Sunday 6th April
Read Mark 15:16-20
“The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. 17 They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. 18 And they began to call out to him, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ 19 Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spat on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.” (NIVUK)
The brutality of the crucifixion begins. The mockery of one who claimed to be king but was about to die an ignominious death. Dressed in robes of royalty, crowned with thorns, hailed as king and rendered obeisance – then stripped and killed.
While the description is ‘matter of fact’ it is bound up richly with the Psalms. Consider Psalm 89 – a psalm that that spends its first 37 verses declaring the eternal divine favour of the Lord’s anointed one and its last 15 verses describing his mocking abandonment unto death by God.
“But you have rejected, you have spurned,
you have been very angry with your anointed one…
41 All who pass by have plundered him;
he has become the scorn of his neighbours…
45 You have cut short the days of his youth;
you have covered him with a mantle of shame…
49 Lord, where is your former great love,
which in your faithfulness you swore to David?
50 Remember, Lord, how your servant has been mocked,
how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the nations,
51 the taunts with which your enemies, Lord, have mocked,
with which they have mocked every step of your anointed one.” (Psalm 89:38, 41, 45, 49-51) (NIVUK)
How can the Lord’s anointed one be both eternally and faithfully loved, and mocked and scorned unto death? It is likely Psalms such as this that Jesus used to explain to His devastated followers that the Scriptures declare that the Lord’s anointed must suffer and die. A path we are called to walk also.
“And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.” (Hebrews 13:12-13) (NIVUK)
