Mark 15:20–22

These are solemn words. They were written as the climax to the world's rejection of the Son of God. Israel's leaders had plotted the death of Jesus. They made a bargain with Judas Iscariot to betray Him. When He allowed them to take Him, they heaped on His holy head every insult their wicked hearts could invent. How awful was the treatment of the Creator by the creature. How horrified the angels must have been to see man's dark rebellion. How puzzled at their Lord's meek submission to all the dishonour.

After the cruel scourging they clothed Him with a purple robe in mockery. Matthew reports a scarlet cloak. This is not a contradiction. "A scarlet military robe was made to imitate the imperial purple, so the description, a purple robe. And because this is the symbolic meaning of the robe, there is no discrepancy" (Lange). They made the crown of thorns to inflict cruel pain on His brow. Thorns came because of man's sin; they are the signs of the curse. He took the curse on His own head.

All men in that hour were showing themselves in their darkest colours. In these verses we do not read of one thing that He said. It was just as the prophet had said, "like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth." It was man's hour, and the power of darkness was at its height. We see the perfection of the holy Servant of the Lord in this: He suffered in silence all that He endured at the hands of men.

In the way the soldiers treated the Lord we see the brutality of man, which finds pleasure in abusing a defenceless person. It was no part of a soldier's duty to mistreat a prisoner. But the lowly grace and perfection of this Holy Prisoner brought God near to them, and fallen man could not bear it. A righteous God will yet crown Him with many crowns; yet He submits as wicked men crown Him with thorns. He who will rule the nations with a rod of iron allows poor wretched man to strike Him with a reed. In mockery they bow the knee before the One to whom they will have to bow in the day of judgment.

So we come to the practical exhortation, "Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp." But note: that outside place is no longer seen as the place of judgment from God. It is the place of reproach from man, and we are called to go there to the very limit. He suffered as the holy victim under the judgment of God: He endured as the patient martyr under the reproach of men. We cannot share His sufferings at the hand of God, but it is our privilege to share the insults He received at the hands of men. He went outside the camp to bear our judgment: we go outside the camp to bear His reproach.

In the rejection of Jesus there is a background of darkness, evil and hatred. But in the resurrection of Jesus, we see His actions in the light of the love shown in His death. We see this as the blessed Lord leads out His disciples as far as Bethany, for "lifting up his hands he blessed them."

The violent soldiers, indifferent to the liberty and rights of others, compel one returning from his labours in the field to bear the cross. Simon the Cyrenian had the honour of bearing the actual cross for the One who suffered on the cross for all the world.

Then they led Him away to be crucified, compelling on the way one Simon, a Cyrenian, a Hellenistic Jew, to bear the cross behind Him. Was he a disciple? Evidently he had taken no part with the crowd, for he was coming from the country, and so must have met the procession on its way to Golgotha. He was also, as Mark informs us, the father of Alexander and Rufus — that Rufus, very likely, who is mentioned by Paul in Romans 16:13.

This in no way contradicts the fact that they compelled Simon the Cyrenian to bear it after Him. From the Gospel of Mark we would judge that our Lord was bearing His own cross at the start of the journey to Golgotha. On the way they met Simon coming in from the country. They took the cross from our Lord and put it on him.

Some have supposed that Simon the Cyrenian was forced to bear His cross because the strength of the Lord Jesus gave way under it. This is only men's imagination: no such thing is indicated in the record. But Simon's bearing His cross does illustrate the fact that there is a certain sense in which believers are privileged to bear the cross of the Lord Jesus. This does not involve His atoning sufferings, but a path of rejection by the world for His sake.

It is he who bears the cross. Its significance may well point to that sharing in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ which is the privilege of all who follow Him. Some have suggested a contrast between the two Simons. One claimed the fullest obedience, but denied his Lord in the hour of testing. This man bears the cross. It does not seem that he volunteered; the circumstances of the moment pressed him into service. Still, it is not said that he refused.

It would appear that Simon's two sons, Alexander and Rufus, were afterwards well-known converts brought into the Church; so the detail is of interest. God's goodness, I suppose, used this very circumstance, wicked as it was on man's part. He would not let even His Son's humiliation pass without turning it to the blessing of man.

From Mark 15:21 we may conclude that the father of Rufus had carried the cross of Christ on the way to Golgotha. That service had its reward: the son is "chosen in the Lord". His mother is remembered too, for she had at some time acted as a mother to the Apostle.

Mark records, as Matthew does, how Simon the Cyrenian was pressed into service on the road to bear His cross. But Mark adds something: this Simon, the "listener" and cross bearer, was the father of Alexander and Rufus. God's grace was fruitful in him. Is not this the true way of fruitfulness ever — to listen and bear the cross?

Mark speaks of bringing Him to Golgotha. The word translated "bring" really means "bear" (translated that way in Mark 2:3 and Luke 23:26). "And they bear Him to the place Golgotha." They had to hold Him up. The blessed Servant had spent His strength. What a sight He must have been after all the scourging and cruel abuse! The awful blows had marred His face. No wonder that His real human body was weak. But could He give way? Never. No one could take His life.

The Greek is κρανίον, "a skull." The word "Calvary" is from the Latin Calvaria, which means the same; it agrees also with the Hebrew GOLGOTHA, which has the same meaning. The traditional site of the Holy Sepulchre is now well inside Jerusalem. Many have tried to prove that this spot was outside the city back then. This is not at all believable. A much more likely place is the one pointed out by the Jews on the north of the city, near the Grotto of Jeremiah. Visitors have said that this site has, at a distance, the natural outline of a human skull.

The place got its name from the peculiar shape of the rock, but it is significant for all that! A skull speaks of the humiliating end of all man's power and glory. In some living man it may once have held as brilliant and powerful a brain as ever existed; and it has come to this! The Son of God accepted the judgment of death as from man's hand, and He went to bear it in a place that symbolically set out the end of all man's glory.

Calvary was in this way a witness to the moral condition of the whole world. It was also a witness to the love and grace that would come down to the very place where sin showed all its hideousness, and triumph over it there. From the skull of Calvary springs the beauty of the resurrection. This is true first for the Son of God. Death had no power over Him and could not disfigure Him, though it might hide His beauty from human eyes. It is true also for the whole family of the redeemed. They are risen with Christ, forever beyond the power of death to mar or disfigure.

The priests of old carried the body of the sin offering out to a clean place outside the camp. Little could they have guessed what that act really pictured: the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ outside the gate. Now we learn that the priests' act pointed forward to the circumstances of the death of the true sacrifice. Here only (Hebrews 13:12) is this fact plainly stated. At the time of His death, and until Jerusalem was destroyed, everyone there knew where Golgotha or Calvary was. To mention Golgotha was enough for readers then… But God had another purpose in the Lord's death at Golgotha, little as the enemy could have guessed it. Christ suffered there so that His people might be sanctified, or set apart, for God by His blood.

Here we must note one thing carefully. This outside place is no longer viewed as the place of judgment from God, but as the place of reproach from man. God does not call us to go outside under His judgment. He calls us to go outside under the reproach of men, and that to the full. He suffered as the holy victim under the judgment of God; He endured as the patient martyr under the reproach of men. We cannot share His sufferings at the hand of God, but it is our privilege to share the insults He received from the hands of men. He went outside the camp to bear our judgment; we go outside the camp to bear His reproach.