Jesus' death for our salvation (Mark 15:15-47)

[Stephan Choe]

April 15, 2025

Key verses 34+39:

     34: "And at the ninth hour Jesus called out loudly: Eli, Eli, lama asabtani?

This is translated: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

     39: "But the centurion, who was standing opposite him and saw him die, said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God!’”

During the Korean War, the Americans bombed North Korea. In one North Korean town, there was talk that the Americans would not bomb a house with a cross on the roof. So they all erected large crosses on the roofs of their houses so that the bomber pilots could see the crosses clearly.

Why did Christians make the cross the hallmark of their faith? Because Jesus' death on the cross meant their redemption from the power of death.

That is why I would like to explain the significance of his death for us on the basis of the account of Christ's death.

May God grant many people the grace of redemption from the power of death.

1 Jesus' crucifixion (15-32)

Pilate had condemned Jesus to death on the cross against his conviction that he was innocent and handed him over to the soldiers to be crucified (15).

The soldiers brought Jesus into the courtyard of the governor's palace, the so-called pretorium, and called the whole troop together.

The pretorium was the governor's official residence and there were barracks for the governor's guard. The soldiers played a royal game with him. They first dressed him up in a red purple cloak. At the time, the cloak was considered the symbol of a king or general. Then they wove a crown of thorns and put it on Jesus. They paid homage to him and saluted him: “Hail, King of the Jews!”

Then they struck him on the head with a reed and spit on him. What a humiliation for Jesus, the Son of God!

After mocking Jesus in this way, they took off his red cloak and put his own clothes back on him. After this game, the soldiers led Jesus out of the city to crucify him.

Jesus carried the cross himself. But because he was exhausted from the abuse, he could no longer carry the cross. So the soldiers forced Simon from Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, who had just come from the field, to carry the cross.

Simon from Cyrene was probably curious and just wanted to watch Jesus' crusade. Jesus carried his cross and wanted to follow the soldiers. But he collapsed under the weight of the cross in front of Simon.

It is said: “There were 40,000 spectators in the station, and the ball that a player kicked hit me of all people!”

This is exactly what happened to Simon from Cyrene; the soldiers forced him to carry the cross of Jesus. At that moment, Simon must have been very angry with the Roman soldiers and also with the condemned man whose cross he had to carry. He had to carry Jesus' cross to Golgotha against his will. Once on Golgotha, he stayed there and watched Jesus being crucified and how he behaved on the cross.

Mark commented at this point that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus (21). This indicates that his two sons were well known to the early Christians. It is considered certain that Simon from Cyrene came to faith through this unfortunate incident. He then probably led his whole family to faith in Jesus Christ. His wife became a devoted Christian, so much so that the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans 16:13 that she was like a mother to him.

Anyone can come to believe in Jesus if they come to know his death on the cross with an open heart.

When Jesus arrived at Golgotha, the soldiers gave him a drink of myrrh and wine as an anesthetic to alleviate the pain of his crucifixion. But he did not take it. Myrrh has a disinfectant, hemostatic and antispasmodic effect and is still used in medicine today. The Greek historian Herodotus (484-425 BC) explains that wine with myrrh was given to wounded soldiers in the Persian war because it soothed the pain.

According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus was offered wine and gall (Mt 27:34). Gall here means “something bitter”, because myrrh resin tastes very bitter[1].

After the soldiers had offered Jesus the drink of wine and myrrh, but Jesus had not drunk it, they crucified him. And it was the third hour, that is, 9 o'clock today. And the soldiers divided his clothes and cast lots to see who would get what.

Crucifixion was a cruel, horrific death penalty. This method of execution was only used for slaves or very serious criminals.

The soldiers placed Jesus' hands and feet on the cross, put nails on them and hammered them through the roots of his hands and feet to fasten him to the cross (Luke 24:40).

When I was 5 or 6 years old, a village doctor had operated on a spot on my left buttock with a doctor's knife without anesthesia to remove a festering spot. That hurt me a lot. The hands and feet are much more sensitive than the buttocks.

Jesus must have been in terrible pain and shock every time the nails were hammered in. When the soldiers had raised the cross with Jesus, he tried to stand on his nailed feet. However, due to the unbearable pain, he soon had to lift his feet and shift his weight onto his hands. This, in turn, caused terrible pain in both the carpals of his hands. He therefore had to alternately raise and lower his body. The hanging position also caused him to have difficulty breathing. He lost blood because of the wounds and was terribly thirsty (John 20:28) and had a headache. This terrible agony on the cross lasted six hours.

The soldiers were not at all interested in Jesus' agony. They behaved as if they were just killing a fly.

And a sign was placed over the head of Jesus, indicating the blame that was placed on him: “The King of the Jews”.

It was customary at the time to place an inscription over the head of the crucified man. The inscription was intended to announce the crime of the crucified man and warn the citizens of similar crimes.

But Pilate, the Roman governor, had this inscription placed there deliberately to annoy the Jewish rulers. Because he had to condemn Jesus to execution due to political pressure from the Jewish rulers, despite his knowledge of his innocence. With this inscription, he wanted to tell the Jews that they had condemned Jesus, their king, to death.

The Gospel of John reports that Pilate had this inscription written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek so that all who passed by could read it (John 19:19-20). The Jews and everyone understood this expression‎ to mean that Jesus was the promised Messiah. God also used this inscription through the defiant Pilate to announce Jesus as the King of the Jews, i.e., the Messiah. Our God uses every event to fulfill his will and make the gospel known, because he wants to make the way of salvation known to all people. Our God is the Sovereign.

