The King And His Cross (Mark 15)
Christians are the people of the cross. We hang those symbols on our walls and around our necks. We decorate with it and it brings us comfort to see that symbol because it means something glorious to us.
We also understand that the cross was God’s means of solving one of the greatest problems Creation has ever seen.
Humans are sinful. Human beings have rebelled against God. They have broken His Law. And God is holy, righteous, just, and will not overlook sin. We all have sinned according to Romans 3:23, and the wages of our sin is death in Romans 6:23. We have earned for ourselves God’s justice. How can a completely just and righteous God save anyone? How can a just and righteous God have fellowship with people?
That is the question that God answers in the cross and it is one that we desperately need to have answered. For, on our own, we have incurred God’s wrath and justice. We have earned for ourselves an eternity of punishment for our sins. So this question matters greatly to us.
The King willingly submitted to die on a cross to give us fellowship with God.
That is the reason this symbol is so precious to the Christian. And the reason that this symbol is so important.
The King willingly submitted to die on a cross to give us fellowship with God.
Read Mark 15
Jesus Is King (Mark 15:1-2)
Jesus was asked by Pilate if He was the King of the Jews. Jesus affirmed that this was true. And it was only a few days previous to this that Jesus had openly proclaimed this fact to everyone when He rode into town on a colt in Mark 11. There He proclaimed Himself to be the long-awaited Messiah and King.
This seems like an odd thing to note here, but it is very much a part of this story. Jesus was Lord even when He was being questioned and beaten at the order of Pilate. Jesus was Lord even when the soldiers punched Him in the face, spit on Him, and mocked Him. He was Lord even when He had nails hammered through His wrists and hands. He was King over all even when He endured the worst instrument of torture ever contrived. His and always will be God the Son, our Lord. Jesus is King. He has a claim on you and on your life whether you think that He does or not, even if it seems like He does not.
Even in this moment of weakness Jesus had authority to do whatever He wanted to do. But He submitted Himself to the rulers and authorities because He had a job to do.
The King Suffered Willingly (Mark 15:4)
The entire account of Jesus’s suffering is an account of the King of all Creation suffering willingly. But here it is very obvious. He would not even answer back to Pilate.
“And Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.” But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.” (Mark 15:4 ESV)
Through it all Jesus willingly submitted to suffering. We know from the rest of Scripture that Jesus did not have to go to the cross. In fact, Jesus laid down His own life willingly.
“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” (John 10:17-18 ESV)
Jesus Christ willingly died on behalf of sinners. He did not have to go to the cross but He did so to make a way for lost people to be brought into fellowship with God. This king laid down His life willingly for the salvation of sinners.
The King Was Innocent (Mark 15:6-14)
Pilate recognized in Jesus an innocent person. This entire ploy to let one prisoner go was so that Jesus would be allowed to go free. Pilate was an evil man but He knew that Jesus was innocent. And when the people chose Barabbas instead of Jesus it led Pilate to say, “Why? What evil has He done?” (Mark 6:14 ESV) But the crowd grew in fervor and shouted louder, “Crucify Him” (Mark 16:14 ESV).
It is interesting that Pilate picked up on this fact of Jesus’s life. I know that Pilate did not know that Jesus was completely without sin, but He at least saw that Jesus was a good man. But the words of Pilate were more true than even he realized. Jesus was completely innocent. He was completely free of wrong. Peter would say of Jesus that “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.” (1 Peter 2:22 ESV)
It is no secret to us today that Jesus was headed to the cross. And He did so perfectly, without sin. There was no blemish or defect in this Lamb. He was the perfect sacrifice.
The King Submitted to the Cross to Save Sinners (Mark 15:31-34, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53:4-10, Colossians 2:13)
The religious leaders mocked Jesus and those hanging on the cross near Him began to do so as well. The next thing we read out of Jesus’s mouth is “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (Mark 15:34 ESV) Jesus and His disciples spoke Aramaic as well as Greek and only in a few instances were the original words kept in the original language. And here is one of them. Mark also translates the phrase for us. It’s “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34 ESV) Jesus here feels abandoned. But that is not the main point here. Jesus was yelling out a song title. You see, hymnbooks in Jesus’s day did not have numbers to designate what page to turn to. The name of the song was the first line of the song. The name of this song was “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”
This song is very important in helping us understand what Jesus was doing. He was moving people to look at the hymn and see that He was fulfilling all of this in their midst.
Read Psalm 22.
In verses 1-2 David felt abandoned by God, like God was not answering His prayer. But here, we see in Jesus the sacrifice for sin. Every sin that would ever be forgiven had been placed upon Him. God was crushing His Son in the place of sinners in that moment (Isaiah 53:10).
