The Shameful Scorn of Jesus Christ

What the Bible writers do focus on is not the physical suffering, it is the abuse of Jesus.

What do I mean by that? The ridicule. That is really the unique feature of the execution of Jesus.

It is riddled with scorn and mockery and disdain. The crucifiers saw Jesus as a joke. Welcome to Grace To You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. When you think of all the suffering Jesus endured, the anguish in the garden, the beatings and floggings, and the horror of crucifixion, it was perhaps the worst torture any human has ever faced, and yet Christ's agony extended far beyond the physical. John MacArthur explains Christ's spiritual sufferings today in his brand new study, The Divine Drama of Redemption. Now before you get to your lesson, John, a question we get from time to time, is there still interest in systematic, detailed Bible teaching?

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If you'd like to partner with us, go to gty.org after the lesson. But right now, stay here as John continues to show you the divine drama of redemption. Let's open the Word of God to the fifteenth chapter of Mark, Mark chapter 15. We come in our study of this gospel to Mark's account of the crucifixion of Christ.

I want you to look at the text beginning in verse 15...verse 15. Wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them and after having Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified. The soldiers took him away into the palace, that is the Praetorium, and they called together the whole Roman cohort. They dressed him up in purple and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to acclaim him, hail King of the Jews. They kept beating his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling and bowing before him. After they had mocked him, they took the purple robe off him and put his own garments on him and they led him out to crucify him. They pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross.

We'll stop our reading at that point. When you think about the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, typically speaking and traditionally what most often people focus on is the physical suffering. The usual images in people's minds have to do with the profound nature of agony endured through scourging or flogging and being nailed to a cross. We all have the images of Jesus that have been depicted for us, really for centuries. Jesus set up against the sky, hanging on a wooden cross, suspended by massive spikes driven through His hands and feet, blood flowing from His wounds, starting with the wounds to His head from the crown of thorns, blood running down His face and drying on His face and blood coursing down His body from His wounds. We have seen the image many, many times and it is a horrifying image.

People are repulsed by the idea of hanging virtually naked in the blazing sun and worse than that, for all the people to gape and gawk at. When you add to that the horrors of scourging, flogging, one can only conclude that this is the most horrendous kind of torture that has ever been devised by men. But as bad as that was, that is really not what the Scripture focuses on. It was not the physical suffering that traumatized Jesus in the Garden. What was so wrenching to Him that caused Him to sweat drops of blood was the anticipation of divine wrath falling on Him, drinking the cup of God's wrath against sinners for whom He was the substitute in punishment. That's why in three separate prayers He prayed the same thing, remove this cup from Me. No, from His viewpoint it wasn't the physical suffering that posed the horror of the cross. What the Bible writers do focus on is not the physical suffering, it is the abuse of Jesus that they are interested in.

What do I mean by that? The ridicule. The word mock, or mocked appears in the text I read in verse 20.

That is really the unique feature of the execution of Jesus. It is riddled with scorn and mockery and disdain. The crucifiers saw Jesus as a joke. In fact, Philo tells us that life was cruel in that part of the world in that day and that one of the things that people did in that day was taunt those who were mentally deficient. He even writes about the teasing and the mockery and the scorn that was heaped on quote-unquote the village idiot.

It is that kind of mentality that is behind the treatment that I just read. Jesus spits into the category, as far as the soldiers are concerned, of a village idiot, a lunatic who in a deluded way thinks himself to be a king and whom the Jews also try to pass off as some threat to Caesar. Jesus is a joke and Calvary is a comedy played out. The Romans hated the Jews and they loved to label this man, this deluded lunatic man, as the king of the Jews. They loved that and especially Pilate loved that, that's why he put it over the cross in an inscription. The Romans hated the Jews because the Jews hated the Romans. There were among the Jews the zealots who went around stabbing Roman soldiers. There were numerous insurrections against the Romans which had to be put down, Barabbas having participated in one of them and very likely aided and abetted by the two thieves that were crucified on either side of Jesus.

The Romans had no love for the Jews. The Jews had no love for them, that this man, this man who was no threat to anybody could be labeled as their king, made the joke all the more humorous to them. This is no surprise, by the way, to our Lord, this treatment because in chapter 10 of Mark's gospel much earlier, verses 33 and 34, he described exactly how he would be treated, how he would be taken and how he would be beaten and how he would be mocked and how he would be spit on.

He had prophesied the details of this ridiculing mockery. Now just to set you in the event, Jesus is in the custody now of Pilate. He has gone through three phases of a Jewish trial before Annas, Caiaphas, first two phases.

Phase three was a public daylight rehearsal of what had been decided illegally in the middle of the night so that the people would see it as some kind of just trial which had to be conducted in the daylight. Now he comes to Pilate. And in the custody of Pilate, there are three phases to the Gentile trial. First before Pilate, Pilate declares that he is innocent, that he is guilty of nothing, no crime that concerns Rome. Pilate then sends him to Herod, concludes the same thing that he is no threat, sends him back to Pilate for the final third phase of the Gentile trial. Pilate's not ready to kill Jesus because he knows he's innocent of any crime, sees him as a rather pathetic figure. So he has Jesus scourged before he hands him over to be crucified. That's how verse 15 ends. Now we backtrack as we come to verse 16...we backtrack as we come to verse 16. He hasn't yet been handed over to be crucified.

