(with apologies to Hugo McCord)
1 Pet. 2:23 says of Jesus; when He was reviled, He reviled not again: when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judges righteously. Now consider the circumstances: we pat ourselves on the back when we manage to hold our tongue when we get cut off whilst driving, but Jesus? He hadn’t slept for a day, has a crown of thorns on His pounding head, deep lacerations on His back, nails through hands and feet, noisy railings in His ears, and yet He did not respond with ugly words but rather prayed, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
It was this kind of behaviour that changed hearts on the crucifixion day. Either side of Jesus two thieves were crucified. They began their suffering offering Jesus the same kind of abuse as the crowd (Matt.27:44). But one of them noticed that Jesus did not respond in like manner, as one would have expected. His heart was touched by Jesus’ demeanour and then he rebuked his fellow thief (Lk.23:40,41).
This thief had apparently heard Jesus preach about His Kingdom, but had paid little attention to it. Perhaps he had even gone out to the Jordan to be baptised of John and heard him preach, Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matt.3:2). Perhaps he noticed the sign over the head of Jesus; Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews; and this had triggered other memories of times not so long ago when he had not acted upon what he had heard but had drifted into crime and was now being executed for his sin. Terror and regret can resurrect sober awareness even in the worst of men. So he begs the Lord, Remember me when you come into your kingdom. Apparently he did not see the death of Jesus as something that would prevent His taking the kingdom – perhaps he was the only person who had this view on that day!
Jesus, knowing this was a sincere request, granted him forgiveness, not only of his robbing and railing, but of all his sins (Lk. 23:43). Jesus had authority to forgive sin whilst on earth (Mark. 2:10) at His own discretion. He forgave the sins of a paralysed man carried on a stretcher and let down through the roof in front of Him; he forgave the sins of a woman who washed His feet with her tears; He forgave the sins of a chief tax-gatherer who climbed a sycamore tree to see Him and who had Him for lunch.
These examples during the ministry of Jesus show us the graciousness of Christ, but they do not constitute grounds for us to disobey the terms for forgiveness Jesus has placed in His New Testament which came into force after His death. If Jesus ever takes you by the hand and raises you off a bed of paralysis and says, Your sins are forgiven”, believe Him. If you wash His feet with your tears and dry them with your hair and He forgives your sins, believe Him. If He invites Himself to lunch at your house and grants you salvation, believe Him. But if those things don’t happen (and they won’t because He has been received into Heaven till Judgement Day), then we must obey what instructions He has left in the Great Commission.
A Roman Centurion was also deeply affected on the crucifixion day. He had been assigned the task of crucifying three men. It is possible that he knew nothing about any of the three. They were just a “job number”. Who knows how many other execution parties he had been in charge of. This was just “another day at the office”. Centurions were regarded as the backbone of the Roman legions – tough, experienced and obedient. Whether this was a part of the job that he hated, or that bored him, we do not know, but sometime during that day the man in the middle began to make him curious. He heard Him pray (Lk.23:34,46). He observed the noonday darkness and the earthquake and realised these things were connected with the man in the middle (just as the Philippian jailer made the connection between the earthquake and the two prisoners, Paul and Silas). He came to the conclusion that the man in the middle was righteous (Lk. 23:47). By the end, when he “stood opposite Jesus and saw how He died”, the Centurion exclaimed, “Truly this man was a son of God”(Mk. 15:39). It is too much to say that the Centurion confessed Jesus as THE Son of God (inserting ‘the’ and capitalising ‘son’), but the Roman Centurion had learned during the crucifixion that Jesus was no ordinary man, but rather One who had a connection with Deity, and he was prepared to confess so.
Someone else was deeply affected that day by his contact with the crucifixion of the Lord. A certain Simon of Cyrene was there that day. Cyrene (now called Tripoli) was a large city in Libya, some 1300 kilometres from Jerusalem. Many Jews had settled there and Simon had probably come to Jerusalem for the Passover. Whether he could be said to have been in the right place at the wrong time or at the wrong place at the right time or the wrong place at the wrong time, he happened to be on the street where Jesus was struggling along with a large wooden beam heading for Golgotha (Jn.19:17). He was said “to be coming in from the country” (Mk.15:21). Perhaps he had arrived late for Passover, or maybe he had been out of town temporarily to see friends. Whatever, he was conscripted to carry the cross of Jesus.
