WE have next the scene before the Roman governor. Heartless as he was and with little conscience, still willfulness characterized the Jews. “And the whole multitude of them rose up and led him to Pilate. And they began to accuse him saying, We found this [man] perverting our nation and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ, a king.” Thus they who were really impatient under the Roman. yoke, breaking out from time to time into turbulent opposition, were here forward in the pretense of loyalty. But this was a little thing compared with the blindness of unbelief which denied their own Messiah. Nor could any charge be more false. He had departed from them when they wished to make Him a king. He had only just before expressly enjoined that they should render to Cæsar the things that were Caesar’s, no less than to God the things of God.
It will be observed that when “Pilate asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? he answering said to him, Thou sayest.” The Lord acknowledged the authority that was ordained of God, however He might suffer it. This is the true safeguard of faith, let the authority be ever so faithless. We are called to walk in His steps. We are not of the world even as He is not of the world. By and by we shall reign with Him and shall judge the world; we shall judge even angels. The more are we called above the world in spirit to be subject to God’s authority in it: only we must obey God rather than man and therefore suffer where His will and the world’s authority come into collision. So the Lord here witnesses a good confession,566 and submits to all the consequences.
But it is striking to observe that the Lord’s confession of the truth (for indeed He was the King of the Jews) did not damage His cause before the Roman governor, but with His own people, blinded against the truth. On the contrary, “Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, I find567 no fault in this man. But they insisted, saying, He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judaea, beginning from Galilee569 as far as this.” Satan was pushing the incredulity of Israel to the last extremity. It is always so finally with his victims. Christ, in the fullness of His grace and truth, thoroughly brings out what is in man, because He brings in God.
“But Pilate having heard of Galilee, demanded if the man were a Galilean. And having learned that he was of Herod’s jurisdiction, he remitted him to Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem in those days. And when Herod saw Jesus he rejoiced exceedingly, for he was wishing for a long time to see him, because of hearing [much] of him. And he hoped to see some sign one by him, and questioned him in many words, but he answered him nothing.”569 The silence of the Lord was a very solemn condemnation of Herod, while it gave the fullest opportunity for the rude insolence of his followers as well as of the accusers. “And the chief priests and the scribes stood and vehemently accused him. And Herod with his troops set him at naught and mocked him, and having arrayed [him] with a splendid570 robe, sent him back to Pilate.”571 The Spirit of God does not fail to notice here the moral peculiarity of the transaction. There had been a feud between the Governor and the King, but “Pilate and Herod became friends with one another that very day, for they had been previously at enmity with each other.”572 Thus it is against Christ that Satan contrives to make his union in the world, as the grace of God does by Him and for Him.
The closing hour approaches, “And Pilate having called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people said to them, Ye have brought to me this man as turning away the people, and behold I, having made examination in your presence, have found no fault in this man, as to the things of which ye accuse him; nay, nor yet Herod, for I remitted you to him, and behold, nothing deserving of death is done by him. Having chastised him therefore,): will release him.” Such was the boasted equity of the Roman empire, of man. There was no doubt of the innocence of Jesus. The charges of the people had been proved to be fictitious. The hardened judge could not condemn, but acquit as a matter of justice. He was willing to concede something to please the people, but he was anxious to release the Prisoner. Whether the 17th verse be genuine or not, there can be no doubt from what follows that it was the custom to release a prisoner at this time. Several excellent authorities omit the verse, as the Alexandrian, the Vatican, the Parisian uncials (62 and 63), with several very ancient versions, whilst others change its position. Nevertheless the Sinai, with the mass of MSS. and some of the best versions, contains it. On the whole the balance seems in its favor, as it also would be harsh to act upon an unexplained custom. “Now he was obliged to release one for them at [the] feast. But they cried in full crowd, saying, Away with this [man] and release Barabbas for us; one who for a certain tumult made in the city and murder had been cast into prison.” Such was the choice of man, such the value of their loyalty to Cæsar, such their care for God’s respect for the life of a fellow-creature made in His image. A rebel and a murderer preferred to Jesus!
