A Plea From the Cross
(No. 3558)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 1917.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THE LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
JANUARY29, 1871.
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Luke 23:34.
To the godly heart there is a brighter light on Calvary than anywhere
else beneath the sun. He who often resorts to Golgotha, if his spirit
is right, must be wise. It is the University of Saints! He who would
know sin–its heinousness, its penalty–must see the Son of God making
Expiation for it by His death on the accursed tree. He who would know
love–the love which many waters cannot quench, and which the floods
cannot drown–must read it in the Savior's face–or, if you will,
written in crimson lines in the Savior's heart, pierced with the spear.
He who would know how he may get his sin forgiven, must resort to the
Cross. There, and there only, is seen the way by which sin can be
pardoned and the sinner accepted with God! And he who, finding pardon
there, would seek to be useful to his fellow men and bring them into
the same condition, must, himself, keep near that Cross, that he may
speak much of it and, in the power of it, may be able to persuade and
to prevail with the sons of men. Abide at the Cross, Beloved–there is
no air so healthy and quickening as that which is breathed there! There
was the birthplace of your hope! There its native air! There must be on
earth, the climax of your joy! Live upon a Crucified Savior as you live
by a Crucified Savior!
And now this word which we hear at Calvary, the first word of our
Savior after He had been fastened to the Cross– this word I shall not
attempt to fathom, or go into the depths of it, but shall rather touch
the surface of it, skimming it, and uttering a few such sentences, as
it were, one after the other that have arisen to my mind while
listening to the voice of our Lord in this, His plaintive cry, "Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do." I will suppose that I
have many here, and I fear I need not make it a supposition, who as yet
are unpardoned, unreconciled to God. Will you come with me and make a
pilgrimage to Calvary? Will you look at your Savior? He has just come
up the hill of doom! They have thrown Him upon His back. There is the
Cross–the executioners have stretched out His hands and His feet–they
have taken the nails–they have driven them through His hands and feet!
He is fastened to the wood, and now as they are lifting Him up, before
it jars into the ground, you hear Him cry, "Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do." I want you to learn a few lessons out of
this. And the first shall be, see here–
I. THE SAVIOR'S LOVE TO SINNERS.
It is His last hour, but He thinks of them! He had searched for them in
His health and strength. He went about doing good. He came to seek and
to save the rebellious and He had spent His active life in their
service. He is about to die, but the ruling passion is strong in death.
He is still seeking sinners and if He can preach no more, yet He can
pray! And if He will not speak to them, yet He can speak to God
forthem, and so He continues to show which way His heart runs, by the
prayer for those that nailed Him to the wood, "Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do." He had been 30 years in their midst
and His holy soul had been much vexed by them. He had endured the
contradiction of sinners against Himself, but you see He has not cast
them off–He has not turned His love to wrath. He is not weary of them,
but He still pleads, "Father, oh, forgive them." What love is this! One
would suppose that the pain which He then felt might have distracted
His mind from others, and His prayer might have been for Himself, that
patience might be given, that strength might be sustained! But no,
oblivious of Himself, His only care is still for those He seeks–the
sinful sons of men! Just as an arrow from a bow shot forth with such
force that it speeds onward to its target, His whole strength and soul
speeds onward to the mark of the salvation of the sons of men! One
thing, one thing only, does He do–He seeks their good! And I say
again, if not now by active ministering to them, yet by ministering
forthem, He prays "Father, forgive them."
It is one thing to love persons at a distance and to have philanthropic
desires for their good–it is quite another thing to live with them and
still have the same fondness towards them. And it is quite another
thing by far to receive bad treatment from them–contumely, scorn and a
worse thing even than that, to be about to receive your death from
them–and still to pray for them! But such is the perseverance of
Jesus' love that it cannot be turned aside. They have spit into His
face, but still He prays for them. They have scourged Him with their
cruel lashes. They have hounded Him along the streets. They have, at
last, pierced His hands and feet, and stripped Him! And they now hang
Him up upon the Cross between Heaven and earth–but still nothing can
diminish the flame of His love, nor turn aside His heart's desire from
them–it is still for them He lives, for them He dies. "Father, oh,
forgive them," is the sign and proof that He is still holding to the
one great work He undertook! Now I would, O Sinner, I would that you
would learn this lesson. Herein is love, behold what love! Will you not
come and share in it? What keeps you back? Can you hold your heart from
Imma-nuel? Can you refuse to love such a dear lover of the sons of men?
