No man has ever been scorned and mistreated more than Jesus, the Christ. Isaiah the prophet predicted of Him, "He is despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him: he was despised, and we esteemed him not," Isa. 53:3. Gal. 3:13 says He was "made a curse"; and every indication is that at the cross, the combined hatred, ridicule, and scorn of the human race were vented and aimed at the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today I shall endeavor to set before you what a degrading, humiliating death game the people at the cross played with the Christ as they tormented Him to death some 1,944 years ago.

I. LET ME GIVE YOU SOME IDEA OF WHAT I MEAN WHEN I SPEAK OF A DEATH GAME:

A. Everybody knows that sooner or later he must die, for God has said it is appointed, Heb. 9:27, you cannot escape it, Job 14:5, and you cannot prevent it when the day comes, Eccl. 8:8:

1. Death is really a great enemy according to I Cor. 15:26; and contrary to the T.V. movie, "Death Takes a Holiday ," the fact is that death will never take a holiday until it is finally destroyed by God in the end.

2. But, in spite of the fact that death is a great enemy, Satan has authored many an effort to make death look attractive:

a. After God told Adam in Gen. 2:17, that if he ate of the forbidden fruit, "Thou shalt surely die," Satan came right along and told Eve, "Thou shalt not surely die," Gen. 3:4.

b. The Sadducees of old didn't believe in the "resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit ...." Acts 23:8. Their modern day counterpart, the so-called Jehovah's Witnesses, likewise say there is nothing beyond death.

B. Armed with this kind of godless thinking, many people have made games out of death:

1. During February 1972, two hopped up girls in Chicago sat on the floor of their kitchen facing each other. They doused each other with gasoline and set each other on fire. They had told their friends that death was the ultimate ecstasy.

2. Many times our newspapers have told us of teenage parties in which a youth was shot to death playing the deadly game called Russian Roulette.

3. Art Linkletter's daughter, hopped up on drugs, jumped to her death out a building window, thinking she could fly.

4. In World War II, German officers were known to seat two captives side by side on chairs outside near a ravine or ledge. Executioners would quickly whack off their heads, then two other men would immediately put a hot iron on the stub. The reaction to the iron rejuvenated the muscles in the bodies, and the bodies would get up and run. The officers would bet on the distance of each one.

5. To glorify death, and make a game of it is antibiblical; yet many have done it in a variety of sinister ways.

II. NOW LET ME GIVE YOU SOMETHING OF THE BACKGROUND OF THE DEATH GAME IN WHICH JESUS WAS THE VICTIM:

A. In A.D. 29, when this diabolical, cruel death game was played with Jesus, Pilate was procurator or governor of Judea:

1. Judea was under Roman control, and Pilate was the Roman, Gentile official in charge of this area.

2. Pilate was the bastard son of Tyrus, King of Mayence. Having committed murder in Rome, he was sent to Pontius in Asia Minor, to squelch a rebellion. By subduing the uprising completely, he regained favor with Rome. Either to reward him or to get rid of him, Tiberius Caesar, ruler of Rome, made him governor of Judea. Pilate ruled Judea, Samaria, and old Idumea, with supreme judicial authority; and was answerable directly to Tiberius Caesar.

3. Pilate was a cruel, cowardly man:

a. He loved tormenting the Jews.

b. He set up Roman standards in Jerusalem, much to the dislike of the Jews.

c. Once he hung up golden shields in the temple, which had been inscribed unto heathen gods.

d. On another occasion he took some of the temple tax to build an aqueduct.

e. Luke 13:1 tells how he even murdered some while they were sacrificing in the temple.

B. While Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod Antipas was governor of Galilee; and Christ called him a "fox" in Luke 13:32. Neither he nor Pilate wanted ever to be stationed in Israel, a dry desert land compared to home and other more picturesque places. Furthermore, the Jews were hostile, and these areas were known in Rome as places of sedition and riots.

C. Besides Pilate, Herod, and the Jews, Barabbas was also a player in the death game in which Jesus was the victim:

1. Though he is mentioned only ten times in the New Testament, he was a well-known prisoner. Matt. 27:16 calls him a "prisoner of mark." Isn't it amazing that many, like Gary Gilmore, who are confessed murderers, are made popular by the news media?

2. Barabbas was a murderer and had tried to overthrow the government, Mark 15:7. He had also robbed and stolen, John 18:40.

