On The Way To The Cross
Mark 15:16-20
Message #59
Twenty years ago, I read a book by Max Lucado called “He Chose The Nails” and every time I teach this section of the Gospels what I felt reading that book – re-inspires me.
There was nothing that happened to Jesus on the way to the cross that he did not sovereignly plan. Every event had a purpose. In every moment on the way to the cross, there was a sign.
We’ve got to ask – WHY? Why, Lord, did you go through these things? What message were you sending to us when you sovereignly orchestrated every event on your way to the cross.
In our last three messages in Mark, we’ve seen
The mock trial before the Sanhedrin
The denial of Peter
And Jesus before Pilate
And last week, Pilate didn’t have the courage to make a decision for Jesus because it would “cost him too much.” So, we finished the last message with
Mark 15:15 (NLT)
15 So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.
Although he could find no fault in Jesus, giving in to the crowd, Pilate ordered two things to be done.
1). That Jesus be flogged with a lead-tipped whip
2). That Jesus be crucified
Those were the two orders and both orders were carried out by the soldiers.
But something happened in between those two orders that put on horrific display
1). The dark ugliness of our sin
2). The immeasurable love of God for us
Romans 8:7 (NLT)
7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God . . .
And in our verses today, we see our sin nature ruthlessly hostile toward God. But in response to the ugliness of our sin nature, we see the immeasurable love of God – toward us – as Jesus is “on the way to the cross.”
And so, first came the flogging (scourging) which was the most brutal and torturous pain the Romans could inflict – second only to the cross. The victim was stripped and chained to a post or pillar, and he was beaten by at least two torturers until the victim was close to death. The torturers used leather whips with lead or glass tips that would shred the back of the victim wide open, exposing muscle and even bone, and then the victim would be taken to be crucified.
And Jesus was subjected to this horrific scourging and left close to death. But after the scourging of Jesus, we read,
Mark 15:16 (NLT)
16 The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the governor’s headquarters (called the Praetorium) and called out the entire regiment.
Now, this part was not ordered by Pilate. These events came out of the soldier’s own sin nature. And guys, the soldiers here represent our own sin nature, and in their brutality toward Jesus, there is a message from Jesus to us.
It starts in the following verses.
Mark 15:17–19 (NLT)
17 They dressed him in a purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head.
18 Then they saluted him and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!”
19 And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship.
This brutalizing, humiliating, demeaning, degrading attack on the person of Jesus was not ordered by Pilate and was not part of the soldier’s job. But, in this darkest display of the sin nature, Jesus is sending us a message.
The cross and the resurrection (and our faith in those events) are what bring us salvation. So, what is all this horror about? This is about a message prophesied way back in Isaiah.
Isaiah 50:6 (NLT)
6 I offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting.
Guys, nothing happened on the way to the cross without God’s sovereign hand guiding it, and in these “in-between” events, Jesus was sending us a message – and the message is this:
Jesus is willing to carry the extreme ugliness of our sin all the way to the cross and he is willing to pay the full penalty for it there on our behalf.
First, the soldier’s spit symbolizes the ugliness of our sin.
The praetorium housed hundreds of Roman soldiers with most likely dozens of soldiers spitting in the face of Jesus as they demoralized him. And Jesus carried that spit mingling with his own blood as a symbol of the ugliness of our sin all the way to the cross so that we might hear the message from Jesus today, that he is willing to carry the ugliness of your sin to the cross where he will deal with it once and for all.
In the spit running down his face, Jesus is saying to us, no matter how ugly your sin is, I will carry it, mingled with my own blood to the cross.
But it wasn’t just the spit.
Jesus also carried, on his head, the crown of thorns
So, a soldier goes out and weaves a crown of thorns from a vine plant (with two-inch thorns) that grows in that area, and he puts the crown of thorns on the head of Jesus. And verse 19 says they beat it down on his head with a stick.
I have a crown of thorns at home, made from this same vine and those thorns would easily pierce into the skull of Jesus.
But this is not part of the crucifixion. This is not part of the orders given by Pilate. To the soldiers, this is just degrading humiliation. But – to us – the crown of thorns symbolizes the consequences of our sin. All through the Bible thorns symbolize the consequence of sin and the consequence of our sin was beat down onto Jesus who had never experienced one consequence for one sin.
Jesus never knew sin until the consequences of our sin all fell on him at once like the crown of thorns being beat down on his head. All of the consequence of all of the sin of the world, all fell on Jesus at once with an unimaginable level of pain and anguish.
