Bible Commentaries
Matthew 27

Verses 1-2

55-56 Compare Mar_14:48-52 ; Luk_22:52-53 .

55 In the daylight they were afraid. They wanted the mantle of darkness to hide their evil deeds. Nothing could have been simpler than to have the temple guards arrest Him in the sanctuary. Why all this show of force to take an unarmed Man Who never did anything but good? It is often difficult to account for the foolishness of human wisdom and action. Yet here we have the key. The Scriptures of the prophets must be fulfilled. And they are given for the revelation of God. Every human action will one day be accounted for and justified by putting it in its right relation to God.

62 Can there be any greater contrast than comes before us in this scene before the chief priest? Christ, the Chief Priest after the new order of Melchisedec, sworn in by God Himself, holy, harmless, undefiled, and higher than the heavens, is about to offer Himself for the sins of the world. Yet He stood alone, forsaken even by His own, charged with blasphemy and liable to death. Caiaphas was appointed for political reasons by the Roman power. He was crafty, deceitful, blasphemous, unfit to officiate at God's altar. Yet such a man dares to condemn the Son of God! Quite shamelessly he seeks for testimony against Him, and accepts what everyone knew was false. No one had heard Him say that He would destroy the temple of God. He said that they would do it. And now their very accusation is itself the crime with which they charge Him! They tried to fasten on Him the destruction of the empty house on mount Moriah. They actually accomplish the destruction of the true Temple, His body.

57-60 Compare Mar_14:53-64 ; Luk_22:54-71 ; Joh_18:12-24 .

61 See Joh_2:18-22 .

62 As the Sacrifice, the Lord was a sign to the priests, for He acted as the animal they were accustomed to lead to the altar ( Isa_53:7 ): He is hard pressed, and He is humiliated, Yet He is not opening His mouth: He is fetched as a flockling to the slaughter, And as a ewe before its shearers is mute, So He is not opening His mouth.

63 See Lev_5:164 See Mat_24:30 ; Psa_1:1 - Psa_10:1 ; Dan_7:13 ; Act_7:55-56 ; Rev_1:7

64 When the chief priest invoked the presence of God, Christ was not slow in testifying to the truth. So that all the actual testimony against Him was the great truth to which the priests themselves and all their service in the sanctuary and the temple testified. But we must not forget the divine side. The Scriptures must be fulfilled. God's purpose must be served. The business of the priesthood is to slay the sacrifice. All the victims hitherto had been vain repetitions that could only cover sin. They could not take it away. Shall not the priests, therefore, slay the great Antitype, the Lamb Whose blood will yet change all sin into righteousness, all enmity into reconciliation? In the wisdom of God their hatred and malice are simply a knife to slay the true Sacrifice. Can we not see that, in a very real sense, they were carrying out the will of God? And if this is true of the sin of sins, is it not quite possible that God will justify all sins in the same way?

65 See Lev_21:10 .

66 See Lev_24:16 ; Joh_19:7 .

67-68 Compare Mar_14:65 ; Luk_22:63-65 . See Isa_50:6 ; Isa_53:3 .

69 Poor Peter! Where is his bravado now? He was quite ready to defend his Lord against the world-but not against a serving maid. His very vehemence betrays him. Now was his opportunity of witnessing for his Lord, and of standing by Him in His trial. He should have shouted “Yes!” and moved forward to take his place beside his Master. But no. He refuses to acknowledge Him. He slinks back to the portal to escape further questioning. But another maid awaits him there, so he adds an oath to his denial, and by his Galllean brogue betrays himself again. And then his exasperation is so great that he actually damns and swears that He is not at all acquainted with the Lord. The cock crows. Its simple sound is the voice of God to Peter. He becomes acquainted with himself, and is sadly disillusioned. Instead of the brave,

trusty, faithful disciple and apostle he thought he was, he finds himself to be a cringing, craven coward. He laments bitterly.

69-74 Compare Mar_14:66-71 ; Luk_22:54-60 Joh_18:15-27 .

