The Ultimate Triumph

Sometimes it’s thought that the suffering and death of Jesus Christ was a defeat that God then overturned in His resurrection. But that is not the case. Jesus was not defeated in His death. He won! The resurrection continued and magnified the victory. But Christ’s anguish and death preceding it were vital components of that victory—coming exactly as He and the Father had planned, on the exact day, and with Him succeeding in resisting sin until the moment He died, overcoming the devil, so that He could be the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God to redeem humanity from sin and death.

Moreover, something else to examine more closely is that the portrayal of Jesus’ suffering and death in the Gospels shows the Roman soldiers mocking Jesus in what many now understand to be a reversal of their greatest honor bestowed on high generals and during the empire only emperors—the Roman triumph (“triumph” here referring to a specific Roman processional ceremony rather than the modern generic usage of a big win or celebration of victory).

Indeed, while Roman emperors declared their lordship and divinity in various ways, none was more dramatic and direct than the imperial triumph. Yet God was turning the soldiers’ mockery on its head. For, as we will see, the New Testament presents Jesus’ path to His crucifixion as a far greater triumph than imperial glory—the ultimate exaltation that put to shame earthly powers and the demonic forces behind them!

The rise of the imperial triumph

The Roman triumph was a massive victory parade presenting spoils of conquest with key steps that honored and recognized the raising of the one being honored to divine glory or godhood. It developed from earlier Etruscan and Greek ceremonies calling for a manifestation of Dionysus, the supposed dying and rising god triumphant over men (a corrupt element of ancient false religion that, through demonic influence, counterfeited the foretold death and resurrection of the true Messiah).

In the original ceremonies, the king appeared in costume as Dionysus, with both him and a bull accompanying him for sacrifice seen to represent the god in both his dying and resurrected phases. Similar ceremonies took places in other ancient cultures. In Greece, Dionysus was eventually supplanted in the role by Zeus, as king of the gods—while for the Romans this became the equivalent Jupiter.

During the Roman Republic, the triumphal honor passed to victorious generals. But with the beginning of the Empire under Augustus, the triumph became the exclusive privilege of the emperors—seen as the divine embodiment of Roman victory and power. Imperial triumphs were often commemorated with the building of triumphal arches, with the processions passing near and through these great monuments, some of which still stand.

The details of the triumph have been pieced together from various historical accounts. They were not always the same, with the various triumphators (those being honored with the triumph) attempting to exalt themselves and their accomplishments in unique ways. But there were many common elements in a general order—and we find remarkable parallels for these in what happened with Jesus.

In this we’ll see that Jesus’ walk to His crucifixion was not a mere dragging of a condemned criminal to execution, but the procession of a divine King to His seat of ultimate honor before being received into immortal glory.

Triumphal elements and Jesus’ steps to crucifixion in parallel

We’ll mainly proceed through Mark’s Gospel. From its use of some Latin words and other internal evidence, it appears to have been written primarily to a Roman audience who would have understood the parallels to the Roman triumph. But we find these elements in other Gospel accounts as well. Mark 15:15 records Pilate handing Jesus over to scourging and crucifixion. Continuing, we proceed into the parallels between the triumph and what Jesus experienced:

1. A triumph began at Rome’s military quarters with the gathering of the Praetorian guard, the large elite force of the emperor.

Mark 15:16: “Then the soldiers led Him [Jesus] away into the hall called Praetorium, and they called together the whole garrison [or cohort].” Such a large gathering of imperial troops was unusual for beating and crucifying a single prisoner, though perhaps there were concerns of citywide rioting breaking out.

2. The one being honored was clothed in a purple robe with a laurel crown placed on his head.

Verse 17: “And they clothed Him with purple; and they twisted a crown of thorns, put it on His head . . .”

