A proud father tells this story of a day with his two kids: “[One day], I took Helen (eight years old) and Brandon (five years old) to the Cloverleaf Mall in Hattiesburg to do a little shopping. As we drove up, we spotted a Peterbilt eighteen-wheeler parked with a big sign on it that said, ‘Petting Zoo.’ The kids jumped up in a rush and asked, ‘Daddy, Daddy. Can we go? Please. Please. Can we go?’
‘Sure,’ I said, flipping them both a quarter before walking into Sears. They bolted away, and I felt free to take my time looking for a scroll saw. (A petting zoo consists of a portable fence erected in the mall with about six inches of sawdust and a hundred little furry baby animals of all kinds. Kids pay their money and stay in the enclosure enraptured with the squirmy little critters while their moms and dads shop.)
A few minutes later, I turned around and saw Helen walking along behind me. I was shocked to see she preferred the hardware department to the petting zoo. Recognizing my error, I bent down and asked her what was wrong.
She looked up at me with those giant limpid brown eyes and said sadly, ‘Well, Daddy, it cost fifty cents. So, I gave Brandon my quarter.’ Then she said the most beautiful thing I ever heard. She repeated the family motto. The family motto is in ‘Love is Action!’
She had given Brandon her quarter, and no one loves cuddly furry creatures more than Helen. She had watched … both (Sandy & I) do and say ‘Love is Action!’ for years around the house…. She had heard and seen ‘Love is Action," and now she had incorporated it into her little lifestyle. It had become part of her…
What do you think I did? Well, not what you might think. As soon as I finished my errands, I took Helen to the petting zoo. We stood by the fence and watched Brandon go crazy petting and feeding the animals. Helen stood with her hands and chin resting on the fence and just watched Brandon. I had fifty cents burning a hole in my pocket; I never offered it to Helen, and she never asked for it… Because, she knew the whole family motto. It’s not ‘Love is Action.’ It’s ‘Love is SACRIFICIAL Action!’
- Love always pays a price…
- Love always costs something…
- Love is expensive…
- When you love, benefits accrue to another’s account…
- Love is for you, not for me…
- Love gives; it doesn’t grab…
Helen gave her quarter to Brandon and wanted to follow through with her lesson. She knew she had to taste the sacrifice. She wanted to experience that total family motto: ‘Love is sacrificial action.’ ‘Not unlike what Jesus did for us 2,000+ years ago… Listen to our story for today:
“Pilate gave the crowd what it wanted, set Barabbas free and turned Jesus over for whipping and crucifixion.
16 The soldiers took Jesus into the palace (called Praetorium) and called together the entire brigade.
17 They dressed him up in purple and put a crown plaited from a thorn bush on his head.
18 Then they began their mockery: ‘Bravo, King of the Jews!’
19 They banged on his head with a club, spit on him, and knelt down in mock worship.
20 After they had had their fun, they took off the purple cape and put his own clothes back on him. Then they marched out to nail him to the cross.
21 There was a man walking by, coming from work, Simon from Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. They made him carry Jesus’ cross.
22 The soldiers brought Jesus to Golgotha, meaning ‘Skull Hill.’
23 They offered him a mild painkiller (wine mixed with myrrh), but he wouldn’t take it.” – Mark 15:15-23 (MSG)
So, what are we to learn from this story—identifying with the soldiers today? Folks, I believe that God would have us see at least two things here. The first thing we need to see is the reality of this:
THE BROKENNESS OF HUMANITY. Verses 16-19 remind us, “The soldiers took Jesus into the palace (called Praetorium) and called together the entire brigade. 17 They dressed him up in purple and put a crown plaited from a thorn bush on his head. 18 Then they began their mockery: "Bravo, King of the Jews!" 19 They banged on his head with a club, spit on him, and knelt down in mock worship.” Through Jesus’ physical torture, we can see our own brokenness…
Flogging—the practice of striking someone with a whip or a stick for punishment or torture—was common in Jesus’ day. Jews, as well as Romans, sometimes used it … as have cultures all around the world from time to time. For instance:
- An old-fashioned whipping with a belt, often used on children before the ‘time-out’ concept came into fashion, was a form of flogging…
- In the past, many American prisons used flogging, as did the military during the Revolutionary War…
- Many governments still use this practice—not too long ago the news reported that a man in Iran was publicly flogged … just before he was put to death!
