04-18-2025 Good Friday: They That Watched Him There
Text: Matthew 27:27-36
The past two Sundays we have looked at how Jesus shared His last Passover meal with His Disciples, including how He instituted the Lord’s Supper or Communion service, and how He entered Jerusalem where crowds and children praised Him. All of this was leading up to the events of this night so long ago that we are here to remember. Let’s look at Matthew 27:27-36 which say: “(27) Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto Him the whole band of soldiers. (28) And they stripped Him and put on Him a scarlet robe. (29) 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! (30) And they spit upon Him and took the reed and smote Him on the head. (31) And after that they had mocked Him and took the robe off of Him, and put His own raiment on Him, and led him away to crucify Him. (32) And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name; him they compelled to bear His cross. (33) And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, (34) they gave Him vinegar to drink mingled with gall; and when He had tasted thereof, He would not drink. (35) And they crucified Him, and parted His garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, they parted the garments among them and upon My vesture did they cast lots [Psalm 22:18]. (36) And sitting down they watched Him there.”
These soldiers had witnessed many crucifixions. Darius crucified 200 when conquering Babylon. Alexander crucified 2,000 when conquering Tyre. Crucifixion was a common means of capital punishment for the Romans. So, to those soldiers that night, it was just another execution. Perhaps this is why the Cross means so little to so many people today. These men mutilated the body of Jesus before He ever reached the cross. Part of the humiliation of the condemned was that they were forced to carry their own cross to the crucifixion site. But the soldiers’ treatment of Jesus made Him so weak that they had to pull someone out of the crowd on the street watching Him to carry His cross. They doubted His virgin birth and rejected His deity, and they never accepted the miracles He performed. To them, He was just another condemned man.
But just who was this man that died that day? He was the One of whom the prophets had spoken. He was the One who was miraculously born of a virgin. He was the One who opened many blind eyes, made the lame walk, healed many sicknesses, and even raised the dead. But they didn’t care. Today when we see Who died that day, it’s something that we should never forget or ever get over. Gypsy Smith, a British evangelist born in 1860, who conducted evangelistic campaigns in the United States and Great Britain for over 70 years and was an acquaintance of Fanny Crosby once said of the Cross, “I have never lost the wonder of it all.” That wonder he spoke of is how this Man called Jesus left the splendor of Heaven to be humiliated and crucified for all of mankind to have the opportunity to reconciled back into the family of God.
The soldiers at the cross that day watched calmly during the world’s greatest crisis. This was the hour of the ages, and they weren’t moved at all. When the darkness came and the earth shook, their leader would finally be shaken enough to say: “Truly this was the Son of God.” In addition to the soldiers watching Him die, there were priests who taunted Him, thieves who shared the same fate as Him, His mother, and only a small band of thousands of faithful who followed His ministry. They were all watching Him. Even the forces of Heaven stood still watching as the earth hovered between destruction or deliverance. He could have called 10,000 angels to save Him -- but He didn’t because He knew they would have destroyed the entire world in order to free Him. But that was not what His Father – the One True God – wanted. Instead, He chose to follow the will of His Father. This was an hour of crisis, and sadly many were then, and still today, are unmoved.
Many watched carelessly in the hour of God’s greatest example of love and caring. The soldiers gambled for the garments He had worn. They heard him say “Father forgive them,” recorded in Luke 23:34; “Today, you shall be with Me in paradise” found in Luke 23:43; “Woman, behold your Son” recorded in John 19:26; “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” found in Matthee 27:46; “I thirst” found in John 19:28; and finally, as John wrote in 19:30, “It is finished;” and “Into Thy hands I commend My spirit” recorded by Luke in 23:46 They saw it all, they heard it all, and they knew all the facts, but so many didn’t respond to the love of God offered to all mankind that day on the Cross. Sadly, too many don’t respond today.
On this night we must all ask ourselves if we have responded to God’s love and what the death of Jesus actually means to us. Does His death affect how we live our lives? Do we trust our life completely to the One Who died for each one of us? Our answers to these questions will determine the path we take for the rest of our lives in this world and more importantly, for all of eternity when we leave this earthly life. Shortly we will once again be sharing the Lord’s Supper. As we do this let’s remember the Cross and what Jesus did for us when He could so easily have opted out. Then, let’s resolve to live from here on out as Jesus would have us live so that we can show Him that His sacrifice was not in vain.
Until we meet again, may God bless and keep you, may He shine His light on you, show you grace, and give you peace in all the days ahead.