Published: June 16, 2024 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: Gospel of Mark - Part 105 | Scripture: Mark 15:20-28
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if you'd like to follow along today we'll be looking at Mark 15: 20 through
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28 Mark 15 ver 20 and and after they had mocked him they took the purple off him and put his garments on him and they led him out to crucify him and they pressed into service a passer by coming from the
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country Simon of sirene the father of Alexander and Rufus to bear his cross and they brought him to the place golgatha which is translated place of a
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skull and they tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh but he did not take it and they crucified him and divided up his garments among themselves casting
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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
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Jews and they crucified two Robbers with him one on his right and one on his left and the scripture was fulfilled which says and and he was numbered with the
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transgressors let us pray oh God who is like unto the the plan that you ordained from the
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beginning this plan which is that the lord of the universe the King of King of Kings would be led out to die
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for the sins of the whole world and we ask father that you would give us better understanding and appreciation gratitude but also that we
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would never forget even in the midst of the the horror of it all the awe and wonder of what you have done in Christ
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we ask these things in Christ name amen
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the gospel accounts all four Matthew Mark Luke and John seem to be very deliberate in their reverence concerning the crucifixion itself you read some of the commentaries
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and you watch some of the movies um they want to see the blood they want you to understand the nails and the blood and all the gore and there
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there was that and yet in the gospels I think there is a refer reverence which reverence which is meant to let us reflect on these
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things Mark particularly is very short compared to some of the other accounts of the well-known seven sayings of the
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cross mark only relates one of those to us and in fact his account is almost entirely a record of what was done to
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Christ and has very little about what was done by Christ and and we see and we hear from a
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variety of people the the the rough treatment of the soldiers binding him and leading him the the executioners the fellow
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sufferers and we hear the the ridiculing and the sneering later on of the pastors by and the triumphant cries of the
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priests and the curious and out loud wonderings of the bystanders around the cross but of Jesus Mark relates
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that he refused the drugged wine he cries out twice and then in Mark's words he breathes his
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breathes his last but last but the grammar of Mark has been pointed out and it you see it in I think particularly in The New American
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Standard the way they versify things that's not as a paragraph It's each verse is listed and there's and and and
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and there's this progression of and procession if I could use that word of pain and suffering and
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jeers and jeers and mockery and we have this sequence coming from the place where pilate hands Jesus over to the
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soldiers they put his garments back on him they take off that robe of robe of purple and they led him out to crucify
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him but along the way they impress this man Simon of sirene to carry his cross and it's
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and it's interesting that Mark uses the phrase and they brought him to
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gotha the place golgatha the place of the skull many believe that there if this was the execution place that it means there's
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lots of skulls hanging around I I don't think that's what it was it was a hill that apparently looked like a skull
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that it had kind of that shape it was a burial ground uh nearby but not right there on the grounds apparently there was there were Garden tombs not far away
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and many people have tried to pinpoint where this is in Jerusalem and I was reading a little bit about the archaeologists and they're arguing about no it's 175 MERS Northeast
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and I believe there is a Muslim Cemetery in that location uh in the present day but the point was that he was being
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led and then now brought to this place by the soldiers and traditionally they would lead the criminals through the
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most populous streets of the city and by heavily traveled highways so that people would see the criminals and they I guess
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by the by the Roman Reckoning they would be fearful to create crimes of Their Own
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and the criminal condemned to death would be consigned by the Romans to carry his own cross again it's not known the shape of the Cross but probably a t-shape where one of the arms
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came over the shoulder of the man carrying it and he was dragging the upright peace behind him but for Jesus it appears that very
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soon after the procession began that it was necessary for someone else to carry the burden but why was this man Simon
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pressed into service for Jesus well the easy answers are no Roman soldier was going to carry the cross that would be very demeaning and
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humiliating for a Roman soldier to carry the cross of the Criminal and the Jews wouldn't touch the cross especially now in the feast days but I don't think at
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all because it was cursed cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree the cross itself to them would be a curse and they would be
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would be defiled and here we have just appearing this Simon of sirene of passers by coming from the
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country and again you can read the commentaries and many argue that this was a day of work he was coming from the fields but this is between 6:00 and 9:00
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a.m. I believe that Simon of sirene a man from sirene was a he was a Jew but he was in a Greek and Roman
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Colony near what is present day Libya on the North coast of Africa and perhaps he was coming from the country because he was a pilgrim coming for the Passover
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and there was no room for lodging in the city of Jerusalem because of all the people there for Passover we we don't know and whether he was
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willing to be pressed into this service or whether he was with or without knowledge of what was going on is not given to us in Scripture
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but it is possible that the Roman soldiers thought this would be a really fine joke to press a Jew into service just
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some unsuspecting passers by who just happen to be coming to the gate as they passed to press him into the service of carrying the cross of a fellow Jew who
