A Dire Disease Strangely Cured
(No. 2887)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 1904.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY
28, 1876.
"With His stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5.
"By whose stripes you were healed." 1 Peter 2:24.
IT is well for the preacher, every now and then, to go back to the very
beginning and once again traverse the whole ground of the Gospel, just
as the schoolteacher does when, after his pupils have advanced to some
of the higher branches of study, he deems it desirable to make sure
that they are well grounded in the very elements of knowledge, for he
knows that it is quite possible for him to be doing mischief in leading
them on to the higher forms of study unless they are thoroughly
familiar with the first principles. So he goes back to the beginning
over and over again–and a wise preacher will do likewise. As for
myself, it is not at all grievous to speak, in the simplest terms, of
Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation and, for you, it is safe as Paul
said in writing "the same things" to the Philippians. I have always
noticed that those who love Christ best and who know the most about His
great salvation are just the very people who delight to hear again and
again–
"The old, old story Of Jesus and His love."
To persons of that sort, the Gospel message never grows stale! It is
like that familiar song, "Home, Sweet Home," which had such a strange
influence over our soldiers in the Crimea, only that whereas the
playing or singing of that tune brought on such an attack of
homesickness that the men who heard it, when far from their native
land, were rendered quite unfit for duty! In our case, the familiar
story of Jesus and His dying love, and His substitutionary sufferings
will never cease to charm our ears and fire our hearts with holy ardor
in His blessed service. I am also quite sure that to those who least
relish the Gospel and who know the least about it, it is beyond measure
important that they should hear it as often as they possibly can–for
it may be that one of these days it will find an entrance into their
hitherto closed hearts.
Therefore, preacher, ring that bell again and again! It may be that
when you rang it before, their ears were stopped up, so that they did
not catch its sweet silvery note. So, ring it again, Brother, for it
may be that the next time you do so, the Holy Spirit will unstop those
ears that have been so long shut to the Gospel–yes, even though the
blessed bell has been ringing close to them for 70 years or more and
they have grown gray, or white, without having ever caught the
sweetness of its melodious music! So, ring that bell again, Brother!
Yes, even if they are dying, let them still hear it, for the dying
have, through the mercy of God, at last heard and heeded it and so have
begun to hear the harps of angels only a few moments afterwards!
I am going, at least on this occasion, to do what I urge other
preachers often to do–that is, keep to the simplicities of the faith,
trying to show how the dire disease of sin is strangely cured by the
stripes that fell upon our Lord Jesus Christ–for both the Prophet and
the Apostle say that we are healed by or with "His stripes"
I. So, I begin by saying THERE IS A DISEASE IMPLIED.
You cannot heal men who are not sick, or wounded. It matters not how
matchless the medicine is–even though it is the substitutionary
suffering of the Son of God, Himself–if it is to heal, it must heal
some malady or other and, Brothers and Sisters, it is quite true that
there is a dreadful disease which has attacked the whole human race!
You scarcely need that I should tell you that it is the disease of sin.
It came to this earth when that old serpent, the devil, tempted Mother
Eve. Then did this dire disease begin to course through human veins and
it has descended to every individual of the whole race and, at this
moment, it lurks within each one of us. "Lurks," did I say? No, it is
worse than that, for it has manifested itself–it has displayed its
venom and virulence, it has shown itself in the life and, like the
leprosy upon the brow of the man suffering from that dreadful
disease–it is visible upon us all!
The disease of sin is exceedingly injurious. There are some diseases
that affect the heart and sin has turned the heart of man to a stone.
There are some other diseases that afflict the eyes and sin has blinded
man's understanding–his mental and spiritual eyesight. There are some
diseases that affect the hands and, in our natural condition, we cannot
work for God's Glory, or grasp Gospel blessings because the disease of
sin has spiritually withered our hands. We never know at exactly what
point the danger from any disease may be the greatest, for it is not
always that which appears upon the surface which is most to be dreaded,
as there are hidden places in the system which may be seriously
affected without giving eternally any indication of the mischief. The
Lord desires truth in our inward parts, but sin is the enemy of truth
and it is only the Lord who can make us to know wisdom in our hidden
parts, for sin has made us foolish, even as Solomon says that
"foolishness is bound in the heart of a child." Sin has injured us in
more ways than I can tell. When man fell, it was no slight accident
that happened–it was the utter ruin of humanity that occurred! There
is something grand, at least in appearance, about humanity, even in its
ruined condition, for it is the work of God, but, alas, the bat, the
owl and the viper and many other unclean creatures have made human
nature to be their foul den. "Lucifer, son of the morning," is not the
only one who has fallen as from Heaven, for this is also true of the
whole race of mankind!
