February 2, 2025

In all of the full gamut of human experience, there are many things that humans share in terms of experiences and feelings and emotions that are easy to relate to, and that can make easy to connect with other people when they experience similar things. Some of the more profound moments of life, the feelings and the emotions that accompany those things are more or less common among people. All of us can remember things like, for example, your wedding day or, the birth of your first child. If you have children or, The news that you, when you first received the news that a loved one or a family member had passed away unexpectedly. Those experiences and so many more have so many lines and points of connections among people that we can even just mention the experience and all of us can think, I know something of what that was like. Of all of the range of human experiences. I don't think any experience is more powerful and more shaping than the experience of shame. All of us can relate something to the experiencing of shame. And when I speak of shame, I don't speak of sort of the larger understanding of shame. Like many concepts, our modern world and the modern vernacular tends to expand those into larger and larger dynamics of meaning. We think of You know, even things like, oh, well, shame on you, or you should be ashamed. But when we think of the meaning of shame in the true original context, what it really means to get to the heart of shame, we’re speaking of something that has to do with exposure. Shame is all about exposure. Shame is all about exposing that which is most private. Most personal and most negative. No one is shamed when something private is exposed, yet it's something positive and affirming. No one is shamed from that, but we are shamed when there's this exposure of something personal, private, embarrassing, something, it may be something physical. We can be physically shamed through physical exposure. Who has not had that crazy dream of, you went to work and forgot to get dressed. You might have ever had that, I mean, what an insane dream that God gives us that you just, I’ve had that a number of times where you just are dreaming that you're at work and you're like, Oh, I forgot to dress this morning. But that sense, that feeling, the physical exposure of having something of you exposed to others. unwontedly. So it could be physical. It could be emotional when something emotional about you is exposed. Who can remember along with me those days in early elementary school, you know, when that was the taunt of the day. Bobby loves Susan. Bobby loves Susan. No, I don't. No, I don't. You know, it's just this idea of there's something that's personal that shouldn't have been exposed, and it is exposed. Or it can, of course, be a moral shaming when something you've done is exposed. Something that you thought no one would ever know about, or you sure hoped no one would ever know about, and then it's discovered and it's shared. So shame has to do with that exposure of something very private, but then there's also an important component to shaming, and that is the component of entertainment. When something very private and personal, embarrassing, morally embarrassing, degrading, humiliating, or something about us, is exposed and it's done so to the entertainment of others, then that's really the root of what we're talking about when we speak of public shaming. And this is an experience that probably all of us in the room can have some amount of relation to. There's a memory that's in the back of my mind. I was probably a seven year old Maybe an eight year old in school, in elementary school, and, and this public entertaining, shaming incident. I'll never forget it, as long as I live. Maybe you have something of that. And if you do, then bring that as painful as it will be, because the message this morning, we will be looking at difficult things to think about, but as painful as that is, bring that into the forefront of your thoughts, and let that flavor, or color, how you view the passage before us, because the passage before us is all about public shaming, the public shaming of our Savior. Why did it happen? What was the purpose of it? How are we to think of it? As difficult as it is to think of the human experience, which I think is probably the most hurtful and fearful experience. And maybe you would agree if you, if you would be honest in your own heart and you would open your own heart to say, honestly, I think that people fear public humiliation probably more than anything else, probably more than physical pain, public humiliation is one of the most frightening concepts. And when we think of that in conjunction with our savior, it can be difficult. But as we. Peer into this difficult passage of scripture. Let your thoughts be informed by your own feelings and experiences. That may be something of a parallel to this. So as we turn to the passage this morning, beginning from verse 16, I think it'll be helpful for us to sort of, I guess in a way, begin at the end. Normally, the way I. Build messages, or at least try to build messages, is sort of a gradual crescendo to where the theological truths will maybe compound upon each other, and then we reach this climax in which everything hopefully comes together, hopefully, maybe every once in a while, everything comes together. But instead of that