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happened to be a notorious criminal and curiously Simon is the only person in this whole
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thing of the soldiers and the priests and the pastors by and the bystanders who has given a name that we
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can read and to me again curious that he is known as the father of Alexander and
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Alexander and Rufus many have tried to identify these sons of Simon Rufus perhaps he is the man that the
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scriptures called a choice man in the Lord in Romans chapter 16 but
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Alexander that's a tougher one he may be the man in second Timothy the coppersmith who did Paul much harm but most agree that Rufus and
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Alexander must have been known to the church Mark Writing possibly to the Roman Church Roman Church identifying people that they knew as
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leaders in the church this is unknown to us and many of the commentators uh will take this little episode here and tell
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us about God's sovereignty in life's Trifles that you never know someday you're going to be asked to serve the Lord in a very
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surprising way and what a blessing and honor it is to serve Christ and it was a unique contact with the suffering
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Christ but I will not be among those who venture to say that this was his conversion day that is beyond what the scripture tells us and conjecture
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but the question I think we need to come back to is why was Simon pressed into service for Jesus was Jesus totally worn
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out was he incapable of carrying his own cross physically I think we can understand we we've over the past months
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we've looked at this week this passion we and the toll that it took on his body the exhaustion that he felt from all the
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discussions that he had with the the Sanhedrin the questions that were coming as he taught in the temple it's impossible to know but when
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the disciples were sleeping in the garden Jesus was not and the agony The Blood The Sweat The Tears of that night in G Gethsemane
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and then the arrest and then the mock trials and then the beatings and the spitting and the crown of thorns and all
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of these things we we're not surprised that the physical exhaustion of his
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body and it but it was not a failure of Christ's will to face death there were probably many criminals on the way carrying their carrying their cross staring death in the face who
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fainted and were unable to carry their cross but that I don't believe was
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Jesus and then certainly there was no Act of cowardice on Jesus part some believe that it was to carry on the procession a little faster that
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perhaps Jesus going too slow for the soldiers wanting to get it over with doing their job that they press Simon
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into service but I would ask you to consider this consider what was laid Upon Jesus as one author calls it quote the
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mysterious burden of the world's sins there were Martyrs yeah yes who willingly went to to death and faced
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death we see it in the scripture in Acts chapter 7 chapter 7 Steven and and and his face shining as he sees the Lord Between Heaven and Earth
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he is even able to cry out in faith an expectation of what was about to happen
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physical body but in its whole
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soul Isaiah 53 tells us but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon him that was the burden that he was carrying I don't believe that it was the
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wooden cross I don't believe that he would succumb to that physical pain even though he was 100%
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man and John tells us in his letter he himself is the sin offering for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world that was the burden that Jesus bore on the way to
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and then Mark tells us very simply in verse 24 and they crucified him now they gave him a potion don't really know what to call it some call it a potion it's a mixture
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that was given to criminals before the crucifixion it was a mixture and Mark tells us it was a mixture of myrr and
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wine and myrr is a is a gum resin from some kind of tree called a Torchwood it's in the frankincense family and I'm not the botanist to tell you but
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apparently there are these small thorny trees in that area and they would take the tree as you would take other resins and slash them and they would get the
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resin and they make it into medicine and perfumes and incense and apparently it's still in use in the 2st Century for those types of things but the myrr was
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mixed with a a thing called pusca it's this really cheap wine which is more like just vinegar and apparently it was
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really awful stuff but it was what the soldiers had as their wine and it was traditionally the drink of the lower
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classes or slaves because that's what what they could get but they would mix this myrr and it would it would dope it and they would give it to the criminals
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to drink before they crucified them so they would it would kind of dull the pain it would have what some called a
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Stupify effect on their person diminishing the pain but protracting it over sometimes several
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sometimes several days and many believe that the soldiers were not doing this as an act of kindness they did it on purpose so that
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the pain would be prolonged but Jesus refused it he would not numb the pain for any reason I don't
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believe that he would lessen in any small amount at all the bitterness of the cup that the father ordained for him
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drink surely as Isaiah 53 tells us he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows but sorrows but also that same writer tells us the Lord desired to crush him causing him grief
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if he renders himself as a guilt offering he will see his offspring he will prolong his days and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his
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hand drinking that drink would have alleviated the pain at some level but I think it would have caused
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his conscious surrender to face death to be not what it fully was meant to be I may be
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wrong but as Mark writes this this reverent and describing this scene I can't believe for a moment that our
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savior would do anything to dull the pain and the suffering that he must face and in describing this scene I
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think Mark is like the rest of us would be how do you describe this scene our words just seem not to do it
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just yes it's not just the horribleness of the crucifixion itself but it's also seeing Christ at his utmost misery and
