‘In the same way also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, “He saved others; himself he cannot save. He is the King of Israel. Let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe on him.” '
Furthermore the Chief Priests and the Elders were back again, and this time with them were the Pharisaic Scribes. Here was the whole Sanhedrin with its supporters. And they too mocked Him to one another and cried, “He saved others, Himself He cannot save.” His boasts about what He could do had been great. This may refer to His ‘saving' of others from their diseases and afflictions (Matthew 9:12), and from evil spirits (Matthew 12:28), by His healing power. Or it may refer to the fact that He had claimed to be able to forgive sins (Matthew 9:2). Or indeed both, for it may refer to His whole Messianic ministry. But with all His boasts and claims, and especially the one that He had made at His trial (Matthew 26:64), in their view He could now do nothing for Himself.
Why, He had had the temerity to claim to be the King of Israel (the Jewish equivalent of the ‘King of the Jews'), the Messiah, and the title was even placarded above His head (they were taking out on Him their spite for what Pilate had written). Well, if He was, the solution was easy. Let Him demonstrate His Messianic powers, let Him descend from the cross, and then they would believe on Him. (All kinds of wonderful things had been said about the Messiah in popular literature and tradition. And while crucifixion had not been in mind, deliverance from death certainly had).
There is. of course, an irony at work here. Every Christian reading these words longs to shout out, ‘No, you are wrong. He could have come down from the cross. He can only deliver us because He did not deliver Himself'. That was where the Jewish leaders had gone wrong in not understanding the Scriptures which had spoken of this (e.g. Isaiah 53). For without Jesus' death there could be no healing from their afflictions and diseases (Matthew 8:17), no new covenant in His blood for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28), no redemption in the place of many (Matthew 20:28), no salvation of His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21), and the Scriptures would not then be fulfilled.