today, let's instead start from the end. Let's start from the conclusion. Let's start by looking at how we are to think of this and putting into that framework. Then let's go back to the passage and let's then view that through the lens, view the shaming of our Lord through that lens. So I think that really the passage that dominates for us when it comes to the shaming of Christ is going to come to us from the epistles as everything about the cross really does. The cross and all of its torture, physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, all the tortures of the cross are really just related to us in the Gospels in terms of matter of fact. If you look down at the passage, um, verse, 22, there they crucified him. I mean, and that's just typical of the Gospel accounts. Smallness of words, a fewness of words is related to us, there they crucified him. And the same thing, there they mocked him. And that's just typical of the Gospels, is they just give us this information and they don't dwell on neither the, the aspect of suffering or they don't dwell on the, the Theological meanings behind it. It's up to the epistles to come along and then explain to us, well, what is happening at the cross and Paul and others will come along and they'll say at the cross, there's this great exchange taking place at the cross. There is this perfect righteousness being given over in exchange for our sinfulness and atonement is being made and Christ is nailing to the cross all of our sins. And so the epistles flesh that out. And the same thing is true with the shaming of our Lord. We're just told how He is shamed, and we know how He's going to be shamed. He's going to be laughed at and mocked, and He's going to be, the crown of thorns and the bowing down before Him, and all these different things, and the laughing at Him while He hangs on the cross. So we know the details of it, but the meaning of those details really comes to us in a theological package. In the epistles, and I think it primarily comes to us from the writer of, to the Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 12 in verse two, we're familiar with this verse looking to Jesus. The founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. So there we have this enduring of the cross. This enduring of the, not only the shame and the mocking and the torture, but in all of this, this whole package of the cross, Jesus endures this. And there's a reason that he endures it because there is a joy set before him. There is a joy in the cross that he finds to be greater. and more desirable and of greater value than the suffering of the cross. So he endures the cross for the purpose of this joy that comes through the enduring of it. So for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. And here's where we want to focus despising the shame. So there's our word shame, despising the shame, or your translation might say scorning the shame. Now despising is another one of those words that In the modern vernacular has tended to grow and expand and maybe change a little bit as words evolve and meanings change. And so today we tend to use the word despise to describe something like an intense hatred, an intense dislike. If you intensely dislike something, then you might say you despise it. I despise traffic lights or I despise, onions or whatever the case may be. And so it describes this intense disdain for something. But that's not the word that the scripture writers use. It's not the word that speaks of an intense dislike. Instead, it speaks of a thinking lowly of, or thinking little of, or thinking less of. Think of it like a comparison. a comparison in one's mind in which you value one thing and you value another and you make this comparison and one ends up being less than the other and that's how you judge between the two. It's a thinking less of something or thinking lightly. So Jesus has this joy set before him. He endures the cross. And as he endures the cross, what makes him endure the cross is that he thinks lowly or thinks less. of the shame than the thing that the cross brings about. He makes this comparison and the comparison is between two things. There's the shaming and then there's this other thing that we'll, that we'll mention. But the two things as he weighs them, he thinks less, he thinks lightly. He says, well that's a small thing in order for this. This is a small thing compared to that. So he despises or thinks lightly of the shame. So here's some examples in scripture of how this concept The word is used. For example, 1 Corinthians 11, verse 22, here's our same word. Paul says, do you not have houses to eat and drink in? He is rebuking the Corinthians for their abuse of the supper, the Lord's table. Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you, there's our word, despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing. In other words, do you think so lowly? Do you think so lightly of the church that you would treat it in this manner? Do you think so lightly of the church that you would then make this judgment between, oh, doing the meal like I want to do it, which, which in this context would be bringing my own food, my own wine, and sort of, and overindulging in the wine. Do you think so lightly of the church that you value that more? You see Paul's point there. Or Romans chapter 2 verse 4. Or do you presume, now it's translated differently there, but that's the exact same word. The exact same word. Do you presume, do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. In other words, as you think of the kindness that God shows you, do you think so lightly of that or so little of that that you don't see that the purpose of that is to lead you to repentance? So you see how the biblical writers will use that. The same concept from Genesis 25, verse 34. Of course, this is Old Testament, so it's Hebrew now. But it's the same concept, it's the same principle. Jacob, we know the story, Jacob and Esau, how he tricked his brother out of his birthright. And he did it for the, for this bowl of stew. And so the, the summary statement is, thus Esau despised his birthright. Doesn't mean he hated his birthright; he wanted it back. But it does mean that he made this assessment. In his mind, a bowl of stew? Birthright. I'll take the bowl of stew. In other words, he thought lowly or thought less of the birthright than a bowl of stew, which is why the scriptures are so critical of him. So that's the concept behind this. Jesus, going to the cross, looks upon the shame, the humiliation, the degradation, that it will be heaped upon him, and he says in his soul, This is a light thing in order for that. This is a small thing in order to accomplish this. The shaming, the degradation, the public mocking, all of this is what Jesus considered and He said in His heart, well, it's not nothing, but it's much less than the thing the shaming will accomplish. Now, what is the thing that the shaming will accomplish? Well, it will come, will accomplish clearly two things. It will glorify his father, which we know is important to Jesus. But if we look to the scriptures, we see that the emphasis on what is accomplished at the cross is the love of his people. Look over on the next page, the love of the sin bearer. And this, as we know, we've seen this before in the scriptures, how the scriptures will always present to us in the new Testament, always present the love of God in the context of the cross. There is not a single instance in all of your New Testaments in which the love of God for His people is mentioned outside the context of the cross. It's always in the context of the cross. For example, God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, and there it is, Christ died for us. John 3. 16, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, or His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. There's the giving of the Son and the love of God. Galatians 2. 20, I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. In the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. You see, it's always, the two of those things are always paired together in the New Testament. Sometimes, they might be a sentence or two away from one another, but in the larger context, that always shows up in the scripture. So, We now are left with this conclusion that as Jesus is despising the shame and he's looking to the thing that's greater than the shame he must endure, that's more valuable, that's of greater worth than the shame he must endure, the thing he's looking to is his love for his people. By which he will redeem them, the redeeming of his people. So he considers the redemption of his people. He, he loves to put it another way. He loves his people with a greater love than the shame that he must endure. The two of those things are not equals. The shame that he must endure is of a lesser thing than his love for his people. And so all of that really is the background for how we should think of the shaming, the public humiliation of Christ as he is turned over to the soldiers. He will be for us our sin bearer. And we've talked about that. A number of times in the most recent messages that he is our sin bearer and we are seeing these pictures of him as the sin bearer before his accusation or his accusers, he can say nothing just as we. We can say nothing when God accuses us. We can say we have no defense because we are the sinners that we are. And so likewise, our sin bearer also says nothing. Or we see, just other pictures. We've talked about them as we go. These pictures of him becoming our sin bearer. But he's not just our sin bearer. In order for him to be our sin bearer, he also must be our shame bearer. In other words. Our sin brings upon us a righteous and a just shame. And if Jesus is going to bear our sin, He also must bear our shame. And that's the theological root of the shaming of Jesus. Is He must do this. Because without bearing our shame, He didn't bear our sin. You follow the logic there? And so, in one sense, as we read the passage, it's just a moment of the humiliation of Jesus, and our hearts want to cry out, This is so wrong for the Son of God to be treated this way. This is so wrong. We are right to say that. But in another sense, we are also right to say, This is so right. It is right for the Messiah to be shamed. For he bears the sin that deserves that shame. And had he gone to the place of execution without the shaming, then he would not have fully born the sin of his people, which carries with it righteous and just shame. So that's the importance of what's before us is what we see now is Jesus is Increasingly being made a picture of the one who bears the sin of his people and in the passage before us, he's literally bearing their ridicule, their