You see, then, that this disease of sin is most injurious. There are
some diseases that make men quite helpless. We have seen a man who
could not do a day's work even if his very life depended upon it. He
could not lift so much as his hand–and he had to be fed, nursed and
cared for by others, for he was paralyzed. And, in a spiritual sense,
so far as anything in the nature of good works is concerned, sin has
paralyzed man altogether. Indeed, it has taken his very life away from
him so that he is truly said to be "dead in trespasses and sins."
Sin is also a disease which frequently becomes loathsome. In some men
who have had the opportunity of indulging their evil propensities and
passions to the utmost, sin has become so loathsome that even their
fellow men have had to put them away by themselves. What are our
prisons and many of our asylums but moral morgues where we have to shut
up leprous men and women lest they should 'contaminate the whole race.'
I said that sin is a disease which frequently becomes loathsome–I
meant loathsome to men–for it is always loathsome to God and to the
holy angels. I suppose that the most lascivious ulcer which ever
sickened the pitying gaze of a sympathizing onlooker could not be so
disgusting to the mind of the most delicate man or woman as the
slightest sin is to the mind of God. His righteous soul loathes and
abhors it and He says of it, "Oh, do not this abominable thing that I
hate!"
Frequently, also, sin makes men a source of danger to others. It is
really always so, although we do not always know it, for every evil
example is contagious, every foul word is infectious and there is
something about even the most moral man which it would not be safe for
others to copy. Certainly, if he has that dreadful disease of unbelief
in his heart, it would be wrong for any other person to imitate him in
that respect, whatever excellences may stand side by side with it!
In some cases this disease of sin becomes very painful. I wish it were
painful to every unhealed man and woman, for they might then be anxious
to be cured of it. And let me tell you that there is no disease to
which our flesh is heir that can bring such pain to a man as sin can,
when once his conscience is quickened by the Holy Spirit! I think I
know, as well as most men, what physical pain means, but I would sooner
lie bedridden, suffering all the pains that could be crowded into a
human body and lie like that for 70 years than endure the tortures of a
guilty conscience, or the pangs of a soul under sentence of
condemnation! I know that when I was under conviction of sin, I could
sympathize with Job when he said, "My soul chooses strangling and death
rather than my life." It is a terrible thing to see yourself as in a
mirror with all your wounds bleeding and to feel that you must say,
"They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with
ointment." It is a truly awful experience to see a devil in each wound
and to realize that you are, yourself, the worst of devils–and to hear
the curse of God, like distant thunder, rumbling far away, yet
constantly coming nearer and near-er–and to live in dread of the storm
of everlasting wrath beating upon your unprotected head! Yes, the
disease of sin is painful to the last degree to men whose consciences
are not "seared with a hot iron."
Worst of all, this disease causes death. There is no human being in
whom sin has not already caused spiritual death– and no one in whom it
will not cause eternal death unless God, in His Almighty Grace, shall
prevent it. "The soul that
sins, it shall die," is a declaration that is only too terribly true!
What that death will be, I shall not, at this time, attempt to show,
but such words as these, coming from the lips of Christ, may tell
you–"These shall go away into everlasting punishment," "into the fire
that shall never be quenched; where their worm dies not, and the fire
is not quenched." May none of you ever have to endure that death which
never dies–that dread eternal death of which the Lord of Life so
positively speaks! Yet, as surely as God lives, you will experience
even that dread doom unless this mortal malady is healed!
II. Now, turning from the disease, let me point out to you THE MEDICINE
MENTIONED IN THE TEXT– "With His stripes we are healed."
Brothers and Sisters, you know right well that the medicine here meant
is the substitutionary suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ on His
people's behalf. I cannot imagine how anyone can read the chapter from
which our first text is taken without seeing that "the Lord has laid on
Him the iniquity of us all," "the chastisement of our peace was upon
Him; and with His stripes we are healed." This is strange
medicine–that the wounds of Jesus should heal the wounds which sin has
made–that the wounds upon His back and shoulders where the cruel
scourge struck Him, should, by their blueness, bring spiritual healing
to us–yet so it is. And this is the onlyremedy for the malady of sin.
