Mark 15:15b-23

The Torture and Humiliation of the King

Today, we continue in our series of sermons about the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life. And we focus our attention today on Jesus as he stands before the Roman Guards. Pontius Pilate has sentenced him to be put to death by crucifixion and so, the Roman Guards take him away to be flogged. They then seek to humiliate him … to mock him, dehumanize him, and break him. Then finally, he is led off to be crucified.

Next Sunday, we will come to the crucifixion and we will talk about what happened there; what Jesus said; and what it all means for us. But today, we are going to be asking ourselves, “How we see ourselves in this part of the story? And what does it mean for us today?”

The first part of this story for today has to do with the flogging of Jesus. Now, the Gospel writers give us very little details about the flogging, only that “before Jesus was crucified, he was flogged”. Flogging was a common practice in Jesus’ day. It has been used throughout history, even recently the world witnessed a public flogging in Iran.

In Roman times, flogging was used in various degrees. Sometimes it was used in a less severe way to make a point, sort of like having a public spanking. But when it was time to instill fear in the public, they would use a form of flogging that was so painful and so insidious, that when the people watched it, they had to turn away. It instilled such fear in the populace that people did not want to do anything that would lead to such a punishment. And when you had someone who had been convicted of leading an insurrection against the Roman Government, putting them to death by crucifixion, as horrible as that was, wasn’t enough. They would punish such prisoners with flogging before putting them to death to make a statement. And this is what happened to Jesus.

The floggers in Roman times were called “Lictors”. And what we know from historical records is that the victim would be stripped of their clothing and then strapped or handcuffed to a post; bending them over; so the soldiers could have maximum impact with their tools of torture. There were typically two Lictors and sometimes four. This allowed them to take turns and to regain their strength.

The tools of this torture were leather whips called “flagellums” or “flagrums” that were braded together with sharp objects like stone, or glass, or metal. Historical records claim that often the bones if the victim were left exposed by the time the Lictors were finished. Lictors had to have special training to do this, because the aim was not to kill the victim, but to bring them to the brink of death, so they could recover enough to be crucified. Again, this is what was done to Jesus.

In Isaiah 50:6, we have a passage that Early Christians believed was pointing toward what Jesus would face. It says, “I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.”

Now, Jesus did not demonstrate any of the usual signs that one undergoing such a punishment would demonstrate. And this had to have angered the Romans who were administering this punishment. So, after flogging Jesus, they tried to dehumanize him and break his spirit. They took him inside the Antonio Fortress. And Mark’s Gospel says that they called together “the Roman cohort”. A cohort is made up of 6 Roman Centurions and each Centurion had as many as 100 Roman soldiers with him. They were there at that time to keep the peace during the Jewish Passover. So, there were as many as 480 – 600 soldiers surrounding Jesus.

Matthew’s Gospel tells us that they stripped him naked. This was aimed at dehumanizing him, but it also left him completely exposed and vulnerable. Try to imagine, Jesus standing there naked, bleeding, and in pain before all these Roman soldiers in their intimidating armor. And what they did next is hard to comprehend. This man, who had been beaten nearly to death, stripped naked before them, and was about to be crucified … they decide to further humiliate by mocking him. He claimed to be King of the Jews, well they would show him who was king.

So, they brought to Jesus a robe. It would have been one of the capes from the Roman soldiers’ uniform. It wouldn’t have been enough to cover him up, it would have just draped down his back.

Then, they made a crown out of thorns and placed it upon his head. I made such a crown of thorns out of a Jerusalem Lemon Tree, which grows wild in that area. When they are green, you can easily bend them into the shape of a crown. On the screen, you will see a picture of a Roman Coin with the portrait of Tiberius, who was the Roman Emperor in Jesus’ day. And if you look closely, you can see a wreath of laurel around his head. This is what the Emperor wore, so they were mocking Jesus with a crown of thorns.

