Matthew 27, Part 3
Notes
Transcript
Last week, we looked at the trial of Jesus before Pilate. In an effort to not be involved, Pilate offered Barabbas (the son of the father) as a substitute for Jesus (the TRUE Son of the Father). Surely the crowd would not release a leader in an uprising that had been placed in jail for murder? Yet, the crowd cried out to release Barabbas. In an effort to show just how unreasonable the Jews were, and symbolically trying to shed his own blame, Pilate washes his hands of the whole fiasco YET he allowed Jesus to be placed into custody. Jesus was taken by the Roman guards and was beaten, a crown of thorns placed on His head, spat on, and led away to be crucified. But all this had to take place to fulfill prophecy.
John Chrysostom (Bishop of Constantinople): Why did Pilate have Jesus whipped? Either as one presumably condemned, or to please the crowd, or as if he were willing to give their judgment some sort of standard legal expression. And yet he ought to have resisted them. For indeed even before this he had said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”24 There were many reasons that Pilate and the others might have held back: the signs and the miracles, the great patience of the one who was suffering these things, and above all his benign silence. For since both by his defense of himself and by his prayers, he had shown his humanity, again he now shows his glory and the greatness of his nature, both by his silence and by his indifference to what they said. This might have led them to marvel. But neither Pilate nor the crowd takes sufficient note of these evidences.
Jerome (translator of the Latin Vulgate): Barabbas the robber, who had provoked a riot among the crowds and committed murder, was released to the Jewish people.… Now Jesus, having been delivered up by the Jews, was absolved of guilt by Pilate’s wife and was called a just man by the governor himself. Moreover, the centurion declared that he was truly the Son of God.26 The learned reader may be hard pressed to explain the fact that Pilate washed his hands and said, “I am innocent of the blood of this just man,”27 and later handed over the scourged Jesus to be crucified. It is important to realize that Jesus was dealt with according to Roman law, which decreed that whoever is to be crucified must first be beaten with whips. Thus Jesus was handed over to the soldiers for scourging, and their whips did their work on that most sacred body and that bosom which held God. This came about so that, in keeping with the words “many cords of sins”28 and with the whipping of Jesus, we might be free from scourging. As holy Scripture says to the just man: “The whip did not draw near to your tabernacle.
Apollinaris (Bishop of Laodicea): The floggings [are] for the sins of the world, because the sinner is flogged many times, according to the prophecy that says, “I gave my back to the whips.”31 And so is fulfilled [the saying] that the righteous [will give himself] for sinners. The height of goodness is also fulfilled when “the righteous [suffered] for the unrighteous,”32 so that “by his wounds we might be healed,” as Isaiah says.
6 I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
The Crucifixion
The Crucifixion
Mark 15:21-28 “21 And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. 22 And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). 23 And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. 25 And it was the third hour when they crucified him. 26 And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” 27 And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left.”
Luke 23:26-33 “26 And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. 27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. 28 But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” 32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.
John 19:17-27 “17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. 19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’ ” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” 23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be…”
32 As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross.
33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull),
34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it.
Matthew describes very little of Jesus’ own experience on the cross, and then not until the last few minutes before his death (vv. 45–66). Instead, Matthew emphasizes how other people experienced the crucifixion: Simon, the soldiers, the passers-by, the Jewish leaders, and the two criminals on the crosses on either side of Christ. In so doing, Matthew stresses the nearly universal rejection of our Lord.
27:32–34 A convicted criminal was usually expected to carry the horizontal beam for his own cross to the site of his execution, where the vertical beam would already have been put in the ground. But Jesus was apparently too weak and injured from his flogging to go very far along the road (the so-called Via Dolorosa—“sorrowful way”; cf. John 19:17). So the soldiers conscript a man by the name of Simon of Cyrene (in Libya), who happens to be coming into town, to help carry the crossbeam (v. 32). Eventually they arrive at Golgotha, which strong, ancient tradition associates with the site that now houses the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in that day still outside the city walls. The actual appearance of p 416 Golgotha, however, would have more resembled “Gordon’s Calvary,” as shown to tourists today. “The Place of the Skull” would refer to the skull-shaped formations in the side of the hill (v. 33). Wine mixed with gall was probably a pain-killing narcotic (b. Sanh. 43a), though just possibly a poison. Either way, the potion was probably intended to ease Jesus’ misery, though some have seen it as additional torture. But Jesus refuses to decrease his suffering or to lose consciousness of his surroundings (v. 34). Mark 15:23 mentions myrrh instead of gall. Myrrh may be the literal element; and gall, a metaphorical reference to the bitterness of the mixture or a more general term referring to “a substance with an unpleasant taste.”76 Matthew may see a fulfillment of Ps 69:21. The practice itself is perhaps based on Prov 31:6.
