Matt 27:27–44 — The Crucified King

In the Passion narrative of Matthew 26 and 27, as I had mentioned before, there are three acts. Act one is Christ preparing for the cross. That is the Lord’s Supper, the Last Supper, and the agony in the garden. Act two is the trial with its two parts, the trial before the Jewish council and the high priest, and part two, which is the trial before Pilate, the Roman governor. Act 2, the trial of Jesus, is now over. We read at the end of Act 2, the transitional verse in verse 26, Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. So Pilate has acknowledged that Jesus was innocent, and yet in spite of that, he has committed a grave act of injustice by handing Jesus over to be crucified.

The Crucifixion of Jesus

So the trial, act two, is now over, and now we are beginning act three, the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Our text today focuses on the crucifixion, and then the death of Christ will come next time in verses 45 and following. This is the preparation for the death of Christ, the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus. Let us just walk through our text as we go through these various events that are narrated for us here. It begins in verses 27 to 31 with Jesus being mocked by the Roman soldiers.

Mocked as King

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.

So the scarlet robe, the crown of thorns, the reed in his right hand, these are the regalia of a king. But they are mocking him and saying, you are not really a king. They mocked him and said, hail, king of the Jews. And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. Notice that in this first section of our passage, this is the mocking of the Gentiles. The Roman soldiers are Gentiles. They are not believers in Yahweh. They are not part of the people of God. They are Gentiles.

And from their point of view, it is absurd that this man who has been handed over to be crucified, who is totally under the authority and power of these soldiers, could actually be a king. And so they make fun of him and mock him and say, hail so-called king of the Jews. Obviously you are not really a king, otherwise you would not be in this horrific situation of being mocked and being ready to be crucified.

It is interesting that in our text we have the mocking of the Gentiles at the beginning, but by the time we get to the end of our text, we have the mocking of the Jews. You go down to verse 39, those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads, saying, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. Verse 41, so also the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him, saying, he saved others, he cannot save himself. The word mock that is used in verse 42, or 41, in reference to the Jews, is the same word that is used in reference to the Gentiles, the Roman soldiers, when they mocked Jesus. In verse 29, it says that they mocked him saying, hail king of the Jews. And again in verse 31, when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe. The Gentiles are mocking him and also the Jews, the chief priests and the elders are mocking Jesus.

And in both cases, there is a reference to his title. The Gentiles mocked him saying, hail, king of the Jews. And the Jewish people, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders also mocked him saying, verse 42, he is the king of Israel. Both mockings contain this claim, contain this ironic charge against Jesus that he is the king of the Jews. In their minds he is not and yet in reality they are speaking the truth that he is indeed the king of the Jews. Now in between these two mockings, the Gentile mocking and the Jewish mocking, we have the crucifixion of Christ.

Verse 32, as they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, and they compelled this man to carry his cross. The reference to a man who carries the cross of Jesus and specifically giving us his name is significant. No doubt, the early Christians, when they heard this story about a man who carried the cross of Jesus, they recognized this man’s name.

Otherwise, why would his name be mentioned? Specifically, a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. In the Gospel of Mark, in Mark’s parallel account, Mark mentions that this man, Simon, was the father of Alexander and Rufus. Why would it mention that if Alexander and Rufus were not known? Perhaps they were Christians and they were a part of the early church and they were able to tell the story. Yes, we remember the stories from my father. from our Father and how he carried the cross.

It is significant that the eyewitness of the crucifixion is mentioned here because at this point, the disciples are nowhere to be found. The disciples have left Jesus and fled. Peter tried to hang on a little bit longer and he went into the courtyard of the high priest to witness the trial, but even he ended up denying the Lord and leaving. The disciples themselves are not present at the crucifixion.

Now it does mention some of the women of Galilee, such as Mary Magdalene in verse 55 and 56. But apart from them, we do not have very many eyewitnesses of the crucifixion of Christ who can testify to the reality of the crucifixion, apart from those women and this man, Simon. And so that is why he is mentioned in the text. This is eyewitness testimony. And it has been recorded for us in the Gospels to say this really indeed happened. And we have eyewitnesses who can tell us the truth of the crucifixion of Christ.

