The Book of Mark
“And They Crucified Him”
Mark 15:22-32
You will remember that last week I mentioned how the New Testament really shies away from the physical pain and suffering of the crucifixion and, instead, concentrates more on the mockery and blasphemy that Jesus endures. It is all a joke as far as the Jews are concerned, and the Romans are more than eager to join in the ridicule.
And one of the greatest evidences of control and sovereignty is seen in the fact that Jesus didn’t retaliate or respond as He could have. It is a great evidence of the love and grace and mercy of God that He allowed to happen what we see going on here as Jesus is mocked and spat upon and ridiculed as He prepares to die for the sins of the world.
Just to remind ourselves of the outline we are following, in verses 16-20, the attention is on the soldiers as they mock Jesus by placing a robe and crown on Him and bowing in a parody of worship.
Then we saw this stranger named Simon that becomes involved in the scene as Jesus collapses under the weight of the cross and he is forced to carry it. And as I suggested, he goes back home a saved man and helps to develop a community of believers in Cyrene and we find some suggestion in the New Testament of his son being a leader in the Roman church.
It’s very interesting to me how God can take the worst of circumstances and do a work that brings glory and honor to Himself.
In the text before us tonight, the attention is on Jesus and the cross.
Mark 15:22-32
3. The Savior
The details Mark provides us are brief and to the point. His record of what happens is so stark and deliberate. It’s almost as if he deliberately holds back the details to spare the hearer the grief and ugliness of what happened there.
He simply tells us brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is an Aramaic word. The Latin derivative is Calvary. By the way, there’s nothing in the New Testament accounts of the crucifixion that tells us that He was crucified on a hill. In fact, there are no references to a hill in any part of the story.
Historically speaking, crucifixions took place along major roads and thoroughfares so those who were travelling by could see what happen if you violate the laws of Rome. So I think it stands to reason that Jesus was crucified in whatever the common place for crucifixions to take place happened to be.
Some believe it was an elevated place because He was to be “lifted up”, but I see that more as a reference to being lifted up on the cross. I do think it reasonable that the places of crucifixion were highly visible to the mainstream of traffic in the day.
While we don’t know if the crucifixion was on a hill, we do know that it occurred at Golgotha which is translated “the place of a skull”. Some say it was called that because it was a place where people died and since sometimes people were left on the cross in the blazing sun long after they were dead, the birds and vultures would come along and tear at their flesh and skulls would be revealed. And that may be a good explanation.
Others say that the hill itself looked like a skull. There was a man named Gordon who developed that theory and indicated a certain location that came to be known as Gordon’s Calvary. And depending on the angle and where you stand, you get the impression of a skull rising out of the ground.
To be honest, we don’t know for sure where Jesus was crucified. The actual place would have been outside the city walls when the crucifixion occurred. The celebrated location is inside the modern city of Jerusalem and is covered in churches of various types. But we can’t know for sure.
verse 23
Matthew 27:34 in Matthew’s parallel account, says, “He tasted it and did not take it.” I referenced this verse recently on the sermon regarding alcohol and how God allowed it’s usage as a narcotic for people who were dying.
Now there are a lot of people who debate what purpose this served. There are two or three things at play there.
First of all, the Romans had no interest in showing mercy or being sympathetic to what those being executed were going through.
But historians tell us the Jews asked that this be done based upon Proverbs 31:6, that calls for the use of some kind of narcotic for pain. They wanted to mitigate some of the horrendous suffering.
But it also fulfills Psalm 69:21 which is a prophecy regarding the crucifixion that says this would be offered to Him and He wouldn’t did not take it. Instead, He would drink the cup of the Father’s wrath with full awareness and full consciousness.
verse 24
That’s it. No adjectives. No descriptions, just four words: “and they crucified Him”. There is much that could be said about that regaridn how death accorded as a result of crucifixion and the effects it had on the body and so forth. But Mark shies away from all that and simply says, “They crucified Him”.
Then he adds one comment in verse 24b
Again, his focus is on the mockery and the ridicule and Mark adds this detail about the gambling that takes place for His clothes.
