The Torture and Humiliation of the King - Mark 15: 15-23

Often when people are asked to tell about the story of the last 24 hours of Jesus life, or even the story of his suffering, they move straight from Jesus being sentenced to death by Pilate to him hanging on the cross. But there is so much more to the story then that. Jesus was tortured and humiliated before he could even get to the cross. Yet, we want to gloss over that. It is the torture that makes Mel Gibbson’s Passion of the Christ movie difficult to watch. It forces us to come face to face with just how much Jesus gave for us. And that makes us feel uncomfortable.

After the sentence had been passed, the soldiers around the palace lead him to the courtyard on the grounds to be flogged. Only one gospel, Luke, does not mention this torture technique. Flogging is something that has happened for centuries, though we rarely talk about it in the United States. It’s at its most simplistic form, the practice of striking someone with an object. However, the Roman government during the time of Jesus’ arrest and conviction hardly ever used the simplistic form. Instead, they trained soldiers to be lictors, or specialists in bringing pain through flogging. They used a whip made of leather that had bits of sharp objects embedded throughout it -such as stone, glass, metal, or bone - to rip the flesh. There was even one special whit that had nails fastened into it, to tear the muscle from the bone. The person being flogged would be stripped and bent over a post, so their back was exposed. They would then have their arms tied down, usually to the sides, so the lictors had even more flesh to hit. Then the physical torture began.

Flogging was meant to be watched, like many other forms of torture. The hope was that so many people would be repulsed by the act that they would be deterred from wrong doing. Another goal of flogging was to leave the victim just alive enough to be in incredible pain when they were nailed to the cross.

The lictors were cruel in their techniques and lived off of the cheers of the crowds and begging of the victims. Yet, we are not told that Jesus said a single word. We are not told that he begged for mercy, which is what they truly were hoping for. For someone to beg for mercy so they could deny it of them. It is reasonable to assume that the lictors became angry at the lack of response from Jesus and were even more vicious in their flogging.

When they could not break him physically, they wanted to break him psychologically. So they called together the whole court, between 300 and 600 soldiers. They gathered around to make a spectacle of Jesus and to humiliate him. Mark tells us that they clothed in a purple cloak and shoved a crown of thorns on his head, mocking the title of King of the Jews. The cloak would have only been draped over one shoulder and covered his back, making the fresh wounds stick to the fabric. The crown of thorns, was meant to be a mockery of the crown given at the Roman games to the victor. It is often depicted as being shoved the whole way down to Jesus’ brow line - cutting into his flesh. Then some knelt before him, like a champ or a king, and cried, “Hail the King of the Jews!”

The humiliation did not stop there. They continued to flog him, this time with reeds coming at him from every angle. They spat upon him. And continued their mocking cries. Jesus had lost his humanity in their eyes, and only existed for their amusement.

What is perhaps most upsetting for me about this entire aspect of the suffering of Christ is that he could have stopped it at any time. Jesus was still the son of man and the son of God. He had the power and authority to make the entire thing go away. Jesus wanted to understand everything we go through - even the psychological harm we face in the hands of others. He wanted to understand the pain that each prisoner went through. He loved us enough that he faced so much more then death.

This story makes me question how human beings can be so cruel? Why we have the ability at times to act with such malice? Is it part of our human nature or are we conditioned to set aside our humanity? These are not new questions I ask. And they don’t just arise from this story. When I was in high school, my dad and I went to Europe with my German teacher. One of the stops on our itinerary was Dachue, an externiment camp rom World War 2. When you enter into the gates the first place you are ushered is into a movie theater where you watch a film about what took place within the walls. Some people don’t even make it through the movie. When you leave the theater, you just feel a weight come upon you, as the images haunt your mind. And everyone walks around the camp in complete silence. No one asks you to, it is just a result of thinking about the unspeakable horrors that took place. And lest we think that Germans were the only ones to torture and kill political prisoners, which is what the people in the camp were labeled as - threats to society because of their religious beliefs, political leanings, sexuality, the list goes on and on - we only need to think about the Abu Ghraib prision following 9/11. Or even the news stories that we have heard this week. Villages being attacked. Teens being shot. Evil exists. And people commit evil against other people for little or no reason. Ordinary people who did awful things. Is that capability inside of all of us?

When reflecting on the flogging and humiliation of Jesus, author and pastor Adam Hamilton made the following statement, “For every child who was ever picked on, taunted, or humiliated, Jesus stood there that day. For every man or woman who was ever made to feel small by others, he stood there that day. For every victim of torture, everyone falsely condemned, everyone who has been abused by another, he stood there as if God were saying, ‘I subject myself to all the hate and meanness of others so I could identify with you.’”

The torture and humiliation did not end in the courtyard that day. The soldiers put Jesus clothes back on him and lead him to the hill called Calvary, or skull. The walk from the courtyard to the hill is only about 1/3 of a mile and can be done in a few minutes for a healthy person. But Jesus was now dehydrated, weak, and bleeding. He was saddled with a 75lb piece of wood that would be the cross beam that he would hang from. It would have taken Jesus at least 30 minutes to struggle up the hill.

Jesus probably stumbled and reached the point where he could no longer carry the beam so the guards pulled a man from the crowd to carry it for him. Mark tells us that Simon the Cyrene was coming in from the country and was compelled by the guards to carry the cross. Probably a Jew simply in Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, Simon was stuck in the midst of the drama, carrying the beam on his back and supporting Jesus up the hill, what did he think of the scene?

When they finally reached the spot where Jesus was to be crucified the soldiers offered him wine mixed with myrrh, a painkiller. But he refused it. For those who know the story of Jesus’ birth, we remember that myrrh was one of the gifts brought to the Christ child by the men from the east. When commenting on Jesus’ refusal of the wine, Hamilton writes, “It is as he needed to say, ‘I will bear the full brunt of what I am about to do. I will not deaden the pain.’”

Its a painful story to hear, and we are not even to Jesus’ agony upon the cross yet. But even more troubling is the thought that Jesus did that - he went through all of that - for me, and for my redemption. His suffering stands as a testament to my, to our, brokeness. But despite my brokenness and the evil that humans committed against him, Jesus choose to let his love be exhibited through an extravagant means. He was sacrificial in his love for each and every one of us. His love changed the course of human history and changed us individually. His death is why I believe that we can transform the world. And why I believe that people need to hear about this God who loved us so much that he faced the impossible just to connect with us even further. In a compassionless situation, Jesus had compassion even on those who tortured and humiliated him. And that is why our God is in the words of the popular worship song, “Our God is mighty to save.” Because he chose not to save himself that day in order to save us from even our worst selves, and bring love and hope into this broken world. Amen.