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• Irony has the capacity to clarify an incident and express what is important about it.
• There are four ironies of the crucifixion of Christ.

• Jesus is given a mock crown of thorns and mocked as king, but Matthew and his readers know that Jesus really is the King.
• Jesus stood in the royal line of the Davidic king and told parables about kings in reference to himself.

• Crucifixion was the worst means of execution, reserved for slaves and rebels.
• Bystanders insulted Jesus as he hung there: “Come down from the cross if you are the son of God!”
  - Matthew 27:39
• While Jesus was unimaginably weak, he was powerfully bringing about the destruction and resurrection of the temple.
• In an attempt to explain what he means and does, Jesus told his disciples they must take up their crosses and follow him.
  - Matthew 16:24

• Illustration: Carson’s son had a t-shirt that depicted Jesus making a save as a soccer goalie above the message “Jesus saves.” Carson felt this was in bad taste, but it raised an interesting question: What does to save mean in our culture?
• Everything Jesus does is for the purpose of saving people from sin.
• The reason Jesus could not save himself is that he came to do his Father’s will.

• Jesus’s cry reflected his deepest awareness of his abandonment and his judicial bearing of our sin.
• Jesus suffered like he did so we wouldn’t have to.
  - Illustration: At the end of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem “Cowper’s Grave” about the depressive William Cowper, she quotes Christ as saying, “My God, I am forsaken!” Hereby she illustrates that Jesus died so Cowper wouldn’t have to.