Biblion Bible Commentary
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They Crucified Him
Matthew 27:32-44
32 As they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, and they compelled him to go with them, that he might carry his cross. · WEB
The execution is reported in four words, and the chapter spends its space on what was said around it.
They found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, and they compelled him to go with them, that he might carry his cross Matthew 27:32.
A passer-by is conscripted, which tells you the condemned man could no longer carry the beam. The crucifixion is told in the earlier account Mark 15:21–47.
When they came to a place called "Golgotha", that is to say, "The place of a skull" Matthew 27:33. Golgotha was outside the wall and beside a road, because the point of the penalty was that people saw it.
They gave him sour wine to drink mixed with gall. When he had tasted it, he would not drink Matthew 27:34. The drink was a rough anesthetic. He tastes it — so he knows what is offered — and refuses. Nothing about what follows is going to be dulled.
When they had crucified him, they divided his clothing among them, casting lots Matthew 27:35.
That is the whole account of the act. Four words for the thing the entire book has been moving toward, and no description of the process whatever. The Gospels are unanimous in this restraint, and the space is given instead to the psalm the soldiers are unknowingly acting out Psalms 22:18 and to the voices around the cross.
And they sat and watched him there Matthew 27:36. Men sitting down to wait, because it takes a long time.
"THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS" Matthew 27:37. The charge nailed above his head is the truest sentence written by anyone that day, posted by a governor to annoy the priests.
Three groups mock, and all three say the same thing in different words. Passers-by: "If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!" Matthew 27:40 — which is the wilderness formula exactly, the same if used by the same accuser Matthew 4:3 Matthew 4:6. The chief priests: "He saved others, but he can't save himself" Matthew 27:42, a sentence that is entirely true and means the opposite of what they intend. And "He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now" Matthew 27:43 is quoted, without their knowing it, out of the psalm he is fulfilling Psalms 22:8.
The robbers also who were crucified with him cast on him the same reproach Matthew 27:44. Even the men dying beside him join in. Every voice in earshot is on one side, and the offer they all make is the same: come down, and we will believe. Coming down was the one thing that would have made believing pointless.
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