75 Compare Mar_14:72 ; Luk_22:61-62 . See 34.

1-2 Compare Mar_15:1 ; Luk_23:1 ; Joh_18:28-32 . See Psa_2:2 .

Mat_27:3-28

3-8 The chief priests, by buying the freehold, which had previously been acquired by Judas, but not paid for ( Act_1:16-19 ), join the betrayer of our Lord in an unlawful act which manifests their lack of faith in God. True believers, who were looking for the kingdom and the consequent redistribution of the land, would not waste money on a freehold which would be worthless in that day. Instead, they sold their freeholds ( Act_4:34 ), and gave the money to the apostles. The account in Acts views this transaction from the standpoint of Judas, and tells why he was rejected from being an apostle. He made arrangements not only to betray His Lord (Who, he supposed, would use His power to circumvent His enemies), but he arranged to use the “wages of unrighteousness” for buying a freehold, contrary to the law. The chief priests and elders, instead of repudiating this illegal act, confirm it by hypocritically refusing to put the money in the temple offerings, and by using it to complete the purchase which Judas had begun. The death of Judas is likewise passed over briefly in Matthew, but elaborated in Acts. He hanged himself, but the rope broke and he fell so hard that his bowels spilled out. Thus worked the woe pronounced upon him by the Lord.

5-8 See Act_1:18-19 .

9 See Zec_11:12-13 .

11 Compare Mar_15:2-5 ; Luk_23:2-12 ; Joh_18:33-38 . See 1Ti_6:13 .

11 The priests should have been models of justice and truth, for they had the form of truth in the law. The governor had no divine light to guide his steps. Yet Pilate is far more just than the priests. He knew very well that they would not demand the death of a Jew who conspired against his government. They would aid him. His suspicions of their motive were confirmed by the Lord's silence. No ordinary man would stand and hear such charges against him without a reply. At no time did the chief priests deceive Pilate. He thought the easiest way out would be to put it to the people, who, he supposed, would release the prophet. He was so sure of their verdict that he was caught in his own device.

15-18 Compare Mar_15:6-10 ; Luk_23:13-17 Joh_18:38-39 .

17 Bar-Abbas is another contrast with Christ. A murderer, a leader in sedition, he was just what the chief priests represented the Lord to be. His name is very striking. In Aramaic it means “son of the father”. Christ was the Son of the Father, God. Bar-Abbas was the son of another father, the Slanderer.

19 Of all the actors in this tragedy, only one really pleads the cause of Christ, and this one is the most unlikely that could be. It seems almost incredible, when His own nation is against Him, His own disciples afraid to speak a word in His favor, that an alien woman steps in to plead the cause of a just man she may never have heard of before. True, it was the direct effect of divine intervention. But every other act and attitude in this scene can, in its last analysis, be traced to God's foreordination. It must remain a marvelous intimation off God's ways that she alone should voice a solemn protest against the travesty of justice in which Pilate was weak enough to become involved.

20-23 Compare Mar_15:11-14 ; Luk_23:18-23 ; Joh_18:40 . See Act_3:14 .

20 The chief priests were aware that they had failed to convince the governor by fair argument, so now they propose to foil his plan of freeing the Lord by persuading the people. It is not necessary to have facts or truth to move the mob. It is the most unjust and unreasonable appeal possible. Had the priests not interfered they undoubtedly would have shouted for His release, as Pilate anticipated.

23 Now that the priests have caught him in his own device, he tries to persuade the mob. Evil or no evil, they want His blood.

24 See Deu_21:6-7 .

24 Pilate had the power to release Him, but expedience and selfishness are always more potent in human governments than justice.

25-38 Compare Mar_15:24-28 ; Luk_23:32-43 ; Joh_19:18-24 .

25 See Deu_19:10 ; Act_5:28 .

25 The Jews today have good cause to shudder when they read these lines. There is a reason for their terrible history from that day to this.

26 Compare Mar_15:15 ; Luk_23:24-25 ; Joh_19:1 .

27-31 Compare Mar_15:16-20 ; Joh_19:2-16 .

