Jesus Mocked by the Soldiers

Introduction: The Gruesome Scene and Prayer for Understanding

0:05 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, December 17th, 1989, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn together in the word of God to the gospel according to Mark, Mark's gospel and the 15th chapter. And will you follow, please, in your Bibles as I read Mark 15, verses 15 through 20. Mark 15, beginning with verse 15.

0:47 And Pilate, wishing to content the multitude, released unto them Barabbas, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. And the soldiers led him away within the court, which is the praetorium, and they called together the whole nation. And they called together the whole band, or the whole cohort. And they clothed him with purple, and plaiting a crown of thorns, they put it on him.

1:23 And they began to greet him, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote his head with a wreath, and spat upon him, and bowing their knees, worshipped him. And when they had mocked him, they took on him, and they said, Take off from him the purple, and put on him his garments, and they lead him out to crucify him. Let us again seek the face of God in prayer, asking God the Holy Spirit to come to shine upon the face of Jesus, even in this most gruesome scene of his treatment at the hand of these Roman soldiers, the account given that we may know our Savior as he truly suffered for sin and for sinners. Let us pray. Our Father, we have sung together and have confessed in that singing that our hands join the hands of these rude and coarse soldiers, that in the spirit that moved them to mock, to taunt,

2:50 to spit, and to smite, our spirits have joined with theirs. And we pray that you would send your Holy Spirit upon us this morning to give us an understanding of what our Savior underwent in pursuit of our salvation, and give us, who know him and love him, a deeper appreciation of all, that he underwent for our sakes. And for those who sit here this morning, still possessed of the spirit that would mock him and taunt him and set him at naught, before the hour is over, O Lord, may they be found at his feet, not in mock worship, but in true submission and faith and love and adoration and penitence. Hear our cry. And set forth your Son by the ministry of the Spirit, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.

The Sadistic Brutality and Shameful Mockery Foretold

4:03 As we proceed with our expositions of the Gospel of Mark, we come today to the paragraph read in your hearing, and in it we have the Spirit-inspired account of the activity of the Roman soldiers, activity which can only be described as sadistic brutality and shameful mockery.

4:41 One who had pondered long paragraph was led to write, these are things which call for secret meditation, not fancy words. And while fancy words would prostitute the sacred narrative, to speak with plain and simple words aimed at opening up and applying the passage are my solemn task as a preacher of the Word of God.

5:20 On his way to Jerusalem, that final trip to Jerusalem, our Lord had predicted the treatment that would await him upon arriving in that sacred city. Amen. Amen. Amen.

5:36 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

5:36 Amen. Amen. In the 10th chapter of Mark, in verse 32, the disciples are amazed at the measure of determination which seemed to breathe through every pore of our Lord as He made His way to Jerusalem. And in that section, Mark 10, in verse 33, Jesus told the twelve, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the dead, unto the chief priests and the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him unto the Gentiles.

6:17 And they, that is the Gentiles, shall mock Him, and shall spit upon Him, and shall scourge Him, and shall kill Him. And after three days He shall rise again. This prediction of our Lord is being fulfilled with precise accuracy. The Jewish authorities have completed their three-part ecclesiastical trial and examination.

6:52 Then being handed over to the civil or Roman authorities, the three-part trial of that court has also been completed. The result of both the ecclesiastical and then the civil trial is clearly stated, in verse 15 of Mark 15, Pilate, wishing to content the multitude, delivered Jesus to be crucified. While personally convinced of our Lord's innocence, as we have seen in our previous studies, Pilate caves in to the pressure of the crowd, to his own personal political career ambitions, and realizes, and releases Barabbas, a condemned, convicted felon, an insurrectionist, and a murderer, and releases unto them Jesus, that he might die the death of the worst of common criminals. But between the capitulation to the crowd and the actual crucifixion, both Matthew and Mark record the incidents connected with the cruelty, and the mockery meted out upon our Lord by the Roman soldiers. Luke is silent with reference