Continuing on in verse 33, and when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull, they offered him wine to drink, mixed with bitter gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. Jesus refuses the bitter wine. The bitter wine was given to those that were being crucified in order to numb the pain. but he refuses to have his pain numbed. He is going to go to the cross and absorb and endure the suffering with full consciousness because he is doing so in obedience to the will of God. The place is called the place of a skull. Now some have thought that maybe there was some somewhat geological feature in the rock there that looked like a skull.

That is a more recent theory, but more likely it is because this was the place of execution outside of the city walls, an unclean place. And so there had been many other people who had been executed there. And so it was littered with skeletons and skulls of those who had been crucified and done away with because of their criminal activities. This is the place of shame. This is the place of execution. This is the place of death. And Christ has been brought there to this place outside the city walls. in an impure place where there are dead bones in order to show that he is taking our sin outside of the camp into that place of unholiness and impurity.

Verse 35, and when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Here is the actual moment in which he was crucified. stated very quickly without getting into the gory details, but it says, when they had crucified him, the crucifixion, the act of crucifixion is referring to his being affixed to the cross. We know that it was by nails because the Gospel of John mentions that. Although there were other methods of affixing a criminal to a cross, could be through ropes, But whatever method, it is clear here that he was crucified at this moment. This is the moment in which he was crucified, not the moment in which he died.

That would still take probably about six hours later. The crucifixion of Jesus, the scourging, the crucifixion is in the morning from about nine to 12. And then in verse 45, it says from the sixth hour, that is noon, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour, 3 p.m. And that is when he died. That is when he cried out with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. All of this, all the details that are in our text, the mocking, the act of crucifixion, all the things that happen as he is on the cross, this is all taking us about three hours in the morning until the sixth hour. This is all happening. to show that Christ is indeed the King reigning from the cross.

Notice in verse 35 it says, I am sorry, yeah, verse 35b, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. This is one of the allusions to Psalm 22. There are many references to Psalm 22 in this crucifixion passage. And this is one of them. Psalm 22 verse 18 says that they divided his garments and cast lots for them. Here Jesus is fulfilling Psalm 22 as the suffering servant, as the innocent suffer, the righteous suffer. And in John 19, verse 24, the Gospel of John actually mentions that directly and says this was to fulfill Psalm 22. Here, Matthew does not specifically say, you know, this is an event that fulfills Psalm 22, but the fact that he has continuous allusions to all the different verses in Psalm 22 makes that clear.

Then in verse 36, then they sat down and kept watch over him there. The soldiers sat down to watch what would happen. This is important because later on we are told in verse 54 that after he died, it says when the centurion and those who were with him keeping watch over Jesus, So that language there in verse 54, keeping watch, is alluding back to verse 36. They kept watch over him there.

But now there is a reversal in verse 54 when they saw how he died and they saw the earthquake. They were filled with awe and said, truly, this was the son of God. At this point in our narrative, we have not gotten to that point. At this point, they still are mocking him and thinking, yeah, he claims to be the king, but what somewhat king is this who is subjected to such torture and shame? They are sitting down to watch to see what would happen. And they will change their mind and realize that indeed he is the son of God.

Verse 37, “…and over his head they put the charge against him, which read, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” The inscription contains the charge upon which he was condemned to death. Why is Jesus condemned to death? He is condemned to death because, according to the Jews, he claims to be a king.

He claims to be a political deliverer of God’s people. Now, of course, we know that that is not quite true. Jesus was not claiming to be a revolutionary. He was not claiming to bring in an earthly kingdom and to raise an army to throw off the Roman oppression. Nevertheless, there is a sense in which it is true. He is indeed the Messiah. He is indeed the King of Israel. But aside from that misunderstanding, this is the charge upon which he was put to death.