The robe is also said to be purple in John 19 (verses 2, 5). Yet Matthew 27:28 says it was scarlet. Which was it? Purple garments were highly expensive and could only be worn by members of the Roman nobility. So a scarlet robe, as Roman officers had, seems more likely. Some have suggested blended threading of blue and scarlet that appeared purple. Others suspect that, in this military setting, soldiers used a worn-out scarlet robe that was now faded to a dull and dingy color closer to mauve. Whatever the case, referring to it as purple was meant to portray it as a kingly robe—in line with a triumph.

With the robe and thorny crown, the soldiers were intending to mock Jesus for His supposed presumption of royalty. Put together with the other steps here, they may even have intended a sort of anti-triumph as derision. Even if they didn’t, it effectively was that—but ultimately, as it turns out, with the Romans and their worldly system as the ones being mocked by God.

3. The soldiers proclaimed the one being honored as king and lord.

Mark 15:18-19: “. . . and [they] began to salute Him, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ Then they struck Him on the head with a reed [or rod] and spat on Him; and bowing the knee, they worshiped Him.”

The mockery continued with false obeisance—yet ironically they proclaimed what was actually true about Jesus! (Note more about this treatment in the next element.)

John 19 shows the Roman governor Pontius Pilate presenting Jesus in the mock royal regalia and stating to the Jews who were gathered, “Behold your King!” (verse 14). Yet the crowd present claimed only Caesar as king (verse 15). Still, Pilate ordered that the sign displaying Jesus’ criminal charge label Him “the King of the Jews” (verses 17-22; Mark 15:26).

4. The honored leader’s face was painted red, with the Roman lictors lining up in red war dress before him for the procession.

The painting of the face was in imitation of painting the statue of Jupiter in the temple on the Capitoline Hill red at Roman festivals to symbolize military conquest. “Lictors” were military officials that accompanied the magistrate, bearing rods to symbolize their dealing out of corporal punishment. They were charged with scourging prisoners.

Though not stated specifically in Mark and the other Gospels, it is obvious from the beating with rods just mentioned and the scourging Jesus went through that the battering and lacerations left Him terribly bloodied. The crown of thorns pressed down on His head would have caused blood to run down all over His face.

Also, the soldiers spitting on Him might have included spitting wine, as that would have been part of their rations and we see wine mentioned a few verses later.

Isaiah 52:14 had foretold centuries earlier that Jesus’ face and whole appearance would be marred to the point of not looking human. Of course, Jesus was not pretending divinity by having His face painted red. He was exhibiting divine love in allowing Himself to be beaten and disfigured in shedding His own blood for the sins of the world.

5. The procession, led by the military officials and displaying spoils of victory, including chained and condemned prisoners, commenced and moved through the city, with the army and populace gathered to watch and receive gifts distributed from the leader.

Verse 20: “And when they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him.”

Jesus was led out in procession by Roman military officials and soldiers through Jerusalem to the place of crucifixion. Taking back the robe and returning His clothes was not a part of the Roman triumph, but fit with the mockery and was necessary to the fulfillment of prophecy that Christ’s garments would be divided (verse 24; Matthew 27:35; John 19:23-24).

Luke 23:27 mentions the crowds of onlookers: “And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him.”

Jesus Himself was the bound prisoner on parade—slated for death. Again, though, He was not captured but gave Himself up willingly. Moreover, this was truly His victory march as the triumphant One, advancing to complete the mission He came for—to win the war against Satan, sin and death.

His giving up of the clothes He wore symbolized giving up everything. The Creator of the world gave up His heavenly glory to become a man to suffer and die a horrific death (Philippians 2:5-9). And this was for all of us: “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

Jesus did not toss out silver coins and trinkets as the emperors did in their triumphs. What He gave was far more valuable—His very life and well-being, and He did so to give us the gifts of forgiveness, healing, freedom from sin and death, and empowerment for life in His service. Jesus in His ongoing victory would ultimately capture those held captive to the devil—granting them the blessings of life with Him: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men” (Ephesians 4:8).

6. Prominent in the procession was a sacrificial animal identified with the person being honored and a man alongside carrying the instrument for killing the sacrifice.