Mark's Narrative Style: Historical Present and Imperfect Tenses

8:20 to these elements of our Lord's treatment, and John gives us a differing perspective in John 19, in terms of Pilate's continual interaction with Jesus, even at the time the soldiers are venting their own wickedness, and their wicked disposition upon the Lord Jesus. As Mark records these facts, he uses mostly what we call historical present tense verbs, and imperfect tense verbs, which are intended to do two things to the reader. By the constant use of the historical present, Mark wants us to make every effort to proclaim, to place ourselves in the actual situation, to stand, as it were, by the power of sanctified imagination, and to behold the very events that are being described for us. I found myself in the privacy and sacredness of my own study yesterday, again and again singing the old Negro spiritual, Were you there? When they cried, Crucified my Lord. Were you there?

9:46 When they mocked and taunted my Lord. Were you there? When they spat upon my Lord. Were you there?

10:00 When they pressed the crown of thorns upon my Lord. And I found myself singing, Sometimes it causes me, to tremble,

10:15 tremble,

10:18 tremble, as I sought in my studies to let those historical present tense verbs drive me into the praetorium, and there behold the soldiers in their sadistic brutality and their shameful mockery. And by the repeated use of the imperfect verbs, Mark intends to, to underscore that what he may describe with just a word, did not happen in a moment of time, but it was something extended over a period of time. It was action in the past, but repeated action. It was action not accomplished by one soldier or two, but perhaps by dozens or even several hundreds.

11:15 And as we come to this, this passage this morning, may we make that attempt which both the historical present tense and the imperfect tenses necessitate if we come to the word of God with reverence of seeking to answer the question of the old Negro spiritual yes. I was there when they spat upon my Lord. I was there when they pressed the crown of thorns upon my Lord. I was there when they pressed the crown of thorns upon my Lord.

The Place and Persons of the Mockery

11:50 I was there when they buffeted and mocked my Lord. I was there on December 17th, 1989 when yielding my mind to the pressure of the word and independence upon the Holy Spirit with sanctified imagination, I allowed the truth of Scripture to be heard. To make its due impress upon my heart. And as we attempt now to take in that which is worthy of silent meditation, but here in the gathering of God's people demands public exposition, I invite you to note with me very quickly the place in which these events occurred, the persons at whose hands they occurred, but then the bulk of our time will be taken up with the particulars of the mockery of the soldiers. So the place, the persons, and the particulars of the mockery. We are directed first of all to the place in which these things occurred, for we read in verse 16, and the soldiers to whom the Lord had been remanded by,

13:17 Pilate for crucifixion, and the soldiers led him away within the court, which is the praetorium. The soldiers are specifically mentioned at this point in the narrative. Up until now, the activity of the chief priests, the scribes, and the multitude has been the focus of Mark's description. But from this point on, through to verse 20, the emphasis falls upon the activity of the soldiers and of the soldiers alone.

14:01 And it takes place in a place called the praetorium. Now what was the praetorium? Well, I can do no better in answering that question than to read the brief article in the Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary, Dictionary, which reads as follows. Praetorium, the Latin term for the Greek praetorion, which among the Romans could refer to a number of things.

14:30 Originally, it meant the general's tent in the camp in an army station. Sometimes it referred to the military headquarters in Rome itself, or in one of the provincial capitals. It also meant the staff of men in such an establishment or in such a place. Or even the session of a planning council.

14:52 In the Gospels, here in Mark 15-16, the parallel passage, Matthew 27-27 and John 18-28-33, it refers to the temporary palace or headquarters, the judgment hall of the Roman governor or procurator while in Jerusalem, which was actually Herod's palace adjacent to the temple. It was the scene of the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate. Jesus' ecclesiastical trial took place, as you'll remember, in the palace or the home of the high priest. His civil trial takes place in the praetorium. And Mark is very careful to record that the soldiers led him away within the court which was the place which is called the praetorium. We are told in one of the parallel passages that the Jews would not defile themselves on a feast day by entering the dwelling of a Gentile. And so the trial had to be carried on outside of the courtyard.

