So they went, &c.— The priests going along with the guards granted them by the governor, placed them in their post, and sealed the stone that was rolled to the door of the sepulchre, to hinder the guards from combining with the disciples in carrying on any fraud whatever. We find a precaution of the like kind made use of by Darius, Daniel 6:17 in the case of Daniel shut up in the lion's den. Thus while the priests cautiously proposed to prevent our Lord's resurrection from being palmed upon the world, resolving, no doubt, to shew his body publicly after the third day, to prove him an impostor; they put the truth of his resurrection beyond all question, by furnishing a number of unexceptionable witnesses to it, whose testimony they themselves could not refuse.
Inferences.—The sentence of death is past, and who now with dry eyes can behold the sad pomp of the Saviour's bloody execution. All the streets are full of gazing spectators waiting for the ruthful sight; at last, O Saviour, I behold thee coming out of Pilate's gate, bearing that which shall soon bear thee; but alas! worn out with sorrows, and unequal to the burden, the blessed Jesus soon sinks beneath its insupportable weight. It is not out of any compassion to thy misery, or care of thine ease, blessed Sufferer, that Simon of Cyrene is forced to sustain thy cross: it was out of thine enemies' eagerness for thy dispatch; thy feeble paces were too slow for their purpose; their thirst after thy blood made them impatient of delay.
Hadst thou done this out of choice, which thou didst out of constraint, how should I have envied thee, O Simon, as too happy in the honour to be the first man who bore that cross of thy Saviour—an honour, wherein multitudes of blessed martyrs, since that time, have been ambitious to succeed thee! Thus to bear thy cross for thee, O Saviour, was more methinks than to bear a crown from thee. Could I be worthy to be thus graced by thee, I should pity all other glories.
Jerusalem could not want malefactors, though Barabbas was dismissed: that all this execution might seem to be done out of zeal for justice, two capital offenders shall accompany thee, O Saviour, both to thy death, and in it. Long ago was this unbecoming society foretold by the evangelical seer. He was taken from prison and from judgment; he was cut off out of the land of the living; he made his grave with the wicked. It had been disparagement enough to thee, adorable Jesus, to be sorted with the best of men. But to be matched with the refuse of mankind, whom justice would not suffer to live, is such an indignity as confounds my thoughts! Surely there is no angel in heaven, but would have rejoiced to attend thee; and what could the earth afford worthy of thy train? No, ye fond judges, ye are deceived. This is the way to grace your dying malefactors. This is not the way to disgrace him, whose guiltlessness and perfection triumph over your injustice. His presence was able to make your thieves happy: their presence could no more blemish him than your own. Thus guarded, thus attended, thus accompanied, is the blessed Sufferer led to that loathsome and infamous hill, which now his last blood shall make sacred. There, while he is addressing himself for his last act, he is presented with that bitter and farewell potion, wherewith dying malefactors were accustomed to have their senses stupified, that they might not feel the torments of their execution. It was but the common mercy to alleviate the death of offenders, since the intent of their last doom is not so much shame, as dissolution. That draught, O Saviour, was not more welcome to the guilty, than hateful to thee. In the vigour of all thine inward and outward senses thou wouldst encounter the most violent assaults of death, and scornedst to abate the least touch of thy quickest apprehension! Thou dost but taste of this cup; it is a far bitterer than this that thou art about to drink up to the dregs. Thou refusedst that which was offered thee by men; but that which was mixed by thine eternal Father, though mere wormwood and gall, thou didst drink up to the last drop; and therein, O blessed Jesus! lies all our health and salvation. I know not whether I do more suffer in thy pain, or joy in the issue of thy sufferings.
Now, even now, O Saviour, art thou entering into those dreadful lists, and now art thou grappling with thy last enemy, as if thou hadst not suffered till now. Now thy bloody passion begins. A cruel exspoliation is the preface to this violence; again do these merciless soldiers lay their rude hands upon thee, and strip thee naked; again are those bleeding marks of the scourges laid open to all eyes; again must thy sacred body undergo the shame of an abhorred nakedness: Lo! Thou that cloathest man with raiment, and all nature with its covering, standest exposed to the scorn of all beholders! As the first Adam entered into his paradise, so dost thou the second Adam into thine,—naked: and as the first Adam was cloathed in innocence, when he had no other covering, so wert thou the second too: and more than so, thy nakedness, O Saviour, cloathes our souls, not with innocence only, but with beauty: hadst not thou been naked, we had been cloathed with confusion. O happy nakedness! whereby we are covered with shame: O happy shame! whereby we are invested with glory.