As earlier mentioned, in the origins of this ceremony the death of the sacrifice depicted the death of the god that supposedly rose to new life in the person of the leader being honored. Carved reliefs from triumphal monuments of this time typically show a bull festooned with a garland to identify it with the honored leader, and alongside a man bearing an ax for slaying the bull.

Mark 15:21: “Then they [the Roman soldiers] compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to bear His cross.”

Jesus, in His terrible weakened condition, was stumbling in the procession, and this man, whose sons were evidently later church members known to Mark’s audience, just “happened” to be there to be pressed into this special service—one that enabled Christ’s sacrifice to proceed on schedule and that filled out the picture of an official bearer of the death instrument in what would be a Roman triumph turned on its head. And the mention of head brings us to the next element.

7. The procession reaching its destination, the Capitoline Hill, prisoners were cruelly executed, and the person being honored ascended the Capitoline, “the place of the head.”

Arriving at the focal point of the Roman triumph, high-ranking enemy prisoners were tormented and slain before the crowds. The triumphator made his way up the steps of the Capitoline Hill, the place of sacrifice overlooking the Roman Forum.

This famed hill, dominated by the Capitolium, the temple of the chief Roman god Jupiter, gives us the English word capitol. The hill’s name derives from Latin caput or capita, referring to the head. Roman historians said that in early temple foundation work there, a human head was discovered with features intact, with soothsayers reportedly proclaiming that this place where the head was found would be the head of all Italy.

Mark 15:22: “And they brought Him [Jesus] to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull.” Matthew 27:33 and John 19:17 also give this translation. Yet the word here could denote the head more generally and not just an empty skull. Some think that the place of Christ’s crucifixion was above a rocky cliff with features like those of a skull, while others believe that the name may denote the place outside Jerusalem where David brought the head of Goliath (1 Samuel 17:54).

In any case, it’s not normal for place names to be translated in the Gospels, so there appears to be emphasis and significance here. It seems likely that a connection was being drawn between the place of Christ’s sacrifice and the place of sacrifice and exaltation in the Roman triumph at its “Head Hill”—either intentionally by the Gospel writers or by God who orchestrated these events to demonstrate the upending of worldly power and who inspired the accounts.

Jesus arrived at this place of His crucifixion to give His life for the sins of the world, taking the place of the condemned.

8. Just before the sacrifice was killed, the person honored was offered wine, which he poured out.

The refusal and pouring out of the wine in the triumphal ceremony represented the honored ruler’s own sacrifice in identifying with the sacrificial animal that was about to have its lifeblood poured out.

Mark 15:23: “Then they gave Him [Jesus] wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but He did not take it.” It has been noted that this would have been an expensive concoction to give to a condemned prisoner. Some surmise it would have helped to deaden pain. Perhaps it was even arranged by Pilate.

Jesus would not accept it. He was committed to experiencing the agony of His ordeal in taking on the world’s sufferings. And it further shamed the Roman triumph. Christ’s refusal of the wine was a genuine and noble act of true sacrifice instead of the false pretense of the Roman leader supposedly sacrificing of himself in a ceremony of boundless self-promotion in which he really gave up nothing.

Jesus did later in His final moments, after hours of agony and His throat dry, receive a sponge of sour wine to be able to speak His last words, completing the fulfillment of the Passover service of that day (John 19:28-30).

9. The sacrifice was carried out.

The sacrificial animal was killed, representing the triumphant leader’s association with the dying god to rise with him in glory. It also marked a thanksgiving—for the past victories to this point but also the future victory and blessings that would assumedly come on Rome and its people through the honored ruler.

After reference to the division of Christ’s garments as He was crucified (Mark 15:24), the next verse notes: “Now it was the third hour [9 a.m.], and they crucified Him” (verse 25). As the account continues, we learn that Jesus suffered until His death at the ninth hour (3 p.m.)—six hours later. This lengthy suffering was all part of Christ’s sacrifice.

