Matthew 27:31-32 meaning

The parallel gospel accounts of Matthew 27:31-32 are found in Mark 15:20-21, Luke 23:26-32, and John 19:16-17.

Following Matthew’s account of the Roman Legionnaires’ scourging, abusing, and mocking Jesus (Matthew 27:27-30), the Gospel writer returns to what happened after His civil trial ended. The Roman soldiers carried out Pilate’s order that Jesus was to be crucified (Matthew 27:26).

To learn more about what Roman Crucifixion entailed, see The Bible Says Article: “Bearing the Cross: Exploring the Unimaginable Suffering of Crucifixion.”

After they had mocked Him, they took the scarlet robe off Him and put His own garments back on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him (v 31).

After Jesus’s civil trial ended, the Roman soldiers likely mocked Jesus again before they took the scarlet robe off Him. The first time they mocked Him was after He was scourged during the middle of the third phase of His civil trial (John 19:1-4). This was before Pilate presented Jesus to the crowd—saying “Behold the Man” (John 19:5). This scarlet robe was used as a prop, along with the “crown of thorns” they put on His head and the “reed” they put in His hand as a mock scepter to make Him appear as a ridiculous king (Matthew 27:29).

Before they led Him away to crucify Him, they took off the scarlet robe and put His own garments back on Him. Taking the robe off would have been very painful to Jesus.

John informs us that the robe was first put on Jesus shortly after He was scourged (John 19:1-3). Which means Jesus had been wearing it for some time. The scouring had pulverized Jesus back, tore off skin and flesh and turned Him into a bleeding mess. The robe, when they first put it on, likely served as a crude bandage and covering that helped slow the bleeding. Jesus wore this robe for the remainder of His civil trial (John 19:4-16), which included Pilate:

• presenting Jesus to the crowd in hopes of releasing Him (John 19:4-8);

• interviewing Jesus for the charge of blasphemy (John 19:9-11)

• making additional efforts to release Jesus (John 19:12-15; Matthew 27:24-25).

All of this gave time for Jesus’s open wounds from His neck to His lower back to congeal and bond to the scarlet robe that was covering Him. When they took the scarlet robe off Him all these wounds were freshly torn back open with what would have been a terrible sting.

His own clothes were put back on Him instead, and they led Him away to crucify Him.

They led Him away from the governor’s Jerusalem residence at the Praetorium and the city itself to the place where they would crucify Him. This place was called “Golgotha” (Matthew 27:33). There were several reasons why they led Jesus away to be crucified instead of crucifying Him there at the Praetorium.

The main reasons they led Jesus away to crucify Him were because crucifixions were gruesome, bloody affairs. No one wanted to have this inside a city, especially the Jews, who would have regarded such acts as abominable defilements of their holy city. It was Roman practice to crucify their criminals outside the city, along a road or gate to serve as a warning against defying Roman law to everyone who entered or exited the city.

John’s Gospel records how when they first took Jesus out that He was “bearing His own cross” (John 19:17) per Roman protocol. The Greco-Roman historian, Plutarch explained the reason for this customary protocol, “every criminal who goes to execution must carry his own cross on his back, vice frames out of itself each instrument of its own punishment” (Plutarch. “On the Delays of Divine Vengeance.” Section 9).

Following this protocol, the Roman soldiers forced Jesus to bear “His own cross” as they led Him away to be crucified (John 19:17). By carrying His own cross for a period of time, Jesus physically showcased the image which He encouraged His followers to emulate in their own circumstances (Matthew 10:38, 16:24, Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23).

But, having been beaten and scourged, Jesus’s bodily strength was depleted. Apparently, He was unable to physically bear His cross for long. The Roman soldiers recognized this apparent limitation. Based on the modern discovery of the location of the Praetorium near the Jaffa Gate, it was likely a fairly short distance between the Praetorium (where Jesus was given a death sentence by Pilate) and the place of Jesus’s crucifixion. The fact that He could not go far shows the extent of His physical suffering to that point.

