Matthew 27: 39-44 – Jesus, facing His mockers

Earlier, we saw Jesus before the cowardly Pilate, who knew He was not guilty but had too weak a conscience to own up to the truth. The charge was about Him being the King of the Jews. And we saw how the soldiers and the Roman cohorts mocked Him for the same reason. Now in these verses we see the Jewish leaders, the chief priests and the rest hurling all sorts of insults to the face of Jesus. They took issues with Him for claims that He had made directly or indirectly concerning the Temple, concerning Himself and particularly concerning Him being the Son of God, the Messiah.

Matthew in these verses take us back to the trial Jesus had with Caiaphas, where all these accusations came together. We are reminded of things that Jesus had done or said that claimed that the Temple would be destroyed. He also takes our minds further back to His baptism and Temptation. At His baptism, the clear voice of the Father was heard, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!” Jesus had lived all His life consciously aware of Who He really was. And now at the cross He was facing the hardest and harshest challenge. Wasn’t it in the wilderness that the devil challenged Him concerning the same thing? Three times He was asked to prove that He was truly the Son of God.

In this passage we see the same challenge over and over again. In the same pitch, the passers-by, the chief priests, the scribes and the elders, all hurled the same challenge. Casting insults upon insults they defied Him incessantly. If you are the Son of God why don’t You destroy the Temple and build it up again? If You are the Son of God why don’t You come down from the cross? If You are the Son of God, why isn’t God delivering You? If You are God’s Son and saved others, why can’t You save Yourself?

Matthew here is telling us where the story is heading toward. Jesus was opposed and rejected by His own people and together with the hatred and anger of the non-Jewish world, the Romans, the conspiracy was reaching its climax to put Him on the cross. Throughout Jesus’ ministry many were enriched by Him and His teachings. Many were touched and none would have imagined the cross to be where He would end. None except Jesus, that is.

Of course we know that Jesus is God’s only begotten Son. And precisely because He is, He must stay on the cross. For this is the way the world will be saved and death defeated. This is the way Christ Jesus must finish the mission that the Father had entrusted Him. This is how He would delight the Father and to make His delight full. The question to us as we close is: will we continue to trust and follow Jesus, the Son of God, despite the insults we will have to weather in following Him?