Hail, King of the Jews!

 

 Pilate answered and said to them again, "What then do you want me to do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?"  So they cried out again, "Crucify Him!"  Then Pilate said to them, "Why, what evil has He done?"  But they cried out all the more, "Crucify Him!"  So Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them; and he delivered Jesus, after he had scourged Him, to be crucified.  

Then the soldiers led Him away into the hall called Praetorium, and they called together the whole garrison.  And they clothed Him with purple; and they twisted a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and began to salute Him, "Hail, King of the Jews!"  Then they struck Him on the head with a reed and spat on Him; and bowing the knee, they worshiped Him.  And when they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him.

Then they compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to bear His cross.

 

- Mark 15:12–21 

 

Yesterday we read that immediately, in the morning, after Christ's night trial at the home of the high priest, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council; and they bound Jesus, led Him away, and delivered Him to Pilate.  Then Pilate asked Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?"  He answered and said to him, "It is as you say."  And the chief priests accused Him of many things, but He answered nothing.  Then Pilate asked Him again, saying, "Do You answer nothing?  See how many things they testify against You!"  But Jesus still answered nothing, so that Pilate marveled.  Now at the feast he was accustomed to releasing one prisoner to them, whomever they requested.  And there was one named Barabbas, who was chained with his fellow rebels; they had committed murder in the rebellion.  Then the multitude, crying aloud, began to ask him to do just as he had always done for them.  But Pilate answered them, saying, "Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?"  For he knew that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy.  But the chief priests stirred up the crowd, so that he should rather release Barabbas to them.

 

  Pilate answered and said to them again, "What then do you want me to do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?"  So they cried out again, "Crucify Him!"  Then Pilate said to them, "Why, what evil has He done?"  But they cried out all the more, "Crucify Him!"  So Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them; and he delivered Jesus, after he had scourged Him, to be crucified.   Three times Pilate has asked the crowd whether they want Jesus to be released and three times they demanded to release Barabbas and to crucify Jesus.  My study Bible comments that Pilate's sin was less than that of the Jewish leaders who delivered Christ to him (John 19:11), as the Jews had the Law and the prophets to instruct them, and Pilate did not.  Pilate wasn't without sin, however, as he knowingly sent an innocent Man to death, out of his desire to gratify the crowd.   That he scourged Him means that Jesus was treated as a condemned prisoner, and punished with a whip or lash which inflicts great pain.

Then the soldiers led Him away into the hall called Praetorium, and they called together the whole garrison.  And they clothed Him with purple; and they twisted a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and began to salute Him, "Hail, King of the Jews!"  Then they struck Him on the head with a reed and spat on Him; and bowing the knee, they worshiped Him.  And when they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him.  My study Bible comments that every king is proclaimed by his soldiers.  Although the intention here is mockery, it's prophetic that Jesus is clothed with purple, and has a crown put on His head, and the soldiers of the governor salute and hail Him as King.  Moreover, bowing the knee, they worshiped Him.  See a similar example in John 11:49-51, where Caiaphas unwittingly prophesies Christ's redemptive work.  My study Bible says that this mockery shows Jesus as the One despised and rejected by human beings who bears the iniquity of us all (see Isaiah 53:3-9). 

 Then they compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to bear His cross.  My study Bible comments that Mark mentions that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus as they were likely still living when this Gospel was written, and possibly even known to Mark's hearers.  The spiritual message, it says, is that we, like Simon (whose name means "obedience"), are not only called to carry the cross set on us by Christ, but seeing Christ in others, we are called to bear each other's burdens as well (Galatians 6:2).

