Mocking, Reviling, and Blaspheming Jesus, Matthew 27:41-44

In Matthew chapter 27 we are continuing our look at the stages in the crucifixion, and today the focal point is going to be on the mocking, the reviling, and the blasphemy that occurred while Jesus was on the cross during those first three hours when our Lord Jesus Christ is experiencing the wrath of man.

We started off looking at the stages 1 to 5, the procession to Golgotha as our Lord was carrying the crossbeam to the to the site of his execution, then aside Simon of Cyrene carried it most of the way. What we learned there is that even in the midst of that our Lord is demonstrating grace and compassion to, especially the daughters of Jerusalem, as they are mourning Him, and He warns them of what will come, and to mourn instead for themselves and their children in light of what will come in the judgment in AD 70.

Now we are in the first three hours, the wrath of man, and what we learn here is about the anger, the wrath, the hostility, the bitterness, the vindictiveness, and the invective that comes from those who are walking by. This is just a manifestation of the hostility of fallen man to God as he expresses his full hatred and anger for the creator of the universe. As our Lord is mocked, as He is made fun of, as He is ridiculed and reviled, first of all He doesn't open his mouth, He doesn't retaliate, He doesn't say anything; but towards the end of this time we see another marvelous example of His grace and His forgiveness and the application of the gospel.

Just to review quickly what we have looked at since He arrived at the site of the crucifixion, in stage 6 we looked at the crucifixion itself, talked about the kind of cross, and we talked about what was involved in the crucifixion.

n stage 7 we are reminded, because this comes into play at the end of this morning session, that He was crucified between two thieves, and that those thieves weren't actually just robbers, they were involved in the insurrection against Rome. They were probably associates or subordinates to Barabbas, and so there there's more to this than just simple thievery. They had committed a capital crime against Rome and thievery is not a capital crime. So this has the idea that they were insurrectionists more than just the idea of being simple bandits.

In the 8th stage we had the first saying from the cross that again emphasizes God's grace as Jesus prays, "Father forgive them for they do not know what they do." This is a marvelous example to us that no matter how much we may be ridiculed or reviled, no matter how much somebody may offend us—and whether it is an actual offense on a high order or whether it is simply something that we want to take offense over—we are reminded of what Jesus said in the sermon on the mount, that we are to turn the other cheek.

I want to remind you that the turning the other cheek was a metaphor. It wasn't that there was a problem in Israel of people going around slapping people on the cheek. Turning the other cheek when someone slaps you on the cheek was a metaphor for when somebody insults you, and somebody offends you, somebody does something that you could take offense over. What Jesus says is that we are to turn the other cheek. In other words, don't be hypersensitive or even sensitive and use situations where somebody has done something to offend us to justify retaliation or getting back at them, or something other than an example of kindness and graciousness.

We live in a world today when a lot of the younger generation, and older generation as well, have taken hypersensitivity and taking offense to levels probably never experienced before in human history. Everybody seems to get offended at something, but nobody as far as I'm concerned, is really concerned about the fact that someone who believes what I believe is offended. It is political correctness, which is insanity run amok. Jesus teaches us the way we are to handle any sort of ridicule, any a sort of insults, any sort of assault on our character, justified or not: that we are not to retaliate, that we are to turn the other cheek. And this is an example that He gives on the cross. He does not revile. In return He demonstrates grace. He asked for forgiveness, and He announces that this rebel, this insurrectionist, this criminal worthy of death by crucifixion, because he recognizes who Jesus is and believes it, will be with the Lord in paradise that day. What a tremendous example of God's grace!

In the 9th stage a sign is put over Jesus' head that was written by Pilate stating His indictment, that He is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, and that the religious leaders want him to change that but Pilate won't do it. That tells all these passersby that are coming along what the crime is, that He claimed to be the King of the Jews, and they are going to ridicule Him for that.

In the 10th stage, we saw that the Roman soldiers divided His garments and cast lots for His robe.