And just like the spit, the crown of thorns sends us a loud and clear message that not only will Jesus carry the ugliness of our sin to the cross, but he will also carry the consequences of our sin to the cross.
Jesus loves you enough to carry all the ugliness and all the consequences of your sin to the cross where he will pay the full and complete penalty for it all so that you will never have to.
And finally, there is the exchange of garments.
What had to happen in the courtroom of heaven for God to accept the price Jesus paid on the cross as full payment for every one of our sins?
It was the greatest exchange in all eternity and it was symbolized for us on the way to the cross in the exchange of garments.
Mark 15:17 says They dressed him in a purple robe
But in Matthew 27 it says,
Matthew 27:28 (NLT)
28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him.
The colors are similar and both are appropriate for Jesus. But notice Matthew points out an exchange of garments. We know Jesus wore a seamless garment which represented sinlessness, and Matthew makes it clear – they stripped him of the garment that represented his sinlessness, and put on him a scarlet garment that represented our sin.
And in this exchange of garments, we see a perfect picture of what had to happen for our sin to be put on Jesus and for the righteousness of God to be put on us – in Christ. The soldiers thought they were mocking Jesus, but Jesus knew he was sending us an eternal message, and the message is this: Jesus is willing to be “clothed in our sin” so that we can be “clothed in the righteousness of God” in him.
The sinless, Son of God, the Author and the Giver of Life, the Agent of Creation of All that’s Been Created, the Lord of Glory, and the King of the Universe is willing to become your sin, to be clothed in your sin, and in exchange, to give you his righteousness.
The prophet Isaiah wrote what we see pictured in this exchange of garments.
Isaiah 1:18 (NLT)
18 “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool. (Exchange)
Galatians 3:13 (NKJV)
13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us . . .
Jesus Christ became a curse in our place. He took our crimson sin upon himself in all of its ugliness and all of its consequences, and he carried it to the cross, and there he paid the full and complete penalty for it.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV)
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The exchange of the garments should shake us to the core when we realize Jesus Christ willingly, purposely became sin in our place so that we could become the righteousness of God in him. Every bit of every penalty of every sin must be paid for. If not, God cannot be God because he is first holy and just and righteous. And so, sin must be paid for. Jesus became that sin for us, to pay that price for us. And this exchange of garments on the way to the cross pictures it perfectly.
Guys, you can’t earn this. Religion says you can earn your way to God. You can’t earn God becoming sin in your place and then paying the full penalty that you deserve.
There’s nothing you can do to earn that. You can’t live a good enough life to deserve that.
This is the undeserved, unconditional, sacrificial love of the God of Heaven – for you.
Writing about these moments – On The Way To The Cross commentator William MacDonald says:
If they had only known! It was God the Son they clothed with purple. It was their own Creator they crowned with thorns. It was the Sustainer of the universe they mocked as King of the Jews. It was the Lord of life and glory they struck on the head. They spat on the Prince of peace. They mockingly bowed their knees to the (actual) King of kings and Lord of lords.
There are so many signs orchestrated by God to show his unconditional love for us and to prove his victory on our behalf over sin, death, and the grave. But aren’t these enough?
We could go on forever about all of the signs that God has given us about his love for us. They will never end. And all of the proof that he has given us of his victory for us, all of eternity will be proof of his victory on our behalf over sin and death and the grave. Shouldn’t these three signs be enough – the spit, and the crown, and the exchange of garments?
Aren’t these enough for us to come humbly come to Jesus? To humbly come to Jesus and say, “Lord. That’s me. That’s my sin. That’s my spit. That’s my consequences beat down upon you. And that’s my scarlet garment of sin put on you.” Isn’t it enough for us to give him the ugliness of our sin and to give him the consequences of our sin and to receive the free gift of salvation and eternal life that he offers us today?
Romans 6:23 (NLT)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
The gift of forgiveness of our sin and eternal life with God is free for us to receive, but it cost Jesus everything.
Jesus carried the ugliness of our sin to the cross. Jesus carried the consequences of our sin to the cross. Jesus paid the full penalty of our sin on the cross. And Jesus beat sin and death on our behalf – in the resurrection.
And we can receive all that Jesus has done for us today by humbly coming to him and receiving the free gift of forgiveness of our sin and the promise of eternal life – all by faith alone.
