The People Near Jesus' Cross

Mark 15:25-32

The two men who died with Jesus were bad men. They had attacked other people; and they had taken things from those people. But the soldiers caught those two men. The soldiers wanted to cause those men a lot of pain. Then other men would be afraid to do the same things.

But Jesus had not done any wrong things. The soldiers put a notice on each cross. The notice explained why the soldiers were killing each man. Jesus‘ notice read: "The King of The Jews."

Many people passed that place. They too were cruel to the men who were dying. And they were very cruel to Jesus.

Some people repeated the words in Mark 14:58. Mark does not explain those words, but John explains them (John 2:19-22). The people did not understand those words. But clearly, Jesus was saying that God would do something new. And that new thing was even better and more important than God‘s Great House was. These people told Jesus that they did not believe it. He had promised something new. But he was dying, and that would be the end of his promises. Before he saved God‘s people, he would have to save himself.

Even the important priests were saying these things about Jesus. The future king of Israel, called the Christ, would save God‘s people. But a dead Christ cannot save anyone. A dead king could not fight on behalf of God‘s people. Jesus could only do these things if he were alive.

Even the other men who were dying next to Jesus said these bad things.