"And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. (36) And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, (37) And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself."
I pray the Reader, again and again to mark the insults offered to the person of the Redeemer in his offices. As the Church by sin had put an affront on all the characters of her Lord, Jesus, in redeeming her, shall sustain in his own person those insults. Hence the rabble mocked at his office as the Great Prophet of his people, when they smote him, and said unto him, prophecy, thou Christ, who is he that Smote thee. So again, in his Priestly office; the derision of the rulers in all those instances of pardon, Jesus had shewn (Mark 2:5-12) was blasphemously used, when, as in the passage before us, they said, He saved others, himself he cannot save. Think, Reader! what an awful instance was here! And his Kingly office, the Roman soldiers insulted, when they said, as they offered Christ the predicted vinegar, (see Psalms 69:21.) If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. Reader! do not fail to behold the hand of Jehovah in these solemn transactions. Both Jew and Gentile shall bear part in those insults offered to Christ's person and offices. For the Lord Jesus was at that moment redeeming his whole Church, both Jew and Gentile. The heathen was his for an inheritance, now Christ, was set as king on his holy hill of Zion. Psalms 2:1 throughout. Never did the glory of the Lord Jesus shine out more fully! Never did Christ more fully prove his suretyship character as now, when his glorious offices were thus set at nought and despised.