There have been many remedies recommended by various quacks–some have
come with their so-called "sacraments." Some with their ceremonies,
some with their philosophies–but they are all quacks and their
medicines have no healing power! The only cure for the wounds of sin is
to be found in the stripes of Jesus!
Let me put this point very plainly before you. Jesus Christ stood in
the place of the sinner and bore–that the sinner might not have to
bear–the righteous anger of God because of the sinner's guilt. They
who say that we represent God as being angry and only to be appeased by
the sufferings of His Son, know that they altogether misrepresent the
Truth of God that we believe. What we say is that the Infinitely Holy
God could not righteously have pardoned sin without having first
vindicated His Justice and the majesty of His Law. I do not think that
the enlightened conscience of man could ever have been contented
without an atoning sacrifice. There is a necessity, not only with God,
but also with us, for a sacrifice for sin–we must have it, or else our
conscience cannot rest. This was the question I used to ask when I was
in the depths of soul trouble–"How can God be just and yet forgive my
sin?" I wanted Him to forgive me, but I did not want Him to do it
unjustly, for, if I could have obtained the forgiveness of my sin at
the expense of His Justice, I do not think that such forgiveness could
ever have appeared to me to be consistent with the Character of God!
It was only when I understood that God could be both just and the
Justifier of all who believe in Jesus that my soul rolled herself upon
that blessed Truth of God and enjoyed such a luxury of rest as she had
never even dreamt of before! Yes, God is infinitely just! His Justice
is as stern as if it had never been blended with His Grace, yet He is
as merciful and gracious as if justice had never been one of His
attributes! This wonderful blending is gloriously manifested in the
Atonement of Jesus Christ, where, mark you, God Himself–for Christ is
God, as He says, "I and My Father are One"– God, Himself, the
righteous Judge, becomes the innocent Sufferer, standing in the
culprit's place and sheathing in His own heart the gleaming blade that
must, otherwise, have been bathed in human blood! O Sirs, it is what
Jesus bore that will heal you–what Jesus bore when He stood in the
place of sinners and offered to Infinite and inflexible Justice a full
recompense for the crime, guilt, sin and transgression of all who
believe in Him!
Look away from your sin to the great Sin-Bearer! We will not trace Him
through all His sufferings, but begin with the "stripes" He endured in
the Garden of Gethsemane. Can you bear to look upon that terrible
agony, to hear His piercing cries and to see His copious tears? Above
all, can you bear to look upon His bloody sweat? His three favored
disciples could not, for, "He found them sleeping for sorrow." Can you
bear to look upon Him as the rough men, guided by Judas, the traitor,
seize Him and lead Him away to the various halls of judgment and charge
Him with sedition and blasphemy? Can you endure to see Him forsaken by
every friend He had and denied by that impetuous follower who had said,
not, long before, "Though I should die with You, yet will I not deny
You"? Can you bear to see Him surrounded by the brutal Roman
soldiers–maltreated, mocked and spit upon by the unfeeling mob of
railing legionaries? Can you bear to gaze upon His crown of thorns? Can
you bear to listen to the blows from that awful scourge as they fall in
quick succession upon His blessed back and shoulders?
I must not go on to tell the sad, sad story at full length–it is too
sorrowful to relate–but you know how, at last, they fastened Him to
the tree of the curse, then lifted Him up upon the Cross, dislocating
all His bones as they dashed it into the socket in the earth which they
had prepared to hold it. You have read of the fever which came upon Him
till His
mouth was dried up like an oven and His tongue clung to the roof of His
mouth. Yet, after terrible as all this was, it was only the shell, the
externals of His bodily suffering! The suffering of His soul was the
very soul of His suffering. It was by the smiting of His body and the
more terrible smiting of His soul–the suffering of His entire Manhood
in unison with His Godhead–that He took away the sin of His people and
opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers!
Let me urge all of you who are diseased through sin to go for healing
to those blessed wounds of Jesus! Long ago I learned the secret of this
wondrous way of healing and, now, whenever my wounds bleed afresh, I go
again to the–
"Fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel's veins"– for it is
"with His stripes" that I am healed.
III. Now, thirdly, I want to say a little about THE HEALING HERE
MENTIONED.
