Main Idea: Jesus suffered for us.
Truth: Jesus died for our sins.
Key Verse: Matthew 27:50
Overview: The crucifixion story reveals four dimensions of the sufferings of Christ
1. Abuse
2. Crucifixion
3. Insults
4. Death
Prayer:
1. Thank Jesus for His sacrificial love.
2. Commit to self-denial and pursuing sacrificial love.
Transcript
Alright, let's pray and we'll begin our time.
Father, we thank You that we can call upon You as our Father, that in Christ You have made us to be Your sons. Thank You for the richness of Your blessing toward everyone who trusts in Christ. Thank You for loving us, taking care of us, even teaching us and disciplining us. Thank You that You are powerful to orchestrate everything in our lives, and everything about us is in Your good hands. Sometimes it's hard to trust in You. Sometimes the trials of life surround us, but thank You for Your word that shows us that for everyone who has trusted in Christ, the fiery trials are not meant to burn us; they're meant to refine us. Thank You so much for Your grace. Thank You that we can trust in You through every valley and hill in life, and find our joy and our stability in You. Thank You that Jesus is the one who made all of this possible when He died on the cross and made the pathway of salvation for His people. And as we read about His crucifixion, we pray that You would impress upon our heart the preciousness of the price that was paid for our redemption. Thank You for His sacrifice. Teach us now. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The next reading assignment is Matthew 27:27-50. The main idea here is this: Jesus suffered for us. I'm going to be a little bit more specific in terms of the truth, which is that Jesus died for our sins. The key verse highlights Jesus' death, which is verse 50, the final verse where Matthew tells us, “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.” This captures the moment in which Jesus died. He cried out with a loud voice, and that moment marks the time in which He died. This section is the larger section of the crucifixion story, and it shows us four dimensions of Jesus' suffering. There's the abuse; there's the crucifixion proper; there are the insults; and finally, there is His death.
First, the abuse by the soldiers. This is verse 27: “Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him. They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they knelt down before Him and mocked Him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ They spat on Him, and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head.” This was pure ridicule. They dressed up Jesus like He was a king. A scarlet robe was a robe of royalty. And of course, they put on top of His head a crown, but not a crown like a coronet with jewels, but a crown that they twisted together out of thorns. and they pressed this upon His head. And they gave Him a reed, a stick for His right hand, making it appear like a mock scepter. Then they paid false homage to Him saying, “Hail, King of the Jews.” They even knelt down before Him and then right afterwards they abused Him with spitting at Him and beating His head with the reed. And I think the most striking detail about this whole incident is that this was the Roman cohort. We're talking about hundreds of trained Roman soldiers. And they were gang beating the Lord. After this, then, “After they had mocked Him, they took the scarlet robe off Him.” They're just treating Him like a rag doll: “and they put His own garments back on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him.” By the way, this is all after He had been scourged already. He had already gone through the Roman flagrum, the pre-crucifixion torture process where they whipped the victim with a whip that is knotted with metal pieces and bones to strip away the skin on the back of His body. And so, even before this whole thing began, Jesus was a bloody mess. And there they assaulted Him. This was the beginning of Jesus' suffering, after He had been condemned to crucifixion.