We can be forgiven of our sin, and we can be assured of an eternity in heaven by putting our full and complete faith in what Jesus Christ has done for us, and making him our Savior and our Lord – today.
There was nothing that happened to Jesus on the way to the cross that he did not sovereignly plan. Every event had a purpose. In every moment on the way to the cross, there was a sign.
We’ve got to ask – WHY? Why, Lord, did you go through these things? What message were you sending to us when you sovereignly orchestrated every event on your way to the cross.
In our last three messages in Mark, we’ve seen
The mock trial before the Sanhedrin
The denial of Peter
And Jesus before Pilate
And last week, Pilate didn’t have the courage to make a decision for Jesus because it would “cost him too much.” So, we finished the last message with
Mark 15:15 (NLT)
15 So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.
Although he could find no fault in Jesus, giving in to the crowd, Pilate ordered two things to be done.
1). That Jesus be flogged with a lead-tipped whip
2). That Jesus be crucified
Those were the two orders and both orders were carried out by the soldiers.
But something happened in between those two orders that put on horrific display
1). The dark ugliness of our sin
2). The immeasurable love of God for us
Romans 8:7 (NLT)
7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God . . .
And in our verses today, we see our sin nature ruthlessly hostile toward God. But in response to the ugliness of our sin nature, we see the immeasurable love of God – toward us – as Jesus is “on the way to the cross.”
And so, first came the flogging (scourging) which was the most brutal and torturous pain the Romans could inflict – second only to the cross. The victim was stripped and chained to a post or pillar, and he was beaten by at least two torturers until the victim was close to death. The torturers used leather whips with lead or glass tips that would shred the back of the victim wide open, exposing muscle and even bone, and then the victim would be taken to be crucified.
And Jesus was subjected to this horrific scourging and left close to death. But after the scourging of Jesus, we read,
Mark 15:16 (NLT)
16 The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the governor’s headquarters (called the Praetorium) and called out the entire regiment.
Now, this part was not ordered by Pilate. These events came out of the soldier’s own sin nature. And guys, the soldiers here represent our own sin nature, and in their brutality toward Jesus, there is a message from Jesus to us.
It starts in the following verses.
Mark 15:17–19 (NLT)
17 They dressed him in a purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head.
18 Then they saluted him and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!”
19 And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship.
This brutalizing, humiliating, demeaning, degrading attack on the person of Jesus was not ordered by Pilate and was not part of the soldier’s job. But, in this darkest display of the sin nature, Jesus is sending us a message.
The cross and the resurrection (and our faith in those events) are what bring us salvation. So, what is all this horror about? This is about a message prophesied way back in Isaiah.
Isaiah 50:6 (NLT)
6 I offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting.
Guys, nothing happened on the way to the cross without God’s sovereign hand guiding it, and in these “in-between” events, Jesus was sending us a message – and the message is this:
Jesus is willing to carry the extreme ugliness of our sin all the way to the cross and he is willing to pay the full penalty for it there on our behalf.
First, the soldier’s spit symbolizes the ugliness of our sin.
The praetorium housed hundreds of Roman soldiers with most likely dozens of soldiers spitting in the face of Jesus as they demoralized him. And Jesus carried that spit mingling with his own blood as a symbol of the ugliness of our sin all the way to the cross so that we might hear the message from Jesus today, that he is willing to carry the ugliness of your sin to the cross where he will deal with it once and for all.
In the spit running down his face, Jesus is saying to us, no matter how ugly your sin is, I will carry it, mingled with my own blood to the cross.
But it wasn’t just the spit.
Jesus also carried, on his head, the crown of thorns
So, a soldier goes out and weaves a crown of thorns from a vine plant (with two-inch thorns) that grows in that area, and he puts the crown of thorns on the head of Jesus. And verse 19 says they beat it down on his head with a stick.
I have a crown of thorns at home, made from this same vine and those thorns would easily pierce into the skull of Jesus.
But this is not part of the crucifixion. This is not part of the orders given by Pilate. To the soldiers, this is just degrading humiliation. But – to us – the crown of thorns symbolizes the consequences of our sin. All through the Bible thorns symbolize the consequence of sin and the consequence of our sin was beat down onto Jesus who had never experienced one consequence for one sin.
Jesus never knew sin until the consequences of our sin all fell on him at once like the crown of thorns being beat down on his head. All of the consequence of all of the sin of the world, all fell on Jesus at once with an unimaginable level of pain and anguish.
