Here the climax of Mark’s Gospel is reached. The Servant accomplishes God’s work. Isaiah had confirmed, “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently” (Isa 52:13). He would act wisely to ensure the successful completion of God’s will.
The Accomplishment by the Servant (15:16-16:8)
In the record of the Crucifixion (15:16-47), the Lord is taken from Gabbatha to Golgotha to the Grave. This follows the order of Isaiah 53:7-9. There the suffering and silent Lamb is led to slaughter (v7; Mar 15:16-23); He who experienced an unjust trial is cut off out of the land of the living (v8; Mar 15:24-41); and the One whom they thought to put in a common grave is buried in a rich man’s tomb (v9; Mar 15:42-47). Then follows the record of the Resurrection (v10; Mar 16:1-8).
The Crucifixion (15:16-47)
Gabbatha was the place where Pilate pronounced formal sentence against the Lord Jesus (Joh 19:13). From here the Lord, having been placed into the care of soldiers, was “led … away into the hall, called Praetorium” (Mar 15:16).1 The soldiers were troops assigned to Pilate and, in the courtyard of the palace, the whole cohort (of at least two hundred men) gathered to demean and humiliate the Lord.
First, they dressed Him in a purple robe and a crown they had made from thorns. Then they feigned deference by calling out, “Hail, King of the Jews!” What they did and said mocked His royal claims (vv2,12). They added to their mockery the coarse brutality of hardened soldiers, repeatedly striking Him with a reed and spitting upon Him. And they bowed and fell down before Him in feigned obeisance.
Tiring of their sport, they took off His purple robe and dressed Him again in His own clothes to lead Him outside the city walls to be crucified. Truly, He was “brought as a lamb to the slaughter” (Isa 53:7).
Simon, a Cyrenian, who happened to be passing by, was pressed by the soldiers to carry the Lord’s cross. In doing so, he walked the same path to Golgotha. Simon is the “father of Alexander and Rufus” (v21), men who were well known to the believers. Likely Simon first believed as he witnessed the Lord’s moral perfections demonstrated in the shadow of Golgotha.
Golgotha was “the place of a skull,” a skull-shaped mound suitably named for a place of execution.
At Golgotha, a quaternion of soldiers carried out their responsibility. They first “gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not” (v23). Their motivation was not compassion. Even mildly inebriated criminals were easier to crucify than those in full possession of their faculties. The Lord, having tasted and thus shown that He was aware of the nature of the drink offered to Him, refused it. He would not require alcohol to submit to what lay ahead, nor would He allow His senses to be dulled by it. His obedience to the will of God would be conscious and voluntary, to the end.
Having crucified the Lord, the soldiers “parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take” (v24). Four soldiers divided up four items of clothing. This left a final item, His outer coat. “They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots” (Joh 19:24). Scripture was being fulfilled unwittingly by the Roman soldiers in all their actions (Psa 22:18).
The Lord’s crucifixion took place at 9 a.m. and lasted six hours, until 3 p.m. Mark first focuses on the period from 9 a.m. until noon (vv25-32). These were hours of daylight in which the Lord suffered publicly and shamefully from men.
The cause of His execution was placarded above His head, “The King of the Jews” (v26). Intended by Pilate as an insult to the Jews, the statement was true, and Pilate was unwilling to change it when the Jewish leaders protested (Joh 19:21-22). Crucified on each side of the Lord Jesus was a thief. Their crimes would also have been displayed. And so the Scripture was fulfilled, “He was numbered with the transgressors” (v28; Isa 53:12).
The scene included not only victims and perpetrators of crucifixion but observers. First mentioned are those who passed by. These reviled Him, “Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, Save thyself, and come down from the cross” (vv29-30). Believing the claims of the false witnesses (14:57-59), these passersby supposed that someone who truly had such power could, and would, free himself from the cross. The Lord could, but would not, save Himself.
“Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe” (vv31-32). Added to the public maligning by passersby was the whispered mocking of chief priests and scribes. They acknowledged the undeniable fact that “He saved others,” but used it to ridicule His apparent inability to save Himself. Their logic was flawed, and their knowledge of the Old Testament inadequate. Christ, the King of Israel, deliberately laid down His life. Why? He must be “wounded for our transgressions” and “bruised for our iniquities” (Isa 53:5). The only person the Lord was unwilling to save was Himself. He had predicted that “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mar 10:45 ESV).
’Twas mighty love’s constraining power
That made thee, blessed Saviour, die.2
Finally, “they that were crucified with him reviled him” (v32). Soldiers, passersby, religious leaders and fellow sufferers were united in mockery. Thus, during the first three hours of crucifixion, man’s guilt was laid bare, and the extent of the Servant’s obedience revealed (Php 2:8).
O thorn-crowned head in death bowed low,
Obedience to surrendered breath!
O Love most wonderful in woe,
Most beautiful in death! 3
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the KJV unless otherwise noted.
2 Edward Denny
3 Isaac Y. Ewan
