Mark 15:15-39 The Warrior God!

Mark 15:15-39

Remember back in school when people had to pick teams for some playground sport? Remember the guy who no-one wanted, who was always picked last? Remember the fear that that guy would be you, and you’d be standing there all alone, unwanted, rejected? Maybe it was you and you know that feeling of rejection?

Now imagine that you’re God, that you made people – and they’ve all rejected you. Imagine how Jesus felt in the text we read two weeks ago when everyone rejected him, everyone abandoned him –even his closest friends.

The disciples ran away. The religious leaders rejected him, and condemned him to death for claiming to be who he is: the Son of God! And the Gentiles (non-Jews) sentenced him to death even though they knew he was innocent. Rejected by everyone.

Yet Jesus still goes to the cross in order to save those who reject him.

We pick up the story in Mark 15:16. Jesus has just been unfairly sentenced to death by Pilate, even though Pilate knew he was innocent. But this is what Jesus said would happen – remember he told his disciples three times that he would be arrested by the religious leaders, he would be put to death, and he would rise again. Jesus went out to meet those who came to arrest him. He did not run, did not hide, but went to meet them. Because that night he had been praying for strength to go to the cross. That is why he came. He came to show us what God is like. He came to tell us that we are sinners and need a Saviour. And he came to be that Saviour. He dies for his enemies, like you and me, to make us into his friends. Whatever the cost, he will pay it – and the cost for rescuing us is high, very high indeed. It starts with beatings and mockery:

1. Mocking the King

17 [The soldiers] 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.

Why would the soldiers mock him so? Were they just cruel, bloodthirsty men? Is this how they treated all their prisoners? Well, maybe. We do know that Israel was not the best place to be sent. There were continual uprisings and rebellions, soldiers faced danger all the time. It wasn’t a posting people wanted. So maybe these soldiers were a bit rougher than the others.

But the mock worship goes deeper. Jesus’ claim to be the king made a mockery of their Emperor, Caesar. And their treatment of him is to put him back in his place. Notice in verse 16 how the entire regiment is called out (that’s around 600 men!). “Insult our Emperor would you? Raise yourself up would you? How dare you? King! Ha! Hail O King.” they shout as they push thorns into his head, and beat him and spit on him as they bow and laugh at him in mock worship.

Isn’t that ironic? There is great irony here. Jesus is the true King, and deserves all worship. It is the Emperor, Caesar, who is the false king, trying to claim worship and authority that is not his. It is he who should be mocked, should be brought low.

And it’s not just the Roman soldiers who mock Jesus. v29 The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. “Ha! Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. 30 Well then, save yourself and come down from the cross!” 31 The leading priests and teachers of religious law also mocked Jesus. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! 32 Let this Messiah, this King of Israel, come down from the cross so we can see it and believe him!” Even the men who were crucified with Jesus ridiculed him.

Those shouting insults and wagging their heads – they are the ones who deserve the punishment that Jesus is taking. They are the ones who have failed to keep their covenant (promise) with God. They have dealt falsely with their Saviour, they have betrayed their God, they have tried to overthrow the rightful King. As have we.

But in the right-way-up world of God’s love faithlessness is met with faithfulness, betrayal met with forgiveness, broken promises met with payment in blood, hatred met with love.

Everyone, laughing and hollering and pointing as Jesus is hammered naked onto the cross, beaten, bloodied, humiliated, exposed. The soldiers laughing as they beat him and pretend to worship him. 600 men spitting and hitting and making fun. Passersby mocking and jeering. Religious leaders, priests who represent the Almighty, gleefully slapping each others backs at their own cleverness, and laughing at this Jesus who hangs naked before them. “We showed him”, they would have been thinking.

Now it’s easy for us to see how wrong these people for mocking and abusing Jesus, especially because we know who he is- the God who created all people everywhere. But then point the finger back to ourselves, because we treat God the same way! How?

Maybe we ignore his words when we want to sin sexually – perhaps pornography in front of the computer, perhaps an adulterous affair, perhaps sexual intercourse with our girlfriend – but it’s ok because we “love” each other. Really? We mock the living God and his claim over our lives, and raise ourselves up as king in that situation. I will decide what is right for me. I want to sin sexually. I will do it.

Or maybe it’s not sex, but gossip, saying horrible things about other people, allowing bitterness to rise. Or perhaps its jealousy – thanklessness lies at the heart of jealousy. You’re not grateful to God for what he HAS given you, all you can see is what he hasn’t – and you mock him and spit on him with your attitude, saying “I can be a better God than you. I can make better decisions than you about my life and my needs.” See what word crops up: my, my, my. Who’s the King there? Instead of being filled with the glory of God, wanting to worship him and see his name exalted, we want to exalt ourselves. Ugh.

As we read in Romans 7:24 in the Wednesday night Bible studies “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Why? Because he has done the unthinkable, and swapped places with us. He has taken the punishment and shame that our sins deserve, and taken it upon himself. We mock the King, but he is responds by being…

2. The suffering servant King

How absurd that statement sounds! A King who serves? A King who suffers? How absurd! But isn’t that God? The Master of the absurd. The one who rescues his enemies at the cost of his own life. The one who meets hatred with love. The one who offers grace when judgement is owed. What God is this! His thoughts are indeed not our thoughts, his ways not our ways!

