Written by: Richard Bromley - YFC
Mark 15 v 1-5
Very early in the morning, the leading priests, the older leaders, the teachers of the law, and all the Jewish council decided what to do with Jesus. They tied him, led him away, and turned him over to Pilate, the governor.
Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
Jesus answered, “Those are your words.”
The leading priests accused Jesus of many things. 4 So Pilate asked Jesus another question, “You can see that they are accusing you of many things. Aren’t you going to answer?”
But Jesus still said nothing, so Pilate was very surprised.
Notes
As you read these verses it’s interesting to see that even at the time when Jesus seemed most powerless he was still able to surprise those who apparently had the power. Jesus was no meek, subdued broken man at this point. Rather, he was still in control of his destiny. He had determined to do what His father wanted him to achieve. The furious love of God drove him, through humiliation, through pain, through the whole circus unfolding around him. A point to dwell on is that however you feel today, high, low, happy or sad, that same furious love of God is totally focused on you. You are the reason Jesus set his mind to see through what he started.
It’s worth pondering about what possibly could have gone so wrong that those who should have been the most vocal supporters of Jesus were the ones who chose to tie him up, humiliate him and hand him over to the sworn enemy to deal with him? Religious people scare me. Sometimes they get confused about what they are about and what really matters. Jesus always welcomed the stranger, the one outside the group. Who are the people who you know who are outside the group? How would Jesus respond to them?
Mark 15 v 6-15
Every year at the time of the Passover the governor would free one prisoner whom the people chose. At that time, there was a man named Barabbas in prison who was a rebel and had committed murder during a riot. The crowd came to Pilate and began to ask him to free a prisoner as he always did.
So Pilate asked them, “Do you want me to free the king of the Jews?” Pilate knew that the leading priests had turned Jesus in to him because they were jealous. But the leading priests had persuaded the people to ask Pilate to free Barabbas, not Jesus.
Then Pilate asked the crowd again, “So what should I do with this man you call the king of the Jews?”
They shouted, “Crucify him!”
Pilate asked, “Why? What wrong has he done?”
But they shouted even louder, “Crucify him!”
Pilate wanted to please the crowd, so he freed Barabbas for them. After having Jesus beaten with whips, he handed Jesus over to the soldiers to be crucified.
Notes
It is fitting that the very first person to find new life by the death of Jesus was someone totally guilty and undeserving. A pure act of chance? I wonder how he felt about that when he was free that evening, at the end of that week, a year later. Was he haunted by a sense of it should have been me? Would he thank his lucky stars that things worked out as they did? Would he find faith in Jesus and live gratefully for the rest of his life, determined to give every waking hour to the one who gave his life in his place? Who knows? We can only guess at his feelings, the bible never tells us what became of him. I imagine his joy was bursting out.
What about you, what feelings do you have as you read the story of Christ going towards his execution? Doing that so that we may have life, new life, life free from the threat of punishment. Jesus standing in our place, even though we don’t deserve it. But because he would have it no other way. His final three years of life have been leading up to this point. Where he can stand in the place where we should have stood and take the blame.
Enough words, take a few moments to imagine you were the one about to be executed, as Barabbas was. Then the mob, the chief priests, and eventually Pilate put Jesus in your place. How does it feel to see Jesus getting beaten up and carried off instead of you? This is the heart of the Easter message. Stunning isn’t it? Perhaps you would want to take a moment to pray and thank Jesus for what he did.
Mark 15 v 16-20
The soldiers took Jesus into the governor’s palace (called the Praetorium) and called all the other soldiers together. They put a purple robe on Jesus and used thorny branches to make a crown for his head. They began to call out to him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” The soldiers beat Jesus on the head many times with a stick. They spit on him and made fun of him by bowing on their knees and worshiping him. After they finished, the soldiers took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him out of the palace to be crucified.
