A Blossom Bible Podcast
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A Blossom Bible Podcast
Mark 15:16-21 The Mocked Messiah: Carrying the Cross in a World of Scorn
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The journey to the cross reveals humanity's darkest impulses and God's unfathomable love. As Roman soldiers clothe Jesus in mock royal garments, jam a crown of thorns on his head, and spit on him repeatedly, we witness the Creator of the universe enduring contempt from his own creation. The gospel writers focus particularly on this mockery, showing how both Jews and Gentiles participated in rejecting God's Son.
When Jesus's strength fails on the way to Golgotha, a bystander named Simon from Cyrene is compelled to carry the cross. This seemingly random encounter transforms Simon's life, with evidence suggesting his entire family became devoted followers of Christ. His experience offers a powerful metaphor for discipleship – the unexpected call to shoulder a burden that ultimately leads to profound blessing.
The Apostle Paul understood this paradox deeply. Despite his impressive religious credentials, he counted everything as "rubbish" compared to knowing Christ. But Paul's desire wasn't just to experience resurrection power; he wanted the "fellowship of Christ's sufferings" as well. This uncomfortable truth challenges our comfortable Christianity: "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution."
How many opportunities to share our faith do we miss because we fear mockery? How often do we stay silent rather than risk ridicule? The cross reminds us that true discipleship means valuing Jesus above everything else – including others' opinions. This week, look for chances to stand for truth and share hope with those who are hurting. You might face resistance, but you'll experience deeper fellowship with the One who endured mockery and death for you.
Every Christian journey involves carrying a cross. What's yours?
Mark 15,. We'll start in verse 16 this morning. Mark 15, 16, starting point. Well, the cross is upon us. It's early in the morning, the day of the cross. Jesus has spent the night, first in prayer and then interrogation, in a lawless trial at the house of the high priest. At the first light of morning he's been transferred to the Roman governor, pilate. And although Pilate half-heartedly tried to deliver Jesus, through fear and pressure of the people and a fear of disappointing Caesar, he delivered Jesus to be crucified. He delivered Jesus to be crucified and Jesus has been scourged and he is taken now to be crucified. In verse 16. Notice, we read. Then the soldiers led him away to the hall called Praetorium and they called together the whole garrison, that's about 600 soldiers, and they clothed him with purple and twisted a crown of thorns, put it on his head and began to salute him. Hail, king of the Jews. Then they struck him in the head with a reed and spat on him Bowing the knee. They worshipped him. We could find in our New Testament.
Speaker 1:All four gospel writers are going to let us know about the crucifixion. It's the center of everything, right, and I got to tell you I don't feel up to it. I've been thinking about it as we get closer, finally, to the cross and it's a scary thing that we can just read this and it not affect us, that I could just teach a Bible study on this and you feel like words just can't do it justice. So I'm kind of hesitant to even do it. But I know that's where we're at and we know this is the power of the whole thing. But here Jesus is taken in front of the Roman guards, about 600 of them, and it's been pointed out interesting here that very little is told us of the specifics of this crucifixion. We have to get it from history and cultural details, the act of crucifixion. We have to get it from history and cultural details, the act of crucifixion. But here we see the brutality through the mockery and that has been pointed out, that the mockery seems to be the center of what the gospel writers are trying to get across. The mockery seems to be the detail that God wanted us to know about, because that's what we're given. That's the main thing here.
Speaker 1:Now. Mockery is the main response of the natural man to the things of God. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, they're foolishness to him. So check it out. In our natural flesh, we can place ourselves in this crowd of mockers, along with the rest of the world outside of Christ. I'm reminded of this portion of Scripture in the song how Great the Father's Love for Us. It says this Behold the man upon the cross, my sin upon his shoulders. Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers.
Speaker 1:There's a focus on the mockery that Jesus went through. A focus on the mockery that Jesus went through, and we see it coming from all directions, jew and Gentile. Notice here. We've already been to Caiaphas' house, right, the chief priest of the Jews, and he has brought Jesus to the Romans. Now just a little side note Throughout history, people like the Nazis have used this idea to call the Jews Christ killers.