We could see that back in verse 11 when Jesus stood before Pilate. Pilate asked him, so are you the King of the Jews? The reason he is asking Jesus this is because that is what the Jews are telling Pilate. The Jews have come to Pilate and said, he is claiming to be the king of the Jews. He is claiming to be a political revolutionary. And so Pilate goes to Jesus and said, is it true? Are you indeed doing that? Are you indeed an insurrectionist who is trying to claim royal authority over the nation of Israel?

Of course, Jesus is silent. because there is a sense in which it is true, but he does not get into the details to explain the theological reasoning behind that claim. He is simply silent and allows himself to be put to death on that false, and yet in another sense true, charge. This is the charge over his head that is written in, according to the Gospel of John, written in Greek and Latin and Aramaic. It is put over his head in order to say this is the reason why he is being crucified, because he is the king of the Jews.

Verse 38, then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. those two robbers will be mentioned again in verse 44, that they were crucified with him and they also reviled Jesus in the same way as the passers-by and the chief priests and the scribes.

They joined in the reviling. Now, of course, the Gospel of Luke gives us some additional information that is not recorded for us in Matthew’s account, but Luke tells us that one of the robbers was converted on the cross, and he cried out to Jesus, Lord, have mercy upon me. And Jesus said, today you will be with me in paradise. Matthew only mentions the fact that they were both reviling Jesus, but we know that one of them later changed his mind and came to faith in Christ.

Then in verse 39, we come to the second mocking, the mocking from the Jews. Verse 39, and those who pass by derided him, wagging their heads or shaking their heads. This is another allusion to Psalm 22. Psalm 22, verse seven refers to those who are mocking and wagging their heads and shaking their heads and scorn. And they said, 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.

Notice that this Jewish counterpart to the mocking of the Roman soldiers is very similar to what the Roman soldiers were saying. Now, they did not actually say these words, you know, save yourself. If you really are the king, then prove it by getting out of this terrible situation that you are in. But that is what the soldiers were saying implicitly, is not it? by twisting together a crown of thorns and putting it on his head and putting a reed in his hand as if it was like a mock scepter and putting a scarlet robe on him and then mockingly bowing the knee to him as if he were a king and saying, hail, king of the Jews. They are saying implicitly by their actions, yeah, it is ridiculous that you would consider yourself a king when you are subject to such scorn and torture and death itself. So also the Jewish mockers, they make this argument explicit. They bring it out. There are five things that they say.

The first thing they say is, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you are really that powerful, then save yourself. Notice that all five of these accusations have this similar argument to it, which is if you really are who you claim to be, the Son of God, the Messiah, the King, the temple builder, if you really are these things, then get out of this situation. Come down from the cross. So the first thing is save yourself. The second charge that they make is if you are the Son of God, This is also in verse 40, part B. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. Save yourself, come down from the cross if you really are the Son of God.

Interestingly, that language there, if you are the Son of God, does not that remind you of something earlier in the Gospel of Matthew? Going all the way back to the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew chapter four. These are the words of Satan himself. If you are the son of God, then why are you out here suffering in the wilderness? Take these stones and turn them into bread.

If you are the son of God, then cast yourself down from this high point on the temple and let God save you and rescue you. Same argument here. If you are the Son of God, this mocking, doubting, questioning from the Jewish people, you claim to be the Son of God. Well, if you really are, if you really have this power, then come down from the cross right now. Solve this dilemma that you are in. Get yourself out of this suffering and out of this shame and out of this impending death that is coming upon you.

And so the Jews themselves are giving voice to the very argument and reasoning and logic of Satan himself. The third thing they say, and this is down in verse 42, after it introduces the chief priests and the scribes and the elders mocking him. The third thing they say is, he saved others. He cannot save himself. So this third one sounds a lot like the first one. You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. But here it is put in a different form, but the same idea, he saved others. He cannot save himself. The use of that word save is very significant. He saved others. What does that mean? He saved others. Well, it must be that the Jews knew about the healing miracles of Jesus. That he had gone around doing good and healing the sick. In fact, the word for heal is the same word as the word save.

