Chiastic Structure of Matthew 27:27-31

In preparing for Sunday’s sermon on Matthew 27:27-44, the following structure for the first section of the text emerged:

A. The soldiers took Jesus into the governor's headquarters (27).
  B. Jesus stripped of his garments and clothed in a scarlet robe (28).
    C. Jesus' head crowned with thorns (29a).
      D. The reed given (29b).
        E. The soldiers' mock obeisance: "Hail, King of the Jews!" (29d).
      D'. The reed taken (30b).
    C'. Jesus' head struck with the reed (30c).
  B'. Jesus stripped of the scarlet robe and clothed in his garments (31b,c).
A'. The soldiers led Jesus away to be crucified (31d).

Clearly the mock bowing and declaration of the soldiers is at the center of the text, and ironically declares the truth.  The title “King of the Jews” is used three other  times in Matthew’s Gospel.  In 27:11, Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Placarded over Jesus on the cross was the sign which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews” (27:37).  The other use of the title, interestingly enough, is found on the lips of the visiting Magi in Matthew 2, who arrive in Jerusalem asking, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” (2:2).  At the beginning and end of Matthew’s Gospel, it is the Gentiles who are declaring Jesus as the “King of the Jews.”  Also, whereas the soldiers bow down in mock worship, the Magi bow down in true worship.  Further, the word translated “Hail” in 27:29 is the imperative form for the word “rejoice.”  The wise men, upon departing from Jerusalem to go Bethlehem, “rejoiced greatly” when they saw the star (2:10).  The same verb is used.  These thematic and literary ties hint at a chiastic structure for all of Matthew’s Gospel, which others have explored, and certainly evidence the excellent manner in which Matthew, inspired by the Holy Spirit, penned the first gospel.  Jesus is “the son of David” (1:1), He is the King of the Jews, even if it takes the Gentiles to proclaim it.  And, subtly, Matthew would have us to imitate the Magi, and obey the solders’ command: “Rejoice!  The King of the Jews.”