Then we come to stage 11, which is the fourth mockery. There were three mockeries prior to the cross and there are four mockeries on the cross for a total of seven. This is the fourth mockery. It is revealed in Mark 15:29, 30. The cross is by the road that is coming from the West entering in on the west side of Jerusalem, and those who pass by blasphemed Him.

We will look at these words. There is a matrix of synonyms: blasphemy, reviling, rebuking, mocking; all these different words that are used are closely connected. There are about five different words used by the writers of Scripture, and together they cover all of the bases for the oral slander, ridicule, and assaults on the creator God of the universe. Those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads. That's another just an idiom for mocking somebody.

One of the things I want to point out is a Hebrew idiom. For example, you go back to Genesis 1:26, 27 and we read the statement, "God blessed them and said …" Okay, you read that as if He did two things, but what this means in Hebrew is God blesses, and this is what the blessing said. We have the same kind of thing here. They blasphemed Him and this is what they said in their blasphemy. So it's not two things—blasphemy, and then saying something. The statement of what is said is the content of the blasphemy. "You would destroy the temple and build it in three days…" That's a reference to the first Passover. Jesus was in Jerusalem (described in John 2:19) when He made the statement, "If you destroy this temple I will rebuild it in three days". John tells us He was talking about the temple of His body, not the Herodian rebuilt temple that was before them. They are saying, "You claim to be able to rebuild the temple in three days. Save yourself and come down from the cross."

Anybody notice the irony here? In three days He's going to come out of the grave. He is not to take Himself down from the cross, but He is going to have victory over death in three days.

So this is the fourth mockery. There are seven mockings of Jesus. Mark 9:12 gives a prediction of this. Jesus says, "How is it written concerning the Son of Man that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt …" The Greek word here is EXOUDENOO, and it means to treat with contempt to scorn, to despise, to mock to sneer. There's a translation in Luke which is a different verb used for sneering, making fun of turning up the nose or curling one's lip. Those are the synonyms that are listed for what it means to scorn and to mock. This gives us the idea of what is happening: the disdain that these people feel for Jesus, the anger, and the hatred. They have rejected Him and are just yelling and screaming everything they can at Him to express their bile towards Him. This expresses their anger and their resentment.

This is the human heart in its fallen state, corrupt, deceitful and wicked above all things, expressing its rejection of God and His grace. He is treated with contempt.

Another word that is used is used by Jesus in Matthew 20:18, 19 before He enters Jerusalem. He predicts what will take place. He says, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes …" Remember, the scribes were mostly Pharisees, the chief priests were Sadducees, so He's including both Sadducees and Pharisees in this statement. "… betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to discourage and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again." This is a different Greek word EMPAIZO. It means to mock, it means to deride, insult, laugh at, to make a monkey out of someone, taunt them, tease them, and ridicule them. So you get a good idea of the sense of these words.

In Luke 18:32 Jesus says, "For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon". This is the Greek word HUBRIZO. Wet our English word 'hubris' from this, which relates to arrogance and pride. It means to act arrogantly, to arrogantly mistreat someone or to arrogantly insult someone. So by using these synonyms, we get a full picture of the hate that is spewed forth toward our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

It has happened three times before. It happened at the second trial, the trial before Caiaphas. Remember first round you went before Annas, the former high priest, the father-in-law of Caiaphas. The second trial is as much more involved. He goes to Caiaphas, and at the end of that He is accused of blasphemy. And were told in Luke 22:63, "… the men who held Jesus mocked Him and beat Him, and having blindfolded Him they struck Him, saying, prophesy who is the one who struck you."

Luke 22:63-65 ^NASB Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking Him and beating Him, and they blindfolded Him and were asking Him, saying, “Prophesy, who is the one who hit You?” And they were saying many other things against Him, blaspheming. This word blasphemy—BLASPHEMEO is the verb— means to verbally abuse someone, to revile them, to defame them, but the word focuses on doing these things towards God, and to taking God lightly, to abusing God. And so they are blaspheming Him with these various statements.

