“Live from Jerusalem: The Way of Sorrows”
Mark 15:12-33

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Lent Service VI—March 24, 2021

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

For our Lent services this year we have been looking at the events of Holy Week under the theme, “Live from Jerusalem”: “The Triumphal Entry,” on Palm Sunday; Christ’s teaching and conflicts with his enemies in “The Temple Courts” on Monday and Tuesday of Holy Week; his agony in “The Garden of Gethsemane” on Maundy Thursday; and “The Trials” and “The Humiliations” he endured later that night and on Good Friday. 

The scene we meditate on this evening came on the morning of Good Friday, after Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate and before the crucifixion at Calvary, his journey out to Calvary on “The Way of Sorrows,” also in known in Latin as the, “Via Dolorosa.” John writes: “Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.  Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull.”

When executions are conducted in modern times it is not a public spectacle.  Only a small number of newsmen and law enforcement officials witness the event.  But, the Romans had a completely different attitude.  In fact, the reason they adopted this most brutal form of execution was specifically to make it a very public spectacle. 

They had a vast Empire spread out over many hostile countries.  The problem was how to maintain order and dominance over all these conquered, restless peoples. It was announced last year that since 2001 the United States has spent a staggering $6.4 TRILLION dollars maintaining troops in the Middle East.  That’s nearly a one-and-a-half times the entire federal budget for 2020.  So, we’ve spent more over there than the cost of running the whole country for a year.

The Romans would not tolerate such crushing expenses to keep control over their Empire.  To save money the garrisons in these conquered lands were kept extremely small.  It is estimated there were over 250,000 in Jerusalem for Passover week, but that Pontius Pilate had just a few thousand soldiers in the whole country to maintain order.

So, in order to keep the local people in line, they relied on the deterrent effect of extreme brutality.  That is why every crucifixion was purposely made into a public spectacle, to communicate in no uncertain terms a blunt message: This is what will happen to you, if you dare commit a crime against or oppose our Empire.

The spectacle began with the journey out to the place of crucifixion.  This took place along major streets, which were lined with probably every soldier available to keep back the crowds.  Some in the crowds were sympathetic and mourning the victims, as Luke says, “A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him.”  But, for many others, this had become a blood sport like the gladiators fighting to the death in the arena, a cruel, wicked form of entertainment, and they shouted insults and ridiculed the condemned men.

Usually, the condemned had been already severely beaten before this death march began, in order to hasten their death once crucified.  So, the condemned men being led out were weak and bloody, and sometimes didn’t even survive long enough to be crucified. 

As a further humiliation, they were forced to carry out their own crosses, the very instruments by which death would be inflicted on them.  So, our Lord, who had been severely whipped, was carrying on his wounded back several hundred pounds of rough wood, painfully tearing at his flesh.  Finally, he grew too weak to go on, as Luke says, “As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.” 

A Roman solider could impress anyone into service and require him to carry a load one mile.  That is, by the way, where we get the phrase, “Going the extra mile,” going beyond what is required.  Mark notes that this Simon form Cyrene who was impressed to carry the cross for our Lord was, “the father of Alexander and Rufus.” From that comment it is assumed that the experience of carrying Christ’s cross out to Calvary had a profound impact upon him, and he and his family became Christians, well-known among the early disciples to whom Mark was writing.

Mark says, “The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS.”  This was called the “titulus” and was another important part of making crucifixions a public spectacle to deter rebellion against the Empire.  This wooden placard was prepared before the death march began and carried in front of the condemned man as he was led out to the place of execution.  The two thieves crucified with Jesus that day would have also each had their own titulus describing their crimes.  This too was to send a message to the crowds lining the road: Be warned, if you commit this crime, this will be your punishment.

There was a specific Roman law making it a capital offense, punishable by death, to declare oneself to be a king without permission of the Roman Emperor.  Although Jesus testified to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world,” and Pilate declared, “I find no basis for a charge against this man,” technically that was the crime for which he was falsely condemned and wrongly crucified: treason against the Empire, declaring himself to be a king in opposition to Caesar. 

When the crucifixion detail arrived at the place of crucifixion, the titulus which had been carried out before the condemned man was hung above, as Matthew reports, “Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.”  John says, “Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.  Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.  The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, ‘Do not write “The King of the Jews,” but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.’  Pilate answered, ‘What I have written, I have written.’”  This posting of the titulus over the dying man was again intended to all those witnessing the execution as a stark warning and deterrent not to commit this same crime.

As tortuous as “The Way of Sorrows” was for our Lord, at the end lay an even greater torture.  As Luke says, “When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him.”

Isaiah says, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. . . Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.  We observed him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.  He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.  We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. . .  he was led like a lamb to the slaughter . . .”

Christ endured the torturous march on “The Way of Sorrows” for you.  As Hebrews says, “We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”  “The Lord has on him the iniquity of us all.”  On account the suffering he endured as your substitute, your sins are all forgiven.

And there is another comforting message for you in Christ’s agony on the “Via Dolorosa.”  Isaiah says he was “a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.”  You know how your life in this world is so often your own, personal “Via Dolorosa,” your own, personal way of sorrows, and God knows it too.  Your God understands your pain, because he came down to earth and was made man, and he himself endured the ultimate way of sorrows.  Compressed into his horrible journey to Calvary were all the pains, all the sufferings, all the sorrows of all humanity.

Hebrews says that Jesus is able to “sympathize with us in our weaknesses” because he himself was “tested in every way, just as we are.”  Your God is not some distant, nebulous Higher Power.  In all your struggles, as you face your own personal “Via Dolorosa,” your own way of sorrows in this life, he sympathizes, he understands, he knows your pain.  As the old spiritual says, “Jesus walked this lonesome valley.”  He walked for you, “The Way of Sorrows.”