shame, their humiliation, their degradation, their dehumanizing treatment. He bears that rightly and justly because he is the sin bearer. So with that in the back of our mind, we now turn to our passage. Isaiah 53 is in your notes here. This is a passage we all know quite well. This is also a passage that just speaks to us very powerfully and very plainly of the shame that Jesus bore. I thought of reading the whole passage, it's a lengthy passage, but let me just draw from it just a few phrases. Again, we're just putting these in our mind. Just a few phrases. We're thinking here of just how the whole passage is presenting to us Jesus as one who has had the shame of his people heaped upon him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, from whom men hid their faces because he was despised. And that's not the same word or the same concept that we spoke of earlier. This is an intense hatred. He was hated. And we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. All we have, like sheep, have turned away. We've turned our own way. But the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of all of us. And with that iniquity also comes the shame of all of us. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living stricken for the transgression of my people, and they made his grave with the wicked. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied, and by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, be made many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. We could meditate on that passage a great deal. But I just wanted to pull from that just some of this phrasing that will put into our minds just this context of the one who is the shame bearer. And the soldiers led him away. So we see this consistent picture of Jesus being humiliated. By the leading from here to there. They led him away from the garden. They led him to Annas. They led him to Caiaphas. They led him away from Caiaphas. They led him to Pilate. They led him to Herod. They led him back to Pilate. Now they lead him away. He's like an animal, chained. He's like a, an animal with a, With some sort of harness on him, and he just leads him where he wants to go. Not that it's against his will, because it is the will of Christ to obey the will of his father in this. So it's not as though he's being led against his will, but it is this picture of one being humiliated, just leading him along by maybe a rope around his neck, or bonds around his arms and around his hands. He was led away inside the palace, that is the governor's headquarters. Your translation might say, Um, but he's led inside the palace, that is the governor's headquarters, and they called together the whole battalion, the word there is cohort. A cohort was one tenth of a legion, a legion was 6, 000, so 600 soldiers make up a cohort. So Marcus Plain here, a number of commentators will say, well, the whole cohort wasn't there, that would just be a ridiculous number of soldiers. Maybe a Oh. A representative portion of the cohort was there. Mark's pretty plain. He uses the word that means entirety or the entire cohort. In other words, they assembled 600 soldiers to watch the fun. So now we begin to see this picture of Jesus before crowds of people. We spoke of shaming and public humiliation and that whole concept of exposure. And the exposure is some form of entertainment for the people doing the exposing. All of that really gets ratcheted up as the the onlookers grow. Is that true? You know, when there's something that's shameful that happens and two or three or four people see it, that's one thing. When it happens in front of the whole school, that's a different thing. Or when it happens in front of a large group of people, that's a different thing altogether. So, now we're going to see this picture of large groups of people and all of them looking on to the humiliation and the shaming of Christ. So the whole cohort is assembled to watch this fun. Verse 17, And they clothed him in a purple cloak. So now, the soldiers here are They may be aware of the triumphal entry of what happened when Jesus entered the city and the cries and King, son of David and all those things. They may be aware of that. They may be aware of some of his teaching. They may be aware of some rumors of his miracles, but one thing that we're certain that they're aware of is the charge against him and the charge against him is this man called himself the King of the Jews. And so that's going to be the rallying point of all of their humiliation. Remember when the trials were the religious trials before the religious leaders, their point of contention was his religious authority. You say that you are the, from God, you're the blessed one, you're the chosen one from God, prophesy for us, O blessed one. But now that we're in front of the soldiers, and in front of Pilate was the same thing, now the object of contention is not his religious claims, it's his claims of kingship. So you say that you're the king of the Jews and that's going to be the concept that they take and run with it. And so they're going to be rather creative in their mocking of him. They get this purple cloak, put it on him because kings wore purple in those days. Colored fabric was very expensive and was prized and so kings would wear scarlet and they would wear purple. So they get this purple cloak somehow from somewhere and