The Good News of Jesus


04/11/2010 - A Dream Turned Nightmare



All his life he was looking forward to celebrating the Passover in Jerusalem. It was a dream of his to offer his Passover lamb as a sacred sacrifice at the magnificent Temple in the Holy City, as it was for many God fearing people. "Next year in Jerusalem" is what they would say at the end of every Passover Seder.

And so he'd been saving up for the trip for years because it would be extremely expensive, but in his mind it would be worth every single penny. The journey from Cyrene in North Africa, the country we call Libya today, to Jerusalem was well over 1,000 miles and would take weeks to travel.

It would start with a 500 mile Mediterranean cruise from Cyrene to Alexandria, a city in northern Egypt, and then another 500 miles on foot across rivers and through deserts and up mountains to get to his final destination. It would be an adventure. And he couldn't wait. It would be the trip of a lifetime. But not long after he would arrive in Jerusalem something would go terribly wrong, something would happen to him that he could never have imagined. His dream would turn into a nightmare.

Did you ever plan a trip like that? Maybe not to Jerusalem for the Passover, but maybe another trip that would take you out of the country or just away on vacation. And you looked forward to it for a long time, but after you finally arrived at your destination something went wrong or at least not the way you planned it.

We've had quite a few of those as you know ... hurricanes and perfect storms and car accidents and hospital visits. And I'm sure you've had your own share of disappointments as well. But most likely none of us have had anything happen to us on vacation nearly as dramatic as what happened to this man from Cyrene.

This morning we return to the gospel of Mark and the final hours of Jesus' life. We spent last weekend reflecting on his death on Good Friday and celebrating his resurrection on Easter Sunday, but now we return to some of the details of those events that Mark records for us.

So if you have a Bible turn with me to Mark 15:16-21. And while you're doing that let me just remind you where we are in the story.

It's early Friday morning the day we call Good Friday and Jesus has been up all night. Even if nothing had happened to him that night he'd be exhausted. But a lot had happened to him after he and his disciples had celebrated the Passover meal in the upper room in downtown Jerusalem.

They had left Jerusalem and went outside the city walls to the garden of Gethsemane. There Jesus wrestled with the will of God and three times cried out in agony, "Abba Father, Daddy, if it be your will let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will be done, but your will be done." While his disciples are snoring Jesus is surrendering his will to his Father's will and crossing the bridge of nevertheless.

He wants God's will to be done even above his own which is what he taught all of us to pray for, "Our Father who art in heaven, holy is your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

Shortly after that Judas arrived with a gang of thugs and they arrest Jesus. But not before Peter draws his sword and cuts off the ear of Malchus, the servant of the high priest. And that's where Jesus is taken, to the house of the high priest for the first of six mock trials that will take him all through the night.

First, he goes to Annas, the former high priest and corrupt head of the Temple Complex, and then he's sent to Caiaphas, his son-in-law, the current high priest, and finally he stands before the whole Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court of Israel. And then after they gather their trumped up charges against him, which had to be significant enough to warrant the death penalty, they take Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. Three religious trials and now three civil trials.

First, Jesus is interrogated by Pilate who finds no basis for a charge against him. Then he punts and sends him to Herod the governor of Galilee who was in Jerusalem for the Passover. Herod tries to get Jesus to do some tricks but he refuses and so he sends him back to Pilate again who makes a last ditch attempt to release Jesus by offering Barabbas instead. But the crowd will have none of it. By this time the religious leaders have whipped them up into a frenzy shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"

Three religious trials followed by three civil trials and in each one Jesus is either mocked, beaten, or both.

And so we read in Mark 15:15, Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

He had Jesus flogged. Stop right there. That's way too significant a statement for us to just gloss over. Flogging was a brutal form of torture in the Roman Empire. Many a victim never made it to the cross because they died from the flogging. The victim was stripped naked with hands tied behind his back and either stretched out against a pillar or bent over a low post.

