THE CRUCIFIXION –
MATTHEW 27:27-54
27Then the soldiers
of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered
the whole battalion before him.
28And they stripped
him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29and 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!” 30And they spit on him
and took the reed and struck him on the head. 31And 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.
32As they went out,
they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his
cross. 33And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a
Skull), 34they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted
it, he would not drink it.
35And when they had
crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. 36Then
they sat down and kept watch over him there. 37And over his head they put the
charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
38Then two robbers
were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left.
39And those who
passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40and 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.” 41So also the chief priests, with the scribes
and elders, mocked him, saying, 42“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. 43He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him.
For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44And the robbers who were crucified with
him also reviled him in the same way.
45Now from the sixth
hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46And about the
ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema
sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
47And some of the
bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” 48And one of them
at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed
and gave it to him to drink. 49But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether
Elijah will come to save him.”
50And Jesus cried out
again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
51And behold, the
curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook,
and the rocks were split.
52The tombs also were
opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53and
coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and
appeared to many.
54When 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!”
COMMENTARY
The gospels are
radical when speaking about important events. Some not so important are only
mentioned in one book, or two, but the very important aspects of the faith, are
mentioned in the four gospels, reflecting thus, the vitality of the point they
are making. And one of them, is the crucifixion of Jesus.
It is also less
likely that someone may record in a chronicle, any shameful or defeating
incident that may discredit the heroes of the story, or the author himself.
However, the four
gospels write in detail the torture and execution of Jesus of Nazareth, an apparent
shameful and defeating act, without any care to obscure major details to
safeguard the person of their leader. But later it is all crowned, by the
powerful resurrection from the death, of this same Jesus who suffered all these
horrors. And not only Him, but also a number of saints who had died prior, and
resurrected after Him on the Sunday that followed (Matthew 27:52-53).
Jesus underwent all
of this humiliation knowing that it would take place in detail (Matthew
20:18-19) well in advance. But He went to it willingly. He requested to his
Father, YHWH, to pass this suffering from Him, if it was possible (Matthew
26:39), but it did not, because, it was not possible.
Jesus, in order to
fulfill his mission and save humanity, had to necessarily pay on our behalf for
all the sins the world had committed, committing and will commit, all the way
from Adam and Eve, to the last man and woman who have not been born yet.
To point out this
necessity, demanded by the perfect nature of the Divinity, is that the
sacrificial system got installed by God, in the world since the time of Adam (Genesis
4:4; Hebrews 9:22). It is impossible for the perfect justice of God to just ‘forget’
the evil done, but his justice demands payment for wrong doings. And Jesus paid
this ransom for us, so that if we truly believe and Him, and repent, we don’t have
to be punished, and would be able to receive God’s forgiveness freely.
So, the cup of
suffering and death could not be passed, and Lord Jesus suffered it all,
willingly, out of love for us.
Jesus was humiliated
by the soldiers, but He suffered no sexual abuse as some demented devil possessed
think. Neither He was crucified in full exposure of his private parts as many
assume wrongly.
Jesus could have
stayed in the grave four days, or longer, until started decaying, and expelling
bad smell. His Glory would have been greater is He had recovered from being a
decaying corpse to life again. This would have stopped the Jews rumors that He
was moved, or that He never died as the Muslims says (Matthew 28:13-15). But
that never happened.
God did not allow dishonor
to happen to his beloved Son.
Jesus was born and lived a peaceful and holy life as example to all, and then
gave his life as a sacrifice for sin, by Jews and non-Jews, redeeming the whole
of humanity, but He did not have to be humiliated to extreme, neither dishonored
in excess. The honor and integrity of Jesus was protected by God, that is why He
resurrected before He decomposed, and so was He protected in his body, from
which no bone was broken (John 19:33). The same way He was not morally, neither
sexually abused, and his private parts were not exposed to public, not exposed
to public. The minds of his executioners were clouded, and did not do to Him,
the things they most probably did to others.
A convert gentile
helped Him to carry the cross beam that elevated his body on the wooden pole
where He was hanged, representing the sympathetic Jews and Gentiles who were
with Christ that day and after.
Then Jesus refuses
the sour wine mix they offered Him first, to dull his pain, because He needed
to be sober and in control during every second of agony, He suffered. He went
to the cross in the most virile and manly way, not crying, not screaming or
asking for forgiveness, having clear in his mind, his mission, and looked only
to his Father God for support.
Before He gave his
life willingly, He redeemed one of the thieves that were initially insulting
Him. When the repentant thief saw Jesus praying for his executioners, He felt dirty,
and in repentance rebuked his companion, accepting his sinful condition and
asked Jesus for forgiveness (Luke 23:32-42).
After the whole
process was terminated, Jesus saved his last man in this world on his Earthly
life, and at the moment He chose, freely, said “IT IS COMPLETED” (John 19:30),
and gave up his spirit to his Father (Luke 23:46).
Our atonement was
completed.
Omar Flores.
Comments
Post a Comment