Mark 15:16-21 16And the soldiers led him away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium), and they called together the whole Roman cohort. 17And they dressed him in a purple cloth, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on him; 18and they began to greet him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 19And they kept beating his head with a reed, and they were spitting on him, and kneeling in reverence before him. 20And after they had mocked him, they took the purple robe off him and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him. 21They forced someone passing by, Simon of Cyrene, coming from the countryside, the father of Alexander and Rufus, that he might carry his cross.
When the Roman soldiers took over at the command of Pilate, things got real bad for Jesus. Jesus predicted in 10:33-34 that he would be handed over to the Gentiles who would mock and beat him. The word had spread among the soldiers of why Jesus was condemned to death, and so the whole cohort gathered in Herod’s palace. A cohort was around 600 soldiers. The Praetorium was the fortress soldiers gathered to watch over the area of the palace.
The soldiers dressed Jesus in royal purple and put a crown of thorns made from the acanthus plant on his head as part of their mockery. Their so-called greeting was all in jest and fun. They had absolutely no respect for him and saw him as an object to be abused and have a little fun. Their laughter still rings out through the words of this passage. Their mockery continued by bowing before him as if he were a king. Someday, they would bow before him, as will every knee bow and confess Jesus to be King, not just of Jews but of all creation (Philippians 2:9-11). The soldiers showed Jesus no dignity. The episode was a fulfillment of Isaiah 50:6 that the coming one would be beaten, his beard pulled, and he would be mocked and spit upon.
Verse 20 ends with the simple but profound statement that Jesus was led away to be crucified. The Via Delorosa was likely crowded with people at that time. The Romans like to march the condemned along highly public routes as part of their shame game of ridicule. Crucifixion was the form of execution used for notorious criminals. Roman citizens could not be crucified. The Romans used various sadistic methods to hang both men and women on crosses, usually naked to enhance the shame. The victims’ hands or wrists could either be impaled to the crossbeam or sometimes ropes were used. Their ankles could also be nailed to the post. If a person did not bleed to death from these wounds since a major artery was not punctured, the person could survive up to several days and die of asphyxiation from not being able to breath or from the shock of the injuries sustained in the beatings before the crucifixion. There was absolutely no escape or hope for the condemned. It was the worst way to die at that time.
The journey to the cross was just as bad for Jesus as actually hanging on the cross. The beatings he received, including the thwacks on the head with a reed rod, were painful and debilitating. The Romans required the condemned to carry their own crossbeam. Jesus was in such a weakened condition that he could not carry his cross. Mark records the small note that the soldiers forced a man named Simon of Cyrene to carry Jesus’ cross, most likely because Jesus was so weakened by the beatings that he could not make it himself. Mark notes a couple of interesting facts about Simon. He was coming in from the countryside when the Romans forced him into service. The Romans were hated by the Jews because the soldiers could force them to do things like this at any whim. Cyrene was located on the northern coast of Africa. Simon was likely a pilgrim who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread. He may have had the darker skin of some Africans.
The note of him being the father of Alexander and Rufus implies that the church in Rome where Mark was at the time of writing this Gospel knew them. Indeed, Paul gives greetings to a Rufus in Romans 16:13, possibly the same person. There is no way to know if these are the same people, but usually when a name is mentioned like this in the New Testament, it is significant. It is possible that by carrying Jesus’ cross, Simon became a believer and influenced his family who also became believers. Although Simon had no choice about carrying Jesus’ cross, he may have come to realize the power of the words that Jesus said about disciples recorded in 8:34 about carrying one’s cross.
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