Our second text speaks of it as a thing that was done in the past–"By
whose stripes you were healed," so I would like you, my dear Brothers
and Sisters in Christ, to remember when you were healed years ago. Do
you recollect the place where Jesus met with you? I remember, to a
yard, where He revealed Himself to my soul. Some of God's saints do
not, but that does not matter in the least! A living man must have been
born, at some time or other, even if he does not know when his birthday
was. And as long as we have been healed, we need not be anxious to know
when it took place. Still, it is helpful if we can recollect when God
gave us healing through the wounds of His beloved Son.
Let me try to describe the process of healing. First of all, the
stripes of Jesus heal us by taking away the guilt of sin. That is the
all-important work. By nature and by practice, too, we are guilty. But
when we look to Christ's stripes, we see our guilt laid upon Him and,
as it cannot be in two places at one time, we know that it is not on us
any longer. The moment that a poor sinner sees Christ bearing His
burden of guilt and trusts Christ as his Burden-Bearer, his burden is
all gone. We sang, a little while ago, that blessed hymn about
Substitution in which one line says–
"Now there's no load for me." There wasa load on me, but Jesus took my
load upon Himself, so–
"Now there's no load for me."
That was the grandest of all God's transactions, when He took sin off
the sinner and laid it upon His sinless Son! As the Prophet Isaiah
says, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone to
His own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Or
as the Apostle Paul says, "He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew
no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Yes,
the sinner who believes in Jesus is no longer accounted guilty by God!
Though black as night, before, the moment he looks to Christ, he
becomes white as the newly-fallen snow. Though he was a stranger to God
and condemned for his sin, as soon as he believes, he becomes "accepted
in the Beloved" and he may shout with the Apostle Paul, "Who is he that
condemns? It is Christ that died, yes, rather, that is risen again, who
is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us!"
The stripes of Jesus are also an Infallible remedy for the disease of
despair What thousands of men and women in this world have been ready
to lay violent hands upon themselves while under a sense of sin! They
never had even half a glimpse of comfort till they were told that Jesus
took their sin and carried it, in His own body, up to the tree and
there forever made an end of it, that they might be saved! I should
like those who do not believe in Christ's substitution for sinners to
have to deal with some troubled souls who have come to me. Ah, you may
evoke, you may charm, you may use fine language and talk about the
"moral influence" of the Sacrifice of Christ–but what use will all
that be to those who are on the borders of despair? Will you take from
us, who have to deal with sin-sick souls, the only balm we have to give
them? I have done with Christianity, I have done with the Bible, I have
done with all preaching if you can once convince me that the
Substitution of Christ is not a fact! This Truth of God is, to me, the
kernel, the core, the marrow, the vital essence of the Gospel! With
this remedy in my hands, I can turn despair into confidence! But, take
this away and there remains nothing for me to preach to the despondent
and the despairing. Let the man who can disprove it–if disproved it
can be, and that I do not believe–recollect that he will have taken
away from the sky of many of us the only sun that shines and from our
life the only joy we have, for, if this Truth of God is gone, all is
gone! O bleeding Savior, if You did not suffer in our place, it would
have been better for us if we had never been born! But we know that
Your stripes do heal the disease of despair, so we will still pass on
the remedy to all whom we find in that terrible condition.
Bring the stripes of Jesus home to a man–they heal his soul of a
thousand other ills, such as this–the idea of trifling with sin. That
is a very common disease. It is incidental to sin that men sin and
think nothing of it. "Oh," they say,
"What is sin? We are poor frail creatures and we make mistakes, but
what of that?" That is man's estimate of sin, but, O You bleeding Son
of God, when we once get a clear view of Your wounds–
"Sin does like itself appear."
See God's only-begotten Son dying on the Cross that sin may be put away
and you will never again think it a trifle! The Sacrifice of Calvary
was upon a scale so vast that there is no human method of measuring it.
God, the Creator, Provider and Judge of All, has taken upon Himself our
Nature and made expiation for our sin by His own death in the midst of
the utmost ignominy, shame and agony! Now, sin could not have been a
little thing to need such an Atonement as that to put it away–and the
man who believes in Jesus, henceforth looks on sin in the right light
and never trifles with it again.
