Chapter 27

 

            The first thirty-two verses of this chapter are before the cross and the rest of the chapter deals with the crucifixion and what follows. In the first two verses we have a brief resume of the third trial. Matthew does not have the complete six trials of the King, only those which are pertinent to his subject.

            Verses 1-2, the third trial of the Lord Jesus Christ. The reason for the third trial was to try to make the second one legal. In the second one there was an illegal condemnation, in fact everything about the trial was illegal. The trial was obviously controlled by religious people and there is a very important principle: it is impossible for religion or religious people to be fair and objective in their evaluation of anyone or anything. Remember that it was religion that put Jesus Christ on the cross. This is why in Matthew chapter 23 we have such a vitriolic condemnation of the religious people from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Religious people are not usually developed overnight, they are developed through a process of self-righteousness, legalism and activities connected with the ego.

            Verse 1 — “When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.” This is more or less a statement rather than the details of the trial. The morning is mentioned specifically and emphasised because this was an attempt to make the Jewish trial legal by holding it in the daytime. It was illegal under Jewish law to hold a trial at night. It was also illegal to pass a sentence the same day as the trial and, as we have already seen, in the night before they not only held the trial briefly but the sentence was passed at the same time. So the Jewish leaders are going to make an attempt to unravel all of their mistakes and to make it legal and still get Jesus Christ on the cross. When morning was come they were more determined than ever that Jesus Christ should die and we read exactly who are involved here: the chief priests and the elders. The chief priests are the religious leaders, generally Sadducees; the elders is a term designating the Sanhedrin, which is the supreme court of the land. The two terms together (sometimes a third is added: scribes) indicate religious leaders. Religion persecutes the truth; religion put Christ on the cross; religion is the devil’s ace trump. Notice that they “took counsel", which means they called a meeting in order to somehow legalise and ratify the illegal trial of the night before. Notice one phrase: “against Jesus.” The judges were not open-minded. In fact they had already condemned Jesus without a trial. Their purpose is stated by the aorist active infinitive at the end of the verse which says “to put him to death” .This was their objective; they had no other in mind; they hated and despised Him as only religion can hate and despise grace and the truth.

            Verse 2 — they discover that they are unable to do anything of significance with regard to condemning Him under their law, so they are going to send Him over to the Romans to see if the Romans have some way in which they can put Him to death.   

            “And when they had bound him they led him away.” The binding and the leading away has to do with delivering Him over to the Romans for trial; “and they delivered him to Pontius Pilate.” One thing about the latter part of the book of Matthew is that we run into a lot of weak characters. Here is a person who had every chance to be a great man. He was a Roman aristocrat with every opportunity to be a great man and he muffed it. He was a fairly young man when he was appointed procurator of Judaea. Judaea had become a Roman province. The word “governor” which we find constantly in connection with Pontius Pilate is not his correct title. He was not a governor, he was more than a governor. The Latin word is procurator, and the procurator had the right of life and death. He was the Roman empire in a third-class province, and Israel was a third-class province, the lowest of all the Roman provinces.

            Pontius Pilate started out very well. He was appointed by Tiberius in 26 AD, just four years before these events occurred, and he was a typical Roman aristocrat. He walked into Palestine, took one look at it and said: “But I’m going to change all that.” And he immediately did something that practically started a revolution. On the Mediterranean coast there was the famous port that had been constructed by Herod the Great called Caesarea, named after Caesar. About 40 miles away was Jerusalem. Pilate just said: “I’m going to move army headquarters from Caesarea over to Jerusalem.” Caesarea was a Hellenised city which was accustomed to having Romans around and it didn’t bother anyone. But when he marched the Roman legions into Jerusalem it immediately raised a fuss, not because the soldiers were there but simply because the soldiers had the pictures of various Roman gods on their shields. They would hang these shields up on the walls, and they also had their Roman eagles and the standard bearer of the Roman army or every Roman organisation wore a wolf’s head. And, as a matter of fact Pontius Pilate being an aristocrat had a gold shield. They didn’t have a coat of arms as we know it but all aristocrats had a gold shield on which they had their ancestors and they always had the name of their patron god. So they had the name of a Roman deity and the names of all of their ancestors and sometimes a picture or two which offended the Jews. The Romans shields and standards were blasphemous to the Jews and they immediately got upset about it and wrote to Tiberius Caesar. In the meantime they protested and so Pilate took some of his soldiers out of uniform, put them in civilian clothes and told them to take their weapons and go kill a few, which is exactly what they did. The whole thing finally boiled over into a slight revolt which Pilate put down. Tiberius wrote him a rather nasty letter and told him to shape up a little and use his head, and not to upset the Jews. So Pilate therefore moved the army headquarters back to Caesarea but he didn’t like the Jews at all from that point on. So he finally came up with a new idea. Pilate had charge of all of the money in the Jewish temple, so he hauled out a few million dollars of it and built an aqueduct with it. This practically started a revolt again and Tiberius had to write him a second letter and slap his hand. He was constantly being reprimanded by the emperor Tiberius because he was upsetting the Jews in all of these ways. As it turned out Pilate was an excellent administrator. The aqueduct which he built was from a spring 45 miles away from Jerusalem and at a later time it became one of the main sources of the water supply in Jerusalem. The few million dollars he used turned out to be one of the greatest investments of all time as far as the inhabitants of Jerusalem were concerned. Pilate turned out to be a very smart man but he just couldn’t get over the fact that he was a Roman and he was an aristocrat and to him the Jews were an inferior people. There is nothing that makes a Jew madder than to be considered inferior to everyone else and Pilate always gave the impression that he thought they were. The Jews despised him and he despised them but because he was one of the greatest administrators in the Roman empire Tiberius kept him on, and the Jews practically ran a shuttle bus back and forth from Rome constantly complaining about Pontius Pilate. But Pilate laughed at them and Tiberius slapped his wrist occasionally but kept him in the job. And it is not until his handling of the case of the Lord Jesus that he showed any weakness in character.

            You can’t imagine what it cost the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees to run Jesus Christ over to Pontius Pilate. The very fact that they had to cross the way to the Praetorium, that in itself was almost too much for them. Here is one of the greatest cases in history of a group of people swallowing their pride in order to get rid of someone they despised. While they despised Pontius Pilate they despised the Lord Jesus Christ even more. One of the principles that needs to be understood from these first few verses: you should almost feel the hatred of the Jewish religious leaders for Jesus Christ, their hatred is so great that they will swallow their pride and crawl to Pontius Pilate whom they despise, and who has insulted them as a race as well as individuals. Therefore when they are willing to crawl to the Praetorium and beg Pilate to put Jesus to death you know immediately that they despise this one called Jesus Christ — and they did. They hated Him with all of the strength of religion.

            “the governor.” This is the Latin word procurator, he is the final leader, he represents Rome in the province.

            Verses 3-10, a slight parenthesis — the repentance of Judas Iscariot. Here is a great paragraph about what happens to a person who takes a detail of life and blows it out of its proper proportion. Judas Iscariot had a strong cupidity, he was a lover of money. Money was his god really; money was important and Christ was nothing. We have already seen he was a thief, he was the treasurer, he stole what was in the treasury as often as he could, and thirty pieces of silver represented apparently a lot of money to him and it looked as though he was going to have a very happy and wonderful life because for thirty pieces of silver he betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ to the believer must be paramount and money and everything else in life must be a detail, but to Judas Iscariot as an unbeliever He represents the principle of Christ being nothing and money being everything. Money is his life and now he has acquired some. And how does he feel about it?

            Verse 3 — “Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he had been condemned.” Judas has been present at the first three trials. Judas has seen how religion handled Jesus Christ. Judas apparently was even shocked at the chief priests going around getting people to lie about Jesus and hoping that two of them would agree. As he watches this he realises that he himself is “condemned” and the Greek work here is katakrinw, a compound verb. Kata is the preposition of norm or standard and krinw is the simple verb to judge. He is judged by a norm or standard. Now the norm or standard by which Judas is judged is his own concepts. By Judas’s own norms he condemns himself, so this word “condemn” actually is a little stronger than that, it means to have a tremendous guilt complex. He “was condemned” means that by watching the trials of Jesus Christ he came up with a strong guilt complex, he judged himself by his own norm or standard. He was a rat in his own eyes at this point.

