The Whole Band Against Christ

The Whole Band Against Christ

(No. 2333)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1893.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 15, 1889.

"Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Common Hall and
gathered unto Him the whole band of soldiers." Matthew 27:27.

I HAVE not observed that anyone has turned to account the fact that
"the whole band of soldiers" gathered in the Praetorium, or Common
Hall, for the purpose of mocking our Lord. That they did mock Him has
often been noticed and preached upon, but that they should have
gathered unto Him the whole garrison–that all should have been
there–is mentioned both by Matthew and by Mark. And this being twice
recorded cannot have been without some meaning and some lesson for us.

To begin, then, our blessed Lord, being condemned to die, was given
over to the brutal soldiers who garrisoned Jerusalem. They lived in
quarters round about the palace of the governor and when the Savior was
delivered to them to be put to death, they made Him the center of their
mockery and derision before they executed the terrible sentence upon
Him. Does it not strike you that any man condemned to die ought to be
protected against such usage as that? If he must die, some respect
should be paid to one who is about to endure the death penalty. I think
that there should be great indulgence shown in such a case–at any
rate, nothing should be done or said to hurt the feelings, or to wound
the sensibilities. Pity seems to say, "If the man must die, then so be
it, but let us not, for a single moment make jest of him. Let there not
be mirth–that is a brutality not to be thought of at such a time as
this! And to make a man, about to die, the subject of scorn is a
superfluity of cruelty and wickedness." I think that even a devil might
be ashamed of such savagery as this!

But there was no law to protect the Savior from these soldiers. Every
man's heart seems to have been steeled against Him–the common dictates
of the most ignorant humanity appear to have been violated. They said
by their actions, if not in words, "He shall not only die, but He shall
be stripped of all His honor. He shall be robbed of every comfort. He
shall become the butt and target of all the cruel arrows of contempt
that we can shoot at Him."

Still, why is it said that, in order to make Him the object of
derision, they gathered together, "the whole band"? I do not know how
many soldiers constituted the garrison, or how many were barracked
round about the governor's palace, but they gathered together, "the
whole band"–not merely a few of them who were on duty that day, but
all were summoned to make a mockery of Christ. It was not because He
needed to be guarded lest He should escape, for He had no desire to be
set free. It was not because the soldiers would have needed to keep Him
securely guarded lest the people should attempt to rescue Him, for the
Jews did not want Him to be rescued. On the contrary, it was by their
clamor that He was doomed to die. They had cried, "Crucify Him! Crucify
Him!" He had no friends to stand up for Him, no band of disciples to
come and force the soldiers away and set Him free. Therefore these
soldiers did not guard Him with the whole strength of the band on that
account.

Nor were they all needed to execute the death sentence. With a people
eager for His death, four soldiers, a single quaternion, sufficed. He
carried His own Cross and they had but to drive the nails into His
hands and feet and fasten Him to the tree. That could have soon done it
to a Victim so defenseless, so inoffensive–it did not need that they
should gather together, "the whole band," and so we are told it as a
remarkable circumstance which did not rise necessarily out of the
narrative. It must have a meaning of its own, "They gathered unto Him
the whole band of soldiers."

I shall speak thus upon it. First, it would appear that the soldiers
were unanimous in mocking their Prisoner. Secondly, so are men united
in opposing Christ. And, thirdly, what shall we say of both the facts
of which we are to speak tonight?

I. First, then, it is clear that THE SOLDIERS WERE UNANIMOUS IN MOCKING
THEIR PRISONER.

Upon this, I remark, first, that men are very apt to go together when
they go wrong. You notice, in a workshop, how the religion of Christ
will be despised and how certain men will lead the way in uttering
calumnies against it. And then the rest will follow. When men go
astray, they are like a flock of sheep–one gets through the hedge and
all the rest go after it. We have heard of one sheep leaping the
parapet of a bridge into a river–and the whole flock went after it and
all were destroyed. Men are such curious beings, not only the creatures
of their own habits, but the imitators of other men's example! I know
not how it is, but persons who, alone and apart, would seem to have
some good inclinations, will shake them all off when they get into evil
company. At home, they will talk reasonably, but, in the crowd, they
speak madly. At home and alone, they are amenable to rebuke and
conviction. But when they got with other men, they will not hear a word
of it–they shut their ears to anything like good teaching–and they
run greedily to do mischief. I do not, therefore, so much wonder that
when our Lord was given over to the soldiers, they gathered together
the whole band, for it is so usual for men to go together when they go
wrong.