16:09 It had to be carried on in a place where the Jews would not become ceremonially defiled. But once our Lord is handed over to the soldiers he is then taken back within the courtyard out of the sight of the chief priests, the scribes and the Pharisees, out of the sight of the mob that has been stirred up by the religious leaders to call for his blood. And this scene takes place then in the privacy of the inner part of the praetorium a scene witnessed only by Jesus the soldiers and at least part of it according to John 19 by Pilate himself. So much for the place. Now briefly the people involved. As we've already intimated the soldiers are specifically mentioned.

17:12 And this would refer to those who were present as guards in the praetorium and the people during the trial. The soldiers that is those who had been present through both the ecclesiastical trial after our Lord had been apprehended in Gethsemane bound and delivered to Annas and Caiaphas and then delivered to Pilate and up to Herod and back again to Pilate. There would have been a token number of soldiers accompanying him in each facet of the ecclesiastical and of the civil trial. Now at this point when the soldiers that smaller contingency lead him within the court they then call the rest of the band or the cohort of all of the soldiers then stationed in that part of Jerusalem at that particular time. Now this does not mean that there was a full contingency of 600 which was the formal number of a formal description of a cohort one-tenth of a legion which is 6,000 but there was no small number of soldiers or there were no small number of soldiers present because it would be as the crowds came up to the temple at a festive season that there would most likely be

18:40 a political disturbance especially with the more rebellious and restless people who came down from Galilee and who were noted for their tendencies to insurrection. And so the soldiers who perhaps felt some measure of resentment that while the Jews were having a wonderful time at their high national ceremony or feast time the Passover that they were kept constrained from the things that soldiers that soldiers that soldiers liked to do at festive seasons because they had to be on call for at any minute there might be an outbreaking of some kind of insurrectionist activity and one can only picture this group of soldiers being what soldiers normally are being what pagan soldiers were being what soldiers away from wife and family and those influences that they had to some measure in common grace subdue their more vicious animal-like passions and these soldiers with all of the pent-up frustration perhaps mingled with resentment because they had to be there because these Jews were fueled with hopes of a so-called messianic king

The Particulars of Jesus's Mock Coronation

20:10 a king who would put down all existing rule and government and who would even attempt to overthrow their Caesars and so one can imagine something of the mindset in the disposition of those of the cohort of the band of soldiers within the praetorium when their buddies called for them and say hey fellas come on we're going to have a little fun and the people involved were pagan unprincipled godless soldiers now having looked very briefly at the place in which the activities occurred the people involved in those activities now the particulars of their treatment of Jesus verses 17 to 20 and all that is recorded in these verses falls into three basic categories number one they rudely give our lord a mock coronation as a king then they give him and they shamelessly heap upon him mock homage as a king and then they heartlessly return him to his previous appearance and take him out to crucify so the particulars of their treatment of Jesus begin with his mock

21:39 coronation as a king verse 17 the first thing the crowd of soldiers do when they've all gathered him together and are now preparing to have their fun with him it says they clothe him with purple the first part of his mock coronation as a king was the clothing with a purple garment Matthew says a scarlet garment it was common for royalty to appear in official public appearances in rich purple in rich purple in rich purple and scarlet robes many of you have seen such pictures of artists who have drawn of the days when there were kings and lords and ladies and almost invariably when the king appears for a public appearance or appears in official royal state upon his throne rich scarlet or purple robes mark at least part of his official garb and in this setting most commentators commentators are agreed that there would have been no effort on the part of these ribald and heartless soldiers to find a proper piece of softly woven beautiful and expensive scarlet or purple cloth

23:08 rather probably what was done is one of them took from his own back blanket it would be much like some of the old rough woolen blankets some of us can remember having to use in cold winter months that we would never put next to our bare skin it was always the last blanket to go on top of the pile and you were very careful to pull the sheet up enough to fold back over the edge of it for if it just even came under your throat you'd wake up with a red rash from the rubbing of that rough coarse blanket well if you can picture material something like those blankets some of us knew in our childhood one of the soldiers perhaps had such a faded element of his own official garb or something carried with him for extra warmth in the cold evenings under which he would sleep while still dressed in his military attire and he takes this smelly this rough this faded purple or garment and we know from the parallel passage in Matthew 27-28 they rudely tore his own garment which had been placed