“Again therefore Pilate addressed them, wishing to release Jesus. But they kept calling in reply; Crucify, crucify him! And he said the third time573 to them, Why, what evil has this [man] done? I have found no cause of death in him, Having chastised him therefore, I will release [him]. But they were urgent with loud voices begging that he might be crucified; and their voices [and those of the high priests] prevailed.574 And Pilate gave sentence that what they begged should take place, and released him who, for tumult and murder, had been cast into prison, for whom they begged, and Jesus he delivered up to their will.”575
Thus all the world was proved guilty before God, but none were so deeply involved as those whom it least became. The people who had the law fell under its curse, not merely, because they were disobedient to its requirements, but, worst of all because they were resolutely bent on the rejection of their own Messiah to death, and this when the heathen sought to let Him go. Such was what the world was proved to be, where the reality came out through Him who alone was real, the Holy and the True, No room for boasting more: there never was, in truth, but now it is evident and impossible to be denied by him who rightly reads the Word of God.
Nevertheless the Spirit of God gives us more. “And as they led him away, they laid hold of a certain Simon, a Cyrenian,576 coming from [the] country, an put on him the cross to bear [it] after Jesus.” There was no restraint now, but if man were lawless, God remembered Simon another day, and his sons are not forgotten in the record of life. (Compare Mark 15:2121And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. (Mark 15:21) and Rom. 16:1313Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. (Romans 16:13).) It may be a terrible truth that God looks down from heaven and beholds the children of men, and sees none so worthy of reprobation as those who misuse selfishly the highest privileges of His mercy; but when we know Him, or rather, are known of Him, it is not the least of our comforts that God takes account of everything, and knows how to reply in His grace to those who have power and not on the side of the oppressor.
It is not that man lacks feeling: but feeling without faith comes to nothing, no less than mind, or authority, or position, were it the highest in the religious world. The affections of nature may be sweet, but never can be trusted to stand firm to Christ, however moved for a season. “And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who wailed and lamented him. And Jesus turning to them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over me, but weep over yourselves and over your children; for behold, days are coming in which they will say, Blessed the barren and wombs which bear not and breasts which suckled not. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall upon us, and to the hills, Cover us.577 For if they do these things in the green tree, what shall take place in the dry?” Jesus knew what was in man, despised not the feelings of the women, but trusted Himself to none. Tenderly He warns them of that which man believes not till it comes, for it is a part of man’s wisdom to suppose the future uncertain in the words of God, because it is uncertain to man. Fools and slow of heart to believe what the Lord said no less than their own prophets! Had they believed them, they had not refused Him. Had they received Him, days of heaven had dawned upon the earth, on Israel especially, and all the glorious visions of His reign had been accomplished. But Israel was ruined and guilty, man fallen and lost, and all in such a state reject Jesus. Therefore God works out deeper counsels by the Cross of Jesus in heaven and for heaven, now testified by the Holy Ghost sent down here below. These are the counsels and the ways of His grace, but His warnings stand equally, and His Word must be accomplished to the letter. Soon had they an accomplishment, though I do not say that there may not be more in store at the end of the age, when those who refused the true Christ that came in His Father’s name shall receive the Antichrist coming in his own. And the overflowing scourge shall pass through and the apostate Jews be trodden down by it. The Messiah was the green tree, the Jews the dry.578 If He because of their wickedness came into such sorrow, what was not reserved to them for their own? For, whatever His grace, God judges righteously.
“And two others, malefactors, were led with him to be put to death.”579 Jesus was spared no insult. As He was the song of the drunkard, so He made His grave with the wicked. “And when they came to the place called Skull,580 there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”/581 It is not here, as in Matthew and Mark, “My God my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” It is the expression of His grace towards sinners, not of His abandonment by God in accomplishing the work of atonement; and it is of the deepest interest to see that as the answer to the one came in resurrection-power and heavenly glory, so of the other in the proclamation of forgiveness by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.582 Therefore Peter could preach (Acts 3:1717And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. (Acts 3:17)ff), “And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as also your rulers. But those things which God had sheaved by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent therefore and be converted for the blotting out of your sins, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,” etc. But here again we have to wait. The message of forgiveness was refused. A remnant, indeed, believed, received forgiveness, and rose into better blessings; but the mass have pursued their heedless unbelief to this day, and will sink into deeper darkness. Yet assuredly light shall spring up in the darkest hour, and the remnant of that day shall be brought out of their sins and ignorance alike to be made the strong nation when He appears to reign in glory.