Frequently, too, it will happen that there is not one man to bear his
protest. Would you not have expected that, in a large band of soldiers,
there would have been at least one man of noble spirit who would have
said, "No, do not torture Him–He is about to die"? Would it have been
at all amazing if one man had stood forward, and said, "This Man has
done nothing amiss. Our governor has said that he finds no fault in
Him. Why, therefore, do you set Him in that chair and robe Him, and bow
the knee in mockery, and spit upon Him?" It would not have been very
surprising if there had been among the Roman soldiers some one or two
who had espoused Christ's cause, for, truth to tell, those valiant men,
although they grew brutalized by living amidst scenes of blood, were
capable of deeds of high virtue. One has but to read the old Roman
story to stand amazed, sometimes, that such fair flowers of virtue and
benevolence could grow on such a dunghill as the Roman State was then.
Yet you see that not one out of the whole band of soldiers would say a
word for Christ, or absent himself from the ring when their comrades
mocked Him.

Perhaps I address some men here who work together and who are in the
habit of scoffing at the Cross of Christ. I hope that there is not a
workshop in London without one man, at least, who will stand forward
and defend his Master's cause. But if I speak to one to whom that
thought has occurred and yet he has said, "I dare not! I would be,
myself, the subject of so much persecution that I could not stand forth
alone," now, listen, Sir, if a Caius, or a Fabius, or a Julius had
stood forth alone to defend the Lord's cause, we would have had his
name here! And if he had even suffered death for it, he would have been
among the brightest of the martyr host! And you know not what honor you
lose if you conceal your testimony. If you allow the whole drift of the
talk to be infidel and atheistic and never put in your good word for
Him whom you call Master and Lord, you dishonor yourself! But if you
could have the courage and I hope that you may, to say, "He, of whom
you speak thus ill, has saved my soul, snatched me from habits of vice
and renewed my character"–if you could stand forward, and bear such
testimony for Him–I know that it were a short road to Glory, honor and
immortality! It is not likely that you would have to suffer as the
martyrs did, but suppose that you did? The more of suffering, the
brighter that ruby crown which would be set upon your head in the day
of your Lord's appearing! I hope that Christian men are still made of
that grand old stuff which defied the Roman emperors and made them
weary of slaughter, for they could not mow down the crops of the Church
as fast as they grew! The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the
Church and the more copiously it was shed, the more the Church
multiplied!

But, once more, the number of those who thus mocked Christ made their
conduct all the baser. When you, young fellow, get in with 50 more, and
in the workshop you mock at some solitary Christian youth. When you,
each one, have your jibe–when you give him what you call, "chaff,"
which is sport to you, but cruel enough to be death to him–did it
never occur to you that it was a most cowardly thing and altogether
unworthy of you, that ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, should all set
upon one? What if a man believes in religion? Has he not a right to do
so if he likes? Some of you who talk so much about freedom are the
biggest bullies in the world! You boast loudly of religious liberty,
but to you it means liberty to be irreligious! Surely I have as much
right to worship Christ as you have to despise Him–and if my

views of religion should seem to you to be peculiar, yet, if peculiar,
have I not as good reason to hold them as you have to reject them?

I speak thus plainly because I know of many, many cases where, if men
were men at all, they would cease to persecute Christians, seeing that
they persecute one or two wherever they can if they, themselves, happen
to be in the majority. Think of this lot of howling dogs around this
one gentle Lamb of God, the Christ who had never even a hard word for
them, whose mightiest weapon was silence and patience! Think of Him
surrounded by all these men of war from their youth up, these Roman
legionaries with their imperial eagles! It was a cruel shame. The more
there were of them, the meaner it was of them thus, as a whole band, to
gather together to mock the Savior.