Shame is succeeded by pain; methinks I see and feel, how, having fastened thee transverse to the body of that fatal tree, laid upon the ground, they racked and strained the tender and sacred limbs of my Redeemer, to fit the extent of their four appointed measures, and having tortured out his arms beyond their natural reach, how they fastened him with cords, till those strong iron nails which were driven up to the head through the palms of his blessed hands, had not more firmly than painfully fixed him to the cross! The fatal tree is raised up, and with a vehement concussion settled in the mortice!—woe is me, how are the joints and sinews of this patient sufferer torn by this severe distension! how does his own weight torment him, while his whole body rests upon this forced and dolorous hold! how did the rough iron pierce his soul, while, passing through those tender and sensible parts, it carried his flesh before it, and rivetted it to that shameful tree!
There now, Almighty Sufferer, there now thou hangest between heaven and earth, naked, bleeding, forlorn, despicable, a spectacle of miseries, the scorn of men. Is this the head that was decked by thine eternal Father with a crown of pure gold, of immortal and incomprehensible Majesty, which is now bleeding with a diadem of thorns? Is this the eye that saw the heavens opened, and the Holy Ghost descending upon that head, which now begins to be overclouded with death? Are these the ears that heard the voice of thy Father owning thee out of heaven, which now glow with reproaches, and bleed with thorns? Are these the lips, that spake as never man spake,—full of grace and power, which are now swollen with blows, and discoloured with blueness and blood? Is this the face that should be fairer than the sons of men, which the angels of heaven so desired to see, and can never be satisfied with seeing—which is thus defiled with the foul mixtures of sweat and blood and spittings? Are these the hands, that stretched out the heavens as a curtain; that by their touch healed the lame, the deaf, the blind; which are now bleeding with the nails? Are these the feet, which walked lately upon the liquid pavement of the sea, before whose footstool all the nations of the earth are commanded to worship, which are now so painfully fixed to the cross? O cruel and unthankful men, that offered such treatment to the Lord of life! O infinitely merciful Saviour, who wouldst suffer all this for unthankful men; where shall we find words sufficiently strong to express our boundless obligations!
Now, O ye cruel priests and elders of the Jews, you have full leisure to feed your eyes with the sight that you have so much longed for! there is the blood which ye purchased; and is not your malice yet satiated? Is not all this enough, without your taints and scoffs at so exquisite a misery? The people, the passengers, are taught to insult, where they should pity; every man has a scorn ready to cast at a dying innocent: a generous nature is more wounded by the tongue than with the hand. Thine ear, O Saviour, was more painfully pierced than thy brows, or hands or feet. It could not but go deep into thy soul, to hear these bitter reproaches from those whom thou camest to save.
But alas! how trifling were these in comparison of the inward torments which thy soul felt, in the sense and apprehension of thy Father's wrath for the sins of the whole world, which now lay heavier upon thee for satisfaction. This, O this it was that pressed thy soul, as it were to the nethermost hell. While thine eternal Father looked lovingly upon thee, what didst thou, what needest thou care for the frowns of men or of devils? But once he turned his face from thee, or bent his brows upon thee, this was worse than death. It is no wonder now if darkness was upon the face of the whole earth, when thy Father's face was eclipsed from thee by the interposition of our sins; how should there be light in the world without, when the God of the world, the Father of lights, complains of the want of light within! that word of thine, O Saviour, was enough to bring down the sun out of heaven, and dissolve the whole frame of nature, when thou criedst, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!
O what pangs were those, blessed Lord, which drew this doleful complaint from thee! thou well knewest that nothing could be more cordial to thine enemies, than to hear this mournful language from thee! they could see but the outside of thy sufferings. Never could they have conceived so deep an anguish of thy soul, if thy own lips had not expressed it. Yet as not regarding their triumph, thou thus pouredst out thy sorrow; and when so much is uttered, who can conceive what is felt! This was the very acme of that bitter passion, which thou wouldst undergo for us; when the Lord laid on thee the iniquities of us all. O Saviour, hadst thou not thus suffered, we must have borne the heavy weight for ever. Thy sufferings are our salvation; thy dissolution is our safety.
But the severity of this torment was not long to be borne; and now the measure of thy sufferings, as well as the prophesies concerning thee, being fulfilled; all types and ceremonies, all satisfactions, both happily effected and proclaimed; nothing now remains but a voluntary, sweet, and heavenly resignation of thy blessed soul into the hands of thine eternal Father; and a bowing of thy head for the change of a better crown, and an instant entrance into rest, triumph, and glory.
