The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 624

sentiment is put into the mouth of Dionysius the Areopa;Pte, who, witnessing a wonderful eclipse of the sun at Heliopolis, in Egypt, said to his friend Apollophanes "Either God himeelf suffers or sympathizes with the sufferer." ' II. BY THE BENDING 01' THE TEMPLE'& VEIL. 1. Thia also was preternat'll.ral. (1) The matter of fact cannot be disputed. For it occurred at the time of the evenin"' sacrifice, while the priest was offering incense in the holy place, and on the occasion of a great festival when the people in vast numbers were praying without. The testimony of Matthew might therefore have been readily contradicted had it not been true. It is too late in the day to attempt to contradict it now. (2) We are not. informed how the wonder was effected, whether by lightning or by invisible hands; but the veil was thick and strong, and could not have been "rent from the top to the bottom" by any ordinary force. God can work his miracles immediately or by secondary causes. (3) 'l'hat this was a Divine thing is evident from its coincidence with the moment of the Redeemer's yielding up his spirit. To say this was a mere accident is but to make the miracle of chance all the more stupendous. 2. This too was portentous. (1) Paul teaches us to regard the rending of the veil of the temple as ernblematical of the rending of the body of our Lord, the sacrificial efficacy of which opened to the guilty the way of access to God, and opened to all who believe, the way into his glorious presence in the future life. (2) It intimated also the abolition of the Jewish ceremonial Law, which, by its interposition of imperfect and mystic rites, had obstructed free and direct approach to God. (3) It signified the revealing and nnfolding of the mysteries of the Old Testament, so as to make the face of Moses to shine in the radiance of the gospel, In Christ we discover the.true Propitiatory, or Mercy-seat. He is that Ark of the covenant who contains in his heart the unbroken tables of the Law. He is that precious golden pot of incorruptible Manna, the very Bread of life from heaven. III. BY THE PORTENTS FROM THE EARTH, 1. The earthqu.ake. (1) Travellers have observed marks of extraordinary convulsions in these rocks. The fissures lie across the natural cleavage. Though earthquakes are produced by natural causes, yet are they under the control and direction of Providence. (2) This earthquake attested God's approbation of the Sufferer, as it expressed also his anger against his persecutors (cf. Amos viii. 8; Nah, i. 6). So as the rending of the veil intimated the removal and abolition of the Jewish Church, this rending of the rocks imported the ruin that was coming upon the nation. (3) The phenomenon occurring at that critical moment when Jesus dismissed his spirit, significantly evinced that the dreadful act of rejecting and crucifying the Christ provoked the desolation. (4) It may also be taken as a token and earnest of that mighty convulsion of nature which will attend Christ's coming to the judgment (cf. Heb. xii. 26). 2. The <Ypening of the tombs. (1) This showed that the power of death and the grave was vanquished by the death and resurrection of Ch1ist. When our Lord gave up the ghost it was not life but death itself that died. 'l'his was the great death out of which life was educed. He triumphed over death in the "place of a skull "-where the trophies of death lay around. His Divinity was proved, for he imparted life to the bodies of the sleeping saints (see John v. 26). (2) "This opening of the graves was designed both to adorn the resurrection of Christ, and to give a specimen of our resurrection, which also is in virtue of his" (Flavel). (3) It was a strong confirmation of the resurrection of Christ. For those who came forth from the tombs after his resurrection "appeared to many" to whom our Lord himself did not appear. Returning with Jesus to heaven, they • were also pledges to angels and spirits of men of the general resurrection to come. Seenow- IV. THE EFFECT UPON THE SPECTATORS. 1. Upon the Jews. (1) The horror of darkness interrupted their raillery. It struck them with terror. Guilt trembles in darkness. It did not change their hearts. (2) Until near the close of this period of horror, Jesus suffered silently in the sorrowfulness of his soul for the sin of the world, and distressed with the awful loneliness of being forsaken of his God. This was the worst part of his sufferings, and extorted from him that loud pathetic cry. 'l'his roused a~aio the courage of his revilers to say, "This Man calleth Elijah." They misunderstood him, as carnal men do evermore, substituting trust in the human for trust in the Divine. (3) Jesus then said, "I thirst" (see John xix. 28). This moved one standing by to fix a sponge soaked iu vinegar on a hyssop stalk, and pus  G:l0 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, MAT'l'HEW. [OB. x.xvu. 1:-66,