The second mocking is in the trial that occurs fifth. This is the trial before Herod Antipas and it ends with the second mocking. He had gone to Pilate who found out He was a Galilean so he sent Him over to Herod, Antipas who was the king of Galilee so that he could pass the buck and let Herod take care of it. Herod is going to send Him back to Pilate, but in the meantime after they have received the accusations from the chief priests, Sadducees, scribes and Pharisees, then Herod with his men of war treated Him with contempt and mocked Him. They arrayed him in a gorgeous robe and sent Him back Pilate. This is the second of the mockings.

The third is in the second trial by Pilate. This is the first trial by Pilate than the trial by Herod and to put us in and at the end were told the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him. They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. Then they twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. They bowed down about the knee mocking Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews". They are mocking and ridiculing Him for having made this claim that He was the King of the Jews. In this third mockery they have completely rejected any of these claims of Jesus, to who He is, and they are now just making fun of Him before they send Him to be crucified.

This is paralleled in Matthew 27:30, 31, as well as in Mark 15:16-19. Those are all the parallel passages and they describe the same event, an event that according to John follows the release of Barabbas and is just prior to His being sent out to the cross. In all three of those events the crown of thorns is placed on His head and the robe is placed on Him.

Now we come to the four mockings of Jesus on the cross. The 11th stage on the cross is the fourth mocking, when He is mocked by the passersby.

Matthew 27:39 And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads [40] and saying, “You who {are going to} destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”

"If you are the Son of God". The "if" here is a first class condition. They don't believe it. The first class condition can mean "if, and it's true", but it also was used in debates for the sense of "if and we can assume it's true for the sake of argument," or "if and we can assume it's true because that's what you claim to be true", and that's what the idea here is. It is, if you are who you claim to be, and assuming it's true, then you ought to be able to do this; you'd be omnipotent. You should be able to come down from the cross, so come down from the cross.

This is their blasphemy, because they are treating His deity lightly and irreverently. "If you claim to be the Messiah, come on down from the cross".

Mark 15:29, 30 ^NASB Those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads, and saying, “Ha! You who {are} {going to} destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!”

Once you notice as we go through these four that there is a theme. Each of these groups is basically saying the same thing: if you're who you say you are, save yourself, give us a sign. Read what Paul will say later on "the Jews seek for a sign". Well they have the sign, and that is the sign of Jonah. But they will reject that, and that is when He is resurrected, raised from the dead. This is the fourth mockery.

The fifth mockery is in Mark 15:31 In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes, were mocking {Him} among themselves and saying, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. [32] Let {this} Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!” Those who were crucified with Him were also insulting Him." They were expressing their scorn for Jesus.

They go on to say: Matthew 27:43 “HE TRUSTS IN GOD; LET GOD RESCUE {Him} now, IF HE DELIGHTS IN HIM; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” This is a reference to Psalm 22:8, “Commit {yourself} to the LORD; let Him deliver him; Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.” So in Matthew 27:43 we see again another fulfillment of prophecy: that He would be ridiculed, He would be blasphemed, and they would make these claims about Him.

Luke 23:35 And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.”

Luke 23:35 doesn't break down the groups of the rulers, he just says, even the rulers with them sneered. This is again another word describing this kind of blasphemy and reproach. It's the word EKMUKTERIZO, which means to deride, to ridicule, to sneer, to show contempt. The NET Bible, which I don't recommend because it has a lot of flaws, but in some things it does point out some good things, says that it's a it is the extension of the idiom to turn one's nose up at someone. So they are superior, they are arrogant; they put themselves above God.

In the 13th stage there is another mocking, the sixth of seven mockings. This is when the soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering sour wine. This sour wine was given as a way of slaking the thirst. It was very bitter and it would just dull that that desire for thirst and that way they could continue the torture, and they mocked him by offering him sour wine. He is thirsty, they are giving Him this wine just to increase the difficulty.