In verse 3-5 the writer indicates that His holy God had rescued the Fathers. He had never abandoned. But here we have Jesus crying out to God as the One being crushed for sin.
In verse 6, Jesus felt as a “worm and not a man” for the sins of the world had been placed upon Him. Every sin that would ever be forgiven was placed upon the Savior. And the punishment was cruel. He was beaten with a Roman Flagrum or Roman Scourge which was an instrument of cruel torture. It had a handle and three leather strips with pieces of metal or bone attached to it. It was made to pull flesh from the body. He had been beaten with fists, spat upon, and mocked. The crown of thorns was placed upon His head and then He was beaten some more. In that moment He was being punished in the place of sinners and being treated as a “worm and not a man”.
We have already read of all the people who were mocking Jesus. That is found in verse 6.
Verse 8 is what the religious leaders said about Jesus (Mark 15:31-32)
Verses 9-10 speak of the trust that Jesus had in the Lord since His birth. Originally this would have been about David’s faith but here it is about Jesus’s perfect obedience.
Verse 11, again, trouble is near and Jesus whom God the Father is punishing for the sins of all who would ever believe is feeling the weight of that punishment.
Verses 12-13, mighty men surround Jesus. Roman soldiers with weapons in hand.
Verses 14-15, Jesus is hanging naked on a cross in the sun. His mouth is extremely dry. And He is hanging there with His bones out of joint. He feels near death. He has no strength left at all.
Verses 16-18, Jesus is surrounded by gentiles. Another word for gentiles was “dogs”. That is what Jews called Gentiles. And these gentiles have pierced his hands and feet. He is dehydrated, so they can see His bones. And all of this is happening while the crowd stares. And we have already read of how the cast lots for His clothes (Mark 15:24).
Verses 19-21, is a cry for help of the person in torment and imminent danger. It’s a prayer for deliverance. And in verse 21 there is an assurance that the prayer has been hears. Even when the sins of all the world were being punished in Christ and He cried out for deliverance, He loved and trusted that His Father would not leave Him or abandon Him.
Verses 22-26 tell of the future rescue of the sufferer. When Christ rose from the grave and conquered sin and death there would be great joy and celebration. When He explained to His disciples again and they understood that He suffered on the cross it would lead to great praise and adoration. For the sins of the people would be forgiven in Christ. He was suffering in their place. He died in their stead.
Verses 27-31 tell us of that great and glorious day that will come when the salvation that this suffering Savior is spread to the ends of the Earth. And He rules over all the nations.
Jesus cried out “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” so that we would know and understand that He was fulfilling what was told in Psalm 22 before our very eyes. He wanted us to know that through His suffering on the cross He would bring about the salvation of the nations. He was suffering in the place of sinners. And this suffering was not without cause, it was part of a plan that had been put in place long ago, in eternity past.
“For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV)
Christ was suffering to cleanse His people from sin and give to them righteousness. He was suffering to solve the greatest problem Creation had ever known. How could a just and righteous God save sinners? How could He not punish them for their sin? He punished Christ in their place.
As Isaiah said long before Jesus came to Earth,
“Surely He has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed Him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced for our transgressions;
He was crushed for our iniquities;
upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with His wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned—every one—to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him
The iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so He opened not His mouth.
By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
and as for His generation, who considered
that He was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made His grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in His death,
although He had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in His mouth.
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush Him;
He has put Him to grief;
When His soul makes an offering for guilt,
He shall see His offspring; He shall prolong His days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied;
by His knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and He shall bear their iniquities.”
(Isaiah 53:4-11 ESV)
God the Son, Jesus Christ, was crushed in the place of sinners. We are healed through the suffering of Christ from sin and death. God placed upon Him our sin and our shame. That is how God solved the greatest problem Creation has ever known.
The King Made A Way For You To Have Fellowship With God (Mark 15:37-38)
When Jesus’s body was broken, so too was the curtain of the temple.
The curtain of the temple signified the separation of God and man. Only a High Priest who was ritually pure was allowed to go beyond the curtain to the ark which signified God’s presence with His people.
When Jesus died the curtain was torn in two from top to bottom. This signified a few things. 1) Jesus Himself in His body offered the once for all time sacrifice that was only pictured in the Old Testament sacrifices. No longer was the offering up of slaughtered animals something that needed to be done. The time of Old Testament sacrifices was now over. Christ had accomplished everything that these sacrifices only pictured.
“For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a High Priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since He did this once for all when He offered up Himself.” (Hebrews 7:26-28 ESV)
In this moment Jesus was both the Perfect High Priest and the Perfect Sacrifice as He offered Himself up “once for all”. The curtain was torn from top to bottom to signify that Christ accomplished what the blood of all those other animals only pictured.
