Lived-out Parables of Jesus
Part 6
(Matthew 27:32-40)
By Jonathan Mitchell
32. Now while proceeding out, they came across a Cyrenian man - named Simon - [and] they pressed (conscripted; = forced) this person into service to the end that he would lift up and carry His execution stake (cross).
What does this signify, in the Parable that He was living-out? Mark adds the details that this Simon was,
"the father of Alexander and Rufus - on his way coming from a FIELD (or: [the] countryside) is continuing passing on by" (Mk. 15:21).
Lu. 23:26 adds the phrase,
"to continue carrying [it] behind Jesus."
Does this suggest a picture of Jesus leading humanity
(Mat. 13:38, "the field is the world, the aggregate of humanity")
with Him, unto its death (2 Cor. 5:14)?
Was this a symbol of our participation and inclusion in the Christ Event (Rom. 6:3-7)?
While on His way to the place of execution, Lu. 23 adds this information:
27. Now there continued following Him a huge multitude of the people - including women who, in their mourning, kept on striking their chests in lamentation, expressing grief, and were continuously wailing and singing funeral songs [for] Him.
28. Yet, being turned toward them, Jesus said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not continue crying for Me (or: stop weeping on and over My [account])! Much more be constantly weeping for yourselves and for your children (or: on your own [account] and over your children's [situation]),
29. "because - look and consider! - days are progressively coming in which they will proceed declaring, 'Happy [are] the sterile and barren women, and the wombs which do not give birth, and breasts which do not nourish!'
30. "At that time,'They will begin saying to the mountains, "Fall at once upon us!" and to the mounds (or: hills), "At once veil (cover; = hide) us!"' [note: quoting Hos. 10:8, referring to Israel's "high places" of idolatry]
31. "because if they continue doing these things in the wet wood (or: when the tree is green and moist - full of sap), what would happen (or: may occur; or: can be birthed) in the dried and withered one?" [comment: a reference to Judea and Jerusalem, in AD 66-70]
The Gospel of Thomas, Logion 79, offers a witness to the eschatological prediction of Lu. 23:28-29: "A woman in the crowd said to him,
'Blessed are the womb that bore you and the breasts that nourished you!'
He said to [her], 'Blessed are those who have heard the father's utterance (or: Word) and truly kept it! For days are coming when you [folks] will say, "Blessed are the womb that has not conceived and the breasts that have not given milk!"'" (Layton, ibid; early christianwritings.com)
The woman used a woman's womb and breasts as a parable to say that Mary, Jesus' mother, was blessed because of Who she had produced and nurtured. Jesus takes this parable and turns it into a prophecy predicting woe to that generation. It either meant that their escape from Jerusalem would be easier if they had no children to worry about, or that the destruction would be so bad that the women who had no children would be glad that they didn't - that the immediately following generation (their children) would not have to experience Jerusalem's fall, along with the results of its destruction, or would not have to see their children die, or starve, during the siege by Rome.
33. And so, upon coming into [the] place normally being called "Golgotha," which is [also] often called a (or: [the]) "Place of a Skull" [note: = a mound shaped like a skull; = "Skull Mound"],
A skull speaks of the death of the Head. This is where the Head of humanity and the Head of Israel died, and where He died AS humanity, and AS Israel. God had followed Adam and his family outside of the Garden, and continued with them in their history of exile, even to the point of death. God became the skull of Israel, in a valley of dry bones (Ezk. 37) so that He could raise Israel, and with them, all of Adam (1 Cor. 15:22-23), back into the Garden - Lu. 23:43,
"Today (This very day) you will continue being (or: keep on existing) with Me... within the midst of (or: centered in; in the sphere of; in union with) Paradise (= in the Garden [note: used in the LXX for the Garden of Eden in Gen. 2:8])!"
Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega; the Beginning and the End of all humanity. He is the Last Adam, and we might say that the "last Eve" (the mother of all living - Gen. 3:20)) can be seen in His Bride, the Called-out Body of Christ,
"the Jerusalem above, [who] is free, [and] who is our mother" (Gal. 4:26).
34. they gave to Him wine (other MSS: vinegar, or, sharp wine vinegar) having been blended with bile (fluid of the gall bladder) to drink. And yet, upon tasting [it], He was not willing to drink [it].
Here, again, we turn to Ps. 69:
21. They give [Me] poison in my food, and for My thirst, they cause me to drink vinegar.
The Gospel of John, chapter 19, gives these details of this occasion:
28. After this, Jesus, having seen and knowing (being aware) that already He (or: it) has been brought to the purposed goal, His (or: its) destiny - and now remains completed, finished and perfected [for; as] all humanity (or: [in] all things) - in order that the Scripture could be finished (would be at once ended; should be brought to its purposed and destined goal and perfected), He now says, "I am thirsty."
29. Now a vessel (container) full of cheap sour wine (a common, inexpensive vinegary wine, with a sharp flavor, that was a popular thirst-quenching drink) was lying [close by]. Therefore, putting a sponge, full of the vinegary wine, around a hyssop stalk [one MS reads: javelin], they brought it to His mouth. [cf Ps. 22:15; 69:21]
30. Then, when Jesus received the cheap sour wine, He said, "It has been finished (or: It has been brought to its goal and end), and now stands complete (having been accomplished, perfected, ended and now is at its destiny)!" - and so, bowing [His] head, He transferred the Spirit (or: committed [His] spirit and life-force; or: gave over and surrendered to the side the Breath-effect). [cf Lu. 13:32]
35. Now, after attaching Him to the execution stake (hanging Him on a pole), they divided His outer garments among themselves by repeatedly casting a lot (= throwing dice), [other MSS add: so that the word being spoken through the prophet would (or: could) be fulfilled: "They fully parted and divided My garments among themselves, and they cast a lot for My clothing."]
