Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
March 20, 1983
A Prophecy of the Cross
Psalm 22, NIV
No Christian can read Psalm 22 without being vividly confronted with the crucifixion. It is one of those prophecies which is minutely fulfilled even though it was written down more than one thousand years before Jesus walked on the earth.
Perhaps this prophecy has so much detail because the Jews were not looking for a Messiah who would die. They were looking for a conquering Messiah, a mighty King who would defeat all of Israel's enemies and make the Jews the greatest nation on earth. He would bring immense wealth and happiness for all the Jews and he would rule forever.
Psalm 22 does not fit this pattern. As a matter of fact, it seems to be the exact opposite. There are only two reasons we know this psalm is about the Messiah. First, the end of the psalm speaks of the whole world being blessed because of the sufferings of this one individual. Second, the details of the psalm do not fit any of the events in the life of King David who wrote the psalm. As one scholar has pointed out, the psalm is not a description of an illness but of an execution.
The language of the psalm defies a naturalistic explanation. The best way to take it is to go along with the apostle Peter, who says in Acts 2:30-31 concerning another psalm of David:
"But he was a prophet... Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of ... the Christ."
The psalm describes someone who is rejected by everyone. Verses 6-8 read:
"But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: 'He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.'"
Jesus knew that God had planned for him to be rejected by the Jews. When his disciples still saw him as a great performer of miracles and possibly the promised King of Israel, Jesus gave them this prediction, found in Matthew 20:18-19:
"We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified."
When Jesus was arrested the gospels tell us he was mocked and slapped around by the Roman soldiers. In Matthew 27:39 it says:
"Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads."
Go down to verses 41-43:
"In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 'He saved others,' they said, 'but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him....'"
The last phrase echoes Psalm 22:8 word for word, though they're a thousand years apart. This wrong attitude is shown when Satan says during the Temptation in the Wilderness, ...tell these stones to become bread ... throw yourself down from the highest point of the Temple ... and as the mockers say, come down from the cross! Notice the false reasoning the unbelievers use: they argue that God is there for our convenience, if he is there at all. But God is not the slave of man. Humans must submit themselves to God's will, as Jesus did in each of these cases.
The physical details of the crucifixion in Psalm 22 begin in verse 14. Under inspiration David says, "I am poured out like water." This refers to heavy perspiration of someone hanging in the intense sun - "And all my bones are out of joint." This is one of the most painful aspects of crucifixion. The ligaments stretch and the bones pop out of joint. We now come to an expression which did not make much sense at all until the crucifixion: "My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me." Some medical experts say that this probably refers to the rupture of Jesus' heart caused by his great mental and physical agony. It causes immediate death and then the blood fills the sack which holds the heart. When this happens, and at almost no other time, the blood separates into its constituent parts which would look like watery plasma and blood clots. In support of this John 19:34 says Jesus died long before the other two criminals. To make sure he was dead, "one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water." David goes on to describe the intense thirst in verse 15:
"My strength is dried up like a broken piece of pottery; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws."
Jesus said on the cross:
"I thirst."
The description of crucifixion concludes with:
"Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me."
"Dog" was a common slang expression the Jews used for Gentiles. Jesus was surrounded by Gentile soldiers at the crucifixion. He was crucified in the nude; this passage speaks of the shame of it. Bones stick out ... and as all four gospels mention that at the foot of the cross the soldiers divided up his clothes and gambled (or cast lots) for his seamless robe.
As perfect as this passage is in its prophetic accuracy, it gains additional importance when we realize that crucifixion as a way of punishment was not known at the time David wrote this; the Jews at that time executed by stoning. It was not until about 200 B.C. when the Romans adopted this cruel practice that crucifixion was widely used - eight hundred years after this prophecy.
Crucifixion was the ultimate punishment in those days. The Romans reserved it for slaves, robbers, assassins and terrorists. Only in exceptional cases would a Roman citizen be crucified. This goes along with the ancient tradition that the apostle Peter was crucified, while Paul, a Roman citizen, was beheaded, a relatively quick and painless way to die. Crucifixion was so terrible that the Roman author Cicero wrote, "Let the very name of the cross be far away not only from the body of a Roman citizen but even from his thoughts, his eyes, his ears."
Crucifixion was also despised by the Jews. In Old Testament times the Jews executed people by stoning but if the individual was particularly wicked, their dead body would be stuck on a stake or hung from a tree. This exposed them to public shame. Deuteronomy 21:22-23 is the decisive Old Testament passage:
"If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse."
Everyone in the ancient world hated crucifixion. To the Romans it was utterly barbaric. To the Jews it was even worse because it showed that God had rejected the person and cursed him. This brings us to the most difficult verse in Psalm 22 and the hardest aspect of Jesus' death for us to understand. Psalm 22:1 reads:
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Why did Jesus quote this on the cross? Some believe Jesus did not lose faith but has the whole Psalm in mind though he does not quote it. The rest of the Psalm tells of the suffering person's assurance that God is continually protecting him and will finally vindicate him. As it says in verse 24:
"For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help."
This interpretation takes much of the sting out of Jesus' words and many people prefer it. But I think the sting of Jesus' words should be left in because it fits in with the deepest meaning of the cross. This meaning is brought out by Paul in Galatians 3:13 - turn with me there:
"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.'"
The physical pain on the cross was terrible but the spiritual pain was far worse. As Jesus hung on the cross the sins of every human being - past, present and future -- were laid on his body. The Bible teaches that sin separates us from God and causes spiritual death. We are cursed by it. Jesus took that curse and laid it on himself. While he was on the cross he was separated from God and experienced the anguish of sin that no one human can. In his death, Jesus penetrated into the deepest pit of all men's lostness, when all worldly crutches and supports have failed them and God himself seems to be gone. And yet in Jesus' case he did not let God go but dared to cling to him and claim him as My God, My God. Jesus' cry of despair both dives to the depths of all men's doubts and climbs to the height of faith.
No one can suffer as much as Jesus suffered on the cross. His suffering went beyond anything we can experience and no one can have as much faith as Jesus had. God does not expect us to but he does expect us to accept Jesus as our Lord so he can become our curse - our sings can only be removed by being placed on the cross. We receive the benefits of the cross but Jesus also said this - if you are a true disciple, a true follower of Jesus, you, too, must bear a cross.
Being a Christian cannot be reduced to plastic smiles and positive thinking. It can involve defeat, anguish and even despair. Bearing your cross involves denying yourself - you have to take your self-centeredness out of your life and make Christ the center.
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Typed on February 20, 2006, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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