24:37 upon him after his scourging now need I go into detail the scourging which had lacerated his back torn away left it one massive pulp of torn and bleeding flesh and his own garment on him long for the blood for some of it to coagulate and now they take from him his own garment and no doubt with it pull off some of his own flesh open up the wounds that had begun to congeal and our Lord feels stinging burning across his whole back and then they throw upon him the smelly sweaty stinking rough and faded purple garment they've taken the first step in their mock coronation of the king then in the next step of his mock coronation Mark describes his crown for what is a king in state without his crown the crown

26:06 is the great symbol of his legitimate kingship and so we read in the text that after they clothed him with purple and plaiting or weaving together a crown of thorn they put it on him we are told by those who study the horticulture of that area of Palestine that perhaps there are few areas in the world there grow more natural thorn bushes of all kinds and I will not weary you with the various theories as to what kind of thorn bushes was used it's utterly irrelevant the point is this that as proceed with his mock coronation they would have a king not only clothed with the purple garment the symbol of royalty but they would have a king with a crown and so they weave not that was ready at hand that would have at least been a mock symbol without pain but they take a bush on which are sharp piercing thorns and plaiting a crown they press it down upon his head and I can

27:35 personally envision them in the process summoning him forward in one of them taking the posture of an official demanding of our lord that he need while he received the sign of his coronation and taking that crown of thorns perhaps having to hold it with the thick male lobs of battle so that his hands would not be pierced one of the captains placing it upon our lord's head and then pressing it down and as he presses every point of every thorn begins to cut a furrow from which there spurts blood trickling down the face of the one who is undergoing his mock coronation of a king so now the king has a royal garment he now has but now let's have a third item if he's to be a real king he must have a scepter the sign that he now can officially exercise power and authority as a rightly enthroned and though mark omits this detail matthew by the guidance of the holy spirit does not and we read in

29:03 matthew twenty seven twenty eight they plotted a crown of thorns and put it upon his head and need in his notice the detail they put a read in his right hand that's one of the soldiers looked around and found some kind similar to what we would say is a bamboo uh... with his short whacked it off and made it into something that looked like a royal scepter they place it in the right hand of our lord and now they say the picture is complete here the king is now he has a symbol of with his purple gar with his crown and with his scepter and while these acts were acts of ruin to our lord to our lord as far as they were concerned their fun had only begun it had only begun for you see when men are possessed of the spirit of these soldiers

The Particulars of Jesus's Mock Homage

30:31 pent up frustration irritation angst capable of they're never satisfied with the initial stages of such mockery and so mark is careful to record in the particulars of his treatment not only his mock coronation is a king in verse seventeen but then we know it in the second places mark almighty has a keen verses eighteen and nineteen he is not as the king not mob home which was both herbal and symbolic lark physical notice first of all global no soon do they know sooner do they complete their life's destiny is such that they will live no sooner do they complete their life's destiny is such that they will live no sooner do they complete their life's destiny is such that they will live their mock condemnation but then they enter into mock homage of him verse 18 and they began to him or greet him hey king of the jews when a new killing brought and was taken amongst his subjects

31:52 the way loyal objects showed their acceptance of him was to bow before him and to cry with an exclamation much like the language of our text thereby fidging the identity of the king and their relationship to him as his rightful subjects so they greet him as loyal subjects would a real thing to whom they were truly devoted note that whereas the mockery of the religious crowd was directed to his prophetic office verse 65 of chapter 14 some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to buffet and say prophesy the focal point of their mockery was his prophetic office here soldiers it was his kingliness that became the focal point of their taunting remember they hated the jews they knew of the jewish messianic hopes that these hopes

33:12 focused upon a messiah king crush all gentile including the lived and operated from rome and so certain are they that this could never be the messianic king that they gladly capitulate to jesus in mock submission and in mock recognition saying in essence if this is their king we have nothing

