The King & the Cross (Matthew 27:27-56)

The King and the Cross

Matthew 27:27-56

Preached on the Lord’s Day, March 29, 2026, to the Saints of Land O’ Lakes Bible Church

Introduction

Today begins what is known as Holy Week. A week of remembrance for Christians of the last week of Jesus’s life. Beginning with his triumphant entry into Jerusalem on what is referenced to as Palm Sunday. And ending with remembering his death on Friday and the empty tomb three days later which we will focus on next Sunday morning on Resurrection Sunday.

Of course, as a church, we have been focusing on this last week of Jesus’s life since November except for a few weeks here and there away from our study in the Gospel According to Matthew. And so, this morning we arrive with Jesus being led to his death on the cross.

Please then turn there in your Bible to Matthew 27:27-56(2x). That can be found on page #991 in the Red Bible in your seats if you do not have your own Bible. Again, that is page #991.

Throughout our time in working our way throughout this gospel account, we have learned much about Jesus, from Jesus as he has centered his message around this theme of the kingdom of God. For back in Matthew 4:17, we read,

Matthew 4:17 ESV

17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

What is this Kingdom of God? Well in God’s providence last week, I came across a helpful and concise definition of the Kingdom of God from Jeremy Treat and his The Atonement: An Introduction book. In that work, Jeremy summarizes the kingdom of God as follows:

The kingdom is God’s reign through God’s people over God’s place.[1]

A kingdom that was first present in creation, in the garden of Eden. A kingdom that our first parents, Adam and Eve were meant to advance and fill the whole earth with as God’s agents.

However, treason was soon to enter that kingdom. For Adam and Eve would deny God’s rule over them in taking of the fruit of the forbidden tree. They sought to be their own king and queen. Ruling themselves under the rule of self-autonomy. Ironically though, becoming agents of the evil one, Satan himself.

A rule that has been at work since the fall creating hostility between God and those he made in his image and likeness. And in this kingdom, not only was man separated from God, but the whole of creation. For under the curse of sin, even creation itself groans.

The effects of sin are great. Sin has brought about the curse of death, leaving man given over to various illnesses and disease, with bodies given over to decay. Nature itself has even begun to rage. And then there is the effect of sin within everyone born of Adam, that is all humanity. For even as we were conceived in our mother’s womb, we were conceived in sin. A conception that passed on the poison of sin running in us and through us, slowly killing us. And because of this poison we are born raging against God as our King.

But now, in Jesus’s coming, he comes preaching that this kingdom of God is at hand. That it is near. That God’s rule is about to be restored. A rule made visible in Jesus’s authority that has been revealed in the gospel. A rule visible over creation, sickness, disease, and death. A rule by his very descent. Conceived by the Spirit and born of a virgin, Jesus was born into the line of David as the Son of David as God’s Promised Forever King to advance God’s rule.

But now this forever King with all authority has been sentenced to death. The enemy appears to have won, but that can’t be right. Let’s hear then the word of the Lord from Matthew 27:27-56….

Main Idea: Jesus endured the mockery and shame of the cross to rescue us from our sin. All we need to do then is to trust and rest in him for our salvation.

A King Worthy of Our Worship (Matthew 27:27-44)

A King Worthy of Our Trust (Matthew 27:45-56)

I. A King Worthy of Our Worship (Matthew 27:27-44)

Surrounding Jesus being nailed to a tree as a curse, the mocking voices of the scoffers rings out loudly. For there are the mocking voices of the soldiers in verses 27-31 and then by the many gathered and passing by Jesus’s cross in verses 32-44.

First, there is the mocking voice of the soldiers. There in verse 27, we are told of a whole battalion of Roman soldiers that has led Jesus inside and has now gathered around him. According to research, a Roman battalion was anywhere from 120-200 soldiers to as high as 600 soldiers. And while that is still a wide range of variation, it is clear that this was no small group of soldiers that gathered here around Jesus.

And what follows in verses 28-31, we see that they gather to mock Jesus. First, there in verse 28, they strip Jesus of his own clothes and put a scarlet robe on him, a color of royalty.

Then, they take thorns and twist them together to make a crown to place upon his head. This is then followed by them taking a reed, a big stick, and put in his hand. This reed acting like the scepter of a king. And after all of this, they begin to mockingly bow before him and strike him and spit upon him before stripping him again to lead away to his death.

But as these mocking voices rise louder and louder with their mocking of Jesus, we must not lose sight of the emphasis of these verses. An emphasis that is put at the center of these verses that form a chiasm. 

A chiasm is a literary structure that repeats concepts, often in the reverse order. And that is the case here with the emphasis in the middle.