And now, O blessed Jesus, how easily have carnal eyes all this while mistaken the passages and intentions of this thy last and most glorious work! Our weakness could hitherto see nothing here but pain and ignominy; now my better enlightened eyes see in the elevation of thine both honour and happiness. Lo, thou that art the mediator between God and man, the reconciler of heaven and earth, art lifted up betwixt earth and heaven, that thou mightst accord both. Thou that art the great captain of our salvation, the conqueror of all the adverse powers of death and hell, art exalted upon this triumphal chariot of the cross, that thou mightst trample upon death, and drag all those infernal principalities manacled after thee. Those arms which thine enemies meant violently to extend, are stretched forth for the embracing of all mankind. Even while thou sufferedst, thou reignedst. O the impotent madness of vain men! they think to disgrace thee with bitter scoffs, with poor wretched indignities; when in the mean time, the heavens declare thy righteousness, O Lord, and the earth shews forth thy power! the sun withholds his light, as not enduring to see the suffering of his Creator. The earth trembles under a sense of the wrong done to her Maker. The rocks rend; the veil of the temple tears from the top to the bottom; in short, the frame of the whole world acknowledges the dominion of that Son of God, whom man despised. Thou therefore, O my soul, unite in acknowledgment, not only of his dominion, but of his love; and living in constant adoration of his tender mercies, who did die for thee on the cross, intreat him in the last hour to sustain thee, and to enable thee to say, with his fortitude and faith, Father, into thine hands I commend my spirit.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Though the Sanhedrim had condemned the innocent Jesus as worthy of death, they had not in their hands the power of capital punishments, and therefore must have him sentenced by the Roman governor before they could proceed to execution, the sceptre being now departed from Judah, and the country become a Roman province. Hereupon we are told,
1. On a second council held in the morning, in order effectually to get their bloody purposes executed of putting him to death, they determined to accuse him before Pilate, at that time the Roman president, as an infamous malefactor and incendiary; and accordingly, binding him as a criminal, they led him ignominiously through the streets, from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's palace, and delivered him up, that sentence might be pronounced upon him, and that he might die the death of the cross; thus undesignedly fulfilling the predictions of Jesus, Chap. Matthew 20:19.
2. Remorse had by this time seized on the conscience of Judas. When he saw that Jesus was condemned and ready to be executed, filled with horror, and agitated with self-indignation, anguish and despair, he ran to the temple, and there in one of the chambers to which the council seems to have been adjourned, he brought the hated price of his wickedness, the thirty pieces of silver, and publicly acknowledging the atrocious crime that he had committed in betraying innocent blood, would have returned their wages of unrighteousness. But they, instead of being struck with conviction, treated his confession with contempt. He had answered their ends; and as to the means employed, or the guilt that he had incurred, they cared not about it; as if it was nothing to them that they had bribed him to commit the villainy, and were that moment persecuting to death the innocent person whom he had betrayed. Made desperate by such neglect, and the unavailableness of this attempt to stop the prosecution of Jesus, his life became a burden, and the devil urged him to put an end to it. Casting down the abhorred silver in the temple before them, and flying to some solitude, he immediately hung himself, by self-murder finishing the measure of his iniquities. Note; (1.) The time will come when the sweetest sins will be turned into the poison of asps. (2.) There is no repentance without restitution, as far as possible, of ill-gotten gain. (3.) When wicked men can bring the professors of religion to join them, indifferent to the remorse which they afterwards behold in them, they only mock at the calamity, and at sin the cause of it. (4.) The love of money has been the fatal snare to many a soul: for this they have plunged themselves into the gulph of perdition. (5.) Despair is among the greatest crimes, and often ends in self-murder, a remedy still worse than the disease: for the deepest guilt there is mercy to be hoped, while life continues; but, when men fly from God to the devil for ease by suicide, they are undone for ever.
3. The money being left, they consulted how to dispose of it. Pretending conscience, they would not put it into the temple treasury, though probably it was taken thence, because it was the price of blood; and therefore, with the shew of great piety and humanity, laid it out to purchase a small piece of ground which had been dug up by a potter and was of little value, in which to bury strangers or proselytes: whereby they perpetuated their own infamy; the people, who knew what money made the purchase, calling it justly Aceldama, or the field of blood. And herein they exactly fulfilled what the prophet had foretold, Zechariah 11:12-13. The words are said to be in Jeremy, though only found in Zechariah: concerning which there are many ways suggested to solve the difficulty. The most probable seems to be, either that, in the division of the sacred books, the last volume began with Jeremiah, and therefore, though containing all the later prophets, bore his name; or that Jeremiah had so prophesied first, but had not committed it to writing, and Zechariah confirmed and wrote it in his prophesy. The words, as they stand in the prophet, are, They weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. Thus did they who rejected the Messiah fulfil many of the great prophesies concerning him. Note; (1.) Many who are bitter persecutors of God's people, still study to maintain the character of piety and humanity among men. (2.) Christ's blood has provided a resting-place for poor sinners after death; and though he was treated with such contempt, and his price so low, we see in his humiliation peculiar glory; and the deeper his abasement was, it renders him in the eyes of all that believe more precious.
