The
road Christ had taken was inching closer to the climax. The soldiers, the Roman
cohorts that surrounded Jesus were well accustomed to fighting Jewish rebels in
their course of work. And they had to be alert for anytime somewhere a
dissident group might just arise. Perhaps, some of them might have even seen
some of their comrades killed by those rebels. Having encountered all sorts of
rebels, they must be tired of having to keep calming riotous mobs and dealing
with rebels. But this Jesus was different. And we will never fully know why
they did what they did to Him.
Here
was a Jew who was being accused of making himself the “King of the Jews.” His death
was imminent. The soldiers must have thought to themselves, “Why not have a bit
of fun with Him before He dies? Let’s use Him to show what we Romans think of the
other people’s king?” When we recall all that Jesus had done earlier, it’s so
heart wrenching. Just days before, He drove out the money changers in the Temple
and overthrew their tables. All His journey up to this moment, He healed so
many on the road. Just think of His teaching that had impacted so many. But Matthew
had cleverly arranged his account perfectly, to show that this moment Jesus was
moving toward was not incidental. It was the ordained climatic moment of His
whole mission.
A placard
stating the crime of the person being sentence to the cross would usually be displayed
on top of it. For Matthew, the placard on the top of Jesus’ cross was not
describing His crime, but was the sobering truth that He was truly “The King of
the Jews”. This cross that King Jesus died on was the throne through which He
was establishing His Kingdom. And as He Himself had earlier told the two Zebedee
brothers, that there would be two others who would be suffering with Him, one
on His right and one on His left, He actually had the cross in mind. We know that
the Kingdom Jesus came to establish has always and will always be about the
Kingdom of God. And it could not be accomplished through military might. It can
only be done in the way God wants. And God had chosen to use self-giving love to
establish it.
A
closer examination of this passage reveals that what Jesus went through was
part of the Sermon on the Mount being played out. Like Matthew 5:39, He was
struck on the face by the soldiers; and Matthew 5:40, they stripped off both His
inner and outer garments. Even Simon of Cyrene, who was made to carry the cross
on Jesus behalf, bore the very essence of what He said in Matthew 5:41. Matthew was showing us that Jesus was leading
the way. He was soon to be the true Light of the world (Matthew 5:14). The light which Israel was to be but failed to be. And now Jesus, the true Light would
soon be set on a hill forever to be seen. It’s the Light of God’s love shinning
into all the dark corners of the world. This Light would shine by taking all
the world’s wickedness, sin, scum, hatred, mockery, and violence and the
endless list, and let them do their worst to Christ.
We
must know that Christianity is about real life experiences and struggles. It is
not just about having good times and wonderful spiritual experiences. At the cross
we see up close the ravaging effect of sin and evil coming together and doing
their worst against the One Who has come to demonstrate the perfect love of the
creator God. Like it or not, all that took place at Golgotha was the effect of
the ugliness of sin at its height. Shocking and violent as the scene might be, yet
its enduring healing effect is still felt today. Having felt and experienced
the healing effect of the cross, what must we do? Here are the ways to respond
to Calvary’s unfailing love. Let us share our experience with people within our
sphere of influence and let them know that they too can experience the same. More
importantly, we must be truly grateful to Christ who for our sake, went through
all the suffering, torment and traumas and ultimately death. Let’s forever
love, adore, worship and serve this Jesus, Who had caused the face of God to turn
towards us in love.
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