33:45 all him is our king of the jews but then there was not only mock homage verbally expressed but symbolically or physically and here we have three imperfect verbs to indicate that the action described was repeated it did not happen once it was action that was repeated for a period of time long the time do not know but the three smiting spitting worshipping are all imperfects notice the mock homage now that is symbolic or physical verse 19 and they were smiting his head with a reed and they were spitting upon him and bowing their knees they were worshipping him first of all they were smiting his head with a reed

34:56 get the picture in their mock coronation once the robe and the reed is in his right hand what does our lord do he stands as a lamb before her shears his dung he opens not his mouth it's as though he's lost all as to what men will do with him and now they rudely come and take the symbol of power out of his hand and they mock him by saying in this action of smiting him on the head with the symbol of your authority we will upon his head the thorns sink deeper and deeper into his sacred brow as it encircles his head so they taunt and they mock him in terms of the symbol of his authority you will crush the thorns more deeply into your own brow

36:14 and it says they were spitting upon him that universal symbol of utter contempt to sneer with a curled lip is a universal expression of contempt to turn away with a grunt is in most cases a symbol of contempt but to spit in a man's face is the highest and universe expression of the deepest form of contempt you see the act of kissing would have been proper kiss the son psalm 2 says and could it be and several commentators suggest that in carrying our mockery what they did is one by one as though they kiss him with the kiss of acknowledged submission and homage and when their face got close enough to kiss him they spit and walked away and laughed

37:25 one can only imagine as one after another takes the reed from the hand of his compatriot and smites him draws near as though he were to kiss him and spits and another takes the reed and smites and spits and another smites and spits and then to complete the charade mark tells us that then bowing their knees worshipped him think of it so confident were they of his utter harmlessness that they carry their mock homage to its highest expression when they literally bend their knees and bow and probably in eastern fashion prostrate themselves with their heads touching the ground in mock worship of this king of the jews one by one they come they bow and they go through the charade of their mock homage and then mark completes the picture by not only describing his mock coronation his mock homage as a king

The Particulars of Jesus's Return to Public Humiliation

38:51 but thirdly the particulars point us in verse twenty to his return to the general public humiliation and his sentence of crucifixion and when they had mocked him and here the tense of the verb indicates that mark is summarizing all that has gone before and called it mockery of his person and when they had mocked him not an additional action but a summary of all preceding action when their bellies do they could last spitting at ease is even to lose to get a rise from their compatriots when they were done venting all of this foul wretched disposition of their hearts the text says that they took off from him the purple and now our lord had to go again through the excruciating pain of having this rough garment to which some of his own blood

40:11 and flesh had congealed and been attached torn from his back and they put on him his garments placed upon him again his own robe reopening the wounds reintensifying the pain and then they led him out of the praetorium back before the public to carry out the sentence of death you by crucifixion oh dear people of god i've exercised discipline upon my own mind i've sought to follow the track of scripture not with fancy words but with simple plain words that you with me might see the scene behold the scene as the entire contingency of soldiers give him his mock coronation pay him as a king and then return him to his public humiliation in order to take him to the place of execution we've examined mark's account of the place the people and the particulars

Behold the Glory of Our Suffering Savior

41:36 of the horrible brutality and mockery of jesus received inside the judgment hall at the hands of these roman legionnaires now what are we to see in all of this are we simply to feel anger at the horrible injustice and wish that somehow we could resurrect those soldiers from the dead and get our hands upon them are we simply to feel disgust at their unprincipled brutality are we to feel merely pity and sorrow for our lord in his abject loneliness in the height of his death and in the height of his death and in the height of his death and in the height of his death in the height of his shame and humiliation what is all of this to say to us well i want to speak to you now on the practical relevance and application of this account of our lord's mock coronation and the mock homage paid to him by the roman soldiery and first of all i would say as we come to this element of our study this morning it's god's intention that we should behold the glory of our suffering savior behold our suffering savior

43:02 this scene is not only a scene in which there is the outcropping of some of the most vile influences of the human heart to be recorded in scripture man has incursions and what does he do he gives him a mock coronation and pissing Haze him mock homage at the expense of his own dignity, at the expense of his own pain and blood.

43:37 And yet in the midst of that, our Lord is glorious. In the midst of it, there is the outshining of the very glory of him who is the Savior of sinners. And I would ask you to behold the glory of our suffering Savior in several areas. First of all, behold the glory of his meek, lamb-like silence.