The Roman triumph itself was an all-day affair, but the sacrifice of the bull happened quite quickly, just as did the animal sacrifices that God gave in His true worship system, which Christ came in actual fulfillment of.

It should be stressed that Jesus’ suffering and death were not in fulfillment of the Roman triumph, but stood in contradistinction to it—effectively overturning it element by element.

Christ’s was the true sacrifice. We give thanks for the unparalleled victory He won through it—and for the future blessings and victory that flow from that and all that He is yet to accomplish.

10. The leader was in a visible, exalted position on the hill, commonly flanked by two officials.

Jesus had earlier spoken of Himself being “lifted up,” speaking not of worldly glory but His crucifixion (John 3:14; 12:32-33). Yet through it would come high honor and exaltation.

Moreover, placement at the right and left hand of an elevated person denoted positions of high honor in ancient society (see Matthew 20:21, 23). Roman historians note emperors being flanked by two high officials called consuls in overseeing state affairs. And we see further examples of such exaltation in the triumph.

In a triumph of Tiberius before he was emperor, he was seated next to his adoptive father Augustus between the two consuls. Later in a triumph of Emperor Claudius, he ascended the Capitoline steps on his knees with his two sons-in-law supporting him on each side. Vespasian later celebrated his triumph with his sons Titus and Domitian at his side.

Mark 15, after noting the accusation inscription “The King of the Jews” (verse 26), states, “With Him [Jesus] they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left. So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors’” (verses 27-28).

Perhaps the soldiers chose the arrangement here as a continued mockery and even a mockery of the Jewish nation, with Jesus their supposed king ruling over nothing, with powerless dying criminals as vice regents. His subjects sadly turn to taunting and jeering at Him (verses 29-32).

11. The people waited for a sign from the gods.

The Romans were very superstitious. Official augurs discerned the approval or disapproval of the gods through observation of natural phenomena as signs or omens.

They examined sacrificial entrails for symmetry or deformities. They watched for things like lightning, thunder, and bird flights and cries. On the minor side were things like appearances of animals sacred to particular gods or even spills, sneezes and stumbles. Of course there were never such signs as the astounding miracles that took place with Jesus!

Verse 33: “Now when the sixth hour [12 noon] had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour [3 p.m.]”—so for three hours.

Then the final moments. Verses 37-38: “And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” Matthew 27:51-52 adds that the earth quaked, rocks split and graves were opened.

These were massive, miraculous signs from the true God!

12. At the culmination of the triumph, the one being honored was declared to be divine.

The final step in the triumph was the declaration of the ruler as divine—a god. He joined the pagan god-emperors of the ancient past in supposedly being a manifestation of the god on earth. The Roman emperors were considered divine embodiments of the deified Roman state. People burned incense to them as an act of worship—which Christians could not do.

At death the emperors were assumed to rise to full divinity. The ceiling of the Arch of Titus in Rome shows the deified emperor carried to heaven by a giant eagle symbolizing his apotheosis or becoming a god.

Note the exclamation at the conclusion of Jesus’ suffering and death on Golgotha from a Roman military official, after witnessing all Jesus went through, His composure, His request that God forgive those who killed Him, and the momentous signs that came.

Mark 15:39: “So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this Man was the Son of God!’”

This is the culminating statement in Mark’s book. He began in Mark 1:1 presenting “the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” And now at the end, this military officer declares that yes, He really was the Son of God! It is a profound wrap-up to the anti-triumph presented in the accounts of Jesus’ death.

Far above His earlier triumphal entry into Jerusalem, this was His true triumph—proceeding in victory into death and then eternity beyond. None of the generals and emperors proclaiming their great triumphs were ever received into immortal glory. But Jesus Christ was. He rose again. He truly ascended on high, and He lives today with the Father in heaven—from where He will one day return to rule over all nations.

Overcoming to overturn the world order

Again, though, it’s important that we recognize that Jesus’ death was itself a great victory. Jesus did not come to live a life of self-preservation. He came to die. That was His mission.

Jesus went to His death “that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14-15).