they put this on him. All this is done in mocking jest. So you say you're a king. Well, a king needs to look like a king, doesn't he? A king needs to dress like a king. So let's dress him up like a king. Twisting together a crown of thorns. So a king has to have a crown. Let's get a crown for you. And we know the Greek tradition of crowning an athlete with an olive branch. Maybe this is a perversion of that. Well, we can't find any olive branches. What about this thorn branch over here? Now, we don't know what kind of thorn branch this is. So much speculation has been done over what type of thorn branch this was. Palestine is home to a dizzying number of species of plants that are thorny plants. And so we have no idea what type of thorny plant this was. We just know it's a thorny plant. Woven together into some sort of wreath or some sort of circular crown and placed on his head, we would assume that the placing wasn't gentle, but perhaps more like a slamming down onto his head. So the thorns will then pierce into his skin. We know that the skin in the head, is, particularly high in the number of capillaries that are near the surface. And so this would have caused much blood to flow over his face and over his cheeks. The slamming down of the, of the thorns into his, into his, into his head. Now, this now becomes unmistakable for us. The symbolism here is dramatic and it's clear because there is something about thorns that all of us are very familiar with. And that is the fact that thorns are the visible manifestation of the curse of sin. We remember from Genesis chapter 3 the, the curse that God pronounces and there's a number of outworkings of that curse. The pain in childbirth and these different things and the snake's curse is to crawl on the dirt. Well, the man's curse, the head curse, the headship curse placed upon the man is manifested most clearly in the fact that the ground now produces thorns. So the assumption is that prior to the fall, Plants didn't produce thorny branches and thorny stems, but as a reminder of sin, these branches, these plants now produce the thorny stalks on them. So whenever you get tangled up in thorns, that should be a reminder for you, this world is sinful, this world is fallen, and right there is God's visible manifestation to remind me of that. So literally, the reminder, the symbol. of man's sinfulness is made to be his crown. He is crowned with our sinfulness. He is crowned with the sin of man. He is literally and visibly the bearer of sin. of our sin. I don't know how God could have made it plainer and more visible than this, than for the sin bearer to literally bear a crown that is the symbol of our sinful fallenness. And so he stands before them literally on his head, the crown of his head, It is the sin of his people that he's here to redeem. You see how he is a Messiah that is completely different than any type of Messiah that man would come up with. We would come up with a Messiah who wears a golden crown with diadems and diamonds and precious jewels. But instead, the Messiah that God's, God sends to us is the one. whose crown, his crowning attribute, is that he bears the sin of his people. So they twist his crown of thorns, they put it down on his head, not so gently, we can be sure of that, and they put it on him and they begin to salute him. Hail, King of the Jews. So now the mockery continues. 600 soldiers are watching this. You can imagine the ruckus that's beginning to grow and grow as they're laughing and just having just a good old time at this mockery that's taking place. By the way, this is something that the Roman soldiers would do quite often. The Roman soldiers were well known for their ability to mock the Jews. The Jewish citizens, they would often do this. We read from historical records that they would often choose people, choose Jewish people who were what we might call today special needs, or maybe beggars, and they would just choose them at random and just mock them. That's one of the reasons that the Roman soldiers were so hated by the Jews, is that they would just have this habit of picking people that were helpless and outcasts and just taking them and having some fun with them. It's like, oftentimes, Soldiers will do if you know anything about the military, then, you know, the hardest thing for the military to do is not fight to be prepared to fight, but instead to occupy. That's one of the most difficult things for a fighting body of men to do to occupy without fighting. And so that's always the context in which militaries get into the most trouble with the civilian population is when there's not a battle to fight. And so these Roman soldiers are here, they're far from home, they don't have a battle to fight, and so they're just, they're just good at having fun. And now they're just really going all out with the king of the Jews. Hail, king of the Jews! They mock him. And they were striking his head with a reed. So Matthew tells us of how they get a reed, they put it in his hand like a scepter, because a king has to have a scepter. A king has to be dressed like a king, a king has to have a crown, a king has to be worshipped, And a king has to have a scepter with which to rule. So they get a reed, a piece of wood. They give him this, this reed because that's his ruling scepter. But they take it and they beat him on the head. Of course, remember the crown