners outside from the presence of the Holy God inside that was torn and In case you missed the point is specifically was torn from top near to heaven to the bottom.
God came down and tore that symbol of separation from God and sinners because he laid on him on Christ the iniquity of us all so That it's not on us anymore our sins our guilt it doesn't separate us from God anymore, so the way to God is now open it's been torn open and that's What the cross means?
Meanwhile back in Golgotha. What does this death say about? Jesus Seem what the cross what does it mean? Who is he? The centurion the head of the execution squad, but probably seen many men put to death who had grown deaf, you know.
So they're pathetic screams as he nailed him to the cross who is numb to the slowly Dissipating groans of them suffocating for hours on the cross. He stares at Jesus. Astounded He's now dead on the cross and he stares at him.
He knew what it meant for Jesus to be able twice in the minutes before breathing his last to shout out. He knew it meant that he Jesus was not physically near death yet. And yet he witnessed this Jesus his victim this king of the Jews that he was responsible for killing voluntarily bow his head and stop breathing.
He knew that Jesus did not have his life taken from him, but that he laid it down of his own accord. And he stares at Jesus and he knows and he says out loud. Truly this man Was the son of God now the centurion?
He's a Roman. He's a pagan. He probably meant in his mind full of mythology that Jesus was surely From his from Jesus's composure from his courage from this sort of royal control over himself. Even at being to the point where he could lay down his life.
That this Jesus in his own mind Was some kind of godlike descendant of the pagan gods like a superhero like an Achilles. But he too Was more right Than he knew. What he said was true literally and for Mark.
His words the centurion's words tell us who Jesus is. Psalm 22 tells us why he suffered. He's the suffering King surrounded afflicted but in the end triumphant. The Torn curtain in the temple tells us what Jesus did.
He ripped down the barrier between us sinners and a holy God and the centurion tells us who? Did all this? The Son of God.