Our Victorious King

Matthew 27:32-37 ESV

32 As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. 33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. 35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. 36 Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. 37 And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

It's hard to believe that today marks the first Sunday of 2024. I’m not really sure what happened to last year because it seems like we just got to see it for a short while and now it’s gone. But at any rate it is a new year.

But it isn’t just the year that is new, because this year I am going to be presenting my sermons a little bit differently than what you are used to. I know that ever since I have been here I have been faithful to present you with a series of messages from an Old Testament narrative on odd numbered months and a series of messages from a New Testament narrative on even numbered months. This year, though, is going to be a little different.

I thought to myself that there are some narratives in the Bible that I would like to work through, but there is far too much information in them to unpack them in a single month and do them justice. Therefore, this year, I plan on presenting you with longer sermon series’, series’ that encompass more than one month.

So, today, we begin one of these lengthier series, as today, we begin a 13 part series of sermons that will run from today, the first Sunday in January to Easter Sunday, the last Sunday in March. So at least by the time that we are done with this series, we will all know that warmer weather is just around the corner!

But what we will be covering throughout these three months is the Passion of Jesus, the crucifixion of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, and lastly, the commission of the resurrected Jesus.

And when we begin our message for today, we are in the midst of the Passion of the Lord. The Passion of Christ is the account of those events which led up to and included the death and burial of Jesus.

Already had the Lord Jesus been betrayed by one who claimed to love Him, already had He been wrongfully accused and sentenced with the verdict of guilty, already had He been beaten and mocked by those who were carrying out His sentence and those who were looking on.

In the Passion of Christ, what we see is humanity at its very worse as we see that when the Son of God, the Godman appeared, bringing with Him salvation, what did they do? Did they embrace Him and the orthodox message that He brought? Did they fall to His feet and worship Him? No, they crucified Him!

This shows you that no matter who you are, what generation you may be apart of, what all of us naturally are is wicked, depraved, evil beyond measure. If you want to know what the depth of the depraved human heart is, look no further than this. God came, and they hated Him so much that they killed Him.

Now, as we look to our reading, we see this being carried out as we first look at the very beginning of verse 32, which simply says:

Matthew 27:32a ESV

32a As they went out,

“They went out”… these are three profoundly significant words. The “they” spoken of here is in reference to Jesus and those who were going to be crucified with Him.

And when our text says that these “went out” as they were going out, what it signifies is that they were being led out of the city so that they could be put to death outside the city walls of Jerusalem. Now, this is not something extraordinary, in fact, it was common in those days to execute criminals outside of the city.

But what is extraordinary about this when it comes to the execution of Jesus is that as He left the city, what it showed is that Jesus bore the shame and reproach of His elect people “on the outside”.

You see, what this means is that even those whom God has chosen for salvation still deserve the eternal condemnation that those who are not saved will receive. But for their sake, for the sake of the people whom God has chosen to save from the foundation of the world, for them Jesus goes outside the bound of blessing and election, away from the favor of God so that He could bear the wrath of God in the place of His elect people so that we, those He has chosen to save can experience God’s favor.

And as the Lord went out of the city, there came a man whom God would honor by placing him in the exact spot where he could help the Lord bear His cross. We see this in the next half of verse 32 where it says:

Matthew 27:32b ESV

32b they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross.

So now we come to a different “they”. The “they” being referred to here are the Roman soldiers who would carry out the execution of Jesus. Our reading says that they found a man of Cyrene, a region in northern Africa, named Simon and the compelled or, forced this Simon to carry the cross of Jesus.

You see, contrary to popular opinion, the Lord Jesus was most likely not carrying an entire cross, but instead, He was likely carrying a very large wooden beam. In almost every instance when one would be executed by crucifixion, the who was going to be executed would carry a wooden beam to a tall and sturdy tree, and then the wooden beam would be nailed to the tree. And then the one being executed would be nailed to the beam.

And while the one who was going to be executed was the one who would typically bear his cross, this huge beam to the place of execution, but this point Jesus was so weakened by the scourging and beatings that He had taken that He could no longer bear it, thus, Simon of Cyrene was forced by these soldiers to bear it for Him to Golgotha, the place of execution as verse 33 tells us.

Verse 34 then tells us that once at Golgotha, the place of execution, the soldiers tormented Jesus further when it says:

Matthew 27:34 ESV

34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it.