of thorns is on his head. And they're beating him about the head. And they are spitting on him. He has already been spit upon, we're told, by the temple guards earlier. And now he's being, again, spit upon. Some commentators speculate that perhaps the soldiers were mocking him by coming up to him and doing what you would do to a real king, which would be to kiss his hand. So in the, in the motion of pretending like they're going to kiss his hand or kiss his feet, instead of kissing him, they would collect up some saliva in their mouth and they would, Project it and hurl it into his face and laugh and say, hail king of the Jews, and strike him on the head with his readed of a scepter and then kneeling down in homage to him. They would mock him again and again. And the verb tenses that Mark uses, we won't go into the tail, the verb tenses, the combination of what's called the historic present, along with the imperfect tell us that this was not a short little period of time, but this was a repetitive. ongoing time. They have a jolly good time with him, and they do it for quite some time. Now, verse 20, And when they had mocked him, They stripped him of the purple robe, and put his own clothes on him. And here we go again. They led him out to crucify. You see the picture that was shown? Like a lamb, who's led to the slaughter. And again, and again, and again, we're told over and over. They led him here. They led him there. They led him over here. They led him to Pilate. Now they lead him out to crucify him. And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. We are going to set aside Simon of Cyrene for today, and we'll probably come back to Simon next week. I don't want to open that can today. But as we look at this, we, we just have to ask, why did they compel Simon to carry his cross? We'll look more into this next week, but I believe that the reason that they compelled Simon to carry his cross was further mocking and further humiliation. I think we often assume that Jesus was probably At this point, you know, he's been flogged, he's been scourged, he hasn't had anything to eat, he's been up all night, six trials, he's just so exhausted that he just cannot physically carry the cross. And that may very well be the case. But there's two things that, to me, say, I'm not so sure that Jesus was as exhausted as I am. Is all of that so exhausted that he literally picture in your mind, like, like an animal, like a beast of burden that has been overworked and lies down and won't get up. You may have experienced this, or you may have seen this in movies or read about it, but, but there comes a point when a beast of burden. Just won't get up again and and there's this picture just beating the animal and he won't get up and so you maybe have this picture of Jesus falling and the Roman soldiers are hitting him and beating him but he can't get up. I don't think that Jesus is at that point of exhaustion and there's two reasons that I think that. Number one, in Luke's gospel, Jesus is going to have an interaction with some women. We know the sort of the basis of that is they're weeping and Jesus is don't weep for me if they do this when the wood is dry. So he has this interaction, which to me just doesn't seem like something a man who had been brought to that point of exhaustion would have. And then furthermore, we're told that from the cross, he cries out with a loud voice. And that's really significant to see, because as we talk about the cross in future messages, we will be reminded of just how the cross brings about death through. Asphyxiation that's brought about through sheer exhaustion of how the victim can no longer pull themself up to take a breath anymore. And so it's extremely significant that Jesus, his final words we're told are said with a loud voice because that's the exact opposite of what a crucifixion victim moments from death would have been able to do. So, it's not a picture to me of a man so close to exhaustion. So why would they compel Simon to carry his cross? And again, this is just speculation on my part, but to me it seems to fit better that this is just a continuation of the mocking. Because a king has to have servants. He must have a court. A king must have someone to carry his burden for him. And so I see this really as probably more of something of continuing to mock him, but in addition to mock Simon and all of the Jewish people. Because all of this mocking on the part of the soldiers is really mocking of all of Israel. King of the Jews, this is the King of the Jews. You're, you're, you're telling me this is the King of the Jews and so they're mocking not only Jesus, Simon, Oh, carry his burden for him. You must have a servant to carry your burden for you, Oh, King of the Jews. And so here we'll get one for you. So the mocking by making someone carry the cross for him, perhaps Jesus was possessing of the strength to continue carrying his own cross. And it was further humiliation for him. to then have someone else made to carry it for him. Perhaps that's the idea here. But anyway, we move on. Verse 22, And they brought him to the place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull. So here we see his continued humiliation in the sense that he will be executed outside the camp, outside the city. Now, being executed outside the city would be in obedience to the Old Testament principle from