Cruelty - Wild Heart: Mark’s Portraits of a Radical Messiah

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We’re continuing our series Wild Heart: Mark’s Portrait of a Radical Messiah this morning.

Last week we looked at why people substitute other things for Jesus. These substitutes are always worse or inferior to the real thing and we’re reminded once again that remaining true to Jesus is important as a community of believers.

When Mel Gibson directed the epic “The Passion of the Christ” he encountered an interesting dilemma. His desire was to tell the story of Jesus ‘passion’ in accurate detail but when he began the process of editing the scenes of the beating and scourging of Jesus they were so cruel and intense they where overwhelming.

Those of us who have seen this film in its entirety know how intense the edited version was and its hard to imagine what it would have been like had Gibson not toned it down.

The passion of Christ gives us a brief glimpse into the depths of unrestrained human cruelty.

Let’s read Mark 15:16-32

Usually when I prepare a message I try to boil it down and give you something that applies to your daily life of following Jesus. But the crucifixion stories are a little different. This is the beginning of the central point of our faith in Christ.

Without Jesus’ death (and resurrection) Christian faith is useless. So it’s really impossible to add anything to boil this down to a practical application. I mean you may someday have someone beating you senseless to the point of death for no reason, but the worst case scenario for most of us will be how to get the coffee stains off our favorite shirt, or how to deal with a difficult boss. But these pale in comparison to what Jesus endured.

I think it’s important that we understand that what we’ve just read are not simply words on a page. Real human beings really did subject Jesus to unspeakable acts of cruelty.

Mark is very brief and simply mentions that Jesus was scourged. In fact none of the gospel writers explain what it meant to be scourged. They didn’t have to because in their day it was so common that people knew how hideous and cruel it was.

I found this description of scourging on the Bible-History website: The Roman scourge, also called the "flagrum" or "flagellum" was a short whip made of two or three leather (ox-hide) thongs or ropes connected to a handle. The leather thongs were knotted with a number of small pieces of metal, usually zinc and iron, attached at various intervals.

Sometimes the Roman scourge contained a hook at the end and was given the terrifying name "scorpion." The criminal was made to stoop which would make deeper lashes from the shoulders to the waist. According to Jewish law (discipline of the synagogue) the number of stripes was forty less one (Deut. 25:3) and the rabbis reckoned 168 actions to be punished by scourging before the judges. Nevertheless, scourging among the Romans was a more severe form of punishment and there was no legal limit to the number of blows, as with the Jews. Deep lacerations, torn flesh, exposed muscles and excessive bleeding would leave the criminal "half-dead." Death was often the result of this cruel form of punishment though it was necessary to keep the criminal alive to be brought to public subjugation on the cross. The Centurion in charge would order the "lictors" to halt the flogging when the criminal was near death.

But scourging had a deeper meaning. Scourging is often a metaphor for divine punishment. In Isaiah 53:4 it says “we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.”

The things that Jesus suffered would have signaled to the people that He was being punished and afflicted by God. They would have seen what was happening and assumed that Jesus was a false messiah that God had turned over to the Romans.

Jesus was literally taking on Himself the wrath of God that we deserved. The prophet Isaiah continues in Isaiah 53:5 But He [was] wounded for our transgressions, [He was] bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace [was] upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

All of these things are happening to Jesus in vs. 16-20.

There were a lot of things that Jesus could have done. He could have called a legion on angels from heaven to come to His side. He could have performed some miraculous sign to change the course of events. At the very least He could have taken the pain killer of wine and myrrh they offered Him. But

Jesus chose to endure the full intensity of cruelty from the people He came to save. Even the criminals hanging on either side of Him publicly ridiculed Him.

Jesus endured the cruelty of the Romans, the Jews, and even criminals. But to me what makes this even more amazing is that He was suffering at the hands of the people He had created. The emotional toll must have been enormous.

There is no way that we can wrap our heads around the pain He must have felt. It wasn’t just people that were doing this. They were His people, His possession. They had rejected Him and now they were executing Him with the punishment they deserved.

It seems to me that the ultimate act of cruelty is to harm others when you’re the one who deserves the punishment.

John 1:11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

Not only did they not receive Him they wounded, bruised, and chastised Him. The things they were saying while Jesus hung there were all things He could have done. He was the King, He could have destroyed the temple and He could have come down from the cross and beat them up if He wanted to.

Jesus showed amazing restraint in the face of cruelty and humiliation. We should remember that when we’re tempted to judge others.

The amazing thing is that He endured it all for us; the cruelty, the pain, the humiliation.

Amazing love….