The King on the Cross

Reading: Matthew 27:26- 61

Pilate gave his soldiers the order to flog Jesus with a whip with metal tips on it. (The whip had nine "tails" each with sharp metal tied to them.) Then he turned Him over to be crucified. The soldiers took Jesus into their head quarters and gathered more soldiers around. They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him, so fitting considering the blood now running down His body. They wove thorny branches together to form a crown and pressed it on His head, causing blood to run down on His face. They placed a stick in His right hand to be a scepter and knelt before Him... mocking Him... taunting Him, saying 'Hail the King of the Jews!' They spit on Him and hit Him on the head with the "scepter". When they tired of this cruel game, they stripped Him of the robe and put on His own clothes and led Him away to be crucified. Along the way, Jesus became weak and had difficulty carrying the cross; so they found a man named Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross for Him. They went out to Golgotha, the place of the skull, where they nailed Him to a cross and divided His clothes, casting lots, that the scripture of David was fulfilled. "They divided My garments, casting lots. 

"They divided My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots." Psalm 22:1

Above Him they nailed a sign with the charges that read  

"Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews". 

 

There He was.... A King on a Cross, suffering, bleeding and dying for the sins of all mankind... dying for the very people who put Him there.

The people who passed by were shouting insults and shaking their heads, saying "Just look at You now!... If you are really the Son of God, just come down off that cross!" The leaders continued the insults, "He saved others but He can't even save Himself? So He is the King of Israel, is He? Come down off the cross now and we will believe You! He trusted in God, so let God rescue Him now."

At noon darkness fell across the whole land until 3:00. Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" This was Jesus' greatest rejection and grief. The oneness He always shared with the Father... broken... forsaken by the Father! Jesus shouted again and He released His Spirit. At that very moment the veil which hung in the temple, shielding the Holy of Holies from sinful man, tore in two from the top to the bottom. Then the way was open for people to come into the Presence of God, through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ!!!.  

 

"For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight."  Colossians 1:19-22. 

 

The earth quaked and the soldiers guarding Jesus feared greatly and said "Truly this was the Son of God!"

When evening came, a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, a disciple of Jesus; went to Pilate and asked for His body. Joseph took the body away and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. He laid Him in a new tomb and rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and left. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were also there.

The King on a Cross. Only His death could atone  for the sins of all people in the world, through all time who would believe in Him. 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, 

that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." 

John 3:16 ESV

He died that we might live for Him. Thank You, Lord Jesus.