The King & His Thorns

The Kingdom of God in Matthew’s Gospel

Called the kingdom of God. We called it that because that is Matthew's emphasis throughout the gospel according to Matthew from beginning to end. That really is the central theme. Not only of the Bible, but also of the gospel according to Matthew.

It is about the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. And so we've been going through this. We're in 27 now and we're getting into the crucifixion narrative. It's difficult. It really is a difficult as you think about just how do I do this?

How do I unpack something that is so Painfully ugly and yet so beautiful and glorious. It is difficult because at times you can do things as a pastor. Conceptually you can talk about when doing Philippians a study that we did before you can talk about This gift of righteousness from above you can talk about rejoicing in the Lord always again, I'll say rejoice.

Don't be anxious about anything. And so you can run that theme throughout Scripture and conceptually sort of draw that out but as you get to Really any of the Gospels as you're doing historical narrative.

You have to sort of unpack it in a way that is consistent with the whole Bible and keep your eye out at times. For the important themes that really are pulled together throughout all of Scripture. But let me just say this Matthew in particular is.

So.

Incredible because there are layers here layers deep Biblical solid roots going all the way back into the Old Testament. Matthew is clearly aware of everything that he's doing now. We understand that this is inspired Writings, this is the Holy Word of God.

This is Scripture. So ultimately this came from the Holy Spirit of God, but Matthew is a human being and he's writing a story. He's telling the testimony of what took place in history and yet it is so deep and so layered.

The Crucifixion Narrative and the Reading of Matthew 27

So I must confess there were times where I'm thinking about this and I'm thinking we can go another ten years on this. Now I won't do that to you. But we could it is truly that deep. It didn't seem so either right to think about a narrative like I was thinking as as I was working through this and Moving from gospel to gospel and looking at the historical account.

Think about this the crucifixion narrative here before us and we're gonna read the text in a moment here but I want you to consider this as we're entering into this the crucifixion narrative and narrative of the Resurrection of Jesus.

Look look where we're at. We're in 27. How many chapters are in Matthew?

28.

27 28 That's where we're at in terms of the crucifixion and unpacking this into the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus. So not very much of this gospel is taken up with the crucifixion and resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

But the truth is you could do ten years in these two chapters. It is that deep and that layered and so let's go to it.

Matthew.

27 verse 27 here now the word of the living and the true God. 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. 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'd come 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 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 and 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 priests with the scribes and elders mocked him saying he saved others. He cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel. Let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him.

He trusts in God let 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. Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word.

Psalm 22, the Suffering Servant, and the Old Testament Background

Let's pray together as the people of God. Lord we come before this ugly Unjust evil Moments and we recognize the glory of it and the beauty of it. We can say that God because we know what your word has said about this moment.

Long before this moment took place in history Lord you painted this beautiful Portrait of the Messiah his life and his work and how history would unfold. We know God that you're the sovereign and you told this story long before it happened.

And yet here we are. Looking back at the moment where Lord you kept your promise. You were the faithful God. Lord your word is amen. It's true. It's guaranteed we can be certain what I pray that you'd bless Lord as we Step into this moment you bless with the proclamation of your word the instruction the teaching.

We pray that you'd change us that you'd renew us as we study this help us to understand Lord. The glory of this moment and your word and how you told us about it before it happened. I pray that we'd be renewed from this study.

We'd be challenged and then we'd be emboldened to go tell the world father about Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus in your name we pray. Amen so this moment Took place in history. This is real. There is real dirt.

There is real earth. There is real blood. There is real sweat. There is real pain there. There are real tears. There were really people who were disciples followers of the Lord Jesus. Who heard him say to them that he was going to Jerusalem?

They were going to crucify and kill him and in three days arise again. They had been raised into the hearing of the Word of God the Old Testament Scriptures written down long before Jesus came money many of these prophecies hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus came.

They knew what Messiah was supposed to be accomplished. Was supposed to accomplish so much so that on the road to Emmaus the Lord Jesus is with disciples who were very sad very confused because they had just understood that Jesus had been brutalized that he had been spit on.