But I suppose that their number accounted for the excess to which they
went. If there had only been two or three of them, they would not have
thought of all the cruel things that they did to our Lord. To put an
old cloak upon Him and to call Him the purpled Caesar is commonplace
enough, but one cries, "Let us make a crown for Him," and they plait
the thorns with cruel hands, piercing His temples with the sharp
spines. Another says, "Fetch a scepter and put it in His hand. Set Him
in that chair and let us bow before Him! Let us cry, 'Hail, King of the
Jews!'" They would have stopped at that point had there not been so
many of them. But, being so large a band, one coarse fellow must go
still further and he spits into that blessed face!–

"See how the patient Jesus stands, Insulted in His lowest case! Sinners
ha ve bound the Almighty hands, And spit in their Creator's face." I
hardly think that one, two, three, or even half-a-dozen, by themselves,
could have been guilty of such detestable, loathsome conduct to Christ!
But the whole band being together, they thought of fresh insults.

Take heed of sinning in a crowd! Young man, abandon the idea that you
may sin in a crowd! Beware of the notion that because many do it, it is
less a guilt to any one of them. Remember that the broad way was always
the wrong road and that it leads to destruction, none the less because
many walk in it. "Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be
unpunished." Though you finish up the day's work of sin with three
cheers for your noble selves, you shall find yourselves arraigned, each
one, before the Judgment Seat of God–each one to give account for the
deeds done in his body according to what he has done, whether it is
good or whether it is evil. Oh, the pitiful story, a whole company of
soldiers united against Christ, with not one to quit the ranks and say,
"No, comrades! Do not do this!" But all wallowing in their cruelty,
like swine in the mire!

II. That leads me to talk to you, secondly, about another point. As
these soldiers were unanimous in mocking their illustrious Prisoner, SO
ARE MEN UNITED IN OPPOSING CHRIST.

Like these soldiers, many do not pass Christ by with neglect. I should
have thought that many a brave man of that Roman legion would have
said, "Pshaw! I shall not go to taunt the poor Jew who has been hunted
down by the priests. Nobody gives Him a good word–even His own
followers have fled from Him. I heard one of them declare that He did
not know Him, though I knew that man was a liar, for I saw Him in the
Garden with his Master. My comrades are going to the Praetorium to mock
Him, but I shall not go. Such mirth is unworthy of a man, especially of
a Roman." Instead thereof, they were all there! Curiosity fetched them
up–they must all come to see this Man of whom they had heard so
much–and an evil conscience made them bitter against Him, for, because
they were evil, His being good was a protest against their wicked
deeds.

So they were all united against Him and they came up, every one of
them, to show their scorn. It is a strange thing, but if Christ is
fully preached, somehow men cannot be indifferent to Him. If they can
get away and never hear of Him, they may be indifferent. But the true
Gospel either offends men, or else it charms them. I believe that you
may preach a certain sort of gospel, from the first of January to the
end of December, and everybody will say, "Yes, that is very good, very,
very good, perfectly harmless." Yes, a chip in the porridge, with no
flavor in it. But if it is the real out-and-out Gospel of a Crucified
Savior, there will be someone who will say, "Ah, that is what I need! I
like that," but there will be others who will grind their teeth and
say, "I will never hear that man again! I cannot bear his talk. I hate
it."

Do not be surprised when I say that, if I hear that So-and-So was very
angry at one of my sermons. I state as my belief, "That man will go to
Heaven. I have the hook in that fish and I shall yet catch him!" But
when I hear people simply say, "Oh, yes, we heard the sermon!" and they
make some trifling remark about it and go their way, nothing good comes

of it. It is better that a man should be in a downright rage against
Christ than be utterly indifferent to Him! And where He really comes so
that men are obliged to see Him, they cannot long be indifferent. "That
the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed," is one of the objects of
His death.

The Cross of Christ is the great detector of men. Fix it up and men
straightway go to the right or to the left of it. It is the parter and
divider of the ways. Jesus, Himself, said, "He that is not with Me is
against Me; and he that gathers not with Me scatters abroad." Men
cannot pass by utterly with neglect after once hearing the story of the
Cross. They must gather up for Christ or against Him, and, alas, many
of them do gather up to pour their scorn upon Him!

