The Crucifixion

Mark 15

• Review:
  Last week, we ended with the John 18 account to give us insight into Pilate’s ‘Trouble Tells the Truth” moment and left at v. 38 where Pilate, facing Jesus, who is The Way, The TRUTH and the Life” asks, ‘what is truth?’ Pilate turns away from Jesus and to the crowd, and in our Mark account, solicits a connection with the very crowd who hates him, trying to weasel his way out of facing God.
  Pilate says:

Mark 15
⁹ “Would you like me to release to you this ‘King of the Jews’?” Pilate asked.
¹⁰ (For he realized by now that the leading priests had arrested Jesus out of envy.)
¹¹ But at this point the leading priests stirred up the crowd to demand the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus.
¹² Pilate asked them, “Then what should I do with this man you call the king of the Jews?”
¹³ They shouted back, “Crucify him!”
¹⁴ “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?”
But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!”
¹⁵ So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.
¹⁶ The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the governor’s headquarters (called the Praetorium) and called out the entire regiment.
¹⁷ They dressed him in a purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head.
¹⁸ Then they saluted him and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!”
¹⁹ And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship.
²⁰ When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.

• Mock Worship - play acting worship is tiring.
• What they actually intended for the physical body of Christ was harm, and to increase that harm and add humiliation, they mocked him with fake worship.
• Fake worship is still an affront to Christ.
• When we worship with false hearts, it’s just as wicked, torturous, and callous. - An obscenely gratuitous display of disrespect and hatred.
• The book of Malachi is punctuated with God’s condemnation on this false hearted worship.

Malachi 1
¹⁰ “How I wish one of you would shut the Temple doors so that these worthless sacrifices could not be offered! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “and I will not accept your offerings.
¹¹ But my name is honored by people of other nations from morning till night. All around the world they offer sweet incense and pure offerings in honor of my name. For my name is great among the nations,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
¹² “But you dishonor my name with your actions. By bringing contemptible food, you are saying it’s all right to defile the Lord’s table.
¹³ You say, ‘It’s too hard to serve the Lord,’ and you turn up your noses at my commands,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

Malachi 4
⁵ “Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives.
⁶ His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

Hebrews 6.4-6
“For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened - those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come - and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing Him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.

Mark 15
The Crucifixion
²¹ A passerby named Simon, who was from Cyrene, was coming in from the countryside just then, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. (Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.)

Edwards:
“Mark includes two other names in connection with Simon. The mention of three personal names in one verse is extremely unusual for Mark. The names are presented as though Simon is unknown to Mark’s readers, but that Alexander and Rufus are known to them. Of Alexander we know nothing further, but a Rufus was a member of the church in Rome in the mid-fifties (Romans 16:13) who is probably the same Rufus mentioned here.”

Mark 15
²² And they brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha (which means “Place of the Skull”).
²³ They offered him wine drugged with myrrh, but he refused it.
²⁴ Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross. They divided his clothes and threw dice to decide who would get each piece.
²⁵ It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him.
²⁶ A sign announced the charge against him. It read, “The King of the Jews.”
²⁷ Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.
²⁹ The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. “Ha! Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days.
³⁰ Well then, save yourself and come down from the cross!”
³¹ The leading priests and teachers of religious law also mocked Jesus. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself!
³² Let this Messiah, this King of Israel, come down from the cross so we can see it and believe him!” Even the men who were crucified with Jesus ridiculed him.

• Remember Mark 10.45 - ‘ransom for others’

• Even the men who were crucified with Jesus ridiculed him.

Luke 23
³² Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him.
³³ When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left.
³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.
³⁵ The crowd watched and the leaders scoffed. “He saved others,” they said, “let him save himself if he is really God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”
³⁶ The soldiers mocked him, too, by offering him a drink of sour wine.
³⁷ They called out to him, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”
³⁸ A sign was fastened above him with these words: “This is the King of the Jews.”
³⁹ One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!”
⁴⁰ But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die?
⁴¹ We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.”
⁴² Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
⁴³ And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Mark 15
The Death of Jesus
³³ At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock.
³⁴ Then at three o’clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
³⁵ Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah.
³⁶ One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. “Wait!” he said. “Let’s see whether Elijah comes to take him down!”
³⁷ Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last.
³⁸ And the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
³⁹ When the Roman officer who stood facing him saw how he had died, he exclaimed, “This man truly was the Son of God!”

• Edwards:
  “In Jesus’ death on the cross a Gentile outsider—a Roman officer in charge of Jesus’ execution—becomes the first person to confess Jesus in faith as God’s Son, thus fulfilling the purpose of Mark’s Gospel. While Jesus is alive, humanity wills his death; only in his death can humanity see him as the way to life. The death of Jesus on the cross is thus not a defeat but the consummation of his mission and the climactic revelation of his identity as the Son of God.”

Romans 5
⁶ When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.
⁷ Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.
⁸ But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
⁹ And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.
¹⁰ For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.
¹¹ So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

Hebrews 6.18
“We who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.
¹⁹ This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.
It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.
²⁰ Jesus has already gone in there for us.”

Ephesians 3
¹⁶ I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.
¹⁷ Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.
Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.
¹⁸ And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.
¹⁹ May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.
Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.