The soldiers take him away from Pilate's tribunal and they take him into the palace that is the Praetorium. But before we get to that, just a word about what has happened. You can see that all Mark does is refer to scourging and doesn't describe it.

And that is exactly what I was saying to you. There is a very restrained perspective on the physical issues regarding Jesus. Jesus is scourged. This was a flogging, wooden handle wrapped with leather, the leather extended in multiple leather thongs at the end of those thongs, embedded into the leather were bits of sharp bone and stone and metal. And the beating was carried out by two lictors who alternated blows and they kept it up until the flesh was destroyed virtually on the back and the flesh was torn and lacerated all the way down to the bone itself.

And the record tells us that deep veins and arteries and sometimes entrails and organs were exposed and sometimes death occurred, the muscles were shredded as well as the skin. And after the scourging and before the crucifixion is when we pick up the story in verse 16. This is a scourged Jesus that the soldiers take away into the palace.

But hasn't rendered His final verdict yet. Jesus is still there in the palace in that scourged condition, in the care of the soldiers who decide to extend their comedy, a ribald kind of mockery like you would heap upon a witless man or a witless boy. So let's call Movement One in this account of the crucifixion, the soldiers' parody...the soldiers' parody, p-a-r-o-d-y. Verse 16, the soldiers took Him away into the palace, that is the Praetorium, and they called together the whole Roman cohort. Roman cohort members had come into the Garden to arrest Jesus, remember that?

A cohort would be 600 Romans, one-tenth of a legion which was 6,000 men. Some of these cohort members who had been assigned to arrest Jesus are now assigned to guard Him after His scourging and their task is simply to hold Him as a prisoner until the final verdict is set, until the final disposition comes down. He will be ultimately taken to the hill to be crucified but that hasn't been determined yet so He's in the custody of these soldiers. He's not where you might think He would be in Fort Antonia, the military fort right next to the temple ground, rather He is in the palace. This is a palace built by Herod.

It was begun in 23 A.D. It was a massive palace. It was used by the Harrods and it was also the dwelling place of Roman governors when they came into Jerusalem, so it was the house occupied by Pilate.

It is called Praetorium because the elite troops were the Praetorian Guard and they gave name to the very place where they were quartered. When the soldiers had done what they needed to do in scourging Him, and there He was in their presence, they were waiting for orders as to what to do with them, they decided to carry out their little comedy. They wanted everybody in on the fun, so verse 16 says, they called together the whole Roman cohort. It wouldn't take 600 men to guard Jesus, not in that condition. And the other men may have been dispersed in various places, but they got them all together for the fun.

And so the whole spiron, the whole cohort comes together and they begin the parody. They dressed Him, verse 17, up in purple, mock royal robe. It's interesting, the integrity of Scripture is remarkable. Sometimes in the smallest ways, Matthew 27, 28 says, it was a scarlet robe...it was a scarlet robe. I love the fact that it says purple here and in John and scarlet in Matthew.

There's so much integrity in that. You say, well wait a minute, that's a contradiction. It isn't a contradiction, it is so readily and easily explained because Roman soldiers wore as a matter of their uniform issue a scarlet-colored mantle, but a scarlet-colored mantle worn by a soldier over a long period of time, that rough, hard, stiff mantle would have faded in the brilliant sun as the months and years passed by. And so what started out very likely as a scarlet robe was a faded red that resembled a purple somewhere in between. They threw on Him this coarse wool robe on His bare exposed back and then after twisting a crown of thorns, they crushed it down onto His skull.

And some writers described the plant as having thorns that were as long as twelve inches. This was a mock gold leaf wreath, laurel wreath, replicated in gold that Caesar would wear. This was to mark Him out as a mock king in crushing it on His head, it would have punctured His head where there is much blood and caused the blood to run down all over His head and neck and flow down and be mingled with the blood that was still oozing out of His back and running down the rest of His body.

And some of the lashes would have come around to the front and bloodied the front as well. Matthew adds that in setting Him up to look like a king in their little comedy, they put a reed in His hand. They put some kind of a mock scepter in His hand which kings held. And Matthew then says in Matthew 27, 29, they knelt down before Him and mocked Him.

And that's what Mark says. They put themselves in front of Him, at the end of verse 19, kneeling and bowing. Verse 18 says, they began to acclaim Him, hail King of the Jews. That's the essence of the mockery because that's what they would have said to Caesar, hail Caesar, hail Caesar.

Here it's hail King of the Jews. The fun has descended to the worst kind of blasphemy at this point and He is being toyed with as if He is bereft of His senses. And verse 19, it even gets uglier, they kept beating His head with a kolomos, the Greek word kolomos means a stick, and then they kneel before Him as if He is a King.

They're having a party, it's a celebration, it's a comedy, it's a parody. They're doing this with the God of heaven. At this point, we have to turn to John 19 to get the story. So open John's gospel to the 19th chapter for the rest of the story. Here we pick it up, the soldiers twisted, verse 2, a crown of thorns, put it on His head, put a robe on Him, purple robe, that's exactly what Mark said. And they began to come up to Him and say, hail King of the Jews, and give Him slaps in the face.