            One thing about Judas Iscariot was that he could still accept Christ as saviour, he could still recover from all of this. But with this guilt complex he continues on negative volition, he continues to reject Christ and as a result of guilt complex plus negative volition he develops a fantastic pressure in his mind. While he does not become psychotic he does have some sort of a mental breakdown to the extent that he finally swings over to emotion. The next verb is a verb of emotion and he becomes a strictly emotional being and not a rational being, and when a person is strictly emotion he has had it; emotion governs his life and everything he does from this point on is based on emotion rather than rational thought.

            “he was condemned” is an aorist passive indicative. The aorist tense refers to the guilt complex starting with his observation of the three trials. The passive voice means that this thing came upon him by observing the way they handled Jesus Christ. The indicative mood is the reality of his guilt complex.

            “repented himself.” This next verb is a verb of emotion. It is translated “repent” and it is not a good translation. Judas repented but the Greek word for repent is metanoew, which is a compound. Noew means to think; meta means a change or reversal. So the whole word means a reversal in thinking, a complete change of mind. This is the word generally translated repent. The second word and the one which is used in this verse and erroneously translated repent is the Greek word metamelomai. Melomai means feelings, strong feelings, emotion; with meta it means a change of feeling. So metamelomai here means to feel sorry, to feel guilty, and it is strictly an emotional connotation. The sad thing is that most of these words are translated “repent” and what makes it even sadder is that today repent means just about what you want it to mean. But generally in theological circles it has been so abused that it means to feel sorry for sin, but it doesn’t mean to feel sorry for sin, never did mean to feel sorry for sin. Repent means a complete change of mental attitude and the object of the change is declared by the accusative case in context. But this word is strictly an emotional word — all emotion here. And Judas has now become just exactly where any person going into the tongues movement is when he gets all worked up and ecstatic. There isn’t any difference at this point between Judas Iscariot at this point and some cluck involved with tongues. Judas has emotion plus sincerity plus a guilt complex and this is about as low as you can get. These are some of the greatest enemies of the Christian life. There is no excuse for any believer having a guilt complex for more than five seconds, long enough to confess it.

            The big thing about Judas here is that his life is money and now that he has money he is miserable. Just like many believers who want things. When they get it they are not happier, unless Christ is first and the only way that Christ can be first is through Bible doctrine. If Bible doctrine is first you are going to have a wonderful life; if Bible doctrine is not then you cannot be occupied with Christ, and the details become important and the details will ruin your Christian life — you magnify them out of their place and you lose them and you’re miserable.

            The third verb has to do with restitution — “he brought again the thirty pieces of silver.” If salvation were possible through restitution Judas would be saved, but no one is ever saved by any activity of the flesh, including restitution.

            Verse 4 — the fourth thing he does is to confess his sin. “Saying,” present linear aktionsart, He didn’t say it once, he repeated it a few times, and the reason he repeated is because he was so emotional about it and so sincere “I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood.” No one has ever been saved by confession of sin, confession of sin is for the believer only, it is the means of rebound but it has no place in salvation.

            It is an interesting thing that blood is mentioned again. Blood speaks of the work of Christ on the cross and it is very important to understand that whenever we have the phrase “blood of Christ” in the Bible that the blood of Christ is an analogy to the Old Testament. In the Old Testament the animal was killed by cutting his throat and the animal bled to death. But the bleeding of the animal is not analogous to the bleeding of Christ; Jesus Christ did not bleed to death. The physical death of the animal is analogous to the spiritual death of Christ, and in His spiritual death Christ did not bleed, He was judged. The blood refers to Old Testament salvation. Wherever you find the blood: “the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” The blood cleansing means that our sins were judged and this is analogous to an animal sacrifice having his throat cut. So the blood of Christ analogy is always between the physical death of an animal and the spiritual death of Christ on the cross.

            The answer to Judas was given by religious leaders, the sentimental do-gooders. These people who answered him are the hardest people in the world, the meanest people in the world, and the toughest people in the world. They are religious leaders and tomorrow they will give alms to beggars. Notice what they said because what is recorded in the English doesn’t make sense for the simple reason that they have translated an idiom literally instead of giving its true idiom in the language: “And they [the religious leaders] said, What to us? see thou.” The translators tried to put in some italics to try to help us, which they didn’t .What this actually says in the Greek is: “That’s your own damned business.” That is what the idiom really means. In other words, they hear a man who betrayed Jesus come back and say He is innocent, and that he has betrayed innocent blood, and he throws down the silver and will not take the price which they have paid him, and very brutally they say, “Well that’s your own damned business” .Now this is the mind of religion in all of its hardness and brutality and all of its negative volition.

            Now there was another problem they had. To recognise Judas as sinning they have to recognise their own guilt. If Judas is right and he has betrayed innocent blood, and they recognise that, then they are recognising that Jesus is innocent. So Judas has put them on the spot, they don’t want Jesus to be innocent. If Judas says it and he says it too much then they are in a jamb according to their own law. So they are in a very serious problem.

            Verse 5 — “And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.” Why did he hang himself? People took money to betray someone all the time in the Roman world. If you allow the pressure of a guilt complex to continue and add to it the criterion of emotion, and add to that sincerity, you are going to crack up. And the mind could not take all of this and it snapped, and his last act of negative volition was to take his own life, something no one has the right to do. He has been on negative signals since the day that Christ called him as a disciple. He has been on negative signals so long that when he gets enough guilt complex and enough emotion and sincerity in his mind at the same time it pops, and the last thing he does is to kill himself.

            All of his life Judas wanted to have a lot of money. In that day 30 pieces of silver represented a lot more money than it does now and once Judas had what he wanted — which was money, money, money — the money didn’t give him what he thought it would give him. All of his life Judas thought money would make him happy and once he had money it didn’t make him happy. And so the other factor in his suicide was total disillusionment with what he thought would make him happy. It didn’t make him happy and therefore he went out and killed himself.

            “and hanged himself” — aorist middle indicative. Aorist tense: point of time; middle voice: is reflexive. This was the last act of his volition. The middle voice is the voice of volition here, he did it to himself. The indicative mood is the reality of his suicide.

            There is one other point about Judas. The thing he loved the most he threw away — money. What was his attitude toward Christ? He loved Christ the least; he loved money the most. Christ was a detail; money was paramount. Now when he throws money away he is going to throw away anything less than money in his own set-up, and Christ is less than money so he threw away the money, he turned down Jesus Christ and he went out and hanged himself. In other words, he didn’t have anything left.

            There is a concept here. When you turn down Jesus Christ you don’t have anything left either. And then after you accept Christ as saviour, if you are not occupied with Him — and the only way you can be occupied with Him is by learning Bible doctrine —, and if Christ is a detail and money and friends and social life and whatever it is is more important, then you are in the same boat that Judas was.

            Verse 6 — “And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.” When they said that they were going to kill Him. They got this man for one reason, they are not going to turn Him loose until He is dead. That is their whole objective. This is money for a betrayal. In Deuteronomy 23 there are certain types of money that cannot go into the treasury. For example, money made from prostitution, money made from selling a dog. For example, if you sell someone else (the price of slavery) don’t bring the money, and Judas had sold Christ, as it were. So the money couldn’t go into the treasury but isn’t it marvellous how particular these men were about this point of the law! But what they are doing is killing the Lord of glory, the subject of the Mosaic law. This shows us a perspective of religion. Religion deals with the little petty points and ignores the overall principle of grace.

            So when the priests refused to put this money back in the treasury they were condemning themselves. The very fact that they recognised it as betrayal money or blood money is a condemnation of themselves.

            Verse 7 — “And they took counsel.” They had to have a business meeting to decide what to do with this money; “and bought with them [the pieces of silver] the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.” They decided to buy a special cemetery for those who could not afford burial.

            Verse 8 — “Wherefore the field was called, The field of blood, unto this day” because of the confession of Judas and what he said. Actually this cemetery became a memorial to the guilt of the religious leaders who bribed Judas.