What we see as we as we summarize all of these different markings is that they are at the root, rejecting God; they are rejecting God's grace. We see that human viewpoint completely rejects truth. It sees it as something that is insane. It sees it as something that is completely apart from their concept of a reality that is based on truth suppression. And if we look at the world around us we can see this in just about every realm of life. We can see it in the arts, we can see it in business; we can see it in our political leaders, left and right. We can see in corporate America that there is this continued and increasing attempt to redefine reality on its own terms. That's Romans 1:18-20, the suppression of truth and righteousness. And what happens when you become a truth suppressor is that you necessarily become a liar, a deceiver, and you can't even tell the truth anymore. This is why it's becoming so difficult in America and in Western European culture to be able to do business because business is grounded upon honesty and truth. And when you have a culture that is based on truth suppression it destroys all manner of integrity, while people are screaming that they have integrity.

Paul in that discussion in Romans 1:18 to 20 says, "professing to be wise, they became fools". We might paraphrase that professing to have integrity, they became deceivers. We see that over and over again.

The only thing that can give us insight is a truth of God's Word as you take in the Word of God, as you study it, as you meditate on it as it reflects this. This is what Proverbs is all about, what the writer of Proverbs is talking about: building wisdom and understanding discernment. And that only comes from the Word of God. Only when you have a soul that is strengthened by truth more and more, day by day, and God is building a grid in your soul so that you can spot fraud, so that you can avoid deception. But if you're not spending that time in the Word then that will happen. And I'm not just talking about listening to somebody on the radio or on the Internet, or listening to me teach the word—that's important—but letting the Word itself just be in your in your head, reading it, memorizing it, reflecting upon it. You get enough corrected translation and most English translations are pretty decent that you can do pretty well just by reading the word to get the basics out of it. But it's the Word of God that David says he hid in his heart that he might not sin against the Lord. The heart there refers to his mind. He hides it in his mind by reading it, learning it, memorizing it, reflecting upon it.

Just the opposite is what we see in the world, and the world is demonstrated here by these four group. Just the everyday citizen who has no interest whatsoever in spiritual things comes by, and he is mocking. The religious leaders are mocking, the representatives of the Roman government, are mocking and ridiculing Him.

And then were going to come to the last one, the criminals that Jesus is being crucified in the midst of. Matthew 27:44 is the 14th stage in the crucifixion: "The robbers who had been crucified with Him were also insulting [reviling} Him with the same words".

This is a different word for reviling, the word ANEIDIZO, which means to reproach, to revile, the same patterns that we've seen before, to make fun of, to ridicule, to deride. According to one of the other gospel writers both of them are doing this. But like with Simon of Cyrene, we speculate a little bit there, because it seems like one of his sons later is part of the church in Rome, as he observed our Lord's response to all this, ridicule, and everything, that that unlike other crucified victims He's not screaming out, He is not asserting His innocence, He's not calling for people to put Him out of his misery; all the different things that were typical of a crucifixion are not typical of Jesus. And this one criminal is watching and he sees something different. He sees that this man is truly innocent. It's not just that He's not guilty; He is truly innocent in a legal sense, He is righteous, and so he is going to stop with his ridicule and change.

Now this word that we see here, ANEIDIZO, is picked up later on by Peter. Peter is dealing with a demographic of Jewish background believers in north central Turkey who are being rejected, reviled, persecuted in different ways by those in the Gentile community and those in the Jewish community. And the pattern that Peter gives them constantly throughout first Peter is to look at Jesus. He is unjustly reviled; He is unjustly crucified; He suffers on our behalf, and that is the pattern for us: that whenever you think somebody has made a false accusation of you, somebody has said something bad about you—gossip, slander, whatever it is—turn the other cheek. And this is what exactly what Peter says in 1 Peter 4:14, "If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you."

If you do what is right brings glory and suffer for it brings glory to God, is what he says in other places. Jesus Christ was reproached in ways we can never imagine.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my name's sake."

What you to do? Get back at them, cut them off, don't ever talk to them again? Is that what it says? No, it says rejoice.

We are to be happy, have joy, stability, and contentment in our soul. The more they ridiculing, revile you, the more content and relaxed and joyful you should be. "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you".

