The First Effect of the Crucifixion.
Let us
I. Identify the persons who uttered this taunt. They were, I think, not like the other people present, there on purpose for the show; no idlers, no loiterers, no sightseers were they. They were bound for the city, and we may fairly assume that they were bound on business. We are not directly told that they were the persons elsewhere spoken of as the buyers and sellers in the Temple, but that they were so is a fair and almost inevitable inference from recorded facts.
II. Recall the speech of Christ which had given these revilers such deep offence. The Lamb of God was the Son of God, and therefore Lord of the Temple. This He declared Himself to be. It was no unsustained assertion; the supernatural power put forth, both in what He said and what He did, proved it. These men now remembered His words in answer to their former demand for a sign, "Destroy this temple, and I will build it again in three days." In the sudden light of hell fire they saw that these words might be so reported as to secure His conviction for a capital offence. They had no time personally to work the contrivance, but there hung about the doorways vile creatures who would swear to anything for money, and two of these they paid to be ready when called upon to swear thus: "This fellow said, I am able to destroy the Temple of God, and to build it in three days."
III. See how these men turned this speech of Christ into ridicule. They exulted to see Him on the cross. They were not afraid that He could hurt them now. It was perfectly safe to insult that which was dying on a cross, therefore they insulted the Sufferer, and this was the spirit of their terrible mirth, "Come down from the cross, if you can! You cast us out of the Temple twice; cast us out again."
IV. Observe that just at the time when this saying was being ridiculed it was being verified. All was coming to pass just as He had said, He had never said, "I will destroy this temple;" when He said "Destroy it" the force of the word was declarative rather than imperative, and He only intimated that if they did, or when they did, destroy His body, He would raise it again in three days. The first part of the oracle was now being fulfilled; the body was being destroyed. The second part was to be fulfilled in three days.
V. Observe the indifference to the death of Christ which these words imply. These men had their fling at the Crucified One; but the crucifixion was no business of theirs; their business was in the city. Jesus heard the men fling their taunt, saw them pass by, and was hurt because they had no pity for themselves. The words of the prophet express the spirit of Jesus, His spirit then, His spirit now, "Is it nothing to you that pass by?"
C. Stanford, Voices from Calvary,p. 71.