2nd, Behold the Son of God a prisoner at a human bar; and he, to whom every knee must bow, and whom we all must meet as our eternal Judge, now appears as a criminal before Pilate: having condescended to bear our sins, he submits to suffer in our stead as a transgressor. We have,
1. The charge laid against him. Knowing the jealousy of the Roman government, the chief priests, his accusers, had suggested that, in assuming the character of the Messiah, he meant to raise an insurrection, and make himself a king. Pilate therefore interrogated him on this head, whether he presumed to arrogate the title of King of the Jews? and Jesus acknowledged the charge; though he assumed no such temporal dominion as they suggested; his kingdom was not of this world: (see John 18:36.) The chief priests and elders were hereupon very loud and clamorous in their accusations, as if he was a perverter of the people, a sower of sedition, forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, and affecting the sovereignty of the country. To all which Jesus, with astonishing patience, made no reply. What they said was indeed notoriously false, as themselves knew: but he wanted not to defend himself; his hour was come, and he stood prepared to answer the demands of divine justice, and to bear our sins in his own body on the tree. Therefore, when Pilate urged him to reply to the charges, and clear himself of these accusations, he observed a profound silence, to the great astonishment of the governor, who could not account for so unusual a behaviour in a person whose life was at stake, and depended on that moment. Note; (1.) It has been usual with the enemies of the servants of Jesus to dress them up so as to render them suspected by the civil government, and to insinuate ill designs against the state, in order the more easily to oppress them. (2.) Silence is often the best answer to the accusations of malice; and when we know our defence is sure to be overruled, it is fruitless to contend.
2. Pilate, convinced of the innocence of Jesus, and well knowing the motive of the virulence shewn against him by the chief priests, who were stung with envy at the excellence of his character, and the high reputation he held with many, which eclipsed their own, wished for a pretext to release him. And hereunto he was yet more induced by a message from his wife, who just at that time, while the trial was going on, sent to entreat him to do nothing against that just man before him: for she had that morning been terrified by a very uncommon dream concerning him, which bore strong marks of a divine original; and therefore conjured him to discharge the prisoner, lest he should bring down the wrath of God upon himself and family by condemning the innocent. Therefore, as it was an established custom at that feast to gratify the people with the release of any prisoner whom they chose, Pilate thought he could not fail of succeeding by proposing to the people their choice, whether of Barabbas or Jesus. The infamous character of Barabbas, who for sedition and murder, and other villanies, was held in the greatest detestation, left him no room to doubt that the people would prefer Jesus, whom they had so lately ushered with hosannahs into the city, and whose excellencies all must have seen. Note; (1.) God has access to the spirit, and can speak to our souls when our senses are locked up in deep repose. (2.) Sinners have sometimes solemn warnings; but they are too apt to slight the heavenly admonition. (3.) The nearer and dearer any person is to us, the more are we obliged to watch over him for good.
3. The multitude, instigated by the craft of their wily priests, who represented Jesus in every black and diabolical colour, and engaged them to prefer Barabbas before him, demanded the murderer, to the astonishment of Pilate, and rejected the Lord of life and glory: and, not content with this, when the governor, willing to release Jesus, inquired of them what they wished he should do with him whom many regarded as the Christ, or Messiah; they with one consent cried out, Let him be crucified, a death the most painful, ignominious, and accursed. Shocked at such a demand, Pilate remonstrates with them on the injustice and cruelty of such an action, Why, what evil hath he done? On the severest scrutiny his judge could see no fault in him, his adversaries prove none, nor did even the traitor suggest the shadow of a crime—A glorious testimony of the avowed innocence of Jesus. But this tumultuous assembly, notwithstanding, wrought up to a pitch of fury by their malignant priests and rulers, with louder cries demanded his crucifixion, determined to extort the governor's consent, and bear down reason and justice with rage and clamour. Note; (1.) How little dependance is to be placed on popular applause. They who one day cried, Hosannah to the Son of David, now cry, Crucify him, crucify him. (2.) The unspotted innocency of the Lamb of God evidently shews, that he bore not his own sins, but the sins of others: he voluntarily submitted to die as a criminal, that he, though just, might suffer the punishment due to the unjust, and thereby bring us unto God.
4. Pilate, unable to prevail with them, and not having resolution to deny their request, so importunately and clamorously urged, for fear of an uproar; yet conscious of the innocence of Jesus, and shocked at the thought of murdering a just man, bethought himself of a miserable expedient to pacify his conscience without disobliging the people: and therefore, though yielding to their importunity, he protests against the fact; and, taking water before them all, he washed his hands, that by this significative action he might appear clear from all the guilt which should ensue, declaring himself innocent of this righteous blood; and therefore, since they compelled him to condemn the innocent, he lays it wholly upon them to answer for the crime before God and the world.—An absurd procedure indeed in a judge, whom nothing should awe from the administration of impartial justice.