The horrors of the crucifixion in its detail come before us. “And, parting his garments, they cast lots. And the people stood beholding, and the rulers also [with them] sneered, saying, He saved others, let him save himself if this is the Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also were mocking him, coming up offering him vinegar, and saying, If thou art the king of the Jews, save thyself. And there was also an inscription over him, This is the king of the Jews.”588 In every respect the Word of God was accomplished, and the ways of men laid bare. It was no question of a class and its peculiar habits. High and low, the governed and the governors, civil and military, all played their part; and the part of all was enmity against God revealing His love and goodness in His Christ. The folly, too, of man was apparent no less than grace in presence of his wickedness. It was because He was the King of the Jews, as none other had been or can be besides, that He saved not Himself, and can therefore send out the message of salvation now and bring salvation by and by. Little did man, in that day, weigh the import of that which was written over Him in Greek and Roman and Hebrew letters, “This is the king of the Jews.” If man wrote it in scorn, God will give it all its own force — God Who overrules the will and the wrath of man to praise Him. Through the Crucified, God will bless the world by and by, Jew and Gentile, high and low, even as His grace gathers out from it now.
Here God would give a testimony of His grace to man, suited to His Son and suited to the Cross. Hence He was pleased to choose the most hopeless circumstances in the view of nature, and even while delivering a soul, up to this steeped in guilt and degradation, in the agonies of death, and with the forebodings of a judgment incomparably more solemn, even as it is eternal, to secure in the fullest way His own immutable character, and to manifest in practical righteousness the ungodly one whom His grace had justified by faith. All this and much more may be seen in the history which our Evangelist alone gives of the converted robber.
“Now one of the hanged malefactors reviled him. Art not thou the Christ? Save thyself and us. But the other in answer rebuking him said, Dost not even thou fear God, because thou art in the same judgment? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due requital for what we have done, but this [man] has done nothing amiss, And he said to Jesus, Remember me when thou shalt come in thy kingdom.584 And he said to him, Verily, I say unto thee, To-day585 shalt thou be with me in paradise.”
There is no sufficient reason to suppose that the robber was converted before he was crucified, or even before he had joined his fellow in reviling the Lord., The earlier Gospels give us ground to believe that both were thus guilty, that the rejected Jesus was exposed to this as well as to every other draft of the bitter cup. I am aware that general phrases may be used, but I see no sufficient ground to doubt that each of the robbers did thus join. in insulting the Lord of glory. Why should we hesitate? Is it because the conversion of one of them might seem too sudden? — a reason in my judgment wholly insufficient. Conversion is usually if not always, sudden, though the manifestation of it may not be. The entrance of the soul into enjoyed peace may be long delayed and may demand the removal of many hindrances. This is rarely done in a very short time; but it is wholly distinct from conversion, and the two things should not be confounded as they too often are. Conversion is the soul’s turning to God through a believing reception of the Lord Jesus; the enjoyment of peace depends on the soul’s submission to the righteousness of God when the redemption-work of the Lord Jesus is seen by faith. Hence there are many souls who are truly converted because they have bowed to Jesus, who nevertheless are often cast down and unhappy and burdened, because they do not equally see peace made by the blood of His Cross. Where there is the simple reception of the Gospel the converted soul passes so soon into peace that one can well understand how the two things get confounded in the minds of many; as many others, on the contrary, confound them, because, unconsciously slighting conversion, which frequently plunges the soul in deep exercise and trouble of conscience before God, they only take into account that complete relief and peace which the Gospel ministers.
Certain it is that the malefactor was now converted who rebuked the sin of him who persisted in reviling the Lord. On the other hand, there may be the surest reviling of the Saviour without one word which man as such would consider blasphemous. In this very instance the impenitent robber simply said, “Art not thou, the Christ? Save thyself and us.” It was a thought, it was language not unnatural to man’s mind under such circumstances. It was blasphemy to the mind of the Spirit. That the promised center and medium of every blessedness for the earth, for man, and for God here below, should die upon a cross did seem beyond measure strange; that He Who had all power to save others, not to speak of Himself, should be pleased so to die, was naturally incredible. Man does not understand the depth of the humiliation of Jesus any more than the grace of God, or of his own utter need as measured and met by both.
