Luke 23:35-37 35And the people stood by, watching. But the rulers even sneered, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if this man is the Christ of God, the Chosen One!” 36And the soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering to him sour wine 37and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38And there was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”
Luke continues to relate the different responses to Jesus’ suffering. First are the people who study by, watching. They were only bystanders. Even if they wanted to, they could do nothing. A few of these watchers included disciples. In contrast to the passive crowd, the second response came from the rulers who mocked Jesus. They got right to the heart of the issue of ridiculing Jesus as Savior and Messiah. Their mockery came from their hardened hearts and blaspheme of the Holy Spirit and was in fulfillment of Psalm 22:7. There are many passages in Luke that record Jesus saving people (7:50; 8:36, 48, 50; 17:19; 18:42). Luke records three taunts for Jesus to save himself (verses 36–37, 39). He could have walked away at any moment or called on the Father to help him, but instead, willingly went to death in behalf of the sins of the world. He showed the ultimate faith that there was resurrection after the pain of death. The Messiah of the one and only God came to show the way to salvation and resurrection by passing the test of faith.
The third response was another form of mockery as the Roman soldiers picked up on the verdict of insurrection. The sour wine the soldiers gave him was the intoxicating drink of poor soldiers. It is unlikely that they did this out of compassion but as part of their mockery. The drink could have stung any wounds Jesus had, or it could have had the effect of prolonging his agony. The custom was to put a sign above the condemned’s head stating the charge against the victim. In the eyes of the Romans, Jesus was crucified for claiming to be a king.
There are many titles for Jesus in this passage in the form of the accusations against him. All these accusations point in someway, even when distorted by his opponents, to reveal some truth about his identity. People knew there was power in him, but they mocked this power and rejected his authority. What drove them to this? For some, like the soldiers, it was ignorance. They were just being like soldiers and abusing their prisoners. For the Jewish authorities, they could have and should have seen Jesus’ authority and acknowledged it in faith and repentance, but they refused. For crowds, they had heard of and some even witnessed the teaching and miracles of Jesus, yet they were passive. The seeds of the gospel were planted in many of their hearts. Some of those seeds would sprout and bear fruit, as the book of Acts indicates. People today must make a choice about what to do with the crucified Jesus.
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