I suppose that was one of the perks of the job of being the execution crew. John fills in some of the detail by telling us there were five pieces that were distributed, including the tunic. Either they tore the one piece into five, which wouldn’t make much sense or, more likely there was sandals, an outer robe, a headpiece, a belt and the seamless robe.
By the way, I have a good study on this on the website called “The Seamless Robe” that you may want to look at.
Without going into all the details, remember that robe and these soldiers gambling for it was a fulfillment of prophecy found in Psalm 22:18. Again, I find it amazing that hundreds of years before the event, prophecy gives us precise detail of a custom that would develop around crucifixion where the soldiers gamble for the clothes of the executed.
God’s Word brings together His foreknowledge of the event and a practical, everyday part of Roman life so that not one detail is missed, nor is it some odd, unexpected thing that doesn’t fit or make sense.
It was simply a part of the compensation package for being on the execution squad and yet it fulfills Old Testament prophecy regarding the crucifixion of Christ.
Verse 25
It is now nine in the morning. This has happened so fast! Just the night before, Jesus and his disciples were in the Upper Room, sharing a meal and singing songs. In between, they go to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, Judas shows up with a huge contingent of soldiers to arrest the Lord, He’s taken before Annas for an indictment. They couldn’t find one. He’s taken before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin for a trial. There is still no crime. But they decide they’re going to kill Him anyway. They then send Pilate. Pilate sends Him to Herod. He comes back to Pilate, there’s a mock trial in the daylight to give some legitimacy to it for the Jews.
Six different phases of His trial, three with the Jews, three with the Gentiles, all that has happened and they have Him on the cross by nine in the morning.
So what’s the hurry? From a Jewish standpoint, they don’t want any opportunity for the crowd to turn and come to His rescue. As far as the Romans are concerned, it’s no big deal. After all, this is what they do.
But remember, the timetable is not established by the Jews of the Romans, but God. He’s the One in charge and He arranges the agenda and sets the timetable. And God has determined that Jesus will die at three in the afternoon at the very moment the nation of Israel is busy slaughtering all the Passover lambs. And that He will die by crucifixion.
Although there are some earlier references historically to crucifixion, it was made much more common during the time when Alexander the Great was conquering the world in the fourth century, B.C., which would be the 300’s. As an example, he came to the city of Tyre in the land of Palestine, and there he crucified 2,000.
Then in the first century, B.C., Alexander Jannaeus, who was the High Priest and King of Israel, crucified eight hundred Pharisees before their wives and children. And by the way, in Roman law, it was forbidden for women to ever see a crucifixion, let alone children, because it was so horrendous.
When Titus Vespasian conquered Jerusalem in 70 A.D, 40 years after the death of Christ, he crucified so many Jews, we don’t know how many he crucified, but the record says they ran out of trees and locations for crucifixions.
Now think about this: I just gave you a little bit of the history of crucifixion rooting back to the 4th century, and yet David wrote about the fact that Messiah would be crucified over 200 years before it was even thought of and 1,000 years before Jesus was crucified.
Isaiah, three hundred years after David, wrote about it in Isaiah 53. One hundred and fifty years after Isaiah, Zechariah writes, “They will look on Him whom they pierced and mourn for Him as an only Son.”
Only by divine inspiration! By the way, Revelation 1:7 tells us, “Behold, He’s coming with clouds and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him, so it is to be. Amen.”
So significant is the crucifixion that He will bear the wounds of His piercing, even in His return and throughout eternity.
And all that and so much more is included in Mark’s one phrase, “They crucified Him”.
That the Messiah, Son of God, Chosen One would die by crucifixion was not and still, is not acceptable to the Jews. That’s why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, the cross to the Jews is a stumbling block. You can’t have the Son of God crucified by pagans.
You can’t have the Messiah rejected by His own nation and crucified by Romans.
According to Paul, it was not only a stumbling block to the Jews, it was foolishness to the Gentiles. A crucified Savior is not a popular subject to anybody.
And yet, our message is that a crucified Jew is God, the Messiah, the only Savior and Lord.
Well, we’ve looked at the soldiers’ parody and the stranger’s providence and the Savior’s punishment.
Next week we’ll finish up with the final few verses of this section.
Let’s pray