But it is deeply interesting to see that a newborn soul discerns according to God, and this instinctively in virtue of the new nature where no formal teaching had been given or received. The converted robber at once warns his impenitent fellow of his sin, sets before him his danger, confesses his own natural state, his own life, his own ways no less evil than the other’s, and in the most serious and feeling way vindicates the glory of the Lord Jesus. “Dost not even thou,” said he in a reply of rebuke, “fear God?” The death which was before his spirit gave the gravest tone to it and made him speak out with evident anxiety, and this not so much for himself personally as in compassion for the reviler, however he might feel his sin. There they were, “in the same judgment,” as a fact, but how different in God’s eyes!
And faith gave him to estimate this aright — the crucifixion of a malefactor unrepentant, of another repentant, and of Him Whose grace drew out the repentance of the latter and hardened the former to the uttermost because he believed not. There is no true fear of God apart from faith; but faith produces not only hope and confidence in God, but also the only genuine sense of what it is to be a sinful man in His sight, and hence the only real humility. Such was the present state of this converted robber. Nothing shows it better than that he should so forget himself as practically to preach to the reviler, to set before him his sin and his danger, to hold up Jesus Christ the righteous. He does not stop to think of the singularity of such words from his own mouth, that he, a wretched, guilty, degraded malefactor, should appear to presume to speak of God to man, to rebuke a fellow-sinner, to maintain unsullied the name of Him Whom the highest authorities had just condemned to die on the cross. This in truth is the humility of faith, not the mere human lowliness of trying to think as ill of ourselves as we can, but the Divinely given sense that we are too bad to think of ourselves at all, because of the perfection we have seen in the Saviour, the Son of God, the man Christ Jesus.
Not that this self-forgetfulness produces the smallest unwillingness to confess our own sins, but on the contrary makes us free to acknowledge them fully, as we see in the words “And we indeed justly, for we receive the just requital for what we have done, but this [man] has done nothing amiss.” The converted min owns himself as bad and as justly condemned as the unconverted one, but he takes all care to exempt Jesus from the common character of fallen man. “This [man] has done nothing amiss.” How had he learned it? We know not that he had ever listened to or ever seen Him before; but we may be certain that never before had he such a knowledge as would warrant such language. Was he rash, then? He was taught of God, he had beheld the Lamb of God. On the cross he had seen enough, heard enough, to be certain that there was hanged beside him the long-expected Messiah Who should save His people from their sins and blot out their iniquities as a thick cloud, Who should make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness. As for himself, his wicked life was ending, the forfeit of his crimes, due to the outraged majesty of the laws he had broken. But if there was a just sentence of man in his case, there was forgiveness with God that He might be feared; and the spotless dying Lamb had given him to realize both his own sins and God’s holiness as never before.
Without a particle of high-mindedness, he felt that the opinion, yea the solemn judgment of man was nothing in Divine things. The high priest had treated the claim of Jesus as blasphemy; the Roman governor had given him up, knowing he was innocent, but afraid of displeasing Cæsar, to the murderous will of the Jews. But grace had made single the eye of the converted robber; and his whole body was full of light. He could answer for Jesus as one who was known thoroughly. “This [man] has done nothing amiss.” It was contrary to all man’s experience, not only to what he knew of himself and of others known to him, but to all ever reported since the world began. Yet it was not more sure that others were sinners than that Jesus was not. It was faith, and exactly such a confession of Jesus as glorified Him at that moment when in the eyes of the world at the lowest point, despised and rejected of men. No angel was here to comfort, no apostle to confess Who He the Son of man was. If all else had forsaken Jesus and fled, the converted robber from the cross was there to confess the crucified Lord, in terms hardly heard before but truly adapted in the wisdom of God to give the lie to unbelief. The God Who opened the lips of babes and sucklings a few days before to set forth His praise wrought in the hanged robber with yet greater power now.
“And he said to Jesus, Remember me when thou shalt come in thy kingdom.” An admirable prayer and in beautiful keeping with the whole truth of the position It is not what we might have thought at first sight suitable to such a case. The Lord described a poor publican as saying acceptably to God, Have mercy upon me, the sinner that I am. The converted robber here has no doubt of the Lord’s mercy. He does not ask for a part in His kingdom, but to be remembered by Jesus then. What! He, a robber, to be remembered by the. King of kings and Lord of lords? Even so. He was right, and those who would judge him as wrong are so themselves. They enter not, as he did, into the glory of Jesus, Who, as He calls His own sheep by name now, will not forget the last any more than the first then in the perfection of His love. He prays to be remembered when Jesus should come in His kingdom for he at least believes in the kingdom of the Son of man, Others might set up the inscription without faith over the Crucified, but the name and kingdom of the Crucified were inscribed on the converted robber’s heart.