Leviticus, That we read in Leviticus chapter 24, bring out of the camp the one who is cursed and let all who heard, let all who heard him lay their hands on him and let all the congregation stone him. So there's this principle in the Old Testament that the one who was being executed because of their sinfulness, that would take place outside the camp. The Romans are taking him outside the camp for their own reasons, but the fact that Jesus is being taken outside the camp, that serves as a great. Humiliation and degradation for him, because what do you do with things that you take outside the camp? What do you do? Why do you take these things outside the city? Because they are repulsive and disgusting. That's where you take the carcasses of dead animals. That's where you take your refuse. That's where you take your garbage. Outside, that's why we don't have landfills inside the city limits. We have those out, because those are disgusting places. Those are smelly places. And the idea here is, from the Old Testament, this sinner is so repulsive, he must be taken outside. He and his sin must be taken outside. Now, transfer that to Jesus. And the idea here is, you are so repulsive, and you are so disgusting. You are so, such a, a turn of our stomachs, that we must take you away to kill you. You see, the further humiliation and the further degradation. And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. Further humiliation. The wine mixed with myrrh would have been a form of a mild sedative to help the person. And so here's this further insult here, let's give you this just to help you through this and then I'll verse 24 and they crucified him again, just the paucity of words, they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them to decide what what each should take. So here we see the further humiliation in the sense that he watches. His only earthly possessions gambled over. We read from Psalm 22, that all who see me mock me, and they make their mouths at me, they wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord, let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him. A little bit later in that same Psalm, verse 18, they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. So there's this humiliation that all he possesses in the world Is just being gambled over right there in front of him right in front of him as he's nailed naked to the cross his one Possession in all the world is just something that soldiers are gonna gamble over and it's gonna be done It's like the humiliation of your final possessions as you're after you're gone But in his case, he's still alive to watch it happen. You see the degradation there and the humiliation I'm reminded of a A Christmas carol. Remembering a Christmas carol when the third ghost comes and Ebenezer Scrooge is given the vision of the people who are talking about, well, who's going to get this and who's going to get that? And how just degrading that was that, that he's watching people fight over his possessions. You may have had the experience of, of, someone, Who has passed away a loved one, and then there's family members who are squabbling over what they're going to get. And just what a humiliation that is for the person who's gone. And you almost want to say in your heart, I'm glad they weren't here to see this. Well, Jesus is here to see this. His only garment, being just an object of gambling over, right there in front of his eyes, the humiliation of the whole thing is really remarkable. Now verse 25, and it was the third hour. When they crucified him and the inscription of the charge against him read the king of the Jews elsewhere We're told that that's that's put up there in three languages. So the humiliation of the of the inscription above him We are led to believe here that this wasn't normal for the other prisoners to have this inscription, but for him, he has this inscription put in three languages so everybody passing by may see this. This man is the king of the Jews. And you remember the little squabble that came from that? How the religious leaders went to Pilate and they said, we want you to change that to, he said he was the king of the Jews. And Pilate says, I'm not changing it. It stays like it is. He is the king of the Jews. So here's this man, naked, battered, bleeding, hanging from a cross with this declaration, he is the king of the Jews. And with him they crucify two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. So here's the humiliation of who he's crucified with. Here is the son of God, the creator of the universe, hanging between two scoundrels. Two thieves, two robbers, two of the lowest forms of society. That's his court. So you get this picture now. He's the king of the Jews and that's his court. His court is two people also being hung on a cross until they are dead. Verse 29, And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, Aha, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross. So also the chief priests and the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, He saved others he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe. Is there no empathy whatsoever? Is there no compassion? The man is hanging by his wrists and feet. Death is approaching him. And yet they still just mock him. Oh you Christ, come on down, we'll believe you. Which ironically, had he come down, their belief would have