35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots.
36 Then they sat down and kept watch over him there.
37 And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
27:35–37 So Christ is nailed to the cross (this is what is implied by “crucified” in v. 35)—his feet nailed together at his ankles at the bottom of a vertical pole, his hands nailed at the wrists to either end of the crossbeam. Crucifixion was undoubtedly one of the most gruesome forms of torture and death humans have ever invented. It involved prolonged suffering for up to several days. The final cause of death was usually asphyxiation, since the victim finally became too weak to lift his head far enough off his chest to gasp for air.77 The soldiers, as usual, cast lots (perhaps variously marked pebbles), just as we might roll dice, for the victim’s clothes. Does Matthew see a fulfillment of Ps 22:18, as in John 19:2478 It is not clear if Jesus was left totally naked or allowed some kind of covering over his private parts. The soldiers kept watch lest anyone should try to come and forcibly rescue Jesus (v. 36). Also, as was customary, the charge of Jesus’ crime was inscribed on a titulus (a wooden placard), which was nailed to the top of the cross (v. 37). The p 417 wording of the charge drips with irony, making it appear as if the Romans believed that Jesus was the King of the Jews. The irony increases when we recognize that, rightly interpreted, the sign proclaimed the truth. John 19:20–22 elaborates on this irony even further.
38 Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left.
39 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads
40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”
27:38–40 Two lēstai (“robbers”) are crucified with Jesus (v. 38). The nature of their crimes would have more likely involved terrorism and assassination than theft or burglary. Doubtless Matthew saw the parody of Jesus’ kingship extended further with the picture of one criminal on each side of Jesus, like a king with his advisors at his right and left hands. Crucifixions were usually held alongside well-traveled roads to remind as many people as possible of the high cost of crime, particularly treason against the empire. The passersby who see Jesus echo the garbled charge against him from the Jewish trial (26:61), perhaps now widely publicized (vv. 39–40). They taunt his apparent impotence. “Hurled insults” is literally blasphemed. “Shaking their heads” seems to allude to Ps 22:7. Only Matthew adds, “If you are the Son of God,” an exact reproduction of Satan’s catcall in 4:3. In this case, however, the first-class condition is more hypothetical, as in 12:27.
Here truly is Jesus’ last great temptation, to come down off the cross, and he could have chosen to give in to it. But he would thereby have forfeited his divinely ordained role as the innocent sufferer for the sins of all humanity (cf. 2 Cor 5:21; Rom 3:21–26; Heb 9:26–28). For the sake of our eternal salvation, we praise God that he chose to remain faithful despite this unspeakable and excruciating agony. He thus perfectly illustrated the principle of 16:25 (“whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it”), which applies to all people. It is difficult to study the crucifixion sensitively and sympathetically and not break down in tears. It is almost inconceivable that believers who frequently meditate on Jesus’ suffering on their behalf could exalt themselves or quarrel with each other (hence 1 Cor 1:18–2:5 as Paul’s response to the problems of 1 Cor 1:10–17). The ground is indeed level at the foot of the cross. That God should send his Son to die for us was the scandal of the Christian message in the first century (1 Cor 1:23) and p 418 remains so for many today. But all attempts to remove the doctrine of Jesus’ substitutionary atonement from Christianity leave us dead in sin with a religion impotent to save us from eternal damnation.
41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying,
42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.
