The Sign Above His Head Told the Truth
Daily Scripture
Matthew 27:32-44
32 As they were going out, they found Simon, a man from Cyrene. They forced him to carry his cross. 33 When they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Skull Place, 34 they gave Jesus wine mixed with vinegar to drink. But after tasting it, he didn’t want to drink it. 35 After they crucified him, they divided up his clothes among them by drawing lots. 36 They sat there, guarding him. 37 They placed above his head the charge against him. It read, “This is Jesus, the king of the Jews.” 38 They crucified with him two outlaws, one on his right side and one on his left.
39 Those who were walking by insulted Jesus, shaking their heads 40 and saying, “So you were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, were you? Save yourself! If you are God’s Son, come down from the cross.”
41 In the same way, the chief priests, along with the legal experts and the elders, were making fun of him, saying, 42 “He saved others, but he can’t save himself. He’s the king of Israel, so let him come down from the cross now. Then we’ll believe in him. 43 He trusts in God, so let God deliver him now if he wants to. He said, ‘I’m God’s Son.’” 44 The outlaws who were crucified with him insulted him in the same way.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
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Matthew brings us to the cross, a seemingly awful ending. But scholar N. T. Wright showed that for Matthew, “Jesus’ crucifixion was not a messy accident at the end of a glittering career, but was in fact the proper, though shocking, climax to it. It isn’t just that Jesus is ‘enthroned’, as it were, on the cross, with the title Matthew wants us to see as the true one written above his head.” * As Jesus had said in Matthew 20:28, he came “to serve and to give his life to liberate many people.”
- Jesus’ “crime” was named on the sign the Romans hung over his head. But for Matthew, it was the plain truth. How could that be? “The kingdom Jesus had spoken of, from the Sermon on the Mount onwards, was never a kingdom to be established and maintained by military force. If it was to be God’s kingdom, it would come about by God’s means; and the means the true God chooses to use are the means of self-giving love.” ** Will you give your heart’s loyalty to a kingdom built on self-giving love?
- Mark 15:21 not only named Simon of Cyrene, but also his sons Alexander and Rufus. That most likely meant that Christians years later, when Mark wrote his gospel, knew Simon and his sons, not just knew Simon’s story. (See likely mentions of them in Acts 13:1, Romans 16:13). What might Simon, forced to carry Jesus’ cross, have experienced that changed his life and bound his heart and his son’s hearts to the crucified Jesus? What draws your heart to him?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, it seems likely that on that dreadful day you saved Simon, the innocent bystander forced to carry your cross. And that day you chose to save me rather than yourself. I offer you my heart in gratitude. Amen.
GPS Insights
Janelle Gregory
Janelle Gregory, who serves as Resurrection's Human Resources Lead Director, wrote today's Insights. Janelle finds that her heart is constantly wrestling with the truth that she needs a Savior, and the times when she's at her very best are when she's just too tired to put up a fight.
I LOVE March Madness. However, this year the glimpses of true madness have been relatively light. There hasn’t been that small-school Cinderella like we’ve seen in the past–no Saint Peter’s Peacocks, no Florida Atlantic Owls. The biggest surprise of the tournament was 9 seeded Iowa making it to the Elite 8. That’s impressive, but it’s not exactly madness. In my opinion, there wasn’t any real madness until this last weekend.
On Sunday afternoon, 2 seeded UConn played the overall 1 seed, Duke. You’d think that this would be a close game, but it was anything but. Duke was kicking UConn’s Huskey tail. At one point, they were ahead by 19 points. Nineteen!!! The game was essentially over. So over, in fact that I put it on my second television (as one has during March) and began watching something else. Occasionally, I’d look over to see how bad the bloodbath was, but I wasn’t really paying attention.
Then, little by little, the gap started to close. It wasn’t anything dramatic. It was just enough to notice the bleeding had stopped, and UConn began showing signs of life. It would still be a miracle for them to win, but at least the game began to be more interesting. I moved the game back to my main TV. It came down to the last minute, and it looked like UConn might actually have a chance. And then, with four seconds left in the game, everything changed. Duke turned the ball over, and with less than a second left on the game clock, UConn hit a three pointer from near midcourt to win the game!
I’m not going to lie, I had given up on UConn. Defeat felt inevitable.
If we think about Holy week, where we are in the story, I’d imagine that the crowds watching the crucified Christ had a similar feeling. Defeat was imminent. There was no coming back for Jesus now. The only problem is that they had tuned in at the wrong time of “the game.” They assumed that they knew the outcome. Death had won. But God had something else in mind. The game was far from over, and death would ultimately be defeated.
But I can’t really blame the crowds. We do the same thing when we decide how a story ends. We feel that a situation feels too far gone, and we move it to the “second screen” of our lives and stop paying close attention. But just like the cross, we have to realize that God may still be writing the story. What looks like the end, may just be the turning point.
If you find yourself in a place where the scoreboard doesn’t look promising, don’t assume that you know the end. You may just be watching the wrong part of the story. Victory could be around the corner because, after all, the worst thing is never the last thing.
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* Wright, N. T., Matthew for Everyone, Part 2: Chapters 16-28 (The New Testament for Everyone) (p. 181). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.
** Ibid., pp. 181-182.