Many ungodly men feel an inward contempt for Christ's claims. "No,"
says one, "I have no such contempt for Christ." I would not wish to
charge you wrongfully, but if you are not a believer in Him. If you
have never accepted Him to be your Savior and your Lord, I venture to
repeat the charge–you have an inward contempt for His claims, my
Hearers. Whether you are Christians or not, you are the subjects of
King Jesus. God has put you into His hands and you will have to stand
before His Judgment Seat at the last. The Man, Christ Jesus, who died
on Calvary and rose again, and went to Heaven, will judge every one of
you at the Last Great Day–and He claims that you now should become His
servants, and yield obedience to Him!

Now, I know that you will say in your hearts, "We shall not do anything
of the kind!" Just so, and have I not proved what I said? "The carnal
mind is enmity against God," and that carnal mind may be in a man who
always goes to Church, or to Chapel. If he has not been renewed, he
does not believe in Christ as King and, as far as his heart is
concerned, he mocks at the idea of his being a servant of Christ and
Christ being Lord over him. In his very soul he thinks this to be a
preposterous claim, that he should be obedient to Christ in everything.
Besides, the mass of men do not seek to know what Christ's claims are.
They are ignorant of His Royalty and Sovereignty–and it is in this way
that their minds are filled with an indistinctly expressed, but still
very powerful, contempt for Him.

And so it happens, in the next place, that men invent different ways of
showing their derision. It is very curious that you find very learned
men opposed to Christ and they go to work, usually, by destructive
criticism, trying to get rid of this part of the Bible and that. But an
ignorant man cannot do that, so he says that he does not believe in the
Bible at all. Here you find a rich man despising Christ, sneering at
"the common people," as he calls Christ's followers, and there you see
another man who is very poor, despising Christ by wishing to overthrow
all the rules of His sacred Kingdom. Herod and Pilate hate one another
till Christ comes–and then they join together in reviling Him.

These Roman soldiers, having all come together, found employment in
mocking Christ. First, some of them stripped Him. Oh, have I not seen
men at it in these days, stripping Christ of His Deity, stripping Him
of His Priesthood, stripping Him of His Sovereignty, stripping Him of
His Righteousness, stripping Christ of everything that makes Him
Christ? Is not that the way with many of the rich, the great and the
"advanced" theologians of the present day? They show their hatred of
Christ by stripping Him!

There are others who go to work the other way–they put a scarlet robe
on Him. I have seen them do it–put other men's garments upon Him, make
Him out to be what He never was–travesty the Doctrines of Grace,
caricature the Gospel and hold it all up to contempt, imputing to
Christ the faults of all His followers and even laying at His door the
sin of men who, like Judas, have betrayed Him! That is another method
of showing enmity to Christ. Then we see all around us men who mock at
Christ's Royalty. They crown Him with a crown of thorns by their harsh
speeches against His people. By their persecutions of those who love
Him, Christ is often crowned, again, with thorns. The husband has done
it in his unkindness to his believing wife. Parents have done it in
their objection to their children following Christ. The man or woman
who has given the cold shoulder to a pious friend, has thus put another
crown of thorns upon the Savior's head.

And have we not seen them put the reed into His hand by representing
Christ as being a mere myth and His Doctrine as a dream, a holy fancy,
a proper thing to keep the people quiet, but with no matter of fact or
truth in it? So they put into His hand the reed-scepter to mock Him and
He regards it as mockery. And thus, around the Christ, today, I seem to
see, with eyes closed, but by the vision of faith, a multitude kneeling
before Him and pretending to worship Him– hypocritical
worshippers–those who even by their bedsides are hypocrites, repeating
a form of prayer and yet never really praying! They are drawing near to
Him with their lips, while their hearts are far from Him. Oh, how do
sinners thus prove their unanimity of enmity to Christ! Even in their
pretended worship, they do but show the opposition of their hearts to
Him.

