Sunday March 13, 2016 Phone: 570.829.5216
Pastor David Miklas e-mail:
Message: Palm Sunday - 2016 Text: Matthew 27:26-46
The Way of the Cross
INTRODUCTION: When King George VI invited Sir Winston Churchill, on May 10, 1940, to lead his beloved Britain against the enemy of the forces of Nazism that threatened Europe, Churchill confidently accepted the challenge. As he later recounted, “I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.”
Jesus of Nazareth, too, had a magnificent obsession - the cross. Painful and anguishing though it was, He found Himself consumed by a compelling sense of Divine providence, and each day of His adult life drew Him closer to the fulfillment of His mission.
So, let’s again set the record straight. Jesus’ death on the cross was no afterthought on God’s part. It was the fulfillment of the Father’s predetermined plan for His Son. Peter confirmed this on a number of occasions.
In his sermon on the day of Pentecost, Peter said in Acts 2:22-24, “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: (23) Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: (24) Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death…”
In his first letter Peter said in I Peter 1:18-21, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; (19) But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: (20) Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, (21) Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.”
In all these statements Peter declares the plan of God was arranged in the council of the Godhead’s chamber in eternity past. Jesus’ death on a cross was not only planned, but prophesied. Search the scriptures and you will find prophecy after prophecy in the Old Testament, which are inescapable references to the death of the Savior. Some date as far back as nine centuries before the birth of Christ, at which time crucifixion was not even known. Here are some examples:
PREDICTED in Psalm 41:9, 55:12-14 “He would be betrayed by His friend for 30 pieces of silver,” and FULFILLED in Matthew 26:14-16.
PREDICTED in Isaiah 53:3 “To be a man of sorrows,“ and FULFILLED in Matthew 26:37-38.
PREDICTED in Zechariah 13:7 “To be forsaken by His disciples,” and FULFILLED in Matthew 31, 56.
PREDICTED in Isaiah 50:6 “To be scourged and spat upon,” and FULFILLED in Matthew 26:67.
PREDICTED in Isaiah 53:12 “To be crucified between two thieves,” and FULFILLED in Matthew 27:38.
PREDICTED in Psalm 69:21 “To be given vinegar to drink,” and FULFILLED in John 19:28-30.
PREDICTED in Psalm 31:5 “To commend His spirit to the Father,” and FULFILLED in Luke 23:46.
PREDICTED in Psalm 34:20 “No bones to be broken,” and FULFILLED in John 19:33-36.
PREDICTED in Psalm 22:
Verses 7-8 “To be surrounded and ridiculed by His enemies,” and FULFILLED in Matthew 27:39-44.
Verse 15 “That He would thirst,” and FULFILLED in John 19:28.
Verse 16 “To suffer the piercing of the hands and feet,” and FULFILLED in Mark 15:25.
Verse 18 “His garments to be parted and gambled for,” and FULFILLED in Luke 23:34.
In our imagination we are going to be walking where Jesus walked on His journey to the cross. The path is not pleasant, but it is real. By revisiting the scene, we gain a realistic understanding of what He endured on our behalf.
Turning to John 19 we read where Pilate is preparing to deliver Jesus to be crucified. Follow me as I read verses 13-18.
“When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. (14) And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! (15) But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priest answered, We have no king but Caesar. (16) Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. (17) And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: (18) Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.”
After the 6th and final trial, Jesus’ final journey to the cross probably began sometime around 7:30 or 8:00 AM. Mark tells us that Jesus’ hands and feet were nailed to the cross at 9:00 in the morning, so most of what we are going to examine occurred probably an hour or hour and a half before that.
FIRST Physical Torture, “Scourging”: Turning to Matthew 27:26 we read, “Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had SCOURGED Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.” In those days there were two kinds of scourging - Jewish and Roman.
The Jewish method is described in Deuteronomy 25:1-3 where we are told that a person was not to be struck more than 40 times. Because the Jew was afraid of breaking that law of God, he would commonly strike the victim 39 times, making sure he counted meticulously so that he didn’t go beyond 40.
In the Roman style of scourging there was no specified number of times that a victim could be struck. Understandably, the Romans commonly called their torturous act of scourging – “halfway death.”
Before the scourging began, the victim was stripped of all his clothing and bent forward over a low, thick stump or post. At the base of the post were four metal rings. The wrists and ankles of the victim were shackled to these rings. Jesus was stripped of His garments, bent low over this post, with his wrists and ankles shackled into that position.
The scourging was done by a professional in the grim art of torture. The instrument used for scourging was called a flagellum. It was a piece of wood fourteen to eighteen inches long, circular in shape, to which were attached long, leather thongs. Into these leather thongs or straps were sewn bits of glass, bone, and pieces of metal.
The soldier who performed flagellations . . . moved to a position about six feet behind Jesus, and spread his legs. The flagellum was brought all the way back and whisked forward, making a dull drum sound as the strips of leather smashed against the back of his rib cage. The bits of bone and chain curled around the right side of his body and raised small subcutaneous hemorrhages on his chest... The flagellum came back again, aimed slightly lower, and again aimed higher, and it crashed against skin and flesh. The flagellum now moved in slow heavy rhythm.' It was designed to reduce the naked body to strips of raw flesh and inflamed, bleeding wounds.