44:05 In Isaiah 53, it was prophesied of Messiah that in the midst of his sufferings, he would be characterized by this disposition. Isaiah 53 and verse 7, he was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted, he opened up. Opened not his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not.

44:42 You see the emphasis here is upon his majestic silence in the midst of his most intense suffering. While afflicted, his mouth. His mouth is shut, as a lamb led to the slaughter, and a sheep before his shearers, so he opens not his mouth. And I say there is glory in the meek, lamb-like silence of the Lord Jesus.

45:21 He who was the instrument of speaking worlds into being, out of the womb of nothing, his Father to send, legions of angels, these Roman legionnaires, have spoken to them, as it were, back into oblivion. Yet he endures in total dignified silence. The mock coronation, the mock adulation and homage, the psychological, the emotional, the physical pain and shame and agony of this man. His treatment in the praetorium, and in it you and I see none but the suffering servant of Jehovah could conduct himself like this. And we behold in the midst of all that is so gory and shameful, the glory of his meek, lamb-like silence. Surely Peter must have had this incident in view when he wrote,

46:39 when he was reviled, when he threatened not, but committed his cause to him who judges righteously. But then I ask you to behold with me not only the glory of his meek, lamb-like silence, but behold the glory of his strong, heroic faith. Behold the glory of his strong, heroic faith. And here I ask you to turn to Isaiah 15, as I meditated upon this passage I believe I've seen as never before.

47:22 One of the most wonderful displays of faith recorded anywhere in scripture.

47:30 When we see the faith of the nation marching around Jericho's walls, and the walls come tumbling down, we see faith in what we might call its dramatic expressions. And many of the other expressions, the expressions of faith described in Hebrews 11. But here we see the glory of the strong, heroic faith of our Lord. In Isaiah 50, the servant of Jehovah is speaking, the Lord Jesus.

48:01 And he says in verse 5, The Lord Jehovah has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backward. I gave my back to the smiters, there were not enough Roman soldiers in the whole Romans to the lictor's boast. He said, I gave my back to the smiters. Had he not given it, they wouldn't have touched it with one lash.

48:36 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. No incident is recorded in the Gospels, but we are certainly warned, warranted to deduce that with the striking of his face, which one of the parallel passages says, some may have paused long enough to strike his face, grab at his beard, and pull off a handful.

49:03 I gave my back to the smiters. I gave my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

49:21 When he saw them puckering to spit, he could have quickly turned and hid his face from the shameful, shameful reception of the spittle from their foul, cursing mouths. But he said, I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. Now, how could the Lord do this?

49:53 Capacity to feel shame.

49:57 Our loss is much. Our loss is much. A man as though he were never going to be accepted when he was stripped publicly.

50:14 The shame and degradation of being spat upon. He had the capacity to feel what this humiliation meant. The mockery, the sham coronation, the false worship. He felt it.

50:37 And when his arms were taken off, he didn't feel any pains in turn. That's not the Christ of the Bible. The pain was real. The pain was real.

51:06 But he said, I gave my back. I hid not my face. Why? Look at verse 7.

51:14 For the Lord Jehovah will help me. Therefore, I not been confounded. Therefore, set my face like a flint. And that I shall not be put to shame.

51:37 Well, wait a minute. Isn't this a contradiction? Well, was he put to shame or was he not?

51:55 Ah, yes, he was put to temporary shame with the spittle of dozens, if not several hundreds of soldiers dripping down, mingled with the blood that was coursing down from the thorn wounds, having to make its way over the contusions from the previous blows with the hands. He made any pride. A prizefighter that looked ugly at the end of a prizefight looked handsome.

52:28 Oh, yes, there was temporary shame. But he says, I know I shall not be put to shame. That is, to ultimate shame. Why?

52:39 He is near who justifies me. He who is going to be son of God justifies me. Who will declare me with me an adversary. Let him come near to me.

53:06 Behold the Lord. Help me. Who is he that shall condemn me? Behold, they shall all wax old as a garment.

