Mt. 27:26-44 - "Pilate handed him over for crucifixion"

 
     The crucifixion story is so full of meaning and detail, I will comment today by the verse. I invite you to open your Bible and follow along. Jesus had said to the mob who arrested Him, "This is your hour--when darkness reigns" (Lk. 23:53).
     He had also prayed that God's glory would be revealed through His suffering. (“Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” (Jn. 12:27-28)
     As we study the crucifixion, we see both Satanic darkness and the glory of God. The latter encourages us that God's glory can somehow be known and experienced in our worst trials or the world’s greatest evils.
     Mt. 27:26 - Freeing Barabbas and condemning Jesus was a double injustice, but also a picture of the Gospel. Barabbas was a notorious criminal who had led rebellion and committed murder. Jesus, the sinless One, was repeatedly pronounced innocent by Pilate. The Righteous, Uncondemned One took the place of all the "Barabbas's" of the world and died in their place. "We are convinced that One died for all; therefore all died," wrote Paul (2 Cor. 5:14).
     "He had Jesus flogged." Flogging was torture in itself. It was done by the Romans to inflict maximum pain and suffering so as to hasten death at crucifixion. The flogging whip was designed with multiple leather thongs to which were tied jagged pieces of bone or metal. Flogging literally ripped the flesh and underlying muscles to shreds causing copious bleeding and bruising. When you compare the various gospel accounts, Jesus actually may have been flogged twice.
     Mt. 27:27-31 - "The governor's soldiers. . .gathered the whole company around Him." Is there any doubt that Satan orchestrated all the torture--emotional, psychological, and physical that Jesus went through? It was designed in the minds of demons to cause Jesus to doubt who He was, distrust His Father's heart, and take things into His own hands, which is the basis of all temptation.
     The soldiers were easy pawns in Satan's hand. They had often been attacked by Jewish radicals and assassins. They had lost friends to the zealot dagger or Jewish uprisings. Now these soldiers vent their resentment and rage on Jesus as an example to any "would-be messiah" who would try to throw off Roman occupation.
     In cynical mockery they dressed Jesus as a king (the scarlet robe), jammed a crown out of 2-3 inch thorns on his head, and handed Him a staff for a "royal scepter." Placing the staff in His right hand (the hand of kingly authority), the knelt before Him and mockingly jeered, "Hail, king of the Jews!" Then they rose to spit on Him. Repeatedly they snatched the staff, hitting him on the head and driving the long thorns into and under His scalp, along the skull.
     What made this so difficult was not the pain, but that Jesus was the King of Israel and King of creation. He could have vaporized His tormentors in a flash or felled them convulsing to the ground in exquisite pain. But He probably never even thought such a though. His great heart of love longed to save them all. It was part of God's plan to receive everything sinful man an demons could do to Him. Throughout His torture Jesus maintained His composure with God-like nobility, saying and doing only what would reveal His Father's character.
     Mt. 27:34 - "They offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it." Jesus did not want to drink anything that would decrease His ability to think and resist temptation. In this final showdown with the forces of darkness, He must have a clear mind. How many crimes are committed, how many temptations given into, even by Christians, because of alcohol or drugs. Jesus' example from the cross is a moral lesson for us today.
     Mt. 27:35 - "When they had crucified Him. . ." The statement is so brief; but nothing more needed to be added for Matthew's audience. His readers would all know about every bloody, excruciating detail of this form of capital punishment. In existence since ancient times, the Romans had perfect it as the worse form of torture and death known to man. Crucifixion was death by slow degrees. Nailed through the wrists where an movement would cause fiery pain to spike through the limbs, yet positioned in such a way that to breathe the victim must push up on nailed feet and rotate his wrists around the square nails, caused hours of excruciation (a word meaning "out of the cross"). Rome often crucified rebels or criminals on trees or crosses along well traveled roads as an example and deterrent to crime or uprising.
     Yet Jesus spoke no word and thought no thought but that glorified God.
     Mt. 27:39-44 - The mocking. Matthew says Jesus was mocked by three groups, three classes of people, representing the whole human race: those who passed by, the common people; the religious leaders; and the criminals.
     Those who passed by - "You who were going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, saved yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!" The masses would rather have their rituals, traditions, and temples than Christ. Superficial, ritual religion quiets the conscience but doesn’t satisfy the heart. Jesus had been speaking of His death when He said this, but they didn't understand.
     Can you hear echoes of the devil's wilderness temptations in this jeer? "If you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread." The "If" was a temptation for Jesus. Would God allow His Son to suffer this much?
     The chief priests, teachers of the law and elders - "He saved others: but He can't save Himself." Meant as a statement of scorn, it was nevertheless true. Jesus could not save Himself and at the same time save us. He was the divine-human Substitute for sin, paying the price broken Law and violated Justice, and receiving the wages sin pays, death. I'm so thankful He persevered, aren't you?
     "Let Him come down from the cross and we will believe in Him." It must have been so hard for Jesus to hear those words, no doubt born in the mind of Satan. He longed for them to believe in Him. That had been His prayer through sleepless nights and laboring days. These leaders who should have led the people in receiving and worshiping Jesus now mock Him in His pain.
     "He trusts in God. Let God rescue Him now if He wants Him." These words attacked the very core and center of Jesus heart. The only way He could make it day to day was by trusting God. Now, as Substitute, dying under the sins of the world, feeling separated from God, He so much wanted to know His Father loved and accepted Him.
     "If He wants Him." Satan knew that Jesus was dying for humanity and He attacked his psyche and emotions at a very vulnerable point.
     Near the end of His agony, one ray of light pierced Jesus' heart. One of the crucified thieves trusted Him as Savior. At first both had joined in heaping insults on Jesus, but under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, one of them began to piece things together and saw in Jesus the Lamb of God dying for His sins. "Lord, remember me, He cried," and Jesus responded immediately, "You will be with me in paradise" (Lk. 23:43)
     Friend, Jesus knows your heart and mind. Do you believe in Him as your Savior, dying for your sin? Ask Him to forgive and accept you, and to remember you when He comes. He will, because He died to do so.