Had a crown of thorns crushed into his head that he had been mocked and he had been crucified like a common criminal. He was dead. So dead that the soldiers who came to the crosses that day. When they were breaking the legs of the criminals so that they can make them suffocate faster and die quicker.

They broke the legs of the criminals, but they didn't even break the legs of Jesus because he was already dead. But just to be sure that he's really dead because they'll have to be accountable for it.

They knew he was dead but just to make sure. They actually pierced his side and shoved a deadly weapon into his heart and that's where you see in the text blood and water. Flowed out. Jesus was dead now as much as the disciples had the scriptures.

From birth. These are just read over them. They're in synagogue. They know the story of the Messiah. They have to capture those elements and if they're paying attention, they have to see it's not just victorious conquering King.

That was the emphasis Kingdom of God Messiah Son of David throne all enemies under God's feet all the nation streaming up to God's mountain. They got that and I think that we can say in many respects.

They overemphasized it because it is not just victorious conquering King. It is that it is also suffering servants and Jesus says to them on the road to Emmaus. He says that they are slow of heart to believe all of the prophets had spoken that they were actually foolish.

For it because the scriptures Moses the prophets and the Psalms all Foretold every detail. I've told you guys before in the past when I favorite moments I've had so many opportunities to do evangelism to talk to so many people all over the world.

And and when I was a chaplain, it was every single day all day. It was one of the best experiences of my life one of my favorite moments of evangelism. I've forgotten a lot of them was with a Jewish girl and she said she didn't believe in Jesus.

But I said to her I said I make a commitment to you. I will show you that Jesus is truly Moshiach and I will do it without touching the New Testament. I won't even use the Gospels. I will only use the Tanakh and the Torah.

I will only use the Old Testament scriptures and she like scoffed. Like good luck with that and by the end of two weeks, she called her mom and said mom I think I'm believing in Jesus. Because that's how clear it is everything necessary to know Jesus as Lord and Savior is long written down before he even comes now.

They know that the disciples know that and yet I always say give them some grace. Give them some understanding some grace. They had just seen Jesus their leader their rabbi the Messiah the king. They had just seen him brutalized and murdered on a cross.

They saw his body taken off that cross and rolled up and put into a tomb and a big stone. Closing it up. They saw that and so of course, they're struggling. They're they're human. They're just creatures.

How does someone rise from the dead? But in particular, how does someone rise from that kind of death? From the cat of nine tails ripping your back open exposing ribs and possibly organs. How do you survive something like that and come out of it?

How do you come limping out of the tomb? I mean if it was a fake in some way, how do you how do you even make it look real? He was really dead. And so they're struggling. How can Jesus be the king over the entire world?

He shall have dominion from sea to sea from the river to the ends of the earth. That's a prophecy that's mentioned more than once in the Old Testament. That he's the one who's gonna have the obedience of the nations all the nations drawing near to God's mountain.

Descendants as numerous as the stars like the sand on the seashore. You see this Messiah the way that it's foretold in the Old Testament the kingdom of God the rule of God. This is a victorious conquering kingdom that ultimately fills the entire world.

The entire world is going to be transformed and renewed because of the Messiah, but what do they miss this part? This part before us the passion. It is not that the passion wasn't foretold in the Old Testament.

It is vividly Foretold in the Old Testament in clear detail. I had our deacon Jerry read before you're hearing today Psalm 22. Did you catch it Jerry read Psalm 22. I had him read that one for a reason.

We always go through different Psalms. Somewhat related to the passages that we're in whether it's for salvation or judgment or victory or praying Against the enemies of God, whatever the case may be God is Deliverer.

God is our Shepherd, but I wanted Jerry today to read from Psalm 22. Did you catch it? Did you hear it? He read Psalm 22. What'd you hear in Psalm 22 the passion of the Messiah? So detailed that as you read Matthew 27 You can clearly see that moment happening in the life of Jesus at the crucifixion.

