THE ATTITUDES THAT LED TO THE CROSS
That was not simply a statement of David; it was a prophetic statement of the Lord Jesus Christ. We think of the Lord Jesus Christ as He grew up in Joseph’s carpenter shop. Every time He saw a crossbeam in that carpenter shop, it could remind Him of that cruel cross upon which He would die. Every time the Lord Jesus Christ drove a nail in Joseph’s carpenter shop, it spoke to Him of those hellish nails that would be driven into His quivering palms. Every time the Lord Jesus saw a rose grow, He could look beyond that rose and see the thorns and be reminded of that crown of thorns that would rest upon His brow. He lived in the shadow of a cross.
I want you to consider the indecencies that began at that time. They stripped the Lord Jesus Christ naked. And, some psychopathic, barrel-chested Roman soldier who was probably a volunteer for the job took a long whip called a cat o’ nine tails and began to lacerate the body of Jesus with it. Ribbons of flesh would hang down. The whip would have little bits of bone and lead and glass in the very end. It would wrap around the body of the victim and tear away the flesh and sometimes disembowel the victim. Many times a person who had received a scourging like this was not able to walk. The Romans were skilled at this. They knew how to punish a man within an inch of death and still leave Him bleeding.
Then they put a purple robe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. They put a wilted reed in His hand. They pressed a crown of thorns down upon His tender brow. They spit in His face. And, they kneeled before Him, and they mock-worshipped Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” (Matthew 27:29
And then, they would take Him and pass Him from one to another while He was blindfolded and smite Him in the face The blood trickles down His cheeks and from His nose and drips off His beard. And then, someone reaches up and takes a handful of His beard and rips it from His cheek. The Bible says that they plucked the beard from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Isaiah 50:6)
They shoved Him from one to another and said, “If you are a prophet, prophesy. Tell us who it is who is striking you in the face this time.” (Matthew 26:68
Then, they took the Lord Jesus and they laid on His back a roughhewn timber. The splinters are embedded into those wounds. The Lord Jesus starts up that hill called Calvary. He makes His way down the Via Dolorosa, the “Way of Sorrows,” going to Calvary. He is so weak from loss of blood, from the bruised battering that He has received, He stumbles. A whip cracks. He picks up the cross and tries again. Finally, He stumbles again under the load of that cross. Someone else is forced to carry it, as He comes to that hill called Calvary, and there they stretched the Lord Jesus out. And, a hammer drives those rough nails into those quivering palms, into those feet that never walked in sin, and every nerve in His body becomes a pathway for the feet of pain to travel upon.
No one has known suffering like the Lord Jesus suffered. The Bible says that His face was so marred by the beating and the abuse that it was hard to recognize Him as a man. (Isaiah 52:14) He looked like some sort of an animal. All of the paintings of the Lord Jesus that we see are kind because they still show the Lord Jesus with perhaps a little blood trickling down His face. How abused was the Son of God! But, my dear friend, the veil of the Temple was rent in twain. The earth began to split. The rocks began to split. The sun hid its face, and it was utter midnight when the Lord Jesus was on the cross. And, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34) The disciples had fled. And now, God the Father turns His back upon God the Son. When David walked through the valley of the shadow of death, he could say, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” (Psalms 23:4) But, when Jesus walked that lonesome valley, He walked it all alone, suspended between heaven and earth, crucified by men and forsaken by the Father, because He was bearing the sin of the world.
And, not only did the Lord Jesus Christ suffer physically at the hands of men, but on that cross Jesus Christ took the thunderbolts of the wrath of God. And, in a finite period of time, He, being infinite, suffered the infinite punishment that we would suffer had we died and gone to hell, because as the sins of the world were distilled upon the Lord Jesus, the eternities were compressed upon the Lord Jesus. And, Jesus baptized His soul in hell for me, for you.
But, the question comes: Who crucified Jesus? “Well,” you say, “the Jews crucified Him.” Well, I want to remind you that His early followers were also Jews and He Himself was also a Jew. You say, “Well, the Romans crucified Him.” The soldiers crucified Him. But, I want to remind you that they were carrying out orders. You say, “Well, Pilate crucified Him.” Well, really, who did crucify Him? Yes, the Jews did. Yes, the Gentiles did. Yes, the soldiers did. Yes, Pilate did. And, so did I, and so did you. He bore our sins. It was for our sins He suffered. And, my dear friend, our sins put Him on that tree. Our sins were the nails that held Him there, and our hard hearts were the nails that drove those nails that made a Calvary and crucified the Lord Jesus.
