The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 615

real duty and the sacred trust that is laid upon them ehowing a reasonable kindness in small things. But this cannot atone for their great, black wickedness. IV. THE MARYB AT THE TOMB. Sorrowful and loving, they sit and watch by the tomb. It is all they can do for their Lord, and they cannot bear to leave him, Their faithful love is rewarded. To them is given the first news of the Resurrection. Clea~ing to Christ will be rewarded by many a surprise of joy. From the very tomb new hope will come to those who hold faithfully to him.-W. F. A. Vers. 1, 2, 11-14.-Christ before Pilate. No. 1. Caiapbas had a purpose to serve by giving Jesus up to the Romans. Little did he know that while he thought he was making a tool of every one, he was merely God's tool for accomplishing his purposes. The harmony of the purpose of God, the scheme of Caiaphas, the law of Rome, and the relation of the Jewish court to the Roman procurator, explains fully how, when the Sanhedrin took counsel against Jesus to put him to death, the result was that they resolved to deliver him to Pilate. In their conduct notice: 1. Their scrupulosity about ente·ring the palace. They would not cross a Gentile threshold durina the Feast of t·nlea,·ened Bread. Types in this of all who are able to be religio;s without being moral; who shrink from violating some ceremonial rule, but without ecruple violate their own convictions-whited sepulchres, outwardly spotless, but inwardly full of rottenness and corruption. 2. The satanically prompted cunning of their accusa- tion. They had but an hour ago been obliged to acquit him of such charges, and to condemn him on the ground of his claiming to be the Son of God. But Pile.ta is too keen-sighted to be deceived by their show of loyalty. He cannot believe that since last Passover this great conversion from hatred to love of his government bas taken place. One cannot but reflect what a pregnant moment this was for Pilate, when our Lord seemed to wish to open the deepest desires of that severe Roman heart, and prompt him to long, with the Jews, for a spiritual kingdom. Before answering his question," Art thou the King of the Jews?" he must first know, as John tells us, in what sense Pilate uses the words, "Sayest thou this thing of thyself? Is it not possible that thou too for thine own sake shouldest seek to know this King of the Jews for whom Israel has longed?" There were officers nnder Pilate whose heathen upbringing had not prevented ibem from discovering the spiritual grandeur of Jesus, and desiring to belong to his kingdom. But it was too much for Roman pride to be taught by a Jew how to find peace, and even to submit to this bound Jew before him as to a King. A mirror is here held up to those of us who do not "of ourselves" ask Christ what his claims are, who think it quite right that other people should accept and acknowledge him, but cannot bring themselves to do so. Pilate was a man who represents thousaods in every age, who persistently and on principle live for the world, and seal up the deeper nature in them that the world does not satisfy; who try, as it were, to Jive down their own nature, their own immortality. Have your own spiritual nec888itiee ta.nght you the meaning of God's promise of a King to the Jewe?-D. Vera.15---30.-Christ before Pilate. No. 2. The other evangelists tell us of Pilate's first and fatal mistake, in offering, while convinced of bis Pr~soner's innocence, to chastise him and let him go. He showed the Jews he was afra.1d of them; and from this poiot onwards we see him tossed between his own convictions and his fears-a type of all who in their own souls have convict!ons about Christ and their duty to him, which they do not act out lest they thereby mcur loss or abuse. Apparently, before the Jews have time to do more than utter a murmur of discontent at bis proposal, another plan suggests itself, by which he may possibly extricate himself. The governors were in the habit of releasing some well-known prisoner at the Feast of the Passover, and he offers to release Jesus. No sooner had be done so than his attention is called away by the extraordinary message from his wife. Nothing is more remarkable in the Roman history of the period than the strength of character developed by the women, their keen interest in pul,lic affairs, and the prominent part they play in them. A law fur bidding the wives of the governors to accompany their husbands to the provinces had lately been repealed, and Claudia ProclWl was not only with Pilate, but apparently keenly interested in his work and tenderly solicitous for bis honour and safety. Anu on. xxvn. 1-66.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MA'l'TIIEW. 621