Only that moment was long written down way before Jesus actually was there on that cross that day. God had told them this is what it's gonna look like. But it's amazing because listen close to this in Psalm 22 if you heard it.

If you heard it you heard details there people wagging their heads people mocking the Messiah. Casting lots for his clothing piercing his hands and his feet his heart like wax Melted within him and yet that Psalm doesn't end in that tragedy does it?

It doesn't end in the tragedy because in Psalm 22 You clearly have the passion of Christ written down about a thousand years before it actually takes place. And yet how does the psalm end it ends in victory?

Suffering conquering King it ends with all the families of the earth will return and worship Yahweh that was the story they were supposed to understand is that this King is not like other Kings. That is the story of Matthew.

He's the king. This is the kingdom. It's arrived in history, but he's not like other Kings. He's not like other Kings even politicians these days. They got to look the parts, right? They got to paint a narrative of the politician.

He's gonna have like like what what color are you gonna wear to the debate sort of a thing, right? Everything has to look spot-on just right. You have to look high-level. You have to look respectable.

You have to look professional. You have to have it all down and they've got handlers that work with them to make sure that everything looks just right that you're walking the right direction. Sometimes guys forget where they're going and they go different directions, but You got handlers what the handlers for they're to control the narrative to control.

What are people supposed to think about this politician down to like what color tie should they wear to the debate? Just so that they give the image of professionalism and leadership, right? Everything is is very well controlled.

You want to have the person that looks strong that looks powerful that looks like a leader that looks like they can't be touched. They guard that very carefully today. And so this Doesn't make any sense.

This doesn't make any sense from a human perspective. Because from a human perspective we want the conqueror. We want the strong one. We want the one that has it all together. We want the one that can't be touched the one that has power and yet Jesus comes into the world as the true king of kings and Lord of Lords the one who rules the world in Righteousness and justice and peace and he comes into the world in a very different way.

He comes into the world in a way where he says if you want to be great you have to be least. He comes into the world and he serves others. He comes into the world and he washes others feet. He comes into the world and he lays his life down for the sheep.

He's not like other Kings. He's not like others who keep themselves detached from the population in the community. That tries to look like he's simply above. Jesus calls his followers his friends and He gives himself up for them.

He gives everything of himself away to them. He's not like other Kings. He's the true king. He's the true king the high king of heaven and in this moment. He is coming to purchase his victory so when I say that it is beautiful and Ugly it's understandable.

How could you call a moment like this beautiful? Isn't it just ugly. Isn't it just bloody? Isn't it just broken? Isn't it just bruises? Isn't it just reviling and mockery from a human perspective? There's one degree of this that you say yes, that's what it is.

And it is the height of evil in human history. This is the worst crime committed in human history because Jesus is the only innocent person who's ever lived.

And.

That's why this is the worst. It was as though in this dark moment all of sinful creation Was gathered together against Jesus to destroy him. I've said often that we are so rebellious so depraved so Sinful that we hate God so much that if he can come down from heaven off his throne and put flesh on him We would kill him and we did.

That's the story. And this is beautiful though, because what do we see in this moment? Yes, it is ugly. Yes, it is brutalizing and yes, it is unjust and painful and evil. But we also know the testimony of the early church.

When they prayed they said they gathered against your holy servant Jesus. They start naming all the players Herod Pontius Pilate the peoples of Israel and the Gentiles to do what to do to whatever your hand predestined to occur.

God.

Planned the murder of Jesus. He plans the murder of Jesus. Everybody who was involved was culpable because they did what they wanted. God didn't make anybody sin here. They hate God and this is how they can get their hands on him and they killed Jesus The Lord of Glory and yet in this moment We see so much that is beautiful and powerful and I have to confess.

I struggle a lot. Getting through this narrative. I struggle because my mind goes to moments where you'll see a word That has such a depth of meaning and you say oh gosh I got to tell the 15 stories that led up to this word of Scarlet.