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suffering so who could describe it Isaac Watts helps us some in his When I Survey the Wondrous Cross see from his head his
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hands his feet sorrow and love mingled down did Heir such love and sorrow meat or Thorns compos so rich a
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crown and then they divided his garments remember they put his own clothes back on him and some of the other gospels tell us about the seamless cloak that they did not want to divide but it was
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the executioners privilege to do this to divide the spoils to divide the belongings of the criminal and so besides Jesus being
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treated as a common criminal he was literally leaving nothing of this World Behind of goods he had none of home and
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house he had none of property even what he owned his very clothing was stripped away and he was left naked
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and perhaps I am guilty of sermonizing but what came to my mind was when Jesus entered this entered this life Philippians 2 tells us that he laid
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aside the glory that was his with the father he did not consider equality with God something to be grafted but emptied himself by taking the form of a bonder
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servant and being born in the likeness of men and and being found in the appearance as a man he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a
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cross he laid aside that glory and here we see him naked and with nothing and yet he
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willingly laid down laid aside everything including laying down his own life and then we see
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see that they disowned their King the charge that was put on the cross the inscription was his indictment his charge that he was supposedly found
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guilty of the king of the Jews but I don't think again as we talked about last week that pilate thought he was
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guilty I think this sign was pilate's revenge on the Jews the Jews disown their King and they
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declared in the other gospels they said we have no King but Caesar commentator Linsky wrote they shall have Jesus on the cross but only
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as king only as their King see there there's this irony here that pilate thinks he's not only getting revenge on
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the Jews see here's your king now on the cross but humiliating Jesus at the same time but it is a
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Vindication that this was the king Matthew Henry wrote even when he hung on a cross he was like a king conquering his and his people's enemies and trying
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triumphing over them the truth of the sign has not yet had its final fulfillment but it will on that great getting up morning that we will see him
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as he is he is the king and the dishonor that they intended I think by putting Jesus in the Middle with the two criminals on either
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Criminal on each side they did it thinking that they were dishonoring Jesus here is the
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king that it was an insult to the Jews and degrading to him hanging him between two thieves they put Jesus in the same class as the criminals and even many may have
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thought he was the ring leader of all the evil and the insurrection
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and even though this is a disputed verse in 28 usually in your Bibles and the margin or in Brackets it is a quote from Isaiah
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5312 but I think it is certainly fulfilled here on the cross perhaps added later by a copyist but he was numbered with the transgressors
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but didn't he come to this world to save Sinners wasn't he labeled even by those who hated him Friend of
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Sinners and didn't he say if I be lifted up I will draw all men to myself his numbering with them was so that we could be numbered with him
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there are many that I'd say many there's a few that I've encountered over the years who have their one of their top bucket list
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items is to go to Jerusalem and walk what what is now called the via doosa the way of suffering and supposedly
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there are 14 stations where there are paintings that depict the things that we've talked about the the procession that Jesus was led and where he would
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have been winding his way through the streets of Jerusalem to the hill called the place of the skull I and you're supposed to stop and
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and kneel and pray at these pictures and plaques and all and I just don't understand why Christians would want to do that
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the city's been destroyed many times over the past centuries and it's been filled in and there are different levels and there is no way that is the
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real way of suffering but the scripture gives us some understanding not just of what happened to
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happened to Jesus but what Jesus did what was done by by him and I take these that I'm going to list here from just something
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that I read in JC ri's commentary he doesn't mention the Via delar Roa perhaps he had it in the back of his mind but following his procession
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step by step things that we know from scripture to be
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true he was delivered into the hands of the Roman soldiers and bound why so that we might be set free he was insulted and made a laughing
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stock why so that we might have glory and honor and eternal life he was stripped and crucified and left naked before his
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enemies why so that we might be clothed in perfect righteousness before almighty God he was left hanging on a cross
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why so that we might have the curse
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removed he was numbered with the transgressors why so that we might be reckoned innocent for his
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sake I know again it's a disputed verse in Luke 23 when Jesus was on the cross he prayed Lord forgive them for they know not what they do I think that phrase applies to what
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happened here they knew not what they did those who crucified Christ crucified the one who bore the sins of the world
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They Crucified the one who became obedient unto death to save sinners and they and they crucified the one who would be shown to
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be king of kings and Lord of lords let pray Our Father these things
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are they're are they're awesome and they are wonderful for us to contemplate even as we understand the horror
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and the and the gore and the suffering and the pain and
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or Thorns compose so rich a crown we thank you we thank you and we give you the honor and the glory for this wondrous
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thing in Christ's name we pray amen please rise for the
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chapter 3 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree in order that in Christ
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Jesus The Blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith