The religious leaders had apparently won their bitter contest with Jesus.
The verdict had been given.
He was to die on a cross.
His hour had come.
The Roman soldiers were a rough lot, at best, but in their treatment of Jesus they were never more cruel nor less sensitive to the laws of common decency. It was not enough that the soldiers who were on guard in the Praetorium (the palace of the governor) at the time would make sport of Jesus. They sent word to the whole band or cohort, all of whom would number upward of four hundred men, and, like the soldiers of Herod Antipas before them1, they laughingly robed Jesus in purple garments ~ the insignia of royalty ~ and derisively saluted him, even as they would have saluted their own emperor, shouting, Hail, King a/the Jews!2
For the soldiers, it was an impulsive period. For those of us who read the story, it is the very essence of blasphemy, a shocking demonstration of the depravity of the human heart.
The soldiers did not stop with that. They placed a reed in the hand of Jesus to represent the scepter that he claimed the right to carry and, to add to their merriment, they snatched it out of his hand from time to time and struck him over the head with it. Then, to make bad matters worse, they spat upon him. This was the strongest expression of contempt that the Jews knew. As a crowning act of blasphemy, they knelt down before Jesus and assumed a posture of worship and adoration3.
The physical sufferings of Jesus on the cross were unspeakable. His emotional sufferings on the way to the cross, surely, were equally difficult to bear. They were the sufferings of a broken heart, broken by this further demonstration of human sin and depravity.
It was customary to require the condemned man to drag his cross throughout the city, bearing in his hand a written accusation of the crime fol which he was to be executed. This heartless precession was designed to act as a deterrent to lawlessness.
As Jesus struggled under the load of his cross, he was accompanied by the two men who were to be crucified with him1. Each of them was guarded by a detail of four Roman soldiers who would not spare the lash if they faltered on the way. Perhaps it was because of the terrible physical strain that Jesus had undergone during the trials of the night before that he found the weight of the cross too much for him. Perhaps it was the intense anguish of his soul that exhausted him.
Whatever the reason, Jesus fell in the street as the procession reached the outer gate of the city. To avoid delay, the soldiers impressed a bystander into service and laid the cross upon his shoulders. All that we know about this man is that he was a native of Cyrene, in North Africa, and that he had two sons, Rufus and Alexander.
The mention of the names of these two sons by Mark would imply that they were well known in Christian circles when the Gospel was written. It is thought that one of the sons may have been the Rufus who is mentioned in Romans 16:13. If this assumption is correct, we may assume that Simon became a believer and that he would eventually lead his sons to Christ whom he met under such strange circumstances.
At last, Jesus and the two robbers arrived at the scene of the crucifixion. The exact site of the place Golgotha1 is not known. In recent years, just outside the city of Jerusalem and to the north of it, a hill has been discovered with large caverns in the face of it so that, at a distance, it look very much like a skull. This could very well be the place where Jesus was crucified. Here, the soldiers prepared Jesus, and the others for their crucifixion.
The crucifixion was the most degrading method of death known to the Romans and one of the cruelest ever invented by man. The cross was commonly made by crossing two pieces of timber, the upright bar being, perhaps, eight or nine feet long. The hands and feet were fastened to the upright and to the bar by ropes or nails, in Jesus' case, the latter.
A society of wealthy women in Jerusalem had taken it upon themselves, as a humane service, to provide a stupefying drink for all who were crucified. This was given to the victims to lessen the pain, before the nails were driven through their hands and their feet. In the agony of his suffering, Jesus allowed the cup to be placed to his lips, but, when he had tasted it2 he refused to drink it.
Meanwhile, the four soldiers who were in charge of the proceedings began to claim the garments that Jesus had been wearing, casting lots to see what each would get3.
Mark carefully notes that it was about nine o'clock in the morning (the third hour after sunrise) that Jesus was raised upon the cross4, and mentions that official accusation that was nailed to the cross, above his head: The King of the Jews5. It was written in three languages ~ Hebrew, Greek and Latin6. It was on this charge that Jesus had been sentenced to death.
On either side of Jesus was a robber. The word used equally be translated insurrectionist. In a sense, they were not common criminals but, rather, impulsive and misguided men who had dared to offer leadership to the Jews who were desperately anxious to throw off the shackles of Roman domination. Luke tells us that one of these insurrectionists was bitter to the end, while the other had faith enough to say to Jesus, Remember me who you come into your kingdom7. Thus, again, were the Scriptures fulfilled, He was counted with the lawless ones8. The reference here is to Isaiah 53:12.