I think if our hearts were not adamant or worse, they would melt at the
sight of the pleading love of Jesus upon the Cross. Come, Soul, have
done with your hardness–let a drop of Christ's blood melt that heart
of yours! Have done with your carelessness–let a spark of love set
your heart on fire towards Him! Are you afraid to come, afraid of Him
who died for sinners, afraid of love, terrified at mercy? Oh, be not
so, but come and welcome! Put your trust in Him who, with His dying
breath, proves the strength of His Almighty love by pleading for His
foes! Let that stand for the first remark. Here is the strong love of
Christ. Here, next, we see–
II. HOW LOVE SHOWS ITSELF.
How did Jesus prove His love in this last great moment? It was by
prayer! Love shows itself in prayer. Prayer, alone, would not be a
sufficient proof of love, but He who dies and prays, whose life is a
prayer, and whose death is a prayer, proves His love by adding to His
life and death the vocal utterance of both in this cry, "Father,
forgive them." If Jesus Christ would prove His love to you, He does it
by praying for you. Observe, then, the extreme value of prayer. It is a
ripe fruit of the Cross. It is, if I may call it so, a golden apple of
the Cross–intercessory prayer! See, then, Sinner, the need there is
for you to pray. If Jesus prays and proves His love by prayer, and if
the saints on earth who love you pray for you, depend upon it, prayer
is no light thing. Bend those knees of yours, lift your eyes to Heaven
and let a prayer go up from the depths of your spirit, "Father, forgive
me! Your Son has prayed, so pray I. He says, 'Father, forgive them,'
and I pray, 'Father, forgive me.'" Ought not this to bring every sinner
to his knees? Would it not, if men were in their senses? Would not the
sight of a dying Christ pleading for the guilty make the guilty plead?
Oh, who can restrain prayer for himself when Jesus leads the way? When
He says, "Forgive them," will you not say, "Amen"? Oh, deserve you not
right well to perish if you cannot join your assent to the Divine
Intercession of the pleading Savior! Sinner, I beseech you now, in the
secret of your soul, to pray, "Father, forgive me." "God, be merciful
to me, a sinner." Is there no woman, is there no man, that could pray
that now? You need not speak–let but your lips move. But, oh, since
Jesus Christ tonight is set forth before you in the delightful attitude
of an Intercessor praying for the guilty, I implore you pray for
yourselves– and may God send you, this night, an answer of peace–may
your pardon be signed and sealed to the comfort of your spirit!
And now leaving that observation, we pass to the next. We saw the love
of Jesus. We saw how that love shows itself in prayer. See next–
III. WHAT IT IS THE SAVIOR ASKS.
He asks forgiveness, "Father, forgive them." If the Savior should pray
for all of us here present, He need not amend that prayer. It was
suitable to those who nailed Him to the tree. They needed pardon for
the murder of their Savior. It was suitable to the clamoring multitude,
who had said, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." They needed forgiveness for
that blood which they then brought upon themselves, but it is equally
suitable to each one here present, "Forgive them." May I ask you to
look back upon your past lives? Have you been kept from grosser sins?
Thank God for it, but your sins of heart, of mind, of tongue, your sins
of omission. What? Are these nothing? God grant you may feel them to be
something and may you feel, tonight, that what you need is even as if
you had been an open offender–you need forgiveness and if, perchance,
there are some here who have gone into open sin with a high hand and an
outstretched arm, yet, my Brother, yet my Sister, this prayer needs no
enlargement to suit you, "Father, forgive them." "Father, forgive
them," forgiveness covers all! A man receipts a bill. He puts his name
at the bottom. If that bill were for ten thousand pounds or ten pence,
it is the same, the receipt has covered all–and Jesus' hand, when He
puts it with the bloody red nail prints upon the greatrecord of our
sins, draws a red line down the page and blots out the whole–and
leaves not a single sin on the page! "Though your sins are as scarlet,
they shall be as wool; though they are red like crimson, they shall be
whiter than snow." Oh, the greatness of that word, "forgiven"! Blessed
be the Lord Jesus for praying such a prayer as that! Do you know, I do
not think it need be altered for the best man and the best woman here,
for even our best things need forgiveness. When you have prayed the
best prayer you ever prayed, you might well ask God to forgive it! If
you have preached the best sermon you ever preached, you may ask to be
forgiven it, for some sin has mingled with your holiest action, so
forgiveness is needed at best, and always needed at the worst–needed
today, tomorrow and all through life, and needed when the breath leaves
the body–always needed that blessed prayer that sweeps the compass of
mortal existence–that comprehends so much, "Father, forgive them."