So that's where we are. Then we read this, Pilate came out again and said to them, out to the people, behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him. What a coward he is. He's allowed Jesus to be abused like this, lashed, battered around the face, spit on, bloodied and he every time referring to Christ declares his innocence. But he thinks this might be enough. When they see Him with the blood all over Him, running down His face everywhere else, when they see Him in this horrendous condition, certainly that will be enough. So he says, I'm going to bring Him out so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.

I'm not sure how those two go together. If you find no guilt in Him, why have you put Him in this condition? Why have you beaten Him virtually to a pulp? God said to them, eke homo, that famous statement, behold the man, behold the man. As if to say, isn't that enough? There He stands, the Son of God, the glory of heaven covered with blood, bleeding from gashing wounds across His back, blood from droplets of sweat that have come through His flesh and blood streaking down His face and neck and His face pummeled into a condition where it may not have been recognizable, cruel disfigurement, isn't that enough?

Is not that enough? Behold the man. Hardly had this appeal come out of the mouth of Pilate when the chief priests in verse 6 and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, crucify, crucify.

Nothing had changed. Pilate had already known why they wanted Him dead, because of envy, because Jesus was more popular and more powerful, more truthful, far more pure than any of them. They are what Paul describes as past feeling. They hounded Jesus to death and they hounded Pilate to his own self-destruction.

It is a maddening mob of shrieking frenzied fanatics. And so, Pilate says in frustration in the middle of verse 6, take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him, you kill Him. Remember what it said back in verse 31? Pilate said that earlier, take Him yourselves, judge Him according to your law. And the Jews said to Him, we're not permitted to put anyone to death, to fulfill the Word of Jesus which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death He was about to die. When Pilate earlier in the trial said, You kill Him, I give You the permission, I relinquish Rome's right to You, You kill Him, they said, Oh, we can't do that.

We're not permitted to do that. That's against Roman law. And that, of course, kept Him from being stoned, couldn't have been stoned because if you die being thrown down, you're not dying being lifted up. And He said He would be lifted up. Pilate was a desperate coward.

He tries one more time to get them to take Him and do whatever they want with Him because He finds no guilt in Him. He says it again in verse 6 and their response is, We have a law and by that law He ought to die because He has made Himself out to be the Son of God. Now they articulate the real issue. Let it be said, let the record of history say, when the thing finally came down, they wanted Him dead because He claimed to be the Son of God and the truth of the matter is they were at the pinnacle of apostasy. It wasn't about politics, it wasn't about social order. They were of the kingdom of darkness, belonged to Satan, though they pretended to belong to God. The Jews condemned God's Son because He was God's Son. That's how far from the truth they were.

So they are without excuse. Well Pilate is now in a very difficult position. Therefore when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He doesn't want to kill Jesus and he doesn't want to kill Jesus just because they want Him to kill Jesus because he doesn't want to be their pawn.

And he has a sense of justice. After all, he is the leading judge representing Rome in that part of the world. But when they say he is the Son of God, he claims to be the Son of God, that's the blasphemy, Pilate verse 12 goes back to the people and he made efforts to release Jesus. But the Jews cried out saying, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. And now they're back to Jesus being a self-proclaimed king who is a threat to Caesar.

And everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. They move from the blasphemy of saying you're God to the threat. Therefore in verse 13, when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat. He brings Him now out for the public.

This is the final verdict. After his private consultation with Jesus, he comes out and says, isn't that enough? Let me release Him, they will not respond except to scream, crucify. He brings Jesus out one final time. Sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha, we're not exactly sure where that is, but in the vicinity. Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover. Everybody was getting ready for the Passover which began at sundown that night, the Judean Passover. It was about the sixth hour, that's Roman time, goes from midnight to midnight, Jewish time from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M.

So third hour, Jewish time, nine o'clock, sixth hour, Roman time, nine o'clock. It's nine o'clock and he said to the Jews, behold your King...behold your King. In one final expression of disdain, he would not pronounce the verdict. He refused to pronounce the verdict, he let them do it. Verse 15, they cried out, away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him, Pilate, shall I crucify your King? The chief priests in one unbelievably hypocritical statement said, we have no King but Caesar. After they had mocked Him, after all this had happened, after the final verdict had been given by the people, they took the purple robe off Him, put His own garments on Him and it's now that they led Him out to crucify Him.

They led Him out to crucify Him. You're listening to Grace to You with John MacArthur. Today John continued a study that can deepen your worship this Easter.

It's titled, The Divine Drama of Redemption. And now, going back to what John said before the lesson, everything we do at Grace to You is meant to reach people with biblical truth. And on behalf of the men and women who benefit from this teaching around the globe, thank you for partnering with us.

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That's more than 3,500 messages. All free to download in MP3 and transcript format. Our web address again, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Keep in mind, you can watch Grace to You television Sundays on DirecTV, Channel 378, or check your local listings for Channel and Times. And then join us next week as John continues his series, The Divine Drama of Redemption, with another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.