God’s Word for You
Mark 15:27-30 They made fun of him
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, March 20, 2024
27 They crucified two robbers along with him, one on his right and one on his left. 29 And those who passed by made fun of him, shaking their heads and saying, “Ha, ha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 30 save yourself, and come down from the cross!”
What indignities do we put our Lord through? What sins do we commit that bring the Holy Spirit, who should be secure in the temple of the Christian’s body (1 Corinthians 3:16), into so many dens of iniquity?
While the sacrifice for my sins was slowly being made, as minute gave way to minute, but the hours were yet so very long in coming, the Sacrifice’s indignity was compounded by being slaughtered with two sinners. What their crimes were, we are not told, but their crimes were enough that they themselves acknowledged that they deserved the punishment they received (Luke 23:41).
In Luke’s account, it was at this point, with the sun still rising in the east and his cross on its way up between the two other men, that Jesus spoke for the first time from the cross, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Jesus forgave the sin of crucifying him, the Son of God, without any conditions attached. He simply prayed that those who were involved with committing this act would be completely absolved, and we should remember this as we continue to remember his crucifixion year by year. We should not speak of the sins of these men in this act, since our Savior wiped their sins away. It was as if a lamb, with its throat already slit and bleeding, spoke to the one who was sacrificing it before the altar, and said, “I do not hold this against you. I have given this blood of mine freely.” The Divine Sacrifice had preached years before, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).
Mark, far from mentioning those gracious words, instead points out the wicked things that were said to Jesus. They laughed at him; they mocked him. Mark’s reason for drawing our attention to this is not to elevate their sinfulness, but Christ’s suffering. He endured everything for our sins.
How heartbreaking to hear the sons of Eve tormenting the promised Son!
How bitter to hear these sons of Abraham mocking the promised Seed!
How shameful to hear the priests of the temple, the sons of Levi, harassing and demeaning the one true Sacrifice!
How cruel to hear the false charges used once more against him, for he had never claimed that he would destroy the temple, as they all were jeering now and pretending to remember—but only that he would raise it up again. Yet even here in their cruel words there is a breath of Gospel, for they unwittingly bring out the words “in three days.” Those words hang in the air just as Christ hangs suspended on the cross. Three days! For this Friday would turn soon enough into a Saturday, and the third day would be Sunday, when the Messiah now dying would no longer be dead.
What was the very first thing to appear on God’s created earth, living, thriving, rising and growing? The land produced living, growing things, but not until the Third Day. Before that, light and darkness, and the great upheaval of water torn apart and land heaving up from water—the furious formation of sea, sky, and land. But on the Third Day, in the quiet of the brightly lit plain (illuminated by the light of God alone, for there was as yet no sun), the land produced the first living things. And now, on this coming Third Day, the Third Day renewed, the firstfruits of the resurrection would emerge. God would see that He, his Son, the Risen Firstfruits, was good, on the Third Day (Genesis 1:12-13).
How hideous, these children of the Babylonian captivity, who suffered and lamented over their troubles and longed for a deliverer, who now troubled the one who delivered them.
How blasphemous, as he hung there overhead, that they spit out their words at him as if God were on their side, as though everything they said and did was right and as if Christ was in every possible way, wrong.
How devilish, that these leaders of the Church of Moses violated the Law of Moses, stomped on it, kicked at it, spat on it, and wrote their own obscene graffiti over it with their wicked words and their obscene jokes.
How quietly the Son of God allowed their words to stab at him! He did not call down angels from heaven to strike them. He did not command the earth at their feet to swallow them. He did not call up a fiery east wind to consume them. He had not given over his flesh to crucifixion in order to condemn anyone, but to atone for the sins of all. And so he remained quiet, passive, compassionate. He who was not bound by the cross remained upon it. He did not come down. He slowly suffered, and as the sun continued its climb in the sky, the Son of God descended the very final steps of his humiliation.
For us.
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.