This is the great thing love asks, for the forgiveness of those for
whom she pleads. But passing on you will observe–
IV. FOR WHOM IT IS THAT OUR SAVIOR, IN THIS CASE, OFFERED THE PETITION.
"Father, forgivethem, for they know not what they do." Now that little
word, "them," is a great word because it is so little. "Father, forgive
them." The Savior is explicit–He does not mention the names of the
four soldiers who pierced His hands and feet. No. He meant them, but He
meant more. He does not mention the names of these in the crowd who
were gazing upon Him with insolent stare–He meant them. He does not
mention those that had cried, "Crucify Him, crucify Him"–He had meant
them. He does not say, "Father, forgive them, for they knew not what
they did"–for that would look as if He only prayed for sins that had
already been committed. He does not say, "Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they shall do," for that would look as if He only
prayed for sins that would be committed! But He says, "Father forgive
them, for they know not what they do." And putting it thus in the
present, it seems as though the petition had one hand to reach out to
the past sins of mankind before He died, and another hand to the sins
to come of mankind after He had offered the Sacrifice. "They know not
what they do." It is put so indefinitely, the, "them," and the, "do,"
the tense of the verb and the pronoun–they are so indefinite that I
bless God for the wide extent of their range! "Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do." Who, then, is included in that word,
"them"? I venture to say every man that is willing to be
included–every man that feels he is included! Did you slay Christ?
Have your sins caused Him to die? Do you know, tonight, that your sins
fastened Him to the cruel tree? Could you join in the hymn we sung just
now? Then, when Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do," He included youin that prayer, and mein that prayer, and
tens of thousands besides in that word, "them."
Yet, yet you will observe in that word He put it specially. He does not
exclude any, but He does include some more peculiarly than others, for
His prayer is for those who knew not what they did. Can I get in there?
I think I can. I believe that most here present can. I do not think all
the sons of men can–Judas, for instance, I fear he did know what he
did, and deliberately sold his Lord and Master. I am half afraid that
Pilate, to a great extent, knew what he did, and there are some of whom
it is written, "There is a sin unto death; I do not say that you shall
pray for it." A great Doctrine, but it is in the Word–a terrible
Doctrine, but there it stands! You know how Peter put it in that first
sermon. He said, "I know, my brethren, that through ignorance you did
it, as did also your rulers"–as if he felt that had they known what
they did, their sin had been unpardonable. And the Apostle Paul,
himself, speaking of his own persecution, said, "Because I did it
ignorantly, in unbelief." There is a deliberate Crucifixion of Christ
as Christ, knowing what you are doing–doing it out of sheer malice to
the Christ of God, out of intense hatred to Him, to Him
personally–which is unpardonable, for this reason, that the man who
commits it never repents. Could he repent, the pardon were sure, but
the capacity to do that argues incapacity to ever be made penitent. The
man is given over, hardened–he perishes in his sin!
But the Lord Jesus in this prayer felt that those around Him did not
know what they were doing–the most of them did not know He was God's
Son. They would not have crucified Him had they known–they would not
have crucified the Lord of Glory. They did know–most of them
knew–that He was a righteous Man and they must have felt they were
doing very wrong in putting Him to death, but they did not recognize
Him as the Messiah and as the Son of God– otherwise the most of them
would have held back their hand. Now, though I have sinned against
light and knowledge, and you have done the same, my Brothers and
Sisters, yet in our past sin we did not deliberately intend to put
Christ to death. We did not, like Satan of malicepropense, desire to
overthrow the Kingdom of God and Christ. Blessed be God, He saved us
from that! We went far, very far, horribly far, but restraining Grace
kept us back from that, and the Savior puts it there–makes such the
object of His prayer. I do not say He excludes those who did it
knowingly, but He does include peculiarly those who did not know what
they did–whose sin, to a great extent, as to its far-reaching
heinousness was wrapped in ignorance. He says, "Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do." Then the prayer of love is offered for
a vast company of sinners in darkness and ignorance, who have sinned,
but who have not been allowed utterly, knowingly, willfully, viciously
to crucify the Son of God and put Him to an open shame!