They offered Him wine to drink, but it says that this wine was mixed with gall. Gall was a poisonous, sour substance and its inclusion in the wine made it not fit to drink. In fact, if you were to drink it, it would be very bad for you, worsening your condition considerably.

Well, many commentators have said that when the soldiers done this, what they were doing was making Jesus think that they were being merciful to Him and offering Him a pain reliever of sorts. But when He tasted it, our reading says that Jesus would not drink it.

Thus, they made Jesus believe that they were trying to help relieve His pain, but He quickly realized that what they were offering Him was poison. I’m sure that the soldiers who offered Him this poisonous substance really got a kick out of Jesus realizing that any hope of mercy was gone. This shows you the kind of sick people who were crucifying the Lord.

Yet little did these tormentors know that they were fulfilling what was prophesied concerning Jesus in Psalm 69:21, which says, “They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.”

But the humiliation was not over as we read in verse 35:

Matthew 27:35 ESV

35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots.

After driving stakes through the hands and feet of the Lord on the cross, the executioners took the last remaining earthly possession which the Lord Jesus owned and they cast lots for it and in the process, they unwittingly fulfill that which was prophesied of our Lord in Psalm 22:18, which says: “they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

After this was completed, Matthew includes an important detail when he tells us in verse 36:

Matthew 27:36 ESV

36 Then they sat down and kept watch over him there.

You might wonder how this is an important detail, I mean it just kind of looks like a footnote of sorts, nothing too important. But the reason why this is important is because the reason why the soldiers sat down and kept watch over Jesus was twofold.

The first reason why they kept watch over Him was because they wanted to ensure that no one came attempted to rescue Jesus from the cross. These Roman soldiers were professional executioners, it was their job to kill those who were sentenced to death, and that’s the second reason why this detail is important, because by sitting and keeping watch over Jesus, they were ensuring that He died.

There are other faiths, such as Islam, the Muslim faith, that, believe it or not, suggest that Jesus did not die on the cross. They say that God made it seem like Jesus died, and the soldiers took Him from the cross and God took Him to heaven alive and thus He never died.

But if Jesus had not died, then He would not have made propitiation for our sins. Had Jesus not died on the cross, then no one would be saved, we all would still be in our sins. But most of all, if Jesus would not have died, then He could not have been raised from the dead. And if Jesus has not been raised from the dead, then our religion is a sham.

For this reason, the most vehement opponents of our faith deny the resurrection of Jesus at every turn, for without it, it is not legitimate. And one way that opponents of our faith will try to deny the resurrection is by saying that Jesus never died, because if He didn’t die, then He couldn’t have been resurrected.

Thus, this detail that Matthew includes is very important. These men were trained killers. What they specialized in was torturing in some of the worst ways imaginable and ensuring that those they executed were dead beyond any shadow of doubt.

But what we see at the very end of our reading is what shows without a shadow of a doubt that God was sovereign over this situation, as we read in verse 37:

Matthew 27:37 ESV

37 And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

As we have already mentioned on a couple other occasions, the executioners of Jesus were unknowingly fulfilling prophecies concerning Jesus and this was no different.

As you can imagine, in those days it was common to place a sign above the head of the one who was crucified, the offence that led to their crucifixion. Placed above the head of Jesus was sign that read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews”… never had truer words been spoken.

But the reason why they put this upon the sign was so that they could mock Jesus and His followers. Caesar Augustus was the emperor of Rome, the king of the Roman Empire. And the territory of the Roman Empire including Israel. Thus, if someone claimed to be the King of Israel, or the King of the Jews, what that person would be doing is defying the rule of Caesar and thus rebelling against him.

Thus, when Jesus hangs upon the cross and He has the message, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews” above His head, the message that these soldiers were trying to get across is that this is what happens to those who rebel against Caesar. It is saying, “You say that this is your King? Well, your King hangs upon a cross! There is no king but Caesar!”

But, like I said, what these Roman soldiers didn’t realize was that this act of theirs was speaking an awesome reality that they didn’t even understand for, the reality that this charge professes is that Jesus is King, King over all, King over His enemies, and even King over Caesar.

And as Jesus bled and suffered upon the cross of Calvary, what seemed like a massive defeat was in reality an amazing conquest over all of His foes!

There is victory in Jesus indeed!

Amen?