Matthew 27:32-56: Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear His cross.
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Yet at the most fundamental level—and this can’t be emphasized too strongly—the cross is in no way “religious.” The cross is by a very long way the most irreligious object ever to find its way into the heart of faith. J. Christiaan Beker refers to it as “the most nonreligious and horrendous feature of the Gospel.
The crucifixion marks out the essential distinction between Christianity and “religion.” Religion as defined in these pages is either an organized system of belief or, alternatively, a loose collection of ideas and practices, projected out of humanity’s needs and wishes. The cross is “irreligious” because no human being individually or human beings collectively would have projected their hopes, wishes, longings, and needs onto a crucified man. --Fleming Rutledge (The Crucifixion) This means we are to assert the Crown Rights of our King in all spheres. To coexist with an evil world is to acknowledge failure: we have a duty to convert it.
After Jesus was nailed to the cross, the Scriptures indicate that he hung there for six hours. During the last three hours, from noon to three, the sky turned black and refused to shine. At noon He cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He looked up and found He was cut off from God. He was separated. He was estranged. This One Who never sinned, Who had never had a dirty thought or a wrong motive, Who had never sinned in word, deed, or thought, looked up and God was gone. Can you imagine what it was like to have to have to have been in fellowship with God as Jesus was and then to look up and find God to be gone? At this point, all of our sin, rottenous, and filth, everything that we have done wrong, was laid on Jesus, and God could no longer look at His Son because of our sin. Therefore, Jesus cried out with this pathetic cry, "Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani?" ... "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" God could not look upon our sin, upon His Son, and Jesus was cut off, damned. When Jesus cried out those words, it was the most horrible cry that was ever uttered from this earth. Even the angels must have shudddered with horror at the spectacle of the Son of God hanging between heaven and earth, cut off and damned because of our sin. In fact, Scriptures say in Galatians 3:13, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Jesus was damned for our sins. Jesus was damned that we might not be damned. He died that we might live. And this is the reason we're righteous. But because Another died for our sins. He was our substitute. And because He was judged for our sins, we don't have to be judged. He loved us that much. Therefore, on the cross, Jesus Christ cancelled our $10,000,000 debt. - Ernest Gruen "Freedom To Choose" p9-10
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Barabbas was a notorious criminal. Jesus was perfectly righteous. Yet, in spite of the protests of the governor and the absence of charges, the Jews cried our for His death. “Let Him be crucified!” They chose a wicked man over a righteous Lamb.
We all know how deceptive abusers can be. Sociopaths, narcissists, psychopaths – how they can charm! And we know that this is one of the reasons pastors and whole churches are taken in by these wicked ones. Naivete. Ignorance of abuse and its tactics. All of us were there at one time ourselves. But there is another reason some pastors and elders and church members side with the wicked against his victim. Here it is — it is because they are wicked themselves. Just like that crowd of Jews calling for the notorious criminal Barrabas to be released and the perfect Lamb of God to be crucified, so it is today. The victim is crucified, the abuser is released. Why? Because evil loves darkness and hates the light. |
Let’s think for a while about the personalities and the forces driving the events leading to the trial and crucifixion.
From the very beginning, it was the “Establishment” which drove the events. The well-established RELIGIOUS establishment which first viewed Jesus as a nuisance, then a threat. But as their suspicion and fear grew it developed into paranoid hatred and when hatred is full grown it frequently leads to murder. The sadness and travesty in this case was horribly multiplied because it was sanctioned and propelled by the “best” civilized society had at that time.
If you see similarities between that “system” and any other ever devised by man, your powers of observation are acute and accurate. The self-seeking, self-serving, greedy, self-preserving motive never has real “good” as its objective. And who’s to say that, given similar circumstances in our power hungry and power-polluted system we would not have arrived at the same conclusions? The same outcome. Who among us can honestly say we’d not have been driven along by the same tidal wave of hatred and evil?
If something big. . . really big. . . were happening downtown right now, would you stay home? Really? If you just ambled in and everyone was screaming something at the top of their voices, would you bravely step forward, calm them down and suggest a more reasoned approach? Even if that same angry crowd turned on you and told you to “Shut up, or Else?”
Don’t kid yourself. If any of us get caught up in the “herd mentality,” any one of us. . . and every one of us . . .can easily become subject to mass hysteria. I read a book some years ago entitled Rumor, Fear, and the Madness of Crowds. The central thesis was that, under the right circumstances, with the “right leader” any crowd is subjected to being manipulated. Whipped into a hysterical, insane frenzy. You don’t have to go far back into history to encounter Adolph Hitler and his monstrous Third Reich. Somehow, I cannot believe every single person who got swept along by that tsunami sized tide of evil was actually evil. Bit by tiny bit, they bought into a huge lie. They fell hook line and sinker for a line vomited from the mouth and mind of maniacal madman.