You want to do that? No, okay, so. It's it's hard. It's hard because as a pastor, this is so rich and it is so clearly divine. It's difficult to put your hands around and say I've got it all together.

You could mine this gospel For the rest of your life and you will never tap out its riches. You will not. So I'm gonna do my very best today and talk about the fact that if you really want to understand the gospel according to Matthew.

This moment you really have to know the story that began long before it took place. You hear me saying things I repeat myself a lot because I had good teachers that repeat themselves a lot and I learned from that I repeat myself a lot about this point.

It is emphasized throughout the Gospels. What that this was according to the scriptures? This is according to the scriptures the scriptures said according to the scriptures and Matthew does it? This was to fulfill what the prophet had spoken.

And so he's connecting that story to the Old Testament. This is something that is a story from the master storyteller about all of human history. Summed up in Jesus Christ all to his glory, but God told this long before it happened and so if you just simply pop open the gospel here in the narrative of the Crucifixion and the resurrection and the ascension and you say, okay, there's someone who claimed to be the Son of God.

He was brutalized tortured murdered rose again and ascended. Okay, so what? Matthew understands. So what's he understands the why it's not just what happened in history. But why did it take place and to understand this you can't start simply at the back of the book at the story I've mentioned before that I I need to be sanctified in the area where you're watching a movie and you are like Three-quarters of the way through it and a family member sits down next to you plops down on the couch and says starts Talking to the screen and in some way talking to you saying why did she say that?

All right, why is he doing that or why did he do that or why is she going there or whatever? This is how I hear the the voices. Okay, right and and I have to confess I'm only human and being sanctified when I hear those words like why is this and why is that it finds its way into?

The bottom of my spine and it crawls all the way to the back of my head and I struggle. Because what's the obvious thing that we all should understand you should have watched the beginning. I'm not missing out on the climax by answering your questions right, oh Man, it was it's especially hard when you go like a theater like go to like a theater and you're in a theater.

You hear someone in the theater yelling like why? Why is doing that you should you shouldn't have gone to get your popcorn you missed like 20 minutes, right? Just be quiet. Come back later pay again. Watch the whole thing.

We all understand like it's funny like you're trying to get to the end. You're asking a million questions, but like why this and why her and how come he did that to her or him or whatever? And you're like, please.

Please just watch the movie from the beginning. Especially difficult when someone tries to pop into like the Lord of the Rings trilogy and like the third one and you're like, no. No, no, no, no. No, no, leave the room.

Leave the room go somewhere else go to the bathroom get an Amazon account and you watch. For hours and you come back and talk to me right like you just understand there are rules here. Don't speak. So if you ever take me to a movie just know shut up.

Okay. That's the rule of movies, right. But we all get it with films like you have to watch the beginning because the storyteller is trying to develop the story because the story has a beginning in the middle and ends and that the director is Specifically trying or the writers of the script are specifically trying to like build a character study, right?

What's this person like and like what's their background and actors will do that as well? You know actors will talk at times when they do acting training at times where they will they'll see a script.

And they'll say okay. This is the bare bones of it. But what they'll do is in their own minds. They'll develop a backstory to the character. They'll think about like what were his parents like and they'll think about an event they had in their lives so they could sort of like try to tap into that emotion or they'll they'll put something into their wallet just to just to feel like it's like they're really that person and We understand in our day when stories are told that's how they're developed.

You really can't just step in at the end and say, okay, I've got it. Well, you've got facts you've got some bare facts, but the why and the how you're missing completely a lot of times in stories there are Symbols symbols that speak to something the director will place a symbol in the film or the story itself in the symbol will symbolize Something and it has meaning that's not just the symbol like Lord of the Rings.

Well, it's the ring and the ring represents a whole lot of stuff. We know what the ring does to people. We know the kind of power. We know all of this with just a simple symbol inserted into the story stories are like that human minds work like that.

Because we're creatures of God and God is very big on symbolism and We get that. So for example, this is Appropriate for today and of course keep them in prayer, but tornadoes just ran through Kentucky and some surrounding states.

