Mark 15:16 Commentary and Bible Study

We come to the final humiliation. The first: take away his status; the second: willingly choose the alternative, Barabbas; the third humiliation: be hostile to him, show him violence and hatred and contempt. You see the three steps: reduce Christ to a man; choose this world; oppose him forcefully. You see Christ’s three humiliations, even before Calvary.‘And the soldiers led him away into the hall called Praetorium, and they call together the whole band.’ The word for band means ‘cohort’, which was properly 600 men, but they may not all have been present. Nevertheless there must be hundreds to warrant this description. This is the third time that Christ has been subject to violence – the first with Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin; the second with Herod; now with the Roman soldiers. It has been said that he must suffer human hostility twice. He must suffer it when they attack him and buffet him and spit on him, and he must suffer it when he bears the punishment due. He must suffer by our sins, before he suffers for our sins and yet he was ready to suffer for our sins. He must know human beings, not just with the divine vision and knowledge which he has as God but he must know us as one on the receiving end of our taunts and hatred and cruelty. He is surely above all others for mercy, for compassion, for love.