            Verse 9 — “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy [Jeremiah] the prophet.” But this isn’t from Jeremiah, it is from Zechariah 11:12,13. Now “Jeremiah the prophet” is in the text but in the scrolls Jeremiah was at the head of the scrolls and Zechariah was at the end of the scroll, and the scroll was called by the first book in the scroll which was Jeremiah in this case.

            There was another reason why they didn’t call it Zechariah and that was because Jeremiah spoke about this thing but Zechariah actually pinpointed it with a prophecy. So actually the Zechariah scroll amplifies the prophecy of Jeremiah. Jeremiah talked about Tophet and the field of blood, and Tophet and the field of blood now become one. Apparently this is the field they bought, the field of Tophet, the pounding of the drums. Tophet is the Hebrew word for drums and this was a favourite expression of Jeremiah’s .Tophet is from the Hebrew toph, and toph is a drum. They used to offer children out in this field outside of Jerusalem to Baal. A fire was built under Baal and obviously when the children were in the fire they were going to scream so what they did to drown out the screams was to play these drums all the time. Therefore they called it the field of the playing of the drums — Tophet. This apparently was the field and now it becomes a cemetery for those who can’t afford a plot.

            “saying, And they took thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value.” This is the estimate they put on Him.

            Verse 10 — “And gave them for a potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me.” The word “me” refers to Zechariah who wrote this originally. Zechariah had been commanded to set that field aside for a potter’s field later, and now it is fulfilled. Zechariah lived at around 516 BC and he was commanded to reserve this field for the time when it would become a potter’s field. And when the Sanhedrin began to look for a field which they could buy for thirty pieces of silver they found this potter’s field set aside by Zechariah — and this was 30 AD. Over 500 years before this field was set aside and no one would touch it, and now it was purchased and made into a cemetery.

            The principle behind this: For the person who is an unbeliever, living by his emotions, living by his sincerity, developing the guilt complex with that, he winds up in a potter’s field, an unknown grave as it were; a miserable, useless, horrible life. He winds up like Judas Iscariot.

            Verse 11 — “And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him.” This is the fourth trial and in this particular trial we have the first of the Roman trials, the attempt on the part of the Jews to get rid of the Lord Jesus Christ in a legal way. No trial held in Israel during a holy day was legal and this, of course, was the period of the Passover and the unleavened bread. Therefore it was impossible to try, to condemn, to execute, to sentence during that period. So the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees lowered themselves, in their own opinion, to go to Rome for help in this matter.

            Again, the word “governor” means procurator, and a procurator was the governor of a third-class province. Israel was a third-class province. The highest of all of the provinces were the provinces run by the emperors. Then there were the senate provinces and they were ruled by proconsuls. The governor here is Pontius Pilate.

            At the time of the deliverance of Jesus Christ to this particular courtroom, the Praetorium, the judge had no prejudice of any kind. This is the first judge before whom Jesus has stood and the judge was not previously prejudiced against Him. The supreme court of Israel, the Sanhedrin, has already demonstrated its prejudice in many ways. We have here a very brief account of this particular trial, only that section which Matthew needed to emphasise the Kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ.

            “saying, Art thou the King of the Jews?” This is the one question which Matthew emphasises because Matthew is the gospel of the King; “And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest,” which is an idiom in the Greek for affirmative, the answer is correct. Notice that Jesus had to answer this question. There was no way he could get around it because He is King of the Jews. He is King of the Jews on two counts: because He is God, and as God He is the root of Israel. Jesus Christ, as God, is the founder of the Jewish race; secondly, through His physical birth Jesus Christ was born directly in the line of David and He is the son of David. So in both cases Jesus Christ is the King of the Jews and no one has a greater right to the throne than He has, and therefore it was impossible for Him to answer any other way.

            Verse 12 — “And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.” This verse is really a sort of an aside to indicate the fact that in the first three trials Jesus Christ would not speak up and say anything because for three years He had presented the evidence of Messiahship and these religious leaders had completely and totally rejected that evidence. So obviously when the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees quiz Him along this line He does not answer them. He does not dignify their questions with an answer, they have more information than they actually need because for three years they have seen the accreditation of the Messiah. From the time that He turned on His heel and walked out on religion at the end of the temple discourse that was it, and Jesus Christ will have nothing to do with religion; He will not speak to them. They are in His presence but you can be in the presence of someone and be separated from them, He will not answer them a word.

            But Pilate has an open mind. He is a Roman and under Roman law he has been thoroughly trained in observation and in interrogation. Therefore his interrogation is legitimate and Jesus Christ recognises that by answering in the affirmative. The contrast between verses 11 and 12: in verse 12 religion does not get an answer because religion has constantly had answers and Jesus has now separated Himself from religion. But in verse 11 we have an unprejudiced judge, Pontius Pilate, and he receives the answer.

            Verse 13 — “Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee?” The chief priests and the scribes were accusing Him in a Roman court. The Roman procedure was for the accusers to speak first. The chief priests were standing up and declaring that he was guilty, that He claimed to be King of the Jews, and so on. They were carried away with this thing and they constantly stood up and said derogatory things about Him.

            Verse 14 — “And he [Jesus] answered him to never a word, insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly [kept on being astounded]” — present linear aktionsart. He was constantly amazed at the tremendous poise of the Lord Jesus Christ. The religious leaders have already condemned Him, they desired one thing only: His death. Therefore even though Jesus was forced to be in their presence He was still separated from them.

            There is a point here: Separation is not only physical, it is also mental. In this particular case we have an actual mental separation. Jesus Christ will not speak to the religious leaders at all.

            Pontius Pilate recognises that Jesus Christ is innocent. He wasn’t stupid, he was very smart. He was weak, that was his problem. He didn’t have the strength of character to stand for that which is right. Beginning in verse 15 we skip the fifth trial before Herod the Great and we go to the sixth trial.

            Verse 15-26, the last trial of Jesus Christ (the 6th). This is the second trial before Pontius Pilate. This last trial is the most important, in fact it is so important that it is recorded in all of the gospels — Mark 15:6-15; Luke 23:18-25; John 18:39-19:16. A great deal of information is given regarding this trial for this reason: it is a Roman trial with an unprejudiced but weak judge; it is a fair trial and Jesus is found innocently an impartial judge. And yet Jesus is killed because of political expediency, weakness of character.

            Verse 15 — “Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would.” The feast here refers to the Passover and this is the beginning of a feast period.

            By the way, all of these feasts are also Sabbaths. In John’s gospel you find “on the morrow before the Sabbath,” and everyone thinks that the morrow before the Sabbath is Friday night, and that Good Friday so-called is the day when Christ was crucified. But the morrow before the Sabbath is not “Good Friday” at all, it is “Good Wednesday,” because every feast day was a Sabbath. The Sabbath was not only every Saturday but also every feast day. The Passover depicts the death of Christ on the cross. As a matter of fact Christ died on the Passover in 30 AD. The second feast is the unleavened bread, and this one lasts for seven days. So we have eight days right together of holy days. In the middle of the unleavened bread is the firstfruits, the first Sunday in unleavened bread, which depicts the resurrection of Christ. Then fifty days after the firstfruits we have the fourth one which is Pentecost — Pentecost simply means 50 days — and it occurred on a Sunday, the Church began on a Sunday.

            During this eight-day period it was the custom of the Roman empire for the governor to release someone who had been incarcerated; “the governor was wont,” this means he was accustomed, “to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would [desired].” Pilate, realising that here was an innocent person who was being railroaded by the religious crowd, came up with this brilliant plan to release Jesus.

            Two factors about Pontius Pilate: he was a brilliant man, but when it came to character he was weak. That is the sad story of Pontius Pilate. He knew that Jesus was innocent but he didn’t have the strength of character to say, “This man is innocent; this man is under the protection of Rome and you will not touch Him.” It was his intention to release Jesus Christ. In this way he would not have to face the true issue: Is Jesus innocent or guilty? In his mind he knows that Jesus is innocent but a person who is brilliant but has a weak character can never face the true issue, and he spends his life circumnavigating true issues and is always miserable by so doing.