But, I want us to look, not primarily at who crucified the Jesus, but
1. The Attitude of Self Righteousness
Why, they kept their Sabbath! If they got a tack in their shoe, they would take it out before Saturday lest they be accused of carrying a burden on the Sabbath. They would not lay an egg that was laid on Saturday. My dear friend, they would not kill a mosquito or a flea lest they be accused of hunting on the Sabbath day. It’s laughable, but that’s how religious they were. They were full of self-righteousness. They crucified Jesus Christ.
Have you ever thought about what a church full of Pharisees would be like? Think about it. What would a church full of Pharisees be like? Well, number one: They would all attend every service. Number two: They would all tithe. Number three: They would all work in the church. And, number four: They would all go to hell—self-righteous people. I wonder tonight, are you a self-righteous person? Have you ever truly been broken at the foot of the cross? You know, the Bible says, “If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” (Galatians 2:21) Self-righteousness crucified the Lord Jesus.
2. Hypocrisy
3. Cowardliness
Look, if you will, in verse 11: “And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest.” (Matthew 27:11) Now, Pilate was no fool. Look in verse 18: “For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.” (Matthew 27:18) Pilate understood why these chief priests and scribes wanted Jesus crucified: they were jealous of Him; they were envious of Him. That’s why they had that malignity in their heart. And, you don’t get to be a politician without knowing the motives of men. He knew. He was no fool. But, did he stand up for the Lord Jesus? Well, look in verse 24: “When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus”—that is, he had had Jesus whipped with that cat o’ nine tails—“when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.” (Matthew 27:24–26) What attitude is this? It is cowardliness—cowardliness. Pilate knew who Jesus was. Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent. Pilate “knew that for envy they had delivered him.” (Matthew 27:18) But, Pilate was a pussyfooting politician. Pilate had rather be in league with Caesar than to stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ. Very frankly, he had a soft job, and what buttered his bread determined His conduct. He was a coward. He was afraid—for shame—to stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. Conformity
I want you to look in verse 20: “But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.” (Matthew 27:20) Now, who are these? These are just people out there. They don’t know, hardly, their right hand from their left hand. And, Pilate now is going to give the people a choice. There is going to be an election: “Are we going to release the crook Barabbas or are we going to release Jesus Christ, who is claiming to be God, the Savior of the world?” Now, the chief priests and the elders go out there among the crowd and say, “Now, listen—listen. We are all together on this thing. Jesus is not on our side. Jesus is the bad one. Barabbas is the one that we need released. We know he’s an insurrectionist. We know he’s a murderer. We know he’s a thief and all that, but in this case—now listen—this is what we’re all going to do.” What crucified the Lord Jesus here? Conformity. They’re conformed to the world. They are squeezed in by public opinion. And, they are persuaded to go with the multitude. Look at it again there, if you would, in verse 20: “But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.” (Matthew 27:20)
Sir, you were in that multitude. Sir, why did you yell out, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”? “Well, everybody else was. I mean, they told us that was the thing to do. After all, they are our leaders, and we went along to get along.” Conformity. Now, the Bible says, “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed.” (Romans 12:2)
5. HARD HEARTEDNESS
in verse 27. The Bible says here, “Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and they mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they mocked him, they took the robe from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.” (Matthew 27:27–31)
6. Indifference
in verse 36. Here’s the sixth of these attitudes: “And sitting down they watched him there.” (Matthew 27:36) Now, He’s up there dying in agony and blood. They’re not spitting on Him. They’re not driving the nails in His hands. They weren’t Pilate, who adjudicated Him worthy of death. They’re just the bystanders. “Sitting down, they watched him there.” (Matthew 27:36) Luke, when he tells this story, says they “smote their breasts.” (Luke 23:48) But, it takes more than a pious gesture to save a soul. What is this attitude? It is indifference. Just spectators there, just watching.
7. Skepticism
And, last of all, look, if you will, in verse 39: “And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.” (Matthew 27:39)
“If [you’re] the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot not save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have them … The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.” (Matthew 27:40–44)