Speaker 1:Even Martin Luther, in a time of weakness, referred to them like that the ones who crucified Christ. But what we really see here is that it comes from all sides. We're all responsible in this mockery. Right, the Jews may have brought him, but the Romans finished the deal here. The Romans, that's all of us, the Gentiles. They mock Jesus, they beat Jesus. We're all responsible. It was our sin that brought him to this place.
Speaker 1:Since God wants us to see this, let's consider the mockery of all this in mind. We consider this, realizing that Jesus is God in flesh. He is Emmanuel, god with us. Check it out, think about it. Genesis 1.1 and John 1.3, we find that Jesus is the one responsible for creating everything. He made man out of dirt and breathed the breath of life into him in Genesis 2, verse 7. In Daniel, chapter 5, we understand that it's God that holds our breath in his hands and ultimately has the power to give it and to take it. Paul, speaking of Jesus now think about this.
Speaker 1:In Colossians 1.17 says that Jesus is before all things and in him they all consist. Now think about this. Jesus is the one that holds everything that we see together. The moment that Jesus decided to let it all go, nothing, everything we see, held together by his power. That's Jesus who's standing in front of these Roman guards. I'm reminded also of his authority. He tells Peter in the garden remember, just a few hours before this, when Peter takes up the sword and starts swinging, cuts off poor Malchus's ear. Jesus reminds him that at any moment, the father could give him 12 legion of angels to come to his rescue. All that power, and yet Jesus was mocked. Isaiah 53 reminds us that Jesus, in meekness and humility, was like a lamb before its shears, and it was silent. He opened, not his mouth. So think about that God in flesh enduring mockery from his creation. But let's look at it. What did it look like? We read here that the whole garrison came together, that's 600 men in a sort of coffee break, a kind of mid-shift entertainment here for them, some gallows humor. Verse 17,.
Speaker 1:They clothed him in purple. Likely this was one of the Roman soldiers' robes cloaks, originally scarlet, probably sun bleached. It looked more purple. But there it was to look like a king right. Put a robe on him, a purple royal robe. They put a crown of thorns notice on his head. Now we think of thorns and we think of rose thorns. But in the Middle East, there they have some thorns that are like nails, three to four inches long, as tough as nails. They wove them and jammed it on his head. The blood started to come out from that Notice. They began to salute him and said Hail the common Roman greeting, hail King of the Jews, and Matthew lets us know.
Speaker 1:They put a reed in his hand as a scepter, the whole costume of the emperor right, and they mocked him. They took that we read here. They took that reed and they just struck him on the head over and over again like beating a drum. They beat Jesus Laughing Notice. They were spitting on him, they spat on him. So all of this brutality and then add to that spit. There is something just totally defiling a spit. Nothing really more insulting you can do than spit on someone. And Jesus in all of this was spat on. They did it over and over and over again and it was hard to write this this morning.
Speaker 1:It was really hard to consider all that Jesus went through for us. But why? Why was he mocked? Well, in the early church, just a few years from this, the early church would experience mockery like this. Words of ridicule, right. People would lie about them and tell all sorts of stories about those Christians who drink blood, have love, feasts, all these different kinds of things. And they were ridiculed and they were mocked. But even in our modern world, believers around the world are mocked and abused daily. Believers around the world are mocked and abused daily. In fact, it's been said, there are more people who suffer for Jesus in the world today than have ever been Makes sense. 340 million to 370 million people experience persecution in our world. They say so. The early church suffered mockery. The modern church suffers mockery, and so Jesus understands, as those who would come after would realize, he went through it. Jesus told his disciples they hated me and they'll hate you too. Also, in this, though, we see Jesus with ultimate humility it's meekness. The word meekness means power under control. So, again, we put this all together and we realize Jesus is God in flesh, created everything, utter, just, complete power, and yet he lets his creation beat up on him and mock him.
Speaker 1:Well, verse 20, the soldiers have had enough and they led him out to crucify him. Verse 20, the soldiers have had enough and they led him out to crucify him. Verse 21, well, before we get there, I want you to picture where we're at. Jesus is led out. He's bleeding like crazy, face disfigured, back ripped open from the scourging spit running down his beard. He's a carpenter by trade, so he can take a bit, but at this point he's had enough. His energy is gone in his humanity. So notice verse 21.
