Matthew 27:38

Before this, Pilate had washed his hands and handed Jesus over to be scourged (Matthew 27:24–26), and the soldiers had mocked him as King of the Jews with a robe, a crown of thorns and a reed (Matthew 27:27–31). “As they came out” is the procession leaving the city for the place of execution. A condemned man usually carried the crossbeam of his own cross, the patibulum, and John tells us that Jesus went out “bearing his cross” (John 19:17). Matthew, Mark and Luke all record that the soldiers then laid it on another man, and the plain reason is that Jesus, after the scourging, was too weak to carry it further. The Son of God was truly man, and his body failed under the load.

The man was Simon, from Cyrene, a city in North Africa in what is now Libya, with a large Jewish community. He was most likely a Jewish pilgrim who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover, an outsider who happened to be on the road that morning. Mark adds that he was the father of Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15:21).

The word “compelled” is angareúō, a word borrowed from Persian. It first meant to serve as a royal courier and came to mean pressing someone into public service, and Roman authority used it to seize men and goods as it needed them. Simon was conscripted on the spot. Jesus used the same verb in the Sermon on the Mount, when he told his disciples that if anyone compels them to go a mile, they should go with him two (Matthew 5:41). “To bear” is aírō, to lift up, take up or carry away, the verb behind John the Baptist’s words, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The cross, staurós, is a stake or post set upright, the Roman instrument of execution, and the word later stands for Christ’s death itself.

Simon’s walk is a living picture of what Jesus had asked of every disciple: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Simon took up the cross because he was forced to, and yet he walked behind Jesus with it on his shoulders. Sharing another’s load is the life Paul describes when he writes, “Bear ye one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). Simon carried the wood for a short distance. Jesus carried the weight of our sin, for “the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:3–6), and God “hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

“When they were come” uses érchomai, the everyday verb for coming or going, and it marks the end of the walk. The place is Golgothâ, a word of Aramaic origin (the “Chaldee” of the old lexicons) meaning “the skull”, the name of a knoll near Jerusalem. Matthew translates it for his Greek-speaking readers as “a place of a skull”, using kraníon, the word behind our “cranium”. The name Calvary comes from the Latin Calvaria, “skull”, which Jerome’s Latin Bible, the Vulgate, used for kraníon, and the KJV itself says Calvary in Luke’s account (Luke 23:33). Golgotha and Calvary are two names for one place.

Scripture leaves the reason for the name unstated. It may have come from the shape of the rocky hill, from its use as a place of execution, or from an old tradition that Adam’s skull lay there. Whichever it was, the name speaks of death, and it was there that Christ died to destroy death. Mark and John name the place as well (Mark 15:22, John 19:17). Our salvation was won at a real place, on a real day, before many witnesses.

At Golgotha, before he was nailed to the cross, Jesus was given “vinegar to drink mingled with gall”. The vinegar, óxos, was sour wine, the cheap everyday drink of soldiers and labourers. Gall, cholḗ, is bile, and the word is used for bitter things. Mark describes the same drink as “wine mingled with myrrh” (Mark 15:23). It was a custom to offer a man about to be crucified a drink mixed with something bitter or numbing, and its purpose was most likely to dull the pain. Matthew’s wording matches the psalm of the righteous sufferer: “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Psalm 69:21).

Jesus “tasted thereof”, so he knew what was offered, “and he would not drink”. The verb behind “would” is thélō, to will, wish or choose, and with ou, “not”, and pínō, “to drink”, the phrase says that he was unwilling to drink it. He chose to go to the cross with a clear mind and to bear all of it awake. He had said that he lays down his life of himself (John 10:17–18), and Hebrews says of him that “for the joy that was set before him” he “endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2–3).

Matthew tells the crucifixion itself in four words: “And they crucified him.” The verb stauróō, to crucify, comes from staurós, the cross. Rome kept this death for slaves, rebels and the lowest criminals, and it was designed to give the greatest pain and the deepest public shame.

