Matthew 27:36

Matthew 27:36

The lessons that the incident teaches us may be very simply gathered together.

I. First we infer from this the old truth of how ignorant men are of the real meaning and outcome of what they do. These four Roman soldiers were foreigners; I suppose they could not speak a word to a man in that crowd. They had plenty of practice in crucifying Jews. It was part of their ordinary work in these troublesome times, and this was just one more. They went back to their barracks stolid and unconcerned, and utterly ignorant of what they had been about. Well, now, so are we all, though in less extreme fashion. No man knows the real meaning, and none of us know the possible issues and outcome, of a great part of our lives. We are like people sowing seed in the dark; it is put into our hands, and we sow. We do the deed; this end of it is in our power, but where it runs out to, and what will come of it, lie far beyond our ken.

II. Take another very simple and equally plain lesson from this incident; viz., the limitation of responsibility by knowledge. These men were ignorant of what they were doing, and therefore they were guiltless. Christ said that Himself: "They know not what they do." But it is marvellous to observe that while the people that stood round the cross, and were associated in the act that led Jesus there, had all degrees of responsibility, the least guilty of the whole were the men that did the actual work of nailing Him to the cross, and lifting it with Him upon it. As knowledge and light rise and fall, so responsibility rises and falls along with them.

III. The last lesson is, How possible it is to look at Christ on the cross and see nothing.

A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth,August 5th, 1886.

References: Matthew 27:36. New Outlines on the New Testament,p. 18; Lefroy, Literary Churchman, Sermons,p. 96; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xii., p. 148.