            There is another point here. Remember that the religious crowd kept on accusing Jesus vehemently. Religion always bullies, and religion bullies Pilate. They can’t bully Jesus Christ, He will not answer them, He stands in the Praetorium with all of that great dignity that comes from the divine viewpoint in His human frontal lobe and they can’t shake Him. He will not speak to them, He will have nothing to do with them, even though they are standing near Him and accusing Him He will not answer them a word. Jesus is perfect strength and perfect strength does two things: it stays silent, and therefore is separated from religion trying to bully Him. He still is courteous and He answers Pilate.

            The religious crowd are bullies because of legalism. They try to bully Jesus and they do not succeed. They bully Pontius Pilate, and what do you suppose they use to bully Pilate who knows that Jesus is innocent? They do not go to him and directly bully him. They accuse Jesus but they will not go directly to Pilate and bully because he will rise up, even though he is a weak person, and tell them where to get off. He despises the religious leaders, he knows them for what they are. So the religious leaders go to the mob, and they gather the mob, and it is the mob who cries, “Barabbas.” The final step in destroying law in this case was the mob.

            Verse 16 — “And they had then a notable [notorious] prisoner, called Barabbas.” Barabbas is a Chaldean name. “Bar” means son in Chaldean; “abbas” means father, son of the father was his name. Barabbas was the leader of murder incorporated. He was one of the biggest gangsters of his day and he was deliberately selected by Pontius Pilate and put up against Jesus Christ because he was the worst gangster in captivity. Barabbas is public enemy number one; Jesus is perfect. Never was there a greater antithesis between two people. Pontius Pilate is certain that the people will ask for the release of Jesus when Barabbas is put up against Him.

            Verse 17 — “Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye.” “Will ye” is the key here — qelw, which means volition. He is now going to get an expression of volition from the people but the word which he uses is volition which is expressed through emotion in contrast to another Greek word, boulomai, which means volition expressed through mentality, through the mind. So we have qelw instead of boulomai because the decision of the mob is always an emotional decision, it is never a rational decision. That is why Matthew records the decision of the mob in this way.

            “that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ [the Messiah]?” — a criminal or Messiah? This is why Pontius Pilate did it. He knew Christ was innocent.

            Verse 18 — “For he knew that for [because of] envy they had delivered him.” The word “for” is dia plus the accusative case, and it should be translated “because of.” Envy is a ghastly mental attitude sin, jealousy or envy. The religious leaders were jealous of Jesus Christ and they are going to kill Him because of jealousy. Jealousy has two weapons of assassination, one is the tongue and the other is violence.

            Verse 19 — “When he was set down on the judgement seat, his wife sent [a message] unto him, saying, Have nothing to do.” Now “have nothing to do” is an idiom which means do not condemn, do not be responsible for this man’s death; “with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.” The word “dream would indicate that the wife of Pontius Pilate made a practice of seancing. And this was not unusual among the Romans, the Romans became very interested in seances. She had received some impulse which told her that this one will cause the ruination of Pontius Pilate. So she sends her husband a warning. The word “suffered” would indicate that in the trance she went into some real mental agony, and the word “dream” actually refers to a trance.

            Verse 20 — “But” is the conjunction of contrast. While Pontius Pilate had made up his mind to release Jesus Christ, and therefore had put up Barabbas; “the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitude.” The word “multitude” is a poor translation. It should be “mob.” “That they should ask [for] Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.” Notice the word came from the chief priests. The chief priests are ruling the people and they are ruling not by the law but by mobs.

            Principle: The rulers of any people must rule through law and never through mobs.

            Verse 21 — “The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye [qelw] that I release unto you? They said.” the aorist tense of “They said” means this is their final decision, “Barabbas.”

            Verse 22 — “Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ [Messiah]? They all say unto him, let him be crucified,” aorist passive imperative. This is an illegal procedure but Pilate does not have the strength of character to resist the mob and to further antagonise the leaders of the land. Roman procedure would have been to say, “We find this man innocent and he now has Caesar’s protection. Any man who tries to touch Him will suffer the consequences.” In other words, He is under the protection of the Roman army.

            They desired that He receive crucifixion. Why not stoning? Because the Jews cannot stone during a holy day and they now have eight more holy days after the Passover. Therefore they have to have Roman punishment or they would have to wait eight more days.

            Verse 23 — this is interesting. What was happening about a week ago? The crowd followed Jesus from Bethany and the crowd that came out from Jerusalem to meet Him on a Palm Sunday cried to Him: “Hosanna, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Now that same mob now cries: “Let him be crucified.” The mob is always fickle; the mob does not have brains; the mob only has emotion, and you must remember that emotion is fickle even in an individual as well as in a mob. Emotion is to enjoy the things of life but the things that you enjoy today you may not enjoy tomorrow. And this is true of all mobs in the history of the human race; they are always emotional, they are never rational, and they are always fickle.

            “And the governor said, Why.” This is unusual. It is beneath the dignity of a Roman governor to argue with a mob, but he does so. And notice, that question was never answered. A mob is not rational, a mob is emotional, and it isn’t a matter of right and wrong to them, it isn’t a matter of what is the law, of what is just and what is unjust. They have been incited by the religious crowd and they are going to kill Him; “what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.” Only that isn’t the way you translate the aorist imperative. It is, “Crucify him.”

            Verse 24 — this verse indicates that Pilate never again could get the mob quiet until he agreed. “When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing.” Pilate was helpless before the crowd. There is only one reason why Pilate is helpless. Pilate is a Roman, he has an armed Roman guard at the Praetorium. He was helpless for one reason: he was weak, and a weak character cannot face up even though he personally is in no danger; “but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it [observe it].” This was his last trial to bring reason into the mob but the only reason that can be brought into a mob was for violence to be met with violence. The Roman guard could have dispersed the mob. But Pilate did not order the dispersal of the mob, he catered to the mob.

            Verse 25 — “Then answered all the people, and said, His blood on us, and on our children.” There is no verb here at all. “On our children” brings up the law of culpability. The children are not responsible for their fathers sins apart from their own culpability, they have to repeat the parents’ sins — Ezekiel 18:2; Jeremiah 31:29,30. But the children who obey and trust the Lord, He will show mercy to them down to the thousandth generation — Deuteronomy 24:16. So the fact that the next generation of Jews are going to be dispersed means they repeated the sins of their fathers — legalism, religionism, apostasy.

            The cry that came from the crowd has two post-mortems. Thirty years later the Romans took 3,600 of the noblemen of the Jews in that very same Praetorium. Another Roman stood on the balcony of the Praetorium and when the Roman mob came he ordered the collecting of 3,600 of the nobility of the Jews and he hauled them out before the mob and had them publicly scourged and crucified right there. And many of the people who stood in the mob that night before Pilate, calling for Jesus to be crucified, were those who were crucified, and their children were crucified. And then the final scene on that very same spot. When the Romans broke in in August of 70 AD and moved up to the Praetorium as they moved toward the temple, on that very spot there was a fight, and the blood completely covered the cobblestones of that courtyard — the very people who said, “Crucify Him, His blood be on us and our children.” They asked for it and they received it.

            No mob ever gains control, even temporarily, without resulting in people dying.

            Verse 26 — “Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.” The scourging is a part of the Roman procedure. “To be crucified” is an aorist tense, point of time; passive voice: He received crucifixion; but the subjunctive mood here is very important. It says whether Christ was crucified or not depended on His volition, the volition of Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus Christ could still have defended Himself and destroyed the mob and the Romans. The subjunctive mood is brought in at this point to show that even yet Jesus could say, “I won’t do it.” But Jesus Christ went on for one reason: He had you personally in mind. If you had been the only sinner in the human race He would have gone, just for you. What was the basis of His decision. Bible doctrine in His frontal lobe. Bible doctrine sustained Him here even as Bible doctrine sustained Him on the cross. Only Bible doctrine can sustain through the darkest moments of any life. Jesus Christ was sustained by that which is perfect — Bible doctrine.  

            How Jesus went from the Praetorium to Golgotha.

