Thursday, August 8, 2024

PT-6 "The Ignorant Wicked" (Matt. 27:27-37)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/8/2024 9:08 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus: PT-6 “The Ignorant Wicked”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 27:27-37

 

            Message of the verses:  27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him. 28 They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. 29 And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they knelt down before Him and mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" 30 They spat on Him, and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head. 31 After they had mocked Him, they took the scarlet robe off Him and put His own garments back on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him.

 

            “32 As they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear His cross.

  

             “33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull, 34 they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink. 35 And when they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves by casting lots. 36 And sitting down, they began to keep watch over Him there. 37 And above His head they put up the charge against Him which read, "THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.’”

 

            I continue to quote from John MacArthur’s commentary as he writes on the unthinkable things that the Lord Jesus Christ went through in order to bring about the salvation that He provided through his suffering, death, resurrection from the grave.

 

            “All of those agonies—physical, emotional, and spiritual—combined to utterly weaken His perfect but now emaciated body.  Consequently, as they were coming out from the Praetorium, the soldiers found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear His cross.

 

            “Cyrene was a Greek settlement located west of Alexandria on the North African coast of the Mediterranean, directly south of Greece in what is modern Libya. It was a prosperous trade center and had a large population of Jews.  Simon was a common Jewish name, and in all probability this man was a pilgrim who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.

 

            “Simon was ‘a passer-by coming from the country’ (Mark 15:21) as Jesus was being taken out of the city.  Perhaps because he looked string he was conscripted by the Roman soldiers to carry Jesus’ cross.  Mark also identifies Simon as ‘the father of Alexander and Rufus’ (v. 21), indicating that those two men were Christians know to Mark and to many other believers at the time he wrote his gospel.  Because Mark probably wrote from Rome, Alexander and Rufus may have been active in the church there.  This Rufus may have been the man Paul greeted in his letter to Rome, and, if so, ‘his mother and mine’ would refer to Simon’s wife (see Rom. 16:13).

 

            “It may have been the carrying of Jesus’ cross that led Simon to faith in Him.  What began as a forced and probably resented act of physical servitude became the opportunity for spiritual life.  Not only Simon himself but his entire family came to salvation, and his wife became like a mother to the apostle Paul.

 

            “Because the Mosaic law required that executions be performed outside the city (Num. 15:35) and also because hanging on a tree was considered a curse (Deut. 21:23; cf. Gal. 3:13), Jesus was taken outside Jerusalem to be crucified.  And because crucifixion was a vivid means of showing the populace the price  for opposing Rome, crosses were generally erected beside a well-traveled road, if possible on a hill, bluff, or other promontory where they would be visible to all.

 

            “The place chosen for Jesus’ crucifixion was a hill on the outskirts of Jerusalem called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull.  As an outcast both of Israel and of Rome, Jesus ‘suffered outside the gate’ (Heb. 13:12).

 

            “Luke refers to the hill of crucifixion as ‘the place called The Skull’ (23:33), and as several gospels explain, Skull translates a Greek term (kranion) equivalent to the Hebrew/Aramaic Golgotha (see John 19:17).  The name Cavalry is derived from the Latin word (calvaria), for skull, or cranium.

 

            “Contrary to what some scholars have suggested, the Place of a Skull was not a burial ground where skulls were commonly found.  Jews would not allow dead bodies to be exposed, and no part of a human skeleton was to be seen in Israel.  Rather the name referred to a particular site that had the appearance of a skull.  Such a hill, commonly called Gordon’s Cavalry, is the traditional site and can still be viewed today a short distance from Jerusalem’s northern wall.

 

            “Before the soldiers nailed Jesus to the cross and it was placed upright in the ground, they gave Him wine to drink mingled with gall.  The word translated gall simply referred to something bitter, which Mark identifies as myrrh (15:23), a narcotic that also was used as a perfume (see Ps. 45:8; Prov. 7:17), as an ingredient of anointing oil for priests (Ex. 30:23), and for embalming (John 19:39).  It was quite expensive and was one of the gifts presented to the infant Jesus by magi (Matt. 2:11).

 

            “Because crucifixion was designed to inflict maximum pain, the gall or myrrh, was not offered as an act of mercy on the part of the soldiers.  It was simply used to stupefy a victim to keep him from struggling violently as the nails were driven into his hands and feet.

 

            “From extrabiblical sources it is known that wealthy Jewish woman would often provide wine mixed with myrrh to those about to be executed, especially by crucifixion.  Contrary to the soldiers, their purpose was to ease the pain of ‘him who was perishing,’ following the admonition of Proverbs 31:6.  It may have been that such a group of women also offered Jesus the stupefying drink.”

 

            “But Jesus did not want His senses dulled, and after tasting the mixture, He was unwilling to drink.  As He had already declared in the garden, first in prayer to His heavenly Father (Matt. 26:39) and then to Peter as He was being arrested (John 18:11), He was determined to drink the cup the Father had given Him. He would endure the full measure of pain—physical, emotional, and spiritual.”

 

            I will continue quoting from MacArthur’s commentary as he continues to describe what the Lord Jesus Christ went through for our salvation.

 

8/8/2024 10:11 AM

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