The instrument of torture was a leather whip, referred to as a cat-o'-nine-tails, with knots at the end that were filled with jagged bits of bone and sharp pieces of metal. A typical flogging or scourging would involve thirty-nine lashes. Each one designed to shred the skin and sometimes tear into the kidneys or rip open other organs. It was horrible, cruel and unusual punishment, and for many it was a death sentence.

A scribe was always present at a Roman flogging to record the confessions of the one being scourged because if the victim would confess the names of other conspirators or accomplishes to his crime the flogging would ease up or even be stopped altogether. It was torture meant to both punish and to produce a confession.

No doubt Jesus was being interrogated the whole time he was being whipped and asked to name names of all those who were involved in his act of sedition and his attempts to overthrow Rome. He couldn't have been acting alone in all of this. "Who was in the garden with you last night, Jesus? Who got away? Who else do we need to get? Where are they hiding? Tell us!"

But like the prophet said in Isaiah 53:7, He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

Jesus didn't give the names of his disciples even if it could have eased his pain and stopped the torture. And he didn't give your name and he didn't give my name either. He could have because we're the ones he's being punished for, right? He's going to the slaughter for us. It's our sin that put him the cross, not his.

Isaiah 53:6, We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

So Jesus keeps his mouth shut and endures the flogging. And then Pilate puts him into the hands of the crucifixion detail, a group of seasoned Roman soldiers who dealt in death every single day.

Look at Mark 15:16, The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. 17They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. 18And they began to call out to him, "Hail, king of the Jews!" 19Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. 20And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

If you go to Jerusalem today you can actually walk on the same stone floor where these events occurred. It's called the Stone Pavement and it's in the hall of the Praetorium which was part of the Fortress of Antonia. And in the excavations archeologists discovered a game etched into the flagstone floor called "Kill the King." It was a game that the guards would play with dice. They would dress a prisoner up in a mock robe and put a twisted crown of thorns on his head and whoever won the game would get to kill the king, kill the prisoner.

Apparently, they played that game with Jesus. They dressed him up in a purple robe and pressed a crown of thorns down on his head, but they stopped short of killing him. It never dawned on them that he was the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Instead, they kept spitting on him and beating him on the head and falling on their knees mocking him until they took him out to be crucified. It's amazing to me that Jesus was still alive after all of this abuse!

So they led him out to crucify him. Jesus was taken, most likely by five soldiers from the Fortress of Antonia which was attached to the Jewish Temple to a place outside the city walls called Golgotha which means "The Place of the Skull." This is when he stumbled and staggered along the Via Dolorosa, "The Way of Suffering."

From history we know quite a bit about Roman crucifixions. Out in front would be a soldier carrying a placard with a description of the crime for which that person was being executed. That sign would then be nailed to the cross over top the victim's head. And of course for Jesus we know that the sign read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of Jews" which incensed the religious leaders who wanted Pilate to write, "He claimed to be the king of Jews." But Pilate said, "What I have written I have written!" Take that!

After the sign bearer came two other soldiers and then the victim followed by two more soldiers bringing up the rear. And it was customary for a crucifixion procession to take the longest route possible through every street, lane, and alley so that Rome could make a statement to as many people as possible. "This is what happens to those who challenge the Empire. Watch out!"

Typically the victim would carry their own cross, usually just the horizontal cross beam, the vertical piece was already in the ground up on the hill. But that cross beam was heavy and could easily weigh a hundred pounds or more. And that's what they made Jesus carry as far as he could. But he was exhausted. He had been beaten to a pulp already and so he needed help. And this is how he got it.

Look at verse 21,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.

Enter Simon of Cyrene on his dream vacation to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. He was coming into the city from the country that Friday morning. We don't know if he'd already been in town earlier that week or whether this was his very first day in the holy city.

We do know that the population of Jerusalem swelled at Passover time from an estimated 500,000 people to between two and three million. And many of the pilgrims who came from all over the Empire stayed beyond the city walls and lodged in nearby villages or slept outside on the ground under the stars.