So, look closely here with me at Matthew 27:27-31:

A. V.27 — Jesus being taken with its matching of V.31B of Jesus being taken

B. V.28 — Jesus being stripped of his clothes with its matching of V.31A of Jesus being stripped of the royal robes

C. V.29A — Jesus being mocked with its matching of V.30 and Jesus being spit upon

D. Then in the very center is V.29B, where this battalion of Roman soldiers kneels before Jesus, hailing him as the King of the Jews.

While it was not uncommon for Roman Soldiers to lift a mocking voice against those sentenced to crucifixion, this chiasm reveals to us the emphasis of their mocking and this section of text. It reveals to us that it is this kneeling and worshiping Jesus as the King of the Jews.

The soldiers therefore are lifting up their mocking voices against Jesus as this King of the Jews. And yet, it is this very thing that they should have been doing with sincerity and delight.

Not only that, but it is also calling us to this very thing. We as readers of this Gospel account are being called to bow our knees in allegiance and worship to God’s Anointed and Forever King!

Listen to how one Bible commentator, R.T. France puts this,

this allows the reader to reflect on the reality of Jesus’ kingship which the soldiers can see only as a joke. In 28:18 we shall read of the real enthronement.[2]

Jesus is truly God’s Anointed King from Psalm 2. He is the one in whom all authority in heaven and earth is given as we see at the close of Matthew there in Matthew 28:18-20. And therefore, he is worthy of our allegiance, trust, and worship!

But that is the question to you and I this morning. Is that how we see Jesus and come to him?

Do we come and bow ourselves before him, acknowledging him as the one who is King and to rule and reign over us? The one in whom we are to listen to and obey? Do we find Jesus worthy of our allegiance and worship? And if not, why are we resisting this?

For Jesus is the King of God’s kingdom which is at hand and draws all the nearer at the cross. A King both who is worthy of our allegiance and worship; and who also demands it. 

And yet, how often do we in our humanity resist this rule of Jesus? Fighting not against that which opposes his rule, but for our own autonomy. That is our own self-rule over ourselves. Us being our own little kings and little queens who determine what is good and right for our own lives, laying aside God’s authority over us that comes in Christ as our Forever King.

Friends, some of you continue to resist this rule of Jesus in simply thinking him as nothing more than a good and moral teacher. He is not less than this, but he is certainly more! See Jesus as God’s king who has come to advance God’s rule here on earth as he makes all things new again! Come and bow yourself and give your allegiance not to yourself, but Jesus this morning!

But it is not only the non-believer who must take this to heart. For we ourselves who have confessed Jesus as Lord continue in our flesh to wage against Jesus as king. We wage against him as we allow our sin to prevail in our members. We wage against the rule of Christ when we turn to our own means of worship rather than his.

Let us beware our own mocking voice that cries out among the scoffers. And let us respond by falling before Jesus and giving ourselves both to the worship of him and in giving him our utmost allegiance!

That’s the first mockery. The second mockery comes in verses 32-44 with Jesus being led to and during his crucifixion.

Back in verse 26, we saw that Jesus had been scourged and then struck with a reed in verse 31. This has left Jesus weak in the flesh and unable to carry his own cross as was the norm. And so, we see in verse 32 that one man was compelled by the soldiers leading Jesus, to carry Jesus’s cross for him to that vile place of Golgotha, the Place of a Skull, as defined by its name there in verse 33. Then we read verse 34…

This wine mixed with gall was a very bitter drink. But the bitterness is not why Jesus refused to drink it after tasting it. He refused to drink it, because he did not desire to have his senses dulled during the crucifixion. For the wine with gall was meant to function like a localized anesthesia meant to help numb the effects of what is going on.

Rather than lessen this, Jesus sought to bear the fullness of God’s wrath being poured upon him according to the plan of God. For he willingly came to lay down his life for his sheep and sought to be fully aware of this work on the cross to take away the sins of his people.

And so, Jesus refused the wine with gall and was nailed to the cross to become a curse for our sake. Railroad type spikes driven through each hand and then one through his feet crossed over one another to hold him in place as he was lifted up.

As this is being done, we begin to both see the Providence of God in these matters and the mocking voices of others arise. For Psalm 22 begins to be at work here in Jesus’s crucifixion. Let me then encourage you to write these parallel references down whether you are taking detailed notes or not. They will help you see the splendor of God’s plan of redemption here at the cross.

First, there in verse 35, we see an allusion to Psalm 22:16, 18 as the evildoers pierce his hands and feet and divide his garments.

Then down in verse 38, we see Jesus further humiliated as we are told that he is put between two robbers. This making him the center and therefore the more prominent offender. And with this and the sign above his head reading, the King of the Jews, the people come by and begin to mock him no longer with just actions, but their words. This too fulfilling Psalm 22.