5. They hesitate not to subject themselves to all the consequences which might ensue: and, since Pilate seemed scrupulous, they are very ready to quiet his conscience by solemnly transferring all the guilt upon their own, madly imprecating on themselves, and their latest posterity, the vengeance, if any were due, His blood be on us, and on our children. So daring do presumptuous sinners grow: so little are they apprehensive of the consequences of their impiety. But these murderers soon found the vengeance which they had imprecated terribly lighting on their devoted heads in the utter destruction of themselves and families; such multitudes being crucified by Titus during the siege, that the crosses stood so thick around the walls, that there was no more room for them; five hundred in a day thus miserably expiring. And to this hour the effects of that imprecation are visible upon this miserable people; and will be, till, returning to the Lord whom they once rejected, the wrath shall be removed, and their iniquity be forgiven.
3rdly, The matter being thus determined:
1. Pilate having released Barabbas, that most infamous criminal, delivered Jesus over to their will, having first scourged him severely, in hopes of moving their compassion, John 19:1.; but finding it all ineffectual, and that they were bent on his destruction, he appoints his immediate execution on the cross, as they insisted. And herein we may observe, (1.) The fulfilment of the Scriptures, Psalms 129:3.Isaiah 50:6; Isaiah 53:5 where these stripes had been foretold. (2.) In the release of Barabbas we have an emblem of our own deliverance through Jesus Christ. As guilty perhaps have we been as this notorious prisoner: we have robbed God of his glory, and often laboured to murder our own and others' souls. For which we must all have perished without hope, had not our divine substitute yielded up himself that we might go free, and that the chief of sinners might find in him plenteous redemption. (3.) Bloody as the stripes of Jesus appear, we need bless God for them, since by these stripes we are healed.
2. Being delivered into the hands of the inhuman soldiers, they dragged him into the common hall, and, to make themselves merry in his miseries, and in the view of the character that he assumed as a king, they stripped off his clothes, arrayed him in a scarlet robe in mockery, and, platting a crown of thorns, in derision placed it on his head, giving him a reed, or hollow cane, for a sceptre; and, gathering the whole band around him, they, with insulting homage, bowed the knee, and addressed him with the deriding title of king of the Jews; while some spat in his face in contempt of his majesty, and others snatched the cane out of his hand and smote him on the head that the thorns might wound the deeper his sacred temples. While we reflect on their wickedness with horror, indignation, and astonishment, let some measure thereof be transferred to ourselves. They were the instruments, but all mankind, and we in particular, have been the cause of all his torment. And when we see the innocent Lamb of God submitting to these indignities, and look on that face, marred more than any man's, defiled with spitting, black with buffetings, and dyed with blood streaming from his temples, what emotions of love and gratitude should glow in our bosom towards him who endured such things for us, that we might not be the mockery of devils, the scorn of angels, and abhorred of God?
3. Glutted with cruelty, and satiated with such inhuman mirth, they stripped off his robes of mock majesty, and put on him again his own seamless garment, the perquisite of those who should be more immediately employed in his execution. Then, binding his cross upon him, John 19:17 they led him, as a lamb to the slaughter, a spectacle through the city, to suffer without the gate. But, it seems, wearied out with his sufferings, his strength failed him, and they were obliged to release him of his load, lest they should be disappointed of their cruelty in nailing him alive to the tree. Seizing on one who was passing by, known probably to have been a disciple of Jesus, and therefore treated with such indignity, they compel him to bear the cross after Christ to the place of execution. Note; Every true believer must expect his cross, and be content to go to Jesus without the camp, bearing his reproach.
4thly, We have an account of the crucifixion of Jesus.
1. The place where he suffered was called Golgotha, signifying the place of a skull; either from the form of the hill, or because the malefactors executed there were buried on the spot. Where death therefore erected his trophies, there Christ, who tasted death for every man, erected his cross, that he might in triumph look down upon his vanquished foe, as it was said, O death, I will be thy destruction.
2. Before they nailed him to the tree they offered him a bitter cup of vinegar mingled with gall. (See the Annotations.) He tasted it, but refused to drink. He wanted not to prolong his life, nor would do ought to discompose his mind, prepared to feel every misery before him, and desiring not to be excused the sensation of any one painful pang that he must endure. The gall of that cup our sins supplied; had he not atoned for them, we must eternally have drank to the dregs the cup of bitterness and trembling.
3. They crucified him; which was done by stretching the arms on the wood as it lay upon the ground, and nailing them; then they fattened the feet to a piece of wood fixed to the body of the cross, and lifting it up, stuck it fast in a hole prepared to receive it, the shock of which frequently dislocated the bones of the criminal; and there hanging upon the nails, in convulsions and torments inexpressible, he expired. Thus did the Son of God humble himself to death, even the death of the cross. Whilst angels with wonder and amaze behold him, what sentiments of transcendent admiration and love should glow in our bosoms, when we see him dying on the accursed tree, for us men and for our salvation?
