Think of that! The face that soon would shine like the sun in full strength. The glorified Lord was spat upon by mere human beings. What is going through his mind as he receives the insults and the blows and the spitting and he looks around at the crowd? He has suffered quite enough already and he says, ‘This is the human race. This is the nature of human beings in every age, but I am still going ahead with it. I am going to suffer and die for them. I am going to die for them in love; to rescue them. There is nothing good in them at all. There is no sympathy, there is no reverence, there is no love, but I will express my love to them in mercy and compassion, and I am going ahead.’ Christ is determined to save his people, and he does it in spite of our wholehearted opposition to his work. We do not seek him at any time before he works in our hearts. He must save us, even though we resist him every step of the way, until we are melted in shame for what we are and our pride is broken.
How much he would have to do for you and me. He would have to cleanse us. He would have to lift us up, give us new hearts, give us entirely new natures. He would have to turn us from being evil people into holy people; trivial people to profound people, who appreciate his being and the wonderful things of God. He would have to change us from hating people to loving people; disobedient people to obedient people; from people resistant to him, to people who run to him; from earthy people to heavenly people. He would make all the going; he would do everything. He would go against our resistance. He would have to save us by irresistible grace alone, otherwise we would never come. What amazing love in Jesus Christ our Saviour!
The mockery, the false worship indicates fearlessness, arrogance. You get to the point in cynical unbelief, if you reject Christ, where you are quite fearless about your position. You hate him, you slander him, you take no notice of him. The mockery reveals this arrogance, this fearlessness.