21Then they compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to bear His cross. 22And they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull. 23Then they gave Him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but He did not take it. 24And when they crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take.
25Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him. 26And the inscription of His accusation was written above:
| THE KING OF THE JEWS |
27With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left. 28So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And He was numbered with the transgressors."
29And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, "Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, 30save Yourself, and come down from the cross!"
31Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, "He saved others; Himself He cannot save. 32Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe."
Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him.
I have never witnessed a crucifixion. It is so foreign to me that everything about it seems wrong. But was this part of the story anything out of the ordinary? Footnotes in my Bible say the person being crucified normally carries their own cross, that they are normally offered the wine, and that their clothing is normally divided amongst the soldiers doing the task. One of the purposes of a slow death on the cross is to set an example for others to see. So I would expect that people mocking the one on the cross is all part of the process. I guess these things which surrounded Jesus' crucifixion was nothing out of the ordinary.
I always thought of the man who carried Jesus' cross as volunteering to do it because he felt compassion seeing Jesus struggling with it. But here it says they (the soldiers) compelled him to do it. After all the abuse they gave Jesus, I can't imagine they found someone to carry His cross out of any sense of compassion. I expect Jesus was too weak from all He had been through to carry it Himself, so they found someone to carry it for Him.
I'm not sure about this wine mingled with myrrh. As far as I know myrrh is purely for aroma for perfumes and incense. I'm not sure what it would do to wine. Was the wine offered to help ease the pain, or simply as a last sustenance? Was it mingled with myrrh to increase the numbing influence of the wine, or as in insult to make the wine taste bad? Regardless, Jesus didn't take the wine, probably in part as fulfillment of His statement in Mark 14:25 where He said He would no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when He drinks it new in the kingdom of God.
The dividing up of His garments brings home even more how severely the shepherd would be struck down. He was being stripped of everything He had. He would be crucified as a transgressor with transgressors.
The chief priests and scribes were finally getting what they wanted. They had heard of Jesus claims about destroying and rebuilding the temple. They had heard of the many afflictions He healed and lives He saved. They mocked Him in His inability to do the same for Himself. As many times before, they asked Jesus to perform a miracle so they could believe. And as in all those other times, Jesus didn't respond to their tests. What they didn't realize is that in all the other miracles, Jesus helped others out of a sense of compassion. He never once did these things for Himself. But the greater part of their misunderstanding was that by not saving Himself, He was saving everyone. He saved others' mortal lives before. Now His actions will save everyone's eternal lives. But this they would not understand yet.
So what is the human reaction to that which we don't understand, that seems too difficult to be believed? Denial, denouncement, revilement. He was surrounded by unbelievers. Even those being crucified with Him reviled Him. This could be taken as a subtle warning to us to not be too quick to deny that which we do not understand. Look what all these people missed out on by simply denying rather than trying to understand.
As I'm going through this and red-lettering all of Jesus' words, it is getting very apparent that Jesus hasn't been saying much during this time. I can only imagine the torment Jesus is going through as everything is being taken away from Him, all the pain and suffering, the feeling of abandonment, and the strongly voiced opinions of denouncement all around Him. He is no longer trying to preach, but to simply do what He came to do. There are times too in our lives when our voices fall on unreceptive ears, and it is time to simply do what we must do. In those times, the time for words is past, we can justify ourselves more by our actions than by our words.