Now I want you to notice what this prayer of love admits. There is
something in it that ought never to be forgotten. "Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do." You see, then, this prayer, even
of a patient, loving, gentle Savior, who wishes to plead all He can on
the behalf of those for whom He prays–this prayer admits that they
need to be forgiven who have sinned ignorantly. Some people have
thought, "If I did not know it to be sin to the full extent, then it
was not sin." Ah, not so! It wassin, for Christ asks to have it
forgiven! If I, doing what I did not fully understand, yet did wrong, I
am not excused the wrong because I did not know to the fullest extent
how wrong it was. I am just as guilty as if I did know, from some
points of view, though not from others, but from any point of view, I
still need to be forgiven. Ignorance of the law does not prevent the
guilt of him who breaks it. As you know, my Brothers and Sisters, human
law, the law of the land, for instance–never takes ignorance of the
law as a complete excuse for the breach of the law! The laws of England
always assume that every man knows the law. The law is made–it is a
public law and he who breaks it cannot go before the Magistrate and
say–"I did not know it was the law; you must discharge me." The
Magistrate may, as a man, say, "Well, if you did not know it was law,
there is some excuse for you." As a Magistrate, he must not say that,
for the law judges the man on its own self as publicly known, and does
not allow for the excuse of not knowing the law.
If the Savior, in His infinite mercy, said, "Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do," it was a plea–of course, but not a plea
of law. Sinai has no room for that excuse, for Sinai says, "If you
don't know, you ought to have known." And in this particular case,
especially, if they did not know Christ to be God, they ought to have
known it. The prophecies were so clear. The Person of Christ so exactly
fitted in to every type and every prophetic declaration, that it was "a
willful blindness that had happened unto Israel." They ought to have
known it. One sin is never an excuse for another sin. It was a sin for
them not to know! That sin, therefore, did not excuse them for
committing the other. It is only Sovereign Grace that brought that in
as a plea–it is not justice, nor is it law–it the heart of mercy that
pleads that.
What I want you to notice, now, then, is though I did not know when I
sinned as child and as a young man all that was meant by sin, though I
especially did not know that I was crucifying Christ, yet the guilt is
just the same as before God, and I need to be forgiven for it, or else
it will be laid to my charge and I shall be punished as surely as God's
Law stands fast. Do you think the Savior would say, "Father, forgive
them," if it were not a wrong? He never prayed a superfluous prayer!
The prayer, "Forgive," is a sentence in itself, teaching us that sins
of ignorance are sins. Oh, my dear Hearers, there are none of us who
know to the full extent the sin of our sin! The most tender heart here
does not know the blackness of its sin! I have sometimes talked with
persons under conviction who have told me what dreadful sinners they
were, and they have looked a little surprised when I have said, "But
you are ten times worse than you think you are." No, they scarcely
thought that could be possible, yet I would venture to say that to the
most tender-hearted penitent that ever lived, you have no idea, my
Friend, of the aggravation of your sin, nor is it possible you should
have, nor do I know that it is desirable. So long as you know enough of
your sin to hate it, and to flee to Christ for the pardon of it, that
will suffice. But, oh, the scholarship that would be needed to
understand all the depths of sin, it were the scholarship of the Cross
over again–you would have need to die like Christ to know what sin
means in its infinite, its boundless guilt! Do not ask to know that,
but do pray that the Lord would search you and forgive you your sins.
You did not know of pardoned sins you have committed, manifold sins
that have passed by your notice, that you have not observed and,
consequently, could not have confessed in particular. Beseech the
Savior, whose cry is, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do," to pray for unknown mercy by His unknown agony for your
unknown sin! It is a wondrous prayer, this, but we cannot stay much
longer on it.
We make yet another remark, "Father forgive them for they know not what
they do." V. THIS PRAYER WARNS US.
