Jesus the Fallen King

 Matthew 27:32-66
 

Last week Carl went over the many times the Jewish leaders broke their own laws in order to have Jesus put to death by the Romans. Today we will continue in our series in Matthew titled Jesus, King of Kings. Picking up where Carl left off in Matthew chapter 27 verse 32, we read:
 
As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). – Matthew 27:32-33
 
This event is recorded in the Gospel of John as:
 
Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle. – John 19:17-18
 
The event is recorded in Luke as follows:
 
As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. – Luke 23:26
 
And finally, the event is Mark is recorded as:
 
A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. – Mark 15:21

It appears that all four Gospel writers felt the need to include the fact that the cross was borne by someone other than the Romans Soldiers. John who we know was actually there with Mary Jesus’ mother at the Crucifixion. We know this because Jesus addressed them while He was hanging on the cross as recorded in John 19:26-27 where it states:
 
“But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said^* to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then He said^* to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household. – John 19:25-27
 
So, John was an eyewitness, and he testifies that Jesus bore His own cross. Luke the Physician also testifies about these events, but he admits that he was not an eyewitness of the events but records from his research and talking to eyewitnesses that Simon of Cyrene was forced by the Romans to carry the cross behind Jesus. Mark also validates that Simon of Cyrene was forced to carry the cross but there is no definitive record of Mark being present at the scene in his gospel nor is there a record of Mark being present mentioned in the other three Gospels. Matthew’s Gospel in today’s passage also validates that Simon of Cyrene was forced by the Romans to carry the cross but there is no definitive record that Matthew was actually present at the scene in his Gospel nor is there any mention of his presence at the scene in the other three gospels.
 
Therefore, from these four Gospel descriptions of the same event we can only conclude two things.
 
1) Jesus bore his cross to Golgotha.
 
2)Simon of Cyrene was forced by the Roman soldiers to carry Jesus Cross at least part of the way with Him to Golgotha.
 
Is this important? Yes. If it was not important this scene would not be mentioned in all four Gospels.
 
But what is not mentioned in any of the four Gospels is also important. That is that Jesus fell down three times while carrying His cross nor does it mention that He fell down at all.
 
So where does the idea of Jesus falling down three times come from and when did it originate.
 
It began in the 4^th century around 350 AD when people began making pilgrimages to the Jerusalem. The people on these pilgrimages wanted to retrace the path that Jesus walked on His way to His crucifixion. The path is called in Hebrew ‘Via Dolorosa’ which means ‘Way of Suffering’ the Arabic name is ‘Way of Pain’. It passes through the Garden of Gethsemane and the site of the crucifixion at Golgotha. Groups would travel this path and stop to pray at each significant location. It started out as five stops along the way but over a period of over 1000 years and with what might have been the helpful persuasion of the travel and tourism industry and the Catholic Church it has evolved into what the Catholic Church now calls the 14 Stations of the Cross. When the Muslims took control of the Holy Land around 636-637 AD they prevented Christians from making this pilgrimage in person.  The Pope later gave permission for the Franciscan’s to erect the stations in their local churches so that people could make a spiritual pilgrimage at them instead. In the year 1731 AD Pope Clement XII gave the right to have all churches have the stations installed by the Franciscans. At the same time the number of stations was fixed at fourteen. Today the stations of the cross are found in just about every Catholic Church. On Good Friday, the day that commemorates the day that Christ was crucified, the priest before or after the mass makes a spiritual pilgrimage to each of the representations of these 14 stations that are on carved on plaques or are sculptured images along the inside wall of both sides of the Church. Indulgences were also awarded to the church attender who went to the Catholic mass on Good Friday and attended this spiritual pilgrimage ritual. Now indulgences were said to be earned for this and many other things including giving money to have masses said in a loved ones honor. These indulgences that the church attender earned could then be used to get their loved ones out of or shorten their stay in Purgatory. Now Purgatory is a so-called place where the Catholic Church says the deceased Christian’s soul goes, to work off the sins that were committed during their lifetime that were not completely paid for by Christ death on the cross. Note that these Stations of the Cross without this indulgence connection can be found in many other Western Protestant Christian Churches including the Anglican, Lutheran, and Methodist Churches.
 
Now back to the rest of today’s passage.
 