4. The executioners divided his garments as their fee; and while they sat down and watched him, that no rescue might be attempted should the people now relent, they cast lots for his outer garment, which was without seam, and must have been spoiled if cut to pieces; thus in the most exact manner fulfilling the prophetic word, Psalms 12:8; They parted my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
5. On the cross a tablet was hung, importing the crime for which he suffered, as was usual on these occasions. But this bespoke his honour rather than reproach: This is Jesus the king of the Jews. Such indeed he really was; and whatever intention they had who wrote it, God designed even here that a testimony should be borne to his Messiah.
6. Two thieves were crucified with him, and he placed in the midst, as if to stamp the most indelible infamy upon him, as the vilest of all malefactors. Thus was he numbered with transgressors, and with the wicked in his death. Though he had done no violence, yet, bearing the sins of the world, divine justice treated him as a criminal, and he died under the curse of our iniquities.
7. On the cross he endured the greatest contradiction of sinners against himself:
[1.] From the common people, and passengers who went by as he hung on the tree. Unmoved at his sufferings, unaffected with the astonishing patience wherewith he bore them, they vented their blasphemies against him, wagging their heads, as insulting over his miseries, (Psalms 22:7.) and triumphing in his torments; upbraiding him with his pretended ability of destroying the temple, and raising it in three days; and bidding him now put forth some of that power of which he boasted, in coming down from the cross to which he was nailed, and thus at least prove the truth of the high pretensions that he made, as being the Son of God. Note; (1.) When a man is run down, and cast out for his religion, under the name of enthusiasm, by the great and the rulers, almost every one is ready to join in the cry. (2.) If Christ was thus reviled and ridiculed, let us not think it strange, if the mouth of the ungodly be opened upon us in bitter words.
[2.] From the chief priests, scribes, and elders. They came to feast their eyes with this sight of misery, and, instead of being at their devotions in the temple, (Leviticus 23:7.) meanly mixed with the rabble around the cross, to gratify their malice, and spit their venom; mocking at him; and saying, He saved others, himself he cannot save. His present state, they suggest, evidently proved the delusion of the miracles to which he pretended, and the impossibility of his being the Saviour of the world; whereas in fact the very reason why he would not save himself, was, because it would not then be possible for him to save others, since on his sufferings their salvation depended. As he assumed the honour of Israel's King, they upbraid him with his arrogance, and bid him exert his authority, and loose himself from the cross; then, they profess, they will believe in him; though after what he had done, this was a mere subterfuge for their infidelity. Had he complied with their proposals, they would instantly have found new objections, and would suppose that some trick had been played; that he had never been nailed to the tree; as they afterwards evaded the evidence of his resurrection, by the absurd pretence that his disciples stole away the body by night. Because Jesus had professed such unshaken confidence in God, and claimed so near a relation to the Most High, they now bid him put it to the proof; intimating, that God's not delivering him in his distress, shewed him a deceiver; and while they thus vilified him in the eyes of the people, they hurled a fiery arrow against the faith of the Redeemer, to terrify his innocent soul, as if there was no hope for him in his God. (Psalms 22:8.) Unmoved, the Saviour heard in silence their blasphemies, and persisted patiently in accomplishing his own glorious work. Note; Many pretend want of evidence as a reason for their unbelief; but were Christ to indulge them with the grant of what themselves propose, they would be as far from faith in him as ever. The fault is in the heart: they who believe not Moses and the prophets, will be proof against every other method of conviction.
[3.] From the thieves who were crucified with him. See the Annotations.
8. A dreadful darkness now came on over all the land. The sun miraculously withdrew his light, as if terrified at beholding his Maker's agony, and terrifying his abhorrence of such transcendently atrocious wickedness; affording an emblem of that judicial blindness to which this devoted people were now abandoned. It might be intended also to represent the dreadful conflict with the rulers of the darkness of this world, which Jesus maintained on the cross, when, by dying, he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. And this eclipse of the great luminary of heaven was also but a faint image of the darker eclipse in the Redeemer's soul, when every cheering beam of consolation was withdrawn, the light of his Father's countenance withheld, and a sense of this dereliction, arising from the wrath of an offended God, completed the measure of his suffering. Three such hours had never passed since darkness was upon the face of the deep.
9. After a long and silent conflict, about the ninth hour, his agony being now at the summit, with a loud but lamentable voice Jesus cried, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?—Strange accents from him whom God had repeatedly owned for his beloved Son, and in whom he had testified himself so well pleased! We never hear one complaint from these sacred lips of all his inhuman treatment or bodily torment. What he then felt was infinitely more insupportable, and extorted this exceeding bitter cry. Not that the hypostatic union was dissolved, or that there was any real abatement of the Father's love towards him; never did he as Mediator appear more amiable than now, when, through the Eternal Spirit, he offered himself without spot unto God. But since he took upon himself the sins of the world, he was given for a while into the enemy's hands, and all the powers of hell were let loose upon him; every divine support was withdrawn, and the terrors of wrath due from an offended God seized on his soul, and sunk him in the lowest deeps. Despair excepted, I question much, whether the spirits of the damned have felt the wrath of God in this its utmost depth of bitterness: yet, though forsaken, firm and unshaken Jesus hangs fast on God, and in this deepest dereliction still can say, My God.