And so, as they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear His cross (v 32).

Luke says that after Simon began to bear Jesus’s cross, that Jesus walked in front while Simon carried it behind him (Luke 23:26).

We will discuss who this man named Simon from Cyrene was in a moment, but for now, it is worth observing that Matthew indicates that they pressed Simon into service to bear Jesus’s cross as they were coming out of the Praetorium or city—or both.

The two sites most commonly believed to be the location of the Praetorium are the “Antonia Fortress” and the former palace of Herod the Great.

The Antonia Fortress was built within the city and was connected to the northwest corner of the temple complex. The palace of Herod the Great was located along Jerusalem’s western wall. Based on the Biblical accounts of Jesus’s civil trial which describe the Praetorium—especially John (John 18:28 - 19:16)—and archeological ruins unearthed in the 1970s, the Praetorium where Jesus was tried by Pilate was likely Herod’s palace.

Herod’s palace was built along Jerusalem’s western city wall. This palace opened up to the outside of the city and had a stone pavement with a judgment seat that faced an open space where the Jews gathered outside and could interact with Pilate from a distance, so as not to defile themselves for the Passover (John 18:28-29). Behind the crowd was a road that wrapped around the exterior of the city wall.

Matthew’s account—as they were coming out—also supports the Praetorium’s location being Herod’s palace along the city wall instead of the Antonia Fortress within the heart of the city. Moreover, Luke mentions that Simon was “coming in from the country” (Luke 23:26) when they pressed him into service. The likely reason Simon was coming in from the country was because he was visiting Jerusalem for Passover and was staying nearby outside the city, possibly in an encampment for Passover pilgrims. Luke’s remark that Simon was “coming in from the country” (Luke 23:26) seems to suggest that he was walking along the city’s exterior road on his way into the city when Jesus and the Roman soldiers were coming out of the Praetorium and/or city.

Luke adds: “Two others also, who were criminals, were being led away to be put to death with Him” (Luke 23:32).

Simon of Cyrene

Mark’s Gospel gives the most detailed information about Simon of Cyrene. His account, which is similar to Matthew’s, reads:

“They pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross.”
(Mark 15:21)

Simon is a Hellenized version of the Hebrew name Simeon. Simeon was one of Israel’s twelve sons (Genesis 29:33; Exodus 1:1-4) and was the name of one of Israel’s twelve tribes (Numbers 1:22-23). Simon was the name of two of Jesus’s disciples: the fisherman called “Peter”; and the zealot (Matthew 10:2-4).

Cyrene was located in North Africa on the Mediterranean coast in the present-day nation of Libya. Simon was apparently an observant Jew visiting Jerusalem for Passover. He brought with him his two sons—Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15:21). One of his sons shared the same name as the famous Macedonian conqueror—Alexander the Great. The other son, Rufus, had a name that was a Romanized version of the original Simeon’s older brother—Reuben (Genesis 29:32; Exodus 1:2). Reuben also was one of Israel’s twelve tribes (Numbers 1:20-21).

It is interesting to consider how Mark, whose Gospel was written for Roman Gentiles, is the only Gospel to mention Simon’s two sons, Alexander and Rufus. Rufus is also the name of one of the leading believers to whom Paul writes in Rome (Romans 16:13). Church tradition tells us that the Rufus whom Paul holds in high regard and greets in his epistle to Rome is the same Rufus whose father was pressed into service to bear Jesus’s cross. If this is the case, it seems that this unpleasant encounter impressed Simon to become a believer in Jesus and to lead his family to believe in Jesus (Romans 16:13).

After the soldiers pressed Simon into service to bear Jesus’s cross, the procession continued to the place where they would crucify Jesus.

Luke’s account between Jesus and “the Daughters of Jerusalem.”

Somewhere along Jesus’s journey from Pilate to Golgotha, the place where He was crucified (Matthew 27:33), Jesus spoke to what appears to have been a professional group of wailers that He referred to as “Daughters of Jerusalem” (Luke 23:28).