The soldiers who carried out an execution took the condemned man’s clothes as their pay, and here they “parted his garments, casting lots”. The verb diamerízō means to divide up and distribute, its usual sense, and casting lots was the common way of deciding a share, much like throwing dice. Matthew’s quotation uses two words for clothing, himátion for “garments”, the outer clothing, and himatismós for “vesture”, clothing in general. John fills in the scene. Jesus’ coat was “without seam, woven from the top throughout”, and tearing it would have ruined it, so the soldiers cast lots to decide who would have it whole (John 19:23–24). They left him stripped of everything he had.

“That it might be fulfilled” uses plēróō, to fill up or complete, the word Matthew uses for Scripture coming true from the birth of Jesus onward (Matthew 1:22–23). The prophet is David, and the words are from Psalm 22:18. The soldiers were dividing a dying man’s clothes for their own gain, thinking only of the spoil, and they did exactly what God had spoken through David. God rules even the careless acts of men who oppose his Son, and his word comes true down to a garment and a throw of the lots. The whole of Psalm 22 runs through this passage: the mocking, the wagging heads, the trust in God thrown back at the sufferer, the garments and the opening cry.

The One stripped at Golgotha is the One who clothes his people. Isaiah rejoices that the LORD has clothed him with the garments of salvation (Isaiah 61:10), and that clothing was bought here.

“And sitting down they watched him there.” The verb káthēmai means to sit or be seated, and also to stay in a place for a time. The verb tēréō means to guard by keeping an eye on someone, and its tense in the Greek describes a watch that went on and on. The adverb ekeî is simply “there”, at that place. The soldiers settled in for a long duty. They guarded the condemned so that nobody could take him down or rescue him, and they stayed until death. John records that they later broke the legs of the two others, found Jesus already dead, and pierced his side (John 19:31–37).

For these men it was routine work. The psalmist had said of his enemies, “they look and stare upon me” (Psalm 22:17), and Luke tells of the people standing and watching while the rulers scoffed (Luke 23:35). The soldiers watched without understanding what they saw. Before them the Son of Man was being lifted up, as he said, to draw all men to himself (John 12:32), and the Father “spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all” (Romans 8:32).

The “accusation” is aitía, a cause or reason, and in law a charge brought against someone. Rome’s custom was to display a placard, the titulus, naming the condemned man and his crime, and here it was fixed to the cross above Jesus’ head. “Written” is gráphō, to write. John adds that the title was written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, so that everyone in the crowd could read it (John 19:20).

The charge was THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. The word for king, basileús, means one with authority to rule. To Roman ears the title named sedition against Caesar. To Jewish ears it named the Messiah, the son of David whom Israel awaited to restore its kingdom. The soldiers had already hailed him “King of the Jews” in mockery (Matthew 27:29). The chief priests asked Pilate to change the words to “He said, I am King of the Jews”, and Pilate refused (John 19:19–22).

Pilate wrote a charge, and God made it a proclamation. Jesus is the King of the Jews, and his kingship stands at the very hour of his shame. He had told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). His throne that day was a cross and his crown was thorns, and because he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, God has highly exalted him and given him the name above every name (Philippians 2:5–11). The One under that title is “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:16).

“Then were there two thieves crucified with him.” The word for thief is lēistḗs, from a verb meaning to plunder, a robber or brigand. It describes a violent bandit, sometimes a rebel against Rome, and it is the word John uses for Barabbas (John 18:40), a rebel and a murderer. These men were crucified (stauróō) with Jesus, “one on the right hand, and another on the left”. The word dexiós simply means the right hand or right side, and the point of the arrangement is that Jesus hung in the middle. Rome placed him with the worst criminals, as one of them.

