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Matthew 27:27-66 The Crucifixion of the King
Matthew chapter 27 beginning from verses 27 to 66 to the end of the chapter. Hear the word of the Lord. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters and they gathered the whole battalion before him and they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him and Twisting together a crown of thorns They put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand and kneeling before him they mocked him saying hail king of the Jews and they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head and When they had mocked him they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.
As They went out they found a man of Cyrene Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross and when they came to a place called Golgotha Which means place of a skull they offered him wine to drink mixed with gall.
But when he tasted it He would not drink it and when they had crucified him they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there and over his head. They put the charge against him which read this is Jesus the king of the Jews.
Then two robbers were crucified with him one on the right and one on the left. Those who passed by derided him wagging their heads and saying you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days.
Save yourself if you are the Son of God come down from the cross. So also the chief priest of the scribes and the elders mocked him saying he saved others. He cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel and him come down From now from the cross and we will believe in him.
He trust in God that God deliver him now if he desires him for he said I am the Son of God and The robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. Now from the 6-hour there was darkness over all the land until the 9th hour and about the 9th hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying Eli Eli Lama Sabat Stani.
That is my god my god. Why have you forsaken me and some of the bystanders hearing? It said this man is calling Elijah and one of them at once ran and took a sponge Fillet filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink but the other said wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit and Behold the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened and many bodies of the Saints who had fallen asleep.
Were raised and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection. They went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place.
They were filled with awe and said truly this was the Son of God. There were also many women there looking on from a distance who had followed Jesus from Galilee ministering to him among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
When it was evening there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph who also was a disciple. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him and Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb.
Which he had cut at cut in the rock and he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there sitting opposite the tomb. The next day that is after the day of preparation the chief priests and the Pharisees Gathered before Pilate and said sir, we remember how that imposter said while he was still alive after three days I will rise.
Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Let's his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people he has risen from the dead and the last fraud will be worse than the first.
Pilate said to them you have a guard of soldiers go make it as secure as you can. So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. May the Lord add his blessings To the reading of his holy word.
There's no correlation that I can tell Between how much you can talk about something and how important it is. We can talk about sports for hours and hours this whole networks of radio stations that do nothing but do that.
But it's not important. Then there are some of the most important things In our lives or in all of history and yet we soon run out of things that we can say about them. Perhaps the most important battle in American history Gettysburg was remembered by perhaps the most important speech in American history Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, but it only took him Three minutes to give it.
Some things are so important our words cannot add to it. It doesn't need our commentary only our remembering. Are you the king of the Jews? Pilot asked Jesus and Jesus made the good confession. He said yes.
That may be your way of putting it, but that's basically right now. The king has been scourged. He's been lashed Stripes on his back. How is the king to be treated? We see that here in seven parts. First, there's the mockery of the king.
The soldiers have a little spare time apparently before Jesus and the other two so they have to take them off and crucify them. They've been told he's being crucified for being the king of the Jews of their station right there in Jerusalem surrounded by Jews and they Despise them so they take out their detestation on who they think.
Is the Jews so-called King so the whole battalion that's the garrison? They're stationed in Jerusalem comes out to make sport of Jesus. They stripped him down put his scarlet robe on him to make him kind of look like a king.
Someone had a clever idea for a mock crown. Twist together some thorns that would sort of look like one then press it down on his scalp. They got a reed as a fake scepter put it in his hand and then knelt and curtsied probably Ostentatiously bowed before him and with laughter shouted hail king of the Jews.
Some of them nearby probably nearby. Jesus probably flung out their arms in a mock salute. Slapping him punching him in the process. They took turns spitting on him in their procession of salutes and yanked the reed from his hand and whacked him over the head with it.
It was probably the most fun they'd had in a while. And when time was up They stripped him rudely of the robe and put his own already blood-stained clothes back on him and led him away. To crucify him it never occurred to them that one day.
They will be bowing before him again Confessing that he is the king that he is Lord except Then it won't be in jest. Then there's the actual crucifixion of the king from verses 32 to 37. Jesus was too weakened by a night of abuse and then scourging to carry the weight of that heavy cross being himself.
So they grabbed a passerby a man from Cyrene. It's in North Africa. He had probably he's probably there as a pilgrim around Passover time probably scraped together saved for years. To be able to make this pilgrimage this trip to Jerusalem during the Passover you know this holy destination at this holy time might be something you've been working for looking forward to for years and Finally after making it there.
He finds himself being grabbed by Roman soldiers and told to carry a cross for some bloody bedraggled victim he had never heard of before. That we know his name Simon. Means that once this chore was done He just didn't disappear into the crowd never to be seen again, but he became known to the church.
Which tells us that he became a believer and the one whose cross that he was made to carry. Their destination is a place called Golgotha which means place of a skull a prominent place so that the maximum number of travelers Would see what they have done to Jesus so they'd be warned not to do the same thing themselves.
