INTRODUCTION

Modernity tells us that there is nothing wrong with the human race that a few adjustments can’t fix.  The Bible tells us that the world is deeply disordered.  At the center of human history is mangled, tortured and crucified body, the body of God.  While gospel shows us that things are far worse than we feared, it also encourages us to hope beyond all we can ask or imagine.

THE TEXT

“Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him. And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him . . . . “ (Matthew 27:27-44).

KING OF THE JEWS

Before he is crucified, Pilate gives his solders permission to torture and mock Jesus.  It is a mock coronation scene.  Jesus wears a Roman soldier’s red cloak as royal robe, receives crowned and scepter, and then the soldiers bow in mock reverence and acclaim Him King of the Jews.  Then the strip him of the marks of kingship, spit on Him and beat Him (27:27-31; cf. 20:19; Isaiah 50:6).  The soldiers mock the Jews as much as Jesus: Here is the king the Jews deserve, the say.  God is not mocked.  Their mockery reveals the truth.  Had they any discernment, the Roman soldiers could have seen the irony of the situation.  During the trial, Pilate ceded authority to the Jewish people.  The decision to crucify was theirs, not his, and the solders are acting on orders from the Jews.  When they say that Jesus is king of the Jews, they are saying that He is their king too: They carry out His orders.  Soon enough, they will confess this without mockery (27:54).

AROUND THE CROSS

The crucifixion is a continuation of the mock coronation.  Jesus is “enthroned” on the cross, with a titulus proclaiming His kingship above His head (v. 37).  Christian meditation on the cross has focused on the sufferings of Jesus, but Matthew pays more attention to people around the cross.  Simon of Cyrene bears Jesus’ cross for Him, as an icon of discipleship (27:32).  The Roman soldiers unwittingly fulfill prophecy.  When they give Jesus gall, they fulfill Psalm 69:21.  Roman executioners were always allowed to take a criminal’s clothing, but the lots fulfill Psalm 22:16.  Jesus is crucified among transgressors (v. 38; cf. Isaiah 53:12; cf. Matthew 20:21-23).

SON OF GOD

The passers-by also fulfill prophecy.  They “wag their heads,” as Psalm 22:7 describes.  That phrase also alludes to Lamentations 2:15, where all who pass by shake their heads at the ruins of Jerusalem.  This adds some irony to the mockery of Matthew 27:40.  Imitating those who saw the ruins of the first temple, they are ignorant witnesses of the destruction of the temple of Jesus’ body.  “If you are the Son of God” alludes back to the temptation scene (Matthew 4:3, 6).  These are Satanic mockers and accusers.  The chief priests, scribes, and elders join in the Satanic scorn (v. 41).  Though they are experts in the Scripture, they don’t recognize that Jesus and they are both fulfilling those Scriptures.  Verse 43 is a quotation from Psalm 22:8.  In the original Psalm, these words come from people sneering at David.  The chief priests and scribes position themselves as enemies of the Lord’s Anointed.  Their actions show that Jesus is indeed “King of Israel,” David’s Son (v. 42).