There's a lot we don't know about Simon of Cyrene, but my guess is that he wasn't coming in to Jerusalem that day to witness a crucifixion. I doubt that was on his itinerary. But he ends up caught in a traffic jam on the Via Dolorosa on that first Good Friday.

"What's this?" he wonders. "What is going on? Who are these people and why are they shouting 'Crucify him! Crucify him!'?"

And just when he's looking around for an alley to duck into and get away from the mob he feels the flat blade of a Roman spear come down on his shoulder.

"Oh no, I can't believe this!"

"You! Pick up that cross!"

He turns around and sees the face of a Roman soldier glaring at him and he knows that he's got no choice. If you lived in the Empire in those days at any time a Roman soldier could force you to carry his back pack or anything else he demanded for up to one mile which is why Jesus said in the Sermon on Mount, "If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles."

So Simon knew what that spear on his shoulder meant. And he also knew that as a Jew if he touched a Gentile he couldn't go to the Temple. He'd be defiled and that would require three days of ceremonial cleansing before he could ever worship there. This was not what he had planned for his once in a lifetime trip to Jerusalem! His dream had become a nightmare.

So he bends over and picks up the bloody cross beam and as he does he looks into the battered face of Jesus. He had never seen anybody beaten like that before. He was a bloody mess! And while he's carrying the cross thinking about how this is ruining his vacation he can't help but think of the agony of the man staggering along in front of him. This is ruining his life!

So he takes the cross all the way up Skull Hill and only when he's given the command does he drop it. His job is finished. But by this time he's not thinking about sightseeing Jerusalem anymore. He's captivated by what's going on at Golgotha. And so he steps back into the crowd and waits to see what's going to happen to this poor man. "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" it says on the sign.

I wish we knew more about Simon of Cyrene. He's mentioned in Matthew and Luke's gospel as well, but we're not told any more about him in those accounts than we are here. He's kind of a random figure who shows up at a most dramatic moment and then disappears from view.

Mark does give us one more detail about him and I think it's an important one. He tells us that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus. Apparently he mentions the boys because they were known to the early church.

In fact, later on the Apostle Paul will write in Romans 16:13, Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.

Rufus was not a common name in the first-century. It's not a common name today either! Do we have any Rufus' here? No! That's why scholars believe this is the same Rufus mentioned by Mark. And if it is then he and his mother were dear friends of Paul. In fact, she was like a mother to Paul which makes me think that Simon of Cyrene went on to become a Christ follower. I think the events of that day changed his life!

And if he did then what a story he had to tell when he finally got back home! "Hi honey! Hi Dad! We're so glad you're back! How was Jerusalem? What was Temple like? How was the weather? Do you bring me anything?"

"Wait a minute. I'll tell you all about that stuff later, but first let me you tell about a man named Jesus of Nazareth."

I wonder if Simon ever changed the shirt that he wore the day he carried the cross. And if he did, I wonder if he ever got rid of it. A trip that he thought was ruined actually turned out to be the best thing that every happened to him. And I'm sure he told that story again and again until his wife and his kids became Christ followers too.

You can't help but read this story without thinking about Jesus' words in Mark 8:34, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."

That's exactly what Simon did. He literally carried Jesus' cross. But it's interesting to me that he didn't look for a cross to pick up that day. He didn't volunteer for the job. The cross was thrust upon him. And that's what often happens to us. We don't look to pick up a cross. The cross we bear will be thrust upon us. The cross is whatever makes following Jesus difficult for us. It's the test of our obedience to the Father's will just like it was the ultimate test for Jesus. But in the end, if we're faithful to carry our cross like Simon we'll be remembered and rewarded for it.

I love the way one author sums up this story when he writes, "On several occasions in the gospel Jesus has urged his followers to take up their cross and follow him. Here at last someone is doing it. Simon of Cyrene becomes the model for all those who in devotion, holiness and service, tread behind Jesus on the road of humility, pain and even death. Simon never dreamed that one day his name would be known around the world two thousand years later. How much more, when we follow this Jesus and carry his cross, can we be sure that God will use even our small labor and suffering within his larger work."