And just like the spit, the crown of thorns sends us a loud and clear message that not only will Jesus carry the ugliness of our sin to the cross, but he will also carry the consequences of our sin to the cross.
Jesus loves you enough to carry all the ugliness and all the consequences of your sin to the cross where he will pay the full and complete penalty for it all so that you will never have to.
And finally, there is the exchange of garments.
What had to happen in the courtroom of heaven for God to accept the price Jesus paid on the cross as full payment for every one of our sins?
It was the greatest exchange in all eternity and it was symbolized for us on the way to the cross in the exchange of garments.
Mark 15:17 says They dressed him in a purple robe
But in Matthew 27 it says,
Matthew 27:28 (NLT)
28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him.
The colors are similar and both are appropriate for Jesus. But notice Matthew points out an exchange of garments. We know Jesus wore a seamless garment which represented sinlessness, and Matthew makes it clear – they stripped him of the garment that represented his sinlessness, and put on him a scarlet garment that represented our sin.
And in this exchange of garments, we see a perfect picture of what had to happen for our sin to be put on Jesus and for the righteousness of God to be put on us – in Christ. The soldiers thought they were mocking Jesus, but Jesus knew he was sending us an eternal message, and the message is this: Jesus is willing to be “clothed in our sin” so that we can be “clothed in the righteousness of God” in him.
The sinless, Son of God, the Author and the Giver of Life, the Agent of Creation of All that’s Been Created, the Lord of Glory, and the King of the Universe is willing to become your sin, to be clothed in your sin, and in exchange, to give you his righteousness.
The prophet Isaiah wrote what we see pictured in this exchange of garments.
Isaiah 1:18 (NLT)
18 “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool. (Exchange)
Galatians 3:13 (NKJV)
13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us . . .
Jesus Christ became a curse in our place. He took our crimson sin upon himself in all of its ugliness and all of its consequences, and he carried it to the cross, and there he paid the full and complete penalty for it.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV)
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The exchange of the garments should shake us to the core when we realize Jesus Christ willingly, purposely became sin in our place so that we could become the righteousness of God in him. Every bit of every penalty of every sin must be paid for. If not, God cannot be God because he is first holy and just and righteous. And so, sin must be paid for. Jesus became that sin for us, to pay that price for us. And this exchange of garments on the way to the cross pictures it perfectly.
Guys, you can’t earn this. Religion says you can earn your way to God. You can’t earn God becoming sin in your place and then paying the full penalty that you deserve.
There’s nothing you can do to earn that. You can’t live a good enough life to deserve that.
This is the undeserved, unconditional, sacrificial love of the God of Heaven – for you.
Writing about these moments – On The Way To The Cross commentator William MacDonald says:
If they had only known! It was God the Son they clothed with purple. It was their own Creator they crowned with thorns. It was the Sustainer of the universe they mocked as King of the Jews. It was the Lord of life and glory they struck on the head. They spat on the Prince of peace. They mockingly bowed their knees to the (actual) King of kings and Lord of lords.
There are so many signs orchestrated by God to show his unconditional love for us and to prove his victory on our behalf over sin, death, and the grave. But aren’t these enough?
We could go on forever about all of the signs that God has given us about his love for us. They will never end. And all of the proof that he has given us of his victory for us, all of eternity will be proof of his victory on our behalf over sin and death and the grave. Shouldn’t these three signs be enough – the spit, and the crown, and the exchange of garments?
Aren’t these enough for us to come humbly come to Jesus? To humbly come to Jesus and say, “Lord. That’s me. That’s my sin. That’s my spit. That’s my consequences beat down upon you. And that’s my scarlet garment of sin put on you.” Isn’t it enough for us to give him the ugliness of our sin and to give him the consequences of our sin and to receive the free gift of salvation and eternal life that he offers us today?
Romans 6:23 (NLT)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
The gift of forgiveness of our sin and eternal life with God is free for us to receive, but it cost Jesus everything.
Jesus carried the ugliness of our sin to the cross. Jesus carried the consequences of our sin to the cross. Jesus paid the full penalty of our sin on the cross. And Jesus beat sin and death on our behalf – in the resurrection.
And we can receive all that Jesus has done for us today by humbly coming to him and receiving the free gift of forgiveness of our sin and the promise of eternal life – all by faith alone.
We can be forgiven of our sin, and we can be assured of an eternity in heaven by putting our full and complete faith in what Jesus Christ has done for us, and making him our Savior and our Lord – today.