Evil can often be said to be a time upside down, in which truth is perverted, and everything that makes sense is distorted into a false logic which is the opposite of the truth.  In this scene of false trial before the crowd, we have several elements which bear witness to this.  First of all, it was a crowd that welcome Christ into Jerusalem as Messiah a week before this event.  Are there members of that crowd here?  Are they simply stirred by whatever is passing, or whatever others are doing?  And what of the crowd which heard Him with delight as He debated with the religious leaders in the temple?  It is Mark who tells us that "the common people heard Him gladly" (Mark 12:37).  This particular crowd, representing those same people who are in Jerusalem for the Passover, seems quite different from those who were eager to hear Jesus in the temple and who welcomed Him into Jerusalem, for these are somewhat easily stirred by the religious leaders.  Perhaps there are many who simply "follow the crowd" -- but we know that in Jerusalem there are also faithful.  The second strangely inverse parallel is the name of Barabbas.  It means "son of the father" and yet we know that Christ is the true Son of the Father.  The religious leaders use their influence to rig the game, so to speak, in favor of the other "son of the father," who seems to be, according to the Gospels, a nationalist brigand and insurrectionist who has also committed murder.  What we see is a kind of exchange, in which the true Son and fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets is crucified in place of one who uses violence in the name of nationalist insurrection.  One embodies mercy, the other embodies political expediency for power, a fitting representation of these particular leaders who stir the crowd against Christ whom they know to be innocent.  And then there is Pilate, who clearly understands the envy of the religious leaders (see Mark 15:10 in yesterday's reading, above), and has found for Himself that Christ is innocent of the charges brought against Him.  He clearly knows how guilty people act, and Christ doesn't even defend Himself.  But although he is the Roman governor, he also seeks to appease the crowds.  We can understand that his job is to keep the peace as he also has to answer to Caesar.  But the Romans were also known for their law and codes, and this "order" is simply used to treat an innocent Man in the cruelest and harshest way possible.  Scourging and crucifixion were reserved for the worst criminals because of the amount of suffering they inflicted.  So the evil time -- and, we could say, the devil -- has its way in that the compassionate, loving, and merciful Lord receives the worst punishment of a system of law designed to keep a certain kind of peace.  My study Bible explicitly remarks upon the mocking acts of the soldiers hailing Christ as King, and even worshiping Him bowing their knees (see Romans 14:11, Philippians 2:10), which become inadvertent prophesy.  These examples of truth turned inside out and upside down are frequently characteristic hallmarks of evil.  This is found in the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds (or Tares), in which the indigestible weeds, which aren't nutritious for human beings, resemble the good wheat (see Matthew 13:24-30), also understood as a characteristic of heresy.   Evil sets up a pattern that seemingly is fully aware of the good, as it so often seeks to pattern itself in the image of the good, only suited to its own purposes through lies.  In a recent historical example, there are well-known forms of propaganda used by the Nazis which twisted seemingly good and truthful maxims into masks of order which conceal hideous truths, such as the phrase "Work makes freedom," found on concentration camp gates.  (It was originally a phrase used to describe the therapeutic value of work for rehabilitation of criminals.)  We can think of other examples of modern propaganda designed to cover up terrible abuses of power and acts of extreme destructive cruelty and violence, especially by tyrannical or totalitarian movements.  They all bear this similar stamp of perversions of truth, patterning themselves after the good in horrific imitation.  This mimicry of truths seems to indicate an awareness of the good, a deliberate choice to subvert what is understood as good and true.  And so, we can look at the nature of evil which presents itself in a pattern.  But what of our Lord, who takes on all of this voluntarily?  In the second letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul writes of our reconciliation in Christ, and that "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (see 2 Corinthians 5:18-21).  What this means, according to my study Bible, is that Christ voluntarily assumed the consequences of the sin of human beings, corruption and death, without sinning Himself.  He submitted to this unjust suffering we read in the Gospels because of the sinful passions of human beings and angels.  What it means is that salvation is much more than forgiveness of sins; it is rather new life -- we are reconciled to God and become new creatures.  Moreover, He is that faithful and true Witness who is ultimately the Judge of all.  Through His suffering and death, He needs no other testimony to condemn the ruler of this world who is the ultimate tyrant and cause of evil, the one ultimately responsible for the perversion of truth and misleading and suffering of human beings.  Christ once and for all takes away the justification of expediency and injustice, for in His own innocence He remains the perfect witness against the evil of the world.  The early Christians understood themselves as those who witness, following Him even to death.  The word "martyr" literally means witness in Greek.  We walk in His way, and our own innocence also contributes in metaphysical terms to this struggle which is ultimately "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12).  Let us consider the great significance of remembering what we are about when others follow the crowd, when we are stirred to violence by those who seek power for themselves.  For as faithful we enter into His struggle and follow Him, and all of this has meaning and value and substance far beyond what we see in the moment.