The Shameful Scorn of Jesus Christ

What the Bible writers 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 crucifier saw Jesus as a joke.

Welcome to Grace To You, the Bible Teaching Ministry of John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson.

When you think of all the suffering Jesus endured,

anguish in the garden, 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 all the aspects of Christ's suffering and what they mean for your salvation,

as we continue his study on Grace To You, called the Divine Drama of Redemption.

So now, if you have your Bible, turn to the book of Mark and follow along.

Here's John MacArthur with today's lesson.

Let's open the Word of God to the 15th chapter of Mark,

Mark chapter 15. We come in our study of this gospel,

who marks the count of the crucifixion of Christ.

I want you to look at the text beginning in verse 15, verse 15, wishing to satisfy the crowd,

pilot released Burabis 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 passerby 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 gap 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.

So 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 mock

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 crucifier 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,

Alunatic, 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. Anus, 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 is not ready to kill Jesus because he knows he is innocent of any

crime, sees him as a rather pathetic figure. So he has Jesus scourged before he hands him over to be

crucified. Now, 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 Praetorian. 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, wouldn't

handle, wrapped with leather. A 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. The pilot 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 keep upon a witless man or a witless boy.

So let's call movement one in this account of the crucifixion, the soldier's parody, the soldier's

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 Antonio, 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 AD.

It was a massive palace. It was used by the Herod's and it was also the dwelling place of Roman

governors when they came into Jerusalem so it was the house occupied by Pilate. It's 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 him. 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 Spyron, 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 bear 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 12 inches. This was a mock gold leaf, wreath, lural 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 in verse 19, it even gets uglier.

They kept beating his head with a columnus. The Greek word columnus 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. And they're doing this with the god of heaven. At this point, we have to turn to John

19 to get the story. It's 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 her 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?

Pilate said to them, Ekahomo, 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. Here's your king. Does he look like a threat to Rome, to you,

to anybody? Look at him. Isn't this enough for an innocent man that you accuse of being a king

and a threat to Rome? He thinks if he can show them a bloody, pathetic piece of beaten flesh,

they'll be satisfied, foolish pilot, cowardly pilot. They had tasted blood, now they wanted more.

They're like a beast who, with the first taste of flesh, ravenously goes after all the rest.

Hardly had this appeal come out of the mouth of pilot when the chief priest in verse 6 and the

officers saw him, they cried out saying, crucified, crucified, nothing had changed.

Pilot had already known why they wanted him dead because of envy, because Jesus was more popular,

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 pilot to his own self-destruction.

It is a maddening mob of shrieking frenzied fanatics. And so pilot 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 pilot 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 responses, 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. He's the son of God. And they're

going to hold to their ground. They're going to force Pilate to do this. They don't want...they

don't want this to be their job. They want it to be his. They want to give a measure of compliance

to Roman law so that they can uphold their positions and their power before Caesar because of their

obedience to the Roman laws. Careful comparison of the four gospels indicates there were seven

indictments against Jesus that were articulated. Number one, that he was a threat to destroy the

temple. Number two, that he was an evil doer, John 1830. Number three, that he was perverting the

nation. Number four, that he was forbidding taxes to be paid to Caesar. Number five, that he was

stirring up the people. Number six, that he claimed to be a king and was a threat to Caesar.

And all of that had been laid at the feet of Pilate and none of it had any traction at all. None of

it could be verified. None of it could be proven. None of it was even rational or reasonable.

So they finally came to the only thing that would ever be able to be said about him truly. And

this was it. He made himself out to be the son of God. And that's true. That's true. He did

claim to be the son of God because he was the son of God. But for them, that was blasphemy.

And the divine providence here is so interesting. Let history record that the Jews killed Jesus

because he claimed to be the son of God. If they had been able to convince Pilate that he

was going to destroy the temple or that he wasn't evil doer or perverted the nation or forbid

the Jews to pay tax to Caesar or if he was a threat to Caesar or stirring up a revolt,

then one could argue that they crucified him because they saw him as a social disruptor,

as a rebel, as a threat to society. 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 belong 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 there upon. 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 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 your 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, 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, Gabata, 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.

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 priest 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 featuring the Bible teaching of John MacArthur.

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here next week when John MacArthur continues his study, called the Divine Drama of Redemption.

With a look at the two criminals who were crucified with Jesus, one was forgiven by the Lord,

the other was not. What made the difference? Find out when we return with another half hour of

unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Mondays Grace to You.