The Crucifixion and Character Assassination of Jesus

Matthew, chapter 27, I want to begin with verse 38. This is a story really of the crucifixion, and something has already taken place. Jesus has been crucified, nailed to the cross, so that part of it is already underway. What takes place in this following section is a different kind of crucifixion, a crucifixion of character. Sometimes physical pain is hard, difficult for us to bear, but you may experience the fact that sometimes physical pain is not nearly as debilitating as emotional or psychological pain. In other words, when you go through a situation where you have physical health problems, sometimes it's difficult and really can be severe, but when people have things like depression and feelings of worthlessness, sometimes it overwhelms them even more than the physical difficulties. The physical difficulties sometimes allow you to say, well, I'm going to get over this, but whenever you have these emotional things that strike you, it seems sometimes even worse. In this story, Jesus is on the cross now, and here is his situation facing all the difficulties and trials emotionally and psychologically that he faced. The first thing that chapter, verse 38 says, two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right side and one on the left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their head and saying, you who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself. Come down from the cross if you are the son of God. So Jesus is on the cross now between two thieves. Jesus had never done anything to bring himself to the place where he was actually convicted of any kind of crime like this. The text here today, verse 38, says two robbers, and it is really a better translation of the word. I'm used to saying thieves, so I said that today. But there are two different Greek words for, one for thieves and one for robbers, and they are very different. A thief is someone that might steal from you, a robber is more of a criminal with a gun that holds you up. So there's a little bit of difference between the two of them. And the word that's technically used here is the word in the Greek language for robber. Sometimes the other word for thief is used in this place, even though the Greek word is the word for robber. So Jesus now is associated with people who are common robbers. They would hold up people. Many think that the two thieves on either side of Jesus were planned to be crucified already. Anyone who was guilty of rebellion against the Roman Empire, crucifixion was the common punishment for them. So the people who were on either side of Jesus had either been rebels, that is, they'd rebelled against the Roman authority, they had been people who held up other people. And some speculate that a trial of Jesus where they were offering Barabbas in place of Jesus meant that the cross that Jesus was to be on was actually intended for Barabbas, and these were two of his associates. Now there's no reason in the scripture to say that that's true, except that we know Barabbas was one of the people who was destined or supposed to be crucified, and they asked if they could substitute Jesus for Barabbas and let Barabbas go free. And that's what happened. So because of that, some people think that this may have been originally the case, so the people on either side of him were really rebels against the Roman Empire and deserving of the punishment that they received. And as rebels against the Roman Empire, they may have provided themselves with funds for their rebellion by robbing people, holding them up, taking money from people who were maybe from the Roman government or the military. So here is Jesus, now caught between the two, identified with people who are common criminals. You may remember when Jesus was taken in chapter 26 of the book of Matthew, when they came to get him, Jesus had not planned to resist, but he said in chapter 26, verse 55, at that time Jesus said to the crowd when he was being arrested, Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sit in the temple courts teaching and you did not arrest me, but this has taken place that the writings of the prophet must be fulfilled. Then all the disciples deserted him and fled. Here Jesus identifies the way they took him to be the way you would treat a common criminal. So in that instance, and then when you turn to this story about Jesus being crucified and the place of someone who we would call a traitor to the country, someone who is against the government. So Jesus now is identified in his death as someone who is associated with the worst kind of criminal in the country. So Jesus now has this association identified with him as all the people are walking by knowing what is taking place, the crucifixion and seeing it, of being seen as an enemy of society. Jesus was not an enemy of the Roman Empire. He never tried to do anything to destroy it. He wasn't even an enemy of the Jewish community. He never tried to rebel against anything that they did, but in his death now he is associated with them physically by being crucified between the two of them. So that people would look at him and see here is a man who is a common criminal. All of Jesus' life what he did was to make sure that he did everything that was proper. When they tried to get him to rebel against the Roman government, he refused to do it. When they tried to get him to refuse to pay the taxes or anything else that would have put him at odds with the government, Jesus never bought that. He was always faithful, but now in the end of his life he is arrested like a robber or a thief or a traitor and he is crucified as if he was one of those two. So Jesus is hanging here on the cross with all the physical punishment, but now because of his location he is seen as a criminal. The Son of God with a perfect life who is seen by everyone who comes by as a common criminal. Those who pass by, in verse 39, those who pass by hurled insults at him, shaking their head and saying, you are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days. Save yourself. Come down from the cross if you are the Son of God. Now the word, some of the translations translate this section, they hurled blasphemy at him or they blasphemed him. The word insult and blaspheme is similar in the Greek language so it's why it's translated some of these