Sermon Tone Analysis

Mark 15:16-47

 

! Introduction

In a collection of newspaper clippings which we have in the house, we have some on the coronation of Queen Elizabeth which Carla’s father kept.

She became queen in the year that I was born but was crowned as queen on June 2, 1953 and has been queen of England and Canada ever since.

It is possible that within the lifetime of most of us we will see the coronation of a king, who, if it ends up being Prince Charles who is already over 60, will not reign nearly as long as his mother.

You may wonder why I am talking about coronations on Good Friday, what could the connection possibly be?

Well, in fact, we are talking about a coronation today.

I suspect that we have never thought about the death of Jesus as a coronation, but when we read the account of it in Mark, this fact is impossible to escape.

Admittedly it is the most unusual coronation that has ever been seen.

The story is loaded with irony, but it is exactly for that reason that it becomes all the more meaningful.

That is my hope this morning.

As we consider the death of Jesus as a coronation of Jesus as King, we will come to appreciate deeply what happened and be brought to respond in worship to our King.

The text we are looking at today is Mark 15:16-47.

!

I.                   Jesus Is Crowned As King

The word “king” is used three times in these verses, which is why we need to think about this as a coronation.

People keep calling Jesus “King.”

The irony is that they mean it in jest, but are actually speaking the truth.

As we unfold the story, we will see just how true it is.

!! A.                 Hail King of the Jews

The first ones to declare that Jesus is King are the soldiers.

Jesus was handed over to be crucified and it was the soldiers to whom he was handed over.

Before this happened, he had already been flogged, as we see in Mark 15:15, but the soldiers thought they would have a little fun with him.

They found an old purple rag and put it on him in a mocking way of placing a royal robe on him.

They found some thorns and wove them into a crown.

Were the thorns pointing upwards to look like a crown or towards his scalp to inflict pain?

They mockingly called out to him, “King of the Jews!” Did they think he was king of the Jews?

No! Was He king of the Jews?

Absolutely!

!! B.                 They Worshipped Him

As they hailed him as king, we notice that they hit him, they spit on him, but they also fell on their knees before him.

The language is so appropriate to who Jesus is.

We read in Mark 15:19, “falling on their knees, they worshipped him.”

Falling on your knees before a sovereign is an appropriate way of recognizing the authority of the king and declaring your allegiance and obedience to that king.

It is something that happens as part of the ceremony at a coronation.

As they knelt down and worshipped, did their hearts bend in worship and obedience?

Probably not, but was it appropriate to bow before this king?

No doubt it was!

!! C.                 The King of the Jews

We might not think much of this line of thinking if it were not for the fact that it keeps happening.

When they brought Jesus to Golgotha and crucified him the charge against him was posted on the cross.

What was His crime?

Once again we are surprised to see that it was “The King of the Jews.”

Did Pilate, who ordered this sign, acknowledge the truth of this statement?

Was it mocking of Jesus or mocking of the Jews that led him to post this sign?

We don’t know.

What kind of a king did he suppose Jesus to be?

We can guess, but we don’t know.

What did the man who nailed the sign to the cross understand about what it meant?

We don’t know.

There is a lot we don’t know, but what we do know is that Jesus was and is king of the Jews.

What the sign declared was absolutely true.

!! D.                One on His Right and One on His Left

Another indication of royalty which again is loaded with irony, but points towards kingship is the phrase “one on his right and one on his left.”

In Mark 10:37, the disciples were discussing this concept wondering who would be on his right and on his left in his kingdom.

Well, it seems, ironically, that it was thieves who ended up on his right and on his left at his coronation.

The language once again points to the concept that this was a coronation.

!! E.                 This King of Israel

To round out the irony and the presentation of Jesus as king we see that the words of the Jewish leaders who mocked him were, “this king of Israel.”

Five times allusions are made to a coronation, each of them not intended by those who declared or enacted them.

That is the irony.

If this happened once or twice, we might dismiss it as just mockery, but when it happens five times, in three of which Jesus is actually declared as King, we cannot escape the fact that Mark was deliberately trying to tell us something.

This was a coronation.

!

II.

A Crown of Thorns, His Throne A Cross

But the nature of this coronation was utterly unusual and unexpected.

It included a crown and a throne, but not such as we would expect and there were many other things in the coronation which do not fit a coronation.

!! A.                 He Suffered

Most kings are pampered, but Jesus suffered.

If we look at the way in which the soldiers treated him, we find behavior which is opposite to a coronation.

After having already been flogged, the soldiers treated Jesus with great contempt and horrible abuse.

They hit him, not only with their hands, but with a stick.

A while ago I was at a youth event in which part of the game was to hit people with a rolled up newspaper.

The rule was, however, that you could not hit the person on the head because that hurts too much and could injure.

We are told, however that the soldiers, hit him, not only on the back or shoulders, but on his head and if the thorns were turned towards his scalp we can understand how much it must have hurt.

They also spit on him which, although not painful, is uncomfortable and very shameful.

Geddert says, “Instead of handing him a scepter, they hit him with a reed.

Instead of kissing his feet, they spit in his face.”

!! B.                 They Cast Lots for His Clothing

Another way in which what happened here was the exact opposite of a coronation was the way in which they cast lots for his clothing.

Can you imagine what it would be like to hang on the cross naked and watch as those who took your clothes were casting lots for them?

In an age of huge volumes of cast off clothing it is a little hard for us to understand why his clothing was valuable enough to be won in a game, but we do have to remember that it was not a day of mass produced clothing and so every scrap of cloth had some value.

What would it have been like to watch this?

How would you have felt?

The message I think I would have gotten from it is, “We are doing this because you don’t need it anymore.”

When you die you won’t need clothes any more.

Thus this action would have added to the suffering.

!! C.                 The Mocked Him

The mockery of those who stood by would also have added to the difficulty.

Most who were there – those crucified with him, the Jewish leaders and those who passed by all mocked.

Most kings are hailed and honored, but Jesus was mocked and so once again we see something that looks like the opposite of a coronation.

We have already seen how the disciples had a hard time accepting that a king would be crucified.

The Jewish leaders rejected the idea that a king would be on a cross and the Roman soldiers mocked king and cross.

In I Corinthians 1:23, Paul says, "but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles…" That stumbling block was illustrated in the mocking.

!! D.                Forsaken

When kings are crowned, people flock around to see and want to meet him, but the suffering of Jesus is heightened when we read that Jesus was abandoned.

We have already noted the abandonment of the disciples who ran away as soon as Jesus was arrested.

In this text, we also see another image of abandonment.

The people had an understanding that Elijah was the “patron saint” of hopeless causes, so when Jesus cried out “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani” they thought that he was calling for the help of Elijah.

But Elijah never showed up and so they would have perceived this as abandonment.

In fact, that is not what Jesus was crying out.