In doing so, Rome fulfilled Isaiah’s word about the suffering servant, “he was numbered with the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12), and Mark records that fulfilment (Mark 15:27–28). Luke tells how the two were led out with him to be put to death (Luke 23:32–33). Jesus had said that he came to call sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17), and he died among the guilty, for the guilty. “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Verse 44 returns to these men. “The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.” “Crucified with” is systauróō, to crucify together with, a word for sharing the same death. “Cast in his teeth” is oneidízō, to reproach, rail at, taunt or upbraid. “The same” means the taunts the rulers had just used, save thyself, come down, if thou be the Son of God. Even the men dying beside him, under the same punishment, turned on him, and every voice around the cross was raised against him.

“Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.” The sixth hour is about noon and the ninth about three in the afternoon, so for three hours in the middle of the day, when the sun is highest, the land went dark. The word skótos is darkness, literal or figurative. “There was” is gínomai, to become or come about, and it reports that darkness came. “Land” is gē, which can mean the earth, a land or the ground. Here “all the land” most likely means the whole region of Judea, so that everyone in and around Jerusalem saw it. Mark and Luke record the same darkness (Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44–45).

“About the ninth hour”, as the darkness ended, “Jesus cried with a loud voice”. The verb anaboáō is to cry aloud, and the cry was loud enough for all around to hear. Jesus had been on the cross since the third hour, and the ninth hour was also the time of the evening sacrifice at the temple and an hour of prayer.

His words are given as he spoke them. The word ēlí is of Hebrew origin and means “my God”, spoken twice. The word lamá means “why”, and sabachtháni, an Aramaic word, means “thou hast left me”. Matthew then translates them: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” “Forsaken” is enkataleípō, to leave behind in a place, and in its bad sense to desert or abandon.

These are the opening words of Psalm 22:1. Every Jew who knew the Scriptures would have recognised them, and the psalm they begin goes on to describe the mocking, the pierced hands and feet (Psalm 22:16) and the parted garments, and ends with God’s deliverance and praise. Even in the depths, Jesus calls him “my God”. Earlier he had prayed for the men who crucified him, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34), and this cry is the deepest point of all his suffering.

“Some of them that stood there” (ekeî again), “when they heard (akoúō) that”, said that Jesus was calling for Elijah. The name Hēlías is the Greek form of Elijah, and in the KJV it stands as Elias. “Calleth for” is phōnéō, to call out or summon. “Eli” sounded like the prophet’s name, and Israel was expecting Elijah, because God had said, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD” (Malachi 4:5). Elijah had been taken up to heaven alive (2 Kings 2:11), and some looked for him to come and help those in distress. During Jesus’ ministry some people had even thought Jesus himself was Elias (Matthew 16:13–14).

Some may have misheard in earnest, and others twisted his words for one more jest. Either way, the cry of the Son to his Father was heard as a call for a prophet. Peter had misunderstood the cross in the same way when he rebuked Jesus for speaking of it (Matthew 16:21–23), and John writes of Jesus, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:10–11).

This passage shows us the cross as God’s own plan, carried out to the letter. Psalm 22, Psalm 69 and Isaiah 53 were written long before, and soldiers, rulers and passers-by fulfilled them without knowing it. God’s word held in the darkest hour, and it holds now.

It shows us a Saviour who chose this death. He tasted the numbing drink and refused it. He was dared to come down and stayed. The silent servant of Isaiah, who “opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7), bore every taunt, and Peter writes that “when he was reviled, reviled not again” (1 Peter 2:23). The cup he drank was the new testament in his blood (Luke 22:20), and by the blood of his cross God has made peace and reconciled all things to himself (Colossians 1:19–20).

It shows us what our sin cost and how far God’s love went. The Son was counted among the transgressors and bore the darkness and the forsaking so that we would be brought into the light and kept by God for ever. If you belong to Christ, the cry of verse 46 was raised for you, and the promise that he will stay with you rests on it. Simon, pressed into service, walked behind Jesus with the cross on his shoulders, and the disciples of Jesus still take up their cross and follow him, carrying one another’s burdens as he carried ours.