            Verse 27 — “Then the soldiers of the governor [Pontius Pilate] took Jesus into the common hall [the Praetorium], and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers.” The Roman soldiers who were stationed in Palestine were famous for their brutality. Most of them had a Greek background. At this time the Roman empire the Roman army was not composed of Romans, it was composed of all kinds of people. Most of them were Greek or had some kind of a Greek background and while they were not necessarily educated they still has the prejudices of the Greeks, and most of the Roman soldiers despised the Jews. Therefore they made it a point to be brutal whenever possible and there are many illustrations in history of the abuse of Jews by Roman soldiers. So at a time like this when a Jew was about to be crucified the Romans, as it were, were turned loose and they could practice any type of brutality they wanted to. In this particular case their brutality had no particular restraint and we have a record of some of the things which they did. Once again this is Satan trying to keep Jesus Christ from going to the cross and bearing the sins of the world. The soldiers of the governor are Roman soldiers, Roman in name only, and they represent many nationalities and, again, brutality.

            The word “band” simply means the detachment which was stationed in Jerusalem, less than a legion.

            Verse 28 — “And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.” Apparently many indignities were suffered at various times and in this particular case they had wind of the trial, that He was King of the Jews, and therefore they decided to have a little mockery in this area. When it says they put on Him a scarlet robe the word for scarlet here indicates a crimson robe of a Roman official or a Roman officer. They put it on Him in order to conduct the mockery.

            Verse 29 — “And when they had platted [weaved or braided] a crown of thorns.” The crown of thorns takes us back to Genesis three verses seventeen and eighteen, and we anticipate the fact that man is under the curse and now Christ, the Son of man, is going to take that curse upon Himself. So the crown of thorns is very significant though apparently the Roman soldiers were not aware of it. To them these long thorns which stuck in His brow would be another form of torture and discomfort; “they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand.” A reed is simply a stalk and this is His mock sceptre; “and they bowed the knee before him.” This was in mockery and sarcasm; “and mocked him,” a lot of verbal ridicule, some of which is recorded; “Hail to the King of the Jews!” They used the word “hail” here because hail is a Roman word [Ave], usually for recognition of an emperor or a VIP in the Roman empire.

            Verse 30 — “And they spit upon him.” Covering Him with saliva is a means of communicating their utter contempt and their rejection, though some of these soldiers will actually be saved before the sun goes down on that night. Then they began to punch Him, and we have the word they “smote” him. This is imperfect linear aktionsart, which indicates they kept on striking Him with their fists.

            Verse 31 — “And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.” There are many details left out. Matthew is simply emphasising the King and therefore his facts are pertinent to this. They mocked Him, He is the king of the Jews; He is the King of kings and Lord of lords as God. As Man, the King of the Jews; as God, the King of kings. Yet the Romans in recognising Him they did so sarcastically, they did it in rejection, and they abused Him.

            Verse 32 — Matthew doesn’t give all the details; John does. So we will have to fill in a little as far as this verse is concerned. “As they came [kept on coming] out.” A great crowd followed and on the way apparently Jesus could not carry His cross. He had been abused so often in the last 24 hours. And even though in His humanity He is the strongest person who ever lived, by now He was so weak that He could not carry the wooden beam on which He would be crucified. And they are now moving along, the Roman troops and the crowd had formed a procession and are going through the streets of Jerusalem. When it is noticed that Jesus is staggering and cannot carry the cross a Jew from Cyrene is compelled to carry the cross. “Simon by name.” He is a Jew from North Africa who has come to Jerusalem in order to observe the holy days, beginning with the Passover and terminating with the day of Pentecost. Apparently he was involved in Judaism, he was religious, and he is standing in the crowd watching this scene and before he knows it he is a part of it; he is commandeered by the Roman centurion.

            It is very interesting that in that procession that day there were three people who were born again as a result of being in that procession. The first is Simon of Cyrene, representing the Jewish remnant. Then there is the dying thief, one of the gangsters, representing the immoral Gentile, and then the centurion who perhaps represents to us a respectable Gentile. All three of these people were in the procession and before the sun goes down that evening all three will be children of God, they will find Jesus Christ as personal saviour.

            Simon was a well-known believer later on in North Africa. After receiving Christ as saviour he went back home. He apparently had a very successful business. He had two sons who were well-known and whose names are mentioned in Mark 15:21, Alexander and Rufus. He apparently led his wife and two sons to the Lord, he was one of the first martyrs in North Africa, his wife moved to Rome and in Romans 16:13 she is mentioned as one of the spiritual leaders of the Roman church. Later on the two sons are mentioned in a wonderful and favourable way. But at this time they compelled him to pick up the cross, even though he does not want to.

            Verse 33-50, the events of the cross.

            Verse 33 — Matthew doesn’t say a great deal about the procession. More information is given in other gospels. Here we have the location of the crucifixion. “And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha.” Golgotha is simply the Aramaic word for the skull. This is a barren hill looking apparently something like a skull, and apparently been denuded of anything that would indicate vegetation, and therefore called the skull. Golgotha is the correct name, there is no Calvary. Calvary is just simply the influence of Roman Catholicism. But the hill is Golgotha and if you observe all four of the gospels you will find that in every case it is Golgotha, the place of the skull. And that is an excellent name for it because this is the place of death.

            Verse 34 — “They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall.” They didn’t give Him vinegar, the word is wine, cheap wine. And they had a special kind of a narcotic called gall which they poured into it. In other words, being a holy day they didn’t want the people to suffer as much as usual so they gave them this wine with the narcotic to deaden the pain. This is very significant because once again Satan is at work in the offering of this narcotic.

            “and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.” Jesus refuses it for this reason: He must have full use of His volition. As we have seen, if there is no such thing as human volition there is no cross, there is no salvation. In His humanity Jesus Christ had to have absolute free will. He had to make the decision to go to the cross, and you will recall His words in the garden of Gethsemane: “Father [speaking from His humanity] if it be possible let this cup pass from me.” The cup refers to the sins of the world, and on the cross Christ is going to drink the full content of this cup. In other words, our sins are going to be poured out upon Him and God the Father is actually going to judge all sins in Christ; “Nevertheless, not my will but thy will be done,” and in so doing He was expressing human volition.

            Now Jesus has not yet arrived at the place where He is going to bear the sins of the world. No matter how many times He is punched and abused He must have a clear mind right up to the point where He begins to bear sins, and He must of His own volition at the point where the sins are poured out upon Him, be willing to bear them in our place and be judged in our place. Therefore He must have a clear mind. The administration of the poor man’s wine plus the narcotic in it would destroy the clearness of His mind and for that reason Jesus Christ refused to drink. If you will recall something, when did Jesus have His last wine? He had it at the communion table. And if you will recall His words, He said, “I will not drink with you again until new wine in the Millennium.” So when He said that He was making it very very clear that He would personally refuse anything of this type that was offered in order to have His perspicacity right up to His death on the cross. In spite of the pain and the punishment which Jesus has received He must have His mental faculties on the cross, more so than at any time in all of His incarnation. So in order to bear our sins Jesus refused something that would have eased the pain. It was His purpose to bear our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24) and therefore He absolutely refused to do anything that might hinder His ministry or His mission. Jesus is going to drink the cup of our sins rather than something that would deaden the pain. In other words, when Jesus drinks the cup of our sins the pain is going to be greater than anything that anyone has ever experienced in the human race, and He will express that pain at that time.

            Verse 35 — “And they crucified him, and parted his garments.” “Parted his garments” is an aorist middle participle which indicates that now we have the Roman soldiers expressing their volition. When the Romans prepared a crucifixion they generally stripped the individual of all of his belongings at the cross, and when the body was put on the cross it had no clothes at all. They would sell them for drinking money, etc. The middle voice here indicates their lust and desire to get them because apparently they were high quality garments and would bring a good price; “casting lots,” present active participle. They gambled for them, they couldn’t tear them up and divide them.

            This is a fulfilment of prophecy, “that is might be fulfilled,” aorist [in a point of time] passive [this receives fulfilment] subjunctive [prophecy is not fulfilled until the historical events actually occur]; “which was spoken by the prophet.” The prophet is the writer of Psalm 22:18. David was a prophet. All the writers of the Old Testament scriptures had to be a prophet, either by office or by gift or by both. Moses had both the gift and the office of prophet; David had the gift of prophecy but not the office of prophecy, and he wrote the 22nd Psalm.