Matthew’s Gospel then tells us that they put a reed in Jesus hand to be his scepter. It was probably like a cat-tail that we see growing near water. And then, the soldiers took other reeds and began to walk around him and beat him with their reeds. This was not to inflict pain, but rather aimed at humiliating him. And then, they encircled him and began to spit upon him. They knelt before him and shouted, “Hail, King of the Jews!” This is the picture we have of how the Romans treated Jesus.

And you have to wonder why … why was Jesus was treated in this way? I mean, this man had loved lost people. He had preached the good news of the Kingdom of God. He had healed the sick. He had opened the eyes of the blind. He had challenged the religious authorities and challenged their hypocrisy. And for this, they would treat him this way? What kind of men do this to an innocent victim?

And it wasn’t just these Roman soldiers, it has been the entire story we’ve been studying the last four Sundays. In every story, we have read about people doing things that are hard to believe people would do. There was the crowd crying out for Jesus to be crucified. There was the Sanhedrin who demanded that he be put to death. There was Pontius Pilate who knows Jesus is innocent, but to satisfy the crowd, he sends him out to receive this kind of treatment. And now it is the Roman Soldiers, who not only take delight in tearing the flesh from his bones, but they also humiliate him and spit upon him. Why does this happen?

Well, in every one of these sermons, I’ve invited you to try to see yourself in the characters of this story. Can you see yourself as one of the Roman Soldiers? We are all aware that throughout history, human beings have been capable of doing inhumane things. We remember how God sent the flood upon the earth, because God was grieved over how violent we were treating one another. Our inhumanity toward one another is a common theme in our history. It is a part of our human condition.

Understanding this is really important, because it is easy for us to say, “I would never do that. I would not have been like those Roman Soldiers who took delight in torturing Jesus.” Yet, we need not be so quick to say that we would not have participated in this.

There was a study done in 1971 that many of you may have heard about. It was the Stanford Prison Experiment. In 1971, Philip Zimbardo, a psychologist from Stanford University, was hired by the United States Navy to conduct a study on how people respond in prisons. They hired 24 ordinary college students from Stanford University to participate in this experiment. They transformed the basement of the Psychology building there at Stanford into a prison. 12 of the students were to be prisoners and the other 12 were to be prison guards. They divided them up and they were observed for 14 days to see how they would treat one another.

The experiment had to be called off after the 6^th day. It had to be called off, because the college students, who were pretending to be guards, began to oppress the prisoners in such a way that it was becoming dangerous and hurtful. They forgot it was just an experiment and began acting out in the worst of ways.

For the next 30 years, Philip Zimbardo studied the information from this. And what he found is that all of us have the potential of being transformed from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde.

In 1963 there was another study called “The Milgram Experiment”. The Milgram Experiment invited people to come off the street to participate in a scientific experiment. These people were paid $4 for one hour to sit in a room observing another person. The other person they were watching was hooked up to electrodes, so that they could shock them if they did something wrong. The experiment was aimed at finding out how far ordinary people would go if someone in authority over them told them to inflict pain on another human being.

Prior to the experiment, they estimated that probably 1% of Americans would actually shock someone enough times to inflict a lethal dose that would actually kill another. When they had finished, they discovered that 67% of people would actually dial up the electricity to 450 volts. Even when the person in the other room was crying out in pain, they would continue because someone was telling them to do so.

Zimbardo studied the Nazi Germans. I mean, what was so different about those Germans in the 1930’s & 1940’s? What he found, was that 80% of those ordinary citizens who were forced into Nazi service were willing to kill their Jewish neighbors under the right circumstances.

My point in all this, is to say that any of us could become monsters. We all have the potential within us to destroy other human beings with our words and our actions. Zimbardo listed the conditions under which we are willing to do these things. This is what he found: He said, “You start with an ideology, justifying beliefs for your actions. And then you use authority to legitimate that ideology. You employ semantic distortions, telling someone when they are hurting another that they are actually helping them. You make the initial harmful acts very small, asking people to do little things that are against their values, but you convince them that it is okay. And then, you gradually increase the taboo acts that they are willing to perform. You get people involved in actions, technology and details, without time to think through the meaning of their actions. You give them no training in how to challenge unjust authority and you provide no apparent means for exiting the situation. Under these conditions, ordinary, good people can be persuaded to do extraordinary and awful things.”