They offered him wine and mixed with gall. It's a bitter herb that could help deaden the pain. He refused it. He was determined to accept death at his bitterest and grimmest. He was not going to avoid one pinch of the pain and then in verse 35 Matthew does something Interesting if you look at the story think about it.
There's been all this buildup now for chapters before this building up to the crucifixion and now right at the moment. Right at the moment of the crucifixion rather than dwell on it and describe it describe it in detail.
Maybe how did maybe the soldiers did they step on his arms? Some of them step on his arms to hold them in place while another one grabbed a spike and a hammer. Pounding the nails in did Jesus cry out in pain as the spike pierced his wrist and his ankles.
You know, did he was he crucified lying down and then hoisted up or was he tied to an already upright cross? And then nailed to it. There's really so many details of the actual crucifixion. We'd we'd like to have answered.
Notice in verse 35 as Matthew has been leading us up to the crucifixion. For chapters now, you know for telling this is where it's heading and now at the crucial moment. It's as though. It's too painful to look.
Something is just too gruesome. To look at this is how he looks away. The actual crucifixion is passed over. He will be crucified. He will be crucified. He will be crucified. That's the way Matthew is written and then He has been crucified it's been done some of the most important things in our lives are in history.
There's just so little That we can say about them. So the soldiers are dividing his garments or casting lots. That's all reminding us of Psalm 22. Then they sit down and they keep watch. All they have to do now is to make sure that no one.
Soldiers all that make sure that no one comes and takes their victims down from the cross. They did put a sign over Jesus's head. That was that was typical for a crucifixion to proclaim. What crime that he had been executed for?
The other two also probably had signs and say but you can guess they probably did probably like highway robber. Above their heads. Jesus is read. This is Jesus the king of the Jews. The other two flanked him and so was fulfilled the prophecy from Isaiah 53 that he would be numbered with the transgressors.
That's the crucifixion of the king. Then from verses 38 to 44 we see the the confessions of the king as people confessing. Truth about the king here many of the titles of Christ are confessed proclaimed by the passersby.
But like the soldiers before the confessions are are they're true. But they're sarcastic in the way they're given the people shook their heads fulfilling again. Something from Psalm 22 today, they probably stop and take a selfie, you know get their phone out with Jesus sort of hanging in the background and themselves grinning stupidly in the foreground and then post it with SMH shaking my head.
But in the midst of their scoffing if you are the Son of God come down from the cross. They confess some of Christ's titles. He is the Son of God the chief priest and the good old boys confessed that he saved others in verse 42.
He is the king of Israel. He trust in God in verse 43. Oh, they may have meant it all all that. They meant sarcastically they were mocking the whole time and yet through their mockery God ensured that the truth would be told about Jesus.
Their mockery showed what they got wrong about the king and about the kingdom of God. They assumed that if he would not save himself. That he could not save himself. They didn't understand That the king was saving his people the true Israel.
They said that they said they believe in him if he came down. They didn't understand that we believe in him. Because he didn't come down. They they mocked it his so-called trust in God wasn't being proved by God delivering him.
They didn't understand that Jesus was proving his trust in God by staying on the cross. Even the robbers both of them at first reviled him but through all the scoffing and insults Christ was confessed.
Then comes the death of the king from verses 45 to 50. About noon, that's the six hour that the sky got dark. It was probably Unusually thick cloud cover some kind of you know black clouds and that lasted until 3 p .m.
So for three hours the Roman soldiers watched in eerie darkness. Something was very strange. About all this. Luke tells us that one of the robbers had a change of heart. It's dark from noon till 3 and the darkness proved that this is what the Old Testament Called the the day of the Lord.
What we would call judgment day that they thought the Israelites thought that That the judgment would be on their enemies on their oppressors like the Romans on the sinners who didn't bother to try to keep God's Law, it would be a day of Celebration a day of light and so they longed for the day of the Lord.
But along came the Prophet Amos and he told them in chapter 5 woe to you. Who desire the day of the Lord it is darkness and not light? Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light and gloom with no brightness in it.
Then again in Amos chapter 8 verse 9 on that day declares the Lord I will make the Sun go down at noon and Darken the earth in broad daylight this day. Here in Matthew, but people now called Good Friday.
This day is the day of the Lord. This is the day God brought his judgment For the sins of his people. He brought it on Christ on the cross and Darkened the land in broad daylight as he did it. Then at three o 'clock Jesus cried out loudly.
Having to muster up his breath and strength to get the words out in full volume. Eli. Eli is my God my God. The only time in the synoptic Gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke where Jesus doesn't address God as father.
Why have you? Forsaken me he's quoting from Psalm 22 from the first verse. Psalm 22 expresses the pain the forsakenness the abandonment the utterly dark sense of being turned away from by the father that he had trusted in as He who knew no sin became sin for us.
And now Matthew doesn't elaborate on that or comment on it neither should we at least not right now but neither should we avoid it or Rationalize and try to theologize it into meaninglessness. Trying to maybe reconcile it with some other theology and so lose its meaning that somehow perhaps that Psalm 22 it It will end in triumph.
