ALONE IN A CROWD

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. 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.

Two rebels were crucified with Him, one on His right and one on His left. Those who passed by hurled insults at Him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked Him. “He saved others,” they said, “but He can’t save Himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue Him now if He wants Him, for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” In the same way the rebels who were crucified with Him also heaped insults on Him.

Matthew 27:32-44

A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). Then they offered Him wine mixed with myrrh, but He did not take it. And they crucified Him. Dividing up His clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get. It was nine in the morning when they crucified Him. The written notice of the charge against Him read: The king of the Jews.

They crucified two rebels with Him, one on His right and one on His left. Those who passed by hurled insults at Him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!” In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked Him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but He can’t save Himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with Him also heaped insults on Him.

Mark 15:21-32

As the soldiers led Him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed Him, including women who mourned and wailed for Him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’ For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with Him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified Him there, along with the criminals—one on His right, the other on His left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up His clothes by casting lots.

The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at Him. They said, “He saved others; let him save Himself if He is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

The soldiers also came up and mocked Him. They offered Him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save Yourself.”

There was a written notice above Him, which read: This is the king of the Jews.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at Him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save Yourself and us!”

But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”

Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise.”

Luke 23:13-25

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying His own cross, He went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified Him, and with Him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.

Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”

Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took His clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

“Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”

This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said, “They divided My clothes among them and cast lots for My garment.”

So this is what the soldiers did.

Near the cross of Jesus stood His mother, His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw His mother there, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”

From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

John 19:16b-27

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The moment had come, the moment Jesus fully knew would come long before. It was time for Him to drink from the cup of suffering He had prayed about in Gethsemane’s garden, the cup He asked His Father to take from Him if it was His will to do so. Obviously, it was God’s will for this moment, the moment when Jesus would be crucified.

He had carried His own cross quite a distance, assisted for a part of the journey by a man named Simon who was minding his own business while passing through Jerusalem only to become a participant in what was one of the most horrific, but most significant events, in human history. That event saw Jesus nailed through His hands and feet to the wooden cross and then lifted high to hang and experience a slow, excruciatingly painful death while on full display for everyone to see.

Indeed, Jesus became the main attraction at the “Place of the Skull”, better known as Golgotha, and there was quite an audience present.

First of all, Jesus had company as His cross was elevated with Him affixed to it. On either side was two rebels, men who had actually committed a crime unlike the perfectly innocent Jesus. Although two of the Gospels say that both men hurled insults, we find that one of the criminals actually showed empathy for Jesus’ situation, rebuking his convicted partner before asking Jesus to remember him when He would go to His kingdom. His request gained him more than he expected. It gained him a ticket to the kingdom to one day reunite with Jesus forever.

Also at the cross were the Roman soldiers who did the actually nailing to the cross and then the raising the crosses up. After that, there was little to do except keep watch and play childish games like casting lots (think rolling dice) for the garments stripped off those being crucified. On this day, they were particularly enamored with the clothes that Jesus had been wearing.

As you might expect, the Jewish religious leaders were there. After all, they wouldn’t want to miss seeing the final result of their evil work. We read where they were agitated by Pilate who had the soldiers place a sign on the cross that identified the man upon it as:

“Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.”

The statement rankled the Jewish religious authorities who demanded that Pilate revise the sign but he refused to do so. Angered by the Roman governor, they took out their frustration on Jesus heaping verbal abuse upon Him by mocking Him while using statements He had made about who He was.

“He saved others but He can’t save Himself!”

“He’s the king of Israel! Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him.”

“He trusts in God. Let God rescue Him now if He wants Him, for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

The Jewish religious leaders weren’t the only ones firing off insults. We read where there were people passing by who got involved saying:

“You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself!”

“Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!”

Even the Roman soldiers followed suit with their own deriding, seemingly bored with their clothing divining casting lots game.

Yes, there were a lot of different people present at the cross, most of them opposed to Jesus and not hesitating to take advantage of His vulnerable situation to add insult to injury. It was the proverbial act of kicking someone when they were already down and I can’t imagine how alone Jesus must have felt, forsaken by everyone except for a small group of supporters that included His mother Mary and John, the disciple Jesus loved, who gathered in sadness and mourning as He suffered. For Jesus, it was the equivalency of feeling alone in a crowd.

So how did Jesus respond to those who were doing Him wrong?

He didn’t return fire for fire, that’s for sure. After all, He had taught through His years of ministry that the “eye for an eye” principle that many adhered to was nothing short of sinful and there wasn’t a sin that Jesus had ever committed. One with His Father God, He was perfectly righteous.

So what did Jesus do?

We know by His own words.

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Do you think you could have done that if you were in His shoes? In the midst of being violated in the worst possible way when you had done nothing but taught, healed, loved, and even resurrected others, could you ask for forgiveness upon those who did you wrong?

It would take a strength, and a grace, far beyond what any mere human possesses, a strength and grace that Jesus had in copious quantities. And through His statement, Jesus provides one final important teaching before He gave up His Spirit. For through His actions, we see the yardstick by which to measure how we should be forgiving others. In the end translation here, if Jesus could forgive those present after all they had done to Him, then we can follow His lead and forgive anyone.

Of course, this isn’t the only level of forgiveness the cross reminds us of. For when we look there and remember Jesus, we remember how God wished to forgive us through the sacrifice of His Son. A perfect blood sacrifice was required in order to atone for the sins of all mankind and Jesus was the sacrifice. He shed His blood so anyone who places their faith, hope, and trust in Him could be washed clean by it on their way to pardon from the judgment of sin.

For the Romans and others, the cross was a place of death but for Christian believers, it’s where true life, everlasting life began, just as God intended it to be.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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