Matthew 27:32-38 Place of a Skull

“This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”  The sign over Jesus’ head at His crucifixion, Matthew 27:37

Rembrandt's Raising of the Cross, 1633

For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet—I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.  (Psalm 22:16-18)

He Himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.   By his wounds you have been healed.  (1 Peter 2:24). 

The Jewish carpenter from Galilee has suffered ridicule, injustice, and abuse.  His disciples have abandoned him.  He has survived a torture so intense that it usually kills its victims.  It is no wonder he can barely walk.  Therefore the soldiers, as they went out from the governor’s headquarters, found a man of Cyrene, a city along the northern coast of Africa.   Simon was his name (v. 32). Even though Simon lived in Africa, he had a very Jewish name. And Acts 2:10 and 6:9 speak of the Jews from Cyrene. He was most likely one of the Jews that lived abroad and had traveled back to Jerusalem to participate in the Passover. They compelled this man to carry his cross (v. 32). 

Mark’s gospel names Simon’s two sons, Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15:21).  Was it because Alexander and Rufus were known to the church of Mark’s day?   Is this the same Rufus that Paul greets in Romans 16:13?  Is it the same Alexander of Acts 19:33?  We don’t know.  But interestingly, there is a possibility Simon’s sons were known in the early church. 

And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, (v. 34).  Certainly this is a fulfillment of Psalm 69:21.  Mark 15:23 mentions that the wine was mixed with myrrh, which was used to prepare a body for burial (John 19:39).   Luke 23:36 seems to imply that the offering of the wine was not an act of pity but another mocking gesture.  

A possible location in Jerusalem for the "Place of a Skull".  One  can see the image of a skull in the rocks here.  Today this hill hosts a bus station.  

Regardless of motive, when Jesus tasted it, he would not drink it, (v. 34).  Our Lord, who willingly drank from the cup of the wrath of God (26:42) would not drink from the cup that would lessen the pain of God’s wrath.   As Charles Ryrie says in his study Bible, “Jesus refused [the wine], preferring to meet His death with all His faculties unimpaired.” 

Matthew, like the other gospel writers, offers no details, no gory word pictures, no cries of agony, of the moment of crucifixion, other than the stripped down words, they crucified him (v. 35).  Like flogging, crucifixion was a common punishment used by the Roman authorities; the gospel writers needed to remind no one of the excruciating details.   The soldiers divided his garments among them by casting lots (v. 35) and thus fulfilled David’s prophecy of Psalm 22:18.

Maybe the disciples would try one last heroic effort to rescue Jesus, the authorities may have thought.  After all, violence broke out when they arrested Jesus (see 26:51).  Therefore the soldiers sat down and kept watch over him there (v. 36).  As Jesus lost blood and was slowly suffocating, the chief priests and Pilate were arguing about wording on the sign over his head where they put the charge against him, (v. 37).  John 19:19-22 gives the details of the argument while Matthew provides only the final decision: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews,” (v. 37).

Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left, (v. 38).  Jesus likely took the place of the robbers’ co-conspirator, Barabbas, both literally and redemptively.  He took our place literally and redemptively.

“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit,” (Romans 8:3-4).   He has done what the best of our good works could not do.   He has reconciled us to God.   He did not die in a peaceful drug-induced sleep.  He took evil head on; He suffered and died for our sins so that we may be redeemed to our God.   What an awesome Savior!