For example, in Matthew 9, verse 22, remember the story of the woman who had a flow of blood that just would not stop, and she was ritually impure because of it, and she touched Jesus’ garment, and she was healed? Jesus said to her, he said, let us go ahead and look at it just to get the exact language. Matthew 9, verse 22, take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well. That verb make well is the verb to save. Your faith has saved you. And instantly the woman was made well. Again, the same verb, and instantly the woman was saved.

And so the Bible and Matthew himself is specifically playing on the double meaning of the word save. Yes, save in the ultimate sense, he will save his people from their sins, but also in the sense of the healings of Jesus, which are a figure, a pointing ahead to the ultimate salvation from sin.

The woman who had a flow of blood, she was ritually impure and defiled because of that, and she was unable to enter into the presence of God in the temple. according to the Levitical requirements concerning impurity. And so being healed of her flow of blood is a picture of being cleansed from the defilement of sin so that now the impure person who is excluded from God’s holy presence can come into the presence of God. Healing and salvation are interconnected. The healings at the earthly level are a picture and a type of the ultimate healing from the guilt and impurity of sin.

And so interestingly, the Jews, when they mock Jesus, they say, he saved others, he healed others, but he cannot save himself by extricating himself from this terrible cross and from this death that is coming upon him. That is the third charge, the third mocking argument. The fourth one is, very next statement there, Notice how each and every one of these points, each and every one of these mocking arguments has to do with this issue of He should be able, since he is all these things, the divine Son of God, the Messiah, the King of Israel, he should be able to get rid of the pain.

He should be able to come down from the cross. But he remains on the cross in obedience to his Heavenly Father precisely in order to fulfill his royal authority and royal and kingly office. Interestingly, in that fourth charge, the fourth mocking statement, they do not say he claims to be the king of Israel. They just say he is the king of Israel. Let him come down then from the cross and we will believe in him.

Again, the mockers in their unbelief actually speak the truth. They do not realize it. They do not realize that in their hatred of Christ, in their mocking of Christ, they are actually speaking the very truth that He is indeed the King of Israel. It is a confession of unbelief, if you will, just like we have a true confession of faith in Christ that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, like Peter said. in Matthew 16, but here is a confession of unbelief.

He is the King of Israel. Let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him. And then the fifth one is another quotation from Psalm 22. He trusts in God. This is Psalm 22, verse 8. He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now if he desires him. For he said, I am the son of God.

The Crucified King

The doctrine of our text is, as I have given in the title of the sermon, the doctrine of our text is that Jesus is the crucified king. Or another way of putting it is that the kingdom comes through the cross. Ironically, there are three times in our passage where Jesus is acclaimed as the king.

First, when the soldiers are mocking him, hail king of the Jews. Secondly, in the inscription that is placed over his head, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. And then that third one that we just looked at in verse 42, he is the king of Israel. this confession that Jesus is indeed the king right in the midst of his suffering, right in the midst of his being crucified and handed over to death.

Yes, it is true. We know theologically it is true that Jesus must be raised from the dead and exalted to the right hand of God in order to exercise his kingly power and authority. And so we would say that Christ is king because he is been exalted as king to the right hand of God. Nevertheless, according to this narrative here in Matthew 27, 27 to 44, according to Matthew’s interpretation of the crucifixion and death of Christ, we can say that his suffering on the cross is the means to that end.

The ultimate end is for him to be raised and exalted and to sit upon the throne of David, as Acts 2.30 tells us.

But his suffering on the cross, his being despised and rejected by men, whether Gentiles or Jews, is the means to that end. The cross is the means to the glory. The kingdom, that is the reign of Christ as King, comes through the cross. And in fact, because of that, because that is the means to the glory, the suffering is the pathway to the glory, the cross is the prerequisite to the exaltation of Christ as King.