Remark also how he was guided of the Spirit, not more concerning Christ and His ways and character than about His kingdom. Truly he was taught of God. Some looked only for the kingdom of Messiah here, others since conceive that Jesus is gone into a kingdom far away. He prays to be remembered when Jesus shall come in His kingdom; for, as our Evangelist shows in the parable (chapter. 19:11, etc.), He is gone to a far country to receive for Himself a kingdom and to return: He will be invested with the kingdom on high, as also is shown by the prophet Daniel; but He will surely come in His kingdom instead of merely closing all things here below. Not so will He come in His kingdom. He shall reign over all peoples and tribes and tongues. Yet it is no mere earthly realm, but the kingdom of God, consisting of heavenly things as well as of (John 3:1212If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? (John 3:12)) nor is it a kingdom of the Spirit, though the Spirit makes it good now in those who believe, but a real personal kingdom of Jesus; and the converted robber, with all saints, will be remembered when He shall come in His kingdom. The once robber will surely have his place in that day. He knew Whom he had believed and was persuaded that He is able to keep what he had committed to Him against that day.
But the prayer of faith, while it surely has its answer according to the measure of our soul’s confidence in Divine love according to the Word, has its answer also according to the depths of Divine grace and truth far beyond our measure. So it was now. “And he said to him, Verily, I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” If the prayer of the robber was admirable, much more was the reply of Jesus, a reply ushered in with special emphasis, not for him only to whom it was said, but for us also who believe in Him Who died and rose again for us. The blessings of accomplished redemption are not deferred till that day. They are true now, whether we live or die. We are the Lord’s, and we know it; we are bought with a price; we are washed from our sins in His blood. By Him the Father has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Such is the position, such the standing, such the assured, known privilege of the believer by virtue of redemption. The converted robber was the first soul to taste of this rich and fresh mercy. The Lord assures him, not merely of His remembrance in the kingdom, but of being that very day with Himself in paradise. What a testimony to the all-overcoming and immediate power of His redemption! A robber so purged by His blood as to be that very day with the Son of God, and this, not in heaven only, but in its brightest, highest seats! For such is paradise.
Believer, heed not those who may say that the Lord, separate from the body abode in gloom till His resurrection. Not so. His spirit was shut up in no prison but commended by Himself to the father; and where He is, there too are His saints. Doubtless He had not yet ascended; for ascension, like resurrection, is predicated of the body; but His spirit went to paradise, and as Adam’s paradise of old was the choicest spot of an unfallen earth where all was very good, so is the paradise of God the choicest of heaven. Hence Paul, in 2 Cor. 12, connects it with the third heaven; and John holds it out as the promised scene of glory where the overcomer shall by and by eat of the tree of life. No believer can conceive that this will be a place of dimness and doubt and restraint, but of Divine and everlasting glory through the Second man the last Adam.
In this paradise, then, the Lord declares that the converted malefactor should be with Him “today,” so completely were his sins blotted out by blood, so rendered capable himself, by and in that new nature which grace gives the believer. Instruction most weighty for us, and a hope full of glory, for it is the present fruit of redemption and the gift of grace to every believer. It was not assuredly his own act of dying which had this virtue for the malefactor, but the death of the Lord; and this is as free and full for every Christian as for him to whose faith it was then made known. To us now it is proclaimed in the Gospel. Shame on those who profess to believe the Gospel, but deny its most Precious and eternal blessings. Nor is it merely the dark and queen-like Circe who cheats her victims and destroys them with poisoned cup, and will surely find her plagues from God in one day. How few among those who have cast off her thralldom enjoy the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free! How many with an open Bible overlook the plainest lessons where there is no veil, but man stands immediately confronted with the light of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ! Anything short of this is not the true grace of God, is not the Gospel of the glory of Christ, but the darkening effect of that unbelief, so prevalent in Christendom, which has, as it were, sewn up the veil again with God at a distance within, and man without, wistfully looking for a deliverance as if the Deliverer had not already come and finished the work of redemption. For the soul salvation is come: for the body, no doubt, it waits till Jesus come again. But this is another matter on which we need not inquire more now.
