Led to Golgotha

Mark 15:22-27, CEB - They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means Skull Place.  They tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh, but he didn’t take it.  They crucified him. They divided up his clothes, drawing lots for them to determine who would take what.  It was nine in the morning when they crucified him.  The notice of the formal charge against him was written, “The king of the Jews.”  They crucified two outlaws with him, one on his right and one on his left.

 

            I intend to keep my words few in commenting on today’s passage.  What I encourage you to do is to see and spend some time in contemplation on the purposeful allusions to the Old Testament Mark includes in his crucifixion account.  We encounter a couple of them in our text above.  The wine mixed with myrrh is recalls Psalm 69:20-21:

            I looked for sympathy, but there was none,

             for comforters, but I found none.

They put gall in my food

             and gave me vinegar for my thirst.

Allusions to Psalm 22 can be found throughout the crucifixion narrative (including Jesus’s last words, which we will talk about at a later date.  But another striking reference to David’s Psalm is found in our text for today:

Dogs surround me,

             a pack of villains encircles me;

              they pierce my hands and my feet.

All my bones are on display;

            people stare and gloat over me.

They divide my clothes among them

            and cast lots for my garment. (Psalm 22:16-18)

Psalm 22 and 69 are classified as psalms of the righteous sufferer – someone who is guiltless yet made to suffer nonetheless.  In their Old Testament setting, they are the words of David, a flawed man whose cause was righteous but was opposed by King Saul.  However, they are even more poignant in describing Jesus, who is righteous in every way possible. 

            The tendency of us human beings, when confronted with undeserved suffering, is to (1) escape it somehow and (2) appeal to appropriate authorities/courts to make us “whole” again.  Jesus does neither.  Mark takes great pains to remind us that Jesus chose this path freely and never turns away from it.  He expresses His suffering but does not seek revenge or restitution.  In profoundly poetic irony, Jesus’s righteous suffering makes it possible for US to be made whole again. 

            Spend some time meditating on the scriptural imagery and truth today.  Allow the Spirit to impress upon you the power of what Jesus is doing here on the cross.

 

Question:  What truth concerning Jesus’s suffering seems to be foremost in your mind as you contemplate these scriptures today?

 

Prayer:  The prayer today is made up of quotations from Psalm 22 and 69:

Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.(22:11)

But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me. (22:19)

But I pray to you, Lord, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation. (69:13)

Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for those who are suffering through no fault of their own.

 

Song:  When I Survey the Wondrous Cross – Loma Linda University Church Choir

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_AujOpMljQ

How Do We Know What Crucifixion Looked Like?

 

How Do We Know What Crucifixion Looked Like?

 

Matthew 27:33-37, NIV - They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”).  There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it.  When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots.  And sitting down, they kept watch over him there.  Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is Jesus, the king of the Jews.

 

Crucifixion was ghastly.  For hundreds of years after Jesus was crucified, Christian artists never depicted this brutal execution method.  As horrible as modern Christians imagine the crucifixion was, early Christians worked hard not to imagine it.  Most of them had seen at least one crucifixion because they lived in a time and place where they were common.  It is estimated that Matthew wrote this gospel in 85 AD, approximately half a century after Jesus was crucified.  Still, there is no description of what crucifixion involved.  Matthew (nor the other Gospel writers for that matter) felt the need to include details because everyone already knew those details all too well.  We know the details because of historians like Josephus and others who knew that future generations would no longer realize just how barbaric the practice was. 

                Matthew did not have to paint a picture with words of what the crucified Jesus would look like for he knew his readers would already know the image well.  To that image, Matthew adds the sign hanging above Jesus’s head which listed the charge for which Jesus hung on the cross, “this is Jesus, the king of the Jews.”  Jesus had mounted no armed revolution nor challenged any ruler.  Matthew makes sure we know that Jesus hangs there for no legitimate reason, as if a legitimate reason exists for killing a human being in this barbaric way.  While Jesus hangs there, he listens as the guards who just nailed Him to the cross cast lots to see who gets His clothes.  In addition to painting the guards as completely unfazed by the cruelty they performed day after day, this detail also signals to us that Jesus hung on that cross naked.  The humiliation was complete. 

                After the winner of Jesus’s clothes was determined, they just sat here and watched Jesus.  This, of course, was their job.  No one must interfere with the execution, which normally would take about six to nine hours.  Other gospels suggest that Jesus didn’t last that long, for he had already been badly injured.  In any case, all who were present just sat there watching bleeding Jesus slowly suffocate to death over the course of at least three to four hours.   Can you imagine spending hours watching such a thing?

                Most of us can’t imagine that.  I’m pretty sure I would have had to walk away or at least look away.   Even in our culture that often glorifies and desensitizes us to violence, this is too much.  Gory deaths on TV take a few seconds, about the same amount of time as it takes to read the verses above.  We move on quickly.  My aim here in this reflection was to slow the process a bit, to invite us to feel the barbarism of this moment, to sit with Jesus’s utter humiliation and pain for at least a few minutes. 

                Why?  Because this moment is why Jesus said that He came:

“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. “ (Matt 16:21-22)

The Son of God came to suffer and be murdered.  If that is why Jesus said that He came, then it at least merits our deliberate reflection.  So. my hope is that, as we encounter this awful moment over the next few reflections, we will give Jesus that – a few moments of making ourselves see what we’d rather not see or dwell on. 

 

Question:  What happens in you when you spend a few minutes thinking about the difficult details of the crucifixion? 

 

Prayer:  Jesus, it is hard to look upon You hanging on that cross.  Even so, we look into Your eyes as you willingly submit to it for our sake.  Help us to not look away.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people that you are aware of that are suffering terribly right now.

 

Song:  When I Survey the Wondrous Cross – Kathryn Scott

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kimLXNhzZMA