And the other thing this signified is that this perfect sacrifice made a way for you to have fellowship with God. The ark was kept behind the curtain. And only the High Priest could go back there after he had gone through ritual purification. When Christ’s body was torn so was the curtain. The barrier between God and man was eliminated. The Christian can now have access to God through Christ.
God has made a way for you to have fellowship with God. It is through the finished work of Christ and Him only that you can have fellowship with God. He was crushed in the place of sinners. And now you can have peace with God through Jesus Christ.
There is only one way for our sins to be forgiven. It is not through our acts of righteousness. It is not through being good and nice to other people. It is not through reading our Bible enough or praying enough. Our sins are forgiven through the perfect work of Christ. He accomplished it. He finished this work when He offered up Himself on the cross and was punished in our place.
That is the message. That is what we learn from the cross in Mark 15 about the sacrifice of Christ. But how are we to respond?
We see that in the Roman Officer who was in charge of the crucifixion.
Our Response To The King (Mark 15:37-39)
The centurion was the Roman Officer who oversaw the crucifixion of Christ. When Pilate sentenced Jesus to death it was this man’s job to make sure He suffered and died on the cross. He oversaw the beatings. He watched or might’ve even participated in the brutal beating and scourging of Jesus. He made sure the nails were driven into His hands and feet as they were supposed to be done.
Then we read that “Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed His last.” (Mark 15:37 ESV) Some weird things began to happen when Jesus died. The curtain of the temple was torn in two. (Mark 15:38) But I don’t think He would have known that from where he was standing. Matthew describes an earthquake that took place in this moment (Matthew 27:51). Whatever it was, the Roman officer who oversaw the death of Jesus believed. He said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39 ESV)
I don’t know what this centurion knew about Jesus. I know that He had some idea of the claims Jesus was making about Himself. He had overseen the charge against Jesus be hung over Him on the placard that read “The King of the Jews” (Mark 15:26). But I know what happened in that moment. God the Holy Spirit opened the eyes of the centurion to understand and interpret the things that were happening right in front of Him. And suddenly He understood who this man was that He had crucified…and believed.
This is the response we are to have. No matter where you come from or what you have done this is the response we are all to have when confronted with the news of what Christ has done. We are to repent, that is a change of mind. And we definitely see that with the Centurion. He definitely changed on His understanding of who Jesus was. And we are to believe, that is to trust in the Savior. We quit running and ruling our own life and trust in the Savior.
And Christian, repentance and faith is not a one time act in our lives. It is something that we do daily. We daily repent of sins. We daily trust the Savior. And our response of faith in the one who died for us is supposed to be ever before our eyes.
And Jesus gave us the Lord’s Supper to keep this message always in front of us.
Before Jesus died…was crucified…scourged…beaten…heard the crowd yell “Crucify Him!”…before He had a discussion with Pilate…before Peter denied Him…before the sham trial with the Sanhedrin…before Jesus betrayed Him…and before He prayed in the Garden and submitted to the cross…Jesus ate with His disciples and instituted the Lord’s Supper.
“And as they were eating, He took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.” (Mark 14:22-25 ESV)
We have seen today the story that this picture is to call to remembrance and grow our faith. Jesus’s body was broken for the salvation of people. He was beaten, scourged, pierced, hung to die on a cross, and was broken as an offering for the forgiveness of our sins. And Jesus’s blood was poured out for the salvation of many. And we come together, brothers and sisters in Christ eating from the same bread, the same body, the same salvation. And we come together as brothers and sisters in Christ, partaking in the same fruit of the vine, the same blood saves us all. And we share this meal with each other until Christ returns.
And before we partake of the Lord’s Supper together, I must note that it is not for everyone. It is only for those who have trusted in Christ, made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and have been baptized. If you have not gone through the initiatory rite of baptism then you should not partake of the Lord’s Supper.
And we must also be contemplative about the Lord’s Supper. Christ came to take away sin, to do war with sin, and to conquer sin. He went through this suffering to defeat sin. Would you, Christian live in sin and partake in the Lord’s Supper? Would you harbor sin in your life and partake in the Lord’s Supper? Would you have hatred in your heart for a brother or sister in Christ and partake in the Lord’s Supper? Then I have a warning for you. God caused people to be sick and weak because they mistreated brothers and sisters in Christ when they partook of the Lord’s Supper. (1 Corinthians 11) Use this time and this imagery to repent of sins, to ask God for forgiveness, and to seek the forgiveness of someone else if you need to.
The King willingly submitted to die on a cross to give us fellowship with God. And He has given us this sign, this visible picture that we take in and remember all that He has done for us.
R. Dwain Minor