Lastly, The by-standers, either wilfully or ignorantly mistaking his words, said he called for Elias, as if he wanted his help, and that it was too late for him to cry now. And hereupon one ran and filled a spunge with vinegar, and with a cane lifted it to his lips, which might be a suggestion of compassion, since his pains must have created intolerable thirst; though usually it is supposed to have been done to mock and teaze him, and add to his anguish: while the rest deriding said, Let be, let him alone; let us see whether Elias will come to save him, since he is to be the forerunner of the Messiah; but no such help, they presumed, would be afforded him, alike abandoned by heaven and earth.
5thly, The conflict is now over, the victory complete, sin atoned for, Satan's head bruised, justice satisfied, death vanquished, hell shut up, the kingdom of heaven opened for all believers, and all this by the death of Jesus here recorded; concerning which we are told,
1. The manner in which he expired. Having finished the work the Father had given him to do, he cried, not as a dying man exhausted and spent, but with a loud voice, the shout of victory over all his conquered foes, and thus in his full strength yielded up the ghost; freely resigned his soul into his Father's hands, and his body to death, the threatened wages of sin, which he had consented to bear. Thus fell the spiritual Samson, spoiling principalities and powers, and triumphing over them on his cross. Thus died the great Redeemer, just at the time when the evening sacrifice of the lamb was slain, the figure of him who in the evening of the world appeared, to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
2. The miracles which attended his death.
[1.] Behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain, which separated the holy of holies from the outer tabernacle, where the table of incense stood, and the golden candlestick; and this at the very time probably when the priests were there ministering, and burning the sacred incense before it. Whereby was signified, (1.) The abolition of the Mosaical services, the darkness of that dispensation being now removed, and its mysteries unveiled; so that with open face we now behold the glory of the Lord. (2.) The demolition of the partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles, who are alike called into the fellowship of the Gospel, and partakers of the same privileges. (3.) The free access which every sinner has to God; so that he may now come boldly to a throne of grace: and every faithful soul, when death shall rend the veil of flesh, shall be admitted to a throne of glory, by that new and living way which Jesus hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, Hebrews 4:16; Hebrews 10:19-20.
[2.] The earth did quake, and the rocks were rent by it; marks of God's wrath against these murderers, and of that fury which he would pour out upon them, when their rocky hearts should be broken in pieces. Hereby also was signified the destruction of Satan's kingdom, and the wondrous changes now about to be wrought in the world, when the most stout-hearted sinners should tremble before the Lord, and feel their souls rent with deepest conviction when led to look up to a crucified Jesus.
[3.] The graves were opened, immediately by the earthquake, and many bodies of the saints which slept, arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many,—a glorious proof of Christ's victory over death and the grave, and an assurance to all his saints of a joyful resurrection.
Who these saints were, whether the patriarchs, or such as had seen Christ in the flesh; to whom they appeared; what they said or did; these and the like inquiries, being matters of mere curiosity, the Holy Ghost has not thought fit to reveal to us. All that is needful for us to know, is told us, and therein we should thankfully acquiesce, not coveting to be wise above what is written.
3. The effect which the death of Christ and the subsequent miracles had on the centurion and soldiers who kept guard at the place of execution. Though heathens and strangers to the true God, and probably the very persons who had treated Jesus with such indignity, had dragged him to that place, and nailed him to the tree; these strange sights, the darkness, earthquake, and expiring cry of the Redeemer filled them with consternation. Their stout hearts trembled for fear lest they should be swallowed up in righteous vengeance; and these amazing effects of divine power and interposition extorted from them that noble testimony to the Saviour's divine mission and character, Truly this was the Son of God.
4. To the honour of the female sex, mention is made of several women, and three of their names are recorded, who, though the disciples in general had forsaken their Master, and fled, continued their attendance in his last moments; and, having followed Jesus out of Galilee, and ministered to him of their substance, now stood afar off, perhaps not daring to approach nearer; and with broken hearts and floods of tears beheld and lamented their dying Lord, unable to minister to him either help or comfort. Note; (1.) The longer and the farther we have followed Christ, the more should it engage us to cleave to him, even to the end. (2.) They who love the Lord Jesus in their hearts, will be happy to employ their substance in his service.
6thly, It was foretold, that the Messiah should make his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; and we see it fulfilled in the honourable interment given him by Joseph of Arimathea, after he had died as a malefactor, and suffered in our stead the wages of sin. Several circumstances concerning his burial are taken notice of by the Evangelist.
