Mark 15:15-20 March 24, 2002

CCI: Jesus will pursue us until we gladly give him our thorns.

What if there had been no beauty for the beast? What if the princess had never been willing to kiss the frog? In all the fairy tales, it takes a beauty to see past the beast and let true beauty emerge.

That's true in the Bible as well. The woman at the well thought she was a beast. Married 5 times, living with another woman's husband, an out cast in her city, forced to carry water at the hottest time of the day. She was a beast. But then Jesus found her and Jesus reached out to her and Jesus saw the beauty that was hidden within the beast and she became a new creation.

The man whose home was the tombs around Gadara was a beast. His family and neighbors had tried to protect themselves from him by chaining him and simply broke the chains. He lived among the tombs, one of the living dead. He had no hope, he had no life, he had no future. He was a beast longing for a grave. And then he met Jesus and the beauty saved the beast.

Today we remember the day in Jerusalem when Jesus entered the city to the cheers and praise of the People. It is the day that some were ready to hail him as King. "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of Lord!"

The cry went out! The cry went up! Those who were going into the city to celebrate the Passover sang the songs of Zion and Jesus became the object of their attention. Praise God! Lift up his name! The day of the King has come!

Having hailed Him as king, many were certain that he would be crowned king by the time of the Feast. On that Palm Sunday many in the crowd were anticipating God's salvation and Israel's restoration. Surely, this was the ONE! On Palm Sunday, Jesus was hailed King. It was a beautiful day!

But as we know, that was not the end of the story. In every story of beauty, there is also a story of beastliness. By the end of the week, a very different wind was blowing. On Sunday the crowd hailed Him as King of the Jews, on Friday, the guards crowned him.

Turn with me to Mark 15:15-20, and listen to the crowning of Jesus.

"Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. [17] They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. [18] And they began to call out to him, "Hail, king of the Jews!" [19] Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. [20] And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

While the different gospels relate different parts of the story, this is one scene all 4 gospels tell us about. You know the story, after they entered Jerusalem on that Sunday to the shouts and cheers of the crowd, Jesus wasted no time entering the temple and clearing out the merchants and the bankers. He then entered into debate after debate with the Jewish leaders, and each time he left them without answer. Finally, they conspired with Judas and the evening of the Passover Jesus was betrayed into the hands of the religious authorities.

The authorities conducted their own puppet trial and declared that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy, a crime punishable by death. And so he was sent to the Roman authorities and after passing him back and forth between jurisdictions, Pilate finally came and made an offering to the people. "It is my custom to release a prisoner to you each year, who will it be, Jesus Barabas or Jesus of Nazareth." In one voice they cried, "Barabas, we want Barabas!"

Then as we read, Pilate turned Jesus over to the guards to be scourged and crucified. Those were the orders, but the ugliness of the beast in these soldiers is seen in what they actually did.

Scourging was a sentence that was close to a death sentence. The scourge was made of a whip with several tails. Imbedded in these tails were bits of glass and iron and stone. It was designed to strip the skin of the victim of scourging. Forty lashes was a death sentence, 39 left the victim with only a little life. This is a cruel practice, but it was part of the execution process. In one sense it was merciful because it shortened the time a person would remain on the cross before death. For the soldiers it was part of the job.

The same can be said of the crucifixion. It has been called them most torturous means of execution ever developed. The victims died in anguish. Ultimately, they died of asphyxiation. They were no longer able to pull themselves up to breathe and so they suffocated. It was a terrible death, but it was part of their job.

But notice in this scripture passage again. Between the scourging and the crucifixion, the beast in these guard's hearts made himself known. Listen to what's in the middle: "They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. [18] And they began to call out to him, "Hail, king of the Jews!" [19] Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him."

The mocking was not part of the job. They dressed him up and put the awful crown on his head, and spit on him and mocked him and struck him and beat him, all for the fun of it. Somehow, beating a back woods preacher made them feel like they were important. Somewhere there was sport in making fun of a man who had already been beaten to within an inch of his life. That day in the Praetorium the beast appeared. And the beast was armed with spit and thorns. Spit to humiliate and thorns to destroy.

The story makes us uncomfortable. It is ugly. In this story we see the worst of humanity and we are sickened. But when we look closer, we see something that is even more disheartening. For when we look closer we see our own beasts emerging from the guard's hearts.

The beast erupts, at times with only the slightest provocation. It happened to me. About a year and a half ago, the beast was seen in me. I was at a football game helping with the band. The children had just received new uniforms and it was my job to keep the students in the student section and the band in the band section. This was an important job. However, I soon discovered that the students did not take my job very seriously. Some band members went to sit in the student section and some of the students would push against the dividing rope just to make me mad. Despite my repeated warnings, this complete disregard for authority continued until, one of the students knocked over the water jug in the band section. Water went everywhere! Some of it got on my shoes and some splashed the new band hats!

That was enough, and I lit into the young man who had spilled the water and read him the riot act up and down. When I got done, he walked over to me and extended his hand and said, "Hey man, I'm sorry." But I saw through that facade and refused to shake his hand. For the next ten minutes, there was 20 feet of empty bleachers all around me.

The beast had emerged. The spit of humiliation and the thorns of destruction spewed from my spirit. And as I stood there in the now empty bleachers, I tried to justify my behavior, but there was no justification. The beast was out. I had beaten on Jesus in the Praetorium, I had spit in his face, I had humiliated him with words of anger.

I wonder, am I alone today? Have any of the rest of us ever seen the beast within? Have you ever done something and then wondered? "What a wretched man or woman I am, who can free me from this slavery to sin? The good things I want to do, I do not do, and the evil things I don't want to do I end up doing." If so, you are in good company. This was Paul's cry in Romans. And he found the answer, he found the freedom in the reality that we who were baptized into the death of Christ Jesus, were raised into his new life. In other words, we no longer need be controlled by the beast, for the beast died with Jesus and we rose into new life with Him.

There is hope for the beast. The beauty has loved us and will transform us. That transformation began while Jesus was hanging on the cross. The guards, very possibly, some of the same guards that mocked Jesus, watched as he died. And when the last ounce of life flowed from Jesus, one of those guards cried out, "Surely this was the son of God!" (It is true that there is debate over just what words this guard used, but it is clear that in his mouth were words that testified to the beauty having defeated the beast within him.)

And so, for each of us, if we will confess the ugliness of the beast within, and cling to the beauty of the One on the Cross, we can know a new beginning.

Surely, this was the Son of God! The Good News is this, Jesus, the Beauty, will never stop pursuing us, he longs to tame the beast within us. Jesus told a story of a beastly young man who one day went to his Father and said, "Father, I wish you would die so I could get my inheritance." The Father chose at that moment to divide his inheritance and his younger son left for adventure.

Max Lucado tells the story of a modern prodigal in the following clip:

We will close the message with the Max Parable of Joe and Madeline.

Will you accept his invitation to dance? If you will, He will calm the beast within.