The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 623

T's.lent to" Saviour." (2) "If thou a.rt the Son of God, come down from the cross." Had he not by many miracles proved himself the Son of God? Ho would not sa.ve himself by coming down from the cross, his !(racious purpose being to sa.crifice himself in order to save sinners. The sign he had given them was not his coming down from the oross, but, his coming up from the grave. (3) Why have they not the patience of the "three days" to which they referred, and they migM see the raising of the temple of his body? (4) The wagging of the hea.d was the expression of a malioious triumph. Little did they consider that this very gesture was the fulfilment of a prophecy to their dishonour (see Ps. xxii. 7). 2. By the 1wuls of the nation. (1) "In like manner also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders saicl, He saved others; can he not save himself?" A Saviour who saves not., but sacrifices himself to be the victim for salvation to others, they cannot understand. (2) "He is the King of Israel." Here is irony founded on the inscription which they could not induce Pilate to alter. " Let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe on him." Sceptics are e'l"er ready to prescribe to God what miracles he must work in order to gain their confidence, as though that confidence also were an infinite benefit to him. When Christ gave them the more astonishing evidence of his Messiahsbip by rising from the dead, they did not believe. His completing his work and not coming down from the cross is the reason why we believe. (3) "He trusteth in God; let him deliver him now if he desireth him: for he said, I am the Son of God." In this railing they unwittingly fulfil a remarkable prophecy of the Messiah (see Pa. xxii. 8). The fulfilment of the predictions concerning the sufferings of Messiah by the enemies of Jesus establishes his claims. 3. By t'hs impenitent malefactor. (1) "And the robbers also," or one of them" that were crucified with him, cast upon him the same reproach." The plural is sometimes put for the singular as," They are dead," meaning only Herod (eh. ii. 20); and, "When the disciples saw it they had indignation," meaning only Judas (eh. xxvi 8; John xii. 4). (2) The arguments used by the railers are the stock arguments of infidels. Libertines like the Jews are offended at the paradoxes of a High Priest who designs to destroy the temple; at a Saviour who saves not himself; at the Son of God submitting to be crucified. But in these very paradoxes the believer finds the sources of the joys of salvation.-J. A. M. Vers. 45-54.-Prodigy rebv,king levity. Levity had diabolical revelry while the blessed Lord Jesus meekly suffered injustice the most outrageous, and cruelty the most refined. At its height it was rebu.ked- L BY A HOBBOB OF DARKNESS. 1. This was preternatural. (1) It was not the result of an ordinary eclipse of the sun. The Passover was celebrated at full moon, when such an event could not have taken place. A solar eclipse never continues beyond a quarter of an hour. This darkness continued three hours. (2) It may have been produced by the intervention of dense clouds. Such an intervention would have been unusual in Judma in the spring of the year during the brightest hours of the da.y. But whatever may have been the secondary causes, they were commissioned by the same Providence that sent the plague of darkness upon the Egyptians (or. Exod. L 21-23). (3) It was no chance that so intimately connected this darkness with the event of the Crucifixion. It was "over all the land," viz. of J udma, where Christ suffered, and prevailed during the latter three hours of his suffering. It terminated also with the termination of those sufferings. To explain such coincidences as purely accidental is but to substitute a miracle of chance for a miracle of Providence. What is gained? 2. It was portentou1. (1) It expressed the moral anguish of spirit which Jesus then endured for us. For in those three dreadful hours he wa.s enduring the punishment of our offences. This experience of Divine anger drew from him the pathetic exclamation, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" (2) It expressed the present triumph of the powers of darkness over the Sun of Righteousness (cf. Gen. iii. 16; Luke xxiL 53). An extraordinary illumination heralded the birth of Obrist, an extraordinary darkness signalized his death. (3) It indicated the spiritual darknese of the Jewish people, who obstinately closed their eyes upon the Light of the world, and filled up the measure of their iniquity by crucifying the Just One. It presaged also the desolation which in consequence they were destined to sutler. (4) It expressed 11, mourning spread over natwe for the horrible criIQ.e thell perpetrated l?y men, 'l'hiJ  cut, xxvu.1-66.J THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 629