God’s Word for You
Mark 15:19-20 They struck, spat, and mocked
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, March 14, 2024
19 They hit him again and again with a reed, they spat on him, and they knelt down in homage to him. 20 After they mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
There are five or six different kinds of “reeds” in the Scriptures, from the soft reeds of Egypt (Exodus 2:3) to the reed pen used by John to write his letters (3 John 1:13). This one was certainly a hard, tough stick, or even a bundle of sticks such as the Romans were known for using, the fasces that gave their name to Facism in Italy in the early 20th century.
Spitting has always been a form of insult, and we already saw that the Sanhedrin itself had spat upon Jesus in his earlier trial (Mark 14:64). To a Jew, spitting was a cause of ceremonial uncleanness (Leviticus 15:8). To everyone else, it is a deep insult.
Greek has several verb tenses; one is the imperfect. It usually shows that something is done not just once, but over and over again. Here we are told that the hitting and spitting were done again and again, probably not not by all six hundred men of the battalion (cohort), but by the squad that was ordered to scourge him.
They also made fun of him by kneeling down before him. These things were not ordered by Pontius Pilate; they were simply done by soldiers who were used to doing their job effectively. Their goal was to execute this man, and it was easier when they could destroy any amount of confidence or self-worth in the accused. So they mocked him, crushed his spirit, and got him ready for an even more agonizing torture that would come with the nails and the cross.
The purple robe was removed, and over the wounds and the blood all over his body they placed his own garments, still bloodied from his earlier time with the high priest and the Sanhedrin.
The act of leading him out to be crucified is explained with a short phrase in John 19:17, that Jesus went “carrying his own cross.” So the soldiers forced him to lift his own cross. This was an eight- to ten-foot beam of oak or pine, probably about a handspan to a side (4 inches by 4 inches). The whole thing might weigh about 300 pounds. We don’t know whether Jesus carried his entire cross, or just the cross-beam (about a hundred pounds of solid wood), but it makes more sense for the soldiers to make the one being punished carry the whole thing; why carry it for him?
The only way for a man who had been beaten nearly to death to heft a thing that large through the streets of the city—a few hundred yards—would be to carry it over the shoulder and drag it. Of course, the act itself would have been agony, since the scourging would have ripped open the muscles of his shoulders and left him bleeding and weakened. It was a vicious, spiteful, cruel, torture. The short walk from the Praetorium out the nearest gates north or west could have taken more than thirty minutes. The day was wearing on. By now it was about nine in the morning.
The reed used to strike him took the place of a scepter that should have been in his hand—the scepter foreseen by Israel himself, when he said, “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes…” (Genesis 49:10). What is that reed discarded at your feet, O dearest Jesus, as they lay the cross upon your shoulders? Does no one see it for what it truly is? Does no one see that this is the Maker of the Universe forced by his creatures to step away from the Rod of his authority and dominion over all things? He has laid aside his powers as God; it is very nearly the bottom of his complete state of humiliation.
Do they dare to strike the King of All? “Arise, O Lord! Deliver me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked” (Psalm 3:7). He endured this beating to remove the beating I deserve eternally for my sins.
How could anyone spit on the Messiah? Defile him? It is the same as begging him to take away their blessing forever (Micah 2:9). He endured this spitting to remove the everlasting cruelty I have earned for myself in hell.
Who would kneel before God only in mockery? This is the devil without any disguise, who slanders God to his face, who questions everything God does, who makes God out to be the cause of all trouble. But David says: “Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your word” (Psalm 119:23). And the prophet says: “All those who slander others will be cut off and come to nothing” (Isaiah 29:20-21). He endured this for my sake, so that I will not be mocked as I should with eternal suffering, for this is what my sins deserve.
As this is preached and remembered year upon year, we are assured: “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified (for all of us crucify him with our trespasses), both Lord and Christ.” And we respond with the people at Pentecost: “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37-38). Believe in the Lord Jesus for the sake of your soul. The brutality inflicted on him would be ours without faith. It awaits the devil and his demons, and even those who have rejected him. But for all who put their faith in him, he endured these things for our sakes, to bring to us the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.