D. To understand the cruel death game that was being played with Jesus, you need to know something of the Praetorium guard, or the "West Point" boys of the Roman army:

1. These were the ones who actually played the "Kings Game" with Jesus as the central character.

2. The Praetorium guard was divided into ten cohorts (groups) of 1,000 men each. At the time of Christ, there were five cohorts of these imperial soldiers at Caesaria.

3. The members of this elite army received two to three times the pay the ordinary soldiers got.

4. These soldiers served only sixteen years of total service.

5. The Praetorium Guard was so elite, so politically powerful that it could, by swinging it's weight behind someone, overthrow the emperor at any time. It is probably for this reason that Constantine abolished it in 312 A.D.

6. The Roman Army, of which the Praetorium was a part, was divided as follows:

a. Legion: 6,000 infantrymen, plus 120 cavalrymen.

b. Cohort: 1,000 men.

c. Century: 100 men.

d. Maniple: 60 or 120 men.

E. The place where this diabolical death game was played with Jesus was the old Antonia Fortress:

1. John 19:13 says, "When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat [Bema] in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha."

2. Gabbatha means "the elevated or high place," and "the Pavement" means "paved with stones." Thus, this was a high place, paved with stones.

3. During the time of Solomon, the Temple was protected on it's vulnerable north side by the Fortress Birah. Nehemiah called this place the "Hananeel" in his day, Neh. 3:1. When Herod decided to refurbish the Temple in about 36 B.C., he destroyed the Birah and made a new citadel called "ANTONIA." It was called "Antonia" in an effort to flatter Mark Anthony of Rome, and Herod used it about twelve years as a palace and a protective fortress.

4. Shortly thereafter, the Antonia was turned into a Roman fortress, and a residence for the Roman Procurator or governor of Judea.

5. Coming into the sides of this fortress from East and West was a Roman road made up of large pavement stones 4 foot by 3 foot by 2 foot. These stones were striated or grooved to prevent sliding by horses and chariots. The road, or pavement, came into the courtyard of the barracks and Pilate's palace and headquarters. Archaeologists uncovered these stones some years ago. It is also here that the final arrest of Paul took place, Acts 21:34-37, and the final fighting took place in 70 A.D. before Titus leveled Jerusalem.

F. This death game, or King's game that these soldiers played stemmed from a pagan festival called Saturnalia:

1. It was in commemoration of the pagan god Saturn, who ushered in the golden age.

2. Schools were let out, businesses closed, and there was an exchanging of gifts, much like Christmas. The guilty were released unpunished (this is why Barabbas was freed), Luke 23:17, and the festival was ruled over by a king chosen by lot, called King Carnival. At the end of the festival, King Carnival had to die. In later versions, the king did not actually die, but pretended or played dead. Mardi Gras and Easter both come from this ancient Roman Festival.

3. It happened that this pagan feast day coincided with the Jewish passover, during which Christ died, John 13:1. So, while the Jews were celebrating passover, the Romans were celebrating Saturnalia; and in several ways the two got mixed and intertwined.

4. During their celebration of Saturnalia, in all the tumultuous revelry, immorality, and corruption, the Roman soldiers amused themselves and relieved their boredom by playing games near the barracks or on the pavement where our Lord was tried.

5. On the pavement a whole network of games was seen, scratched into the pavement stones, probably with swords or nails.

G. The most infamous of the games played on this pavement was the Basilinda, or Game of the King:

1. A king was chosen by lot to rule over the game.

2. A game court similar to parcheesi was drawn on the pavement stones. The king started at a beginning spot and worked his way down a lifeline drawn amidst a network of lines sketched on the stones with swords.

3. During the Carnival, a mock court mocked the king and then put him to death.

III. WITH THESE THOUGHTS IN MIND, YOU CAN SEE THEN IN MATTHEW 27:27-31, WHAT THE SOLDIERS WERE DOING WITH JESUS. THEY WERE PLAYING THEIR WICKED DEATH GAME OF BASILINDA: EVERY FACET OF THE KING'S GAME OR DEATH GAME IS BORNE OUT BY THE MOCK TRIAL: PERSECUTION, RIDICULE, AND DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD:

A. The Roman Praetorium or soldiers needed a king for their game, and they found Jesus to be just ideal for their sadistic game:

1. Jesus had claimed to be a king. Pilate asked Him in their presence, "Art thou the king of the Jews?" John 18:33. He asked again in Verse 37, "Art thou a king then?" to which Jesus replied, "Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world .... " In spite of the fact that Pilate and the soldiers didn't really believe that He was, Jesus was and is a King; in fact, He is "King of Kings and Lord of Lords," Rev. 19:16.