- Lest you think we Americans are totally clear of conscience, let me just mention the name Abu Ghraib—a prison in Iraq where, not that long ago, some of our soldiers were doing the same things to Iraqi prisoners, as the Romans did to Jesus…
The Romans used a lighter form of flogging on lesser criminals; but when they wished to instill terror, they used methods so brutal that all but the most hardened spectators would turn away in horror…
As you might guess, it was the latter form of flogging that Jesus underwent; he was a criminal, accused now of being a messiah—a traitor to Rome… He probably would have been forced to bend over a post, to which he was strapped, his hands tied down. Then, two or more ‘lictors’ (those specialized in torture) would have took turns striking him with whips. Possibly, he they used a variation of the whip called a ‘scorpion,’ which had nail-like talons that the most efficient means of tearing flesh from bone… In Jesus’ physical torture, we can see just how low humanity can stoop; and, we can see our own brokenness in this event…
Additionally, through Jesus’ humiliation, we can see our own brokenness. Folks, as if it wasn’t enough to beat the man nearly to death … the Roman soldiers decided to take things one step further … and humiliate him, too! You see, Jesus didn’t demonstrate any of the expected behaviors of one who was being flogged, which probably made the soldiers who were flogging him mad! So, they were not content to ‘tear his flesh’; they decided to dehumanize him, to break his spirit as well…
Verse 16 expands on this: “The soldiers took Jesus into the palace (called Praetorium) and called together the entire brigade”—a group of somewhere between 300-600 soldiers, probably every soldier available in the Antonia Fortress at this time. The soldiers who had inflicted the physical torture on Jesus … must have been really mad to do this; they all came together to poke fun at him, to humiliate him in front of everyone…
Have you ever been humiliated before? There have been times when I thought that physical torture would have been a better alternative. Human beings—even the best—have the potential of stooping extremely low at times, don’t we … especially when we get separated from the God who guides us? Here we see … THE BROKENNESS OF HUMANITY. Next, we can also see, in this section of the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life…
THE SACRIFICIAL LOVE OF GOD. Verse 20 tells us, “After they had had their fun, they took off the purple cape and put his own clothes back on him. Then they marched out to nail him to the cross.” The brokenness of humanity is not the only thing we’re meant to see in this story; we’re also meant to see the love of the One who suffered for us, and his determination to save us from ourselves!
Christians believe, and Jesus taught, that his suffering and death were the means of salvation for humanity. Without getting into it in-depth, there is another theory of the Atonement called the ‘subjective’ or ‘moral influence’ theory that says that the Atonement was not so much about changing God—making it possible for God to forgive us, as it was about changing us!
So, what was God trying to say in the suffering and death of Jesus? Yes, the events of these last 24 hours of Jesus’ life speak clearly of the brokenness of humanity…
- The disciples fell asleep…
- Judas betrayed Jesus…
- Peter denied him…
- The Sanhedrin wished him dead…
- The crowds preferred a different kind of messiah…
- The governor wished to satisfy the crowd…
- And, the soldiers took delight in torturing & dehumanizing an innocent man…
But, these events were also about the sacrificial love of the One who suffered for us … and his determination to see us saved from our sin!
- Jesus’ suffering & death were not accidental…
- He chose a path he knew would end in his death…
- He faced flogging, the humiliation of a mock crown & coronation, and the suffering of the cross … with determination, silence, and dignity…
- He stood naked as if to say, “Do you see the extent of the Father’s love yet? Do you understand that I’ve come so that you might finally know of a love that is willing to suffer—yea, even to die—in order to win you over?”
The truth is, Jesus demonstrated a love that refused to give in to vengeance … or to give up! We’re supposed to see that LOVE in this story, too…
There is no limit to how low humanity can stoop—even good people can act out of extremely selfish attitudes, when we leave God on the side somewhere and decide to act on our own. My prayer today, however, is that we will be a different kind of family. My prayer is that our family motto might also be ‘Love is sacrificial action!’ But, if we’re going to live that motto, one thing I know is this: WE CANNOT DO THIS ON OUR OWN! We have to guard our hearts … every day! We have to dedicate our hearts to God’s way … every day! With that in mind, my continual prayer for all of us is this:
O to grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.
Amen.