And back to first Peter 2:23, "and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting {Himself} to Him who judges righteously". No retaliation whatsoever, that's not to characterize the believer.

1 Peter 3:16 "and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame". This is following from first Peter 3:15, which is to give an answer for the hope that is in you that those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be a shame again and again. Christ is our example we are to be Christ like.

And as a result of this ridicule from the two criminals we see grace. That's the seventh of the mockeries but I will go on to stage 15, which tells us about the conversion of one of these rebels, one of these malefactors that Jesus demonstrates grace once again under the most extreme of human circumstances. In His humanity He is suffering physically, mentally, emotionally; all of that pressures brought to bear. Yet He has a completely relaxed mental attitude and responds to His tormentors, and even to this criminal who has just been reviling Him, with grace.

Luke 23:39 One of the criminals who were hanged {there} was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” [40] But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?"

What we see there is he recognizes that Jesus is God, and that he should fear God because they are under the same condemnation, Jesus the Son of God is under.

Luke 23:41 “And we indeed {are suffering} justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”

We should be on this cross being crucified, but this Man has done nothing wrong. Another assertion of innocence, that He has done nothing wrong. Not, well, He did a few bad things, but he didn't do anything deserving crucifixion. He says he has done nothing wrong and then he turns to Jesus and he says, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom".

Now he doesn't say, Lord I believe you're dying for my sins right now, but what the Scripture says is that we are to believe Jesus died for our sins right now. At that point Jesus died, he paid the penalty because he has believed this. He can say this because what this statement reflects is he recognizes that there is a kingdom, a literal historical yet future kingdom that Jesus is going to establish. He says "your kingdom", which means he recognizes that Jesus is exactly what that sign claims, that He is the king of the Jews. He can't make that statement unless he has done what Matthew has reiterated again and again: Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He has responded positively to the gospel of the kingdom as it's put in Matthew 24.

The gospel of the kingdom isn't simply believing that Jesus will pay the penalty for my sins or that the promised Messiah will pay the penalty for my sins, but it adds a different element because in that period of time the message wasn't simply to the Jew, it wasn't simply believe on the Messiah, but to believe and accept the king and the kingdom—Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And so it's more than just salvation, it had to do with fulfilling God's promises and prophecies related to all the covenants in the Old Testament. That which would save a Jew at that time was still the same as what would save a Jew or Gentile today, and that is believing the Messiah would pay the penalty for sins, but there was something else being offered, something that was separate from but offered with the gospel for salvation, and that was the gospel of the kingdom, and he obviously understood that.

The other thing we need to observe here is that there are those who advocate a position called Lordship salvation, who say that the person who has treatment truly believed—they always put some sort of adverb in front of believe, which the Bible doesn't do— will have works in keeping with their faith. This guy had no time for nothing! He believed Jesus was the King who would bring in the kingdom, and then he died. He didn't have time to do good deeds because that's not part of the gospel. That may or may not result from your spiritual growth. So he says, "Lord, remember me when you come in your kingdom and Jesus replied assuredly, "I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise". Paradise was where Old Testament saints went after they died. They didn't go to heaven because Jesus had not yet paid the penalty on the cross, so they would go to Paradise. And we are told that after the death of Christ He would go to make a victorious proclamation to the Angels who were in Sheol at this time paradise was part of shoulder place with the dead went, and then after making Victoria's proclamation to the fallen angels that were incarcerated there. He would then transfer Paradise to heaven, so that in first Corinthians 12 when Paul goes to Paradise it is in heaven at that time, and that's where Paradise is today.

So Jesus affirms that this criminal who's guilty of some of the most vile sins we could imagine has received forgiveness for his sins because he recognized who Jesus was, the Son of God, and he believed in His name, which is what John 3:18 says, "He who has believed on him is not condemned, but he who believes not is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. He is condemned for not believing. This thief on the cross believed. That's grace, not something we do. It's trusting in Jesus alone for our salvation.

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