Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3276
“O you sons of men, how long will you turn My Glory into shame?” Psalm 4:2.
DAVID had many times been the subject of cruel mockery and, therefore, while writing this Psalm probably in the first place about himself, he also described in it one of the bitterest of our Savior’s sufferings. What an illustration this is of the union which exists between Christ and His people in the matter of experience! He had a Cross to bear and so have they. He was “despised and rejected of men,” and so are they. The Church of God is not like the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, which had a head of gold and feet of iron and clay, but as is the Head, such are also the members. As the Head had to endure cruel mocking, the members must not expect to be exempted from similar treatment. This is why so many of the Psalms of David are equally applicable to David and to his Lord. And I believe that we have, in this verse, a reference not only to David, himself, but also to “great David’s greater Son.” In the case of both of them, the sons of men turned their glory into shame, but I want especially to call to your remembrance the sufferings of our Savior in this respect.
I. So, in the first place, notice that EVERYTHING ABOUT OUR SAVIOR THAT WAS GLORIOUS WAS MADE THE SUBJECT OF SCORN.
Begin with His glorious Person, and think how shamefully that was treated by the sons of men in the time of His humiliation. He was betrayed, but the betrayer was one who had been His disciple and who, in the very act of betrayal called Him, “Master.” This was shameful cruelty on the part of Judas, not only to betray Him to His enemies, but to hail Him as “Master,” in mockery and to kiss Him in scorn. There was shame even in the way in which they went to Gethse-mane to arrest the Savior—with swords and staves, lanterns and torches—as though He had been some desperate malefactor who would resist to the utmost the officers of the law. No lanterns or torches were needed to show the way to the Light of the World! And their swords and staves would have availed them nothing if He had chosen to put forth His Omnipotent power! When He was dragged before Annas and Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod, His precious Person was the constant subject of scorn, so that He could truly say, “I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting.” “The soldiers platted a crown of thorns and put it on His head. They put on Him a purple robe and said, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ And they struck Him with their hands.” And when Pilate brought Him forth to the people and cried, “Behold the Man!” instead of pitying Him in His distress, they shouted, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” His agonies upon the Cross provided further subjects for their contempt and scorn. He could truthfully employ the language of the 22nd Psalm—“All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him.” They looked upon His Person as being so utterly contemptible that they desired that He should suffer death in its most ignominious form, “even the death of the Cross.”
And while they treated thus shamefully the Human Person of our Lord, we cannot forgot the jeers and taunts with which they assailed His Deity. When He said, “Hereafter shall you see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of Heaven,” the high priest tore his clothes and charged Him with being a blasphemer, while the whole assembly declared that He was guilty of death! And to show their contempt for Him, “then did they spit in His face, and buffeted Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands.” Even when He was enduring all the agony of the crucifixion, we read that, “they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads, and saying, If you are the Son of
God, come down from the Cross.” Was it not sufficient to degrade His spotless Humanity? No, the Glory of His Deity must also be turned into shame—in both His Natures, as Son of God and Son of Man, He must be “despised and rejected of men.” Alas that for so long the Prophet’s words were true concerning us, “we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised and we esteemed Him not.”
Not only was Christ’s blessed Person thus despised, but all His offices were the subject of scorn. I do but tell you what you all well know. I do but point you to the picture upon which you have often gazed. Remember how they mocked Him as a Prophet. “When they had blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that struck you?” They treated His prophetic office as though it had only been worthy of a jest or a jeer. He claimed to be the King of the Jews, so with ribald shouts they cried, “A king! Bring here His throne and seat Him upon it! Bring His royal robes and let Him be fitly adorned.” Their idea of fitness was some soldier’s discarded mantle cast over His shoulders in mockery of the royal purple. They put a reed into His hand as a mock scepter. And the only crown they thought worthy for Him to wear was made of thorns! To show their contempt for His royalty, they mockingly bowed the knee before Him and rendered Him only the semblance of homage. The only gifts they brought to Him were cruel blows and coarse insults which must have been peculiarly trying to His gentle, gracious spirit. I must not stay to tell how they turned the Glory of His office as our Great High Priest into shame, but all His offices were treated with the utmost contempt and scorn.