Why the cruelty?      The PASSION movie has been criticized for its violence depicting the severe cruelty inflicted by Roman soldiers on one whom Pilate declared faultless. How could anyone with one shred of decency torture this gentle prisoner who never defended himself, and never fought back, as was clearly shown in PASSION?  The agony our Lord suffered before he was led out to be crucified, was unimaginable in its severity. Why?  What had Jesus done to make the soldiers hate him so?      I finally understood the reason for their depravity when we visited the Holy Land in 1974.  In the excavated Barracks of the Praetorium, the very stones on which Jesus endured the abuse, were at our feet. Sister Anne, a little Nun of the Chapel of Flagellation, stood near where the Battalion had met enmasse, as she read Mark 15:16 & 20b from the Jerusalem Bible Text:  “And the soldiers led Him away into the hall, called Praetorium; and they called together the whole battalion . . . and when they finished making sport they led Him away to be crucified.”      Sister Anne paused to explain that in their excavations of the Praetorium, they found records of a custom that added light as to why our Lord Jesus became the target of such awful brutality from the soldiers. For more than 100 years, the Romans had celebrated The Puppet-king Festival during the springtime.  In Roman cities throughout all the territories, 40 soldiers out of every battalion, were chosen by lot to assault and sacrifice a living human being in order to atone for everyone’s sins. It was a great honor to be chosen as one of the 40 for this great sport,  which happened to take place at the same time as the Jewish Passover. But because the festival had degenerated into an out-of-control orgy, in AD 2 Rome banned the use of human sacrifices altogether.  Thereafter, the soldiers turned to making what they called Straw-kings.      These Straw-king figures often represented whomever they happened to hate at the moment, and in Palestine, the Straw-king was always a Jew-king. They made this king of straw, stuffed him inside the clothes of a Jewish king. They put a purple robe upon him; a crown of thorns was placed on his head. Then, the Straw-king was dragged through the streets as people bowed before him in mock worship, spitting on and beating him along the way.  Finally, when there were only remnants of the Straw-king left, he was taken outside the city and buried. Once the Straw-king was safely in the ground, the people felt they were free to enjoy worldly pleasures again––until the next spring when another Straw-king would be sacrificed to atone for those sins.      I’ve often wondered about that last sentence in Mark 15:20, as it is written in The Jerusalem Bible text:  “And when they had finished making sport. . . .”   What was it about our Lord Jesus that incited these 40 bestial men inside the Barracks to make sport of him this year at Passover? Might it have been the question Pilate asked: “Are you the King of the Jews?”      No doubt the soldiers pricked up their ears at that question, and it follows that those three words, King of the Jews, may have given them the idea that there was no need for a Straw-king this particular spring. For the first time in 30 years, they had a real live Jew-king, at their disposal,  and Pilate, a Roman official, had given 40  especially chosen soldiers permission to torture and kill this One whom they called, The King of Jews, in derision.      So, they took our blessed Lord, the Redeemer of mankind, and did to him what they had done to Straw-kings for so many years past. They spit upon him, they crowned him with a thorn crown, they beat him, they put a purple robe upon him, they bowed their knees in mockery, exclaiming, “Hail, King of the Jews!” When they led Jesus away, it was down the same path that the Straw-king had been taken to the outskirts of the city, and buried, in years past.      But, this real live King, they made to carry his own cross down this path, and once outside the city walls, they crucified the real live King. On the Cross was, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews,” written by Pilate, himself.      They killed the One who carried their sins with him to the Cross, not realizing that this real live King could atone for them––if they would only let him––when they finished making sport.
Evelyn R. Smith © 2004 Bible Center Church Back To Main Page / Archive of Previous Articles	We are making copies of this tract available for our congregation to use, you can also send an online copy using the link below.   Send This Online Tract