Matthew 27:32-66--The Crucifixion, Death, and Burial of Jesus

​Matthew 27:32-66 English Standard Version (ESV)
LISTEN:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Matt.27.32-Matt.27.66
The Crucifixion
32 As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. 33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. 35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. 36 Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. 37 And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” 38 Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. 39 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.

The Death of Jesus
45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47 And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” 48 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. 49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” 50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 54 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
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55 There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, 56 among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

Jesus Is Buried
57 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 59 And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

The Guard at the Tomb
62 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ 64 Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.

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Jesus was so battered and beaten from the torture that He had just endured that He could not even complete the task of carrying His own cross and a man from the crowd--Simon of Cyrene--was compelled to carry the cross (probably the crossbeam) the rest of the way to Golgotha (The Place of the Skull) which we also know as Mount Calvary.  Once He was hung on the cross the soldiers tried to offer Him wine to drink, but it had been mixed with myrrh so as to dull the pain and slow the breathing and aid in a faster, less painful death.  When Jesus tasted that the wine they offered Him was spiked, He spit it out and would not take any to drink--He would experience the fullness of the pain and torture that He came to bear for us.

The torture did not stop with the beatings.  We get the word excruciating from the same word as crucifixion.  Those being crucified were positioned in such a way where their own body weight would push on their lungs and they would suffocate unless they pushed against the nails/spikes in their hands and feet to push themselves up, rubbing their raw, beaten backs against the splintery surface of the wooden cross, all so that they can take one more breath and extend the time they are hanging there a little longer.  All during this time they exposed to the elements with the sun beating on them and wind against their naked, beaten bodies, and the birds coming to pick at them, all while the crowds stood by and jeered at them and while their friends and family stood by--those that could stand to watch--and you would see the pain in their eyes.

This is the scene of today's text.  The garments that He was stripped of before being hung on the cross were gambled for by the soldiers, and they "kept watch over Him" to do whatever they could to extend the torture and keep Him alive that much longer.  Over the sign of each criminal was a list of the charges for why they were being crucified so that the public would see what would happen to people that committed these kinds of crimes against the Roman empire.

What were the charges against Jesus?  Pilate wrote the charges to say in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews."  We see in other gospels that this infuriated the Jewish leaders and they asked Pilate to change the charges to say "He claimed to be the King of the Jews," but Pilate responded with "I have said what I have said."  Those that waled by who were Jewish instead accused Him of the "crimes" that the Sanhedrin originally arrested Him for--claiming He was the Son of God and saying that after three days "this temple" (meaning His own physical body) would be raised back up if they destroyed it.  However they falsely accused Him of saying that He was going to destroy the temple (the physical building).  They were "wagging their heads" in disbelief for some in a taunting way for others.  Even the other criminals who were there with Him--we see them called thieves here, but they were probably guilty of much more than petty theft if they are getting the death penalty.  They cried out that He said He would save all mankind, but He could not even save Himself, and if He was the Son of God, He should come down from the cross Himself or at least God should step in and stop this and save Him.  The fact that God did not do so was proof enough to them that Jesus couldn't be who He said He was because there's no way they could fathom that God would come in the flesh and willingly allow Himself to be crucified and that the Father would allow something like this to happen to the Son.  Even in all of this, Jesus was tempted without sin to surrender and in saving Himself would fail to provide salvation for the whole world, and would fail to accomplish His mission and purpose for His first coming--"To seek and to save that which was lost."

We don't usually talk about time in "hours" such as this.  The nigh "watches" ended at 6am (sunrise) and then the time was given in hours so "the sixth hour" should be high noon and the "ninth hour" should be 3pm.  This should be the brightest part of the day, but instead, creation reacted to what was going on with darkness as if it was trying to help hide the brutality of what was going on to its Creator.  Three hours of pitch black in the middle of the day.  Then Jesus cried out using the words of the Psalmist, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?"  It is my opinion this feeling of separation from God must have been the greatest torture that the Son had to endure, as He had always been in perfect communion with the Father and the Spirit even to the point of saying, "I and the Father are one." and "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father."  Maybe God didn't really leave Him, but the sin that Jesus was taking onto Himself separated Him from God in the same way that our sin separates us from God.  God looks on His son and sees our sin and Jesus not only took our sin upon Himself but became sin for us so that the wrath of God that was deserved by our sins would be poured out on Him and that we might become His righteousness in the eye of God.

Even in this the crowds did not understand and jeered Him thinking that He was praying to the prophet Elijah to come and save Him, but the pagan, Roman guards who saw all these things said, "Truly this was a son of the gods."  That's the best they could do in their paganism, but it showed that they realized that heaven was mourning over the loss of the Son of God.  At this point, we see that Jesus again being in complete control said, "It is finished," and yielded up His spirit.  Notice that no one took His life away from Him, but He laid it down willingly​.

We are then given an aside that many of the women who followed Jesus were there watching all of this transpire.  It must have been extremely difficult for them to watch and for Him to watch the pain in their faces and to hear the grief and pain in their voices.

We then meet a new character--Joseph of Arimathea.  He seemed to be a wealthy man and someone with some political influence and also a follower of Jesus.  He had a tomb that He wished to give to Jesus and asked permission from the Roman government to take the body of Jesus off the cross and bury Him in the tomb.  Some context we are missing here is that this needed to be done with great haste as if they did not complete the task before sundown, they would be violating the Sabbath and may have been ceremonially unclean from touching a dead body and may not be able to enter the temple or participate in the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  This may explain why the woman were coming so early on Sunday morning to annoint the body with spices and ointment (we will get there in the coming passages).

Jesus was laid in a borrowed tomb (another fulfillment of prophecy) and a large stone was rolled in front of the entrance and a Roman guard was posted to guard the tomb.  The Sanhedrin may not have been listening well to Jesus on many occasions, but they remembered Him talking about rising from the dead and they wanted to make sure that no one came to steal the body and fake a resurrection.  Funny enough, this is the exact story the concocted later after the resurrection--the the guards fell asleep on the job and someone broke the Roman seal (you wouldn't do this unless you too wanted to be crucified), and that they rolled away the massive stone and stole the body away and hid it somewhere.  We know better though because we have the eyewitness accounts of many who saw the risen Christ, but I'm getting ahead of myself as we'll talk about the resurrection of Jesus in tomorrow, Lord willing.