This is God's word. And the soldiers led him, Jesus, away inside the palace, that is, the governor's headquarters, and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him. Hail, King of the Jews. And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him. kneeling down in homage to him. When they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him, and they led him out to crucify him. Read that far in God's word. As a brief review from chapter 14, verse 43, up to chapter 15, verse 15, the previous passage, we have been studying the events of the suffering of Jesus, his betrayal and arrest, followed by his nighttime religious trial, his first beating, followed by his denial by Peter, his being handed over to Pilate, followed by his governmental trial, and his formal sentencing of death by the Roman governor, Pilate, and his being handed over to be crucified. So the situation as we find it tonight in our passage now is that the king of the Jews has been rejected by Judas, the temple guards, the Sanhedrin, the high priests, the Jerusalem crowd, the governor, pilot, who each had their part in the rejection of Jesus, total rejection. As a result, Jesus is now firmly in the hands of the Roman guards. There's no way to reverse this now. And Jesus showed no intention of resisting their actions. They had already scourged him with whips, so he probably didn't have a lot of ability, even if he did decide to physically resist what they would do next. They're now under orders as a Roman battalion to crucify him. One thing was clear at this point. Unless God the Father himself intervened, Jesus was going to die. And the process of Jesus dying had already begun with the gruesome beating from verse 15. And now his move towards death was gaining momentum. Before we continue, we maybe would do well to ask ourselves, what are we meant to gain from studying this? Why is it in the Bible? Why would we focus an entire message during our worship service tonight on this passage? And how would it advance our own spiritual walk with God to read, to carefully consider these sad verses and events? The answer is that we see what others miss. That for our sakes, our King voluntarily endured the most disgraceful humiliation and rejection, which is our main point. We'll see first from verse 16, while rejecting him, the soldiers added to his shame by calling together the whole battalion of soldiers to join in the perverse pleasure of fake adoration. Secondly, we'll see from verse 17, while rejecting him, they faked adoring him with a purple robe and a crown but made of thorns. And thirdly, in verses 18, 19, and 20, while rejecting him, they struck him, spit on him, faked salutes and honor, and led him out to crucify him. Jesus had already been abandoned by the Jewish religion in their highest court in their capital city. Jesus was given a miscarriage of justice by one of the world's best justice systems ever, the Roman Empire. The thing that we already know is what makes our study manageable for us tonight. I get emotional thinking about these things and have, by studying this, It must be difficult for you, as it is for me, I think for most Christians, to dig down in and consider the moment-by-moment suffering of our Savior. The only thing that makes it manageable for us is what we already know. We already know that the purposes of God must have been torturous for the angels to watch, but there's a victory coming. Without the resurrection, it wouldn't be manageable for us to study these things. Angels in heaven, the angels that Jesus said he could have called, but didn't. Think about them. We're supposed to be mindful of the invisible. The purposes of God, the angels could watch, as we've been studying. The angels who were on orders to hold back from intervening, much as they would love to intervene. If we become uncomfortable studying what happened to our Savior, imagine the angelic beings, willing, oh, were they willing, able, oh, are they able to intervene, to rescue our Savior, put an end to the king's disgrace that they were watching. at the hands of this puny Roman battalion? That whole battalion was no match for one of God's mighty angels. There were thousands and thousands of invisible angels watching with horror one of the most important events that ever happened on this globe. And even the very mockery of Jesus that we're about to study in particular points us to how the story will end. It points us to truths hidden from the mockers themselves, both to the Roman mockers and to the Jewish mockers who were still around, but in the background in this passage, what they have proclaimed in jest is actually true. They're in the presence of the king of the Jews, who is also the king of kings. and Lord of Lords over all the empires and all the kingdoms of this earth. He's the second person of the triune God. This is truly the Messiah, the anointed King of Israel, and this is not how his story will end. They will one day give account to him for what they did in these events we study now. We turn to verse 16 as our passage begins, and while rejecting him, they added to his shame calling together the whole battalion of soldiers to join in the perverse pleasure of fake adoration, similar to how, remember, the religious verdict at that previous nighttime against Jesus led to them mocking him. So also here, the governmental verdict led to them mocking Jesus. This was a mockery now that included both brutality and sarcasm. Let me read verse 16 again. I'll interject the name of Jesus and the Greek word praetorium for us. And the soldiers led Jesus away inside the palace, that is the governor's headquarters, the praetorium, and they called together the whole battalion. Remember, the previous verse had told us that Jesus had been flogged, so. we are to