So yes, we can see ourselves in the crowd and in the soldiers. We all have this potential within us. And so, as Christians, we have to make a conscious decision not to do these things. We have to understand who God has called us to be and guard our hearts, so that this never happens in our lives.

Well, let’s move on, by taking a look at the 21^st verse in Mark’s Gospel:

“Then they led him out to crucify him. They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it.”

Notice that Mark says, “They took Jesus to the place called Golgotha.” “Golgotha” is Aramaic for “the place of the skull”. If you’ve ever wondered, “Calvary” is the Latin for “Golgotha”. So, they are both referring to the same place.

It was called “The place of the skull” perhaps because of the skulls lying there from criminals who had been put to death on the cross. It might have been called this, because the hill where Jesus was crucified actually looked like a skull. While in the Holy Land, we visited a sight that many believe is the place where Jesus was crucified, because it looks like a skull.

Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us that Simon of Cyrene carried Jesus’ cross, while John’s Gospel says that Jesus carried his cross. Both are true. Let me remind you that the criminals didn’t carry their entire cross. The vertical beam remained in place, and as the last humiliating act the Romans made their prisoners carry the horizontal beam that they would be nailed to. It is likely, that Jesus began carrying his cross, but along the way, he became unable to carry it. When this happened, Simon of Cyrene was forced to carry it for him.

Cyrene is located in Libya, on the north coast of Africa. He was probably a Jew who had traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Mark’s Gospel tells us that Simon has two sons … Alexander and Rufus. We’ll talk about them in just a moment.

When they arrive at the Place of the Skull, Mark’s Gospel tells us that Jesus is offered “a glass of wine mixed with myrrh”. Most believe that the myrrh acted as an analgesic to deaden the pain, so this was actually an act of compassion for Jesus … to help him bear the pain of the crucifixion. But notice what the Scripture says. It says that he refused to drink it. He refused to drink it, because Jesus had determined to face the full extent of the punishment and the pain. And this is because Jesus believed that what he was about to do was for a purpose. He believed that his death and suffering was part of God’s plan for the redemption of this world.

With that in mind, this takes us to looking at what Jesus believed he was doing in his suffering and dying for us. This is where we talk about “Atonement”. Atonement means “at-one-ment”. It’s being made right with God. It’s being redeemed by God; forgiven by God; and reconciled to God.

And there are a variety of theories about the Atonement. We learned about one a couple of weeks ago. We learned about the “Substitutionary Theory of Atonement”… that God came among us in the human flesh of Jesus and he suffered and died a punishment for all of the sins of humanity, so that we might not be punished, but rather be set free. Barabbas became a picture of this for us. The criminal, Barabbas, was set free and Jesus took his place on the cross. Likewise, God took our place on the Cross. This is Substitutionary Theory of Atonement.

Today, I want to share with you what is called “The Moral” or “Subjective” Theory of Atonement. The Subjective Theory of Atonement says that Jesus’ suffering and death was not about changing God’s mind or making it possible for God to forgive us … it was about changing us. Jesus’ suffering and death was God’s way of trying to speak to us and show us our need for redemption and forgiveness. This was God’s way of trying to lead us to repentance. This was God’s way of showing us the full extent of his love for us, so that we might love God and follow Him. So, Jesus’ suffering and death was about changing humanity’s heart more than it was about changing God’s heart.

This Theory of Atonement is probably inadequate by itself, but it is one way of understanding the meaning of Christ’s suffering and death. The New Testament does not give us one way of understanding the significance of Jesus’ death. It gives us multiple ways and this is one of those ways.

In the Gospel of John, we are told that Jesus was “the Word made flesh” … that Jesus was God’s means of communicating to us. Well, what was God trying to say in the suffering and death of Jesus?