It was not uncommon for a man to die on the stump. Invariably, the victim passed out from pain, only to be revived by being splashed with buckets of salt water. These torturers layered pain upon pain to keep the victim conscious, wanting him to suffer as much as possible. The one in charge of this torture kept watch. It was his responsibility to stop the "discipline" if he thought the guilty one might not be revived.
SECOND Public Humiliation, “Mockery and Brutality”: Turning to Matthew 27:27-30 we read,
“Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. (28) And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. (29) And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! (30) And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.”
At this point Jesus became a comic figure to the Roman soldiers. Silent, He stood before them as they began to humiliate, degrade, and mock Him in every possible way.
The first thing the soldiers did was strip Jesus of all his clothing. He stood naked before a barracks full of base, godless men, His face and body a mass of swollen and bruised flesh.
Then in sarcastic fashion, they jammed a crown fashioned from thorns on His head. They draped a scarlet robe over Him and placed a reed in His hand to represent a royal scepter. They mocked Him cruelly, bowing down before Him and hailing Him loudly as “King of the Jews!”
Yet in the midst of that obscene, humiliating atmosphere, Jesus “opened not His mouth.”
The reference to the “crown of thorns” is intriguing. Thorns were common in that area. The longer ones (some have been known to be at least 3 1/2 inches long) were snipped, stuffed in a basket or pot, dried, and then used as kindling to start fires. Outside public places there would be large receptacles stocked with these dried thorns. Probably, the soldiers went out and snatched a few thorn branches from the basket, plaited together a crown, and, with sneers and vulgar jesting, shoved it down on His head.
What seems remarkable to me, in my humanity, is that our Savior never retaliated in any form, never reviled in return. He could have, as the song says, “Called ten-thousand Angels” to rescue Him…but He didn’t!
Later Peter, who was probably as close an eyewitness as any of the disciples, wrote in I Peter 2:21-23,
“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also SUFFERED for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: Who, when He was reviled, REVILED not again; when He SUFFERED, He THREATENED not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.”
It is easy to forget that Jesus was tortured, brutalized, and mistreated for an extended period of time before He was led to the place of execution. Prior to His walk to Golgotha, He was brought back before Pilate and the bloodthirsty mob. “Behold the man!” Pilate shouted to the crowd. “Crucify Him!” they screamed in reply. Now from Matthew 27:31 we read,
“And after that they had mocked Him, they took the robe off from Him, and put His own raiment on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him.”
THIRD Journey, “to Golgotha”: Crucifixion was a common sight for those who lived under the domination of Rome. Perhaps that is why the gospel writers give us few details about Jesus’ final walk to the site of execution.
Matthew 27:31 tells us that the soldiers, “...led Him away to crucify him.”
Recorded in Mark 15:20, the soldiers “...led Him out to crucify Him.”
Luke in Luke 23:26 tells us that “they led Him away.”
John writes in John 19:16-18, “...And they took Jesus, and led Him away. And He bearing His cross went froth into a place called the skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where they crucified Him...”
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, however, do give us one additional and interesting detail.
Matthew 27:32, “…they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear the cross.”
Mark 15:21, “And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross.”
Luke 23:26, “And as they led Him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.”
Once again let me remind you that crucifixion was a public event. The criminal was paraded from prison to his place of execution. The Romans wanted as many people as possible to see their “justice.”
Many artists have painted pictures of Jesus carrying a huge cross on His back, bowed beneath its weight. Certainly there is no way to measure the weight of the burden Jesus carried to Golgotha, the weight of sin, or the degree of His suffering. However, in strictly physical terms, He would not have carried the entire cross.
The upright beam of the cross either remained at the execution site or was taken there by Roman soldiers ahead of time.
The victim did, however, carry the crossbeam of his own cross, which was burden enough. The beam was hoisted across his shoulders and chained to him. Then around his neck was hung a board, on which was written a notice proclaiming his crime.
That board would later be nailed above him on the cross so that everyone who passed by would know the crime for which he was being executed.
Beaten, bruised, and bleeding, our Saviour staggered along the longest walk of His life. Jesus’ final walk to the cross is often called the “Via Dolorosa, “the way of sorrow.” While that is a beautiful term, which has resulted in a beautiful musical composition, there is nothing beautiful about Jesus’ stumbling, sorrowful, halting, and painful journey to his place of crucifixion.
Mercifully, someone was commanded to help Him carry the beam. That “someone” was destined to play an even greater role in the future.
That someone was Simon of Cyrene. What changed his life was probably a tap on the shoulder with the flat of a Roman spear. Simon was from Cyrene in Africa. No doubt he had come from that far-off land for the Passover. We can only speculate what happened to Simon. It may be that it was his intention when he got to Golgotha to fling the cross down on the ground and hasten as quickly as he could from the scene. But perhaps he lingered on because something about Jesus fascinated him.