Verses 29-53

29 See Psa_69:19-20 ; Isa_53:3 .

30 See Isa_50:6 .

31 See Isa_53:7-8 ; Php_2:9-10 .

31 In mockery, our Lord went through the mimic ceremony of being invested with imperial dignity. The shining attire with which Herod clothed Him ( Luk_23:11 ) may have been intended to mark Him as a candidate for royal honors. Pilate's soldiers put on Him the scarlet mantle, a sign of His having attained the imperial throne, and add the crown of thorns and the reed for a scepter, and offer Him the homage due to such exalted rank. Little did they dream of His high honors as earth's Suzerain and heaven's supreme Head! And little do His saints discern that this is the essential ceremony of investiture for the King of kings and Lord of lords. He never could assume the place supreme unless He had descended to the depths. Suffering and shame are the divine preliminaries to joy and honor. Those who suffer-they shall reign.

32 Compare Mar_15:21 ; Luk_23:26-31 . See Heb_13:12-13 .

33-34 Compare Mar_15:22-23 ; Luk_23:33-36 ; Joh_19:17 .

34 See 48; Psa_69:21 .

35 Compare Psa_22:18 .

35 The crucifixion of Christ is a holy of holies, where speech seems sacrilegious, and silence sacred.

38 See Isa_53:12 .

39-44 Compare Mar_15:29-32 ; Luk_23:35-43 . See Psa_22:7-8 .

39 The whole scene is vibrant with the presence of God, not only in the Victim and the feeble few who followed, but in the very words of those who hated Him. They spoke great truths which they could not comprehend. They were demolishing the true Temple of God. They needed salvation. But it could never come if He saved Himself or descended from the cross. The chief priest could not have uttered a more pregnant or more precious truth. How gladly we echo their words! We only change the note of derision into a song of triumph. “Others He saves: Himself He cannot save!” Surely they were inspired!

40 See Mat_26:61-64 ; Joh_2:19 .

44 There were four others crucified with Christ. Two were malefactors. Two were robbers. One of the malefactors believed on Him. The robbers reproached Him.

45- 53 Compare Mar_15:33-38 Luk_23:44-46 ; Joh_19:25-30 .

45 The dread darkness was but an indication of the withdrawal of the divine Presence from the silent Sufferer. This was incomparably more awful than the opposition of His enemies or the desertion of His friends. Until this darkness enveloped Him, He had always lived in the light of God's smile. Now He was hanging on a tree, and became accursed of God ( Gal_3:13 ). Sinless, He became sin ( 2Co_5:21 ). Then it was that fire from above entered into His bones ( Lam_1:13 ). Then the Lord bruised Him ( Isa_53:10 ), It was the travail of His soul in these dark hours which settled the question of sin. It is only as we see God against Him then that we can appreciate how much He is for us now. Crucified by man at the behest of Satan, and abandoned by God, He was the most forlorn and forsaken creature in the universe. Only after it is past and the light returns is He able to cry to God. And then He utters that most incomprehensible of all questions, unless, indeed, He suffered for the sins of others. For His own sake God would never have abandoned Him. For my sake (and yours, beloved reader), He endured, not merely the physical pain, the mental torture, the moral degradation which men inflicted, but the deeper, direr despair of the awful enmity of God.

46 See Psa_22:1 .

48 See Psa_69:21 .

50 His death was different from all others. He did not linger until life ebbed away, but laid down His soul while still strong by committing His Spirit to God. His body was laid in the tomb. His soul went to the unseen. His work was done, and death was His portion until His resurrection.

51 See 2Ch_3:14 .

51 The flesh of Christ was figured by the curtain in the temple which hid the presence of God from the holy place. God was not manifest in His flesh, but in its rending. Our union with Christ does not commence until His crucifixion. We were crucified, entombed, raised, and are ascended and seated in Him.

Verses 54-66

54-61 Compare Mar_15:39-47 ; Luk_23:47-56 Joh_19:38-42 .

