Jesus is given help to carry the cross by Simon of Cyrene (v21). Simon’s sons are mentioned as they must have become well known to the church and the first readers of this gospel (see Romans 16 v13). Was it their father’s testimony about this sad journey that spoke to them? Were they even there to see Jesus?

Jesus is offered wine and myrrh to ease the pain but He refuses (v23). The Old Testament law forbade a priest on duty to take wine. Jesus is the great High Priest as He offers Himself wanted to have a perfectly clear mind. Above the crucified person was written a list of their crimes but above Jesus all that it said was ‘the King of the Jews’ (v26). An innocent man was dying for the guilty. The soldiers gambled for His clothes indifferent to His suffering (v24).

Why was Jesus, an innocent man being condemned with the guilty (v27-28)? Some said ‘save yourself and come down from the cross’ (v30), and others said ‘He saved others, He cannot save Himself’ (v31). Jesus could not be saved from the cross and still save His people from their guilt and sin. After being on the cross for three torturous hours (v25 & 33), things become even more bleak at the sixth hour as an eerie darkness descends on the land. Jesus cries out in words (v34) prophesied centuries earlier in Psalm 24, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

The veil, which blocked people from entering the Holy of Holies, the place of God’s special presence, was being ripped apart (v38). This showed that by what Jesus endured for sinners, they can now come to God. The loud cry (v37) with which Jesus died was a cry of victory “It is finished.” He had done it; He had succeeded in achieving salvation for His people. Let us bow and marvel with the centurion (v39).