metro calvary

Matthew 27:33-35 And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it.  35And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots.

The sheer brutality of this moment is lost on us. These soldiers would first push Jesus to the ground, onto his back that has been torn to shreds by the Roman scourge. They would then stretch out his arm and place his hand onto the piece of wood that would become the horizontal beam of the cross.

They would, as they had countless times before, search for the space between the radius and ulna bones just beneath the palm of the hand, and with a mallet drive a large wrought iron stake through the flesh of Jesus. Perhaps without even wiping the blood from their own hands, they would stretch out the other arm of Jesus and do the same. Having fastened the hands of Jesus to the cross-beam, they would lift him up from the earth, suspending his entire body weight on those two nails, and drop the cross beam into a notch at the top of the vertical beam. And finally, with one more stake, they would fasten both feet to the vertical post. Luke’s account records – “THEN Jesus said, Father forgive them…”. If ever there was a moment when God had cause to stop loving mankind it would have been at THAT moment. But it was “THEN”, at that very moment that He proves for us the undying nature of His love for man.

Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910) was a baptist preacher born in Glasgow, Scotland. In his commentary on this passage (Expositions of Holy Scripture) he wrote:

What a gap there is between verses 34 and 35! The unconcerned soldiers went on to the next step in their ordinary routine on such an occasion,—the fixing of the cross and fastening of the victim to it. To them it was only what they had often done before; to Matthew, it was too sacred to be narrated, He cannot bring his pen to write it. As it were, he bids us turn away our eyes for a moment; and when next we look, the deed is done, and there stands the cross, and the Lord hanging, silent and unresisting, on it. We see not Him, but the soldiers, busy at their next task. So little were they touched by compassion or awe, that they paid no heed to Him….

Here are these men. They are sitting at the foot of the cross; on ground stained and wet with the blood of Jesus; perhaps the blood of Jesus dripping on them; And they PLAYED A GAME!

Here are these men. For hours they gazed on what has touched the world ever since; and they saw nothing but a dying Jew. They saw nothing but a man that Rome had deemed worthy of such a heinous death. Roman law declared that no Roman citizen should suffer death by crucifixion. The cross was reserved only for those that Rome considered to be the off scouring of the earth.

Here are these men. Their only concerns were how long they would have to stay there and who would win the game that would decide who would get the clothes of the man they had just killed.

From afar we stand in horror of their indifference. But today, two thousand years after the event, the world still plays games in the shadow of the cross. Men and women gaze upon the cross (in the hearing of the Gospel) and are only concerned with how much longer they have to sit and listen to that message. Men and women can stand in the shadow of the cross and with complete indifference to the demonstration of God’s love in it, be only concerned with playing the game of life.

For those who have had their hearts forever captured by the cross of Jesus, it is the indifference of the unbelieving world that is so readily seen in those soldiers. But there are many professing Christians who are playing games at the foot of the cross. First, they PLAY church in the shadow of the cross. They view church as being about themselves (how convenient it should be – what they can get out of it – what they get to do in it) with complete indifference to the One on the cross. It is His Church, purchased with His blood, existing for His exaltation. Second, they PLAY at Christianity. In the shadow of the cross they carry around un-forgiveness or bitterness. In the shadow of the cross they cheat on their taxes, cheat on their spouse, cheat on their time cards at work, cheat on their tests at school. All with complete indifference to the One on the Cross.

The Church has been wondering why it has been so ineffective in winning men and women to faith in Christ. There have been countless diagnoses presented. But could the answer lie in the actions of those Roman soldiers? Could it be that the world sees the Church proclaiming a message about a man on a cross, and then sees the Church playing in the shadow of that Cross just as they are?