Here and there, also, I see one coarser than other men who spits upon
Jesus and smites Him. You cannot live long in London without hearing
from men who are opposed to the Cross of Christ, expressions that
disgust you. I have given up all idea, now, that we are living in a
Christian country. Believers in England are a band of Christ's soldiers
who are holding the fort against deadly odds! Ours is a heathen country
with an admixture of Christian people and a smear, a varnish of
pretended religion, but still a heathen country! And every now and then
some outspoken heathen, by his awful profanity, makes us wish that we
could not hear at all! This is how they spit on Christ. One does it
very politely with a bow. Another comes forward and abuses both the
Christ and His Cross. He has spat in His face and honestly lets us know
where he stands. One will undermine the Truth of God–another brings
the battering ram, in open day, to beat down the citadel–but they are
so united together that, with one accord, the whole band of soldiers is
gathered against Christ.

Dear Friends, if men attacked any one Doctrine, you would find only one
band of men opposing it, but when Christ, Himself, is the object of
mockery, the whole band gathers round Him! If I preach some of the
Doctrines of Calvinism, I shall find men who are fatalists, and
necessitarians and the like, who will agree with me. But if I preach
the whole Gospel of Christ, these very men who might have been my
friends under one form of doctrine, will be my enemies against the
whole of it! Only let Jesus appear, and Jews and Gentiles, rich and
poor, learned and unlearned–until they are renewed by Grace–count His
Cross to be a stumbling block and His Doctrine to be foolishness!

Now notice that men who could mock Christ like this were capable of
doing anything evil. If they could revile Christ, it was no wonder that
they cast lots for His clothes just at His feet when He hung on the
Cross. I am often astounded at things that I read about gamblers and
what they have been known to do. It is 50 years ago since there was a
story told by a policeman–and I do not doubt its truth–of two men at
Hampstead who, having bet with one another all that they had, at last
had a wager as to which should hang the other. And one of them did hang
the other. The policeman came along just in time to save him and when
the man was cut down, what do you think he said? Why, he said that he
would have hung the other man, if he could, to win the bet!

That was thought to be very extraordinary, but it is not so very long
ago since, at the laying of the first stone of a chapel, a friend of
mine stood behind two gentlemen from Newmarket and, when one whom I
know stood up to pray over the first stone, these two made a bet about
how long he would be praying! Men will do anything for a wager. That
mischievous vice which is becoming so common, nowadays, leads to an
extraordinary hardness of heart beyond anything else! And I cannot so
much wonder that men who were brought up as these Roman soldiers were,
were capable of mocking Christ and of anything else that was evil.

III. I have finished when I have asked and answered this question, WHAT
SHALL WE SAY OF BOTH THE FACTS WHEREOF WE HAVE SPOKEN TONIGHT?

These cruel soldiers unanimously came together to see Christ as a
prisoner and to put Him to extraordinary scorn– yet out of this band
Christ found witnesses. Their chief officer, "the centurion, and they
that were with him," as they stood and saw Christ die, said, "Truly
this was the Son of God." And some of these soldiers, being appointed
to watch the tomb of Christ, came and declared that He had risen from
the dead. They were fine witnesses, were they not? Men who were too
rough to lie to help a sect. They came forward to bear testimony to the
Christ. O God, if there are any here who have blasphemed You, who have
cursed Christ to His face, who have persecuted Christ's people, save
them, tonight, and make them witnesses of Your power to bless! When
such a man gets saved, he is a good witness for Christ. He says, "I
know what Christ can do, for He has changed my heart, He has appeared
to me by the way and manifested Himself to me. And I know and am sure
of that which I testify, that, verily, this is the Son of God."

Next, learn another lesson. All this mockery should rebuke the
backwardness among Christ's friends. When He was to be mocked, all the
soldiers came up. Some of them were down in the canteen, but they left
their wine and came up to mock Him. Some of the soldiers, perhaps, had
furlough for that day, but they gave up their holiday to go to mock
Christ. Now, then, Brothers and Sisters, if His enemies could gather
together the whole band against Him, let us gather together the whole
band for Him. Why, just look at some of you on the Lord's-Day! There
are a few drops of rain that might spoil your best bonnets, or wet your
new clothes, so you cannot go to Chapel. You would have gone to market,
you know, rain or shine! How many there are who will not be able to
come to the Prayer Meeting tomorrow night! One pleaded, some time ago,
at the Prayer Meeting, "Lord, bless those that are at home on beds of
sickness!" "Yes," said the preacher, "and, Lord, bless those that are
at home on sofas of wellness!" There are plenty of that kind, who stay
at home because

they have not enough of the hearty spirit that ought to be in them to
let the whole band gather together to confess Christ. Do you love Jesus
Christ, my dear Sister? Then come and confess it! Do you love Jesus
Christ, my Brother? Then out with your avowal of it! Do not try to go
to Heaven behind the hedges. Get on the King's High Road and travel in
broad daylight as a soldier of Christ should. Say–

"I'm not ashamed to own my Lord,

Or to defend His cause."

