Trinity Baptist Church

The Book of Mark

“And They Crucified Him”

Mark 15:22-32

 

We’ll return tonight to and what he records in chapter 15, verse 22-32, for us regarding the crucifixion of Jesus.  This is our third trip to this text and we’ve probably spent too much time on these verses, but I suppose if there is any place in Scripture where we should slow down and look closely, it is the cross. 

 

So far we’ve seen the soldier’s parody, the stranger’s providence and the Savior’s punishment.  Tonight we’ll reverse the letters in the alliteration and talk about

  

 

Now remember, this is being carried off as a farce, a joke and a mockery.

 

verse 26

 

That placard was written by the Romans. When a criminal was taken to be crucified, his crime was indicated above his head. And by the way, this wasn’t all that was written.  If you pull together what Matthew, Mark, Luke and John record, the full statement is, “This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,” and it was written in three languages.

 

And Mark, in his version, narrows in on the charge that is leveled against Him, “The King of the Jews.”

 

Now that was really not what the Jews wanted over His head. When they first came to Pilate, you remember they had a whole list of possible crimes. 

They said He had perverting the nation, He was an evil doer, a rebel, leading the Jews to not pay their taxes. And all of that disintegrated in part, because there were no witnesses who could corroborate the story.  So what they finally came up with, before Caiaphas, was blasphemy because He claimed to be the Son of God, thus making Himself equal with God. So the real crime was blasphemy. 

 

And according to Jewish law, blasphemy was a capital offense and, thus, He has to die.”

 

And they were right, according to Leviticus 24:16, “Blasphemers are deserving of the death penalty.” And what they wanted over His head was the charge of blasphemer. “He claimed to be the king of the Jews. 

 

But Pilate uses his position to jab the Jews and he puts this title of “King of the Jews” over the head of Jesus, and just to pour some als tint eh wound, he does it in three languages. 

 

What a joke!  After all, nothing good comes out of Nazareth, right?  Everybody knew that!  The Jews hated that idea!   And Pilate knew that! And when they complained, he refused to change it.  Pilate said, “What I have written, I have written.”

 

Next we come to

 

 

 

 

 

verses 26-31

 

In reality, it was the religious leaders who initiated the mockery. Luke 23 verse 35 says, “The rulers were sneering at Him.” And Matthew 27:41 says the same thing, that the ridicule and the mockery and the sneering was led by the Sanhedrin. They’re still at it. They are still doing this that they started hours before in the deep early darkness of night. They’re still in the same mode. And we’ll get to them in a minute.

 

Notice verse 27

 

I think it highly likely these two robbers were involved in the rebellion that involved Barabbas, the one released instead of Jesus. 

 

According to Luke 23:18 and 19, Barabbas led a rebellion in which there was plundering and murder.  And it is likely these men were a part of that rebellion and therefore guilty of murder and that’s why they were being given the death penalty.

 

Verse 28 draws back to Isaiah 53:12, the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And He was numbered with transgressors.”

 

Now to be fair, some of the manuscripts have that reference and some don’t. That’s why it’s in brackets in the NAS. But it’s certainly in Isaiah that He would be numbered with the transgressors in His crucifixion and in fact He was. It is a fulfillment of prophecy.

 

By the way, we have no reason to believe the cross on which Jesus was crucified was any higher or more elevated than the other two.  In fact, I think there is every reason to believe it wasn’t.

 

Remember, He is being crucified for blaspheming God by claiming to be the King of the Jews.  Why would they want to elevate Him?  If anything, His cross would have been lower just to make the point that He wasn’t a king; he was nothing more than a common criminal. 

And here they hang, one on either side of the Lord, and they are involved in the mockery of Jesus. 

 

Verse 32

 

If you ever want to see a picture of just how debased and evil man is, then look at these two criminals making fun of a man who is being executed just like them.  We can assume they had been scourged. We can assume they had been nailed. We can assume the same agonies are going on  These guys are being executed in the same way, and they decide to join the party. In fact, in Matthew 27:44, it says, “They were insulting Jesus with the same words they heard from the rulers.” They just got into it.