54 The kingdom proclamation closed with the acknowledgment of Peter that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God ( Mat_16:16 ). His priestly ministry closes with the centurion's declaration that He is the Son of God. Thus we are given a foretaste of the final effect of both of these ministries. In the day of His return, Israel will exultantly acclaim Him King and the nations of the earth will acknowledge Him their Lord.

55 See Luk_8:2-3 .

56 See Mat_13:55 .

57 The shame and ignominy, as well as the sufferings, are now over. Though they appointed His grave with the lawless, God put Him in a rich man's tomb. The Romans would have left His body till it wasted away or was devoured by birds of prey. The Jews would have put it in a felon's grave. God indicated His mind by providing two honorable men, Joseph and Nicodemus ( Joh_19:39 ), to attend to His entombment. Joseph of Arimarhea, translated, means “He adds the heights.”

62 The morrow after the preparation was the great sabbath which began the festival of Unleavened Bread. But the religions leaders did not rest nor did they allow Pilate peace. They now realized that they had only fulfilled His own predictions, and that, should He rise from the dead, or even appear to do so, they would be in a worse predicament than ever. From the divine side it was important that they should have ample assurance of His resurrection. Nothing could be more convincing than the story of the guard. Their plan was an excellent one to prove, not disprove, His return to life.

63 See Mat_16:21 ; Mat_17:23 ; Mat_20:19 .

64 Twelve times we are told that He would rise “the third day”. Why do they tell Pilate “after three days”, and then set the guard hardly more than a day after His death? Pilate was a Roman. They used the Latin idiom. Mark, who wrote for Romans, also uses this form

( Mar_8:31 ; Mar_9:31 ; Mar_10:34 ). In Greek it is literal, “the third day”. In Latin it is idiomatic, “after three days”. In Hebrew it is an idiom which accords with all their chronological computations, “three days and three nights”.

66 The “detail” of soldiers, was a small squad which, in Latin, was called a custodian. From this we get our word custody. Pilate uses the Latin military term for which the Greek had no exact equivalent. Hence it is transliterated, rather than translated in the sublinear rendering.

1 Compare Mar_16:1-4 ; Luk_24:1-2 ; Joh_20:1 .

1 The enigmatical phrase, “the evening of the sabbaths,” when the Roman watch was set, is the key to a problem which astute theologians have declared to be unsolvable. The Hebrew day, in starting at sundown, commenced in the middle of an “evening”. The evening of one day lasted till sundown, after that it was counted as the evening of the next day. Thus each day had two evenings, one at its commencement and another at its close. Each evening was in two days. The evening when the watch was set was in two sabbaths. One, the first day of Unleavened Bread, was a special sabbath, coming but once a year. The other was the usual weekly sabbath. The conjunction of these two at their common evening satisfies the phrase “the evening of the sabbaths,” and furnishes the key to the chronology of the passion week.

1 “One of the sabbaths” is the only correct translation of the phrase usually rendered “the first day of the week”. The word first is not there. It is simply one , and is applied to the eleventh hour ( Mat_20:12 ), which, in that case, was last, not first. The word day is not in the text at all. The word “week” is in the plural, and is precisely the same as the form in the preceding sentence. If it is rendered “sabbaths” there it must also be “sabbaths” here. So there is no recourse but to translate “one of the sabbaths.” The key to this expression lies in the law of the Firstfruits ( Lev_23:9-14 ). Ending with the day before Pentecost there were seven sabbaths ( Lev_23:15 ) from the day before the waving of the “sheaf”. These are referred to in the phrase “one of the sabbaths”. Every mention of this phrase places it between the Passover and Pentecost, ( 1Co_16:2 and Act_20:1 ; Act_20:6 ). And the other occurrences refer to our Lord's resurrection ( Mar_16:2 ; Luk_24:1 ; Joh_20:1-19 ). He was raised on a sabbath, not the first day of the week, which would be our Sunday. His resurrection on the sabbath is a token that His work was complete. Redemption is now a matter of entering into His stopping, not the beginning of a new week of toll and labor.