My wife's family and friends are all in Bowling Green. And so she was getting phone calls of all the wreckage and all the destruction and all the rest. But we recognize from an event something that takes place.

We have a tornado. We recognize the terror of a tornado. We were we think about the tornado and if you've been around them. You probably understand like when one pops up you have the sirens blaring all over so everyone can hear it.

Everyone runs down into the storm shelter. You can see it off in the horizon with lightning all of a sudden you see it sort of jump out at you. So the lightning lights up the dark storm and you see the tornado and it it means destruction.

And so in reality, we know what a tornado is and what it does, but the tornado also becomes symbol. So for example, you could have a little rug rat running around. It's like two years old and strong as a bull and you can say the little boy is a tornado, right?

Right you take the word it's a symbol now and it means something this kid is entirely destructive and his name is Augustine. When you see a symbol like Red Cross say on a van somewhere like a Red Cross.

What do you immediately know? It's medical right? They're working on taking care of people because the Red Cross now carries Symbolism and you recognize it works, you know in many many ways or like let's say if you see an ass a donkey.

We know what that means, right? It's appropriate at times that it's given to particular political parties. You're like that fits. Right, and you laugh about it because it's a symbol you go get that has a lot of meaning.

I don't know why you'd pick that one, right? But we recognize that even the symbol of an ass or a donkey means something. But we see in Scripture that you can layer these symbols and you already understand this.

So for example, if I mentioned the word Exodus and then I say lamb. Right you think okay, there was a real lamb. They're supposed to do particular things with the lamb. Don't break its legs spot no spot or blemish blown over the doorposts, but you recognize that it's not just simply the thing Biblically, it's also something layered behind it.

The lamb Means something it means a lot of things. It means a lot of things the diversion of God's wrath away from people it means Exit from their slavery entrance into the promised land this relationship with God it means sacrifice.

But ultimately it's pointing to Jesus so when John the Baptist sees Jesus for the first time he says behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World and the symbol of the lamb placed on Jesus Floods these memories and the ideas and these truths these concepts about the lamb Associated with Jesus we get it from the priest to the lamb to a goat to.

Thorns, Symbols, and the Meaning of the Crown of Thorns

Thorns.

Thorns. You see Matthew comes from this worldview where he seeped in the Old Testament and all that symbolism and all that story of Israel and all those promises of Messiah are. Flowing into this moment in the historical narrative of the crucifixion of our Savior.

The symbols are important keep that in mind as we unpack the text here. Just the first little section here. Now what's really important too is the eyewitnesses. If you read the Gospels you have the synoptic Gospels, which means what?

Oh No, I say I need to repeat myself more. Okay synoptic means seeing together. This is where you could take Matthew Mark and Luke and there's some there's sort of a lot in the same ballpark. They're talking about the same event, but some will give different details.

Some will leave details out the synoptics you can lay side by side. You can see them together. John will touch same with some of the same things, but John actually takes sort of a difference. He takes a different approach in many respects than the synoptics and it's beautiful.

But if you take the witnesses and you pull them together you get a fuller more comprehensive understanding of what was taking place. But you have multiple witnesses and this is what's really important.

You don't have this corroboration between Witnesses so you'll see differences at times with how something is worded. You'll see that one author will actually take something out. The other one has in one will have more details one will actually explain what the other is saying.

Who's using more Jewish terminology for more of a Gentile audience? You have multiple eyewitnesses and it's amazing because you would need that for a solid story in terms of you are investigating something different witnesses all talking at times even about same events, but giving more details or Actually rewording things at times.

You know, I I experienced this not very long ago I was I think I told you guys this story. But I think it needs to be understood that we even understand this today in terms of witnesses. No corroboration.

I was coming home late at night. I think I think it was just I think it was 2020. I was coming home. It was it was dark outside. I went to Fry's grocery store at 24th Street and baseline. Which is getting more and more dangerous as the days go by.