Simon of Cyrene bore
The cross of Jesus – nothing more
His name is never heard again
Nor honoured by historic pen;
Nor on the pedestal; of fame
His image courts the loud acclaim;
Simon of Cyrene bore
The cross of Jesus – nothing more
And yet, when all our work on earth is done
And golden beams the western sun
Upon a life of wealth and fame
A thousand echoes ring our name
Perhaps our hearts will humbly pray
Good Master, let my record say
Upon the page divine, “He bore
The cross of Jesus, nothing more”. Anon
These are fine sentiments by the poet, but he didn’t quite get it right. Simon’s name was indeed heard again and honoured by historic pen in a round-about way. When Mark wrote the story of the crucifixion day he added for his readers the fact that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus. Why mention these men if they weren’t known to the readers? Rufus is also mentioned in Rom. 16:13 as is his mother. Paul pays her a great compliment by calling her his mother also. This was Simon’s wife, now most probably a widow. What happened?
The text doesn’t tell us, but it is not hard to see how that Simon, having carried the cross to the crucifixion site, tarried to see the proceedings. It would be quite something to carry a large beam knowing that the exhausted man who could not longer lift it was going to die on it. Could you just dump it like a sack of groceries, turn your back, and take off? Criminal or not there would be a sense of obligation and respect for the one you served in this way. What thoughts and emotions must have possessed him. Who is this man? What did he do? I was just minding my business; how come I’m in this position?
Like the Centurion he was deeply impressed by the things that happened at Golgotha and it seems that he became a Christian, as did his wife and sons. It is a beautiful thought that the man who was forced to carry the cross of Jesus also practised what Jesus preached (Matt.16:24). Moreover he was able to say what Joshua said many years earlier (Josh. 24:15).
In addition to changes in heart in a penitent thief, a Roman soldier, and an unwilling cross-bearer, two high court judges were also affected.
One was Joseph of Arimathaea (a city in Judah), a “good and righteous man”, as well as a respected attorney and judge (Matt.27:57; Mk.15:53; Luke 23:50). He had become a disciple of Jesus and was expecting the Kingdom of God (Mk. 15:43; Jn. 19:38). At Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin he did not vote to condemn Jesus but cowardly stayed silent (Lk. 23:51; Jn 19:38). He was like those spoken of in John 12:42,43, and perhaps was one of those referred to in that passage. How he must have grieved during the crucifixion! Gradually he developed more courage and eventually went more boldly to the Roman Governor, Pilate, to ask for Jesus’ body (Mk. 15:43).
He was joined by another secret disciple from the High Court, Nicodemus by name. This is the man who had approached Jesus secretly by night in John 3. On one occasion he stood up for Jesus on a point of law (John 7:50-52), but he did not openly state he was His disciple. These two men brought fine linen clothes and about 100 litres of expensive embalming perfume, myrrh and aloes (John 19:39). After wrapping Jesus’ body they placed it in Joseph’s new tomb which had been hewn out of a rock (Matt. 27:60). Some 800 years before that event, Isaiah had prophesied that the Lord would be “with a rich man in his death” (Isa. 53:9; Matt.17:57).
Finally, the crucifixion day also brought about a change in heart in the Lord’s half-brothers. James, Joseph, Simon and Jude had been openly disdainful of His work (John 7:4,5). On the day of Jesus’ death not one of them stood by their mother, Mary, as she wept by the cross. This was a terrible day for Mary predicted some 33 years earlier by the old prophet, Simon (Luke 2:35) -”a sword shall pierce your heart”.
Did Jesus look for His brothers? I would suggest so, but finding none He turns to a non-family member to take care of His mother (John 19:25). But something happened for the next time we read of Jesus’ brothers they are disciples of Jesus. They are with their mother in the upper room in Jerusalem (Acts 1:12-14). Perhaps they were part of the 3000 baptised on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41). They became faithful and active followers of Christ, being mentioned alongside the twelve apostles (1 Cor. 9:5). Two of them, James and Jude, each wrote a N.T. letter that bear their name (James and Jude).
Jesus didn’t say a whole lot on crucifixion day, but what he did say and didn’t say, what He did and didn’t do, changed some hearts.