Can you imagine being beaten, humiliated, degraded like Jesus was? And for no reason! He is innocent. Pilate said so. The Jewish leaders found no evidence except that he is the Son of God! He is innocent. And he’s doing this by choice. Jesus, Jesus endures. He takes the mocking, in order to restore the broken relationship. It is his love which holds him there as people spit in his face and hit him and hurt him and make fun of him.
He is not powerless – no, at a word from him thousands of angels would appear and strike down those who mock him. At a word from him the sun would fall and the earth would swallow up those who dared to speak against the King of the Universe. Yet, he does nothing. As Isaiah 53:7 says “like a sheep before his shearers is silent, he does not open his mouth”. Praise God that he was silent and did not utter a word of vengeance!

To try to illustrate what Jesus did on this day on the cross, I’m going to tell you the true story of James Thomas. James was a British dancer on the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia. The Costa Concordia ran aground when the captain drove too close to land and hit a reef because he wasn't wearing his glasses and "had difficulty maneuvering large ships," two things we assumed would have been addressed at some point during the interview process. The captain then bravely abandoned ship, leaving 4000 passengers stranded. Up steps James Thomas. Passengers were stuck on the wrong level, unable to get to the life rafts. So Thomas stretched one arm down to the life rafts while holding onto the rail of the deck above, allowing dozens of people to climb onto his shoulders and then down his body to the rafts.

He allowed his body to be used as a human ladder, supporting all of the weight of the climbing passengers with one hand, as they crossed over him from danger to safety.

Jesus uses his own body to bridge the gap between Heaven and Hell, between judgement and mercy. And although James Thomas was heroic, he was not carrying the weight of the sins of the world as he did this, the passengers were not mocking him and shouting abuse at him while he rescued them, and he was not facing the forces of darkness, staring into the depths of Hell.

29 “Ha! Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. 30 Well then, save yourself and come down from the cross!”

30 save yourself and come down from the cross!”

Can you not hear the stench of Satan around that statement. save yourself and come down from the cross! What did Jesus say to Peter when Peter tried to divert Jesus away from the cross? “Get behind me Satan.” And here the people are calling out “Save yourself! Come down!” And the religious leaders “he can’t save himself! 32 Let this Messiah, this King of Israel, come down from the cross so we can see it and believe him!”
The last throw of the dice for Satan! For when Jesus goes into the darkness for us, when he breathes his last and gives up his life as the final, perfect sacrifice for our sins – then Satan’s power is broken, and he is defeated. He has no claim on people whose sins are covered! None! Desperately he cries out “Come down. Come down!”

But Jesus will not be deviated, he will not be tempted. Sinless he has been and sinless he remains. The Warrior God, fighting with his own body, with the deep perfect drops of his blood. You can almost imagine him looking into the spiritual realm, looking Satan right in the eye as his utters a loud cry and gives up his life.
Jesus is more Rambo than Rambo. This is the Warrior God who fights for his people.

My Dad’s favourite verse is Exodus 14:14 “Be still, and let the Lord fight for you.”
And here we see the ultimate, impossible, battle. Who of us could endure even a minute of this without falling – but Jesus is hard as nails, resolute, immovable, staring into the abyss, looking at Hell itself – and jumps in to the very depths of Hell, facing pain unimaginable, the torment of his own just anger at the sin he is carrying. Our sin. The sins of the world.
Here is our King, our Champion, our Saviour, fighting the forces of darkness with his body and his blood. Now that is love!

And I want to show you something so thrilling, so exciting – at the moment Jesus breathes his last, the very moment he dies to save each and every one of us, we have verse 39 When the Roman officer who stood facing him saw how he had died, he exclaimed, “This man truly was the Son of God!”

Isn’t that amazing? Here’s the man who nailed Jesus to the cross – and he’s the first one saved by his death. He is a Gentile, he is an enemy of the Jews, a soldier of the oppressors – and he’s the first one who declares the truth about Jesus. Not Peter, not John, not the priests, none of the crowd – but an enemy Roman soldier. There is no-one beyond the reach of Jesus, not even you. If he can save a man like that, a man who moments before was spitting at him and hitting him and mocking him and nailing his hands to the cross – well, he can save you.

So what does that mean for me?
Firstly we need to recognise that we are sinners, rebels against God. Some of us are very nice sinners, polite sinners, even “good” sinners. Some of us may be politely ignoring God, pretending the King does not exist – and that’s just as bad and just as rebellious as someone hurling insults at him, or beating a defenceless man for fun. We’re all in the same boat, all in the enemy camp. When soldiers attack an enemy position, they don’t differentiate between the nice enemy soldiers and the horrible enemy soldiers – all of them are the enemy. And so it is when we face God’s judgement. We are all in the enemy camp, rebels against the true King.

Secondly we need to fall to our knees and thank the Lord Jesus for being our Christ, Messiah, Rescuer. He has burst into the enemy camp “If you want to live, come with me”. Only he can rescue us from Hell, because only he has faced Hell and defeated it, only he has paid the price our sins deserve, only he has sacrificed his own life to save ours. It is a swap. We swapped out the true King for ourselves – Jesus swaps himself in our place, and gives us his perfect life. Sinless, free. A Christmas Gift.

This Christmas, will you accept that gift by bowing your knee to Jesus as King and Saviour?