different ways, but what they are doing, blasphemy, is to say something about God that is contrary or opposite to the nature of God. So here Jesus, knowing who he is, the Son of God, is hanging on the cross and people are passing by on the main road at the gates of the city of Jerusalem. The Romans crucified people in a very public place so that everyone who came by would understand the consequences of the behavior that they had. Now when they are coming by Jesus and they see him on the cross, they only have the information that the people give around him. And what is going on? Why are these people crucified? So people would be standing there and the information would be given to them. Information that was not exactly accurate because the charges against him were not exactly right and the things that people accused him of he had not done, but here he is standing before them as if he were a criminal to the Roman government and as if he were an enemy to the Jewish faith. And two robbers on each side and people coming by, looking at him, shaking their heads, saying you are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself. Now how did they know that? Somebody was telling the story. You remember Jesus talked about dying three days and being raised from the tomb and they associated Jesus talking about the temple of his body as if he were talking about the temple in Jerusalem. One of the things when you live your life for Christ you discover oftentimes is you are associated with people that you never really thought you would be a part of. You can't help it because people when they see you sometimes living your faith, it creates inside of them a sense of guilt and shame because they know they are not doing it. And if you live in the Christian community all the time, that is the only people you have around you, you know that people don't say that about you. But when you get out in the rest of the world where people are not favorable to the Christian faith and you are faithful to read the Bible, you are faithful to go to church, and you are faithful to try to live your faith, it makes people uncomfortable. They will oftentimes associate you with being a hypocrite. They may not know anything in the world that you have ever done that would cause you to be called a hypocrite, but they are inclined to do that. They see your life and they see what you do and they feel convicted by it and so they feel the need to put you down, to make other people think less of you, and so they use this kind of insulting language. You are a hypocrite. You are one of those people that are Bible bangers. You are one of those people that are off on the deep end because they see you as a person who is different than themselves and they try to assassinate your character because of the conviction they feel that they are wrong. Now when Jesus was talking to us about being his followers, he said, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me. This is a part of the taking up the cross. Because of your commitment to Christ, you will sometimes be seen as someone who is an evil person. Our culture is going through tremendous changes about the way people think about different things. For example, if someone might come up to you and say, do you believe that homosexuality is a sin? And if you say, yes, I do believe that because you believe the Bible, you might find a very violent reaction to you. They will call you a homophobe. They might say that you are a hypocrite because you believe that from the scripture. And there are places in which it is very difficult for people to be able to take a stand for what they think the Bible says without having tremendous reaction from people around them. Accusations that are not true because they have their own mind made up about who you are and what you believe simply when you say what you believe about the scriptures. It's true about homosexuality in our culture. It's also true about sexuality. There are many people, if you talk to them and they're not married and they're living with someone, who would say if you thought that was wrong that they would see you in a negative light, that you're judgmental, that you're condemning, that you're critical. They don't see it that you're taking a stand for what you believe is the morality of God. Instead, because they see these things in a different way, everyone else is doing it. The Bible was written a long time ago and things have changed and there's nothing wrong with this. And if you say, I believe that it is wrong or it is a sin, you will find people really angry with you. Jesus was experiencing the same thing. He's telling us if you become a follower of mind, you may find yourself in circumstances where people will assassinate your character because of what you believe to be the word of God and the message of God. Now, I think in our culture, in the Christian community, a lot of people feel this is very unfair to us. So they raise a lot of concern that we ought to complain to the news media, we ought to complain to the people in the world about what's taking place. But what Jesus was telling us is, this is more the norm than the exception. All around the world and all through history, the greater norm is, you as my followers will be associated with criminal elements. You as my followers will be associated with people that the rest of the world sees as someone who is not worthy of respect. And that's what Jesus was doing. He was hanging on the cross and there were people walking by on this main thoroughfare. It was a time of the Passover. And many people, the Sabbath rule that you couldn't walk a certain distance was sort of negated during the feast days. And so there was heavy traffic walking in and out of Jerusalem. And as people would walk by, they would see someone on the cross hanging there and they would assume that they were guilty of some serious crime. Now, whenever you know that someone is a traitor to the country, and you read in the paper that they have been executed, and you know that they have done something that causes them to be an enemy of the country and they need to be, and they're guilty and are killed, you may not have very much sympathy for them. And you might even say to yourself, they got what they deserved. You may have seen stories of executions of people who did heinous crimes, and you thought to