Read Matthew 27:33-38, Mark 15:22-28, Luke 23:32-34, 38 and John 19:17-27. While John states that Jesus went out bearing His own cross, the other three accounts state that the authorities pressed into service Simon to carry it for Him. What occurred was our Lord started the walk to Golgotha carrying it, but when it was seen He was too weak from the torture He had received before this to continue, Simon was conscripted for this task. The site of Golgotha has traditionally been associated with the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. While this is now located within the walls of Jerusalem in our Lord’s day, it was outside. Mark tells us that it was about 9:00 A.M. (the third hour) when they crucified the Lord.
1. Both Matthew and Mark mentioned they offered Jesus wine. Matthew states it was mixed with gall, while Mark tells us it was mixed with myrrh. Myrrh would have given the wine a pleasant aroma, while gall would have acted as a deadening agent lessening the pain of this execution. Why do you think our Lord refused the wine at this point?
Since our Lord was taking the punishment for sin we deserved, any attempt to mitigate this, either spiritually or physically, was rejected. He was determined to bear the full weight of God’s judgment upon Himself for us.
2. It was customary for the Romans to attach to the cross the crime for which a person was being executed by crucifixion. Why does each of the writers of the Gospels record a different inscription?
The inscription was written in three languages: Latin, the official language of the Roman Empire, Greek, the common trade language of the world and Hebrew or Aramaic, the language of the people of Israel. Pilate, who hated and despised the Jews, undoubtedly, had the Latin to read, “IESUS NAZARENVS REX IVDAEORVM,” that is, “Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews.” The early church used the first letters of this inscription, INRI, as a Christian symbol. John, in his Gospel, no doubt quotes the official Latin version. The other writers probably quoted either the Greek or the Hebrew text, which perhaps stated, “This is Jesus, king of the Jews” or “This is the king of the Jews.”
3. John tells us of four people standing by the cross: one unnamed disciple, who was undoubtedly John himself, and three Marys, our Lord’s mother, His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Our Lord commits His mother into John’s care. This was unusual since the responsibility for Mary, who was a widow, fell to the eldest son, and after the eldest to the next in line. After our Lord’s death, it would have fallen to Jesus’ oldest brother. Why do you think Jesus altered this order and went outside His own family?
At this point, none of our Lord’s brothers were believers. James would come to faith probably when our Lord appeared to him following His resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:7). Jude would also come to faith, but at this point, they did not accept Him as Messiah. It would appear that our Lord considered the bonds of faith to be more important and necessary than the natural family bonds. Mary would need the strength and comfort of other believers more right now than the consolation of her own family.
Read Matthew 27:39-50, Mark 15:29-37, Luke 23:35-46 and John 19:28-30. Our Lord was crucified about 9:00 A.M. (Mark 15:25, the third hour being the third hour after sunrise or 6:00 A.M.) At 12:00 noon, that is, the sixth hour, darkness fell upon the land and lasted until around 3:00 P.M. or the ninth hour, when our Lord died. Luke tells us the sun was obscured. This was not a solar eclipse, nor does this seem to be simply cloud cover. Whether this darkness was directly brought about apart from any known physical cause or was supernaturally effected by some physical means is not known. It does conceivably speak symbolically of the darkness of sin that was hanging around the neck of our Lord and too of the grief of the Father as He turned away in the judgment of His Son.
4. As He hung on the cross, the people in general, the religious leadership, one of the criminals being executed with Him and the Roman soldier all taunted our Lord. What was the common factor in all their taunts?
The common factor was that while they knew or had heard He could heal and save others, why could He not now save Himself?
5. One of the criminals mockingly said to Jesus, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” What was ironic about that statement?
He was the Christ, and what He was doing by suffering and ultimately dying was indeed saving them or at least the one who believed. What no one understood was that while He could have easily saved Himself, He chose not to do so so that He could save them.
6. What is the significance of the statement made by our Lord, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”
The significance is that it demonstrates that God the Father had turned His back upon the Son. As a human being, He was experiencing spiritual death being separated from God. This is the penalty of sin we all as sinners deserved.
7. What is the significance of the statement made by our Lord, “It is finished!?”
This statement indicates that the penalty had been paid, that the judgment had run its course and was complete. This phrase, in Greek, was the phrase that was used when a bill was settled, meaning it was paid in full.
The Applications:
What are the applications of these passages to our lives today? Identify as many as you are able.
1. It is noteworthy that only one disciple is mentioned as being at the crucifixion. The other believers stated to be there were the three Marys and one of the criminals who was also being put to death that day. Were any of the other disciples there? We do not know, for it is not recorded. Most scholars believe they were not. They might have been afraid, for if their leader was being executed for treason against Rome, they too were in danger. In addition to fearing for their lives, they might have been so emotionally discouraged and confused they simply could not handle seeing their Master killed. He was supposed to be the Messiah, the King of Israel. Death was not part of the equation for them. For whatever reasons or reasons, they were probably not there, except John and the women.
Did these have more faith? Did they understand the plan of God better than the rest? We do not know. Was John there because he was known to the High Priest and therefore did not have as much to fear as the others, or did he come despite his fears? Were the women there because, as women, they had less to fear from the authorities than the men? We do not know their inner motives or fears, but they were there. Their love for our Lord, even when they certainly did not understand everything that was occurring, held them there. So too, in our lives, we cannot and will not understand all that takes place. But if we love our Lord despite the fears we might have, despite the sorrow and discouragement, we too should stand firm even when we do not understand what He is doing or why He is allowing whatever is happening.
2. We often think of the pain and suffering of the crucifixion and our Lord’s physical death as the payment for our sin. It was indeed part of the price paid, but not the major part, to be sure. When God told Adam that the day he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die, He was referring not just to physical death but more importantly to the spiritual death of separation from God. When Adam sinned, he did die that day, in that very instant, because he was immediately separated from his Creator. This spiritual death was then followed in time by physical death.
As our Lord hung on the cross, suffering the agonies of crucifixion, he was already dead, spiritually dead. God had placed upon Him the sin of all humanity from Adam, the first, to the last person to be born in the kingdom period. And in doing this, God turned His back upon the Son, totally forsaking Him, treating Him as if He had been condemned to the separation of hell away from God’s presence. We who are alive cannot conceive of what this means or what our Lord experienced when it took place. Yes, as unbelievers, we were indeed separated from God, and before we came to faith, it did not seem then at least to be a huge loss. But as dead as we were then, the final and total separation has not yet taken place. For us, it will not, for we will never experience that separation away from God’s presence known as hell. But the Son of God experienced this very separation away from God as He hung there on the cross bearing the punishment awaiting us in hell.
Right before He died, our Lord uttered one of the most significant statements made in heaven and on earth, “It is finished!” In Greek, this is τετελεσται, which has the idea of something being completely accomplished. When used of a debt being paid off, it meant paid in full with nothing more due. The sacrifice was made. Nothing more remained to be done concerning the payment for our sin. Having hung on the cross spiritually dead, separated from God the Father, our Lord declared it was accomplished, bowed His head, and died physically. Yet having died physically, He was made alive spiritually, the bond restored between Himself and the Father. Peter tells us this in 1 Peter 3:18: “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.”
How often do we try to add to our Lord’s work, thinking that something now depends upon us to secure our place in heaven? When our Lord declared, it was accomplished, it was completely done. We are accepted by God, forgiven of our sin, past, present and future. Nothing depends upon us. It all depended upon Him, and He did it all!
We now are to live our lives striving to please Him, not secure our salvation but because it has been secured. We are not to serve Him out of fear of losing our place in heaven but to serve out of love for being given a place.