I have felt intense pleasure in thinking it over, but at the same time
that pleasure has been mingled with great bitterness. There is such a
warning there, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"
It does not say, as I have already said, that if they didknow, Christ
would not pray for them, but it does seem to hint that. In the
background I seea something–not that every sin committed against light
is unpardonable–God be thanked that is not so, but some sins committed
against light and knowledge so harden the heart that the man never
repents! He never will, he will go to Hell hardened like steel! And I
am afraid some of you are in great likelihood of committing it. Those
who have not heard the Gospel cannot very readily commit this, unless
their conscience has been desperately violated, but some of you who
have been hearers often, and perhaps were once professors–who have
knowingly chosen the wrong path and have deliberately sacrificed your
character for drink or gain or lust–I will not say that you have
passed that boundary, but I do tremble as I hear the booming of that
text, "There is a sin unto death; I do not say that you shall pray for
it," even as I hear the Master's words, "Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do." But these persons knew what they did, did it
deliberately, did it over again and again, and again–perhaps went to
the Lord's Table and deliberately went to their uncleanness, stood up
in public, it may be, and then deliberately went to their filthiness.
Or they listened to the sermon on Sunday and they said, "I'll do
better"–and then deliberately went on Monday to their drunken
companions again! Oh, Man, you may have stood in the street, perhaps,
and said to yourself, "Now, which shall it be? I feel as if I were
called to serve God, but yet how can I give up such-and-such a darling
lust?" There is a point in men's lives wherein if they deliberately
choose the wrong, knowing it is wrong, with the Light of God shining on
their eyeballs–yet they deliberately give up Christ, Heaven, pardon
and they choose Hell and their own delusions–I fear that with many
from that hour the wax is cooled upon their death warrant and it will
never be reversed, for this text, though it gently flows from the
Savior's lips and drops like dew, has about it the lightning flash and
thunderbolt that startles, "Father, forgive them, they know not what
they do."
But there are some who know what they do and take the hammer and nail
Christ up to the Cross! They take a spear and pierce His side and do it
knowing what they are doing! And all the while they are glibly talking
of religion, taking the Bible to make jokes out of it, taking the very
ministers they once professed to love and scoffing them, taking the
Doctrines of the Gospel and making these a cloak for their sins–these
men–what will I say of them? God have mercy upon them, but I fear, I
fear, that He never will, for they will never seek it, and He will
never grant it! Could they seek it, He would give it. While a man can
seek, he shall find. While a heart can melt, God will pity. There is
never a contrite soul but what God looks with love upon it. But here is
the mischief, for these men, who know what they do, repent not, but are
seared as with a hot iron–they become wandering stars, for whom is
reserved the blackness of darkness forever!
But I must close here. This shall be a closing word. At the same time,
you see the text woos. It warns, but it woos. How it woos the ignorant,
especially! "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Oh,
some of you have dropped in here tonight who, perhaps, don't often
listen to the Gospel. You have been living a life of sin. You knew it
was sin, You knew it was sin, but you did not know that you were
nailing Christ to the Cross. You sought your own pleasure, you sought
your own gratifications. You have been very guilty. You have lived a
careless, Godless, Christless life, but still you did not mean to sin
against God so as to crucify Christ. You see you have done so–now you
feel you are guilty of it–but before, you had not that Light of God
that you now have. Then Jesus says, "Come to Me, come to Me! My prayer
goes up to Heaven for you, you ignorant one." Sinful, but without
light, Jesus intercedes! Oh, join your prayer with the prayer of Jesus,
and say, "Father, forgive Your ignorant child, Your sinful, wayward
child. I do not plead, 'I knew not what I did,' but Christ pleads it
for me! I plead that Jesus died. Oh, for His sake, have pity! Hear His
blood as it drops from His hands and feet; hear it and plead for me,
'Father, forgive them.'"
Oh if you will seek the Lord, you shall have Him! If you will but turn
your eyes to Him upon the Cross, you shall live! Whoever among you in
this house will but trust Him, shall find Him able and willing to save
to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him. Oh, come and welcome,
come and welcome! And may God grant that you may come tonight–
"But if your ears refuse
The language of His Grace,
And hearts grow gross like stubborn Jews,
That unbelieving race.
The Lord in vengeance dressed
Will lift His hand and swear
'You that despised My promised rest
Shall have no portion there."
God bless you. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW27:32-49.
