Jesus in pain and agony was nailed on the cross, between two thieves who were suffering severe pain and heaping abuses and insults upon their crucifiers. But the Son of God prayed for his enemies, and atoned for their sins. The clothing of the condemned prisoners became the property of the execution squad that sat under Christ’s feet as their fee for their service in their fearful office. As in a gambling casino, the soldiers senselessly divided Jesus’ garments among themselves by lot, while the Joy-Giver was bleeding for them.
The religious leaders of the nation stood aside to see if Jesus would confess that he was going astray, and pray with the tears of repentance asking God’s pardon for his pride. But they suddenly heard his intercessory prayer, in which he called God his Father, mediating and asking forgiveness for them the leaders who claimed righteousness. He did not ask forgiveness for himself, but forgave them, proving to be the true God. They became enraged furious at him, not only because of killing his body, but also because of destroying his reputation among the people and making apparent his distinct weakness.
Those professors were led by the power of darkness to tempt Jesus to wish he could come down from the cross, even for one second that they might abolish his worthiness as the Lamb of God. That was the devil’s design from the first moment of Christ’s life: to destroy the efficiency of the cross through causing the Holy One to fall into sins. The chiefs blasphemed against his love service. They assumed his power as something under suspicion, and incited his will that he might save himself by himself and prove by his coming down from the cross in a wonderful miracle that he was the Son of the Mighty One, claiming that then they would believe in him and accept him as the true Christ. Furthermore, they tempted God himself, and called Christ, "the chosen of God from among all men." So where is God’s help to his Chosen One? Such hateful and spiteful statements are always produced from hell itself. Those scribes had forgotten the opening statement of the Book of Psalms, which says: "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful".
The foreign soldiers also, who did not understand Aramaic well, took a part in the mockery. They offered him who was suffering vinegar to inflame his suffering and to increase his sense of pain, and they asked him to come down from the cross as a token of the mightiness of the God of the Jews that they might believe in him. Jesus’ design was that all the nations and the Jews should believe in the true God and his merciful Son that they might receive everlasting life. However, he did not come down from the cross, but continued praying in the fire of God’s wrath that he might truly deliver us. Christ was indeed the King of the Jews, as he was at the same time the Lord of lords, and the Possessor of all men, whom he loved and purchased us for God with his own blood from the slave market of sins. Thus every man became a possession of Christ. We all belong to him, and he is our divine Possessor, for we are his own. Christ is the unique, true King. We live from his reconciliation more than we know. Without him we can do nothing. We cannot even breathe, sleep, or eat, for without him who was crucified for us God would have immediately consumed all men. All creatures live at all times from the sacrifice of Christ which opened to us the doors of God’s mercy and great patience.