The email sent will contain a link to this article, the article title, and an article excerpt (if available). For security reasons, your IP address will also be included in the sent email.
Do you have some boring spring cleaning or yard work to do? Download a good sermon, like The Ironies of the Cross from D. A. Carson, and listen while you work. Don’t worry that you can’t take notes, because I’ve already done that for you and posted them right here. And don’t think that you can skip the sermon because you’ve read my notes. The sermon has so much more, not the least of which is Don Carson’s dramatic reading of the scripture.
The text of this sermon is Matthew 27: 27-50.
The use of irony in narrative is a way of telling us what’s important in a story. In this account, Matthew gives us four ironies in the story of the cross.
The Four Ironies of the Cross
The man who is mocked as king is king. (verses 27-31)
The ironic statement in scripture:
And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
How this statement is ironic: Those mocking think it’s false, but Matthew and his readers know that Jesus really is king, but a different sort of king with a different sort of kingdom. See
Matthew 20:20ff, which includes this statement from Jesus:
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Return to Article