Speaker 1:Then they compelled a certain man, simon, a Cyrenean, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to bear his cross, and they brought him to the place Golgotha, which is translated place of the skull. So you know the story. As Jesus is let out of the city to be crucified, the soldiers compel a certain man here named Simon to carry the cross. And it was their right. The soldiers could do that.
Speaker 1:You remember, in Matthew 5, 41, jesus said when somebody asks you to go a mile, go two. The Roman soldiers could ask anyone they wanted to carry their stuff for one Roman mile. I think it's a little bit less than our mile, but it's still quite a ways to go. The Roman soldier could tap you on the shoulder and say look, I need you to carry my stuff, get going for one mile. And Jesus of course says in the Sermon on the Mount I know this isn't natural, but when they ask you to go one, go the extra mile, go two. That's what it means to be a Christian. And so they tap this certain man, notice a certain man, simon. It's a certain purpose. It looks pretty random, doesn't it, that Jesus is going out of the city.
Speaker 1:Simon is coming into the city, random guy, random Simon, and they choose him. But he's a certain man. He is there for a purpose, and we'll see that the name Simon is pretty common, probably one of the most common names we have in the New Testament. There's nine people with the name Simon in the New Testament. Seems like there was a pretty good Jewish population there. He's probably there just to observe the feast, to celebrate this Jewish Independence Day of Passover, and notice he has two sons listed. Good Greek names Alexander man you can't get a much more Greek name than Alexander, right? Alexander and Rufus. Rufus just sounds like a good name for a kid. And they're there on pilgrimage. He's in the wrong place at the wrong time, or maybe he's in the right place at the right time, but he's there. Maybe he heard the ruckus of the crowd, maybe he was just going into worship, but God had a plan in all this.
Speaker 1:Now, before we move on, the other thing that should probably catch our attention here is his son's names. Notice in verse 21,. Mark lets us know that he was the father of Alexander and Rufus. So what? Well, there seems to be a reason why Mark is letting us know that this is Rufus's dad, right? Well, in the book of Romans, in the book of Romans, chapter 16, verse 13,. Paul mentions Rufus and his mother. He gives them greetings at the end of the book of Romans. So this guy, rufus, a guy named Rufus, is in the church in Rome known by Paul and greeting. Is it the same Rufus? We'll never know, but it seems like this man was known, right, rufus Alexander, one of them were known in the early church.
Speaker 1:It's hard to imagine that you could go through what Simon went through carry the cross of Jesus, lay it down at Golgotha, watch him being crucified and not be moved by that, not be changed by that Speculation. But tradition has it that this Rufus is that Rufus that God really did a work in this family's heart. Was it an accident? No, not a chance. God set it up and his life was changed. I think Now the thing we see here as we kind of go on, is that this is a picture for us, right? Simon is a great illustration for us of the Christian life and this is where we'll close. But Simon is a great illustration of the Christian life and this is where we'll close. But Simon is a great illustration of the Christian life.
Speaker 1:Jesus tells a rich young ruler in Mark 10, 21,. Go your way, sell whatever you have, give it to the poor and you'll have treasure in heaven. Then come, take up the cross and follow me. And Jesus kind of sets this picture that taking up the cross is what the Christian life is all about. Paul classic verse Paul in Galatians 2.20 says I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So we see this theology and come back this theology that the cross is where we all find life right. We relate to Jesus on the cross. We relate to Jesus on the cross. He's crucified, but it's really us, it's our old man that's crucified there at the cross. We talked about that 2 Corinthians 5.21, that he becomes sin for us, that we could become the righteousness of God in him, and there's this transfer that takes place. But Simon's a great illustration for us of what the Christian life looks like to take up the cross and carry the cross. Now I just want to camp on this for the rest of our few minutes here.
Speaker 1:Let's turn to Philippians, chapter three. Philippians, chapter three, philippians, chapter three. Now in Paul's life he faced off with these people known as the Judaizers. They would come around as Paul was teaching and they would say oh you know, jesus is great and all, but you need to become. If you're a Gentile, you need to become a Jew first. And they would heckle Paul and give him trouble.