Nor did God permit that so stupendous an event as the death of His Son should leave unaffected that world which He had made, or that legal system which He had set up by Moses in the midst of His earthly people. “And it was now about [the] sixth hour, and there came darkness over the whole land till [the] ninth hour. And the sun was darkened,/586 and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit; and, having said this, he expired.”587 And the testimony was not without immediate effect on the officer in command at the crucifixion. “Now the centurion, seeing what took place, glorified God, saying, Certainly this [man] was righteous.” But the mass were filled with the sense of having committed themselves to they knew not what. “And all the crowds that came together for that sight, having beheld the things done, returned beating [their] breasts.” Not that some were not there who prized His ministry and were attached to His person, but far off in that day of man’s shame and guilt and of Satan’s power. “And all those who knew him stood afar off, and women who had accompanied him from Galilee, seeing these things.”
But God used that very day, and His grace who was thus put to death to bring out to distinct association with His name a good and righteous man. If Jesus in His life of rejection had not Joseph openly in His train, the death of the cross made him bold while others fled or stood aloof. “And behold, a man named Joseph, being a councilor and a good and righteous man (he had not consented to their counsel and deed), from Arimathæa a city of the Jews, who waited for the kingdom of God, himself went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus; and, having taken down, wrapped in fine linen and place him in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid. And it was preparation day, and sabbath dusk was drawing on.”588 On their affection, not without darkness, a brighter day was soon to dawn.
Endnotes
567 Verse 4. — “Find.” For this forensic use, still preserved, cf. 2 Cor. 5:33If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. (2 Corinthians 5:3). 3:9, 2 Pet. 3:1414Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. (2 Peter 3:14). For the examination before Pilate in extenso, see John 18:3333Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? (John 18:33) ff. For the travesty of justice by which it was throughout marked, see Rosadi, “The Trial of Jesus” (E. T. from third Italian edition).
568 Verse 5. “All Judæa, etc.” See note on 4:44.
569 Verse 6. ff, — Against the impeachment of this section by critics (e.g. O. Holtzmann, p. 482, Schmiedel, § 108, col. 1840), Burkitt’s defense, “attested by Gospel of Peter” may well qualify by quantum valeat (p. 138).
A difficulty has been raised as to the Crucifixion being as early as 9 A.M. (Mark 15:2525And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. (Mark 15:25)), in the light of Luke’s statement here. But, cf. John 18:2828Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover. (John 18:28): “it was early,” when the Lord was led into the Prætorium (palace), which may quite well have been by 6 A.M. The distance traversed and re-traversed between the residences of Pilate and Herod would be short. The historicity of this section needs for its support no such assumptions as those of Verrall (The Journal of Theological Studies, April, 1909, pp. 321-353).
As to Luke’s source of information, cf. note 4F. He is as familiar with the doings of Agrippa Acts 12: 20, 13:1, as here with these of Antipas.
570 Verse 11. — The word λαμπρός is strictly “white”; and to this incident is attributed the use of the vestment called “alb.”
571 Verse 12. — With regard to the treatment by textual critics of verses 10-12, it may be said that what with Tischendorf’s fondness for א, Hort’s partiality to “B.” and Wellhausen’s lasing wedded to Syrsin, something further is needed as determinative beyond “diplomatic” evidence, reinforced as that may be by “historical” or “critical acumen” enlisted in the service of irreconcilable views.
573 Verse 22, — cf. verses 4 and 15. By Roman Law the Procurator ought not to have entertained the second, to say nothing of the third, trial.
574 Verse 23. — “Urgent”: so American Revv. Cf. Ps. 12:4.
575 Verse 25. — Wellhausen can but speak of “indiscoverable reasons.” J. Weiss, however, notes Luke’s also forbearing to record the soldier’s completion of the crucifixion: the Evangelist clearly meant to attach the blame to the Jews.
“Pilate” is included in Whyte’s “Bible Characters,” LXXXIV.
576 Verse 26. — “Cyrene,” the modern Tripoli. Cf. Acts 6:99Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. (Acts 6:9). Observe how Luke’s account brings together John’s statement and that of Matthew and Mark. The Lord most alone have borne the cross until relieved of some portion of it by Simon.