What the "other MSS" add is a quote of Ps. 22:18. This same quote is found in Jn. 19:24b, so we can see that there was an early tradition connecting this Psalm to the actions of the Roman soldiers. The effects upon the body from being hung on a pole, or cross, have been related to Ps. 22:16-17,
"Because many dogs have encompassed Me, an assembly of wicked men have beset me - have pierced my hands and my feet - have counted all my bones, and have stared and looked at me" (The Septuagint Bible, Charles Thomson, 1808).
36. And so, while continuing sitting, they kept on guarding and keeping watch over Him there.
37. They also posted above His head the written legal charge against (or: pertaining to) Him:THIS IS JESUS - THE KING OF (or: FROM AMONG) THE JUDEANS
Jn. 19:20-22 adds this information:
"Therefore many of the Jews (or: Judeans) read this notice (title), because the place where Jesus was crucified (hung on or suspended from a pole) was near the city, and that which stood written was in Hebrew, Latin (the Roman language) [and] in Greek (or: the Hellenist language). Then the chief priests of the Jews (Judeans) began and persisted in saying to Pilate, 'Do not be writing "The King of the Judeans," but rather, "That one said, 'I am King of the Judeans.'"" Pilate considered and replied, 'What I have written, I have written!'"
Now either Pilate had written this to insult the Judean leadership - meaning, "He is your king, and I have just crucified him," or, he may have been intimating that even though these Judeans wanted him killed, nonetheless, his is still their king, or, perhaps he was according Jesus the title that he, himself, felt was really due to Jesus. The ambiguity is intriguing. He also may simply have meant that the decision that he had made was not to be questioned by them.
38. At that time two rebels (or: robbers; social bandits; outlaws; highwaymen; insurrectionists; cf Lu. 23:32) were in the process of being suspended and put to death on a stake (were being progressively crucified) together with Him - one on [His] right and one on [His] left.
Jesus had been exalted by the presence of God, on the Mount of Transfiguration, and there He was flanked by two witnesses (Moses and Elijah) from that realm of Spirit. But now is the nadir of His humiliation, and he is flanked by two witnesses that represent the predicament of humanity. This fulfilled the great prophecy of Isa. 53:12b,
"Inasmuch as He empties out His soul to death, and with transgressors [LXX: the lawless folks] is He counted (or: reckoned; LXX: laid out and considered), He Himself bears the sin [LXX: failures and mistakes] of [the] many, and now He will make intercession (or: will interpose) for transgressors [LXX reads: and He was transferred (committed; given to [their] side) because of their acts of lawlessness]."
The act of crucifixion (vs. 35, above) - a "lifting up" - was a literal fulfillment of Jn. 12:31-33,
(or: At this time the Chief of this world of culture, religion and government, the Originator and Controlling Principle of this cosmos and ordered arrangement of the universe, will proceed in being thrown out, [to the] outside [of it]).
And thus I Myself: if (when) I should be lifted up from out of the earth (or: can be exalted from the midst of this Land), I will progressively (or: one after another) drag [note: drag as with, or in, a net; or: draw, as drawing water with a bucket; a sword from a sheath] all humans (or: everyone) to Myself.' Now He was saying this continuing to indicate, by a sign, by (or: with; in) what sort of death He was progressively being about to be proceeding to die"
There is a significant detail given in Matthew's description of this scene:
"one on [His] right and one on [His] left."
Do you recall the request that the mother of Jacob and John made to Jesus, concerning her two sons? It was in 20:21, above:
"Say that these - my two sons - can (or: should; would) sit, one at Your right (the place of power and authority) and one on Your left (the place of honor with a good name), within the reign of Your kingdom."
So Jesus asked these two if they could drink the cup that He would be drinking... Well, Jesus was now drinking this cup.
39. Now as people are continuing passing by, they kept on speaking abusively, hurling insults at Him, "while repeatedly shaking (or: wagging) their heads," [an acted-out fulfillment of Ps. 22:7]
40. and one after another saying, "You, the person in process of dismantling (demolishing; loosing-down) the inner sanctuary of the Temple (the holy place and the holy of holies) and then proceeding in building the House within three days, save yourself now! - since (or: if) you are God's son (or: a son of, or from, God), descend from the stake (or: climb down off the cross; come down off this pole that is used to suspend corpses)!"
Their reference, in the first taunt, was to what Jesus had said, in Jn. 2:19,
"Jesus considered then responds to them, and says, 'Loosen (or: Undo, and thus, destroy or demolish) this Sanctuary (Shrine; Divine Habitation; = the Temple consisting of the holy place and the holy of holies), and within three days I will proceed to be raising it up.'"
However, John explained (Jn. 2:21) that
"He had been laying [things] out concerning, and speaking about, the Sanctuary which is His body."
Now, were these passers-by referring to a literal interpretation of His words, or, did they understand His metaphorical meaning, and thus, relate it to his current predicament? And further, in the second part of their taunt, how were they using the phrase, "God's son' - ontologically, or, metaphorically (as it had applied to both Israel and then David)?
By their suggestion of the miraculous (descend from the stake) it would seem that they had in their minds the former - that He was supposedly God incarnate, or at least One from the realm of Spirit. But God had other plans...
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