Speaker 1:But they put their confidence in rituals, in the law, in circumcision, in dietary laws. They boasted in their knowledge. And notice, here in Philippians 3, starting in verse 4, paul's going to be tempted to boast with them. He says, though I might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I, more so, circumcised on the eighth day of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, concerning the law, a Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is, in the law, blameless. So Paul starts here and he says you know what, if we had to brag about things, I could brag about things, right, I have been as Hebrew as Hebrew can be. I've been blameless according to the law. I was born into the right tribe and the right family. I got an education.
Speaker 1:He says here, he was a Pharisee. Now we look at that and go Pharisee, oh, those guys. But they were highly educated in the law, they had been to all the schooling. And I look at this and I go I get it, paul, because you can put a face on that. You're humble, but it always feels a little good to kind of throw out. You know some of your qualifications, you know what I mean. Well, you know I've done this and I've been there and I know this person. Right, it just always feels good, right to boast. And Paul could have done it. He could have said I'm an educated, I sat at the feet of Gamaliel and they would have gone ooh, gamaliel, wow, the teacher of teachers, you studied under him and there's a certain amount of pride we can take on what we've become right, and Paul could have done it, and I get it.
Speaker 1:But notice verse 7, where he switches gears. But whatever things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things Verse 10, that I may know him, the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. So check it out. Paul starts to brag, he gets his list out. He could do it. But then he says but there in in verse seven, all these things, whatever things were gained to me, education, place in life, status, whatever it is I count it all as loss for Christ.
Speaker 1:And notice, he goes on in verse eight and he says you know what? I count them as rubbish. Now we can get colorful with this, but that word rubbish is essentially manure right, not to beat two crabs Essentially manure. So all the things that were like little crowns you know that he could put on his head Paul goes compared to knowing Jesus. It's a sack of manure, it's not worth anything. And Paul kind of made that. He understood that Knowing Jesus is worth more than everything else on earth.
Speaker 1:But notice where he goes with it and this is where it gets really intense. He says, verse 10, this is what I really want and you got to hear it in his voice. This is what I really want, that I may know him, I want to know Jesus. Now, this word know is not to just know in your head, right, we know a lot of things. Maybe you're like me random trivia man. I just I can do it on random trivia. Does it mean anything? Absolutely not. You know random trivia. But that's not what we're talking about when we talk about knowing Jesus.
Speaker 1:This word know is an experience, kind of know, right, it's the kind of know you have when you've been bungee jumping. Oh, I know bungee jumping. You know when you've done something, you go, I've experienced that, catching a wave or whatever You're like. I know what it feels like to surf, you know, or whatever I don't, but that's an illustration. But he says here this is what I really want. I want to know Jesus through experience. And it's so intense.
Speaker 1:He says I want to know him and the power of his resurrection. And you look at that and you go oh, paul man, when you went around in the ancient world and you told people about Jesus, you got to see the power of the resurrection taking an old life and making it new. That's what happens when we come to Jesus. The old life is gone and it's a brand new existence in Jesus. And so Paul would talk about people who were possessed, right Like the girl who followed him around, saying you know, listen to these guys. They're speaking the truth and he turns around and cast the demon out. Paul knew what it was like to see people's life do like a full 180, not the same person that it was two minutes before, and he goes. That's the power of a resurrection. That's what Jesus can do. So many things you can apply to that resurrection. We'll probably talk about it more in the coming weeks.
Speaker 1:But notice what he really says after that, verse 10, we're still in verse 10. But I may know him in the power of his resurrection, in the fellowship of his sufferings, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. Paul, I don't like it. I don't like that you say stuff about fellowship of his sufferings, because we're hearing the gospel and we're seeing Jesus suffer and it's blood and it's beating, beating and it's all that kind of stuff. But it's mockery, it's spit dripping off his beard. I don't like that fellowship of his suffering. The word fellowship is another word we should think about Fellowship. We think of fun, food and fellowship Yay. Fellowship it means to have in common commonality. So Jesus is saying I want fellowship in his sufferings, I want to have that in common with Jesus. You go, paul, what is wrong with you? But Paul knew what the Christian life was really all about. He would tell Timothy in 2 Timothy 3.12,. But Paul knew what the Christian life was really all about. He would tell Timothy in 2 Timothy 3.12,.