2. These Roman soldiers were a long way from home in far-off, desert-like Palestine. So they could take out their scorn and resentment on Jesus, who to them was just a puppet King to be used in a bloody game. These Gentile Romans scorned the Jews, and they were unleashing all their bitterness and hatred on this supposedly Jewish king. It was as if they were saying, "This is what we think of your king."

B. Now look at how these soldiers played their game with the Lord of Glory:

1. They brought Him to "the Common hall" Verse 27, (this was the pavement in the Antonia Fortress), and this was after they had "scourged him" as Verse 26 shows:

a. Jesus had not slept all night, and now He is beaten.

b. Flogging was always preliminary to execution in Roman practice. So it was known at that time that Jesus would die, despite Pilate's statement, "I find no fault at all in him," of John 18:38.

c. The Roman whip used for scourging was loaded with bones or metal to cut the flesh. Thus, when Jesus was scourged the prophecies were fulfilled of Him which said, "The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows," Psa. 129:3; and "I gave my back to the smiters ...." Isa. 50:6.

2. Then the "whole band of soldiers," Verse 27, (probably a maniple of 120 men) "Stripped him," Verse 28. What mockery! They stripped publicly to the nude, the One who clothes in righteousness all who believe.

3. Then they "put on him a scarlet robe," Verse 28. So you can see that Jesus was led naked from the point of scourging to the pavement. This robe could have been anything from a worn out tunic of Pilate, to a red robe loaned by one of the soldiers.

4. And, then, "When they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head," Verse 29. The crown was simply a garland (in their death game, it was the victor's crown). Thorns came into the world because of a curse, and now Christ is being "made a curse for us," Gal. 3:13, by submitting to the cross wearing the crown of thorns. These soldiers reason that a pretender to the throne needs a crown; and so their horseplay turns into sadistic brutality.

5. They also put "a reed in his right hand," Verse 29. A king needs a sceptre, so a reed or cane is put into His hand. So, here is the one who shall someday reign and rule with a "rod of iron," Rev. 19:15, now reduced to mockery with a reed. These soldiers later used the cane to beat Him, Verse 30.

6. They then mockingly bow to the puppet king that they themselves have made and crowned, Verse 29. What contempt! What unadulterated, blasphemous filth!

7. And "they spit upon him," Verse 30. It was a custom in those days to show reverence to a sovereign by gently taking him by the beard and pulling him near to kiss him, as Samuel kissed Saul in I Sam. 10:1. On this occasion, however, the soldiers jerked the beard of Jesus and spit full in His face! Thus, came true the prophecy of Isaiah 50:6, "I gave .... my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting."

8. It was the custom in those days to sacrifice a young pig on that day, wearing a garland. In theft wicked frenzy, in the place of a pig, they sacrificed the blessed Lamb of God, John 1:29.

9. Folks, there is no way for us to know all that the Roman soldiers, as depraved as they were, did to Jesus. But they took Him as low as they knew how. They mocked Him with every bit of scorn and contempt that the human race could muster.

C. And, on that cruel day they crucified the Lord of Glory:

1. He "tasted death," Heb. 2:9. He suffered death, was "brought unto the dust of death," Psalm 22:15; "poured out his soul unto death," Isa. 53:12, that even those soldiers, who played the death game with Him might be forgiven, and have eternal life.

2. Oh, what a shameful day it was when they played the death game with our Jesus. So ashamed was even the sun that day that it hid it's rays from the ungodliness happening on earth, Luke 23:44-45.

3. But, folks, the one who died in the death game rose again the third day, I Cor. 15:3-4. "It was not possible that he should be holden of it [death]," Acts 2:24.

4. And, this one whom the soldiers pierced will soon return to establish His kingdom on this earth. This one, who was mocked more than any man has been mocked, will return to reign in glory, for ever and ever. Do you know Him today? Is He your Saviour and Lord? If not, why not receive Him right now?