Verse 27 tells us that they crucified Jesus with two other thieves, one on his right and another on his left.

They deliberately crucified Jesus with other criminals, placing him in their midst. They wanted to portray Jesus as the worst criminal.

In this way, the scripture in Isaiah 53:12b was fulfilled: “For that he gave his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors, and bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

 "The people who passed by mocked Jesus, shaking their heads and shouting: 'Oh, you want to tear down the temple and rebuild it in three days? Why don't you help yourself and come down from the cross? The chief priests and the scribes also mocked him, saying to one another, 'He has helped others, but he cannot help himself. The Messiah, the King of Israel! Let him now come down from the cross so that we may see and believe. The two men who were crucified with him also insulted him." (29-32).

But their mockery fulfilled the scriptural words in Isaiah 53:35 about the Christ:

"He was the most despised and unworthy, full of pain and sickness. He was so despised that they hid their faces from him; therefore we regarded him as nothing. Indeed, he bore our sickness and took our pain upon himself. But we thought he was the one who was afflicted, beaten and martyred by God. But he is wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The punishment is upon him that we may have peace, and by his wounds we are healed."

2 Jesus' death (33-41)

Verse 33 tells us: “And at the sixth hour, that is, 12 noon, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, that is, 3 pm.”

A gloomy darkness covered the whole land from 12 noon until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The darkness here symbolizes the wrath of God (Isaiah 5:30).

And Jesus cried aloud to the ninth watch, “Eli, Eli, lama asabtani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (34).

This cry shows us that Jesus' death was not only an agonizing death, but also the abandonment of God. When people forsake God through sin, God must punish them. The punishment for their sin is that God forsakes them.

Jesus had patiently endured all the mockery and pain on the cross. But he could not bear being abandoned by God. The essence of hell is being forsaken by God. When God abandons a person, he is condemned to hell for eternity after death. Abandonment by God is such a terrible divine punishment. But God had to abandon Jesus for a short time because he had to punish him in our place for our sin in order to absolve us of this punishment. That is why our creed says: “Suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, died and was buried, descended into the realm of death, rose from the dead on the third day”.

The prophet Isaiah had long ago said the following about Christ's sacrificial death:

"But he is crushed for our iniquity. The punishment is upon him that we may have peace, and by his wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5).

Why did God have to punish Jesus in our place for our sin? Because there was no other way to redeem us from our sin. People try to get rid of their sins in many different ways. Some try to forget their sins or suppress their feelings of guilt. Others try to talk themselves out of it by blaming other people or their situation for their sins. Still others try to overcome their feelings of guilt through medication or psychiatric therapies. Some try to do it elegantly: they list the good things they have done for God or other people and try to believe that God would forgive their sins because of their good deeds. Unfortunately, all these attempts are in vain and all people must receive God's just punishment for their sin.

But the merciful God has prepared a way out of the judgment of wrath: He cast all our sins on Jesus Christ and punished him in our place.

There is a moving story of a righteous judge. A man had committed a terrible crime and will be judged by a righteous judge. The judge was the criminal's father. As expected, the righteous judge sentenced the criminal to death. When the hour of execution approached, the judge came to the son and changed his clothes with the criminal and was executed in the criminal's place. In this way, the criminal was freed from the death penalty.

This is exactly what God did for us. We should be condemned because of our sin and condemned to eternal hell. But the righteous God, in human form called Jesus, received God's death penalty on the cross in our place. So we could be redeemed from the eternal punishment of God. This is an indescribable grace of God.

No matter how bad our sin may be, God forgives us if we confess our guilt and believe in Jesus Christ, that Jesus died on the cross in our place and rose from the dead on the third day. This is a wonderful grace from God. God then takes us as his children.

There is a moving story from Korean pastor Jang-Won Son. One of his sons was murdered by a young communist. This murderer was arrested by the police and was to be executed. Pastor Son pleaded for the murderer to be pardoned and then adopted him as his son.

God did something similar for us. We sinned against God so that his son had to be killed because of our sin. But God made us his children. This is a wonderful grace from God.

Verse 38 reports that the curtain in the temple in Jerusalem was torn in two from top to bottom.

The tearing of the temple curtain means that access to God has been opened to all people through the sacrificial death of Jesus. In the past, only the high priest was allowed to enter the room of the temple called the Holy of Holies once a year with the blood of the sacrificial lamb and pray for the forgiveness of the people's sins.

But Jesus died on the cross as the sacrificial lamb of God once and for all for our sins. That is why every person can meet God personally and speak to him at any time without any human mediator. That is why Jesus is called “Immanuel”, which means “God with us” (MT 1:23). Through the sacrificial death of Jesus, we can be with God.

Verse 39 reports: The Roman centurion in charge of the crucifixion squad saw Jesus dying like this and said, “Truly this man was the Son of God.”

This centurion had been responsible for carrying out the crucifixion. He had most likely also been present at the interrogation of Jesus by Pilate, so that he had witnessed the accusations against Jesus and his behavior. Afterward, he had led Jesus to Golgotha and had him crucified there. He then calmly observed Jesus' behavior and his words. He then became convinced that Jesus really was the Son of God. He now confessed to the others that Jesus really is the Son of God.

Mark, the author of this book, wants to tell us that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God and that he died for our sins and rose from the dead. Through faith in Jesus, we are to receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life and become children of God. This is the Good News for all people from all nations.

I hope that as many people as possible at this time will believe in Jesus as the Son of God and Christ, who died on the cross for their sins and then rose from the dead. Amen!

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[1] https://www.frogwords.de/bibel_at_nt/fragen_zum_nt/antwort_mk_15_23/2