Il. Toe MooxEnrEs. These were many, base, and repeated. 1. Jesus was invested with a purple robe. Probably this was a military cloak, whose crimson hue might render it an emblem of the imperial purple. 2. He was crowned with acirclet of thorns, another symbol of royalty, doubtless roughly woven from the stem of a prickly shrub, 3. He was addressed as “ King.” Utterly incapable of understanding a moral sovereignty, @ spiritual sway, these coarse soldiers, to whom force was all, insulted the meek and unresisting Sufferer by the use of a title which from their lips could be only derisive, 4, He was saluted with the semblance of honour and homage; they “ bowed the knee, and worshipped him.” 5. They smote his sacred head with the sceptre-reed, How affecting this treatment! The very fact which should have been Christ’s claim to respect, con- fidence, and adoration—his royal authority over the conscience and heart of humanity— was turned into a ground of reproach and a matter of reviling. Thus men treated their Divine and rightful King.
III. THE sTERN REALITY TO WHICH THE MOCKEBY WAS A PRELUDE AND A CONTRAST. Knowing what was before the Condemned, decency and humanity should have led them to spare him these insults, But when they were over, there was worse to come. The purple was stripped from his form; his own garments were placed on him; the beam of the cross was laid upon his shoulders; he was thrust into his place in the rude pro- cession ; and then was led away to crucifixion.
AppuicaTion. 1. Admire the meekness of him “who, when reviled, reviled not again ; when he suffered, threatened not.’’? Never was sorrow like his sorrow, and never patience like his patience, 2. Recognize the true royalty which a spiritual judgment ma discern underlying the mockery and derision here recorded. See in Jesus a King, thoug crowned with thorns. 3. Learn to confide in a Saviour whose purpose to save was 80 resolute and so benevolent, as is apparent here. A salvation procured at such a cost is a salvation of which none should hear unmoved, and which none who needs it should hesitate or delay to accept.
Vers. 21—32.— The crucifixion. The bigots and the mob have gained their end, and now have their own way with “the Holy One and the Just.” The power of Rome is brought into the service of Jewish fanaticism and malice. All evil influences have conspired together. Now is their hour and the power of darkness. The world’s sin has culminated in the rejection of the world’s Saviour. All happens as has been foreseen in the counsels of God, and foretold by inspired prophets and by the Son of man himself. The Christ of God is crucified.
I. THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE CRUCIFIXION. The story is very simply told; there is no endeavour to excite feeling by any other means than by the clear and artless ‘elation of the facts. But this is enough to awaken the sympathy of every mind capable of realizing the injustice of Christ’s enemies, and the meekness, compassion, and forti- tude of the Sufferer. 1. The bearing of the cross. That Jesus, exhausted by the events of the past night and of this morning, by the wakeful hours, the scourging and the insults he had endured, should now be incapable of carrying the instrument of his final sufferings, is natural enough. The soldiers, indisposed themselves to bear the burden, beneath which they see the Sufferer sinking, impress into the service a Cyrenian Israelite, who has come to the Passover now celebrating at Jerusalem, and who has been sleeping in one of the villages near the city, but is on his way to the scene of the sacred solemnities. What seems to the soldiers and to the mob a degradation, is to become an honourable and happy memory to Simon, whose family is destined in after years to hold a high place in the regard of the Christian community, and whose name is henceforth to be linked with that of the Redeemer by this sacred and touching asso- ciation. 2. The approach to Golgotha, Imagination has filled the void wisely left by the evangelists: aud the 74a dolorese has veen marked by “ stations,” each of which has
314 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [on. xv. 1—47
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been signalized by some episode of suffering, mercy, or sympathy. The spot where the execution of the iniquitous sentence took place may have been to the north-west of the city, and the name— the place of a skull”—may have been derived from its form, rounded and bare. It needs no fanciful legends to endear a spot so memorable to the heart of Christendom; the pathes of the plain fact is enough. Calvary— lovely, mournful Calvary ’—was the scene of Immanuel’s passion. 3. The offering of myrrh- mingled wine. The compassion of the ladies of Jerusalem is said to have provided a seporific, stupefying, narcotic draught, to be administered in humanity to the criminals who were condemned to die a painful and lingering death. It seems to have been in conformity with custom and from motives of sympathy that the draught was offered to Jesus. “Fill high the bowl, and spice it well, and pour The dews oblivious: for the cross is sharp ; The cross is sharp, and he Is tenderer than & lamb.”
His refusal was owing to his determination to accept to the full the lot of unde- served pain and anguish appointed for him. “Thou wilt feel all, that thou may’st pity all.” He had already exclaimed, ‘‘'lhe cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” and it would seem that this cup of woe could not be drunk except by the retention of his faculties to the very last. 4. The parting of his garments. These were the perquisite of the executioners, who divided amongst themselves some of his raiment, and who cast lots for the seamless robe. This was not only the fulfil- ment of a prediction, but it was an element in the humiliation and self-sacrifice of the Son of man,