But it's dark and I pull into the To go park into one of the lanes and I see what I thought was a child. Laying in the middle of the road and there's people everywhere cars everywhere. I have my first thought was why is there a child in the middle of the road laying down and as I pulled closer I realized it wasn't a child.

It was a man. So now I'm getting really confused what's going on? And then I see people run up to this man. And so I'm the only one in the lane. I sort of pull up and kind of get to the side. Look, I look down and I see blood.

Everywhere. I mean there is a like a stream of blood coming out of this guy pouring Down the road where there's an incline and so everyone looks totally confused. And so I no one's really doing much of anything it just happened and so I jump out of my car and I come to this guy and he's just Screaming and the more he is screaming the more blood is just pumping out of him.

And so the first thing I thought was I need to get this guy to calm down because the more he is yelling and panicking the more blood is pouring out of Him and so I can't really quite see where the blood is coming from because really it's everywhere.

But there's a stream coming out of him. It's all over his shirt and his back and I'm trying to talk to him and I said, hey, what's your name? And he wouldn't respond. I said, hey, look, my name is Pastor Jeff.

I'm a pastor. I'm here. I'm gonna try to help you today. I need you to breathe with me. I want you to just breathe me right now and I had I said breathe in your nose breathe with me now breathe out. I wanted to slow his heart rate down as much as I possibly could and so I'm telling him breathe with me.

What happened and so they're calling the police and I said get some stuff to to pack into these wounds. And so we're trying to pack the wounds up and and get him to where he's not bleeding so profusely.

He's calming down now. The blood is slowing down. And so when the police arrived. They showed up pretty quickly when they arrived they run up on him. And then I I look over and I realized I can see white on his arm and I'm thinking to myself like what is that?

I'm trying to see what it is. I see white and what it was was his bone. I could see his bone and his arm was completely open and there were things like spilling out of his arm. He was stabbed five times in his back he was stabbed in his front somebody had swiped him with a knife across his arm and just split him wide open and He just got jumped in the parking lot of fries.

And he's bleeding everywhere, but I was there weren't many eyewitnesses to it. Just the two that were there and then myself when I pulled up. I didn't see it happen. I was just there to help afterwards.

But what's interesting is as soon as the police got there They separated me and the other guy and the other guy tried to talk to me and they jumped on and they said no no. No, they say he says stop stop.

Don't talk to him. You stay over there. You don't say anything to him. Do not speak to each other at all. Like they got really aggressive and the cop came over to me and said Hey pastor Jeff. I watch you all the time.

That really happened. I Said oh, well, praise God like yeah, I said, but we were we can't have you guys talking to each other. We want to stop him because we can't have any corroboration going on between you guys of the story of what you heard or whatever.

So we need to have they said we need to have independent witnesses. I was like, I like that. That's straight out of Scripture. The cop was like yes it is. But there was no corroboration allowed between the witnesses so that the stories though they might be seen from different angles.

They might be seen with different details. You can see the stories actually match up but just different eyewitness testimonies. Not sort of like clocked together, right? No corroboration. You see that in the Gospels.

You're gonna see why that's important in just a moment here. There are different emphases within the gospel records at this point, and I think those emphases are really important. Here's why I'm bringing it up because there's actually a difference in the Gospels in this moment in terms of the Scarlet robe put on Jesus or a purple robe.

We're gonna talk about that. Here we go. Matthew 27 27 when 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 hands.

Now.

Just could be noted here when it says that a battalion a battalion is a tenth of a Roman Legion a Battalion is a tenth of a Roman Legion. So oftentimes when we have portrayals of this moment What do you usually have in the portrayal.

You have, you know, maybe like 25 30 people sort of there. You know a couple a couple Roman soldiers are present. You know, you only have this this scene the way that it really was a tenth of a Roman Legion is 600 men 600 men.

There's a lot involved in this moment from the betrayal of Jesus in the garden where you had temple police and Roman Soldiers up to a thousand people showing up with clubs and swords coming to get Jesus.