Ironies at the Foot of the Cross

In Mark 15 verses 21-32, and see that God’s ironies tell us what Jesus will do. God’s ironies tell us what Jesus will do. What is irony? Mark uses a form of dramatic irony in these verses as he records people speaking better than they knew. The three voices we hear in these verses think they are mocking Jesus, but actually, they’re telling the truth about Him. These ironies show us what Jesus will do. We hear the first voice in verse 26, read that with me.  When someone was crucified they had a sign hung above their head detailing what their crimes where. It might have said ‘murder,’ or ‘treason.’ Jesus crime according to Pilate was that He was the King of the Jews. No doubt Pilate put this sign up to embarrass the Jews. The Jews themselves, those who arrested Jesus would have hated this. But Jesus really was the King of the Jews, the King of the new Kingdom. The King that David had been promised, the King that Judah had been promised, the King that the Jewish leaders should have been looking for. The King they needed but didn't want. The King that would have set them free from themselves. The King of the Jews, hung on a cross, cursed by God. 

We hear the second voice in verse 29. Remember all the way though Mark’s Gospel, the claim that Jesus made early in His ministry, recorded in John 2 that if the temple was destroyed He would rebuild it in three days was something that people used against Him. People now insulted Him by saying, in effect, if you’re so clever that you can rebuild the Temple in three days, you ought to be able to get yourself off the cross. But again, this is irony. Jesus is The Temple, the real temple, the real place where man can meet with God. He is the Temple, the meeting place because He died. Mark shows us this truth again in the immediate aftermath of Jesus death . In verse 38, just after Jesus breathes His last Mark cuts away from Golgotha and takes us into the Temple. There he shows us the curtain, the thick, richly-woven, heavy curtain the symbolized mans separating from God being torn in two. Now if you want to meet with God where do you need to go? To Jesus? And when? Whenever you need to. You're invited by His nailed scarred hands. 

We hear the final voice in this section in verse 31. They admit that He saved others. He gave sight to the blind and legs to the lame. But now look at Him. Naked and nailed to the cross, totally hopeless. He can not save Himself they joke. What a fraud Jesus is. Except, there’s more irony here isn’t there.  It’s simply because He saved others that He can not save Himself. It’s because He’s dying on the cross for sin that He can save others from sin.

Mark uses the ironic comments of the passers-by to teach us that Jesus will be the King of a renewed Kingdom, the Kingdom of God. This has been Mark's message since the first verse of his Gospel. That he brings good news about the Son of God. This is how the King is crowned, and this is how the Kingdom works. IN the darkest of nights, there is light, in the worst circumstances there is hope, though the King wears a crown of thorns, He really is the King. There are mysteries in the Christian life, and ironies. But the King makes everything beautiful in it's time...