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Matthew 27:32-34
As the Roman soldiers lead Jesus out of the city of Jerusalem and to the place in which He would be crucified, they for some unknown reason required a man, named Simon, to carry Jesus’ cross. Some believe that it is because Jesus had been beaten so badly that He was physically exhausted and could not carry the cross Himself. I believe that this reasoning, however humanly physically possible, does not imply that Jesus is taking the punishment by Himself. If His disciples were all to disown Him at His arrest so that He would solely be responsible to pay the price for the sins of man, then why would another unknown man be called out to help Jesus?
Another possibility is that as Jesus is led outside the city, which is representative of the temple and the Old Testament Law being Jerusalem, an outsider from another land is given the load to carry the cross of Jesus in foresight of Jesus’ words in Mark 8:34 (NIV), “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” In losing our life for His sake or for the sake of the gospel is to lose our earthly nature and to put on the nature of Christ Jesus and follow Him. The cross that we must carry throughout our lives which is handed from generation to generation in Christ Jesus.
Further support of this is found in the second part of today’s Bible study as Jesus is given “sour wine” (NKJV), or “wine to drink, mixed with gall” (ESV) but is refused by Him. Two possibilities are mostly favored here as in the one case the sour wine was given to the condemned to help dull the pain and suffering, which Jesus came to take upon Himself for the sins of the world. Obviously, He would refuse anything that would dull the process. Another view is that the sour wine was a continuation of the mockery by the Roman guards in their false praise of Him as “King of the Jews” (Matthew 27:27-31, NKJV). It is possible that a portion of each of these views is valid, if not both entirely. If Jesus would refuse the sour wine to dull His pain, then I must adhere to Him in God’s great plan of redemption to not allow someone else to bare His cross, unless it was to show that as He bore the cross for us, we too must bear the cross for Him.
This is the cross that Jesus bore for us, and the cross that we must bear for Him.
There is a false gospel that teaches that if you will put your faith in Jesus, then nothing bad will ever happen to you ever again. This is simply not true and a teaching of a false gospel. Jesus never taught that nothing bad will ever happen to us if we put our faith in Him. He did teach in John 15:20 (NIV), “Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”
We must bear our cross for Jesus. In this world are trials, tribulations, and the worries of the sins that Satan imposes on us in the earthly nature. We must deal with it while we are here. But Jesus promised to be with all who will believe in Him. He teaches us in John 14:15-18 (ESV), “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” When we die physically and leave this world, if we have put our faith in Jesus, we will enter into spiritual eternal life that will no longer be subject to the pains of this world but only basking in God’s glory – the greatest gift and most beyond anything our imaginations could ever ponder of the wonderful, magnificent, splendor of heaven – in Christ! Trust Jesus through the trials and tribulations of this world and be set free from sin forever!
Dear LORD,
There is much to grasp in this short Bible lesson of the pain and suffering that Jesus volunteered to take upon Himself for our sins and the ongoing trials and tribulations that we must face while in this world. But please help us to see that if we will trust in Jesus to help us through this world as we put our faith in Him as the Savior of the world, that we will be set free from sin and suffering forever in the spiritual world as we are granted to bask in His glory. In Jesus name I pray, amen.