Beginning around 1965, protests against the Vietnam War began to gain traction on college campuses across the United States. The protests reached their peak in early 1968 but continued after that. The counterculture music scene that sprang up around the same time was closely aligned with the anti-war movement. 

Between August 15-18, 1969, music promotors held the mother of all music and art festivals in the small town of Bethel, New York: Woodstock. The promotors anticipated approximately 200,000 attendees, but more than double that amount eventually showed up. As you might imagine, there wasn’t enough food to feed all of the party goers, and personal hygiene and basic sanitation were deplorable. At one point, the local government of Sullivan County declared a state of emergency.

As fate would have it, the festival organizers called on the U.S. Army to fly in medical supplies and food to provide relief to the Woodstock wearies. Given the tension that existed at that time between the anti-war proponents (which most Woodstock attendees were) and the military, many of the crowd were quite leery when a U.S. Army helicopter arrived at the festival and circled over the crowd. “You could see people start to look up … and all I said was, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, the United States Army —’ and you could feel it and you could hear it, the tension — ‘Medical Corps.’ And the crowd broke into a cheer that was just fantastic. And just about then you could see the red crosses on the side.” ¹

In much the same way, in Jesus’s day, “Crucifixion was widely believed to be the worst form of execution, due to the excruciating pain and public shame.” ² I don’t think the pain is lost on anyone, but I’m not sure we believers appreciate the public shame component of our Lord’s sacrifice. 

If you examine Matthew 27:32-44, you can identify a form of mockery in each verse:

V. 32: mockery by conscripting an anonymous passerby to participate in the public spectacle;

V. 33: mockery by location (outside the city) at Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull);

V. 34: mockery by offering wine mixed with gall (a bitter herb that could even be poisonous);

V. 35: mockery by having a lottery party for Jesus’s clothes;

V. 36: mockery by exultant observation;

V. 37: mockery by sarcastic salutation (in Aramaic, Latin and Greek — see John 19:20);

V. 38: mockery by association with criminals — one on each side for good measure;

V. 39: mockery by amused bewilderment;

V. 40: mockery by logical fallacy (if you are the Son of God, you wouldn’t be crucified);

V. 41: mockery by the religious establishment;

V. 42: mockery by reference to known miracles performed on behalf of others;

V. 43: mockery of Jesus’s faith in and submission to His Father;

V. 44: mockery of the people by whom Jesus was surrounded, itself a form of mockery. 

“Jesus died for our sins on a Cross” can sound almost sanitary if you don’t take in all the mocking, humiliation, torment and excruciating pain. Jesus took not just an instrument of war, but the “worst form of execution” and converted it to a symbol of not only grace to people sorely in need, but triumph. 

Hebrews 12:2 tells us that, “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Talk about flipping the script. Jesus took the ultimate vehicle of shame and SCORNED IT! Why? For the joy set before Him — the reality that the rupture in the relationship between man and God could be healed, and that all human heartache, pain and suffering could someday be wiped away — that was “the joy set before Him.”

Whether you are an unbeliever, new believer or a believer of many years, you should reflect purposefully and intentionally on this truth:

“But HE was pierced for OUR transgressions,

HE was crushed for OUR iniquities;

the punishment that brought US peace was on HIM,

and by HIS wounds WE are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

Do you believe that? Do you believe that God Himself, who created human beings, would subject Himself to be tortured by human beings, to rescue human beings from their wretched misery? Sometimes I struggle to believe that such an omnipotent Creator has such a design for me, a mere human. But that is exactly what the Gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us, and that is the Gospel that has been turning a world full of human lives upside down for 2,000 years.

The contrast of an all-powerful God exchanging His glory for the humiliation and torture of the Cross for the purpose of intimacy with every single living person reminds me of the lyrics of a song performed by Alvin Slaughter: “He would have left his throne in glory if there was nobody else but me; God is good, all the time.” 

Take some time to reflect on that and let it percolate within your soul. Focus on WHAT God Himself did and WHY — He did it for you and would have done it for only you. After a moment of reflection, I hope you are inclined to sing (or at least say) the lyrics to the song Forever Grateful:

“I’m forever grateful to you;

I’m forever grateful for the cross.

I’m forever grateful to you;

That you came to seek and save the lost.” ³

Re-read the “mockery” list. Write out a prayer of Thanksgiving to Christ for the bravery, majesty and profundity of His work on the Cross.

The Cross of Jesus may be the most counterintuitive fixture within the economy of God. Write out three or four points as you reflect on Jesus’s finished work:

1. He died the death I should have died to live a life I never deserved.

2. His death took an instrument of shame and made it a symbol of unity between God and men.

3.

4.

5.

6.