43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ”
44 And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
27:41–44 The Jewish leaders echo the taunts of the crowd (vv. 41–43). They recall Christ’s miracles but mockingly lament his inability to repeat them now (vv. 41–42), not understanding that he voluntarily chose not to perform what would have been the most spectacular miracle to date by saving his physical life. Consistent with later Jewish polemic, no one tried to deny that Jesus had previously manifested supernatural power (recall under 12:24). “He’s the King of Israel” is obviously sarcastic, as is possibly, though not as clearly, “he trusts in God.” Matthew again alludes to Ps 22, this time to v. 8, and possibly also to Wis 2:20. The criminals also join in the mocking, so that torment comes from all sides (v. 44). Luke notes a later change of heart on the part of one of the two criminals (Luke 23:40–43). Matthew, however, does not wish to detract from Jesus’ agony. Verse 43 is unique to his Gospel and reflects his emphasis on the Son of God, also alluding to Ps 22:9. Jesus’ opponents unwittingly testify to his identity. Precisely because Jesus is the Son of God, he consciously decides not to come down off the cross. Mounce rightly observed, “It was the power of love, not nails, that kept him there.”
Jesus Death
Jesus Death
45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
-Christ was apparently put on the cross sometime midmorning on Friday.81 From midday to midafternoon, unusual darkness appears. p 419 This is the first of the three remarkable events in “nature” reflecting the cosmic significance of Jesus’ death. “Darkness” here obviously symbolizes a great evil, apocalyptic upheavals (recall 24:24; cf. Joel 2:10), and perhaps a new era in salvation history (cf. Exod 10:22). Some have traced this darkness to a great sirocco (wind) storm or to the solar eclipse of a.d. 33, but neither of these events would have created complete darkness, and the latter occurred in a less-likely year (than a.d. 30) for Jesus’ crucifixion. It is better to see here a genuinely supernatural event, though, given the coming earthquake, it is not impossible that some kind of natural event was supernaturally timed. While Christ was on the cross, he would utter his famous “seven last words” (or “sayings”). All have particular theological importance (cf. Luke 23:34, 42–43; John 19:26–28, 30; Luke 23:46).
The only “word” of Christ on the cross which Matthew records, chronologically perhaps the fourth of the seven, is the saying of v. 46. Perhaps because of the power and significance of Jesus’ cry, the Aramaic was preserved and then given a translation. Jesus quotes Ps 22:1. The variation in spelling among manuscripts reflects the difference between the Hebrew Eli and the Aramaic Eloi, both meaning my God. All kinds of theological questions are raised here that the text simply does not answer, particularly regarding the relation of Christ’s divine and human natures. But the docetic or Gnostic view that Jesus’ divine nature actually departed at this time because God could in no way suffer (found as early as mid-second century in the apocryphal Gospel of Peter82), has usually been rejected by Christians as heretical. Jesus remains a psychosomatically unified entity all the way to the moment of his death. Yet shortly before he dies, he apparently senses an abrupt loss of the communion with the Father which had proved so intimate and significant throughout his life. Not surprisingly, then, Christian theology developed the belief that at this moment Christ bore the sins of all humanity, spiritually separating him from his Heavenly Father (see references under vv. 38–40 above). The view that Jesus’ quotation of Ps 22 anticipates the vindication found in the larger context of the psalm stresses what does not appear in the text at the expense of what does.
47 And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.”
48 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.
49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.”
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
Whether the passersby were more cosmopolitan in make-up or whether Jesus’ speech was slurred, some mistakenly interpret his words as calling on the prophet Elijah, who would precede the Day of the Lord (Mal 4:5), to come and rescue him (v. 47). For more on Elijah, see comments under 3:1–6; 11:7–14; 17:7–13.84 One of the crowd either senses his agony or suspects incoherence and again offers a pain killer and/or thirst quencher (v. 48; recall comments under v. 34).85 Compare John 19:28–30 for more details and the results of this offer. But the rest of the crowd tells the man to stop. They want to see if Elijah will indeed appear (v. 49).86 Instead, Jesus cries out again and dies (v. 50). Luke 23:46 gives his words—a stunning cry of trust after his sense of divine abandonment. “Gave up his spirit” is simply idiomatic for physical death because Jews believed that one’s spirit departed the body after one had stopped breathing. But the text may also be hinting that Jesus in his human nature chooses the moment voluntarily to relinquish his struggle for life. Even in death he is in some kind of control (cf. Luke 23:46).
