Scripture Reading: Matthew 27:33-50
The story of the crucifixion has the most sacred and tender interest for everyone who loves Jesus Christ. It is not merely an account of the tragic death of a good man — He who was crucified was the world’s Redeemer, our Redeemer, suffering for us. Some of the old preachers used to say that our sins drove the nails in the hands and feet of Jesus. He died for us. Paul speaks also of being crucified with Christ (see Gal. 2:20). He means that Christ’s death was instead of his death. No other death in all history means to the world what the dying of Jesus means.
They led Jesus out of Golgotha. There He was met by those who offered Him “vinegar to drink mingled with gall.” It is supposed that the act was one of kindness, that the mixture was intended to stupefy Him so as to deaden in some measure the awful suffering of crucifixion. But Jesus refused the drink. He would not have His senses dulled as He entered upon His great work of death for the world, nor would He have His sufferings as Redeemer lessened in any degree.
The garments of men who were crucified were by custom the perquisites of the soldiers in charge of the crucifixion. They “parted His garments, casting lost.” We love to think of the garments which Jesus had worn. Perhaps they had been made by His mother’s hands or else by the hands of some of the other women who followed Him and ministered unto Him of their substance. They were the garments the sick woman and other sufferers had touched with reverent faith, receiving instant healing. What desecration it seems when these heartless Roman soldiers take these garments and divide them among themselves! Then what sacrilege it is when the soldiers throw dice and gamble for His seamless robe under the very cross where the Savior is dying!
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