The Gospel of Luke records Jesus’s prophetic rebuke:

“And following Him was a large crowd of the people, and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him. But Jesus turning to them said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.” Then they will begin to say to the mountains, “Fall on us,” and to the hills, “Cover us.” For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?’”
(Luke 23:27-31)

During that era, it was customary for professional wailers to trail behind any Jewish individual who was being led to their execution by Rome, purportedly to mourn the death of an Israelite at the hands of Gentiles. But they were wailers who were paid for their wailing. Accordingly, their wailing was often a display of feigned sorrow.

The uproar was a spectacle. Considering the people’s earlier declaration to Pilate: “His blood shall be on us and on our children!” (Matthew 27:25), this charade was Jerusalem’s final act of hypocrisy in their rejection of their Messiah before His execution.

Jesus addressed these mourners as: “Daughters of Jerusalem” (Luke 23:28). He bid them to cease their weeping for Him. He had no need for their insincerity. Jesus was not condemned because the Roman governor desired His crucifixion. Rather, His execution was the result of the demands of the religious leaders and the populace. It was ridiculous to pretend otherwise. Thus, Jesus called for the wailers to stop the charade, imploring Jerusalem to confront its own self-deception.

Jesus not only urged them to wake up from their delusion, He also urged them to realize their own impending destruction. Jerusalem was bringing upon itself imminent destruction by rejecting the One whom God sent to them to be their King and Redeemer. Jesus was the Messiah whom God sent. Hence, Jesus directed them to “weep for yourselves and for your children” because they had missed the time of their visitation (Luke 23:28b).

His admonishment to the Daughters of Jerusalem was not a bitter retaliation of anger toward those who had unjustly condemned Him. Rather, it was a prophetic warning born out of love and sorrow for the suffering they and their children would endure when Rome would lay waste to Jerusalem in 70 A.D. This destruction was to occur roughly 40 years after Jesus’s crucifixion.

Jesus’s prophecy to the Daughters of Jerusalem predicted the horrors of Roman siege and directly referenced Hosea 10:8 (Luke 23:29-30).

Jesus concluded His prophetic warning to the daughters of Jerusalem with a metaphorical question for them to ask themselves:

“For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:31)

Rooted in Ezekiel 20:47, His metaphor revolves around the symbols of green and dry wood. A green tree, being alive, is not fit for burning, while dry wood, long dead, readily succumbs to flames.

In this allegory, Jesus embodies the green tree, symbolizing righteousness and life. Conversely, Jerusalem, which is spiritually dead inside, represents the dry tree.

Despite Jesus’s innocence—acknowledged by the Roman governor (Luke 23:4, 15, 22)—Rome condemned Him to death. The metaphor implies that Rome is executing Someone who is as unfit for death as a green and living tree is fit for burning. And if they will burn green trees, what will they do to dead ones?

In rejecting Jesus, Jerusalem both rejected their Messiah and their God. Within a generation they will rebel against Roman authority, inviting Rome’s fury that will be akin to a raging fire that incinerates the dry wood of a dead tree.

More plainly, Jesus’s prophetic inquiry to Jerusalem is this: If Rome is willing to crucify a person their own governor has declared innocent such as Himself, what fate awaits Jerusalem in its rebellion?

Similarly, ultimate suffering and judgment follow this pattern: if the blameless Messiah endures punishment, how much greater will the punishment be for the unrighteous at God’s fiery judgement?

Jesus’s metaphor is an allusion to the LORD’s warning in Ezekiel 20:45-49.

“Behold, I am about to kindle a fire in you, and it will consume every green tree in you, as well as every dry tree; the blazing flame will not be quenched and the whole surface from south to north will be burned by it.”
(Ezekiel 20:47)

To learn more about what Jesus meant by this statement, see The Bible Says article: “Jesus’s Seven Last Words from the Cross—A Prophetic Warning on the Way to the Cross.”