Friday, 10 April The King Establishes His Kingdom. Matt. 27:27–50
This is the last reflection under this heading of The King Establishes His Kingdom. Tomorrow’s reading will show Jesus ascending his throne. But today, we have a massive amount of material to show him still in the final phase of his establishing of his Kingdom.
This entire section is one of unrelieved efforts to humiliate Jesus. As we read it, we will scarcely be human, let alone Christian, if our hearts do not tremble and our senses are not revolted as we read what they did to him. And that is a right and proper response.
But put that emotional response aside for a moment. Matthew is not particularly interested in that, as we will see. He wants us to be made of sterner stuff for the moment. He wants us to be clear-eyed observers, not snuffling into our Kleenex.
Matthew does a remarkable thing in his telling of this narrative. He demonstrates the absolute guilt of everyone involved. He uses every incident that he can to show that none of this treatment was done in ignorance. Everyone involved knew exactly what they were doing.
The soldiers in vv27–31 make it clear that the whole point of their attempted humiliation was based on their knowledge that Jesus was supposed to be, and had claimed to be the King. They were not taunting him because he was a Jew, or because he was a failed revolutionary. Their taunts were directly related to their rejection of his Kingship.
They failed to see the irony, which I'm certain Matthew wants us to see: you can't humiliate someone by using mock versions of the way humans treat royalty if the person never claimed to be that sort of earthly King. Bowing down and calling out loud cries of mock-worship, putting a crown on his head and a fake sceptre in his hand isn’t funny if the man you are mocking actually never intended or wanted to do any of that self-promotion stuff anyway. The joke fell inevitably flat. The soldiers were left feeling as though their clever antics were just a bit ridiculous.
Then another group of soldiers, the ones on execution duty, thought it would be good to have a gambling session over who would walk away with Jesus’ clothing (v35). A good robe would bring a few denarii in the marketplace, and the more so if it could be sold with the guarantee that it had belonged to the “King of the Jews”. Plenty of his followers would snap that up! What they didn’t know was that they were actively fulfilling a prophecy that they would probably rather have not been a part of: They divide my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots (Ps. 22:18).
Then Pilate tried to humiliate Jesus (and also the Jewish priests and leaders) by putting a sign over his head that said This is Jesus, King of the Jews (v37). Pilate thought that was funny, because, well, look at Jesus now, he doesn’t look like much of a king hanging on that cross dying in the hot sun. Ordinarily, Pilate might have been right, but on this occasion, that was exactly the sort of King that Jesus had planned to be – the King that gave his own life for his people. If the Son of Man is lifted up, he will draw all men unto himself. Pilate didn’t know anything about that sort of Kingship.
Then there were the casual passers-by who mocked and sneered at Jesus as he hung upon the cross (vv39–40). Again, the point of their sneering was specifically that they knew that he had claimed to be the Son of God – and they were rejecting that.
Then the priests, teachers of the law and the elders, i.e. the whole box and dice of the Jewish religious establishment turned on him (vv41–43). Again, they repeated the words of the crowd. They knew that he had claimed to be the Son of God, and they rejected his claim.
Do you see the point? Matthew is telling us as clearly as he can: nobody in this lynching crowd was innocent. They knew exactly what they were doing. It’s interesting that Matthew doesn’t report what Luke does, that Jesus prayed for their forgiveness on the grounds that “they don’t know what they are doing”. Nor does he report the conversion of one of the thieves on the crosses next to him.
It was not that Matthew did not know these things. Nor that they are not true. None of them is inconsistent with Matthew’s version of events. It’s probable that the converted thief started out being a critic (v44) but was converted as he saw the way that Jesus dealt with his torment. But Matthew’s purpose is clear. He is telling his story, his narrative, his way of reading the death of Jesus.
The way that Matthew tells it, everyone involved implicates themselves in the bloodguilt by the very words they say and the actions they take. Despite knowing that Jesus claimed to be the King, the Son of God, the Messiah – they coolly murdered him. They knew very well who Jesus claimed to be, but they chose to suppress or reject that knowledge.
In the midst of this mass dereliction, Jesus cries out in deeply human agony: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? At this point, Matthew wants us to be deeply and vitally aware, Jesus had been thoroughly abandoned and betrayed. Of course, there were still some who believed in him. The faithful women were still there at the end of the chapter. Joseph, who owned a spare tomb, was ready and waiting. But Matthew’s way of telling his story lets us know that Jesus felt utterly bereft, abandoned.
At those moments in my life when I feel most alone, most let down, even by God, I must remember this. He has been here before me, and he knows what it’s like.
Our passage today ends at the moment where Jesus dies. Matthew tells us that he gave up his spirit. Well, he had to, didn’t he? This is not a subtle support for euthanasia. This is not a divine copout where Jesus could choose to lay down his life when he was ready and didn’t have to suffer through to the end like the rest of us have to.
No, the soldiers had very efficiently killed his body. They were good at their job. They didn’t muck up that sort of thing. But professional soldiers that they were, they couldn’t kill the spirit of God. When Jesus’ body had reached the end of its physical endurance, when the vital organs shut down, when the blood stopped flowing, the divine spirit had to call the whole thing to an end, had to say, Enough!
The King has now done everything that he needed to do to establish his Kingdom. He has given his life for it. For a short while, we will be sad, as his body lies in the grave, but then will come the really exciting part! I can hardly wait!
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, I am so sorry that we treated you as we did. I wasn’t there, myself, but I share the guilt of those who were there. We killed the King who had come to grant us freedom. Whatever were we thinking of? But in your good and generous mercy, you did not hold that sin against us. Thank you for your grace. Amen.