53:18 The moth shall eat them up. Jesus could stand in that noble dignity because of his strong.

53:37 It's temporary.

53:42 Temporary. But in a few days, Joseph's empty tomb will be my vindication.

53:59 And then,

54:03 in all the presence of God,

54:15 and then I'll sit upon a glorious throne.

54:22 The shame and the spittle I believe will vindicate me in the resurrection, in the exaltation, and in my coming in glory. And I can afford to wait for my father's vindication. That's faith. That's faith.

54:49 That is resting in God and his promise. Against all present experience and appearance.

55:13 Despite present appearances.

55:18 Isn't that what Hebrews 12 too says? Who for the joy that was set before him despised the shame.

55:32 When you despise something, you treat it lightly. You treat it as a thing of no account. And while the Lord is upon his brow,

55:45 we're pressed.

55:47 And the shame was full of sin. And the sins with every...

56:01 The eyes of his faith looked down to the day when there would be a great multitude out of every kindred tribe and nation that would be redeemed from everlasting torments by his death and would worship him not in mock adoration, but in the kind of adoration you heard about last Lord's Day evening in your communion meditation. When the four and twenty elders representative of the church that was slain to receive blessing and glory and honor and power. Oh, behold the glory of his strong heroic faith. And then behold the glory of his eternal unchanging self-giving love. It says in John 13, 1, having loved his own, he loved them unto the end. Amen.

57:02 He loved even unto the consummation of all that he would have to undergo. May I say it reverently, dear child of God, it was love for the likes of you and me that caused him to receive that rough garment upon his lacerated back. It was love for the likes of you and me that bowed his head to take the crown of thorns. It was love for you and me that caused him to submit to every blow upon his sacred head, every drop of spit upon his face, every act of sham worship and mockery. Oh, behold the glory of our suffering Savior. Do you see any beauty in him? When you begin to see beauty in a Savior, there in the praetorian, you have reason to believe you're no longer looking at him with natural eyes, but with eyes opened by the Spirit to behold his glory.

Behold the Concrete Symbols of His Real Work for Sinners

58:16 But then I ask you not only to behold the glory of our suffering Savior, but behold the concrete symbols of his real work for sinners.

58:27 Behold the concrete symbols of his real work for sinners. We had occasion to note some weeks ago that from the apprehension of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane until his resurrection, he appears in no other form but that of a common criminal. There is being worked out in the theater to meet and experience that which God is doing in the unseen world of spiritual reality. Christ is being treated as a criminal in the court of heaven as God reckons our sins to him.

59:03 Well, see a dimension of that in this treatment at the hand of the soldiers. Behold the concrete symbols of his real work for sinners. Think of the thorns. Where did they come from?

59:17 It was after the entrance of sin. And in Genesis chapter 3, God says, The ground shall bring forth thorns and thistles. In the sweat of thy brow you will now make it yield its fruit. The thorns were the symbol of the curse.

59:37 And there in the praetorium our Lord has a, what? A crown of thorns. In other words, he has crowned which is the sin. And isn't that the gospel?

59:59 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. Think of the robe. That robe. That robe that to these righteous, eyeballed, unprincipled, and cruel, sadistic soldiers was a mock.

60:22 Jesus was dying as God's anointed prophet, priest, and king. And as a king,

60:41 darkness, the devil himself. Little did he know they were setting forth a symbol of his true identity.

60:57 He is the curse-bearer. The thorns are upon him. He is the conch on him. They put the reed in his hand as the scepter.

61:12 And he is exercising it now. Not with blows of judgment upon his adversaries. But he's stretching out the scepter of mercy to every sinner that will seek refuge in his open wounds. And he holds that scepter to this hour.

61:31 And everyone who will bow in repentance and faith will find in the right hand of Jesus, not but that scepter of grace.

61:46 The concrete symbol of his real work for sinners. And Calvin had an interesting comment about the spittle. He said, as spitting upon someone is the ultimate expression of contempt, it is we who deserve to be spat upon by God. We have so defaced the image in which he made us.