            “They parted [distributed] my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.” So the prophecy is fulfilled at this point, a prophecy written by David around 1000 BC.

            Verse 36 — “And sitting down they watched [imperfect active indicative in the Greek, they kept on watching] him there.” Once they settled the matter of the distribution it was a custom of these Roman soldiers to watch people suffer. The reason that they had their eyes glued to these people was because apparently at the beginning all three of these men showed no signs of pain and, as it were, were not about to. This means that the Romans were going to sit there and watch them, waiting to see who would crack, how, when, and under what conditions.

            Verse 37 — “And set up over his head his accusation [judgement] written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.” All of it isn’t recorded here. John in John 19:20 informs us that the placard was written in three languages: Latin, the official language of the Romans; it was also written in Aramaic, which was the native language of the Jews at this time; and it was written in Koine Greek, which was the universal language of the Roman empire and really the official language west of the Adriatic Sea. Latin was the general language on the western side of the Adriatic Sea.

            The full inscription actually read: THIS IS JESUS OF NAZARETH KING OF THE JEWS. Matthew omits Nazareth because it offends him. First of all Jesus in not from Nazareth, He simply lived in Nazareth. His native town is Bethlehem, the town of David. “Of Nazareth” is misleading. No king ever came out of Nazareth. They must come from the Davidic line and therefore from Bethlehem so he omits Nazareth because it is erroneous information.

            Verse 38-44, the mocking of the spectators. This represents the majority there. Remember that the majority is always a means for making decisions, majority does not determine right.

            (Liberals today try to convey the idea that the majority is always right. But majority is never right as such, majority and minority is simply a way of making decisions in a democratic type organisation of any kind. The majority vote on a decision determines the policy but it doesn’t mean the majority is right. In fact, the majority is often not right)

            The majority of people there were antagonistic toward the Lord Jesus Christ. They are led by the chief priests, the scribes and the Pharisees; these are the religious people. Religion is Satanic, it is the devil’s ace trump, and we are going to find that the chief priests the scribes and Pharisees, the religious people, are the ones who are leading in the antagonism and the mockery. In addition to the religious crowd we have the dupes, the people who will scream when they are told to scream, the mob. Then we have Rome represented by its military.    

            Verse 38 — “Then were two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.” And in verse 44 we see that they mocked Him. Luke gives a detailed account of their crucifixion and also records how eventually one of them accepts Christ as saviour.

            Verse 39 — “And they that passed by.” The crowd was so large that they couldn’t all get there at once, and it must be remembered that outside of the Romans the people had to keep moving around; “reviled him [kept on reviling].” Reviling means to slander, to blaspheme; “wagging their heads.” This means tamely to shake the head in derision. Actually, what they did was to make filthy signs at Him. In every generation, in every people, they have ways of making filthy signs, obscene signs, and the wagging of the head is just simply making obscene signs.

            Verse 40 — “And saying, Thou that destroyeth the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.” In order for Jesus to save us He cannot save Himself. This is Satanic as far as the crowd is concerned. Jesus cannot save Himself and save us at the same time. When they said, “come down from the cross,” if Jesus Christ saved Himself and came down He couldn’t save the world, and if He listened to the voice of religion there would be no salvation. Later on they say, “If you will come down we will believe,” and this is very subtle, this is Satan at his best, a statement of genius. If you come down from the cross we will believe, they say. What does that mean? If he came down from the cross and they would believe, they would believe in what? Nothing! Without the death on the cross, without bearing our sins on the cross, Jesus Christ is not the saviour. And in faith it is the object that counts. There is no merit in believing, it is the object of faith. The subject in salvation is “whosoever” and the object is the person of Jesus Christ. The merit lies in the object. But if Christ gets down off the cross they are believing in nothing and there is no salvation. Therefore that was Satan’s last attempt to head off the cross and this was probably one of the greatest temptations that Jesus ever had.

            Verses 41-43, the mocking of the religious leaders.                                                         

            Verse 41 — “Likewise also the chief priests,” this is religion, “mocking him [constantly mocking him, present linear aktionsart], with the scribes and elders, said [kept on saying].

            Verse 42 — “He saved others; himself he cannot save.” This is religion speaking. And this is true; He cannot save Himself and save us at the same time, and He chose to save us. “If he be the King of Israel, let him come down from the cross, and we will believe him,” said religion. These people who said “we will believe” have had three years of Messianic evidences before them. They have seen and they know that everything fulfils the Word of God. These men knew the Word of God and now they say, “If you will do just this one thing we will believe.”

            Verse 43 — “He trusted in God [the Father]; let him [the Father] now deliver him.” The Father can’t deliver Him either. These priests didn’t think this up by themselves, they got this directly from Satan — doctrines of demons, 1 Timothy 4:1.

            “if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.”

            Verse 45 — the cry of spiritual death. “Now from the sixth hour” — Jewish time and refers to twelve noon — “there was darkness over all the land.” No one is going to see Jesus Christ being judged for the sins of the world. They can see His humiliation manward but when it comes to His humiliation Godward, bearing our sins, absolutely no one is going to see it. Twice in the history of the human race this darkness exists: at the crucifixion and at the second advent — “until the ninth hour.” From twelve noon until three o’clock in the afternoon, and it was during this period of darkness that Christ was judged for our sins.

            Verse 46 — the cry. “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice.” This means to scream, and this bears out the prophecy in Psalm 22:1, “saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” A transliteration from the Hebrew, “Eloi” is the Aramaic; “that is to say, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The first vocative, “My God,” is addressed to the Father, the second one is addressed to the Holy Spirit. The reason: When Christ died on the cross and bore the judgement for the sins of the world, Christ was spiritually dead for three hours. Spiritual death is separation from God — Genesis 2:19: “Dying thou shalt die.” The word death occurs twice. The first time spiritual death, second time physical death. Physical death is the result of spiritual death. The wages of sin is [spiritual] death. When Adam sinned he died immediately; it was over a thousand years later before he died physically. Isaiah 53:9 in the Hebrew tells us that Christ died twice on the cross, but the most important death is the one that provided for us eternal salvation, and that is spiritual death. Jesus Christ was forsaken on the cross for the simple reason that he was spiritually dead.  

            Verse 47 — we go back to the crowd. It is beginning to speculate. When they heard “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” it appeared to them that He was crying for Elijah because both are very similar in pronunciation in the Aramaic. They were not impressed with the death of Christ but they were impressed with what they thought was a cry for Elijah. They were curious and wanted to see if Elijah would actually come. At this point the crowd have once again become very interested in the situation because they want to know, Is Elijah going to come? Actually, the scene which we have in verses 47-49, the speculation of the crowd, took place just as Jesus had finished the work of bearing the sins of the world, and had been crying out many times, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? And as the great darkness clears away and the hill becomes visible again the people are now standing around looking for Elijah to come. And there is a basis for assuming this because the last two verses of the Old Testament talk about the coming of Elijah. Actually that is a reference to John the Baptist as the herald of Christ, Elijah will come at the second advent of Christ, but they are assuming that this prayer of Jesus is somehow connected with the last two verses of Malachi and now they are waiting for Elijah to show up.

            “Some of them that stood there.” The “some of them” are the curiosity people, people who want to be entertained, that is the only reason that they happen to be out there; “when they heard that, said, This one calls for Elias [Elijah].” And immediately people became very interested. Now the events of this verse immediately follow the phrase, “I thirst.” In John 19:28 the humanity of Christ expressed a tremendous thirst, and in verse 48 while they were standing there waiting for Elijah to show up, Jesus said: “I thirst.” And when He said that, someone in the crowd ran and grabbed a sponge, dipped it in the wine, and then put it on a pole and tried to give Him something to drink.

            Verse 48 — “And straightway [immediately] one of them [probably John] ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar [wine, a poor man’s wine], and put it on a reed [a cane], and gave him to drink.” He offered the drink.

            Verse 49 — this deed is interrupted. The people standing by didn’t like it at all and they said so. “The rest said, “Let be [Stop that].” The reason that they did this is because they are waiting for Elijah to come, they want a show, something of interest to satisfy their curiosity, “let us see whether Elias will come to save [deliver] him.”