been meaningless. Because had he come down, their belief in him would not have saved. Because he wouldn't have made the atonement that he was there to make. So ironically, the fact that he didn't come down made the possibility that their belief meaningless. And then he says, well, I don't know about you, but we've all seen lots of images and you've seen shows and movies and things, and you probably have in your mind an image of a cross that's way up on the top of a hill and the people on the cross are up above the ground. Maybe their feet is at eye level or higher. But historians tell us that that was probably not the case, that almost certainly the case was that he and the others would have been at eye level, right down on the ground, right beside the road to give maximum visibility. So there is quite a difference, isn't there, from those who are mocking you from a distance? And those who are right close to you, seeing in your eyes what you're going through, seeing the blood, smelling the spit and the sweat and all of the evidences of what has happened to him. They're right there. Their mocking is just a few feet away. He hears every bit of it. It, none of it is kept from him. He hears all of their scorn and their blasphemous disbelief. All of that is right there within earshot of him. The humiliation of the whole scene, again, we began by saying this is not an easy passage to contemplate, and it is not our goal to embellish this at all, for it needs no embellishment. The facts alone. Are difficult enough, but this is the picture of the one right here in front of their face being, being mocked just openly in such a way as this. And those who are crucified with him also reviled him. Scorn of scorn, humiliation of humiliation. Mark doesn't tell us about the one thief who was brought to salvation. Mark just tells us, even the thieves themselves. And those who saw him as someone beneath even them. We don't know, but we might imply from this that the thieves themselves weren't treated as badly as Jesus was. They weren't flogged as Jesus was, and they weren't mocked and spit upon as Jesus was, they were probably just put there to die. And so to them, it seems quite obvious that this man beside us is very much hated. There's the sign. Um, which also is mocking them as well because they're Jews. And so even the thieves see him as someone beneath them. Someone that even in the pain of their own execution, they could appropriately mock and humiliate. The scene before us of the shaming of Christ. This is not the first time he's been shamed. . He was shamed before Anis. He was shamed before Caiaphas, before Pilate. The whole Herod thing that was all about shame, but this is the passage in which the shaming of Christ comes out front and center, and that the shaming of Christ will be nothing to you, but just a point of pity and compassion. Unless you understand why he did it, why he must be shamed. Because it is your sin that is deserving of the spit and the, the scorpion in the Roman soldier's hand and the spikes through your wrists. It is your sin that's deserving of that along with all of the mockery. And yet it is he who takes not only the sin itself, but he takes the shame of that sin upon himself in order to remove it. Amen. Amen. Because this really is, in a real way, this is the grand story of Scripture. What are we to do with our shame? It all begins in Genesis 3. The man and the woman were naked and they were not ashamed. Until sin enters their life. And now suddenly they're ashamed. And so what are they going to do with their shame? They try to cover it with fig leaves. It doesn't work. And so the whole story of the Bible from that point really can be thought of, what are we to do with our shame? We can't cover it. We can't get rid of it. As much as we deny it, we know deep in our soul it's still there. What are we to do with our shame? And so this passage and others come along to say to us, this is the only thing that can be done with shame. It has to be taken and put upon another, and he must take it away, just like the scapegoat from the Old Testament, who then took away the shame. This is the fulfillment of the scapegoat, as Jesus takes that shame upon himself and says, I will take this away, which he does. And then we're given glorious pictures. Such as Revelation chapter seven, you know, numerous times in revelation, the saints are described as wearing what white robes that cover once and for all, finally with robes, white as snow. That all of that is covered, taken away. We see that picture of the saint standing before the throne with palm branches in their hand, clothed in white robes. But let me finish with Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 19. This is an Old Testament picture of the truth that we are being pointed to here. Behold at that time I will deal with all your oppressors and I will save the lame and gather the outcast. I will change their shame into praise. So that's really the story of redemption. The story of redemption is we have a right and just shame that is ours. We own it. We own it by virtue of our sin and we cannot get rid of it. Just like your shadow. You can't leave your shadow. You can't say, shadow, I'm done with you. Go away. Your shadow goes where you go. Just like the shame of our sin until the shame bearer comes and says, I and I alone can take that shame from you.