The first thing God wanted us to hear, is that we as human beings are broken. When God walked on this planet among us, what human beings did was to put him to death. We’re meant to remember this when we read about this story. We’re meant to remember, that even his disciples at the Last Supper didn’t get it. They were debating who among them was going to be the greatest! In the Garden of Gethsemane, they all fled at that first sign of danger. Judas betrayed him and Peter denied him. We’re meant to ask, “What’s wrong with us as human beings, that even Jesus’ disciples did these things?”

We’re meant to look at the Sanhedrin who sentenced Jesus, that even though there were some there, like Nicodemus, who knew this wasn’t right, they were afraid to speak up. The most pious and religious men on this planet voted to put God to death, failing to recognize him! What is wrong with us as human beings?

We’re meant to look at the crowd standing before Pontius Pilate and even though Jesus was innocent, they called for his death. They wanted Barabbas, who offered them victory through the sword, instead of sacrificial love. What’s wrong with us as human beings?

We look at Pontius Pilate, who knew Jesus was innocent, but to satisfy the crowd he sentenced Jesus to death. Again, what’s wrong with us? The Roman Soldiers are just one more picture of the brokenness of humanity.

The suffering and death of Jesus is meant to have an effect on our hearts. It is meant to move us to say, “There is something wrong with us. There is a lot of good within us, but there is also a deep brokenness.” It’s meant to cause us to realize that we are all in need of forgiveness and redemption.

The second thing we are meant to see is that God loves us so much, that he came and suffered to show us this. God was willing to die the most horrendous of deaths to say, “I love you this much.”

I don’t know if there is anyone in this room today who has had someone give their life so that you could live. We’re all recipients of those who have died as soldiers for our freedom, but if you had someone who specifically made the choice to die so that you could live, what a tremendous affect that would have upon how you would live the rest of your life. Well, this is what we’re meant to see in the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, “No greater love has anyone, than to lay down their life for another.” The Apostle Paul says in Romans 5:8 that “This is how God proves his love for us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” And John 3:16 we are told, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

In the Cross, we see the means by which God demonstrated his love for us. And as Christians, we are meant to wake up every day saying, “I need to strive to live in such a way that is worthy of that sacrifice.” This is the Subjective Theory of Atonement … that Christ’s suffering and death is meant to change our hearts and draw us into a right relationship with God.

Before we close, I want to turn our attention again to Simon of Cyrene. I remind you that Mark’s Gospel was written to the Church at Rome. Peter and Paul have both been put to death. Mark is writing in A.D. 66, 36 years after Simon of Cyrene carried the Cross for Jesus. And only Mark’s Gospel tells us this detail about Simon. He says, “Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus.”

This indicates that the Church at Rome knew who Mark was talking about. He’s saying, “This was Alexander and Rufus’ dad.” The people in the Church at Rome knew Alexander and Rufus. So, this tells us that Simon of Cyrene was the first believer from the Subjective Theory of the Atonement. Simon was so moved by what he saw in the suffering and death of Jesus, that he decides to follow him. His wife becomes a follower of Jesus and his sons, Alexander and Rufus become followers.

You say, “Preacher, isn’t that a bit of a stretch to make that assumption from this one little line?” Well, you have to do a little digging to find this. But if you go to Romans 16:13 Paul is writing to the leaders in the Church at Rome and he says, “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; and greet his mother--a mother to me also.” In the words of Paul Harvey, that would be “the rest of the story.”

So, what we find is that Simon of Cyrene was so impacted by the suffering and death of Jesus that his entire family became followers of Jesus Christ and leaders in the church. And the question I want to end with today is, “What about you? Where do you see yourself in this story?”

Do you see yourself in the Roman Soldiers, who said all the right things to Jesus? They said, “Hail Jesus, King of the Jews!” But they mocked him in their hearts. Or do you see yourself in Simon of Cyrene, whose life was changed because of what Jesus did?

We gather here every Sunday to hail Jesus as our King … but sometimes we leave here only to mock him in our words and deeds. We’re all guilty of that. But my hope for us, is that we will be like Simon of Cyrene, who in response to what Jesus did for him was so moved, that he sought to live a life that was worthy of that price.