Mark 15:22-27 22And they brought him to the place called Golgotha, which is translated as the Place of a Skull. 23And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24And they crucified him, and they divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to see what each would take. 25And it was the third hour and they crucified him. 26And the inscription of his charge was written, “The King of the Jews.” 27And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left.
Mark skips right ahead to the next scene without many details about Jesus’ difficult journey to the cross. With the beating he sustained, Jesus must have been quite weak and in pain. Many thousands of people would have seen him walk through Jerusalem. Mark notes the place of crucifixion as Golgotha, which was located outside of the city on a hill that looked like a skull, which may be why it got its name. The Latin Calvary means bald head. The exact location of Jesus’ crucifixion has been debated. With the destruction of the Romans in AD70 and the many events over the last two thousand years, some of the landscape in the area of Jerusalem has changed. The hill would have been prominent and visible, adding to the shame of those who suffered there.
Someone gave Jesus a mixture of wine and myrrh, a simple form of painkiller. This was a fulfillment of Psalm 69:21 and similar to Proverbs 31:6. Mark does not record who did this act of compassion, though it could have been the women following him (Luke 23:28). Jesus did not drink it because he told his disciples that he would not drink of the vine again until the kingdom of God had come (Mark 14:25).
The next several verses give enough information for the reader to imagine the situation. Mark’s simple statement that they crucified him holds much significance. He did not need to get into the details since his readers would have known about crucifixion. The process would have been extremely painful with the piercing of the hands or wrists and feet or ankles. The exposure to the sun and elements would have drained any remaining strength a person had. By this point, Jesus was barely alive. His garments were divided among the soldiers in fulfillment of Psalm 22:18. This would have left him basically naked, which was another way the Romans shamed people. The third hour in Roman timekeeping was 9 am. The sign above his head with the charge against him was another form of mockery. It shamed not only Jesus but all the Jews. Here was their king hanging on a cross. Mark gives no details about the two robbers who were crucified with Jesus except the brief note in verse 32 that they joined in the mockery.
Although Mark keeps the details to a minimum in his account, he gives enough information to show that everything about Jesus’ crucifixion was designed to bring shame and pain to him. His suffering on the cross gives us an example of complete trust in the promises of God (1 Peter 2:21-25). He could have turned away from the cross at any moment on the journey but knew that his death would bring the salvation to all humanity. The claims of the gospel rest upon the atonement theology of the Old Testament. Jesus’ death on the cross shows both God’s love and justice brought together in perfect unity.
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