It also corrects his estimate as to eternal things. The other day he
said, "What do I care about Heaven or Hell? What is the Day of Judgment
to me? These are bugbears to frighten children! What is it to me
whether God is angry or not? Eternal things are for old women to think
about–I mind the main chance and make all the money I can." Ah, but a
sight of Christ on the Cross cures all that! Now eternity seems to be
everything and time insignificant! Now to be reconciled to God, to live
to His Glory seems to be the one thing necessary! The Cross of Christ
is the great rectifier of human judgments. We trifle no longer with
eternal things, but they become of infinite concern to us.
Then, next, the wounds of Jesus cure us of the love of sin. By nature,
we love sin, but when we understand what sin cost Christ, we cannot
love it any longer. If you had a very favorite knife which you prized
much, but someone took it– and with it murdered your mother–you would
loathe the instrument with which so foul a deed was done! And sin that
you prized and played with has the blood of Christ on it. It cut Him to
the very soul! So now you hate it. You say to yourself, "How can I love
that cursed thing that made my Savior bleed?" There is no cure for the
love of sin like the blood of Christ!
And it cures us, yet again, because it awakens the dull, inanimate soul
which had long been indifferent to God, into life and love. When a man
knows that Jesus died for him, he must love Him and serve Him. He
cannot help doing so. You may tell him about the punishment of sin in
terms of terror and you may describe the Glory of God in the most
glowing language, but you cannot win a human heart. The deaf adder will
not hear with such charming, but, O Jesus, if You say to a sinner, with
Your own lips, "I love you and I have given Myself for you," the
iceberg-soul thaws into feeling, the granite begins to throb and the
man says, "Love You, my Savior? Oh, how can I have lived so long
without loving You? Love You?
"'Yes, I love You, and adore– Oh, for Grace to love You more!'"
Nothing cures the hearts of coldness towards God like a sense of
blood-bought pardon–and that will dissolve a heart of stone!
And so, let me add there is no form of mischief which sin takes, but
the stripes of Jesus, when we come to know them, will heal us of them.
If you love the world too much–yes, if you love it at all–come and
drink from my Master's cup and it will make you feel yourself a
stranger in the earth and you will set no store by this world any more.
If you have been redeemed, you must have been a slave, so you will bow
yourself in the dust with gratitude to your Redeemer. We see
advertisements of medicines which are said to cure all diseases, but
this is a medicine which will cure all ills. There is no form of the
disease of sin upon which the stripes of Christ have not been
tried–and the wondrous medicine has healed in every instance! Oh, whom
has it not healed? We have seen the harlot healed and she has become a
joyous Magdalene singing chastely and sweetly the love song unto Him
that washed her from her sins in His own blood! We have seen the thief
touched with this sacred heal-all and he has become a saint amidst the
seraphim above! We have seen a persecutor who has but taken a draught
of this medicine and he has begun to preach–and he has preached right
on and he has said, 'Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints,
is this Grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ." Yes, we have seen men lying at the very
gates of Hell, in their own estimation, despairing, feeling the
serpents of remorse twisting their desperate coils about them
everywhere and the venom coursing through their blood–and they have
lifted up themselves and smiled–and the serpents have dropped off
them, as they have looked to the Son of Man, as the bitten Israelites
looked to the bronze serpent–and they have been healed at once! I
would that any here who doubt this, would try it for themselves. "Oh,
taste and see that the Lord is good," for there never was a soul yet
that received this medicine of the stripes of Jesus who was not thereby
healed!
IV. Now, to close, WHAT IS NECESSARY IN ORDER TO GET THIS HEALING?
The answer is, first, you must believe this to be true. You must
believe in the wondrous mystery of God Incarnate. There were many
witnesses to Christ's Incarnation and death and there are four
narrators of the story of His life and Sacrifice. There were many who
saw Jesus risen from the dead and saw Him till He rose to Heaven–they
knew that they saw Him and many of them died as martyrs because they
said so. They were simple, honest witnesses–not ecclesiastics trained
in twisting language and inventing fictions. They were fishermen and,
many of them, poor men, with a few of another rank, but they all saw
Jesus and they saw His miracles. They saw Him tread the sea and they
saw Him die–and saw Him after He was risen–and they tracked Him till
He went up into Glory! And they received His Spirit and, in His name,
they worked miracles–and they were quite sure that what they testified
was true. Some of us have believed their testimony and we have been
healed by this medicine. And if you would be healed, you must receive
it yourselves.