Then comes the crucifixion. Verse 32 tells us that, they had to press into service a stranger. We’re given his name: a man of Cyrene, named Simon. We know him as Simon the Cyrene or Simon of Cyrene. And they pressed him into service to carry Jesus' cross. I'm sure you've seen Easter re-enactments where Jesus is dragging along a lower-case T type of cross up a hill. In reality, based on historical research, the kind of cross where Jesus was crucified was more like a capital T type of a cross. And the part of the cross that the victim was to carry to his crucifixion site was called the patibulum. That's the horizontal beam. If you would, the horizontal line on the capital T. What the Romans did to make crucifixion efficient was to have the vertical beam already staked into the ground for reuse. And so every time they had a new crucifixion victim, they would have them take with them a fresh horizontal beam (the patibulum) to the execution site. Then they would nail his hands upon the patibulum and then hoist up that beam and place it right on top of the vertical post. And and this isn't going to be just a slender 2 by 4 kind of a beam. It's a pretty thick piece of wood, and so it's heavy. The soldiers got this man from Cyrene to carry the beam for Jesus. Why might that have been necessary? Most scholars believe that it's because Jesus could not carry the beam, having been so physically battered. Well, whatever the reason was, they had this man, Simon the Cyrene carrying the patibulum for Jesus. Mark 15:21 tells us a little bit more about this man, that he had two sons. They are named as Alexander and Rufus. The second of these, Rufus, is named again in Romans 16:15 as an exemplary Christian. Paul calls him “a choice man in the Lord.” Paul there also mentions Mrs. Simon the Cyrene, that she was a mother not only to her sons, but that she was a mother to fellow believers, even to Paul himself. Given these things, most Bible scholars conclude that Simon of Cyrene became a Christian and that he led his entire family to Christ. The family was, therefore, well known within the first church. How striking is that, that the man who was pressed into service, he came to have his sins forgiven through the very man who was crucified on that patibulum? Verse 33, “when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull, they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink.” So they get to this location, called Golgotha. That's the Greek pronunciation. In Latin, it's transliterated as “Calvary,” and so every time you hear the word “Calvary,” know that that's referring to this location of the crucifixion. Where was that location? It was just outside of Jerusalem city walls. Some estimate about 300 meters and others say it's 1000 meters away from the city entry. But it was nearby, just outside of Jerusalem city walls. This was important for the Jews. They could not have a cemetery within the Jerusalem walls because a dead body was considered unclean, and of course, crucifixion would produce a dead body. And so they would have not only cemeteries outside the city walls, but executions would also take place outside the city walls. When Jesus was taken there, then the soldiers gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall. The purpose of this offering of a drink was to dull some of the pain that the victim was going to experience. I don't know why they did this, why the Romans showed this mercy. Maybe the soldiers just got tired of people screaming and yelling and hurling abuse as they were experiencing the full brunt of the pain of the nails. Maybe they just wanted to make this a little more tolerable to their ears. But whatever the reason, this was standard practice, and the striking thing here is that Jesus was unwilling to drink it. He wanted nothing to dull His pain. He was going to the cross to suffer and taste the fullness of the pain of the nails. He went to the cross to suffer. He went to the cross to suffer for us. Verse 35, “when they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves by casting lots.” John 19 tells us that the soldiers took not just His outer garment, the cloak, but they also took His tunic, His undergarment. What the soldiers were doing was to take away the last bit of His dignity. They stripped Him completely naked. This is something that is not depicted in the statues of Jesus' crucifixion or in films, because it is so undignifying. We understand the shame of nakedness. Well, there was Jesus, the Son of God, the Healer and the gentle Teacher, and they took away every last bit of His self-dignity. Then they watched Him, verse 36. And then verse 37, they put above His head “the charge against Him, which read, ‘This is Jesus the king of the Jews.’” That was at the order of Pontius Pilate, and that was a bit of a mockery on his part toward the Jews, that they were killing their own king, as it were.
This all seems bad enough, but in addition to this, Jesus suffered more, a great deal of insults. This brings us to that third part: insults. We read in verse 38, “At that time two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left.” This was rather demeaning to someone who is entirely innocent, the sinless and righteous Son of God from heaven. But the disrespect was far worse than this. Verse 39 tells us, “And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads.” That scene of people wagging their heads is actually recorded for us in Psalm 22, where David anticipates the sufferings of Jesus. And it records various details that are all covered here in Matthew 27. And the people were hurling insults, saying, verse 40, “You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” This was a direct insult against Jesus' claim to being the Son of God. They questioned the legitimacy of His divine identity. This was really provocative. The Son of God came from heaven to bring to man salvation, and wicked people mocked Him. They questioned whether He is the Son of God at all. They even challenged Him, saying, “Come down from the cross and we'll believe You.” Of course, that was a lie. Their hearts were hardened. They saw Lazarus risen from the dead, and they still wouldn't believe. When Jesus Himself rises from the dead, they still won't believe. Verse 41 is the same: “the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, ‘He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him.’” This was pure derision. These are also words straight out of Psalm 22. Once again, “He trusts in God, let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him.” Again, this is a direct insult against Jesus' claim to be divine. But the lowest of insults came not from the Jewish religious leaders, but from two men who were suffering the same fate. Verse 44 tells us, “The robbers who had been crucified with Him were also insulting Him with the same words.” But one of those robbers later had a change of heart, and so we learn from Luke 22 that he repented, and Jesus affirmed his salvation. Jesus told him, “today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Even amid all the offenses, the Lord was still the Savior, seeking to save that which was lost to the very end. But those were the insults. As if the physical pain wasn't enough, there had to be all these offensive remarks from the crowd and even the wicked robbers who were suffering for what they deserved.