51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised,
53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
-Here appear the second and third events from the world of nature which testify to the monumental significance of the crucifixion. One apparently natural event, an earthquake, leads to two somewhat supernatural effects. The temple curtain is split “from top to bottom,” perhaps to symbolize God acting from heaven, and the cemeteries disgorge their dead. Yet it is not bones but risen bodies that emerge! Like the preternatural darkness, earthquakes and resurrections resonate with strong p 421 apocalyptic overtones (cf. esp. Amos 8:9). The latter event is perhaps the most unusual in all of the Gospels and found only in Matthew. All kinds of historical questions remain unanswered about both events, but their significance clearly lies in the theology Matthew wishes to convey. Judgment against the temple has begun (recall chaps. 23–24), and a new age of salvation history has dawned.87 The temple curtain that was torn was probably the one that separated the court of the Jews from the court of the Gentiles. Ephesians 2:14 seems to recall this rupture when reflecting on the abolition of the barriers between Jew and Gentile in Christ. Garbled accounts of the torn curtain may be reflected in other Jewish sources too (see, e.g., Josephus, J.W. 6.5.3–4 and b. Yoma 39b), but it is hard to be sure. As an alternative, if the curtain protecting the holy of holies was in view, then Matthew’s point could be the new access to God provided by Jesus’ atoning death (as in Heb 4:16).88
The resurrections illustrate the teaching of 1 Cor 15:20–22. Christ is the firstfruits of the new age, guaranteeing the bodily resurrection of all his people. “Holy people” (often translated saints) apparently refer to selected Old Testament believers.89 This episode further foreshadows 1 Cor 15:23. As the NIV stands, Matthew’s account contradicts Paul, inasmuch as the saints actually precede Christ out of the tomb. But the text should probably be punctuated with a period after the “tombs broke open.” Then the rest of vv. 52b–53 would read, And the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life, and, having come out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection, they went into the Holy City [i.e., Jerusalem]. Contra the NIV rendering of v. 53, there is no “and” in the Greek nor any other reason to pause between “tombs” and “after.”90 If these saints were genuinely resurrected rather than simply revivified or reanimated like Jairus’s daughter or Lazarus, then presumably, like Jesus himself, they appeared to others only for a short time and were eventually taken to heaven. But the text refuses to satisfy our curiosity about these points.91 It is interesting, however, to note Matthew’s twofold reference to Jews and Jerusalem as “holy” (“holy people,” v. 52; “holy city,” v. 53) even after his sweeping condemnation of Israel in chaps. 23–24. Hints again emerge that a remnant in Israel will be preserved.
54 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
To add to nature’s testimony about the significance of Jesus’ death, we now read of the witness of the Roman officer in charge at the cross (cf. the centurion of 8:5–13). The incongruity of his testimony has led to the translation as in the NIV margin. The man may well view Jesus as a typical Greco-Roman “divine man” (a great human hero deified upon his death). Luke 23:47 (“surely this was a righteous man”) makes the centurion’s original words all the more uncertain. Perhaps the best explanation is that which interprets the confession as meaning, “He was a good man, and quite right in calling God his Father.”92 But Matthew will see further support here for Jesus as the unique Son of God, in some way on a par with deity. Matthew also adds a comment on the great fear of the centurion and his companions. In this context fear implies terror much more than worship.
55 There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him,
56 among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
Matthew introduces yet one more group of observers. Here is the first indication that anyone who supported Jesus followed him to the cross. The disciples had all fled, though John returned at a later time (John 19:26–27). Many women, however, remained more loyal. Ironically, due to their gender, they would not have been viewed as a public threat and so could safely accompany their Master. These women had cared for him (cf. Luke 8:2–3) and gone with him on his trip to Jerusalem (recall Matt 20:20). They kept a faithful vigil even in the face of the horror of his cross. Matthew again mentions the mother of James and John and adds references to Mary Magdalene and Mary “the mother of James and Joses.” Mark calls this latter James “the younger” (tou mikrou—literally, the little or the less, Mark 15:40), probably referring to the less prominent of the two apostles by that name. Apparently these people are still well-known to Matthew’s readers. More on Mary Magdalene appears in Luke 8:2. There is no scriptural support for the traditional belief that she was a prostitute or the same woman who anointed Jesus in Luke 7:36–50. John 19:25 refers to a Mary, wife of Clopas, who may be the same as the mother of James and Joses (according to Eusebius, H.E. 3.11, Clopas was an uncle of Jesus), and mentions the presence of Jesus’ own mother p 423 as well. John 19:31–37 describes other events that occurred while Jesus’ corpse still hung on the cross.