Speaker 1:Yes, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. We don't really need to look for it. Paul didn't need to go out and go hey, persecute me, right, I want some suffering, persecute me. He didn't need to. All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. So check it out. We suffer in a lot of different ways in our lives, but why don't we suffer persecution? Well, we live in America. We got it good. Honestly, I have no right talking about suffering persecution because I have not been persecuted Never. I can't think of a time where I've really been persecuted, right. But then we got to ask ourselves do we really desire to live godly? Eh, sometimes I try. You know I don't use bad words. Is that good? You know I try. But we don't really suffer persecution and we typically don't desire to live godly too much. We may do it secretly.
Speaker 1:You ever notice that thing when you go out to lunch or dinner. You're like we're going to pray, let's all pray Now. There are some that are very vocal about their prayers. I'm not saying we have to be that Like everybody in the restaurant. We're going to pray now. So be quiet. We're going to pray, you know, I don't know if that's what we need to do, but I tell you this is me and there's too much confession today, but this is me. All right, guys, real quick. Okay, god bless this food. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:And you don't want it to like work out where the waitress is at the table standing awkwardly while you're praying. You know, because I don't want to suffer persecution, I don't want them to go. Oh, you're one of those. You know I got things to do. Can you hurry up? Whatever it is? Even in that I'm kind of standoffish, standing up for godly living. We don't want to rock the boat, right? So we endure the crass joke at work. We giggle a little bit with everyone else. We don't have very many opportunities to suffer persecution. But I'm saying for myself I don't generally take the opportunities that I get. I just kind of stay in the shadows, pray in my heart, whatever, honestly, out of fear I have missed opportunities to share the truth with people because I'm afraid of what they think about me if I do. I miss so many opportunities because I don't want to suffer mockery or ridicule.
Speaker 1:And yet Paul here says if you desire to live godly, you're going to suffer persecution. Paul knew that it was there and he walked right into it. Right In Athens he got up and shared the truth with a group of scholars and the end of it they said what's this babbler talking about? This guy is just talking. What is this craziness that he's talking about? And he wasn't afraid to do it. He was flat-out beaten wherever he went in Philippi, just beaten to a pulp. And he walked into it, even sharing with Caesar, which ultimately got him killed. He did it. Now he's just a guy. I'm sure he had his times where he didn't succeed in this, but this is what Paul wanted.
Speaker 1:He says I want to know him the power of resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. And there is even though I have not experienced it that much in my life there is this fellowship as we suffer persecution where we go. This is life with Jesus. We take up the cross and we follow Jesus. Now we don't need to go looking for persecution. Please don't. You don't have to. But those who desire to live godly will have opportunity to suffer persecution and mockery for Jesus. That's the ultimate.
Speaker 1:This week will offer us some opportunities. That this week will offer us some opportunities to stand up for what's right, and we don't have to be harsh with it, we don't have to be boastful or anything like that, but there'll be opportunities to stand up for what's right. Check it out. I'm going to predict there'll be opportunities for us to share the good news with someone who's really needing it, someone whose life is destroyed. And you know, we can hesitate. We might hesitate and say well, you know, have you ever thought about quitting drugs, you know? Or perhaps it's the moment that we say you know what? There is no hope in this life but Jesus. You're banging your head against the wall. There is no hope but Jesus, and he loves you so much.
Speaker 1:Maybe this is our week and maybe we'll have some persecution and we'll go to know him in the fellowship of his sufferings. He's right here with us, maybe to see some amazing fruit. But the thing is we need him, we need his spirit for that. None of us are just gonna go out and just get through it. Oh, we're just so strong. We need him to make it work and I encourage you look to him these mornings, see what God might have for you. Walk with him carrying the cross.
Speaker 1:God, none of these things we can make happen, none of these things we can power through. Just be strong people. We need your spirit. We want to be right there with you and we know you're right there with us, god. Thank you for what you've done for us, god, as we just look at how you laid down your life, how you offered your face for those beatings in your back, for the scourging, how you put up with their mockery, god, you did it because you loved us. God, I just pray that that love would help us to see that there is nothing on this planet worth more than that, not money or status or what people think about us. There is nothing worth knowing you, god, help us. I don't want to say it lightly, that we'll just go out and do it, but, god, help us to really walk with you and be in fellowship with you every day. Thank you for what you've done for us. Just thank you that you love us, no matter what. God, you are so good. We thank you in Jesus' name. We pray Amen.