Notes
I am struck by the sheer stamina of Jesus. He has been interrogated through the night. Beaten up at the palace for no reason. We know he did not resist arrest. He has now become a victim. Slapped around, mocked, and brutally attacked. Yet he keeps going. Led out for more. Sometimes people have a wimpy idea of Jesus. A bit cissy really, walking around in a nightie saying “bless you” to little children and sheep. How wrong they are! This is not the picture we have here. We would do well to build our pictures of Jesus on the bible and not some of the pictures that hung in our Sunday Schools or elementary school books.
What is it about a gang that makes it do some awful things? What is it about a gang that makes them say the most cutting things to outsiders? We have all experienced it. But, here we are, in one of humanities darkest hours. Unjustly tried, unfairly treated and now smacked around for the entertainment of a garrison of bored soldiers a long way from home. Gangs or groups that take pleasure in hurting others disturb me. Perhaps it is because I am a bit like that. I enjoy mocking the outsider, teasing the nerd and pointing out the mistake of the other person for the entertainment of the group. It makes me popular with the group, But, someone is dying inside because of it. Interesting isn’t it. We can be horrified at the brutality of a bunch of soldiers but know that deep within ourselves we can copy the sentiment.
Perhaps we get a clue to how separated we were from God when we look at the extremes he had to go to win us back.
Mark 15 v 21-24
A man named Simon from Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was coming from the fields to the city. The soldiers forced Simon to carry the cross for Jesus. They led Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the Place of the Skull. The soldiers tried to give Jesus wine mixed with myrrh to drink, but he refused. The soldiers crucified Jesus and divided his clothes among themselves, throwing lots to decide what each soldier would get.
Notes
Simon was from North Africa. An African, given the privilege of helping the Son of God stumble along tortuous streets. Worth thinking about that, that one of the last acts of kindness towards Jesus was from a black man. And to top it, that the first to see him after the resurrection were two women. The church can be so dominated by white males that you could be forgiven for thinking that God has a preference! We forget that Jesus was a man of colour, a Palestinian. We forget that following him leaves no room for racism or sexism of any kind. Incidentally, we suspect that Simon became a follower of Jesus seeing that Mark was able to tell us what his sons were called, they may have even been known to the original readers of the gospel.
Our story moves on… The soldiers drive Jesus and Simon on, eventually reaching the gallows. That place just far enough outside town to be seen, to be a warning to others. But not too close to keep the stench at bay. There they tore his clothes off him again, the blood would have hardly dried on his back, once again opening the wounds. Then they crucify him. The offer of the wine and myrrh is a kind gesture, to dull the senses, mask the pain. It seems that for Jesus this was too crucial a time to accept the offer. Every wound, joint and muscle screamed “call down heaven and free yourself”, it took a defiant act of will to stay there and hang, when all the time he knew that he had the power to annihilate his captors. I suspect that you like me are struck by the enormity of the sacrifice. Perhaps the best response today is silence…
Mark 15 v 25-32
It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified Jesus. There was a sign with this charge against Jesus written on it: THE KING OF THE JEWS. They also put two robbers on crosses beside Jesus, one on the right, and the other on the left. People walked by and insulted Jesus and shook their heads, saying, “You said you could destroy the Temple and build it again in three days. So save yourself! Come down from that cross!”
The leading priests and the teachers of the law were also making fun of Jesus. They said to each other, “He saved other people, but he can’t save himself. If he is really the Christ, the king of Israel, let him come down now from the cross. When we see this, we will believe in him.” The robbers who were being crucified beside Jesus also insulted him.
Notes
Do you ever get the feeling that Pilate was not too fond of the leaders of the Jews. There is an odd sense of appropriateness about the sign he puts up. He manages to humiliate the very people that earlier that day he had given in to, as well as make a statement that would be remembered for 2000 years. As the Middle Eastern sun gets toward it’s hottest, Jesus and the robbers next to him begin to feel the intensity of the pain, the inability to breath, each gasp raking their bodies with pain and the blinding sun burning them down. The quiet poise of Jesus is remarkable.