577 Verses 28-30. — Cf. Rev. 6:12, 1512And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; (Revelation 6:12)
15And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; (Revelation 6:15)f. Stier calls this the first part of the Lord’s Passion Sermon; the remainder is, of course, the seven words from the Cross, beginning with that in verse 34, where see note.
578 Verse 31. — Cf. Ps. 1:4. The explanation of “green” and “dry” is that long ago given by Theophylact (cf. Farrar).
See Tholuck’s Sermon on verses 26-31 (“Light from the Cross,” p. 100), and Dr. Arnold’s from verse 30.
579 Verse 32. — Some copies alter the order, but the punctuation of A.V. is right from every point of view.
580 “Skull,” i.e., Golgotha; a name avoided, as Gethsemane, etc., in view of Gentile readers. “Calvary” of A.V. is from the Latin Vulgate.
581 Verse 34. — This saying of course fulfils the last clause of Isa. 53:1212Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12). Cf. 1 Tim. 1:1313Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. (1 Timothy 1:13). The other utterances from the Cross are: (2) in verse 43 here; (3) in John 19:2626When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! (John 19:26); (4) in Mark 15:3434And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Mark 15:34); (5) in John 19: 28; (6) in John 19:3030When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30); and (7) in verse 46 here.
On the reading, see Blass, “Philology of the Gospels,” p. 71.
582 The suggestion of O. Holtzmann and others that the words in Matt. 27:4646And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46), as in Mark 15:3434And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Mark 15:34), had by the time Luke wrote come to be regarded as derogatory to the Son of God; is in the usual strain of “critical” nescience.
One has but to compare Luke 20:1717And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? (Luke 20:17) with the scope of quotation from Ps. 118. in Matthew and Mark, to see, as often elsewhere in this Gospel, how Luke condenses his record. That which is of chief importance is that it was to God as such, and not from the standpoint of John 3:1414And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: (John 3:14)ff.; that the cry “with a loud voice” (verse 46) went up. Cf. note 587.
Tholuck has preached on verses 33-35 (p.-203).
As to the various forms of inscription recorded by the Evangelists, see Stuart, pp. 283-285, comparing note 349 on John. The Lord here acts as King; before as Prophet (verse 28), and then as Priest (verse 34). Cf. Maclaren, p.307.
584 Verse 42 f. — As to this robber’s probable acquaintance with the Lord’s predictions, see Meyer in lee. “The Penitent Thief” is one of Whyte’s “Bible Characters,” No. LXXXVII.
Wellhausen treats the εἰς in “B” (R.V. margin, “into”) as “a very bad correction.”
585 Verse 43. — “Verily.” For this form of emphatic announcement, cf. 2:24, 7:37, 18:17, 29, 21:32.
“To-day shalt thou be, etc.” Or, “I say to thee to-day, thou shalt be, etc.” (Whately and others). This alternative is rejected by Alford, but favored, it would seem, by B. W. Newton, in his note on the Locality of Hades (“Remarks on Mosaic Cosmogony,” p. 85), who points out the advantage such punctuation affords in meeting the difficulty which some feel in respect of the present passage, and refers to the bearing of John 3:1313And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. (John 3:13) on the Paradise question (infra).
Syrsin has an interesting addition the impenitent robber had here said “Save thyself alive to-day.”
“With Me” Plummer, “Not merely in My company (σὺν ἐμοί), but sharing with Me (μετ ἐμου). The promise implies continuance of consciousness after death.”
“PARADISE” (cf. note on 16:22). Or, as Continental versions, “the Paradise.”
The Expositor’s view, that by this is meant the heavenly Paradise, is taken also by B. W. Newton; B. Weiss, and others. It will be observed that W. Kelly (as Delitzsch, “Biblical Psychology,” p.497, and Beck of Tübingen, “The Logic of Christian Doctrine,” p. 526) held that our Lord’s human spirit did not pass, as say the Apostles’ and Athanasian Creeds, into Hades (“Hell”); and this notwithstanding Acts 2: 27, where the Revv. have preserved “in.” His conviction was that εἰς there should have been rendered “to,” as the corresponding Hebrew preposition in Ps. 16:10, the Apostle’s citation. It is fair, however, to note that the same Hebrew occurs in Job 39:1414Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust, (Job 39:14), and is there rendered “on,” in parallelism with “in.” Others regard “to” in the Psalm as equivalent to “in.”