            Verse 50 — the second death of Jesus Christ on the cross. “Jesus, when he had cried out again with a loud voice, yielded [dismissed] up the spirit.” After the seventh cry from the cross, “Father into thy hands I dismiss my spirit,” Luke 23:46, he cried out again and dismissed His spirit.

            Verses 51-56, after the cross. The first three verses describe three miracles.

            Verse 51 — the first miracle. This miracle is for the Jews; the second miracle, the earthquake, is for the Gentiles. “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom.” The veil of the temple had 72 twisted braids if 24 threads in each braid, and it was 60 feet high and 30 feet wide. It was very heavy. Obviously it was impossible to tear it with human hands. It was torn “from the top,” and the word “from” is very important here because it is the Greek word a)po, which denotes ultimate source. It should say “from the ultimate source of the top,” which means that God split the curtain. This is the veil between the holy place and the holy of holies and it indicates several things. It indicates the Jewish Age is coming to an end and it indicates that the way into the holy of holies is available to anyone; it is the “whosoever” of this dispensation.

            The second miracle was an earthquake, “and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent.” The word “rent” is exactly the same word as for the splitting of the veil. So for the Jews the splitting of the veil is a miracle to awaken them, but to the Gentiles this earthquake was fantastic in that it split open rocks. It is this second miracle that impressed the centurion, verse 54.

            Verse 52 — a third miracle is recorded. “And the graves were opened.” Notice that it says graves. The transfer of the Old Testament saints is alluded to in Ephesians 4:8 and to some extent in 2 Corinthians 12:1-4, but here we have simply the opening of the graves. Actually the rest of this sentence is not very clear in the English. The subject is “many bodies of the saints.” It says “many,” not all. The actual subject is bodies; this is a resuscitation, not a resurrection. So some of the saints received a body for the purpose of witnessing for forty days after the resurrection of Christ, and then they would go on to heaven; “of the saints” refers to the Old Testament saints, those whose souls would be in Paradise and who apparently died around Jerusalem; “which slept arose.” The word “slept” is in the perfect tense, indicating death in the past with the result that the body had remained where it had been buried in the grave for a prolonged period of time.

            Verse 53 — “And came out of the graves after his resurrection.” The words “after his resurrection” is a misplaced modifier, they go with the verb “to appear.” They came out of the grave when he appeared after His resurrection. “After his resurrection” modifies the verb to appear, not the verb to come out. So to straighten out the translation: “They came out of graves and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many, after his resurrection.”

            Verse 54 — “Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching.” The usual word for “watching” is fulassw, which means to guard, but here we have terew, which means to watch something that now belongs to you. Apparently sometime these seventeen men of the Roman army have made a decision (one officer and sixteen rank and file) and terew gives us our first clue. They are now watching something that belongs to them, something to which they are personally related is the concept of terew here. In other words, each of sixteen Roman soldiers and one officer on the hill made his decision and he made it independently of the others; “Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done [previously accomplished], they feared greatly, saying, Truly [i.e. here is a point of doctrine] this was the Son of God.” This tells us that the Romans had been listening very carefully. They heard everything that was said to the dying thief, they heard the trial, and just as at first the two thieves abused Him and railed upon Him, now there are a number of soldiers who were involved in the abuse at the Praetorium who have completely changed their attitude. We can assume very safely that these soldiers have been for the last two thousand years in heaven thanking God that they were the ones detailed to handle that crucifixion on that day, because they are in heaven.

            Verse 55 — “And many women were beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him.” This is badly translated. Corrected: “And many women which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him, were beholding him afar off.”        

            Verse 56 — “Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses [Joseph], and the mother of Zebedee’s children [Salome].” James and John were Salome’s children.

            Verse 57 — “When even [the going down of the sun] was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple.” The word “was” is our key here. It is in the aorist tense and it means it came to pass he was Jesus’ disciple. If it “was” was in the verb e)imi it would indicate that maybe this had happened sometime in the past, but we have ginomai again, and ginomai plus the aorist tense would indicate that it came to pass that day. He was a member of the Sanhedrin and it was possible that he was present and was involved in one of those mock trials in the Sanhedrin. But now he came to be a disciple.

            Verse 58 — “He went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.” Notice that he went to Pilate and not to the Jews. Why? Two reasons: the Jews would probably kill him on the spot. A member of the Sanhedrin accepting Christ as saviour, that’s horrible! But secondly, the Jews no longer had custody, the Romans did. It was Pontius Pilate who actually pronounced the judgement and who had the judgement executed. This took courage in itself. Little did he realise that Pontius Pilate himself was sympathetic.

            Verse 59 — “And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth” — this is simply the preparation for burial.

            Verse 60 — “And he laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.”

            Verse 61 — “And there was Mary Magdalene.” She was still there when Joseph of Arimathaea left; “and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre” — they stayed there.  

            Verse 62 — “Now the next day [Thursday].” Wednesday is the day of the Passover. Every feast day is a Sabbath. A Sabbath is not only Saturday, it is every seventh year, it is every feast day. The Passover is a feast day and therefore the Passover is a Sabbath. The “next day” is the first day of unleavened bread, and that is a Sabbath. Friday is a Sabbath, Saturday is a Sabbath, Sunday [feast of firstfruits] is a Sabbath, and Monday, and so on. So every day from Wednesday through Sunday was a Sabbath. The feast of unleavened bread was on Thursday and then for a week, every day for a week, will be unleavened bread, but in the middle of the week we have Sunday, the first day of the week which is firstfruits. Christ was actually crucified on Wednesday which was the Passover. He was in the grave three days, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then any time Saturday night after midnight He rose again on the first day of the week. This is our worship day, we do not worship on Saturday.  

            “that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate.” The phrase “the chief priests and Pharisees” is very meaningful because the chief priests were Sadducees, and the Sadducees and the Pharisees were mutually antagonistic, they despised each other. They had been fighting each other for over a hundred years and whenever you get the chief priests and the Pharisees together you have a miracle. The miracle which brought them together was mutual antagonism toward the Lord Jesus Christ. All forms of religion unite against Jesus Christ. This is what we have at this point. We have the chief priests and the Pharisees united in order to completely suppress anything pertaining to Christ. The very fact that they tried is in itself a proof of the resurrection. Every attempt was made by the religious rulers of the land and if there had been no bona fide historical resurrection then the chief priests and the Pharisees would have been successful in their suppression of any resurrection message and there would be no resurrection message 1900 years later. But the fact that resurrection is a central doctrine in the whole realm of Christology and in the whole realm of Christian doctrine indicates the principle that their obvious attempts to suppress the truth were unsuccessful.

            Verse 63 — “Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.” When they came to Pontius Pilate they used the word “Sir” according to the King James version, but they didn’t use the word “Sir” at all. There is no word “Sir,” they used the word which they should have used for Jesus. The called Pontius Pilate Kurioj, “lord.” They know that in the language of Pontius Pilate this means deity and they know that they could not use it for Pontius Pilate except in one way. They are ascribing to Pontius Pilate that which Caesar declares for himself only, that Caesar is god. Every Caesar on the Roman throne was called Kurioj or lord, and the word connotes deity. The Pharisees and the Sadducees are actually going to Pontius Pilate and calling him deity, and yet this is the same Pontius Pilate who took the equivalent of thirty million dollars out of the Jewish treasury and built an aqueduct, an aqueduct which later on saved the lives of many during the siege of Jerusalem, but they hated him for it. Then it was the same Pontius Pilate who called the legions up from Caesarea and had a big parade that lasted for thirty miles, and brought them into Jerusalem, and then he had them hang their shields with Roman deities inscribed into the city. This was the last straw and the Jews had been trying to get rid of Pontius Pilate. They despised him. But now this same man whom they despised they are calling “Lord.” What is the point? Religion is always the same. Religion seeks to control the state. In order for religion to get to the top when there is authority and when religion can use the authority it will do so and fawn over the authority they despise. As long as the state is firm religion will fawn and ingratiate itself but when religion becomes the state it will destroy the very ones with whom it has ingratiated itself. In other words, ingratiation is a horrible thing but it is especially bad when the ingratiator becomes a roaring lion as soon as he is in power. This is the picture wherever you find it.