yourself or said to those that are around you, well, they got exactly what they deserved. The people who are walking by Jesus looked at the thieves, the robbers up there, the terrorists up there, we would say, and Jesus was right between them. They asked, what has he done? And they were told that he was an enemy of the Roman government. And so when they walked by and there was an enemy of the Jewish community, he said he had the ability to tear down the temple and to build it up in three days. That was a lie about Jesus. He never really said it. Sometimes the things that people are angry with you about as a follower of Christ are not the result of what you say, but what they think that you think about them. This was the case with Jesus. So they're walking by, they hear the stories, they look up at the cross and they see Jesus and these other two guys, and they shake their heads and say, yeah, you're getting about what you deserve. No sympathy at all. People identified him with the worst of the criminals that they had. What would it have been like? Have you ever had somebody think something bad about you that you knew wasn't true? You want to tell them the truth. You want to make them believe that what they think they've heard and what they think they believe is not right. I'm sure that everything in Jesus, when they came by and were shaking their head and talking about him in this way, he wanted to say, wait a minute, I didn't say those things. I didn't do those things. I'm not here for what you think, but he had not one single thing that he could do to protect himself. Now, here's a word of instruction for us. You are going to find times in your life when people may say things about you because of your spiritual commitment to Christ and because of what you believe, and you may feel like you have a need to make them get straight. Tell them the truth. Prove that they're wrong about you. Jesus here took the other road. He knew that there was not any way he could convince them, and it would only lead to an argument. And if you get in that situation and you try to explain yourself to someone and you find that they just get more and more angry, Jesus' method is proper. Just leave it alone. It is the suffering you have to live through because of your commitment to follow Christ. They said to Jesus, and I'm going to read the last part of this, verse 39, come down from the cross if you are the son of God. Does that sound familiar to you, that phrase? You might remember it from the time when Jesus first began his ministry in Matthew chapter 4. He had just gone out into the wilderness, and he was tempted by Satan when he came back out of the wilderness. And Satan said to him, if you are the son of God, you can turn these stones into bread. In Matthew chapter 4, verse 3, if you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Now you get a picture. Why is this phrase actually used against Jesus when he's hanging on the cross? Because it's the same prompter who is talking to the people who are passing by that was talking to Jesus in the time of his temptation. The same phrase is used. Satan has challenged him again. If you are the son of God, then come down from the cross. What was the risk that Jesus took by being baited by Satan? He knew he was the son of God. He knew he could come down from the cross. But there he was hanging, and the people were saying, if you really were the son of God, you could prove this to me by just coming down from the cross. He knew he was the son of God, and he knew he could do it. Why didn't he? He had something bigger in mind for what he was doing. Our redemption and our salvation depended on the death of Christ on the cross. They didn't even know it, but their own possibility of salvation depended on him refusing to do what they asked him to do. He had to stay on the cross to prove that he was actually the son of God. But what they said to him was, if you come down, then we will know you are the son of God. Satan put him in a position where he had to look the people who said this in the eye and know that what they said he could do. But if he did it, he would have violated everything that he came to do as the son of God. So the only thing he could do is take their accusations, go ahead and complete and fulfill the purpose that God had for him. And so he hangs on the cross, taunted by Satan. Now you can see that all the things that are taking place here, Satan is underneath all of this. He's behind all of this. This gives us another insight into what happens to us. When there are people who make criticisms of us because of what we believe and what we say the scripture teaches, we must remember that it's not those people that are our enemy. Satan is behind all of this. And when we see the people who are critical of Christians or ourselves or even what we believe, we tend to look at the people and find our anger directed toward them. But it isn't that. Behind all of these things, Satan is there trying to do whatever he can to cause us to stop doing the things God wants us to do. So you might get called out because of your beliefs about the morality of the Christian life by people who reject it. And you might get into an argument with someone about this. And you might end up with a debate and some anger between the two of you so that you do something that is really contrary to the nature of God trying to prove that what you believe is true. What Jesus did was he simply reminded himself of why he was there, what his purpose was, and he lived that out. Whenever people confront you and they say negative things about you or they say things that are critical of your own life and your morality because of what you believe, remember, this is Satan attacking you and not the person themselves. They are simply dupes of Satan. They're being used by him. And so the spiritual battle is not between you and that person. The spiritual battle is between you and Satan. And don't be deceived into thinking if you can convince this person of the truth you win because Satan is there. And he is the one propagating all these things. So here we see revealed in Jesus' character crucifixion that the person behind his crucifixion was Satan himself and the person behind all the insults was Satan himself and the person behind all the insults was Satan himself and the person behind all the insults was