 

And then the people get into it.

 

verses 29-30

 

We would assume this is some of the same people back in verses 13 and 14 who cried and screamed for His crucifixion.  And yo have to wonder, “Could they not remember His kindness and tenderness? 

Did they not remember the miracles and the healings and the meals?  

Apparently they don’t, or if they do they are lost in the mob mentality that rules on that day. 

 

Then verse 31 tells us the religious leaders got involved.  As I mentioned a moment ago, Luke 23

Luke 23 says that they were sneering. 

 

The word that is used there is an interesting study.  It is a little hard for us to translate and understand because apparently it is a reference to a nose gesture of some sort.  We don’t make too many gestures with our nose, but we do have some.

 

You can twist it around if something stinks.  You can turn up your nose if something is distasteful.  But you can also “look down your nose” and that seems to be the idea here.  This is the epitome of religious snobbery as they literally lift up their nose in an act of utter disdain. 

 

It is pictured in the crowd as the they wag their heads and talk about His foolish claims to tear down and rebuild the temple.  They can’t believe anyone would claim the things He claimed.   

 

Again, that is a direct fulfillment of a prophecy found in Psalm 22 which tells us they will wag their heads at Him.  To them, it’s all a joke. What a Savior!  He saved others but He can’t save Himself!

 

That’s pure sarcasm.

 

Verse 32

 

So would they believe? After all, He did come down.  Not only did He come down, He came up! 

They took Him down and put Him in a grave and three days later He arose from the grave. So, did they believe? When it was reported to them that He rose from the dead, what did they do? Did they believe?  No, they bribed the soldiers to lie. It’s all mockery, all of it. They wouldn’t believe. If they didn’t believe Moses and the prophets, they wouldn’t believe that one rose from the dead.

 

Now before we leave this section, I want to point out one final thing.  The section ends with this reference to those who were being crucified with Him and how they joined in the mockery.  Luke says one of the thieves said, echoing the Sanhedrin, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us.” It’s all mockery. They joined in on like little parrots echoing what they heard. 

 

But then something very dramatic happened. One of those thieves was literally taken captive by the power of God and begins to think about what is happening.  And he begins to rebuke the other one.  He comes to a great place of reality as he understand the consequences of sin, and overwhelmed by the innocence and holiness of Jesus, He says, “Why are mocking this man?  W’re getting exactly what we deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong”.  And then we hear

 

 

“Lord, remember me when You come into your Kingdom.”   There is so much in that statement!  He affirms a belief in Christ.  He affirms a belief in life beyond death.  He believes Jesus is King.  He acknowledges the power of Jesus to save and restore life. 

And in a beautiful, breath-taking moment of grace, a thieving, murderous blasphemer is saved.  How powerful is the cross? So powerful is it that those who were participating in the blasphemy of Jesus as He dies on the cross can be saved. 

 

In fact, later in the book of Acts at chapter 6:7, we read that, “Many of the priests later came to faith in Christ.” They were forgiven. Later we’ll hear the centurion who was in charge of the execution say, “This is the Son of God.” And you’ll meet them in heaven.

 

What should have happened at the cross is that the power of God fell and killed every one of them!  And in so doing, He would have rightly and justly sealed the eternity question for all of us by leaving us without hope to get what we deserve. 

 

Instead, God chose to kill His Son for sinners. He became sin for us, He who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, Paul says.

 

Peter says, “He bore in His own body our sins on the tree.” Paul says, “He took the curse for us.” God punishes Him so that the blasphemers can be forgiven and shows us that with one thief and a centurion and a few priests.  And soon, on the day of Pentecost,  there will be 3,000 more, and one must wonder, how many of them were screaming, “Crucify Him”, and mocking Him as they passed by?

 

Why did Jesus die?  He died so people like them, and us, could be saved.

 

Let’s pray.