Because of that fact, we can even say that he is reigning even when he is hanging upon the cross, even in the midst of his suffering, even though it seems just the opposite and all of the mockers are saying, how could this be a king if he is in such a state of being crucified and obviously this is not kingly. This is not a kingly thing to be put to shame and to be crucified and stripped naked and treated this way. Yet, paradoxically, he is reigning. He is exercising his kingly authority even now, even before his exaltation. The exaltation is the fulfillment. But even before that, even in the midst of his cross, he is reigning from the cross. No one has ever seen a king like this. No one has ever seen a king like this. A king who is a suffering king. A king who is a rejected king. What this proves to us most clearly then is that the nature of his kingship is totally alien from what the Jews were expecting.

They were expecting a great military hero who would raise an army and bring about some somewhat awesome earthly restoration of national Israel. Go to battle with the Romans, kick them out of the land, purify the land again. That is what they were looking for. They were looking for a warrior king. They were looking for a hero on the earthly plane. But here we see that he is indeed the hero.

He is indeed the warrior king, but he is doing battle with the forces of darkness. He is engaging in this spiritual warfare that the eyes of the flesh cannot perceive, but the eyes of faith can see. That is precisely as he is suffering, it is precisely as he is laying down his life for his people, that he is doing battle and that he is saving his people from their sins. Everything that the mockers say, even though from their intention, is not true. Yet everything they say is, at a deeper level, true. This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. It is amazing what this moment reveals to us about who Jesus is, but it reveals it only to those who have the eyes of faith to see. Here at the very moment of his greatest shame and rejection and being misunderstood and mocked, the true nature of his kingship shines out most brightly.

He saved others. And yes, he is saving others. And he is saving others precisely by not saving himself. They said he saved others, so maybe he should try to save himself. He has the power to do miracles and raise the dead and cleanse the lepers. Why not use that power right now to come down from the cross?

But it is precisely by not doing that, it is precisely by staying on that cross, by experiencing this judgment and wrath, the wrath of God for us, that we deserved. It is precisely by doing that, that He saves His people from their sins. Matthew 1, verse 21. This is at the very beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, first chapter. the narrative of the virgin birth of Christ, you shall call his name Jesus. Because the Hebrew name Jesus means that the Lord saves. For he will save his people from their sins.

And that is exactly what he is doing here in our text. That is why verse 42 is so important. He saved others. He cannot save himself. Yes, he did save others. And yes, he is saving others even now by not saving himself in order that they might be delivered from their sins. We know that were it not for God’s grace opening our eyes, we would have joined the mockers.? We are not for God’s grace giving us faith in Christ. Were we there, whether as Gentiles or as Jews, we would have joined the mockers. We would have said, yeah, what somewhat king is this? This is obviously not a king. He obviously is not really who he claimed to be. He obviously is not the son of God. He obviously is not the king of the Jews.

Both the Gentiles and the Jews go out of their way to mock Jesus. Did you notice that in the text? Both of them. It is not as if they are just simply apathetic and saying, yeah, some guy that was, you know, going around teaching and stuff, and he had this big crowd, got in trouble, and so, you know, does not matter anymore, let us just get rid of him. They are actually full of active desire to mock him and to put him to shame. That is on the side of both the Gentiles and the Jews.

With the Gentiles, the Roman soldiers, they do this whole elaborate ceremony, this false ceremony of an enthronement ceremony of a false king, in their view. They go into the governor’s headquarters, they do all this work of getting a scarlet robe and taking off his clothes, putting the scarlet robe on him, getting some thorns and twisting them together into a fake crown, putting it on his head. It is a very elaborate mocking ceremony that they do. The Gentiles in this story go out of their way to mock him.

They are not just apathetically saying, yeah, some guy got in trouble with the Roman government, and so, yeah, we have to execute another criminal, you know. That happens every day of the week. No big deal. No, they are actively full of hatred, challenging Jesus, mocking Jesus. Same with the Jews.