The thieves lash out in any way they can. The priest and teachers of the law mock Jesus. How ridiculous, they have won, he is dying, soon to be an irritating memory. Why on earth would priests and theology lecturer’s stand in the heat to mock Jesus. This is tragic. Are they capable of stooping so low. Were they so threatened by his words, his message of grace. Did it so upset the status quo to talk to sinners, eat with tax collectors and let prostitutes know that God still likes them, even when they have been bad. It would seem so. But that’s the message, even when you have been bad, still he would have done all this for you. That’s the dangerous memory of Jesus that the priests had determined to try to erase. That grace, acceptance, love, God is not found by rules and regulations but by an encounter with Jesus, the Christ.
Mark 15 v 33-36
At noon the whole country became dark, and the darkness lasted for three hours. At three o’clock Jesus cried in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani.” This means, “My God, my God, why have you rejected me?”
When some of the people standing there heard this, they said, “Listen! He is calling Elijah.”
Someone there ran and got a sponge, filled it with vinegar, tied it to a stick, and gave it to Jesus to drink. He said, “We want to see if Elijah will come to take him down from the cross.”
Notes
The agony of taking the blame for all the wrongs of the world is unimaginable. Through his life Jesus had been aware of the presence of his father. Now for the first time ever the second person of the Trinity, Jesus, felt alone. Something he had never felt in all of time or history. What a shattering experience. An unbelievable sacrifice. To be reading this scripture places us on holy ground, aware of the extremes God was willing to go to know us.
What was you loneliest moment. Most rejected experience? God understands that moment more intensely than you can imagine. We can read this part of the Easter story and pay attention to what was happening, looking at what the crown had to say, or why they passed him vinegar and all that. The real point to ponder is while Jesus may not have suffered like you may be suffering, he may not have felt like you feel today. He does understand what it feels like to suffer, to be broken and to have no hope of it getting better. That may not make sense to you today, remember it, it may make sense in the future. Wherever you go, whatever happens to you , He has been there before you. The last verse of an old hymn by my favourite Saint, Patrick takes the form of a prayer.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in the hearts of all that love me,
Christ in the mouth of friend and stranger…
May the encircling presence of Christ go with you throughout this day and through your lives.
Mark 15 v 37-41
Then Jesus cried in a loud voice and died.
The curtain in the Temple was torn into two pieces, from the top to the bottom. When the army officer who was standing in front of the cross saw what happened when Jesus died, he said, “This man really was the Son of God!”
Some women were standing at a distance from the cross, watching; among them were Mary Magdalene, Salome, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph. (James was her youngest son.) These women had followed Jesus in Galilee and helped him. Many other women were also there who had come with Jesus to Jerusalem.
Notes
Something devastating happened. God in Christ Jesus died! The curtain in the Temple placed there specifically to separate the holy from the dirty, tainted and bad, was torn from top to bottom. Notice that Mark goes to pains to tell us it was from the top down. God did this. The curtain itself had become dirty, it was in the way.
The temple should have been a place to find God had become a place to hide him, protect his honour from the riff raff. In dying on the cross and taking the blame for all our sins, no longer would you have to go through priests, sacrifices, the religious elite to get to God. Jesus always the radical, even in his death, in fact especially in his death turned the tables. In his death God tears the centre piece apart and allows sinful, ordinary people, just like us to get direct access to God.
Steve Turner puts it well in his poem, Let’s Hide Jesus…
There are people after Jesus.
They have seen the signs
Quick, let’s hide Him.
Let’s think; carpenter
Fishermen’s friend
Disturber of religious comfort
Let’s award Him a degree in Theology,
A purple cassock
And a position of respect.
They’ll never think of looking here.
Let’s think;
His dialect may betray him,
His tongue is of the masses.
Let’s teach Him Latin
And seventeenth century English,
They’ll never think of listening in.
Let’s think;
humble,
Man of Sorrows,
Nowhere to lay His head,
Somewhere away from the poor.
We’ll fill it with brass and silence.
It’s sure to throw them off.
There are people after Jesus.
Quick, let’s hide Him.
What did Jesus achieve on the cross for us. Direct access to God. What is your response to him today?
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the
Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word
Publishing Milton Keynes