The Expositor, as B. W. Newton, has taken sides against the early “Fathers,” according to whose view, the separate state of all the blessed dead is referable to Hades; and has thus agreed with the Westminster Divines (note 417).
At the Reformation there was a recoil, emphasized by the Puritans of the next century, Crops medieval ideas in general; and so, not only from such conceptions as Gregory’s purgatorial suffering, but from the interpretation of passages like Phil. 1:66Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: (Philippians 1:6), considered by many still to indicate continued sanctification after death for the perfect state of Heaven (cf. Heb. 11:2323By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. (Hebrews 11:23)), right on “to the day of Christ!” This does not, however, seem to be the Apostle’s real meaning.
Such words as Paul’s in Eph. 2:66And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 2:6) dispose ‘some to the view taken in the Exposition; whilst others emphasize the difference between the “Sheôl” of the Old Testament, regarded as a “prison,” a scene of “gloom.” and the condition of comfort presented in Luke 16:2525But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. (Luke 16:25), — the “unseen” world as brightened by the enjoyment, in rest, of Christ’s presence as Divine Redeemer (Ps. 139:8, Eph. 4:1010He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) (Ephesians 4:10), 2 Cor. 5:88We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8). Phil 1: 23). They likewise experience difficulty in all conceiving that any could be set before the βῆμα of Christ (2 Cor. 5:1010For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10)) — yet all are to be “Manifested” there — if the “Catholic” interpretation be really correct of the opening verses of the chapter concerned (see Explanatory Catechism, No. 102), as of Rev. 2:77He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7), according to which a select company of believers gm straight to heaven on death; or the view of Weymouth, that those in so “who resemble in character and watchfulness the Wise Virgins.”
That the “Beatific Vision” (“Explan., Catech.” 132) will be finally realized by all the redeemed, is common groused (Rev. 22:44And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. (Revelation 22:4)). Holy Scripture, however, nowhere speaks, as do the Roman Catechism (No. 104) and some Protestant hymns, of any disembodied spirits as already “glorified.” For that, resumption of the body will be needed (Phil. 3:2121Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:21)).
By “dead in Christ” (1 Thess. 4:1616For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: (1 Thessalonians 4:16)) must be meant the whole person of each (v. 23). Resurrection, not death, is the hope of the Christian (2 Cor. 5:44For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. (2 Corinthians 5:4): cf. Matt. 16:1818And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18) and 1 Cor. 15:5555O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (1 Corinthians 15:55), which are future).
Tholuck and Newman Hall have preached on verses 39-43.
Montefiore (after others, see note 582) observes that “the cry of forsakenness was inconceivable to” Luke verse 46). But — as he himself says elsewhere of remark of J. Weiss―how does he know that? No one pretends that the quotation from Ps. 31. is a “substitute” for the earlier quotation from Ps. 22. Luke’s is added detail: recovery of sense of Divine Sonship when, according to the past, of the records, from the remembrance of an eyewitness, JESUS could exclaim, “It is finished” (John 19:3030When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30)).
587 The Lord’s death, according to the view of Wieseler, Schürer, and Salmon, was on the n7th April, A.D. 30. “Christ our Passover war sacrificed” (1.Cor. 5:7), at the hour of the evening sacrifice, “between the two evenings” (Exod. 7:66And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, so did they. (Exodus 7:6)), which may mean between the beginning of Friday (our Thursday) evening and the beginning of Saturday (mar Friday) evening. See next note.
See Tholnek’s Sermon on verses 16-48.
588 Verse 54.― The “Preparation” (παρασκεύη) is synonymous with the “eve” of the Passover, “by which the time from the evening of the 14th to that of the 15th Nis an is always described in Jewish writings” (Edersheim, “The Temple,” etc., p. 220f.). It came to designate the Christian’s Friday.
The word ἐπέφωσκε Montefiore connects with the kindling of the “Sabbath lights” at the Jewish opening of that day.
Cf. note 531, and see Mark 15:4242And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, (Mark 15:42), John 19:31, 4231The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. (John 19:31)
42There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand. (John 19:42), with notes thereon.