Then came His death. “Now from the sixth hour darkness came upon all the land until the ninth hour.” That's roughly from noon to 3:00 PM. But during the hottest and the brightest hours of the day, there was darkness. This is strange. Some people have conjectured that this was a solar eclipse, but of course, total darkness during the solar eclipse only lasts about 7 minutes. That couldn't account for three hours of darkness. This was something else altogether, something supernatural unknown to science. At the end of the period of darkness, about the 9th hour, verse 46 tells us, “Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?’” Those words also come from Psalm 22. That Psalm begins with these words to describe the pain the Messiah would face. That psalm, by the way, highlights many of the aspects of the sufferings of Jesus: piercing of the hands and feet, thirst, insults, bones being pulled out of joint, garments being divided up, and even this remark that Jesus makes. The interesting thing about this Psalm is that it concludes with the Messiah praising the Father in the midst of the assembly of the redeemed brethren. What it shows us is that Jesus went through all this suffering, so that there would be a congregation of people, a saved people who would worship God alongside Him. Jesus suffered to allow us to be in God's presence to sing His praises forever. He died for our benefit and blessing. After hearing Jesus cry out “Eli, Eli,” verse 47, “And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, ‘This man is calling for Elijah.’" That was a mistake. Jesus wasn't saying Eli-yah (or Elijah). He was saying “Eli,” which means “My God.” But it sounded like Eli-Yah, and so they thought, He must be calling for Elijah. They probably remembered this from the Old Testament that there was prophecy that Elijah would come before the end of the world. Whatever was their reason, they thought He was calling for Elijah. And so immediately one of them took a sponge, he filled it with sour wine, put it on the reed and gave Him a drink. But the rest of them said, “Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him.” There seems to be either curiosity or still mockery here. But whatever the people were intending to do, Jesus, having cried out to God that He was suffering His utter rejection, as He was bearing upon Himself our sins, Jesus, then, verse 50, “cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.” That was the end of Jesus' physical life on earth. It was at this very moment that His body gave out. His heart stopped. His lungs also stopped. And He died. The Bible makes this very definite, that Jesus died. Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Also 1 Corinthians 15:3, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” 1 Peter 3:18, “Christ also died for sins, once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God.” Jesus really and literally gave up His life, and He went through death for our sins. The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). So then we are all supposed to die and suffer the consequences of our sin. But here's what Jesus did. He literally went through death to pay for our wage. We are all indebted to God because of our sins, and Jesus paid the debt, and He did so through His own death on the cross. This is how our salvation was earned. It was earned through the high price of the life of Jesus Christ.
There are two significances to Jesus' death. Ephesians 5:25 tells us that this shows us that He loved His people. Jesus loved His people, that “Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” The second significance to Jesus' death is that we are to do the same for others. All who have experienced the love of Jesus are called to extend that same love to others. So John says in 1 John 3:16, “He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
What can we pray about in light of these things? We can pray, thanking Jesus for His sacrificial love. We can pray to commit ourselves to self-denial and to pursuing the same kind of sacrificial love. Let me quickly pray and we'll wrap it up for today.
God, thank You for Jesus' sacrifice. This is painful for our souls, but we thank You that all the suffering was meant to redeem us and to draw us to You. Thank You so much for Jesus' sacrifice. And in our hearts, we hear Your word calling us to follow in His footsteps and to lay down our lives for others. Thank You for teaching us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.