I think I hear you say, "Why, I have always believed the Bible to be
true." Well, then, next, you must take the medicine. What does the
physician put at the beginning of his prescription? A great "R," which
stands for the Latin word, "Recpe."What does that mean? "Take." "Take
of such-and-such a drug so much, and of another, so much." That is what
the Gospel says–"Whoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
That word I leave with you, Recipe– take–receive. Take what? Why,
take the sufferings of Christ to be instead of your sufferings! Trust
in Him to save you now because He died for all who trust Him! Rest
yourself on Him now!
"Suppose I should trust Him and He should not save me?" Ah, Soul, that
were to suppose Him to be a liar–and that cannot be! He that believes
in Him is not condemned. Or, as He put it Himself, "He that believes
and is baptized shall be saved." You have to come to Him just as you
are and trust Him to save you, relying upon the merit of His blood and
righteousness to stand for you before the Justice of God. Can you do
that? "Why," says one, "it seems so simple!" And are you going to
quarrel with it because it is simple? Are you as foolish as Naaman who
would not wash in Jordan because it was so simple? He wanted the
Prophet to perform a great many ceremonies, but he would not at first
bring himself down to wash, that he might be clean! Surely, my Friend,
you are not such a fool as that! I will give you credit for more sense.
"But do you really mean that if I trust my soul with Christ, believing
He can save me, I am saved?" Mean it? Mean it? If that is not so, I am
not saved myself, for this is where I stand! I have believed in Jesus
Christ and rested myself on Him. and if He does not, cannot, or will
not save me and I should ultimately be ashamed of my hope, I must be
damned–for I have not a second hope! You have heard of the fox that
had three holes to run to–but the Christian has only one–and if that
is stopped up, "There is none other name under Heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved." "God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life."
I do not know what you think about sermons. Perhaps you imagine that
preaching is very easy work. It is not so to me. After having been laid
aside sick, I tell you that if I could crawl to this pulpit on my hands
and knees, it would be a delight to me to once again proclaim my
Master's Gospel! But, at the same time, I feel that I may have very few
more opportunities of preaching and, as the Lord lives, before whom I
stand, my anxious desire is that every time I preach, I may clear
myself of the blood of all men–that if I step from this platform to my
coffin, I may have told at least all I knew of the way of salvation! I
wish you unconverted ones could bring yourselves to take this Word of
God home to yourselves, for, some day you will hear the Gospel for the
last time–you will listen to the last invitation–and thismay be the
last time you will hear the story of the dying Savior.
Will you have Him now, or not? With some of you, it is now or never!
Hark to the ticking of the clock! As the pendulum swings to and fro, it
says to some of you, "Now or never! Now or never! Now or never! Now or
never!" Will you trust your soul with Jesus? If you will, the soft
persuasions of His blessed Spirit are guiding you that way. Cast your
guilty soul on Him and you are saved! But if you will have another
Savior, or be your own Savior and reject Christ, I am clear of your
blood! And when we stand before that dread tribunal when Heaven and
earth shall shake, and reel, and pass away like a mist before the
rising sun, you will have no one but yourself to blame that you are
lost! God save you, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen!
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW27:27-54.
Verses 27-30. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the
Praetorium and gathered unto Him the whole band of soldiers. And they
stripped Him and put on Him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a
crown of thorns, theyput it upon His head, anda reedin His right hand.
And they bowed the knee before Him, and mocked Him, saying, Hail, King
of the Jews! And they spit upon Him, and took the reed and struck Him
on the head. Ridicule is very painful to bear at any time and soldiers
have been masters of that cruel art when they have been encouraged in
it by their leaders. Remember, Brothers and Sisters, who it was that
bore all this shameful treatment from these brutal men–your Lord and
the angels' Lord–the Maker of Heaven and earth who had deigned, for a
while, to veil his Deity in human flesh! And there He stood, to be "set
at nothing"–to be made nothing of–by those rough Roman legionaries,
the creatures of His own hands whom He could have destroyed in a moment
by a word or a wish! What matchless condescension our gracious Redeemer
displayed even in His own deepest degradation and agony!