Remember in the last time we saw the reference to the chief priests and the scribes and the elders was back in chapter 26 when Jesus was before Caiaphas and the Jewish council. This was happening over at the house of the high priest in Jerusalem somewhere. And then they came to Pilate and they brought Jesus to him. And they accused him with their false accusation that he is claiming to be an insurrectionist and a revolutionary. He is claiming to be the king of the Jews in a nationalistic sense. And they had some discussion with Pilate about that.

But they did not have to then go the next step and then follow the procession of the soldiers and Jesus and Simon of Cyrene carrying the cross outside of the gate, outside of the city walls to Golgotha. They did not have to bother with that. But they went out of their way to go and to make sure they were there at the scene of the crucifixion itself.

To stand there and to mock Him. The Gentiles and the Jews both went out of their way. They were not just simply shrugging their shoulders and saying, okay, this is another situation. We have seen this before. They are full of hatred. They are full of intense mocking of Christ. Why is that? It is because Jesus challenged their own sense of righteousness.

Whatever that might be, whatever form that might take. Obviously in the form of the Jews, their sense of righteousness was that they were the law keepers. They were the ones that were the custodians of the temple. They are the ones who are making sure that all the traditions of the elders are kept.

And Jesus was a challenge to that. He was a challenge to their authority, a challenge to their interpretation of the law. He was accusing them of being lawbreakers, and of being hypocrites, and of not truly having a right relationship with God. And so Jesus challenged their sense of righteousness. And so that is why they are so intent on coming out in active hostility against Jesus, not just simply apathetic, let him go and die, but active hostility because of their unbelief and because Jesus was challenging their sense of authority and righteousness. Remember they said, by what authority do you do these things? Cleansing the temple and casting out the money changers. Who gave you the authority to do that? We are the ones that are in charge of the temple, not you.

But also the Romans, they too also are being challenged by their sense of righteousness. Why do the Romans, mere Gentiles, who are not concerned about all these intra-Jewish squabbles about the law, why are they also so active in making sure that they are mocking Jesus? Well, because they have their own sense of righteousness in a Gentile form. Their sense of righteousness is we are almighty Rome. We are the Roman Empire. We are the unbeatable Roman army that cannot be defeated. We are the ones that are out there taking control of the whole world.

And all you Jewish people are under our thumb. You are under our authority. And so they delighted to be able to mock this pretend king from a Roman province. They delighted to be able to put him in his place and to say, you think you are a king? You are nothing. We are Rome. We are the ones that have the mighty soldiers. We are the ones that have the mighty rule of law and this vast empire that is crushing all of mankind. You should listen to us and not think that you are anything. You are nothing. There is no way you could be a king. If you were a king, you would not be under our thumb and under our authority being crucified by Almighty Rome.

So Jesus was challenging the sense of righteousness and authority and self-importance of everyone, Jew or Gentile. And that is why we must say that even we would have joined in that same rebellion against Christ. We would have joined in mocking him because we have to. We have to mock Jesus in order to bolster our own righteousness, whether it is the righteousness of Rome or the righteousness of the Jews, because he is a challenge to it. He is a challenge to that righteousness. The Jewish mockers, they ask Jesus to come down from the cross. What do they say at the very end there? Verse 42, if you do that, if you come down from the cross, then we will believe in you.

The Hidden Wisdom of the Cross

But if he had done that, if he had come down from the cross to save his own life, he would have failed in his mission as the true saving warrior king. The mind of the natural man cannot comprehend it. The mind of the natural mind just cannot grasp how it can be that a king could suffer in this way. The cross is the hidden wisdom of God, but by faith, that is the wonderful thing.

And we, as the readers of this gospel narrative, We are not part of the mockers. By grace, we have been granted faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And by faith, we are able to read this story with Christ crucified placarded before our eyes, and we are able to see and understand the hidden mystery of the gospel, that Christ’s cross is truly the throne from which he reigned as he ransomed his people. from the kingdom of Satan and transferred them into the kingdom of God.