Mark 15:16-32 And the soldiers led him away into the hall, called Praetorium; and they call together the whole band.… To the contemplation of that supreme fact in history, around which the thoughts, the hearts, of men gather more and more, we are directed by the few sad, solemn words, "Pilate... delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified." The preliminary incidents are minutely related. They describe the most solemn mockery ever perpetrated. The scourging first. He is stripped to the waist, his hands tied behind him; his bent back is beaten with leathern thongs weighted at the ends with bits of lead or sharpened bone. Bleeding, he is led within the court, "the Praetorium," where the whole cohort of soldiers vent their ingenuity in exposing their Victim to ridicule. They cast a purple-dyed military cloak over him; with their hard hands they twist twigs of nabk, with its long, hard, sharp spikes or thorns, into a mock-crown, and press it down upon his fever-heated brow. In his yielding hand they thrust a reed, and bow their knees in mock submission and homage, and with coarse gibes hail him "King of the Jews." Snatching the reed from his hand, they beat him with it on his bleeding head; they strike him with their fists or with rods; and in the direst indignity spit upon him. Then, "wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe," he is led out. To this uncomplaining Sufferer - this smitten and forsaken One - Pilate calls the attention of the multitude with words which, like those he wrote, float on through the ages, bearing their different message as the listening ears differed - "Ecce homo!" The echoing cry from the mingled voices of "the chief and the officers" arose above all others, "Crucify, crucify!" A miserable squabble between Pilate and the Jews ends in his "Behold your King!" and their reply "Away with him; away with him, crucify him!... We have no king but Caesar." In the temple Judas is casting down "the thirty pieces of silver," making confession, in a repentance all too late, "I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood," and his agonized spirit seeks a vain relief in a hasty destruction of a life he cannot support Jesus "bearing the cross, is led away to be crucified, when, stoking, exhausted with suffering, beneath its weight, he is relieved by its being laid on "one Simon of Cyrene" - the first in a long line of lowly cross-bearers who endure the shame for Jesus' sake. "And they bring him unto the place Golgotha." One only spark of humanity is left. "They offered him wine mingled with myrrh." Then upon a cross - symbol of the uttermost degradation and shame, and more than a symbol of the uttermost suffering - they stretched his sacred, quivering limbs, piercing his hands and his feet with rough nails. Thus "they crucified him. Then from out of the most indescribable agony of body broke forth the gentle murmur of a loving heart in modest prayer, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Ah! they crushed, they broke that heart; but it sent forth only the sweet fragrance of its love, as a crushed flower its perfume. But he is not alone. "'With him they crucify two robbers, one on his right hand and one on his left." Thus is he "numbered with the transgressors." "Racked by the extremest pain, and covered with every shame which men were wont to heap on the greatest criminals; forsaken and denied by his disciples; no sigh escaped his lips, no cry of agony, no bitter or faltering word; only a prayer for the forgiveness of his enemies. They had acted in blindness, under the influence of religious and political fanaticism; for, to use St. Paul's words, had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." Surely they could not know, or it would not have to be recorded in one sentence: "And they crucify him, and part his garments among them, casting lots upon them, what each should take. So hard, so insensible! In presence of the central fact in the world's history, men gamble! Here we must find our lessons, in the contrasted intensity of interest in human salvation which is shown from above, and that careless, blind indifference which marks men before whose eyes Jesus Christ [is] openly set forth crucified." The world must see itself represented in the actors on that dread evening; and each of us may see himself in one or other of the many surrounding "the Man on that day of darkness, doom, and death. Let each bring himself into presence of that cross - the true judgment-seat - of Christ, and there test his heart, and try and prove his life. And further, let each one learn how his hand is not wanting among those rude hands that smote that tender flesh; nor his words from those that fell on that quick ear; nor his sins from those that burdened that too heavy-weighted heart. Our sins of spite were part of those that day, Whose cruel whips and thorns did make him smart; Our lusts were those that tired him in the way; Our want of love was that which pierced his heart: And still when we forget or slight his pain, We crucify and torture him again." Parallel Verses KJV: And the soldiers led him away into the hall, called Praetorium; and they call together the whole band. |
    |