“They reviled Him … the chief priests mocking Him … the thieves cast the same in His teeth.” Matthew 27:39-44 KJV
“Hurling abuse at Him … the chief priests were mocking Him …the robbers were also insulting Him with the same words…” Matthew 27:39-44 NASB
On the cross, the Lord Jesus became the object of reproach from everyone. Passers-by flung in His face the distorted claim to rebuild the Temple; chief priests, scribes, and elders mocked His ability to save others and His own apparent impotence. But perhaps the ultimate insult was when thieves took up the refrain and began blaspheming and mocking Him. Despite their own fate, they viewed Him as worse than they were. They, the criminals from Rome’s dungeons, felt superior to the Lord of Glory.
Have you ever felt the grief of someone using the Lord’s Name in vain or blaspheming the Name of God in your presence? Imagine God incarnate being exposed to vile men using His Name in blasphemy and reproach? The sensitive, tender heart of Christ was “bearing shame and scoffing rude” when upon the cross.
Questions to Consider:
- The Son of God on a cross; the one Who saved others – not saving Himself; the One Who trusted in God, left and forsaken on a tree? These are the seeming contradictions of Calvary. Natural wisdom failed to find an explanation other than that they were right and He was wrong.
- “Come down from the cross and we will believe Him.” At the outset of His ministry, Satan said, “If thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down” (Matt 4:6). During His ministry, His own brothers said to Him, “Shew Thyself to the world” (John 7:4). How is this taunt at the end of His life similar to those He faced earlier?
- The chief priests taunted Christ with, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save.” How did the Lord Jesus answer that taunt according to Luke’s account?