Verse 32. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by
name: him they compelled to bear His Cross. Perhaps they were afraid
that Christ would die from exhaustion, so they compelled Simon to bear
His Cross. Any one of Christ's followers might have wished to have been
this man of Cyrene, but we need not envy him, for there is a cross for
each of us to carry. Oh, that we were as willing to bear Christ's Cross
as Christ was to bear our sins on His Cross! If anything happens to us
by way of persecution or ridicule for our Lord's sake, and the
Gospel's, let us cheerfully endure it! As knights are made by a stroke
from the sovereign's sword, so shall we become princes in Christ's
realm as He lays His Cross on our shoulders.
33, 34. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is
to say, a place of a skull, they gave Him vinegar to drink mingled with
gall: and when He had tasted thereof, He would not drink Golgotha was
the common place of execution for malefactors, the Tyburn or Old Bailey
of Jerusalem, outside the gate of the city. There was a special
symbolical reason for Christ's suffering outside the gate, and His
followers are bid to "go forth unto Him outside the camp, bearing His
reproach" (Heb 13:11-13). A stupefying draught was given to the
condemned, to take away something of the agony of crucifixion–but our
Lord came to suffer–and He would not take anything that would at all
impair His faculties. He did not forbid His fellow sufferers drinking
the vinegar mingled with gall ("wine mingled with myrrh," Mark 15:23),
but He would not drink thereof. Jesus did not refuse this draught
because of its bitterness, for He was prepared to drink even to the
last dreadful dregs the bitter cup of wrath which was His people's due.
35. And they crucified Him, and parted His garments, casting lots:
thatit might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, They parted
My garments among them, and upon My vesture did they cast lots. There
is a world of meaning in that short sentence, "and they crucified Him,"
driving their bolts of iron through His blessed hands and feet,
fastening Him to the Cross and lifting Him up to hang there upon a
gallows reserved for felons. We can scarcely realize all that the
Crucifixion meant to our dear Lord, but we can join in Faber's prayer–
"Lord Jesus!May we love and weep,
Since You, for us, are crucified." Then was fulfilled all that our Lord
had foretold in Chapter 20:17-19, except His Resurrection, the time for
which had not arrived.
The criminals' clothes were the executioners' profits. The Roman
soldiers who crucified Christ had no thought of fulfilling the
Scriptures when they parted His garments, casting lots, yet their
action was exactly that which had been foretold in Psalm 22:18! The
seamless robe would have been spoiled if it had been torn, so the
soldiers raffled for the vesture, while they shared the other garments
of our Lord. The dice would be almost stained with the blood of Christ,
yet the gamblers played on beneath the shadow of His Cross. Gambling is
the most hardening of all vices. Beware of it in any form! No games of
chance should be played by Christians, for the blood of Christ seems to
have bespattered them all.
36. And sitting down they watched Him there. Some watched Him from
curiosity, some to make sure that He really did die, some even
delighted their cruel eyes with His sufferings–and there were some,
hard by the Cross, who wept and bewailed, a sword passing through their
own hearts while the Son of Man was agonizing even unto death!
37. And set up over His head His accusation written, THIS IS JESUS, THE
KING OF THE JEWS. What a marvelous Providence it was that moved
Pilate's pen! The representative of the Roman Emperor was little likely
to concede kingship to any man, yet he deliberately wrote, "This is
Jesus, the King of the Jews," and nothing would induce him to alter
what he had written! Even on His Cross, Christ was proclaimed King, in
the sacerdotal Hebrew, the classical Greek, and the common Latin, so
that everybody in the crowd could read the inscription! When will the
Jews admit Jesus as their King? They will do so one day, looking on Him
whom they pierced. Perhaps they will think more of Christ when
Christians think more of them–when our hardness of heart towards them
has gone, possibly their hardness of heart towards Christ may also
disappear.
38. Then were there two thieves crucified with Him, one on the right
hand, and another on the left As if to show that they regarded Christ
as the worst of the three criminals, they put Him between the two
thieves, giving Him the place of dishonor. Thus was the prophecy
fulfilled, "He was numbered with the transgressors." The two
malefactors deserved to die, as one of them admitted (Luke 23:40, 41),
but a greater load of guilt vested upon Christ, for, "He bore the sin
of many," and, therefore, He was rightly distinguished as the King of
Sufferers, who could truly ask–"Was ever grief like
Mine?"