And so perhaps some rationalize. Well Jesus intends to confess Triumph so it's still a they think a theology of glory even on the cross. What a loss that would be to miss the cross Even while looking at the cross.
Sure, Psalm 22 does end in glory. So does the Gospel of Matthew, but first For us to get to glory Jesus has to stop there hanging in the darkness.
Cry out.
Why have you forsaken me? He has to do that on the way to glory and we too need to stop and remember that.
By Eli.
Somebody was calling for Elijah. So someone thought to give him a sponge full of sour wine. Others were standing around with laughter and scoffed. Oh, wait, wait, let's see if Elijah will come and save him.
Mocking him to the end. And with that Jesus cried out one more time. Proving that he still had strength and breath and yielded up his spirit. Jesus's life didn't Slowly ebb away because of blood loss or shock or asphyxiation.
No, he gave it up. That's the death of the king. Then there's the cataclysm for the king. The death of the king has cataclysmic effects because his kingship is Cosmic it's over the whole universe. He's not just the king of the Jews.
He's the king of the world. And as he dies. The curtain in the temple Separating the most holy place where God was supposed to symbolically dwell between the cherubim. That curtain was torn from top to bottom showing that God was tearing it.
The way to God was now open. There was an earthquake. The rocks were split. The tombs were opened later on because soon coming Sunday as we'll see something happened to the Saints to the Holy Ones to the believers whose tombs had been opened by the earthquake and The Centurion and the man in charge there with his with his troops having stood there for three hours in this weird darkness.
Watching Jesus hearing him call out loudly to God. Witness. Jesus deliberately died when he chose to and felt the the ground underneath them.
Quaking.
They confessed in verse 54.
Truly.
This was the Son of God.
What more?
Can you say? So they buried the king. Some of Jesus's women followers at least three of them in verse 56 witnesses death a rich man from Arimathea Named Joseph like Jesus's human Adopted father who brought him into this world.
Now another Joseph will be there for his burial. Joseph asked Pilate for the body. He had become a disciple of Jesus and like a good disciple He would tend to his needs even in death. Most crucified criminals would be dumped in a mass grave like trash or even just literally dumped in the garbage for the birds to pick apart.
Joseph though took the body wrapped it in a new Clean linen cloth and laid Jesus in his own new Really expensive rich man's tomb fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 53 verse 9 that he would be buried with the wealthy Joseph probably with the help of his servants Rolled a huge heavy stone probably down a little ramp over the entrance of the tomb.
It would be too heavy for a weak wounded man. To try to roll away by himself if somehow impossibly that the Romans were wrong. And he wasn't dead. The women witnesses saw exactly where he was put made a note of it.
So that they would know exactly where to come on Sunday morning to finally properly treat his body. It's sundown. They had to be home because that's when the Sabbath began. That's the burial of the king.
Then comes the guarding of the king. It's only proper that a great king that his burial site have an honor guard. The disciples couldn't do it because they were cowering somewhere in the city still too afraid to show themselves.
So God would provide guards from the world the chief priests and the Pharisees, you know, usually they're hostile to each other. There are always arguing about this or that. They're at odds here. They are united by their hatred of Jesus.
They were all they both together. They remember that Jesus had said had said something like after three days. I will rise now. Sure. They think he's an imposter. They think he's a deceiver. They're not trying to keep him in the tomb.
They think he's just dead and gone that he had called them a brood of vipers. And so they think how could he be anything other than a fraud? But they were afraid that Jesus's disciples would steal his body and then use the empty tomb to claim that he had been raised and Then his following would would grow and things would be worse than they were before.
Of course, the reality was that his disciples had no idea To do such a thing it never occurred to them and even if it had occurred to them, they didn't have the courage to try. The priests and the Pharisees overestimated the disciples.
Who were not considering? Perpetrating a hoax and couldn't muster up the courage to attempt it and They underestimated Jesus who they think because he died must be as they call him an imposter. So the priests and the Pharisees Both thought that they had better try to To head off this plot that they imagined the disciples We're going to concoct.
Which in fact the disciples had no intention or even ability to do but they asked for soldiers. The Priests and Pharisees asked for this for soldiers to guard the tomb. This will fulfill God's purpose.
For what comes next for proving what happened to the body pilot said in verse 65 You have a guard of soldiers. In other words, take your soldiers now go make it as secure as you can. So they went to the tomb they they sealed it So that anyone could tell if it had been tampered with and they posted a squad of soldiers to guard it.
So now we know Jesus is dead. The women witnessed it. We know exactly where he's buried. His tomb is protected from any outside interference. There's no way Anyone is going to steal his body. What more can you say?
Some of the most important things in life Here the most important events in all of history alongside what comes the coming Sunday. Those things can't be added to if we say more and more words about them.
That's why that's one reason I think That he gave us something to do the Lord's Supper To remember his death. That's why the Lord Jesus said on the night. He was betrayed. If you want to remember me Do this.