What Matters Most About the Crucifixion—Matthew 27:42-43
by Jack Klumpenhower4/9/2009
When I think of Jesus’ experience on the cross I tend to focus on the pain, which must have been severe. Or I think of the terror of impending death. Or the loneliness of bearing God’s curse. But although each of these surely matters, the Bible’s crucifixion accounts give the most attention to something else entirely. They focus on how Jesus was mocked.As I said, my own instinct would be to treat the mocking that Jesus endured as secondary, given the circumstances. But Matthew in particular gives few details about pain and death but long descriptions of Jesus being mocked. He tells how the soldiers teased Jesus over his claim to be king; how they made a crown of thorns, gave him a stick for a scepter and hit him with it, and knelt before him taunting, “Hail, King of the Jews!” (
27:29). Matthew also notes the sign on Jesus’ cross, which likewise ridiculed him as “King of the Jews” (
27:37). He mentions how passersby teased Jesus over his claim to rebuild the Temple in three days. He says that even the guys crucified next to Jesus mocked him.So what am I missing here? Why is the mocking so important to the crucifixion? And why should it matter to me?
Words that Sting
The mocking reached a peak when the leading priests and other religious bigwigs got into the act. Matthew writes: “ ‘He saved others,’ they scoffed, ‘but he can’t save himself! So he is the King of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him! He trusted God, so let God rescue him now if he wants him! For he said, “I am the Son of God” ’ ” (
Matthew 27:42-43).These guys knew how to dish out ridicule. They’d debated Jesus earlier that week and he’d gotten the better of them. Now they threw his own words back at him. When they called him King, they meant he obviously wasn’t one—that the cross made him powerless. When they said he trusted God, they meant he clearly didn’t—look what was happening to him. These guys understood dark humor and sarcasm. They wanted their words to sting.What’s Matthew’s point? Well, God can be witty too. If you look at all those things said to ridicule Jesus, you’ll find they’re actually true. Every one of them. Jesus really is the great King. And the Son of God. And the Savior. He trusted God so fully that he was willing to be crucified to see God’s plan through. And after three days, the temple of his body rose again in victory. God arranged for the essential things we need to know about Jesus to be said at his crucifixion—by those mockers.
What matters Most
Perhaps nothing is more central to the Cross than the words of those religious leaders: “He saved others, but he can’t save himself!” Yes, even that was true. Although Jesus had the power to save himself, he had a singular determination not to. He had to do his Father’s will. He had to sacrifice himself.It’s a stunning move—that the Father’s delight would be to punish his Son for the sin of his people. But Jesus knew his duty and shared his Father’s love. In order to save others, he couldn’t save himself.Now I see why the things those mockers said were important to Matthew. They mattered to him because he understood they were all-important to Jesus. And they mattered to Jesus because I matter to Jesus. He accepted the pain and the death and the curse of God because saving others—saving me—mattered more. More than nails. More than thorns. More than ridicule. More than the terror of death or the wrath of God. More than saving himself.
