(Jere. 17:9) "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." It is from this viewpoint of the wickedness of man that Matthew approaches this part of the Gospel. He could have written about the love of God which sent His only Son to save us from our sin. But here Matthew gives us a stark, vivid picture of the absolute corruption of mankind apart from God. Seeing man so clearly for what he really is, we can only give God more glory for the greatness of His redeeming work.
A. The Sinners: The Cruel Soldiers. (27-31)
(27) As we left Pilate and Jesus in our last message, Pilate had Jesus scourged. A most hideous form of punishment which leaves the back flayed and open. He has attempted to satisfy the Jewish lust for blood. So Pilate brings out Jesus as a pathetic, helpless individual who cannot possibly be a threat to Rome or the Jews.
Failing in his attempt to mollify the crowd who still yelled ’Crucify Him’, Pilate now turns Jesus over to the soldiers. Most Roman armies are made up of non-Romans. These were most likely Syrian, since they were natural enemies of the Jews and spoke Aramaic, the common language of the Jews.
(28) Crucifixion is all about humiliation. It is not enough to kill the enemies of Rome. They must be made an example so others might see the uselessness of opposing Roman might.
But the true example displayed in these acts is the utter wickedness of men as represented by the soldiers. They did not know Jesus, He was just another Jew. And they had no personal reason to torture or humiliate Him, but they went far beyond any command from Pilate. He became a plaything for their brutality. They stripped Jesus of His own clothes and replaced them with an old soldiers cloak which they draped around Him like a royal robe.
We can look at these soldiers today and think of how horrible it is and how we would never do something like that. But unless a person acknowledges Jesus as Lord and Savior and accepts the finished work of the Cross for salvation, God looks at him the same as He does these soldiers.
Big sinners like these soldiers or little sinners as you may view yourself have nothing to do with salvation. You can be a good person, wonderful husband or wife, great neighbor, give to charity or do other good deeds but apart from faith in Christ all God sees is filthy rags. Without Christ, you and these cruel soldiers are in the same situation. Lost without hope unless Christ comes into your heart.
(29) (Gen. 3:18) tells us these same thorns were a result of the curse of the whole earth brought about by the fall of Adam. How symbolic this seems that our Christ bore that curse upon His precious head.
And the cruel soldiers gave Jesus a reed to act as a scepter. They went through the pretense of paying homage to the ’king of the Jews’. One day they will meet this same Jesus as king and judge.
(30) The ultimate indignity is to be spit upon. The very God of heaven is abused by the filthiest of earth’s beings. Oh what love God must have for us to endure this.
They continued to hit him repeatedly. (Isa 52:14) "..so his visage was marred more than any other man..."
(31) Crucifixion did not originate with the Romans. The Romans were borrowers in that very little of their culture was their own. But when they saw something they like they used it. The Persians first used crucifixion as a form of capital punishment for religious reasons. They considered the ground or earth sacred and thought that killing someone in contact with the earth would defile it. So they devised a method which would lift the condemned off the earth.
The Romans did not care about the religious aspects, but they sure liked the results. By the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, the Romans had nailed about 30,000 other Jews to crosses. They especially liked to line the highways with crosses as a warning against foolishly opposing Rome.
B. The Saved: The Compelled Substitute. (32)
In the middle of this gruesome ordeal is a ray of light. He is the one whom God sent to carry the cross of Jesus. His name is Simon. He is from Cyrene in North Africa. Some think he is a black man. Maybe so. If he is he is a proselyte because he has a Jewish name.
Jesus, physically weakened from His torture, is carrying His cross of about 200 lbs. Surrounded by 4 soldiers with others behind along with a large following crowd, Jesus is paraded through the mainstreets of Jerusalem through the gate to a place outside the city. Around the neck of Jesus, He carries a placard with His indictment of treason. As Simon is entering Jerusalem from the countryside, he encounters this huge procession. As Jesus stumbles under the burden of the cross, Simon is conscripted to carry it in His place.
The gospels are silent about what if anything was said between Jesus and Simon, but something brought Simon to faith. (Mk. 15:21) identifies Simon’s 2 sons as Alexander and Rufus and refers to them as though the readers in the church would recognize them. Paul refers to this same Rufus (Rom. 16:13) "Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine." Also referring to Rufus’ mother and Simon’s wife as being like a mother to him.
Simon came to Jerusalem to sacrifice a Passover lamb and instead met the Lamb of God and was forever changed.
C. The Savior: the Crucified Son. (33-37)
(33) We may note here that the common name for this place used today is Calvary. That comes from (Lk 23:33) "And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him." That is a translation of the word skull from the Latin Vulgate as ’calvaria’ because the hill was shaped like a skull.
(34) The soldiers offered Jesus vinegar mixed with gall. It was a sedative. This should not be viewed as a kindness from their hearts. It was a common way of drugging the victim to make them more passive while nailing them to the cross. But Jesus refused. It was necessary that He be at His fullest senses when He took our punishment. (John 18:11) "..the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?"
(35) Two Sundays from now I am going to deviate from our exposition of Matthew and come back to the same verse to preach on the subject of gambling. Is it harmless fun or fundamentally harmful? We will see what God has to say about the $2 lottery ticket or the quick trip to the Indian Reservation.
For now it is enough to show the wickedness of the soldiers by the preoccupation with gambling for Jesus’ meager garments. Of course, the inspiration of God’s Word is proved again when you consider that even this was prophecied. (Ps 22:18) "They parted my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture." A scripture these Roman soldiers neither knew nor hand any intention of fulfilling.
(36) This is a reference to the soldiers who sat down and guarded Jesus. But I think it speaks of more than that. I don’t think the soldiers were the only ones at the foot of the cross. The crowd had followed and sat and watched.
Here we see mankind at its lowest depth. They stared at the Son of God taking in His every moment of torment. Relishing every groan. Here is the end result of sin: men nailing their Savior to the cross and sitting down to watch Him die.
(37) Pilate’s last dig at the Jews. He had this sign written in Greek, Hebrew and Latin to make sure everyone could read it. How they must have hated this insult.
As we sing the old beloved hymn THE OLD RUGGED CROSS, it should take on new meaning for us. Because not only do we have displayed on that Cross the greatest act of love ever in human history, but also the total wickedness and depravity of man.
It should give a greater understanding of God’s grace to realize not only what Christ went through on the Cross but an accurate picture of the ones who are the reciptients of that grace and forgiveness.
History tells us Christ died. The Bible tells us that Christ died for our sins.
Logically examining ourselves, we have to ask why? The answer is John 3:16.