understand that he would have looked bloody and sad as a sight to see, probably barely able to walk, maybe not even able to stand up without help from a soldier on his left and a soldier on his right, but since this prisoner was on his way to execution, there was nothing to curb the enjoyment of the battalion of an opportunity to humiliate their subject nation Israel in the capital city of Jerusalem, during the high feast known as the Passover. That man who they were now going to mock was turned in by the Jews and named by them to be the king of the Jews. Oh, this is prime entertainment for an ancient Roman soldier, right? For those soldiers, any humiliation of Jesus was a humiliation of the whole Jewish nation and it signaled with every stroke, the superiority of the Romans. And the Roman Empire was rife with contempt for Jews already. And this now ludicrous case of one Jewish man who dared to challenge the imperial power of the mighty Rome, this was not a scene of warmth, this was not a scene of respect, of love and of beauty, it was a dark scene of brute force being celebrated. Remember that these are no longer the soldiers of the temple guard that we saw before in chapter 14, who had arrested Jesus the previous night and dealt their blows against Jesus. They were like the security guards around the temple. These weren't those soldiers anymore. No, these were members of the Roman governor-pilot's army of occupation. And for these soldiers, probably it was a welcome diversion from the measure of increased tension in Jerusalem that would happen every year during the festival of the Passover. And in Judea at that time, the Roman prefect had at his disposal not the Roman legionary troops from closer to Rome, but more local auxiliary troops drawn from non-Jewish inhabitants of the neighboring areas. Why do I tell you that? Because these would be troops from Caesarea and Samaria. You remember anything from the Bible about how people in Caesarea and Samaria feel about the Jews? the likelihood of the anti-Jewish prejudice in these particular Roman soldiers among their forces would be even greater than if the troops were drawn from closer to the actual city of Rome. These more local Roman soldiers were only too glad to accept the order to gather with the entire battalion to participate in a mockery event. Some, as they study this, estimate that it could be as many as 600 soldiers, but it could simply mean, as Mark writes, verse 16, only the soldiers that were currently on duty that day. We can't know, so the number could be less, but I tend to believe, because of the phrase that Mark used here in verse 16, the whole battalion, that it seems likely that it was all 600 of them gathered together. Of course, it wouldn't take that money to restrain Jesus, especially after he had been scourged, but this gathering was not for the purpose of restraining Jesus, was it? This gathering of soldiers was for the purpose of mocking Jesus. And for that purpose, they, again, I'll quote from verse 16, they called together the whole battalion. That's our first point. While rejecting him, they added to his shame by calling the whole battalion. Secondly, while rejecting him, they faked adoring him with royal purple and a crown but made of thorns. Verse 17, and they clothed Jesus in a purple cloak. Twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on Jesus. The color purple you probably know of this cloak was the royal color. It was probably just a mockery. The material itself could have been an old purple rug, or it could have been what formerly was a nice red clothing item for one of the soldiers that had long since faded out. Some military garment, going from bright red to now sort of purplish, but it served their purpose. Remember that Jesus was bleeding profusely from the flogging, and so they would likely not place on him a truly royal garment and ruin it. For this purpose, fake purple was fitting for fake homage, and their intention was to pretend an acknowledgement of his kingship in order to tease him about being so weak. The crown of thorns was to symbolize a royal crown. And again, this was in order to tease him about being so weak. Thorns are spikes, as you know, and so the crown was intended to cause pain as well as mockery But the thorns are also symbolic of something else, not just the crown of the supposed king of the Jews, but also the thorns. Thorns. What does that remind us of? Remember what God said to Adam in the fall, Genesis 3, 17 and 18, because you have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. Genesis 3, 17 to 18. Thorns came about in connection with Adam's fall. And now here stands the second Adam, now wearing a crown of thorns, reminding us that Jesus was fully bearing the curse that Adam brought upon us. and came to deliver us from it. This mixture of mockery and cruelty and dressing up Jesus is noticeable. The soldiers displayed one of the most frightening of human traits, discipline of an unusual degree in one area. while simultaneously being undisciplined in another area. It's scary how human beings can have both of those happening at the same time. And that's true of each of these Roman soldiers. There's something grotesque about their game. They were incredibly disciplined soldiers, wearing the uniform, performing the duties, on task, disciplined as soldiers. But in this, they lost all self-discipline by their actions. They saw a defenseless man already well on his way to dying, and they, what we would say, kicked him when he's down. Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent, remember? And Pilate could have said, Pilate should have said, no, and prevented this whole scene of mockery. But Pilate, remember, was interested in pleasing the crowd out there. Is it really a leap for us to think that Pilate was interested in pleasing his own soldiers? The soldiers formally showed Jesus what they really thought of his claim to be a king. The soldiers didn't have eyes to see what we see tonight. One day they will. But that day, they didn't have eyes to see what we see by faith, that Jesus truly is the king. That even in the hour here of his deepest humiliation, he was still reigning as our king and accomplishing his purpose for us. Brings us to our third point. While rejecting him, they struck him, spit on him, faked salutes and honor and led him out to crucify him. Verse 18, they began to salute Jesus, hail, king of the Jews. Verse 19, they were striking Jesus' head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to Jesus. Both the mockery and the cruelty were continued now as the soldiers added salutes and statements of respect, supposedly, for him as king, which were gutted of their genuineness. Hail, king of the Jews, and they didn't mean a word of it. In addition, they struck Jesus in the head with a reed. Now a reed was like a long stick. We'd think of it maybe like a broomstick, a cane, like a sugar cane, the things that grow like a plant, but they become so stiff that it becomes something of a weapon, a mock scepter. The king holds a scepter, right? So they would put this in his hand as fitting with the robe and the crown and the scepter, and they would hit him with his own scepter. What king are you? The joke of a king. make the joke of it, but the pain was real. And rather than the king's scepter being a fearful object for those soldiers, they used his own scepter, his own reed, to hit Jesus in the head. And if that were not enough, verse 19 tells us that the brutal soldiers spat on him, as only soldiers know how to do. Perhaps they would fake like they're going to kiss his hand and spit on it. Maybe other sorts of things we left to our imagination beyond that. We know that they spat on him, not yet finished. They also knelt down in homage to Jesus as a supposed king without the required respect involved. The soldiers obviously had adopted Pilate's view. Pilate's view was that Jesus posed no real threat to Rome and Jesus posed no real threat to any one of these soldiers. the man can barely stand up. They kneeled before him in some formal exterior way, a word that we often use to translate as worship. They kneeled before him in worship, in fake worship before the true God. It was a common action performed to a social superior in those days, much like they would do the salute, they would kneel, they were saying, your majesty, while they knelt and then would stand up and spit on him. They found this behavior hilarious. They took turns hitting Jesus with that hard cane from some plant stem, perhaps you could imagine. What do you suppose happened to each of the thorns in his crown when Jesus was hit in the head? These actions were filled with violence. They were filled with contempt and they were taking turns expressing it to him. until the time ran out. They were filled with violence. Every insult that they could think up, to do one up to the buddy next to him, and they were adding those in fiendish delight. How did Jesus endure this? We get a little glimmer in Isaiah chapter 50, verses six and seven. I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting, but the Lord God helps me. Therefore, I have not been disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Isaiah 50, verses six and seven. Will that still be true? You know, as we get to the next passages, Jesus even had to endure the Father's abandonment of him. Do you remember the prediction of Jesus before all this started? Mark 10, 34, they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him and after three days he will rise. And then to our final verse in our study, verse 20, Mark 15, 20, and when the soldiers had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him and they led him away to crucify him. All that Jesus predicted has now been reflected nearly exactly in what has happened or what is about to happen at the hands of these Roman soldiers. If you compare Mark 10.34 with Mark 15.20, it's each section being fulfilled. What have we seen? We see what others miss, that for our sakes, our king voluntarily endured the most disgraceful humiliation and rejection. I have three application points to us, but I'll start with a story. One of the books called The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of books written by C.S. Lewis, the book titled The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, begins with the three main characters, the children Lucy and Edmund and Eustace, looking at the painting of a ship. They're just enamored with the painting of a ship. They study it, its beauty. The picture's so beautiful they can't help but stare and stare at the beauty of the painting. Before they know it, the painting has come to life and they themselves were drawn in to the ship and to the story. That's what's supposed to happen to us as we study this, not for its beauty, but for its gruesomeness. We're supposed to be drawn in to the story. It directly impacts us. The scene of Jesus being mocked is including you. We enter the story. How do we do that? We ask ourselves whether we're seeing what the soldiers were not seeing. Do we see it? Do we see the scene for the truth that it is? So along those lines, we have three takeaway lessons. Number one, we accept Jesus. What do I mean by that? Jesus had confronted the Jews and the Gentiles with his true identity as king. There's only two responses possible once he's identified himself as the king, accept him or reject him. And so obviously everybody from the religious leaders to Pilate to Judas to even Peter have denied or rejected him. And the call to us as we read this passage and study it is not to reject him but to accept him. as the king that he is. For those of us who accept Jesus and love Jesus, this study has been a painful study because of the irony. You want to scream, he is royalty! He should be dressed up in purple and royal robes. He should have a crown, not that crown, a true crown. He should receive a proper scepter and he'll use it on you fellows. All people should hail him as king and all people should bow before him. We want to shout it when we study this passage. Paul writes it out for us quite well in Philippians 2, 8 to 10. Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2, eight to 10. Those soldiers, we wanna shout it, because it's true, those soldiers will express it again. Hail, King of the Jews, and this time they will mean it. It's a call to us because we know it's true, because we can see that it's true, that he deserves our homage, our respect, our salutes, and our bowing. Call to us is to accept Jesus this way, genuinely in our hearts, as our King by faith. We accept Jesus, number two out of three. We accept Jesus' love for us. We accept Jesus as our king. Secondly, we accept his love for us. The sort of suffering that we've studied tonight would evoke our compassion if it were a person like ourselves. You just hear a story about a person being beaten or a person being mocked, it evokes our compassion. But when we reflect further that this sufferer is the eternal son of God who intentionally came from heaven to earth in order to take on human flesh so that he could enter into this scene and do this for us, We're overcome with wonder and amazement at that level of love. When we push ourselves further to reflect that these sufferings were voluntarily endured in order to deliver us sinful people from such treatment and even hell itself, we're impressed with the love that it showed for us. We accept Jesus' love for us. Paul sought to write this sort of love out like Ephesians 3.19 where Paul prayed for the believers to be able to grasp this kind of love, to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Paul tried again in Romans 5, 8 to express this love. We read that God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We accept Jesus' love for us by thinking about our Savior Jesus in this mockery scene. What this scene shows us about his love for us. He was left completely alone, humiliated, beaten nearly to death already, and now enduring more ridicule, shaming, pain at the hands of brute, hardened soldiers. Oh, back to the angels of heaven, how they must have stared at this scene with disbelief. Do angels weep? I don't even know. Do angels get itching mad? I don't even know. Did the angels keep an eye on God the Father? One nod, one glance, one snap of his fingers, one pointing, and they would all go to stop this scene of mockery of the very Son of God, to rescue Him when He came to rescue us. The angels realized that this is what they did to Jesus because Jesus allowed it. And He allowed it because God the Father called for it. The Father and the Son agreed together to love us like this. And the angels began to be in awe. For sinners, God would do this. They would just look, the angels look at each other. Look, look, look what they're doing to our beloved Lord. That's exactly the lesson for us. Look at the scene of mockery. Look straight at it, don't look away. Study the scene of mockery and never forget it. But the point is not look what they've done to our Lord. The point is look what our Lord has done for us. The lesson is love. He suffered every moment of that injustice for us. He suffered the insults that we should have suffered, the shame and pain and spittle that we should have experienced. He bore the guilt and curse that we should have carried. Our shepherd was struck that we, his sheep, might not be. Our king was tortured and killed so that we, his people, might live. We accept Jesus as our king. We accept his love for us third and last. We accept our own suffering. since we follow a suffering Savior. Really think about it. Since we're following this Savior and we know all these points of suffering happened to Him, we know how He was treated just in tonight's passage. Do we really expect that following Him as His disciples, that we would have an easy time of it as we journey through this world? Is that our expectation? We accept Jesus as King, we accept his love for us, and we accept the suffering that the Father and the Son assign to us. Sailing ships do poorly when the wind is directly behind them. Pushing the sailboat because it comes from that direction, it's sloppy in how it goes through the water. Sailing ships do poorly when the wind is directly behind them. What's needed for a sailing ship to do quite well is to have a wind that's slightly opposing the sailing boat coming towards it so that as it sails, it's then the tension between the oncoming wind and the forward motion of the ship can be maintained and we are the ships. who point ourselves towards Christ and toward any contrary winds. This will require vigilance and suffering and sometimes even danger. But we'll be sailing ships meant to sail steady as she goes. And we'll find that there's a wind in our sails that's greater than the wind that opposes. and the wind in our sails is sent by God the Father and by God the Son. It's sent by Christ our King, and that wind is the Holy Spirit. 1 Peter 4, 12 to 14, I end with this. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice. insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you're blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. We accept Christ as our king, we accept his love for us, and we accept the suffering that he assigns. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we accept Jesus as our king.