Psalm 22:7 ESV

7 All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;

This mocking comes first there in verse 40. They mock and wag their heads at Jesus pointing back to the previous charge brought against him from Matthew 26:61. How Jesus had said he could destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days.

So they mock him, saying that he who made such great boasts should be able to come down off the cross. They even doubted him like their father the devil, in saying, if you are the Son of God as they put him to the test.

It does not end there though. It continues in verse 41, not just from those passing by, but the very ones who had handed him into the hands of Pilate. The religious leaders made up of the chief priest, the scribes, and the elders. In verse 42, they mock his ability to heal and save others while failing to save himself from the cruelness of the cross. Even challenging him that if he was to come down that they would believe.

Others put him to the test there in verse 43, that since his trust was in God, let God deliver him now, this fulfilling the words of Psalm 22:8. And even those crucified with him, we are told there in verse 44, join in the mocking and the reviling.

The mocking voice of the scoffers rises up, louder and louder against the King. And yet through it all, he remains on the cross. He remains not in his inability to come down, but in order to accomplish the very things they mock him with.

Jesus remains on the cross to bring about God’s plan of salvation by him being the lamb of God slain to rescue sinners to bring about the forgiveness of sins! For in his death, he becomes the once for all sacrifice for sin. And in his rising on the third day, he defeats the claims of sin in death itself, therefore bringing life to all who believe.

That is why here in just a bit, we will sing these words in our Song of Response, How Deep the Father’s Love for Us in the second verse which goes:

Behold the Man upon a cross, my sin upon his shoulders; ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished; his dying breath has brought me life —I know that it is finished

Our sin held Jesus on the cross. He stayed so that all who do believe in him could have their sins washed away by the very shedding of his blood!

But the voice of Jesus’s mockers and scoffers could not fathom this. They cannot fathom that such a suffering servant could be the Messiah. They could not fathom that the Redeemer would suffer on such a bloody cross.

Yet, how often do we indeed hear our own mocking voice among the scoffers? Failing to see the centrality of the cross in God’s great purpose of redemption. Neglecting the need for such an atonement, by minimizing our sin.

The greatness of sin demanded such a great sacrifice by God himself. That the Son of God would not be withheld but go willingly to the cross as a ransom for us!

What love could remember no wrongs in which we have done? The love of God as displayed in the giving of the Son to bring about this redemption! Never was a King so worthy of our allegiance and worship as the very King who was also the suffering servant on our behalf to bring about such a great salvation!

So then, let us see how Jesus indeed is a King worthy of our Worship! That’s point #1.

II. A King Worthy of our Trust (Matthew 27:45-54)

The crucifixion of Jesus was a dark moment in time. Verse 45…

The darkness was not some eclipse, nor was it a typical dark and wintery day in the Northwoods. It was the Lord turning the sun away as His judgment came as promised by the Prophet, Amos:

Amos 8:9–10 ESV

9 “And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. 10 I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.

A judgment that fell not upon man, but upon the Son of Man, the Son of God. For it is here on the cross that Jesus drinks the full cup of God’s wrath against sin to rescue sinners. He himself was made sin and a curse for us; enduring the most grievous sorrows in his Soul[3]. Sorrow that gives way to Jesus quoting David from Psalm 22:1 there in verse 46 of our passage…

Just as David felt forsaken by the Lord and abandoned in the midst of his enemies pursuing him, Jesus himself felt forsaken and abandoned by his Father for this brief moment. Forsaken as the face of the Father turns away for a moment as Jesus becomes sin and as the Father’s wrath against sin is poured upon him. As the beloved Son becomes the cursed one so that we who are cursed may become blessed in Christ.

But we must not miss this cry by Jesus here in verse 46. For though he quotes Psalm 22:1 in crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”, the whole of Psalm 22 is meant to be in mind. For as we have already seen, there are many allusions to the whole here of Psalm 22, in which Jesus is the forsaken one of Psalm 22, but he is also the one who will be satisfied in the Lord and praise the Lord from Psalm 22:26. He is the one who will be the king who reigns and rules over the nations of Psalm 22:28.

Those standing there missed this and thought Jesus was calling out for Elijah who they thought had still not come, missing that it was John the Baptist.

We see the mixed reactions there in verse 48 with one trying to ease the pain of Jesus on the cross with the sour wine and others wanting to see if God will actually hear. But the climax of Jesus’s crucifixion coming there in verse 50…

….

[1]Jeremy Treat. The Atonement: An Introduction. (Wheaton, IL, Crossway, 2023) 19.

[2]R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co., 2007), 1062.

[3]LCF 8.4 language