            Now this same Pontius Pilate whom they call “Lord” at this point, later on they will write many letters to Tiberius the Roman emperor to try to get rid of him.

            “we remember that the deceiver.” They remember well because they observed His miracles, they heard His teaching, they called Him “the deceiver.” This indicates their complete rejection of every miracle, every sign, everything that He did. Jesus Christ presented everything to represent His Messiahship and they have totally rejected it and their rejection is bound up in the words “the deceiver.” They called Christ the deceiver; Pilate is Lord; this is religion exposed. There is a principle here: Religion always caters to political power that exists in its vicinity, and it will sell out to any political power that will do its dirty work.

            “After three days I will rise again” is a reference to the resurrection. They remember His message well, there is no problem with lack of communication. Jesus communicated well to the Pharisees and the chief priests but because of their negative volition, because they have rejected Christ as saviour, as Messiah, as Lord, they are distorting what He said.

            Verse 64 — “Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.” This is blasphemous, the whole statement, but this is exactly the way they said it. The words “last error” are literally, the last fraud. They are afraid that people will buy this thing and they are going to do everything they can to suppress it.

            Verse 65 — “Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch [guard].” This is simply meaning, I give you permission to utilise Roman guards. Roman guards are going to be used, not Jewish guards. The word “watch” means a guard detail; “go your way, make it as sure as yea can [as you know how].” Pontius Pilate turned a Roman guard detail over to the chief priests, put them under the command of the chief priests for three days of detached service, and the chief priests actually gave instructions. If Pilate were giving instructions he would simply say to find the tomb and use the usual security measures, and they may or not be good for guarding a tomb. But the chief priests would make sure that the tomb was definitely guarded. There would be absolutely no way for the body to be stolen.

            Verse 66 — “So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.”

 

            The significance of the resurrection

             1. Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ it is impossible for Christ to be glorified. Jesus Christ has to have a human body for His glorification. When Jesus Christ died on the cross His humanity died, His deity did not and could not die. It is His humanity that has to be resurrected. The glorification of Christ depends upon His resurrection, His ascension as a man, and His being seated at the right hand of the Father as a man. It is the humanity of Christ at that point that becomes superior to all angelic creation, even though angels were created superior to mankind. Jesus Christ in His humanity is glorified at the point of being seated at the right hand of the Father. This is impossible apart from the resurrection of the humanity of Christ.

             Operation phase two in the sense of the Church Age depends upon the glorification of Christ — John 7:39, “The Spirit was not yet given because Christ was not yet glorified”; John 16:14, when the Spirit is given His purpose is to glorify Christ. So everything depends upon the glorification of Christ. Without the resurrection the Holy Spirit cannot be sent to indwell every believer, the Holy Spirit cannot perform His ministry of baptism, entering every believer into union with Christ. All of this is utterly impossible apart from the resurrection of the humanity of Christ.

            2. Resurrection indicates the completion of justification — Romans 4:25. Justification is actually completed at the cross because on the cross God placed our sins on Christ and the believer gets God’s righteousness. The sins of the believer are judged on the cross and the believer receives the righteousness of God. No believer is justified until he receives God’s righteousness. There are three things necessary for living with God forever, we must have His life, eternal life, our sins must be judged, and we must have His righteousness. No one could have the righteousness of God were it not for the fact that Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father and even in His humanity He has perfect righteousness. So when we accept Christ as saviour we enter into union with Christ and His righteousness becomes our righteousness — 2 Corinthians 5:21. Justification means vindication and God sees me in Christ and He sees that I have His righteousness and He declares me vindicated.  

            3. Resurrection is a guarantee of ultimate sanctification — 1 Corinthians 15:20-23; 1 John 3:1,2;

Philippians 3:21. When we get a resurrection body we no longer have an old sin nature. Minus the old sin nature is the sphere of ultimate sanctification.

            4. Without resurrection there is no priesthood. Jesus Christ is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. This is a part of the doctrine of divine decrees and was so declared in Psalm 110. How can Jesus Christ be a priest forever if He is a soul in Paradise, a spirit in the presence of God, and a body in the grave? If He were resuscitated He could only be a priest for whatever lifetime He had, so resuscitation won’t do it. If Jesus Christ is going to be a priest forever, and God cannot lie, then He must have an human body forever. That human body forever is a resurrection body. Cf. Hebrews 7:4,5, 14,28; 10:5,10-14.

            5. Without resurrection there is no mediatorship. We learn this principle from the 9th chapter of Job actually. Job said that if he is going to have fellowship with God there must be a “daysman” or an umpire or a mediator. So what is a mediator? A mediator is someone who pulls two parties together because he is equal with both parties. In this case the mediation is between man and God. Whoever is the mediator between God and man must be equal with God and equal with man. Jesus Christ is God, therefore equal with God; Jesus Christ is man, therefore equal with man, and Jesus Christ is the mediator because He is the God-Man. But Jesus Christ couldn’t be the God-Man apart from resurrection. A mediator has to be alive to mediate the covenant, and we are under the new covenant which is the salvation principle. Jesus Christ mediates it and He is the only one qualified to do it because He is man and He is God in one person forever. And it is necessary to have the resurrection to do this, He isn’t man forever apart from resurrection.

            6. Without resurrection there is no fulfilment of the Davidic covenant. The Davidic covenant is mentioned in 2 Samuel 7:8-16; Psalm 89:20-37. By way of summary the Davidic covenant says David will have a son who will reign forever. The only way that David could have a son who could reign forever is to have a son, a true human being, and in order to reign forever he has to live forever. And Jesus Christ is the son of David. But Jesus Christ cannot fulfil the Davidic covenant in death, He has to be alive and in resurrection Jesus Christ in His resurrection body will fulfil the Davidic covenant, He will reign forever as David’s son.

 

            The fact of resurrection

            1. An empty tomb.

            2. The competency of the witnesses. Those who witnessed to His resurrection were those who knew Him and therefore could not be deceived. Furthermore they would rather die than change their testimony and many of them did. Who was it who witnessed to the resurrection of Christ? His disciples, loved ones, friends, followers, those who knew Him best. And the very fact that they would rather die than change their testimony is the highest type of competency of attestation.

            3. The subsequent change in the disciples after the resurrection. After the cross the disciples were despondent and frightened; after the resurrection they were joyous and fearless.

            4. The day of Pentecost. Peter’s sermon, the first preached in the Church Age and taken from Psalm 16. Subject: resurrection.

            5. The observance of the first day of the week as the worship day — Sunday. This is a radical change from the seventh day of the week observed by the Jews under the Levitical code.

            6. The historical existence of the Church. The Church depends upon resurrection. Christ is the Head of the Church; He must be alive to be the Head of the Church.

 

            The nature of the resurrection body

            What is the resurrection body actually like from scripture?

            1. The resurrection body retained the nail prints in the hands and in the feet. We know this prophetically from Psalm 22:16; Zechariah 12:10; historically from John 20:25-29. Jesus was recognised by doubting Thomas because of the scars in the hands and the scar from the wound in the side.

            2. The resurrection body retained the wound scar in the side — John 20:25-29.

            3. Christ was recognised by His disciples as the one who died and rose again. There were seventeen appearances of the resurrected Christ. In other words, the resurrection body does not destroy the image by which a person is remembered. But the interesting this is that it will be possible to recognise people with a resurrection body, but this does mean that you would simply be able to identify them, it means that you have the mental capacity to do so because it is the mind that retains the image.

            4. The resurrection body of Christ could eat, Luke 24:42,43, but He didn’t need to.

            5. Christ’s resurrection body had substance. It could be touched or felt — Matthew 28:9; Luke 24:39; John 20:17.

            6. Christ’s resurrection body could breathe, but He didn’t necessarily need it — John 20:22.

            7. His resurrection body possessed flesh and bones — Luke 24:39, 40.

            8. His resurrection body could walk through closed doors — Luke 24:36; John 20:19.

            9. The resurrection body was able to appear and disappear — Luke 24:17.

            10. The resurrection body of Christ could move vertically or horizontally — Matthew 28:10, Acts 1:9,10.