1. The time,—the evening of the day on which he suffered, which was Friday, some time before the Jewish Sabbath commenced.
2. The person who charged himself with the care of the burial,—Joseph of Arimathea, a man of wealth and distinction, one of the sanhedrim, and a secret disciple of Jesus, though through fear he had not publicly avowed it; but now, when Christ seemed deserted of all, he dared step forth, boldly went in to Pilate, and begged the corpse, that he might inter it with due respect; which was granted immediately, and an order sent to deliver the body to him. Note; (1.) There are more secret disciples than we are often aware of. (2.) The possession of worldly wealth and honour is usually a grievous check to the faithful and open profession of Jesus and his cause. (3.) In times of trial, when the boldest are ready to shrink, we sometimes see those who were scarcely numbered among the disciples before, come forth with unexpected courage and fidelity, and make a noble confession before many witnesses.
3. The manner of it. He took down the body from the cross, and wrapped it in clean linen, according to the custom of the Jews; and he himself attended, and performed these last kind offices to his dear Master.
4. The place where Joseph laid the corpse,—In his own new tomb, hewn out in a rock, and closed with a great stone at the mouth; which when Joseph had done, he departed in silent sorrow to bewail his loss. So divine Providence ordered the circumstances, that none having lain there before, there could be no doubt, when Christ arose, concerning the person: and the solid rock out of which the sepulchre was hewn, prevented the possibility of suspicion of any secret access to the body, except by the entrance, and that was sufficiently guarded. Note; (1.) He who when alive had not a house to cover his head, when dead, wanted a grave: so destitute was the Lord of glory: who then after him dares complain? (2.) Since Jesus has lain in the grave, he has perfumed the noisome abode; and in this bed of dust, as the phoenix in her fabled nest, the faithful now lie down, only to rise in brighter array, and take their flight to mansions of eternal glory.
5. The care which Christ's enemies took to have the sepulchre secured. The chief-priests and Pharisees, who were such scrupulous observers of the Sabbath, had not patience to wait till it was over, but assembled, and went in a body to Pilate, to petition him for a guard, in order to secure the body against the following day; because, they suggest, Jesus, that deceiver, (so do they call him who is the truth itself) had said, while he was yet alive, (so that they admit he was now certainly dead,) After three days I will rise again. We find not indeed that he had ever expressly said so to them; and if they founded their suggestion upon what they had heard, (John 2:19.) then their own bare-faced wickedness was yet more evident; since on this very passage, which they applied to the temple, they formed a great part of their accusation against him. Pretending therefore to fear, lest his disciples should come by night and steal him away, and say he is risen, they desire to be furnished with a band of soldiers, to prevent all such attempts; lest, if such a trick should be played, the consequences of this last error, in not properly guarding the sepulchre, should be worse than the first, in suffering him to preach and live so long; for should this be once believed, the character of Jesus would then be established, and his doctrines spread with greater rapidity than ever. Pilate readily gratified them in granting their request, though no doubt he regarded their fears as absurd and ridiculous, and presumed that they had little now to apprehend from a dead man. They had a body of soldiers in the tower of Antonia for the service of the temple, and he permits them to detach what number they pleased to guard the sepulchre, and to use every other method to make the place as sure as they could. Nor did they fail to take every step to prevent the possibility of an imposture; setting a guard of soldiers, in whom they could confide, to watch the body that night, and sealing the stone with the public seal, either of Pilate or the sanhedrim, that none might presume to enter, till the next day they should return themselves, and, producing the dead corpse, undeceive the people, and detect the impostor. Thus by the gracious Providence of God was every circumstance so ordered, respecting the resurrection of Jesus, that our faith in that grand event might have the most unshaken grounds of evidence indisputable, and be more strongly confirmed by all the methods that his enemies took to guard the body from the possibility of being clandestinely removed. Indeed it can scarcely be supposed, that his disciples, who all so basely forsook him and fled when he was alive, would ever return to steal him away when he was dead: and they could have no end to answer by it; for to endeavour, by saying he was risen, to impose on the people, would be inconceivable madness and folly in them; since they must thereby expose themselves to every suffering for their testimony, and be of all men the most miserable in this world; conscious of dying with a lie in their right hand, and having no hope in the next. But had they desired or designed to execute such a scheme, they must have been now effectually prevented. In the face of a body of armed soldiers, placed as centinels on the sepulchre, and whose lives depended upon their watchfulness,—to suppose that they would ever have attempted to break the public seal, roll back a ponderous stone, descend into the tomb, and carry off the body by stealth, is an absurdity too glaring to be conceived. So far as human, as diabolical power could go, Christ's enemies went; but counsel and might are alike vain against the Lord. They who oppose his kingdom will find their attempts not only baffled but turned to their own confusion; their guilt but the more aggravated, and their eternal ruin more dreadful.