We see in the crucifixion the very heart of our Christian faith.
Even as we read the story, we stand before the cross with reverent and grateful hearts, giving thanks to God that he so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son.
There was nothing of this reverence and awe in the hearts of most of those who witnessed that redemptive event.
Instead, they mockingly wagged their heads in derision at this one who, as they understood it, had claimed to have the power to rebuild the magnificent Temple of Herod in three days 1. Why didn't he use that power to save himself from this shameful death?2
The chief priests and the scribes were no less brutal, no less irreverent. How is it, they wanted to know, that he who claimed to be able to save others could not save himself3? Let him come down from that cross that we may see and believe4. The plain fact is that, even then, they would have believed in him. He had demonstrated his power and his authority time and time again without avail.
Mark records that, from noon until three o'clock in the afternoon, darkness covered the whole land1. Then, at the ninth hour, Jesus cried, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The original words are given by Mark; Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani to explain why the onlookers thought that Jesus was calling on Elijah.
It is difficult for us to imagine that God would have withdrawn from his Son even for a moment, and especially at that terrible moment of his death, as he bore upon himself the sins of the world, Jesus felt himself to be utterly alone.
But, if this were true, then it was just for a moment, for, in his next word, the sense of God's presence is again with him as he says, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit2 And crying with a loud voice, Jesus breathed his last3
A frequent and quite plausible explanation of this cry of Jesus from the cross is that he was meditating on Psalm 22, which begins with the very words he used. In his suffering he was saying these words audibly. If this interpretation is correct, then Jesus was not expressing a complaint, for the psalm goes on the express exaltation and victory and to say at last: They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn- for he has done it4. Historically, this is precisely what has happened.
In symbolic demonstration of the work of redemption that Jesus brought in his death on the cross, the curtain in the Temple that had separated the holy of holies from the holy place was split from top to bottom5.
Each year, on the day of Atonement, the high priest had raised this curtain to enter into the holy of holies, where the great stone which occupied the place of the lost ark of the covenant symbolized the presence of God. There, he made atonement for the sins of the people. In the light of Christ's death, the services of the high priest were no longer to be necessary. All who wear the name of Jesus may now approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need6. Our atonement is in Christ.
We have seen that most of the people mocked Jesus in his death. It is refreshing to find, even at the scene of the crucifixion, some reverent and believing souls. One of these was a Roman centurion1.
There were the women, faithful followers of Jesus who, though not previously mentioned in Mark's account, had ministered to Jesus' needs during his great Galilean tour. It is providential that the faithfulness of the women is mentioned in connection with the story of the cross. Throughout the history of the Christian movement, women have played a significant part in the service of Christ. Without their faithfulness and their generosity and their willingness to serve, the progress of the gospel throughout the world would have been greatly impeded.
One of the witnesses to the crucifixion was a man named Joseph, of Arimathaea, who was a member of the Sanhedrin. John indicates that Joseph was a secret disciple because he feared the Jews1. While he did not make a public alliance with Jesus, he did object to the Sanhedrin's treatment of Jesus2. When he saw Jesus die on the cross, Joseph threw all caution to the winds and boldly went to Pilate to get permission to lay the body of Jesus in a tomb that he had prepared for himself. Pilate was surprised that death had come so quickly3, but learning from the centurion in charge of the crucifixion that Joseph's report was correct, he granted the request.
On the way back to Golgotha, Joseph brought a supply of the fine linen that was used to prepare a body for burial. The fact that he did not also procure the necessary spices would indicate that he had already talked with Nicodemus, also a member of the Sanhedrin. It was evidently agreed that Joseph would provide the tomb and the linen bandages, and that Nicodemus would provide the spices - see John 19:39. Together they laid their Lord in a sepulcher which was cut out of a rock, and rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb4.
Thus was Jesus buried in the new tomb of the rich man Joseph, again fulfilling the Scriptures5. The tender ministry of Joseph and Nicodemus to Jesus in the hour of his death have given their names a place of honor in the New Testament. It would seem that Nicodemus had acknowledged Jesus during his lifetime6.