"And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross. (33) And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, (34) They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. (35) And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. (36) And sitting down they watched him there; (37) And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. (38) Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left. (39) And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, (40) And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. (41) Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, (42) He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. (43) He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. (44) The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. (45) Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. (46) And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (47) Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. (48) And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. (49) The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him."
Let us follow Jesus to the cross; and as Jesus suffered without the gate, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood; let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. Hebrews 13:12-13. The first circumstance which strikes us in the hurrying away the Lord of Life and Glory to his execution, is the taking hold of a man of Cyrene, which they found in the way, whom they compelled to bear his cross. John saith, that Jesus bearing his cross went forth. John 19:17. And Matthew, Mark, and Luke, observe, that this man of Cyrene, Simon by name, they compelled to bear it, And both accounts no doubt are correct. For Jesus fainting beneath the cross, as probably he might, could go no further: and therefore this stranger is compelled to the office. There was no mercy intended to Jesus by this act; for had he died before they arrived at Calvary, as through suffering they feared he might, their triumph in his crucifixion would have been lost.
The views of the cross, in every direction and in every way, are too many to compress within a little compass: and as all the Evangelists call us to take our stand at the foot of the cross, and them behold the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world; we shall, again and again, find occasion to meditate upon the endless subject. I shall for the present, therefore, request the Reader to take into his observation some of the first and most obvious sights which present themselves to our meditation of Christ crucified, which, while to the Jews it is a stumbling, block, and to the Gentiles foolishness; it is to them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1:23-24
And, First: it is very plain that the death of the cross was a shameful death, The malefactors were naked, who suffered this death. None but slaves could suffer it. No Roman was allowed by the laws to fal1 under it, be his crime what it might. Hence Paul speaking of it saith; He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:8. But as Adam had made himself naked by sin, so Christ, in removing the curse, condescends to this shame, and to do away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Hebrews 9:26
Secondly. The place where this was done, at Golgotha, a place of the unburied sculls of criminals. As if to intimate the very remains of those who died, or rather were put to death, in a spot of such infamy, their carcases might be exposed as dung upon the earth, abhorred both of God and men. Hence the Prophet speaking of one cursed of God, said concerning him, that they should not lament for him, saying, Ah! Lord: or ah! his glory: but he should be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. Jeremiah 22:18-19. When Jesus therefore came to redeem from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; he put himself in every situation into which our nature must everlastingly have fallen, but for his interposition and as the law declared everyone cursed which hanged on a tree; Jesus will take that curse to redeem his people from it. But as the prophecies concerning Christ declared by a strange and seeming contradiction, that though he was cut off out of the land of the living as a malefactor, and for the transgression of the people should be stricken; yet at the same time he should make his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death: the Lord over-ruled those wonderful contrarieties, that though Christ was crucified at Golgotha, he should be buried in a garden, yea, and in a new sepulchre, wherein never man had lain. See Galatians 3:13; Isaiah 53:8-9; Luke 23:50-53, See Golgotha, Poor Man's Concordance.
Thirdly. The infamy attending the crucifixion of Christ was increased, in that he was crucified between two thieves; yea, he himself, put in the middle of them, as if the most worthless of the three: thus fulfilling the prophecy of being numbered with the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12. All that took place in the great events of Christ's death, was to fulfil the types and prophecies of him; and therefore this among the many, became most important to be attended to; and yet, but for the Lord's watching over it, nothing seemed more unlikely to have been accomplished.
Fourthly. The death of the cross was of all deaths the most painful. It was slow and lingering, violent and universally excruciating to the whole body. In the method used, the victim was placed upon the cross while on the ground, and the hands and feet stretched out as far as they might be made to extend, and nailed through the nervous parts to the timber. Then the cross with the wretched victim fastened to it, was raised up in an erect posture, and fixed into a hole prepared for the foot of it in the earth, which of consequence by the sudden jerk given to it could not fail to occasion the most dreadful pains. In this posture the unhappy sufferer remained suspended, the arms keeping up the whole weight of the body, until relieved by death. Sometimes, as in the case of the two thieves crucified with Christ, whether to aggravate their sufferings, or to put them the sooner out of misery, the soldiers brake their bones with blows. But the earlier death of Jesus prevented this last act of the Roman soldiers, we are told; for they brake not his legs: but one of them with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. Hereby leading to a double prophecy: a bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith: they shall look on him whom they pierced; Exodus 12:46; Zechariah 12:10; John 19:33-37
And here let us pause over the solemn subject; and again look up by faith, and behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world! Methinks we may, as we look up and behold that wonderous sight, contemplate Jesus as thus with arms extended, inviting his redeemed to come to him, as his arms are stretched forth to embrace them. And while his arms are thus open to receive, his feet are waiting for their coming. And with his head reclining, he looks down with his eyes of love, as welcoming their approach. And Reader! what a thought is it for every true believer in Christ to cherish, and never to lose sight of: Jesus in all this, hung on the cross not as a private person, but as the public head of his body the Church. For as certain as that you and I, were both in the loins of Adam, when he transgressed in the garden, and were alike implicated in his guilt and punishment; so equally are all the seed of Christ crucified with Christ, and interested in his salvation. For so the charter both of justice and of grace runs: In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. Isaiah 45:25. For the further contemplation of the many wonderful events connected with the subject of Christ crucified, I refer the Reader to the other Evangelists. Mark 15:1; Luke 23:1; John 19:1.