31, 32. And after that they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him,
and put His own raiment on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him. And as
they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name; he they
compelled to bear His Cross. And I think that he must have been a glad
man to have such an honor thrust upon him, yet you need not envy him,
for there is a cross for you, also, to carry. Bear it cheerfully. If
anything happens to you by way of ridicule for Christ's sake and the
Gospel's, bow your shoulder willingly to the burden and, as knights are
made by a stroke from a sword held in their sovereign's hand, so shall
you be made princes of the realm of Christ by bearing the Cross after
Him!
33. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to
say, a place of a skull We do not know why it was so called. There have
been many conjectures concerning the name, but they are only
conjectures. It was probably just a little knoll outside the gate of
the city–the common place of execution for malefactors. The special
points to be noted are that Jesus suffered outside the gate, in the
regular place of doom–the Tyburn or Old Bailey of Jerusalem–and so
was numbered with the transgressors.
34. They gave Him vinegar to drink mingled with gall A stupefying
draught was usually given to the criminals who were crucified, to
mitigate their agony. But Christ did not wish for that to be done in
His case.
34. And when He had tasted thereof, He would not drink He came to earth
that He might suffer and He would retain all His faculties while
suffering. He would have every nerve made into a straight road for the
hot feet of pain to travel over, for He would drink, even to the last
dregs, every drop that was in the cup of suffering for His people's
sin.
35, 36. And they crucified Him, and parted His garments, casting lots
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, They parted
My garments among them, and upon My vesture did they cast lots. And
sitting down they watched Him there. Some of them gloating their cruel
eyes with the sight of His suffering. Others watching Him out of mere
curiosity. But there were some, hard by the Cross, who stood there to
weep in sympathy with Him–a sword piercing through their own hearts
while the Son of Man was being put to death.
37. And set up over His head His accusation written, THIS IS JESUS, THE
KING OF THE JEWS. And so He is. When will the Jews acknowledge Him as
their King? They will do so one day. Perhaps they will do so when
Christians begin to think and speak more kindly of them than they
usually do. When the hardness of heart on our part towards them shall
pass away, it may be that their hardness of heart towards Christ will
also pass away. Long have they been despised, oppressed and persecuted
in many lands, so that, by some means, they might be brought to look,
in penitence, upon Him whom they crucified–and to claim Him as their
Lord and Savior!
38-40. Then were there two thieves crucified with Him, one on the right
hand, and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled Him,
wagging their heads and saying, You that destroyed the temple, and
build it in three days, save Yourself If You are the Son of God, come
down from the Cross. That is the devil's old Doctrine–"Save yourself.
Look out for yourselves. Live for yourselves. Be selfish." But Christ
could never act like that. He came to live and die for others. "Save
yourself," was not the Doctrine that He either preached or practiced.
And this is another old taunt of Satan and those who follow him–"If
You are the Son of God, come down from the Cross and we will believe in
You." There are plenty who would be willing to believe in Christ, but
not in Christ Crucified. "He was a good Man," they say, "a great
Prophet, no doubt far in advance of His times," and so on. But, if you
talk like that, you are not on safe ground, for if Christ was not the
Son of God, at any rate He professed to be and He made people think He
was–and if He was
not, He was an impostor and not a good Man at all! You must either
repudiate Christ altogether, or take Him with His Cross–it must be
Christ Crucified, or no Christ at all.
41-44. Likewise also thee chiefpriest mocking Him with the scribes and
elders said, He saved others; HimselfHe 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 thieves also. Those who were
crucified with Him and were sharers of His misery.
44-46. Which were crucified with Him, cast the same in His teeth. Now
from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth
hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying,
Eli, Eli, lama Sabach-thani? That is to say, My God, My God, why have
You forsaken Me? This was the climax of His grief–not merely to suffer
intense agony of body, not only to be mocked alike by priests and
people–but to be forsaken of His God. Yet this was necessary as a part
of the penalty that was due to sin. God must turn away from anyone who
has sin upon him, so, as sin was laid upon Christ, God had to turn His
face even away from His well beloved Son because He was bearing His
peoples' sins upon the accursed tree.
47-49. Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This
man calls for Elijah. 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. Mocking Him even in His prayers, for they well knew
the difference between Eloi and Elijah!
50. Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the
ghost You know what He said when He cried with a loud voice–"It is
finished."
51-54. And, behold, the veil of the Temple was torn in two from the top
to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks split; and the
graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept, arose,
and came out of the graves after His Resurrection, and went into the
holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion, and they
that were with Him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquakes, and these
things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly that was the
Son of God.