As you read the stories about Jesus’ life, you will recognize that early on he aroused the suspicion and ire of the religious leaders. “The Common People heard Jesus gladly.” Some of them said: “No (mere) man ever spoke like this Man.” He performed miracles, in addition to being a compelling speaker. He intimidated the “powers that be.” Then, He started saying things pretty clearly that people interpreted as Him saying He was the Son of God. Or even God (“He that has seen me has seen the Father.”). And he messed up one of their “profit centers,” turning over their tables, sending the synagogue profiteers scrambling for cover. The people must have loved it. And I have to confess I’d have been impressed seeing Jesus snortin’ fire and chasing religious thugs from the temple.
Admittedly, the ringleaders in this plot to do Jesus to death were the Jewish leaders. Admittedly, from their standpoint at least, they had reason to be upset. He was “messing” with their way of living. Encroaching on their “turf.” (Believe it or not, ministers can become very territorial!) Upsetting the people in general, and maybe attracting too much attention from the Romans garrisoned there. Israel was, you may recall, an occupied country at the time. An unruly, proud, very stubborn and almost ungovernable country. They hated being under the boot of Roman authority, and also feared that any uprising on their part would be cause for the iron fisted, full fury of Roman wrath to fall upon them. (In 70 A.D., their worst fears were realized.).
--Scripture Student
From the very beginning, it was the “Establishment” which drove the events. The well-established RELIGIOUS establishment which first viewed Jesus as a nuisance, then a threat. But as their suspicion and fear grew it developed into paranoid hatred and when hatred is full grown it frequently leads to murder. The sadness and travesty in this case was horribly multiplied because it was sanctioned and propelled by the “best” civilized society had at that time.
If you see similarities between that “system” and any other ever devised by man, your powers of observation are acute and accurate. The self-seeking, self-serving, greedy, self-preserving motive never has real “good” as its objective. And who’s to say that, given similar circumstances in our power hungry and power-polluted system we would not have arrived at the same conclusions? The same outcome. Who among us can honestly say we’d not have been driven along by the same tidal wave of hatred and evil?
If something big. . . really big. . . were happening downtown right now, would you stay home? Really? If you just ambled in and everyone was screaming something at the top of their voices, would you bravely step forward, calm them down and suggest a more reasoned approach? Even if that same angry crowd turned on you and told you to “Shut up, or Else?”
Don’t kid yourself. If any of us get caught up in the “herd mentality,” any one of us. . . and every one of us . . .can easily become subject to mass hysteria. I read a book some years ago entitled Rumor, Fear, and the Madness of Crowds. The central thesis was that, under the right circumstances, with the “right leader” any crowd is subjected to being manipulated. Whipped into a hysterical, insane frenzy. You don’t have to go far back into history to encounter Adolph Hitler and his monstrous Third Reich. Somehow, I cannot believe every single person who got swept along by that tsunami sized tide of evil was actually evil. Bit by tiny bit, they bought into a huge lie. They fell hook line and sinker for a line vomited from the mouth and mind of maniacal madman.
As you read the stories about Jesus’ life, you will recognize that early on he aroused the suspicion and ire of the religious leaders. “The Common People heard Jesus gladly.” Some of them said: “No (mere) man ever spoke like this Man.” He performed miracles, in addition to being a compelling speaker. He intimidated the “powers that be.” Then, He started saying things pretty clearly that people interpreted as Him saying He was the Son of God. Or even God (“He that has seen me has seen the Father.”). And he messed up one of their “profit centers,” turning over their tables, sending the synagogue profiteers scrambling for cover. The people must have loved it. And I have to confess I’d have been impressed seeing Jesus snortin’ fire and chasing religious thugs from the temple.
Admittedly, the ringleaders in this plot to do Jesus to death were the Jewish leaders. Admittedly, from their standpoint at least, they had reason to be upset. He was “messing” with their way of living. Encroaching on their “turf.” (Believe it or not, ministers can become very territorial!) Upsetting the people in general, and maybe attracting too much attention from the Romans garrisoned there. Israel was, you may recall, an occupied country at the time. An unruly, proud, very stubborn and almost ungovernable country. They hated being under the boot of Roman authority, and also feared that any uprising on their part would be cause for the iron fisted, full fury of Roman wrath to fall upon them. (In 70 A.D., their worst fears were realized.).
--Scripture Student