62:11 This is for which he made us. It is spat upon. Christ vicariously taking our place takes the spittle to show us that all of the shame that we deserve for our sin he has taken upon himself. Oh behold in this scene of his mock coronation and the mock homage not only the glory of the suffering Savior but behold the concrete symbols of his real work for sinners.

Behold the Personal Claims This Scene Makes Upon You

62:47 And then lastly behold the personal claims this scene makes upon you. You are there in the midst of it if you've done what the word of God forces us to do. We're there. We're beholding the robe thrown upon him.

63:09 The crown of thorns encircling his brow. The reed in his right hand. The mockery. The false homage.

63:17 The spittle. The taunting.

63:20 This makes claims upon you.

63:24 In John 19 in the midst of all of this twice Jesus was brought out before the Jewish mob. And verse 4 tells us that after the initial scourging and being taken in by the soldiers he is brought forth and pilots go back from their demand that he be crucified. But he says gaze upon him. His soldiers had been sporting with him for a while.

64:02 He says behold the man. Look upon him. Do something in the light.

64:10 And then after some further treatment at their hands he brings him forth again. And this time John says he says behold your king. Behold your king. And you know what their response was to the first?

64:25 Away with the man! To the second we have no king but Caesar. But they responded and my friend listen to me as I bring the message to conclusion this morning. You cannot be neutral to what you've heard this morning.

64:42 Behold the man and you must either say oh Jesus you would undergo what could Jesus have mercy upon my sinful hell deserving soul.

65:05 Behold the man will you see I behold him or will you stay away with him.

65:16 Behold the man Behold your king the one who has rightful claims over you. You're going to say one of two things. No I've got no king but me. No king but my lust my ambitions my will my pride my religion.

65:32 My friend your king is Jesus and you're going to bow the knee not in mock submission you'll bow the knee in loving submission through grace while you're yet alive or you'll bow the knee in forced acknowledgement of who he is in the day of judgment. But the scripture says every knee shall bow.

65:59 If you dare put your hand on your knees sitting where you are this morning put your hand on your knee touch your knees sitting where you are those they're going to bow and they're going then the vindicated Lord on the throne will either say come ye blessed of my father you bowed while on earth you owned my claims over you you responded to the overtures of my mercy and grace to sinners come you knees are bent he'll say depart ye cursed depart ye cursed into everlasting fire and when those knees are bent and the king speaks you'll obey. My friend don't look at this scene and give pity to Jesus he needs no pity you're to be pitied you're to be pitied if in your blindness and love of sin you defy your rightful king behold the personal claims this scene makes upon you

67:27 soldiers did mock obeisance you will do ill obeisance to the son of God oh come now while the door of mercy is open fall at his feet and cry with that poor beggar son of David oh come now have mercy on me bow to him as your rightful sovereign and only savior for my friend you will bow and I take no delight in saying that you will bow too late too late I wonder I wonder and here it's only imagination I wonder that soldier who stood by the cross later on and beholding the meekness of the son of God and the unnatural events in the heavens and the way in which he was in complete control even in his death when he cried with a loud it is finished and he this was the son of God I wonder if one of the soldiers who mocked and spat maybe even one of those

68:55 that put the reed in his hand or placed it in his hand or placed it in his hand or placed it in his hand or placed it in his hand or placed it in his hand or plaited the crown of thorns came to see him for who he really was if he did no sin committed toward Jesus was beyond the power of the blood that he shed to cleanse and to pardon oh my friend regardless of how you've treated him he stands ready to receive you come to him come to him come to him come to him and come on never again never again believe him let us pray our father how we thank you for your holy word we bless you and praise you for all that you have given to us in the scriptures we thank you for this account of our lord's further humiliation and the glory that we see in our blessed savior may the spirit so seal the preaching of the word this day that we will be able to see who know and love him will love him as we've never loved him before hate our sins as we've never hated them before

70:15 and oh god for those whose knees have never yet bowed oh that they may bow today bow even now as their heads are bent in prayer bow their hearts in repentance and faith and may they find the promised mercy that you extend to all sinners in the lord jesus christ seal your word and dismiss us with your blessing we pray in his worthy name amen