The Crucifixion of Jesus (Matthew 27:27-50)

There have been many accounts provided of the deaths of individuals. Some of them were martyrs, others were courageous soldiers, others were coping with diseases. Some of the accounts have been embellished with details that the readers cannot know if they are true or not. Matthew presents facts about the death of Jesus that people had observed taking place and they could be verified by individuals still alive when he wrote his account.

The demeaning of Jesus

After Pilate had pronounced the death sentence on Jesus, some soldiers took Jesus to their barracks and forced him to endure the entire battalion’s contempt. It is possible that they engaged in a game called The King’s Game which may have included the various details mentioned here. Yet it may also be the case that their actions reflected the reasons why Jesus was condemned by Pilate – he had been accused of involvement in an attempt to overthrow the Roman authorities.

The intention of the soldiers was to demean Jesus and make him as small as possible in their eyes. All that we need to do is list what happened to the Saviour: they dressed him like a king, with a suitable crown and sceptre; they chanted his status as the King of the Jews; they spat on him and struck him. What can we say as we imagine the malice and mockery of the soldiers and the majesty of the King! Never had there been a King like him, exercising mercy towards those who abused him.

The discovery of Simon

Usually, a team of a centurion and four soldiers were in charge of a crucifixion. Matthew expresses a lot of interest in what they did. They probably had conducted many crucifixions and they would not be surprised at the victim collapsing under the weight of the cross as he carried it along the road. So when it became obvious that Jesus needed help, the soldiers forced Simon from Cyrene to help Jesus.

Simon was probably a Jew attending the Passover. Perhaps he had travelled there with great expectations as he anticipated praising God. He was in Jerusalem to think about why the Passover was held. Yet in God’s providence he found himself the helpless slave of an empire who oppressed his people. He was forced to help a condemned criminal. At best, this was a distraction on Passover day, or so it may have seemed. What did Simon think of the title above the cross he helped to carry? Surely the victim seemed to be a king unable to deliver his people!

Yet since we know his name, Simon must have been affected by what he did that day. After all, out of the large number of individuals who were compelled to carry crosses for condemned criminals, how many of their names have come down to us? Why would anyone want to reveal that they had been forced to carry a criminal’s cross? No-one would, unless they had discovered something important about the crucified man. And Simon did, because we know that he became a believer and that his sons and wife were well-known in the apostolic church (Mark 15:21; Rom. 16:13). Maybe he heard the prayer that Jesus made for the forgiveness of the soldiers, and stayed on to see what would happen after Jesus was crucified.

The diligence of the soldiers

If there was one feature of Roman soldiers, it was efficiency. On reaching Calvary with Jesus, they did what was expected of them. They must have been surprised when their prisoner refused the drugged drink that they offered to him. This drink was usually offered at the commencement of a crucifixion. But his refusal did not disturb them. Yet how do we know that he refused it? One or more of the soldiers must have reported this detail to the apostles.

The soldiers did four things in connection with Jesus. They nailed him to the cross, they gambled over his clothes, they engaged in sentry duty, and they ensured that everyone knew the alleged crime that Jesus was being punished for. It is important that they kept watch. They were not allowed to take their eyes of Jesus. After all, they could be asked to explain what happened when Jesus was on the cross.

Matthew does not mention that Jesus prayed for the soldiers to be forgiven, although we can keep that detail in mind (Luke tells us that Jesus prayed for the soldiers). The silence of Matthew must be connected to him wanting us to think about the soldiers at Calvary and not on what Jesus said about them. 

What can we say about them? Their actions crucified him, they wanted to wear his garments, and they wanted to focus on his sufferings. And is that not what every Christian recognises about himself or herself! They are guilty, they need the garments of salvation, and they love to contemplate the sufferings of Jesus because they know it was for them.

The deriding of Jesus

Matthew then mentions how others at Calvary regarded Jesus. No-one showed him sympathy to begin with. The two criminals must have found it strange for Jesus to be in the place in which their colleague Barabbas should have been, and they knew that Jesus was not a revolutionary. Instead, he was someone to be despised for his weakness.

