Again Matthew (27:27-44) avoids emphasizing the physical pain of the Passion by simply saying, "When they crucified him." Instead he emphasizes the mockery. The soldiers mock him as their king. The passersby mock him, "Save yourself, if you are the Son of God." The chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him, "He saved others; he cannot save himself." The thieves crucified on either side of him mocked him in the same way.
Jesus is on the Cross because he loves all of them. How bitterly disappointed we are when people we are helping mock us! In Psalm 69 the psalmist cries to God, "Insult has broken my heart past cure. I hoped for sympathy, but in vain, for consolers--but none to be found."
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