Next, I think that these mockers chide the uninventiveness of many
Christians. See how they brought out the old red cloak, plaited the
crown of thorns and cried, "Put them on Him!" Then they brought the
scepter of reed, saying, "Stick it in His hand and shout, 'Hail, King
of the Jews!"' Then came the spitting and the smiting–they could not
have made the mockery more complete. They soon rigged up all that
mimicry of royalty. Come, then, Brothers and Sisters, let us be
inventive in honoring Christ–

"Bring forth the royal diadem, And crown Him Lord of all."

See, is there not some new plan to be tried, some method that you have
not yet attempted by which you could make Jesus loved and honored in
the soul of somebody, be it only a poor child, a servant girl, or the
most humble man in the street? Surely, if enmity was so quick to deride
Him, love ought to be equally alert and inventive to find out ways by
which to honor Him!

But, once more, all this mockery should excite our admiration of our
patient Lord. Remember that as He sat there, flouted and made a jest
of, He might with one glance of His eyes have flashed Hell into their
souls and slain every one of them! Had He only opened those lips, He
could have spoken thunderbolts that would have destroyed them at once!
But He sat there and patiently bore it all. As a sheep before her
shearers, He was dumb. He opened not His mouth because He was bearing
all this to save you and to save me. Blessed Savior! Oh, come, let us
worship and adore and love Him!

The last lesson is, let us summon all our faculties to honor Christ
tonight. Gather together the whole band, your memory of all His
goodness, your judgment of all His greatness, all your hopes and all
your fears–your quieted conscience, your soul at rest–come, and with
the whole band of faculties that God has given you, from the highest to
the lowest, bow down in grateful adoration before Him who bowed so low
that He might lift us up to be with Him forever! Dear Hearers, are you
trusting Christ? There is no other trust that will do for a soul for
time and for eternity! On a dying bed, it must be none but Jesus–let
it be none but Jesus on your bed, tonight, before you fall asleep. Do
not dare to close your eyes till you have committed your soul into the
keeping of Him who still holds out His hands, as He did upon the Cross,
that He may receive you with open arms and save you with an everlasting
salvation! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW27222-50.

Our Lord was brought before the Roman governor, Pilate. He was anxious
to let Jesus go, but he was a weak-minded man, easily swayed by the
noisy cry of the people, prompted by the chief priests and elders.

Verses 22, 23. Pilate said unto them, What shall I do, then, with Jesus
which is called Christ? They all said unto him, Let Him be crucified.
And the governor said, Why, what evil has He done? But they cried out
the more, saying, Let Him be crucified. A blind, unreasoning hate had
taken possession of the people. They gave no answer to Pilate's
wondering enquiry, "Why, what evil has He done?" for He had done
nothing amiss. But they only repeated the brutal demand, "Let Him be
crucified! Let Him be crucified!" The world's hatred of Christ is shown
in similar fashion today. He has done no evil, no one has suffered harm
at His hands, all unite to pronounce Him innocent, and yet they
practically say, "Away

with Him! Crucify Him!"

24. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a
tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the
multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just Person: see
you to it. Ah, Pilate, you cannot rid yourself of responsibility by
that farce! He who has power to prevent a wrong is guilty of the act if
he permits others to do it, even though he does not actually commit it
himself. If you are placed in positions of power and responsibility, do
not dream that you can escape from guilt by merely allowing other
people to do what you would not do yourself.

25. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on
our children. All the people willingly took upon themselves the guilt
of the murder of our dear Lord–"His blood be on us, and on our
children." This fearful imprecation must have been remembered by many
when the soldiers of Titus spared neither age nor sex and the Jewish
capital became the veritable Aceldama, the Field of Blood.

26. Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged
Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified. Why scourge Him before
delivering Him up to be crucified? Surely this was a superfluity of
cruelty! The Roman scourging was something which I scarcely care to
describe–it was one of the most terrible punishments to which anyone
could be subjected–yet Pilate first scourged Jesus and then gave Him
up to die by crucifixion.

27. 28. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Common
Hall, and gathered unto Him the whole band of soldiers. And they
stripped Him, and put on Him a scarlet robe. Some old soldier's coat
that they found lying about, they cast upon Christ in imitation of the
royal robes of Caesar or Herod.

29-31. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon
His head, and a reed in 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 smote Him on the head. And when they had
mocked Him, they took the robe off from Him, and put His own raiment on
Him, and led Him away to crucify Him. By that fact, though they did not
intend it, our Lord was recognized in the street as the same Person who
had been taken into the Praetorium by the soldiers. Had Jesus been
brought forth in the scarlet robe, persons looking at Him might not
have known Him to be the same Man who wore the garment woven from the
top throughout–but in His own seamless raiment, they readily
recognized the Nazarene.

32. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name:
him they compelled to bear His Cross. I wonder if He was a black man.
There was a Simon in the early Church and it certainly was the lot of
the Ethiopian to bear the Cross for many and many an age. This Simon
was a stranger, anyway, and a foreigner–he was truly honored to be
compelled to bear the Cross after Christ.

33. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to
say, a place of a skull. From its shape. There appears to be to this
day a hill, still in the form of a human skull, outside the gate of
Jerusalem. When they came to that common place of execution, the Tyburn
or Old Bailey of the city,

34. They gave Him vinegar to drink mingled with gall and when He had
tasted thereof, He would not drink. A stupefying draught was given to
the condemned–that is the only mercy that there was about the whole
thing. The Romans did give to the crucified a draught of myrrh to take
away something of the agony of crucifixion, but our Lord came not to be
stupefied–He came to suffer–therefore He would not take anything that
would at all impair His faculties. He drank even to the dregs the
bitter cup of grief and woe.

35. And they crucified Him. Horrible scene, to see those blessed hands
and feet pierced with nails, and fastened to the Cross!

35. Andparted His garments, casting lots. Rattling the dice at the foot
of the Cross! Gambling is the most hardening of all vices. I believe
that crimes have been committed by persons under the influence of
gambling, which never could have been committed by them in any other
condition of mind–"They parted His garments, casting lots." See here,
you gamblers! With Christ's blood bespattering them, these soldiers
still dared to raffle for His robe.

35, 36. 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. His enemies gloating
their cruel eyes with the sight of His sufferings. His friends with
many tears watching His amazing griefs. It is for us, tonight, with
humble faith and grateful love, to mark the incidents connected with
His painful death.

37, 38. And set up over His head His accusation written, THIS IS JESUS
THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then were there two thieves crucified with Him,
one on the right hand, and another on the left. Giving Him the place of
honor, which means, in this case, the place of dishonor. He was the
apex of that terrible triangle.

39, 40. And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads, and
saying, You that destroys the Temple, and builds it in three days, save
Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the Cross. This is
the cry of the Socinians, today, "Come down from the Cross. Give up the
atoning Sacrifice and we will be Christians." But, by rejecting His
vicarious Atonement, they practically un-Christ the Christ, as those
mockers at Golgotha did!

41, 42. Likewise also the chiefpriests 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. Just so. Get rid of a crucified Savior, then they will
believe in Him! Atonement, Substitution, vicarious Sacrifice–this
staggers them. They will have Christ if they can have Him without His
Cross.

43-46. 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, 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
Sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Every word in this terrible cry from the Cross is emphatic! Every
syllable cuts and pierces to the heart!

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

48. And straightway one of them ran and took a sponge, 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.

48-50. 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. Jesus, when He had cried again with a load voice,
yielded up the ghost. Christ's strength was not exhausted! His last
Word was uttered, "with a loud voice," like the shout of a conquering
warrior! He need not have died on account of any infirmity in Himself,
but voluntarily, for your sake–for your sake and mine–He "yielded up
the ghost." Blessed be His holy name!