Those travelling into the city for the Passover festival taunted him, and without realising it asked him to cease being the Passover Lamb. And the religious and civic leaders of Israel twisted his words and questioned why God would want to deliver him. Indeed the robbers themselves became religious and found fault with the sayings of Jesus.

Matthew does not mention that one of the robbers later repented and became a bright witness for Jesus in that very dark location (it is Luke who mentions that detail). Rather, Matthew’s concern was to highlight the spread of the opposition to Jesus as he died. 

Matthew also wanted readers to know the way that the hostility was expressed. They taunted him about his identity as the Son of God and the King of Israel and urged him to prove his identity by freeing himself from the cross. Of course, we know that the only way he could reveal his identity was by remaining on the cross.

The Dereliction of Jesus

We know from considering the records in the Gospels that Jesus made seven sayings on the cross. Matthew only mentions one of them, the fourth, which was ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ He made this statement about three in the afternoon, or the ninth hour.

This statement was made towards the end of a three-hour period of darkness which began at noon. Obviously, such a darkness was unheard off because noon is when the day is brightest. It is possible to ask whether this was caused by an eclipse or other cosmic event, although an eclipse only lasts for a short time. Asking that kind of question is concerned with thehowrather than with the whyof the darkness. The whyis that God the Father dealt with his Son in private as he paid the penalty for our sins.

What is indicated in the question asked by Jesus? Clearly, it is a statement of faith because Jesus uses the personal pronoun ‘my’ when describing God and uses it twice. Moreover, it is a statement that explains what had occurred and was taking place even as he spoke – he had been forsaken by his Father. Jesus was not imagining this or misinterpreting what had occurred. In addition, we can deduce from this statement that it was a new experience for Jesus, one which he had not experienced in any way before, not even in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The use of the question by Jesus also informs readers that Jesus was thinking about a Bible passage as he suffered. We know that it was Psalm 22. I suspect that the psalm contains the answer to this perplexing question. That was where the human mind of the Saviour would get the answer, and we can read and think about it. I would say that is a better response by us rather than trying to come up with answers of our own. The psalm is a reminder that the Lord wanted his people to know the exact answer to this most profound and important question. It is not hard to see from the psalm that Jesus was abandoned because he was bearing the penalty of his people’s sins.

This cry of Jesus was made in a loud voice. Matthew would have been told this detail by some of those present at the cross. The fact that it was loud reveals that Jesus was not totally exhausted in the ordeal that he was facing; the loudness could also indicate that the Spirit was enabling him to speak to his Father (after all, Paul says in Romans 8 that the Spirit enables us to cry loudly to the Father in the times of our distress).

The cry of Jesus brought about different responses connected to the deduction that he was calling to Elijah for help. Maybe the man who ran for the sour wine thought that Jesus was deranged because of his sufferings and wanted to give him something that would dull his mind. But Jesus did not need physical relief or creaturely help. A drop of vinegar and the appearance of Elijah would not have helped here. Jesus had to bear the wrath alone.

Where was the location of this cry? Obviously, in a literal sense it was Golgotha. But I was struck by a comment of Spurgeon when he said that it was ‘the unimaginable region behind the back of God’. The Saviour was where he had never been before, and in this strange location he exercised the most wonderful faith and expressed his longing for fellowship with his Father. His words were not a detached statement from a theology classroom, but a cry to God from the depths of divine punishment.

The dying of Jesus

When Matthew says that ‘Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit,’ he refers to the sixth and seventh sayings of Jesus on the cross. 

The sixth cry was ‘it is finished’, and Matthew points out that Jesus said it with a loud voice, pointing to the fact that his work was completed. Jesus did not die with nothing to say about his life. Instead, he wanted all around him to know that he had completed the task assigned to him by the Father in the eternal counsels.

Matthew also records how Jesus died – ‘he yielded up his spirit.’ This refers to his human spirit and reminds us that he truly died. But he died as a Saviour and he died in peace. His human spirit went to heaven, into the presence of the Father. 

What an entrance into heaven that must have been. There had been millions of entrances before as believers reached their heavenly home. But none received the rapturous entrance that Jesus received.