Verses 39, 40. And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their
heads, and saying, You who destroys the temple, and builds it in three
days, save Yourself If You are the Son of God, come down from the
Cross. Nothing torments a man when in pain more than mockery. When
Jesus Christ most needed words of pity and looks of kindness, they who
passed by, reviled Him, wagging their heads. Perhaps the most painful
part of ridicule is to have one's most solemn sayings turned to scorn,
as were our Lord's words about the temple of His body–"You who
destroys the temple, and builds it in three days, save Yourself." He
might have saved Himself–He might have "come down from the Cross"–but
if He had done so, we could never have become the sons of God! It was
because He was the Son of God that He did not come down from the Cross,
but hung there until He had completed the Sacrifice for His people's
sin. Christ's Cross is the Jacob's ladder by which we mount up to
Heaven! This is the cry of the Socinian today, "Come down from the
Cross. Give up the atoning Sacrifice and we will be Christians!" Many
are willing to believe in Christ, but not in Christ Crucified. They
admit that He was a good Man and a great Teacher, but by rejecting His
vicarious Atonement, they practically un-Christ the Christ, as these
mockers at Golgotha did.
41-43. Likewise also the chief priests mocking Him, with the scribes
and elders, said, He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is 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 Him: for He said, I am the Son of God. The chief priests, with the
scribes and elders, forgetting their high station and rank, joined the
ribald crew in mocking Jesus in His death pangs! Every word was
emphatic–every syllable cut and pierced our Lord to the heart. They
mocked Him as a Savior–"He saved others; Himself He cannot save." They
mocked Him as a King–"If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come
down from the Cross, and we will believe Him." They mocked Him as a
Believer–"He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have
Him." They mocked Him as the Son of God–"For He said, I am the Son of
God." Those who say that Christ was a good Man, virtually admit His
Deity, for He claimed to be the Son of God. If He was not what He
professed to be, He was an impostor. Notice the testimony that Christ's
bitterest enemies bore even as they reviled Him– "He saved others."
"He is the King of Israel" (R. V.) "He trusted in God."
44. The thieves, also, who were crucified with Him, cast the same in
His teeth. The sharers of His misery, the wretches who were crucified
with Him, joined in reviling Jesus. Nothing was lacking to fill up His
cup of suffering and shame. The conversion of the penitent thief was
all the more remarkable because he had but a little while before been
among the mockers of his Savior! What a trophy of Divine Grace he
became!
45. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto
the ninth hour Some have thought that this darkness covered the whole
world, and so caused even a heathen to exclaim, "Either the world is
about to expire, or the God who made the world is in anguish." This
darkness was supernatural–it was not an eclipse. The sun could no
longer look upon its Maker surrounded by these who mocked Him. He
covered his face and traveled on in tenfold night, in very shame that
the great Sun of Righteousness should, Himself, be in such terrible
darkness.
46. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying,
Eli, Eli, lama Sabachthani? That is to say, My God, My God, why have
You forsaken Me?In order that the Sacrifice of Christ might be
complete, it pleased the Father to forsake His well-beloved Son. Sin
was laid on Christ, so God must turn away His face from the Sin-Bearer.
To be deserted of His God was the climax of Christ's grief, the
quintessence of His sorrow! See here the distinction between the
martyrs and their Lord–in their dying agonies they have been Divinely
sustained–but Jesus, suffering as the Substitute for sinners, was
forsaken of God! The saints who have known what it is to have their
Father's face hidden from them, even for a brief space, can scarcely
imagine the suffering that wrung from our Savior the agonizing cry, "My
God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
47. Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This Man
calls for Elijah. They knew better, yet they jested at the Savior's
prayer. Wickedly, willfully and scornfully, they turned His death
shriek into ridicule!
48, 49. And straightway one of them ran and took a sponge, and filled
it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave Him to drink The rest
said, Let Him be, let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him. A
person in such agony as Jesus was suffering might have mentioned many
pangs that He was enduring, but it was necessary for Him to say, "I
thirst," in order that another Scripture might be fulfilled. One of
them, more compassionate than his companions, ran, and took a sponge,
and filled it with vinegar, from the vessel probably brought by the
soldiers for their own use, and put it on a reed, and gave Him to
drink. It always seems to me very remarkable that the sponge, which is
the very lowest form of animal life, should have been brought into
contact with Christ, who is at the top of all life. In His death the
whole circle of Creation was completed. As the sponge brought
refreshment to the lips of our dying Lord, so may the least of God's
living ones help to refresh Him, now that He has ascended from the
Cross to the Throne!