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Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions, Day 2 of our look together through Mark
Chapter 15. We're going to look at verses 16 to 21 today, continuing our look at
what Jesus did on this day that he gave his life for me, he gave his life for
you. Listen to Mark 15, 16 to 21.

The soldiers led Jesus away to the palace, that is the praetorium, and called
together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him, then
twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him, and they began to call out
to him, "Hail, King of the Jews! " 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, and when they had mocked him,
they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him, and then they led
him away to crucify him. A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of
Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they
forced him to carry the cross. Here is this day in the life of Jesus and those
who surrounded this day, and you see the soldiers, what happened this day was
just a game to them.

They mocked the master on this day. These Roman soldiers mocked because they
didn't understand his kingdom. They mocked him as an earthly king, but Jesus'
kingdom was never meant to show itself to men in crowns and roses and scepters,
so they played this game with him.

I've been to Jerusalem, and you can go down underneath the place where this
probably happened in Jerusalem, and see in the pavement carved near this
Fortress Antonia where this mocking happened with the soldiers, the carvings of
something the soldiers called the king game. It was a game that they would play
with prisoners sometimes, talking about what it meant for them to be king even
though they were on their way to their death. They actually used prisoners like
pieces in a game, moved them from here to here, mere tokens, mere nothings, and
they treated Jesus that way that day.

They went even further with him because he was said to be the king of kings, so
it was perfect for them. They played the king game. This man was said to be a
king.

What great sport. What a great day. So they were laughing.

They put the purple robe on him, and they laughed. They twisted together a crown
of thorns, and they saw the pain and the blood that came as they forced it on
Jesus' head, and they laughed. "Hail, King of the Jews," they laughed.

To them, it was just nothing, just another day. They didn't know. They didn't
understand.

When they had mocked him, they led him away to crucify him. In the soldiers'
actions, you and I can look at them and blame them and think I would never have
done such a thing, or instead we could look at our own hearts, our own lives,
and recognize that it's so easy to make a mockery of holy things. It's easy to
make a mockery of holy things.

People do it all the time. It happens in humor all the time. Because it's so
important to some people, it can be funny to other people.

And in this day, these soldiers missed the reality of the Lamb of God who was
giving his life for them. As I look at what these soldiers did that day, I don't
blame them. I relate to them.

I see how easily I could have gone down the same road. This is Jesus' last day.
And in this last day, he is led out to be crucified.

In his last week, he comes into Jerusalem as king, as priest, as prophet, and
lamb. And now he has marched out of Jerusalem looking like a common thief,
carrying his own cross to be crucified. But he's still the king.

He is still the priest. He's still the prophet. He's still the Lamb of God who
carries the sin of the world.

As Jesus has marched out of Jerusalem, the other gospels tell us that the
weariness of having been scourged, the weariness of carrying our sins, knowing
the suffering that he was facing, Jesus begins to stumble under the weight of
the cross. And so a man is there, Simon, and he is pressed into service to carry
the cross. He is forced to do what billions would now consider the greatest
privilege of their life.

Whatever the pain, there are billions who would consider it a privilege to carry
for even a few steps the cross of Jesus Christ for him on this day. And we know
something about Simon. We know something from Mark especially, because Mark
notes for us that he is the father of Alexander and Rufus.

Why does he say this? Because he knows that the Roman church who is reading this
gospel, one of the first churches to read the gospel, Mark wrote so that the
Romans would hear, that the Roman church knew Alexander and they knew Rufus. In
fact, Rufus is mentioned in Romans chapter 16 as Paul writes to the Roman
church.

And the two are mentioned here because they're well known to believers in the
early church. See, Alexander and Rufus, the sons of Simon, became believers in
Jesus Christ. Just think of how God changed this family this day.

Simon is walking in from the country. He has no intention of being caught up in
what's happening with the cross. The Roman soldier comes and demands that he
serve.

And in an occupied territory like this, when a Roman soldier demanded the
service of you, you had to give it. There was no choice. And so he's pressed
into a service that he never wanted.

And this is no mere just carry my pack for me a mile, which oftentimes is what
they asked. This is carry a man's cross, an already bloodied cross. It was an
awful job.

So it carries this cross alongside of Jesus Christ and somewhere in carrying the
cross, somewhere in what he sees happen on the place of crucifixion. Simon's
life has changed. His heart has changed.

As my life has been changed, as your heart has been changed or is being changed
right now as you hear about this, that's what happens at the cross. Jesus Christ
changes hearts. He not only changes hearts, he changes lives and he changes
families.

The father of Alexander and Rufus, Alexander and Rufus come to Jesus Christ
because of what happens here. All of life is changed. It was no accident what
happened this day.

The Roman soldier maybe thought it was, but it was no accident. God knew exactly
what he was doing. He knew exactly when Simon would be coming by.

And even as Jesus is carrying the cross, he's being a witness to this family.
And so what happens, 22 to 24, they brought Jesus to the place called Bogatha,
which means the place of the skull. And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh,
but he did not take it.

And they crucified him. They crucified the Christ. This is a brief word here.

They crucified him. That's all that's said. But it was a horrible death.

Anyone reading this in that day would have known this is one of the cruelest
forms of execution ever devised by man. The cross was designed to be an
execution by public humiliation, the public humiliation of a long, slow death.
The nails that were driven through a person's hands and a person's feet were not
what killed someone.

The nails simply kept someone on the cross. People died of starvation. They died
of thirst.

They died of the elements. They died of suffocation. That's how a person died on
the cross.

And they died as the crowds walked by. The crosses were always put in a very
public place, in the entrance places to the cities, so that the crowds could
walk by and see this humiliation of the person who'd committed this crime. For
Jesus Christ, the cross was no humiliation.

For Jesus Christ, the cross was a public display of his humility. It was a
public display of his love. For Jesus Christ, the cross was not a place where
his life was taken from him.

The cross was a place where his life was given for us. At any moment, he could
have said no. He could have said no in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He could have said no when he was standing before Pilate. And he could have
given an excuse to get away from the cross. One of the other gospels tells us
that even on the cross, he could have called 10,000 angels to come and minister
to him and maybe even rescue him, but he did not.

God in human flesh chose, moment by moment, to go to the cross. He chose to do
it for me. He chose to do it for you.

That's the love of God. Now, as you and I think about the cross, they crucified
him. As you think about the love of God, my prayer is that that love will come
into my life, into your life today.

Let's ask Jesus for that right now. Jesus, so many of us are like Simon. We run
into you on a street, and we encounter you in ways that we're not sure what you
want to do in our lives.

We're confused at first, but Jesus, when we see the cross, when we see the love
that you have for us, when we see God in human flesh giving himself for us, a
lot of other things might be confusing in our lives, but that becomes clear.
Lord, I pray that we would live this week, that I would live this week with that
clarity. There's going to be doubts in my life.

There's going to be temptations in my life. There's going to be problems in my
life, but there's no doubt. There's no temptation.

There is no problem that is greater than your love, because those things will
not last. The doubts will go away. The temptations will not last.

Even the problem when we go to heaven to be with you will be gone. But your love
for us, that lasts forever. What we see here on the cross, it is the most
lasting truth about us.

You love us. There is no truth about us that lasts longer than that truth. You
love us.

Thank you for your love, Jesus. Thank you for your love. In your name.

In your name, amen. Well, join us tomorrow. We're going to be looking at those
who watched Jesus as He gave His life for us.