There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it.
Now It is believed that gall was an opioid made from the poppy plant.
When they had crucified Him, they divided up His clothes by casting lots. And sitting down, they kept watch over Him there. Above His head they placed the written charge against Him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Two robbers were crucified with Him, one on His right and one on His left. Those who passed by hurled insults at Him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! Come down from the cross, if You are the Son of God!”
In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked Him. “He saved others,” they said, “but He can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue Him now if he wants Him, for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” In the same way the robbers who were crucified with Him also heaped insults on Him.
Apparently one of the two robbers had a change of heart because Luke records in his gospel that he said “Jesus to remember me when you come into Your kingdom!” “And He said to him Truly I say to you today you shall be with me in Paradise.”
From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save Him.”
In the ancient Jewish tradition noon time was always the 6^th hour, whereas the first hour began with the break of dawn. So this would mean that from noon until three pm darkness fell over the land.
This would have been very unusual and even for us today would be a very scary event. Yet the rest said very brazenly “Let’s see if Elijah comes to save Him.”.
And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He gave up His spirit. – Matthew 27:24-50
 
Now in John 10:17-18 Jesus says,
 
The reason my Father loves Me is that I lay down My life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” – John 10:17-18
 
At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely He was the Son of God!” – Matthew 27:51-54
 
Now for a centurion to be terrified by the earthquake and the rest of the happenings these events must have been extremely frightening because for the most part centurions were promoted to their rank for bravery in battle. They commanded 100 men. They commanded from the front line not the rear. The men that they command were usually more afraid of the centurion than they were afraid of the enemy that they faced in battle. They probably knew that cowardice in face of battle would end in death by the hands of the centurion if the centurion survived the battle or at the hands of another one that did.
 
Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons. – Matthew 27:55-56
 
Now Luke 23:49 reads
 
“But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things”. – Luke 23:49
 
So maybe Matthew and Mark and the other eight disciples were there standing at a distance from the crucifixion site watching these things. They may have been at a distance, but John was up close at the crucifixion site. Close enough that he could hear Jesus address him and Mary Jesus’ mother as we read in John chapter 19 in verses 26 and 27. So we must believe from these four testimonies that Jesus carried his own cross and a man named Simon of Cyrene was pressed into service behind Him to also carry the cross. We don’t know for certain, but it is likely that because of Jesus’ battered state from being beaten and flogged that the Romans did not think that Jesus could make it carrying His cross to the crucifixion site on His own and impressed Simon of Cyrene into service to help Him. It may also be likely that the Roman soldiers were impatient at the speed in which Jesus was going and wanted to get there as quickly as they could, so they forced Simon of Cyrene into service to speed things up. Note here that the mother of the sons of Zebedee (i.e., the mother of Jesus’s disciples James and John) was among the women that were watching from a distance. In the Gospel of Mark chapter 3 verse 16 Jesus gave these two the nickname Sons of Thunder. Now one of these Sons of Thunder (John) wrote the Gospel of John and identified himself in that Gospel several times not by his name or his nickname but as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”.
 
As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb. – Matthew 27:57-61
 
Now legend has it that Joseph of Arimathea became an Evangelist and was sent to England to preach the Gospel. There it is alleged that he saw thousands of souls come to Christ and he founded the Glastonbury Abbey. Legend also has it that when he died at age 86 his body was carried by six kings on their shoulders to his grave in the Glastonbury Abbey. If you do a google search on Glastonbury Abbey, you can read more about this legend. Again, this may have been exaggerated by the travel and tourism industry.
 
Now back to today’s passage.
 
The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”
Now the irony of this is the Pharisees were making this plea to Pilate on the Sabbath day since Preparation Day was the day before the Sabbath.  As Carl noted last week they were breaking their own laws to have Jesus crucified and now they unlawfully make a request to Pilot on the Sabbath.
“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.”
Now when Pilate says take a guard the term he used is take a body of Roman Soldiers.
So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. – Matthew 27:62-66
 
Here again the irony is that the act of the Pharisees placing this seal on the tomb on the Sabbath would have been considered work under the Jewish Law, but they did it anyway.
 
Takeaways:
 
1) Jesus carried His own cross all the way to Calvary and Simon of Cyrene was pressed into service to carry it also behind Jesus, either to ensure that Jesus made it there alive with His cross or to speed things up or both.
 
2)The Stations of the cross as we presently know them were created hundreds of years after Jesus carried His cross to Calvary and these creations may have been for reasons other than to accurately record these events.
 
3) There is no Biblical record of Jesus ever falling with His cross.