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.
Then they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a
Skull. They tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh; but He did not take it.
And they crucified Him, and divided up His garments among themselves, casting
lots for them to decide what each man should take. It was the third hour when
they crucified Him. The inscription of the charge against Him read, "THE
KING OF THE JEWS." They crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right
and one on His left. And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And He
was numbered with transgressors."
For the rest of the chapter, Mark describes the
crucifixion of Jesus, his degradation and mockery.
Usually a criminal who was to be crucified
would carry their own cross. However,
Jesus was beaten more than the usual criminal, and given no time to rest. So he was unable to carry his own cross. Another man, Simon, whose sons evidently
became a part of the Christian community, carried Jesus’ cross for him.
Golgatha, which was an Aramaic word meaning
“the skull”, and the place was outside of Jerusalem, which also indicated that
he was not accepted as a citizen of Judea, let alone a king.
Wine was offered Jesus as an anesthetic
against the pain, but Jesus refused it, in accordance with his prophecy that he
would not “drink of the fruit of the wine” (Mark 14:25). An anesthetic was offered because crucifixion
is not really about pain and death, although that is the ultimate goal. Rather, it was about humiliation for a long
period of time, ending in death. Whoever
was crucified was put up, like a billboard, saying, “This person is rejected by
our society— reject him and do not be like him.”
Jesus’ clothes (which were taken off during
his beatings) are now taken from him and gambled over by the soldiers. This was
prophesied by Psalm 22 (important in the next section as well), verse 18.
A sign was placed over criminals to indicate
their crime. Jesus’ crime was that he
was “The king of the Judeans”. This had
a triple meaning. To the Jews, it was
his claim that caused them to desire to kill him. To the Romans, it was a mockery of all
Judeans that any king they might have ought to be crucified. However, to Christians it is the truth that
the king of God over all of God’s people would be rejected and killed and then
resurrected.
The Scripture prophecies
that the chosen servant of God would be grouped with evildoers. In this case, those being crucified with
Jesus were lestes, brigands and
rebels against the Romans. This was the
charge brought against Jesus in his trial before Pilate.
Jesus told us all that we need to "deny yourselves, take up your cross and follow me." The end of Jesus is to be rejected by everyone he knew and by all the leaders of his nation. The cross of Jesus is not just suffering, but shame and being despised. He accepted on himself the place of the ultimate outcast, even though he didn't deserve it.
When we follow Jesus, are we really ready to go the extent of cross-carrying that Jesus took? Are we willing to follow Jesus, but only to a certain place? Do we draw a line and say, "Lord I will follow you anywhere, but I won't go there." What is the limit we won't accept? Will we not accept rejection? Will we not accept the weakening of our health for Jesus' sake? Will we not accept mocking? Will we not accept identification with the outcast?
We need to examine our hearts before the Lord and truly discover what Jesus asks us to accept, but we refuse. We need to count the cost, look at all that Jesus accepted for us and discover if we would do the same for him.
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