The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 604

hie dleoiplee should take him down. They sat there and watched, whiling a.way the tedious hours with vulgar jest& and rough talk and idle games. Not for a. long time did the awful scene l;oucb their stem uncultured hearts. It seems to us a marvellous thing that that great sight should have had at first so little inflnence on the surroundina multitude. But human nature is the same in all ages. Men's hearts are as hard no; as they were then. Those who read in vain, without sympathy and without emotion, the gospel story of the blessed Saviour's death, in vain bad seen him die. Let us wntch the dying Lord, but not as those soldiers watched him. Let us live much under the shadow of the cross, watching that precious death with sorrow and contrition and adoring thankful love, We know what wa.s not known to those Roman soldiers- it is "the Son of God who loved me, and ga.ve himself for me." 4. The title. Pila.ta wrote a title, and put it on the cross. The four evangelists give the title with slight differences. '!'hey did not heed the exact form of the expression, They all give the essential words," The King of the Jews." It was not the accusation of blasphemy which caused the Saviour's death. That would have bad no weight with Pila.te. It was the charge of making himself a King which forced the Roman governor to condemn the Innocent. Pilate, by this writing, showed at once the real grounds on which his consent had been wrung from him, and his own angry contempt of the Jews. This was their King-this poor, bleeding, crucified One. And, it may be, be meant to imply his secret half-belief that the Lord was in some sense a King, far more noble, high-fouled, king-like, than those hyp<'critical chief priests whom he so thoroughly despised, who had driven him to a deed which he so utterly hated. We know tha.t he is the King, the King of God's ancient people, the King of the Israel of God, the King who shall one day sit on the throne of his glory to judge the world. He reigneth from the cross. The cross is the throne whioh has raised him to a more than royal empire- an empire over the hearts of men, over all the best and honest and holiest human souls from that time ever onwards. 5. They crucified. two robbers with him. Robbers they were rather than thieves-perhaps accomplices of Barabbas-possibly insurgents against the Roman government. And thus the Lord, the Most Holy One, was numbered with the transgressors, for they were punished justly. One was set on the right hand of Christ, the other on the left-an anticipation of the great gathering on the right and left of the Judge in the awful day. In the centre was the cross of atonement; on the right, the cross of repentance; on the left, the cross of despair. Man is born to sorrow. All of us must bear, in some form, at some time, the cross of suffering. But in the midst of a suffering world rises the cross of atonement, the cross which the holy Son of God alone could bear. The cross of atonement draws many by its constraining power to take up the cross of repentance-repentance not to be repented of. But alas I there are some who reject and despise the atoning love of Christ ; and their portion must be, at the last, the awful cross of despair. II. Tae: :r.t:OCKERB. 1. The passers-by. Mockery was a bitter ingredient in the Lord's cup of sorrow. He had been mocked by the servants of the high priest, by Herod and his men of war, by the Roman soldiers, and now, alas, that cruel mockery was renewed and intensified as he hung.dying on the cross. Surely, we think, a crucified man might be left alone to die; surely that cruelty must be truly Satanic which in the presence of that intense suffering was not only without pity, but sought to embitter by insulting taunts the agonies of the dying. The indifference of others is very dis- tressing to sufferers. "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow." But bow much worse was that heartless, wicked scorn I .And the dear Lord, we are sure, must have felt it all the more deeply, because he was dying there for the souls of men, for the souls of those very men who were mocking him in his anguish; and he knew that that mocking meant that their hearts were hardened against his dying love, that for roost of them that tremendous sacrifice was offered up in vain. 'l'his mockery was prophesied (Ps. x.xii. 6-8) ; it is mentioned again and again in the predictions of the Saviour's sufferings. This shows its importance. The Lord must drink to the dregs the cup which the Father had given him; every element of woe in that cup has its part, we may be sure, in working out our redemption; nothing was in vain. The Lord must suffer scorn and contempt as well as bodily pain, cruelty of the lips as well as of the hands, that, suffering all the forms of anguish, he might make an atonement for all the forms of sin, He listened MATTHEW-II, 2 R  1310 THE G08PET. ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [011. xxvu. 1-06.