Jesus in His suffering and death made a full mockery of the enemy. The Roman soldiers mocked Jesus with the fake crowning, enrobing and feigned worship as they struck and tormented Him. But no doubt it wasn’t just them. They were being goaded on through evil spiritual forces—demonic spirits from the devil. The Bible tells us that they are the powers behind worldly governments and false religion.

Yet as it ends up, the whole thing was turned upside down—with Satan and his demons, the real powers behind the Roman state and its pagan triumph, overcome and made the fools. The apostle Paul refers to this after explaining that Jesus in His death nailed our record of guilt to His cross: “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15, emphasis added throughout). Here is direct evidence for the reverse triumph masterminded by God.

We should consider that the same thing happened when God introduced the Passover to the Israelites in ancient Egypt. Back then, God’s plagues and actions to free His people upended Egyptian religion, showing their demon-inspired gods powerless. As He had stated, “Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment” (Exodus 12:12; compare Numbers 33:4). Hearing the news of what happened, Moses’ father-in-law Jethro remarked, “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods; for in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, He was above them” (Exodus 18:11).

And now later when Christ came in fulfillment of the Passover the same thing happened. God through Christ turned demon-inspired Roman worship on its head, mocking its pagan, vainglorious triumph with the far greater triumph of Jesus remaining faithful and dying just as planned.

We are led in triumph in Christ

Those who were bound under the devil He freed, leading captivity captive, as we saw (Ephesians 4:8). And we are part of His victory parade—having been conquered by Him, now dead to who we were but free and alive in Him. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 2:14: “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance [this referring to expensive clouds of incense and perfumes in the Roman triumphal processions] of His knowledge in every place.”

Note that He leads us in His triumph—to represent Him and live in triumph ourselves.

Jesus’ triumph came not in hoarding power and majesty to Himself, but in giving His life away in love and sacrifice to others. And He leads us in the same way, directing us not to self-promotion but to laying down our lives in service to Him and others as the path to true victory and glory.

Jesus’ ultimate triumph is the basis for our own peace and success. As He said, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

His victory empowers our victory. John wrote: “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them [wrong spirits and false teachers], because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

And so we may say with Paul, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).

The victory is certain. Jesus has triumphed—in death, in resurrection, in delivering us, in living in us and in coming again to reign, then to remove Satan, end tyranny and save the world at large. What an awesome triumph it all is! Live in the true gospel of Jesus Christ, following Him in triumph into unending glory!

Clashing Gospels of the Divine King

The biblical book of Mark opens with the words “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). The word “gospel” here is a translation of the Greek term euangelion, meaning “good message” or “good news”—a term that emerged from the Greek translation of the Old Testament but also had special use within the prevailing Greco-Roman culture of the Roman Empire as a political announcement.

And in that broader culture we also find the Roman state and its emperor heralded as divine. For instance, the famous Priene Calendar Inscription from around 9 B.C. in what is now western Turkey recorded a recommendation to move the new year to the birthday of Caesar Octavian Augustus in September, stating that “the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the good news [euangelion] for the world that came by reason of him.” The opening of Mark’s Gospel reads as a direct counter to this narrative. Jesus, not Augustus, was the true divine Son whose life and message meant good news for the world.

Octavian, the first Roman emperor, was nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, who had been proclaimed ruler for life shortly before his assassination. A comet appeared after Julius’ death that was promoted as a sign he was received into divine glory as a god, which the Roman Senate later recognized by declaring his deification. Augustus issued coins depicting this comet with the inscription Divine Julius, with himself as the august or venerated one, the son of the god.

Two years before Julius Caesar died, he held four consecutive triumphs for his major military victories, cementing his position as dictator—the triumph seen as the pathway to divine glory. This false exaltation of human rule established the pattern of emperor worship going forward—which would bring direct conflict with the faith of Jesus Christ, who was born to be King yet whose Kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36-37). As a number of prophecies declared, His Kingdom would ultimately shatter and replace the Roman kingdom to reign forever.