The Men at the Cross

The men are not as prominent as the women at the cross. The Lord’s disciples fled when He was arrested, thus fulfilling the prophecy, ‘I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad’, Matt. 26. 31; cp. Mark 14. 27. The only disciple we find at the cross is John, the beloved disciple. He and Peter had followed Jesus into the high priest’s palace. After Peter denied his Lord, we hear nothing of him until the resurrection. John was close enough to the cross to hear what the Lord said. It was at the cross in the final moments leading up to His death that the Lord entrusted the welfare of His mother to John. John, who would later pen a Gospel, was a first-hand witness to the crucifixion which he saw in terms of humiliation and exaltation, John 19. 19.

Nicodemus is found at the cross. Here was a man who was a member of the ruling religious Sanhedrin. He had come to Jesus by night and was told he must be born again, John 3. 3. Clearly, he had become a disciple of Jesus. Initially, a secret disciple, for, on an earlier occasion we find Nicodemus defending Jesus in an oblique way. Yet when it comes to the crucifixion, he came out into the open to be recognized as a true disciple. The cross had a transforming effect on him.

Touching a dead body made a person ceremonially unclean and excluded that person from celebrating the Passover, Num. 9. 10. He had to wait one month before he could celebrate the Passover, v. 11. The Lord was crucified at the time of the Passover, the high point in the Jewish religious celebrations. By participating in the burial of Jesus, Nicodemus had voluntarily excluded himself from the Jewish Passover, showing he was more concerned with the maker of the new covenant and the real Passover than with the old Jewish system.

Another man we find associated with the cross is Joseph of Arimathaea. He, like Nicodemus, was a secret disciple, John 19. 38, and a member of the Sanhedrin. He used to fear the Jews, but not now. The cross changed that. He had seen what the Sanhedrin had done to his Lord, how they had accused Him unjustly, tried Him illegally, and killed Him mercilessly. No longer was Joseph timid or shy, for we read that ‘Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus’, Mark 15. 43.

Joseph was a rich man, for he had his own tomb ready, and he willingly gave this to be what he thought would be the final resting place of our Lord. This temporary resting place was in fulfilment of prophecy, Isa. 53. 9.

A Roman centurion was in charge of between fifty and 100 men. He would have been an experienced soldier and would have seen many crucifixions. He was no stranger to seeing people die in excruciating agony and pain. Yet the centurion at the cross recognized something different in the Lord. He had witnessed the way He had died, not calling down curses on those who had crucified Him, but asking for the Father’s forgiveness for them, Luke 23. 34. The centurion had also witnessed the unusual events surrounding His death. There was three hours of darkness, Matt. 27. 45; the rending of the temple curtain, 27. 51; Mark 15. 38; the earth tremor, the splitting of rocks, Matt. 27. 51, and the breaking open of some tombs, v. 52. Just as the Lord gave up the ghost, the centurion praised God, Luke 23. 47, and also then declared this was truly the Son of God, Matt. 27. 54; Mark 15. 39. It is not recorded if the centurion ever became a believer, even though he had seen the Lord give His life as a ransom for many, Mark 10. 45.

There were ordinary Roman soldiers at the cross. These men had no thought about the way they treated the dear Son of God. They subjected Him to humiliating and brutal treatment - a crown of thorns on His head, spitting, and mocking, Matt. 27. 29, 30. At the cross, it was the soldiers who gambled for the Lord’s belongings, John 19. 23, 24. It was one of the soldiers who, upon seeing the Lord already dead, did not break His legs but plunged a spear into His side, vv. 32-34. It was the Roman soldiers who were set as a guard at the tomb, Matt. 27. 65, 66, and the same soldiers who fainted in fear when the angel rolled away the stone that sealed the tomb, 28. 2-4, and accepted a bribe, vv. 12-15, to lie about the resurrection. To them, sad to say, the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord meant nothing.

Finally, there is Simon of Cyrene who was compelled by the Roman authorities to carry the cross of Jesus. We can only speculate as to the impact this had on him, the father of Alexander and Rufus, Mark 15. 21. It is possible that the Rufus mentioned by Paul, Rom. 16. 13, is the same Rufus mentioned by Mark. If this is the case, then his mother, Simon’s wife, and brother, Alexander, were also believers. It is also possible that Simeon mentioned, Acts 13. 1, is the same Simon. It would seem that the whole family had become believers through Simon’s encounter with the Lord in having to carry His cross.