Today’s passage is Mark 15:16-32. The Roman soldiers crown Jesus with thorns, dress him in royal purple, and mockingly bow to him before taking him to Golgotha. They dragoon Simon of Cyrene into carrying Jesus’ cross. Passers-by and the chief priests deride Jesus hanging on the cross below a sign declaring him King of the Jews. Two thieves crucified beside him insult him.
Who do you taunt, revile or mock?
What is your cross that others want you to renounce?
When do you want to have someone else carry your cross?
In today’s passage Jesus is mocked, taunted and insulted by three separate groups.
First the soldiers mock his kingship, then the chief priests and spectators mock his words and apparent defeat, and lastly he is insulted by two fellow victims of Roman justice.
Everybody wants to feel superior to Jesus in his roles of king, prophet and fellow man.
I hate losing. I hate seeing myself lose. I hate being seen as a loser. I don’t like winners unless I am the winner.
Other winners do nothing to inspire me.
They only make me feel like a loser, and I’m happy to mock their appearance, their dress, their speech, their education, their social background, anything to make me feel superior, just like the people mocking Jesus in today’s passage.
I don’t like congratulating winners.
And I do not feel any solidarity with my fellow losers, just like the robbers who were crucified beside Jesus.
My pride can’t stand it.
As a Christian, called and saved by Jesus Christ, I am commanded to follow a path of trust in the Lord, humility before God, relentless pursuit of my sin and continual repentance.
I am commanded to love God and my neighbor as myself. That is my cross. I keep dropping it because I don’t want to die to myself daily.
I go swimming twice a week. I really like the way Korean recreation centers organize the swimming according to ability and with coaches to help us and train us.
Even though I am old, I am in the master group because I’m a very good swimmer.
I’m usually better than everyone else because in my youth I used to be a champion swimmer.
It’s simply my context.
It’s no credit to myself nor discredit to the other swimmers who, except in the rarest of instances, are inferior to me in the pool.
The problem of course is my pride.
In my current swimming group, I am thirty years older than they are but considerably faster because my strokes are much better.
There’s nothing special about my ability.
It’s just the result of my circumstances. But I mock the other swimmers for their lack of ability.
I never mock them directly because I can’t speak Korean which, in this case, is a blessing.
Sometimes, however, I tell them how old I am to make them feel bad.
Mostly I mock them to my wife who then chastises me for my stupid pride.
Even as I deride my fellow swimmers, I know I am being petty.
I don’t say it out loud any more, but I still think it. I am just like the spectators at Jesus’ crucifixion, mocking for no good reason, just out of prideful spite.
Application: praise my fellow swimmers next time and every time thereafter. Actively look for something to praise as my repentance.
Lord, let me not “sit in the seat of mockers” (Ps.1:1) but meditate on your great mercy to me a sinner.
