Reflection on the Crucifixion-Matthew 27: 27-44

As I began reflecting on this portion of Jesus’ passion story one question dominated my thinking: what should we focus on to best help us remember what our savior endured for us? Certainly one way would be to focus on all the violent action that takes place. The crown of thorns. The beating. The spitting. It seems as though Mel Gibson covered that pretty thoroughly for us. Another would be to focus on the process of crucifixion: outlining the reasons it was effective for the Romans, the painful things the body endures when nailed to a cross, and the slow death by asphyxiation. We could also remember the highly charged political nature of the entire situation. The false testimony. The shady witnesses. The political title that Jesus never took for himself, but was given to him. We could remember all these things, but what sort of impression would it leave on us? What is there left to remember if not the gruesome details? Many of the other details of the crucifixion point to what we can remember and connect with most in this story: the emotional pain. The writer focuses on and even repeats words that we have all had directed at us before. Derided. Taunted. Mocking. These are the things that are strongly emphasized throughout the whole account and they call our attention to our own times of being treated as “less than.” Jesus was made to wear a purple robe and bear a crown and a title “King of the Jews.” When have you been dressed up and made into something you’re not? Someone passing by, Simon from Cyrene, was forced to carry the cross.  Jesus probably witnessed and took notice of this. When has someone been made to carry your pain that didn’t deserve it? One of the key insults that the common person threw at Jesus was his prediction about the Temple. When have you had something you’ve said be thrown back in your face? The chief priests, scribes and elders all wanted to see the power happen on their own time in their own way. When has someone expected something out of you that you couldn’t give? This doesn’t just happen to us; we often times play the opposite role. We force others to experience these things. We expect others to be more. We throw things back in their face. We make them carry pain that they don’t deserve. We have it done to us, we do it to others and Jesus experienced all of it. Jesus experienced and suffered what we do to ourselves and to each other all the time, intentionally treating each other as less than. In the midst of all of this we are also given a reminder from an unlikely bunch: the chief priests, the scribes and the elders. Their reminder? Jesus is more. He is the King of Israel. He trusts in God. He saved others. Even in all the mocking and taunting the truth is there. He trusts in God. He saved others. We stand at the cross now, hearing the insults but also hearing and knowing the truth: He trusts in God. He saved others. He saved us. Thanks be to God. Amen