The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 237

HOMILETICS. Vere. 47-56.-Fdda.y '11.ight until Sunday morning. "It is flnisl,ed I" But there nre witnesses to the solemnity of the moment and the significance of the word, whose testimony gives weight to the voice of conscience. 'J.'he rumble and reel of the earth- quake are felt. \Vben '' the loud voice" is uttered, the veil which separates the most holy from the holy place is tom in two; an ominous darkness covers the city ; there is a crash as of rending rocks and opening tombs, and strange forms, as of those who were dead, flit before the vision. Three hours are marked by portents (vers. 44, 45), beneath whose impression even the officer in charge of the Roman soldiery exclajms ( ver. 47), "Certainly this was a righteous Man. He must have been a Son of God." And when, besides, the multitude, hushed and solemnized, gazes on the countenance now calm and still in the repose of death, and the recollection of the life so pure and noble becomes vivid in the mind, the reaction from intense excitement sets in, and (ver. 48) smiting on their breasts in unavailing sorrow, they steal away from the scene of death. Only two groups remain-the soldiers, who must watch until the crucified ar~ dead, :md their bodies are removed; and" the acquaintance of Jesus, and the women "ho had followed him from Galilee, far o:ff, in speechless amazement beholding these things" (ver. 49). All that remains is the burial. He whose cross was erected between the malere.ctors is dead. The priests and scribes bad begged that the closing act of the death by crucifixion, that called the crocifragium-tbe smiting or breakiog of the legs-might be hastened and the corpses removed, so that no offence to decency might be felt on the high day, "the double sabbath," at hand. Pilato had acceded to the request; and the forms of the two malefactors had been smitten. Not the form of Jesus. No i;park of life, it was said, remained. Only, to m:i.ke assurance sure, a spear is thrust into tbe side; the spear, it may be, pierced the pericardium of the heart, or that had already been ruptured; anyhow, a mixture of blood and water flows out. St. John is emphatic as to this, no doubt to silence the suggestion that Jesus bad only seemed to die, or that the seeming death' had been only a swoon. No, says the evangelist (John xix. 35), "I saw it myself." It is the eyrnbolic meaning of that effusion which we .,et before us when we sing- " Let the water and the blood, From tb v riven aide which flowed, Be of sin the double cure- Cleanse me from its guilt and power." Is the Lord buried in the sepulchre reseryed fo~ those who b~d been door:n~d to. capital punishment? No. Here there comes mto view the beautiful and strikmg 10c1dent cm. t.xm. 1-/iG.J 'l'lIE GOSP~L ACCOtmING 'to ST. UJKl<t 21'7