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By: Steve Wilt
June 5, 2023
The world we live in is not all that pretty. Though sin has undermined the natural creation, sin’s corruption finds its most horrific expression in the lives of lost people. Since Adam first rejected God's commandments, people worldwide have rejected Christ, His message, and His people. There is no way to label the rejection of Christ as a passing fad or an aberration of the norm. Rather, rejection of Christ runs deeply in the heart of humanity. The Lord experienced the rejection of those He ministered among, finding the ultimate expression of that rejection at the cross. The same attitudes toward Christ that caused people to raise their fists toward Him continue today. Let's look at the attitude of the people at the cross as recorded in Mark 15:21-28 to gain some eternal perspective that will equip us to reach our not-so-pretty world. Though the text illuminates four attitudes, this article will explore only the first.
Some people are indifferent toward Christ. At the cross, the political powers expressed callous indifference toward Christ (Mark 15:21-28).
No Roman soldier would carry a criminal’s cross, and Jews would not willingly touch a cross because it was a cursed thing. Yet, the Romans forced a Jew, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross. It was a cruel joke to require an innocent Jew to defile himself by carrying a condemned man’s cross.
They sought to sedate Jesus. It was not an act of mercy but was intended to make the crucifixion easier for the soldiers. Jesus determined to take the full force of sin on himself, but the Romans were indifferent to that intent.
The Romans had adopted a cruel means of punishment from the Persians. Notably, without detail, the text simply says, "They crucified Him." For the first-century world, enough said. This method of execution included shaming by stripping the person naked. They charged Him falsely and identified Him with criminals, unwittingly fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy that He would be “numbered with the transgressors.”
The political powers were indifferent toward Christ. They were indifferent to the convictions of the Jews; they were indifferent to Christ’s reason for coming. They had no concern for the will of God. They were indifferent to the pain and misery they inflicted in the pursuit of their own agendas.
In our present world, some people are indifferent toward Christ. They may know of Him, and they may even have a small working knowledge of who He is and what He did, but they don't care. In their pride, their own agendas come first. They are often carried along mindlessly by the spirit of the age. They are too occupied with this life to really stop and take notice of Him.
How do we respond to people who are indifferent toward Christ? How do we reach them with the message of the Savior they so desperately need? The answer: We need to capture their attention by caring about them.
In our frenetic world, many competing interests call for people's attention. People need to have their attention directed toward Him. To reach the indifferent, we need to ask ourselves:
