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<center><h1>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary
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[<A HREF="MHC00000.HTM">Table of Contents</A>]<BR>
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1721)
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<!-- (Begin Body) -->
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<CENTER>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>J O H N.</B></FONT>
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<BR>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>CHAP. XIX.</FONT>
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<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
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</CENTER>
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<FONT SIZE=-1>
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<P>
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Though in the history hitherto this evangelist seems industriously to
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have declined the recording of such passages as had been related by the
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other evangelists, yet, when he comes to the sufferings and death of
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Christ, instead of passing them over, as one ashamed of his Master's
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chain and cross, and looking upon them as the blemishes of his story,
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he repeats what had been before related, with considerable
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enlargements, as one that desired to know nothing but Christ and him
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crucified, to glory in nothing save in the cross of Christ. In the
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story of this chapter we have,
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I. he remainder of Christ's trial before Pilate, which was tumultuous
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and confused,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+19:1-15">ver. 1-15</A>.
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II. Sentence given, and execution done upon it,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+19:16-18">ver. 16-18</A>.
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III. The title over his head,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+19:19-22">ver. 19-22</A>.
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IV. The parting of his garment,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+19:23,24">ver. 23, 24</A>.
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V. The care he took of his mother,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+19:25-27">ver. 25-27</A>.
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VI. The giving him vinegar to drink,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+19:28,29">ver. 28, 29</A>.
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VII. His dying word,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+19:30">ver. 30</A>.
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VIII. The piercing of his side,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+19:31-37">ver. 31-37</A>.
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IX. The burial of his body,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+19:38-42">ver. 38-42</A>.
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O that in meditating on these things we may experimentally know the
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power of Christ's death, and the fellowship of his sufferings!</P>
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</FONT>
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<A NAME="Joh19_1"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh19_2"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh19_3"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec1"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Christ Arraigned before Pilate.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>1 Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged <I>him.</I>
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2 And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put <I>it</I> on
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his head, and they put on him a purple robe,
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3 And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with
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their hands.
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4 Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them,
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Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no
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fault in him.
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5 Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the
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purple robe. And <I>Pilate</I> saith unto them, Behold the man!
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6 When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they
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cried out, saying, Crucify <I>him,</I> crucify <I>him.</I> Pilate saith
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unto them, Take ye him, and crucify <I>him:</I> for I find no fault in
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him.
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7 The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought
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to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
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8 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more
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afraid;
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9 And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus,
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Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.
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10 Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me?
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knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have
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power to release thee?
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11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power <I>at all</I> against
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me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that
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delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
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12 And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the
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Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not
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Cæsar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against
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Cæsar.
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13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus
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forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is
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called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.
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14 And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the
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sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!
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15 But they cried out, Away with <I>him,</I> away with <I>him,</I>
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crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King?
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The chief priests answered, We have no king but Cæsar.
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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Here is a further account of the unfair trial which they gave to our
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Lord Jesus. The prosecutors carrying it on with great confusion among
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the people, and the judge with great confusion in his own breast,
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between both the narrative is such as is not easily reduced to method;
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we must therefore take the parts of it as they lie.</P>
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<P>
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I. The judge abuses the prisoner, though he declares him innocent, and
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hopes therewith to pacify the prosecutors; wherein his intention, if
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indeed it was good, will by no means justify his proceedings, which
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were palpably unjust.</P>
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<P>
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1. He ordered him to be whipped as a criminal,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:1"><I>v.</I> 1</A>.
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<I>Pilate,</I> seeing the people so outrageous, and being disappointed
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in his project of releasing him upon the people's choice, <I>took
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Jesus, and scourged him,</I> that is, appointed the lictors that
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attended him to do it. Bede is of opinion that Pilate scourged Jesus
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himself with his own hands, because it is said, <I>He took him and
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scourged him,</I> that it might be done favourably. Matthew and Mark
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mention his scourging after his condemnation, but here it appears to
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have been before. Luke speaks of Pilate's offering to <I>chastise him,
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and let him go,</I> which must be before sentence. This scourging of
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him was designed only to pacify the Jews, and in it Pilate put a
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compliment upon them, that he would take their word against his own
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sentiments so far. The Roman scourgings were ordinarily very severe,
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not limited, as among the Jews, to <I>forty stripes;</I> yet this pain
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and shame Christ submitted to for our sakes.
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(1.) <I>That the scripture might be fulfilled,</I> which spoke of his
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being <I>stricken, smitten, and afflicted,</I> and <I>the chastisement
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of our peace</I> being <I>upon him</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+53:5">Isa. liii. 5</A>),
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of his giving his back to the smiters
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+50:6">Isa. l. 6</A>),
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of the ploughers ploughing upon his back,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+129:3">Ps. cxxix. 3</A>.
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He himself likewise had foretold it,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+20:19,Mk+10:34,Lu+18:33">Matt. xx. 19;
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Mark x. 34; Luke xviii. 33</A>.
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(2.) <I>That by his stripes we might be healed,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Pe+2:4">1 Pet. ii. 4</A>.
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We deserved to have been chastised <I>with whips and scorpions,</I> and
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<I>beaten with many stripes,</I> having known our Lord's will and not
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done it; but Christ underwent the stripes for us, bearing the rod of
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his Father's wrath,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=La+3:1">Lam. iii. 1</A>.
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Pilate's design in scourging him was that he might not be condemned,
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which did not take effect, but intimated what was God's design, that
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his being scourged might prevent our being condemned, we having
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fellowship in his sufferings, and this did take effect: the physician
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scourged, and so the patient healed.
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(3.) That stripes, for his sake, might be sanctified and made easy to
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his followers; and they might, as they did, rejoice in that shame
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+5:41,16:22,25">Acts v. 41; xvi. 22, 25</A>),
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as Paul did, who was <I>in stripes above measure,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Co+11:23">2 Cor. xi. 23</A>.
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Christ's stripes take out the sting of theirs, and alter the property
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of them. <I>We are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned
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with the world,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+11:32">1 Cor. xi. 32</A>.</P>
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<P>
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2. He turned him over to his soldiers, to be ridiculed and made sport
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with as a fool
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:2,3"><I>v.</I> 2, 3</A>):
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<I>The soldiers,</I> who were the governor's life-guard, <I>put a crown
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of thorns upon his head;</I> such a crown they thought fittest for such
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a king; <I>they put on him a purple robe,</I> some old threadbare coat
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of that colour, which they thought good enough to be the badge of his
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royalty; and they complimented him with, <I>Hail, king of the Jews</I>
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(like people like king), and then <I>smote him with their
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hands.</I></P>
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<P>
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(1.) See here the baseness and injustice of Pilate, that he would
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suffer one whom he believed an innocent person, and if so an excellent
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person, to be thus abused and trampled on by his own servants. Those
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who are under the arrest of the law ought to be under the protection of
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it; and their being secured is to be their security. But Pilate did
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this,
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[1.] To oblige his soldiers' merry humour, and perhaps his own too,
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notwithstanding the gravity one might have expected in a judge.
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<I>Herod,</I> as well as <I>his men of war,</I> had just before done
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the same,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+23:11">Luke xxiii. 11</A>.
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It was as good as a stage-play to them, now that it was a festival
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time; as the Philistines made sport with Samson.
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[2.] To oblige the Jews' malicious humour, and to gratify them, who
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desired that all possible disgrace might be done to Christ, and the
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utmost indignities put upon him.</P>
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<P>
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(2.) See here the rudeness and insolence of the soldiers, how perfectly
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lost they were to all justice and humanity, who could thus triumph over
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a man in misery, and one that had been in reputation for wisdom and
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honour, and never did any thing to forfeit it. But thus hath Christ's
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holy religion been basely misrepresented, dressed up by bad men at
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their pleasure, and so exposed to contempt and ridicule, as Christ was
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here.
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[1.] They clothe him with a mock-robe, as if it were a sham and a jest,
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and nothing but the product of a heated fancy and a crazed imagination.
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And as Christ is here represented as a king in conceit only, so is his
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religion as a concern in conceit only, and God and the soul, sin and
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duty, heaven and hell, are with many all chimeras.
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[2.] They crown him with thorns; as if the religion of Christ were a
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perfect penance, and the greatest pain and hardship in the world; as if
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to submit to the control of God and conscience were to thrust one's
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head into a thicket of thorns; but this is an unjust imputation;
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<I>thorns and snares are in the way of the froward,</I> but roses and
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laurels in religion's ways.</P>
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<P>
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(3.) See here the wonderful condescension of our Lord Jesus in his
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sufferings for us. Great and generous minds can bear any thing better
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than ignominy, any toil, any pain, any loss, rather than reproach; yet
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this the great and holy Jesus submitted to for us. See and admire,
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[1.] The invincible patience of a sufferer, leaving us an example of
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contentment and courage, evenness, and easiness of spirit, under the
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greatest hardships we may meet with in the way of duty.
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[2.] The invincible love and kindness of a Saviour, who not only
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cheerfully and resolutely went through all this, but voluntarily
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undertook it for us and for our salvation. Herein he commended his
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love, that he would not only die for us, but die as a fool dies.
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<I>First,</I> He <I>endured the pain;</I> not the pangs of death only,
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though in the death of the cross these were most exquisite; but, as if
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these were too little, he submitted to those previous pains. Shall we
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complain of a thorn in the flesh, and of being buffeted by affliction,
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because we need it to hide pride from us, when Christ humbled himself
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to bear those thorns in the head, and those buffetings, to save and
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teach us?
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Co+12:7">2 Cor. xii. 7</A>.
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<I>Secondly,</I> He <I>despised the shame,</I> the shame of a fool's
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coat, and the mock-respect paid him, with, <I>Hail, king of the
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Jews.</I> If we be at any time ridiculed for well-doing, let us not be
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ashamed, but glorify God, for thus we are partakers of Christ's
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sufferings. He that bore these sham honours was recompensed with real
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honours, and so shall we, if we patiently suffer shame for him.</P>
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<P>
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II. Pilate, having thus abused the prisoner, presents him to the
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prosecutors, in hope that they would now be satisfied, and drop the
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prosecution,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:4,5"><I>v.</I> 4, 5</A>.
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Here he proposes two things to their consideration:--</P>
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<P>
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1. That he had not found any thing in him which made him obnoxious to
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the Roman government
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:4"><I>v.</I> 4</A>):
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<I>I find no fault in him;</I> <B><I>oudemian aitian
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heurisko</I></B>--<I>I do not find in him the least fault,</I> or
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<I>cause of accusation.</I> Upon further enquiry, he repeats the
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declaration he had made,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+18:38"><I>ch.</I> xviii. 38</A>.
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Hereby he condemns himself; if he found no fault in him, why did he
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scourge him, why did he suffer him to be abused? None ought to suffer
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ill but those that do ill; yet thus many banter and abuse religion, who
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yet, if they be serious, cannot but own they find no fault in it. If he
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found no fault in him, why did he bring him out to his prosecutors, and
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not immediately release him, as he ought to have done? If Pilate had
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consulted his own conscience only, he would neither have scourged
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Christ nor crucified him; but, thinking to trim the matter, to please
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the people by scourging Christ, and save his conscience by not
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crucifying him, behold he does both; whereas, if he had at first
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resolved to crucify him, he need not have scourged him. It is common
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for those who think to keep themselves from greater sins by venturing
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upon less sins to run into both.</P>
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<P>
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2. That he had done that to him which would make him the less dangerous
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to them and to their government,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>.
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He brought him out to them, wearing the crown of thorns, his head and
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face all bloody, and said, "<I>Behold the man</I> whom you are so
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jealous of," intimating that though his having been so popular might
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have given them some cause to fear that his interest in the country
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would lessen theirs, yet he had taken an effectual course to prevent
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it, by treating him as a slave, and exposing him to contempt, after
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which he supposed the people would never look upon him with any
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respect, nor could he ever retrieve his reputation again. Little did
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Pilate think with what veneration even these sufferings of Christ would
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|
in after ages be commemorated by the best and greatest of men, who
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would glory in that cross and those stripes which he thought would have
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been to him and his followers a perpetual and indelible reproach.
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(1.) Observe here our Lord Jesus shows himself dressed up in all the
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|
marks of ignominy. He came forth, willing to be made a spectacle, and
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to be hooted at, as no doubt he was when he came forth in this garb,
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|
knowing that he was set for a <I>sign that should be spoken
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against,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+2:34">Luke ii. 34</A>.
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|
Did he go forth thus bearing our reproach? Let us go forth to him
|
|
<I>bearing his reproach,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+13:13">Heb. xiii. 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
(2.) How Pilate shows him: <I>Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man.
|
|
He saith unto them:</I> so the original is; and, the immediate
|
|
antecedent being <I>Jesus,</I> I see no inconvenience in supposing
|
|
these to be Christ's own words; he said, "<I>Behold the man</I> against
|
|
whom you are so exasperated." But some of the Greek copies, and the
|
|
generality of the translators, supply it as we do, Pilate saith unto
|
|
them, with a design to appease them, <I>Behold the man;</I> not so much
|
|
to move their pity, Behold a man worthy your compassion, as to silence
|
|
their jealousies, Behold a man not worthy your suspicion, a man from
|
|
whom you can henceforth fear no danger; his crown is <I>profaned, and
|
|
cast to the ground,</I> and now all mankind will make a jest of him.
|
|
The word however is very affecting: <I>Behold the man.</I> It is good
|
|
for every one of us, with an eye of faith, to behold the man Christ
|
|
Jesus in his sufferings. <I>Behold this king with the crown wherewith
|
|
his mother crowned him,</I> the crown of thorns,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=So+3:11">Cant. iii. 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
"Behold him, and be suitably affected with the sight. Behold him, and
|
|
mourn because of him. Behold him, and love him; be still <I>looking
|
|
unto Jesus.</I>"</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. The prosecutors, instead of being pacified, were but the more
|
|
exasperated,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:6,7"><I>v.</I> 6, 7</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. Observe here their clamour and outrage. <I>The chief priests,</I>
|
|
who headed the mob, <I>cried out</I> with fury and indignation, and
|
|
their officers, or servants, who must say as they said, joined with
|
|
them in crying, <I>Crucify him, crucify him.</I> The common people
|
|
perhaps would have acquiesced in Pilate's declaration of his innocency,
|
|
but their leaders, the priests, <I>caused them to err.</I> Now by this
|
|
it appears that their malice against Christ was,
|
|
|
|
(1.) Unreasonable and most absurd, in that they offer not to make good
|
|
their charges against him, nor to object against the judgment of Pilate
|
|
concerning him; but, though he be innocent, he must be crucified.
|
|
|
|
(2.) It was insatiable and very cruel. Neither the extremity of his
|
|
scourging, nor his patience under it, nor the tender expostulations of
|
|
the judge, could mollify them in the least; no, nor could the jest into
|
|
which Pilate had turned the cause, put them into a pleasant humour.
|
|
|
|
(3.) It was violent and exceedingly resolute; they will have it their
|
|
own way, and hazard the governor's favour, the peace of the city, and
|
|
their own safety, rather than abate of the utmost of their demands.
|
|
Were they so violent in running down our Lord Jesus, and in crying,
|
|
<I>Crucify him, crucify him?</I> and shall not we be vigorous and
|
|
zealous in advancing his name, and in crying, <I>Crown him, Crown
|
|
him?</I> Did their hatred of him sharpen their endeavours against him?
|
|
and shall not our love to him quicken our endeavours for him and his
|
|
kingdom?</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. The check Pilate gave to their fury, still insisting upon the
|
|
prisoner's innocency: "<I>Take you him and crucify him,</I> if he must
|
|
be crucified." This is spoken ironically; he knew they could not, they
|
|
durst not, crucify him; but it is as if he should say, "You shall not
|
|
make me a drudge to your malice; I cannot with a safe conscience
|
|
crucify him." A good resolve, if he would but have stuck to it. He
|
|
found no fault in him, and therefore should not have continued to
|
|
parley with the prosecutors. Those that would be safe from sin should
|
|
be deaf to temptation. Nay, he should have secured the prisoner from
|
|
their insults. What was he armed with power for, but to protect the
|
|
injured? The guards of governors ought to be the guards of justice. But
|
|
Pilate had not courage enough to act according to his conscience; and
|
|
his cowardice betrayed him into a snare.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. The further colour which the prosecutors gave to their demand
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:7"><I>v.</I> 7</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>We have a law, and by our law,</I> if it were but in our power to
|
|
execute it, <I>he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of
|
|
God.</I> Now here observe,
|
|
|
|
(1.) They <I>made their boast of the law,</I> even when <I>through
|
|
breaking the law they dishonoured God,</I> as is charged upon the Jews,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+2:23">Rom. ii. 23</A>.
|
|
|
|
They had indeed an excellent law, far exceeding the statutes and
|
|
judgments of other nations; but in vain did they boast of their law,
|
|
when they abused it to such bad purposes.
|
|
|
|
(2.) They discover a restless and inveterate malice against our Lord
|
|
Jesus. When they could not incense Pilate against him by alleging that
|
|
he pretended himself a king, they urged this, that he pretended himself
|
|
a God. Thus they turn every stone to take him off.
|
|
|
|
(3.) They pervert the law, and make that the instrument of their
|
|
malice. Some think they refer to a law made particularly against
|
|
Christ, as if, being a law, it must be executed, right or wrong;
|
|
whereas there is a woe to them that <I>decree unrighteous decrees,</I>
|
|
and that <I>write the grievousness which they have prescribed,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+10:1">Isa. x. 1</A>.
|
|
|
|
See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mic+6:16">Mic. vi. 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
But it should seem they rather refer to the law of Moses; and if so,
|
|
|
|
[1.] It was true that blasphemers, idolaters, and false prophets, were
|
|
to be put to death by that law. Whoever falsely pretended to be the Son
|
|
of God was guilty of blasphemy,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Le+24:16">Lev. xxiv. 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
But then,
|
|
|
|
[2.] It was false that Christ pretended to be the Son of God, for he
|
|
really was so; and they ought to have enquired into the proofs he
|
|
produced of his being so. If he said that he was the Son of God, and
|
|
the scope and tendency of his doctrine were not to draw people from
|
|
God, but to bring them to him, and if he confirmed his mission and
|
|
doctrine by miracles, as undoubtedly he did, beyond contradiction, by
|
|
their law they ought to <I>hearken to him</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+18:18,19">Deut. xviii. 18, 19</A>),
|
|
|
|
and, if they did not, they were to be <I>cut off.</I> That which was
|
|
his honour, and might have been their happiness, if they had not stood
|
|
in their own light, they impute to him as a crime, for which he ought
|
|
not to be crucified, for this was no death inflicted by their law.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
IV. The judge brings the prisoner again to his trial, upon this new
|
|
suggestion. Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. The concern Pilate was in, when he heard this alleged
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>):
|
|
|
|
When he heard that his prisoner pretended not to royalty only, but to
|
|
deity, he was <I>the more afraid.</I> This embarrassed him more than
|
|
ever, and made the case more difficult both ways; for,
|
|
|
|
(1.) There was the more danger of offending the people if he should
|
|
acquit him, for he knew how jealous that people were for the unity of
|
|
the Godhead, and what aversion they now had to other gods; and
|
|
therefore, though he might hope to pacify their rage against a
|
|
pretended king, he could never reconcile them to a pretended God. "If
|
|
this be at the bottom of the tumult," thinks Pilate, "it will not be
|
|
turned off with a jest."
|
|
|
|
(2.) There was the more danger of offending his own conscience if he
|
|
should condemn him. "Is he one" (thinks Pilate) "that makes himself
|
|
<I>the Son of God?</I> and what if it should prove that he is so? What
|
|
will become of me then?" Even natural conscience makes men afraid of
|
|
being found <I>fighting against God.</I> The heathen had some fabulous
|
|
traditions of incarnate deities appearing sometimes in mean
|
|
circumstances, and treated ill by some that paid dearly for their so
|
|
doing. Pilate fears lest he should thus run himself into a
|
|
premunire.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. His further examination of our Lord Jesus thereupon,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:9"><I>v.</I> 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
That he might give the prosecutors all the fair play they could desire,
|
|
he resumed the debate, went into the judgment-hall, and asked Christ,
|
|
<I>Whence art thou?</I> Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) The place he chose for this examination: He <I>went into the
|
|
judgment-hall</I> for privacy, that he might be out of the noise and
|
|
clamour of the crowd, and might examine the thing the more closely.
|
|
Those that would find out the truth as it is in Jesus must get out of
|
|
the noise of prejudice, and retire as it were into the judgment-hall,
|
|
to converse with Christ alone.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) The question he put to him: <I>Whence art thou?</I> Art thou from
|
|
men or from heaven? From beneath or from above? He had before asked
|
|
directly, <I>Art thou a King?</I> But here he does not directly ask,
|
|
<I>Art thou the Son of God?</I> lest he should seem to meddle with
|
|
divine things too boldly. But in general, "<I>Whence art thou?</I>
|
|
Where wast thou, and in what world hadst thou a being, before thy
|
|
coming into this world?"</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(3.) The silence of our Lord Jesus when he was examined upon this head;
|
|
but <I>Jesus gave him no answer.</I> This was not a sullen silence, in
|
|
contempt of the court, nor was it because he knew not what to say; but,
|
|
|
|
[1.] It was a patient silence, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
|
|
<I>as a sheep before the shearers is dumb, so he opened not his
|
|
mouth,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+53:7">Isa. liii. 7</A>.
|
|
|
|
This silence loudly bespoke his submission to his Father's will in his
|
|
present sufferings, which he thus accommodated himself to, and composed
|
|
himself to bear. He was silent, because he would say nothing to hinder
|
|
his sufferings. If Christ had avowed himself a God as plainly as he
|
|
avowed himself a king, it is probable that Pilate would not have
|
|
condemned him (for he was afraid at the mention of it by the
|
|
prosecutors); and the Romans, though they triumphed over the <I>kings
|
|
of the nations</I> they conquered, yet stood in awe of their gods. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+2:8">1 Cor. ii. 8</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>If they had known</I> him to be the <I>Lord of glory,</I> they would
|
|
<I>not have crucified him;</I> and how then could we have been saved?
|
|
|
|
[2.] It was a prudent silence. When the chief priests asked him, <I>Art
|
|
thou the Son of the Blessed?</I> he answered, <I>I am,</I> for he knew
|
|
they went upon the scriptures of the Old Testament which spoke of the
|
|
Messiah; but when Pilate asked him he knew he did not understand his
|
|
own question, having no notion of the Messiah, and of his being the
|
|
<I>Son of God,</I> and therefore to what purpose should he reply to him
|
|
whose head was filled with the pagan theology, to which he would have
|
|
turned his answer?</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(4.) The haughty check which Pilate gave him for his silence
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:10"><I>v.</I> 10</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>Speakest thou not unto me?</I> Dost thou put such an affront upon
|
|
me as to stand mute? What <I>knowest thou not</I> that, as president of
|
|
the province, <I>I have power,</I> if I think fit, <I>to crucify thee,
|
|
and have power,</I> if I think fit, to <I>release thee?</I>" Observe
|
|
here,
|
|
|
|
[1.] How Pilate magnified himself, and boasts of his own authority, as
|
|
not inferior to that of Nebuchadnezzar, of whom it is said that <I>whom
|
|
he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive.</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Da+5:19">Dan. v. 19</A>.
|
|
|
|
Men in power are apt to be puffed up with their power, and the more
|
|
absolute and arbitrary it is the more it gratifies and humours their
|
|
pride. But he magnifies his power to an exorbitant degree when he
|
|
boasts that he has power to crucify one whom he had declared innocent,
|
|
for no prince or potentate has authority to do wrong. <I>Id possumus,
|
|
quod jure possumus--We can do that only which we can do justly.</I>
|
|
|
|
[2.] How he tramples upon our blessed Saviour: <I>Speakest thou not
|
|
unto me?</I> He reflects upon him, <I>First,</I> As if he were
|
|
undutiful and disrespectful to those in authority, not speaking when he
|
|
was spoken to. <I>Secondly,</I> As if he were ungrateful to one that
|
|
had been tender of him: "Speakest thou not to me who have laboured to
|
|
secure thy release?" <I>Thirdly,</I> As if he were unwise for himself:
|
|
"Wilt thou not speak to clear thyself to one that is willing to clear
|
|
thee?" If Christ had indeed sought to save his life, now had been his
|
|
time to have spoken; but that which he had to do was to lay down his
|
|
life.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(5.) Christ's pertinent answer to this check,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:11"><I>v.</I> 11</A>,
|
|
|
|
where,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] He boldly rebukes his arrogance, and rectifies his mistake: "Big
|
|
as thou lookest and talkest, <I>thou couldest have no power at all
|
|
against me,</I> no power to scourge, no power to crucify, <I>except it
|
|
were given thee from above.</I>" Though Christ did not think fit to
|
|
answer him when he was impertinent (then <I>answer not a fool according
|
|
to his folly, lest thou also be like him</I>), yet he did think fit to
|
|
answer him when he was imperious; then <I>answer a fool according to
|
|
his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+26:4,5">Prov. xxvi. 4, 5</A>.
|
|
|
|
When Pilate used his power, Christ silently submitted to it; but, when
|
|
he grew proud of it, he made him know himself: "All the power thou hast
|
|
is given thee from above," which may be taken two ways:--<I>First,</I>
|
|
As reminding him that his power in general, as a magistrate, was a
|
|
limited power, and he could do no more than God would suffer him to do.
|
|
God is the fountain of power; and the <I>powers that are,</I> as they
|
|
are ordained by him and derived from him, so they are subject to him.
|
|
They ought to go no further than his law directs them; they can go no
|
|
further than his providence permits them. They are God's hand and his
|
|
sword,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+17:13,14">Ps. xvii. 13, 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
Though the axe may <I>boast itself against him that heweth
|
|
therewith,</I> yet still it is but a tool,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+10:5,15">Isa. x. 5, 15</A>.
|
|
|
|
Let the proud oppressors know that there is <I>a higher than they,</I>
|
|
to whom they are accountable,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ec+5:8">Eccl. v. 8</A>.
|
|
|
|
And let this silence the murmurings of the oppressed, <I>It is the
|
|
Lord.</I> God has bidden Shimei curse David; and let it comfort them
|
|
that their persecutors can do no more than God will let them. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+51:12,13">Isa. li. 12, 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> As informing him that his power against him in
|
|
particular, and all the efforts of that power, were <I>by the
|
|
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+2:23">Acts ii. 23</A>.
|
|
|
|
Pilate never fancied himself to look so great as now, when he sat in
|
|
judgment upon such a prisoner as this, who was looked upon by many as
|
|
the <I>Son of God</I> and king of Israel, and had the fate of so great
|
|
a man at his disposal; but Christ lets him know that he was herein but
|
|
an instrument in God's hand, and could no nothing against him, but by
|
|
the appointment of Heaven,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+4:27,28">Acts iv. 27, 28</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] He mildly excuses and extenuates his sin, in comparison with the
|
|
sin of the ringleaders: "<I>Therefore he that delivered me unto
|
|
thee</I> lies under greater guilt; for thou as a magistrate hast
|
|
<I>power from above,</I> and art in thy place, thy sin is less than
|
|
theirs who, from envy and malice, urge thee to abuse thy power."</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> It is plainly intimated that what Pilate did was sin, a
|
|
great sin, and that the force which the Jews put upon him, and which he
|
|
put upon himself in it, would not justify him. Christ hereby intended a
|
|
hint for the awakening of his conscience and the increase of the fear
|
|
he was now under. The guilt of others will not acquit us, nor will it
|
|
avail in the great day to say that others were worse than we, for we
|
|
are not to be judged by comparison, but must <I>bear our own
|
|
burden.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> Yet theirs that delivered him to Pilate was the
|
|
greater sin. By this it appears that all sins are not equal, but some
|
|
more heinous than others; some comparatively as gnats, others as
|
|
camels; some as motes in the eyes, others as beams; some as pence,
|
|
others as pounds. <I>He that delivered Christ to Pilate</I> was
|
|
either,
|
|
|
|
1. The people of the Jews, who cried out, <I>Crucify him, crucify
|
|
him.</I> They had seen Christ's miracles, which Pilate had not; to them
|
|
the Messiah was first sent; they were his own; and to them, who were
|
|
now enslaved, a Redeemer should have been most welcome, and therefore
|
|
it was much worse in them to appear against him than in Pilate.
|
|
|
|
2. Or rather he means Caiaphas in particular, who was at the head of
|
|
the conspiracy against Christ, and first advised his death,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+11:49,50"><I>ch.</I> xi. 49, 50</A>.
|
|
|
|
The sin of Caiaphas was abundantly greater than the sin of Pilate.
|
|
Caiaphas prosecuted Christ from pure enmity to him and his doctrine,
|
|
deliberately and of malice prepense. Pilate condemned him purely for
|
|
fear of the people, and it was a hasty resolution which he had not time
|
|
to cool upon.
|
|
|
|
3. Some think Christ means Judas; for, though he did not immediately
|
|
deliver him into the hands of Pilate, yet he betrayed him to those that
|
|
did. The sin of Judas was, upon many accounts, greater than the sin of
|
|
Pilate. Pilate was a stranger to Christ; Judas was his friend and
|
|
follower. Pilate found no fault in him, but Judas knew a great deal of
|
|
good of him. Pilate, though biassed, was not bribed, but Judas took a
|
|
<I>reward against the innocent;</I> the sin of Judas was a leading sin,
|
|
and let in all that followed. He was a <I>guide to them that took
|
|
Jesus.</I> So great was the sin of Judas that <I>vengeance suffered him
|
|
not to live;</I> but when Christ said this, or soon after, he was gone
|
|
<I>to his own place.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
V. Pilate struggles with the Jews to deliver Jesus out of their hands,
|
|
but in vain. We hear no more after this of any thing that passed
|
|
between Pilate and the prisoner; what remains lay between him and the
|
|
prosecutors.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. Pilate seems more zealous than before to get Jesus discharged
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:12"><I>v.</I> 12</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Thenceforth,</I> from this time, and for this reason, because Christ
|
|
had given him that answer
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:11"><I>v.</I> 11</A>),
|
|
|
|
which, though it had a rebuke in it, yet he took kindly; and, though
|
|
Christ found fault with him, he still continued to find no fault in
|
|
Christ, but <I>sought to release him,</I> desired it, endeavoured it.
|
|
<I>He sought to release him;</I> he contrived how to do it handsomely
|
|
and safely, and so as not to disoblige the priests. It never does well
|
|
when our resolutions to do our duty are swallowed up in projects how to
|
|
do it plausibly and conveniently. If Pilate's policy had not prevailed
|
|
above his justice, he would not have been long seeking to release him,
|
|
but would have done it. <I>Fiat justitia, ruat cœlum</I>--<I>Let
|
|
justice be done, though heaven itself should fall.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. The Jews were more furious than ever, and more violent to get Jesus
|
|
crucified. Still they carry on their design with noise and clamour as
|
|
before; so now they cried out. They would have it thought that the
|
|
commonalty was against him, and therefore laboured to get him cried
|
|
down by a multitude, and it is no hard matter to pack a mob; whereas,
|
|
if a fair poll had been granted, I doubt not but it would have been
|
|
carried by a great majority for the releasing of him. A few madmen may
|
|
out-shout many wise men, and then fancy themselves to speak the sense
|
|
(when it is but the nonsense) of a nation, or of all mankind; but it is
|
|
not so easy a thing to change the sense of the people as it is to
|
|
misrepresent it, and to change their cry. Now that Christ was in the
|
|
hands of his enemies his friends were shy and silent, and disappeared,
|
|
and those that were against him were forward to show themselves so; and
|
|
this gave the chief priests an opportunity to represent it as the
|
|
concurring vote of all the Jews that he should be crucified. In this
|
|
outcry they sought two things:--
|
|
|
|
(1.) To blacken the prisoner as an enemy to Cæsar. He had refused
|
|
the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them, had declared his
|
|
kingdom not to be of this world, and yet they will have it that he
|
|
<I>speaks against Cæsar;</I> <B><I>antilegei</I></B>--<I>he
|
|
opposes Cæsar,</I> invades his dignity and sovereignty. It has
|
|
always been the artifice of the enemies of religion to represent it as
|
|
hurtful to kings and provinces, when it would be highly beneficial to
|
|
both.
|
|
|
|
(2.) To frighten the judge, as no friend to Cæsar: "If thou
|
|
<I>let this man go</I> unpunished, and let him go on, <I>thou art not
|
|
Cæsar's friend,</I> and therefore false to thy trust and the duty
|
|
of thy place, obnoxious to the emperor's displeasure, and liable to be
|
|
turned out." They intimate a threatening that they would inform against
|
|
him, and get him displaced; and here they touched him in a sensible and
|
|
very tender part. But, of all people, these Jews should not have
|
|
pretended a concern for Cæsar, who were themselves so ill
|
|
affected to him and his government. They should not talk of being
|
|
friends to Cæsar, who were themselves such back friends to him;
|
|
yet thus a pretended zeal for that which is good often serves to cover
|
|
a real malice against that which is better.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. When other expedients had been tried in vain, Pilate slightly
|
|
endeavoured to banter them out of their fury, and yet, in doing this,
|
|
betrayed himself to them, and yielded to the rapid stream,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:13-15"><I>v.</I> 13-15</A>.
|
|
|
|
After he had stood it out a great while, and seemed now as if he would
|
|
have made a vigorous resistance upon this attack
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:12"><I>v.</I> 12</A>),
|
|
|
|
he basely surrendered. Observe here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) What it was that shocked Pilate
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>When he heard that saying,</I> that he could not be true to
|
|
Cæsar's honour, nor sure of Cæsar's favour, if he did not
|
|
put Jesus to death, then he thought it was time to look about him. All
|
|
they had said to prove Christ a malefactor, and that therefore it was
|
|
Pilate's duty to condemn him, did not move him, but he still kept to
|
|
his conviction of Christ's innocency; but, when they urged that it was
|
|
his interest to condemn him, then he began to yield. Note, Those that
|
|
bind up their happiness in the favour of men make themselves an easy
|
|
prey to the temptations of Satan.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) What preparation was made for a definitive sentence upon this
|
|
matter: <I>Pilate brought Jesus forth,</I> and he himself in great
|
|
state took the chair. We may suppose that he called for his robes, that
|
|
he might look big, and then <I>sat down in the judgment-seat.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] Christ was condemned with all the ceremony that could be.
|
|
<I>First,</I> To bring us off at God's bar, and that all believers
|
|
through Christ, being judged here, might be acquitted in the court of
|
|
heaven. <I>Secondly,</I> To take off the terror of pompous trials,
|
|
which his followers would be brought to for his sake. Paul might the
|
|
better stand at Cæsar's judgment-seat when his Master had stood there
|
|
before him.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] Notice is here taken of the place and time.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>First,</I> The place where Christ was condemned: in a <I>place
|
|
called the Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha,</I> probably the place
|
|
where he used to sit to try causes or criminals. Some make
|
|
<I>Gabbatha</I> to signify an <I>enclosed place,</I> fenced against the
|
|
insults of the people, whom therefore he did the less need to fear;
|
|
others an <I>elevated place,</I> raised that all might see him.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> The time,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:14"><I>v.</I> 14</A>.
|
|
|
|
It was the preparation of the passover, and <I>about the sixth
|
|
hour.</I> Observe,
|
|
|
|
1. The day: It was the preparation of the passover, that is, for the
|
|
passover-sabbath, and the solemnities of that and the rest of the days
|
|
of the feast of unleavened bread. This is plain from
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+23:54">Luke xxiii. 54</A>,
|
|
|
|
<I>It was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.</I> So that this
|
|
preparation was for the sabbath. Note, Before the passover there ought
|
|
to be preparation. This is mentioned as an aggravation of their sin, in
|
|
persecuting Christ with so much malice and fury, that it was when they
|
|
should have been purging out the old leaven, to get ready for the
|
|
passover; but the better the day the worse the deed.
|
|
|
|
2. The hour: <I>It was about the sixth hour.</I> Some ancient Greek and
|
|
Latin manuscripts read it about the third hour, which agrees with
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mk+15:25">Mark xv. 25</A>.
|
|
|
|
And it appears by
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+27:45">Matt. xxvii. 45</A>
|
|
|
|
that he was upon the cross before the sixth hour. But it should seem
|
|
to come in here, not as a precise determination of the time, but as an
|
|
additional aggravation of the sin of his prosecutors, that they were
|
|
pushing on the prosecution, not only on a solemn day, the <I>day of the
|
|
preparation,</I> but, from the third to the sixth hour (which was, as
|
|
we call it, church-time) on that day, they were employed in this
|
|
wickedness; so that for this day, though they were priests, they
|
|
dropped the temple-service, for they did not leave Christ till the
|
|
sixth hour, when the darkness began, which frightened them away. Some
|
|
think that the sixth hour, with this evangelist, is, according to the
|
|
Roman reckoning and ours, six of the clock in the morning, answering to
|
|
the Jews' first hour of the day; this is very probable, that Christ's
|
|
trial before Pilate was at the height about six in the morning, which
|
|
was then a little after sun-rising.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(3.) The rencounter Pilate had with the Jews, both priests and people,
|
|
before he proceeded to give judgment, endeavouring in vain to stem the
|
|
tide of their rage.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[1.] He saith unto the Jews, <I>Behold your king.</I> This is a reproof
|
|
to them for the absurdity and malice of their insinuating that this
|
|
Jesus made himself a king: "<I>Behold your king,</I> that is, him whom
|
|
you accuse as a pretender to the crown. Is this a man likely to be
|
|
dangerous to the government? I am satisfied he is not, and you may be
|
|
so too, and let him alone." Some think he hereby upbraids them with
|
|
their secret disaffection to Cæsar: "You would have this man to be
|
|
your king, if he would but have headed a rebellion against Cæsar." But
|
|
Pilate, though he was far from meaning so, seems as if he were the
|
|
voice of God to them. Christ, now crowned with thorns, is, as a king at
|
|
his coronation, offered to the people: "<I>Behold your king,</I> the
|
|
king whom God hath set upon his holy hill of Zion;" but they, instead
|
|
of entering into it with acclamations of joyful consent, protest
|
|
against him; they will not have a king of God's choosing.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[2.] They cried out with the greatest indignation, <I>Away with him,
|
|
away with him,</I> which speaks disdain as well as malice, <B><I>aron,
|
|
aron</I></B>--"<I>Take him,</I> he is none of ours; we disown him for
|
|
our kinsman, much more for our king; we have not only no veneration for
|
|
him, but no compassion; <I>away with him</I> out of our sight:" for so
|
|
it was written of him, he is one <I>whom the nation abhors</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+49:7">Isa. xlix. 7</A>),
|
|
|
|
and they <I>hid as it were their faces from him</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+53:2,3">Isa. liii. 2, 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>Away with him from the earth,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+22:22">Acts xxii. 22</A>.
|
|
|
|
This shows, <I>First,</I> How we deserved to have been treated at God's
|
|
tribunal. We were by sin become odious to God's holiness, which cried,
|
|
<I>Away with them, away with them,</I> for God is <I>of purer eyes than
|
|
to behold iniquity.</I> We were also become obnoxious to God's justice,
|
|
which cried against us, "<I>Crucify them, crucify them,</I> let the
|
|
sentence of the law be executed." Had not Christ interposed, and been
|
|
thus rejected of men, we had been for ever rejected of God.
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> It shows how we ought to treat our sins. We are often
|
|
in scripture said to crucify sin, in conformity to Christ's death. Now
|
|
they that crucified Christ did it with detestation. With a pious
|
|
indignation we should run down sin in us, as they with an impious
|
|
indignation ran him down who was made sin for us. The true penitent
|
|
casts away from him his transgressions, <I>Away with them, away with
|
|
them</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+2:20,30:22">Isa. ii. 20; xxx. 22</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>crucify them, crucify them;</I> it is not fit that they should live
|
|
in my soul,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Hos+14:8">Hos. xiv. 8</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
[3.] Pilate, willing to have Jesus released, and yet that it should be
|
|
their doing, asks them, <I>Shall I crucify your king?</I> In saying
|
|
this, he designed either, <I>First,</I> To stop their mouths, by
|
|
showing them how absurd it was for them to reject one who offered
|
|
himself to them to be their king at a time when they needed one more
|
|
than ever. Have they no sense of slavery? No desire of liberty? No
|
|
value for a deliverer? Though he saw no cause to fear him, they might
|
|
see cause to hope for something from him; since crushed and sinking
|
|
interests are ready to catch at any thing. Or, <I>Secondly,</I> To stop
|
|
the mouth of his own conscience. "If this Jesus be a king" (thinks
|
|
Pilate), "he is only kin of the Jews, and therefore I have nothing to
|
|
do but to make a fair tender of him to them; if they refuse him, and
|
|
will have their king crucified, what is that to me?" He banters them
|
|
for their folly in expecting a Messiah, and yet running down one that
|
|
bade so fair to be he.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_16"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_17"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_18"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Christ Condemned; The Crucifixion.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>16 Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified.
|
|
And they took Jesus, and led <I>him</I> away.
|
|
17 And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called <I>the
|
|
place</I> of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:
|
|
18 Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either
|
|
side one, and Jesus in the midst.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
We have here sentence of death passed upon our Lord Jesus, and
|
|
execution done soon after. A mighty struggle Pilate had had within him
|
|
between his convictions and his corruptions; but at length his
|
|
convictions yielded, and his corruptions prevailed, the fear of man
|
|
having a greater power over him than the fear of God.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. <I>Pilate gave judgment</I> against Christ, and signed the warrant
|
|
for his execution,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:16"><I>v.</I> 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
We may see here,
|
|
|
|
1. How Pilate sinned against his conscience: he had again and again
|
|
pronounced him innocent, and yet at last condemned him as guilty.
|
|
Pilate, since he came to be governor, had in many instances disobliged
|
|
and exasperated the Jewish nation; for he was a man of a haughty and
|
|
implacable spirit, and extremely wedded to his humour. He had seized
|
|
upon the Corban, and spent it upon a water-work; he had brought into
|
|
Jerusalem shields stamped with Cæsar's image, which was very
|
|
provoking to the Jews; he had sacrificed the lives of many to his
|
|
resolutions herein. Fearing therefore that he should be complained of
|
|
for these and other insolences, he was willing to gratify the Jews. Now
|
|
this makes the matter much worse. If he had been of an easy, soft, and
|
|
pliable disposition, his yielding to so strong a stream had been the
|
|
more excusable; but for a man that was so wilful in other things, and
|
|
of so fierce a resolution, to be overcome in a thing of this nature,
|
|
shows him to be a bad man indeed, that could better bear the wronging
|
|
of his conscience than the crossing of his humour.
|
|
|
|
2. How he endeavoured to transfer the guilt upon the Jews. He
|
|
<I>delivered him</I> not to his own officers (as usual), but to the
|
|
prosecutors, the chief priests and elders; so excusing the wrong to his
|
|
own conscience with this, that it was but a permissive condemnation,
|
|
and that he did not put Christ to death, but only connived at those
|
|
that did it.
|
|
|
|
3. How Christ was <I>made sin for us.</I> We deserved to have been
|
|
condemned, but Christ was condemned for us, that to us there might be
|
|
<I>no condemnation.</I> God was now entering into judgment with his
|
|
Son, that he might not enter into judgment with his servants.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. Judgment was no sooner given than with all possible expedition the
|
|
prosecutors, having gained their point, resolved to lose not time lest
|
|
Pilate should change his mind, and order a reprieve (those are enemies
|
|
to our souls, the worst of enemies, that hurry us to sin, and then
|
|
leave us no room to undo what we have done amiss), and also lest there
|
|
should be <I>an uproar among the people,</I> and they should find a
|
|
greater number against them than they had with so much artifice got to
|
|
be for them. It were well if we would be thus expeditious in that which
|
|
is good, and not stay for more difficulties.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. They immediately hurried away the prisoner. The chief priests
|
|
greedily flew upon the prey which they had been long waiting for; now
|
|
it is drawn into their net. Or <I>they,</I> that is, the soldiers who
|
|
were to attend the execution, they took him and led him away, not to
|
|
the place whence he came, and thence to the place of execution, as is
|
|
usual with us, but directly to the place of execution. Both the priests
|
|
and the soldiers joined in leading him away. Now was the <I>Son of man
|
|
delivered into the hands of men,</I> wicked and unreasonable men. By
|
|
the law of Moses (and in appeals by our law) the prosecutors were to be
|
|
the executioners,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+17:7">Deut. xvii. 7</A>.
|
|
|
|
And the priests here were proud of the office. His being <I>led
|
|
away</I> does not suppose him to have made any opposition, but <I>the
|
|
scripture must be fulfilled,</I> he was <I>led as a sheep to the
|
|
slaughter,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+8:32">Acts viii. 32</A>.
|
|
|
|
We deserved to have been <I>led forth with the workers of iniquity</I>
|
|
as criminals to execution,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+125:5">Ps. cxxv. 5</A>.
|
|
|
|
But he was led forth for us, that we might escape.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. To add to his misery, they obliged him as long as he was able, to
|
|
carry his cross
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:17"><I>v.</I> 17</A>),
|
|
|
|
according to the custom among the Romans; hence <I>Furcifer</I> was
|
|
among them a name of reproach. Their crosses did not stand up
|
|
constantly, as our gibbets do in the places of execution, because the
|
|
malefactor was nailed to the cross as it lay along upon the ground, and
|
|
then it was lifted up, and fastened in the earth, and removed when the
|
|
execution was over, and commonly buried with the body; so that every
|
|
one that was crucified had a cross of his own. Now Christ's carrying
|
|
his cross may be considered,
|
|
|
|
(1.) As a part of his sufferings; he endured the cross literally. It
|
|
was a long and thick piece of timber that was necessary for such a use,
|
|
and some think it was neither seasoned nor hewn. The blessed body of
|
|
the Lord Jesus was tender, and unaccustomed to such burdens; it had now
|
|
lately been harassed and tired out; his shoulders were sore with the
|
|
stripes they had given him; every jog of the cross would renew his
|
|
smart, and be apt to strike the thorns he was crowned with into his
|
|
head; yet all this he patiently underwent, and it was but the
|
|
<I>beginning of sorrows.</I>
|
|
|
|
(2.) As answering the type which went before him; Isaac, when he was to
|
|
be offered, carried the wood on which he was to be bound and with which
|
|
he was to be burned.
|
|
|
|
(3.) As very significant of his undertaking, the Father having <I>laid
|
|
upon him the iniquity of us all</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+53:6">Isa. liii. 6</A>),
|
|
|
|
and he having to <I>take away sin</I> by <I>bearing it in his own body
|
|
upon the tree,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Pe+2:24">1 Pet. ii. 24</A>.
|
|
|
|
He had said in effect, <I>On me be the curse;</I> for he was made a
|
|
curse for us, and therefore on him was the cross.
|
|
|
|
(4.) As very instructive to us. Our Master hereby taught all his
|
|
disciples to take up their cross, and follow him. Whatever cross he
|
|
calls us out to bear at any time, we must remember that he bore the
|
|
cross first, and, by bearing it for us, bears it off from us in great
|
|
measure, for thus he hath made <I>his yoke easy, and his burden
|
|
light.</I> He bore that end of the cross that had the curse upon it;
|
|
this was the heavy end; and hence all that are his are enabled to call
|
|
their afflictions for him <I>light,</I> and <I>but for a
|
|
moment.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. They brought him to the place of execution: He <I>went forth,</I>
|
|
not dragged against his will, but voluntary in his sufferings. He went
|
|
forth out of the city, for he was <I>crucified without the gate,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+13:12">Heb. xiii. 12</A>.
|
|
|
|
And, to put the greater infamy upon his sufferings, he was brought to
|
|
the common place of execution, as one in all points <I>numbered among
|
|
the transgressors,</I> a place called <I>Golgotha, the place of a
|
|
skull,</I> where they threw dead men's skulls and bones, or where the
|
|
heads of beheaded malefactors were left,--a place <I>ceremonially
|
|
unclean;</I> there Christ suffered, because he was <I>made sin for
|
|
us,</I> that he might <I>purge our consciences from dead works,</I> and
|
|
the pollution of them. If one would take notice of the traditions of
|
|
the elders, there are two which are mentioned by many of the ancient
|
|
writers concerning this place:--
|
|
|
|
(1.) That Adam was buried here, and that this was the place of his
|
|
skull, and they observe that where death triumphed over the first Adam
|
|
there the second Adam triumphed over him. Gerhard quotes for this
|
|
tradition Origen, Cyprian, Epiphanius, Austin, Jerome, and others.
|
|
|
|
(2.) That this was that mountain in the land of Moriah on which Abraham
|
|
offered up Isaac, and the ram was a ransom for Isaac.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
4. There they crucified him, and the other malefactors with him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:18"><I>v.</I> 18</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>There they crucified him.</I> Observe
|
|
|
|
(1.) What death Christ died; the death of the cross, a bloody, painful,
|
|
shameful death, a cursed death. He was nailed to the cross, as a
|
|
sacrifice bound to the altar, as a Saviour fixed for his undertaking;
|
|
his ear nailed to God's door-post, to serve him for ever. He was lifted
|
|
up as the brazen serpent, hung between heaven and earth because we were
|
|
unworthy of either, and abandoned by both. His hands were stretched out
|
|
to invite and embrace us; he hung upon the tree some hours, dying
|
|
gradually in the full use of reason and speech, that he might actually
|
|
resign himself a sacrifice.
|
|
|
|
(2.) In what company he died: <I>Two others with him.</I> Probably
|
|
these would not have been executed at that time, but at the request of
|
|
the chief priests, to add to the disgrace of our Lord Jesus, which
|
|
might be the reason why one of them reviled him, because their death
|
|
was hastened for his sake. Had they taken two of his disciples, and
|
|
crucified them with him, it had been an honour to him; but, if such as
|
|
they had been partakers with him in suffering, it would have looked as
|
|
if they had been undertakers with him in satisfaction. Therefore it
|
|
was ordered that his fellow-sufferers should be the worst of sinners,
|
|
that he might <I>bear our reproach,</I> and that the merit might appear
|
|
to be his only. This exposed him much to the people's contempt and
|
|
hatred, who are apt to judge of persons by the lump, and are not
|
|
curious in distinguishing, and would conclude him not only malefactor
|
|
because he was yoked with malefactors, but the worst of the three
|
|
because put in the midst. But thus the scripture was fulfilled, <I>He
|
|
was numbered among the transgressors.</I> He did not die at the altar
|
|
among the sacrifices, nor mingle his blood with that of bulls and
|
|
goats; but he died among the criminals, and mingled his blood with
|
|
theirs who were sacrificed to public justice.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
And now let us pause awhile, and with an eye of faith look upon Jesus.
|
|
Was ever sorrow like unto his sorrow? See him who was clothed with
|
|
glory stripped of it all, and clothed with shame-him who was the
|
|
<I>praise of angels</I> made a <I>reproach of men</I>--him who had been
|
|
with eternal delight and joy in the bosom of his Father now in the
|
|
extremities of pain and agony. See him bleeding, see him struggling,
|
|
see him dying, see him and love him, love him and live to him, and
|
|
study what we shall render.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_19"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_20"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_21"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_22"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_23"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_24"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_25"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_26"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_27"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_28"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_29"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_30"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec3"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Inscription on the Cross; The Crucifixion.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>19 And Pilate wrote a title, and put <I>it</I> on the cross. And the
|
|
writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.
|
|
20 This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where
|
|
Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in
|
|
Hebrew, <I>and</I> Greek, <I>and</I> Latin.
|
|
21 Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write
|
|
not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the
|
|
Jews.
|
|
22 Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.
|
|
23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his
|
|
garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also
|
|
<I>his</I> coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top
|
|
throughout.
|
|
24 They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it,
|
|
but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might
|
|
be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and
|
|
for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the
|
|
soldiers did.
|
|
25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his
|
|
mother's sister, Mary the <I>wife</I> of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
|
|
26 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple
|
|
standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman,
|
|
behold thy son!
|
|
27 Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from
|
|
that hour that disciple took her unto his own <I>home.</I>
|
|
28 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now
|
|
accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I
|
|
thirst.
|
|
29 Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled
|
|
a sponge with vinegar, and put <I>it</I> upon hyssop, and put <I>it</I> to
|
|
his mouth.
|
|
30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It
|
|
is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Here are some remarkable circumstances of Christ's dying more fully
|
|
related than before, which those will take special notice of who covet
|
|
to know Christ and him crucified.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. The title set up over his head. Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. The inscription itself which Pilate wrote, and ordered to be fixed
|
|
to the top of the cross, declaring the cause for which he was
|
|
crucified,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:19"><I>v.</I> 19</A>.
|
|
|
|
Matthew called it, <B><I>aitia</I></B>--<I>the accusation;</I> Mark and
|
|
Luke called it <B><I>epigraphe</I></B>--<I>the inscription;</I> John
|
|
calls it by the proper Latin name, <B><I>titlos</I></B>--<I>the
|
|
title:</I> and it was this, <I>Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the
|
|
Jews,</I> Pilate intended this for his reproach, that he, being
|
|
<I>Jesus of Nazareth,</I> should pretend to be king of the Jews, and
|
|
set up in competition with Cæsar, to whom Pilate would thus
|
|
recommend himself, as very jealous for his honour and interest, when he
|
|
would treat but a titular king, a king in metaphor, as the worst of
|
|
malefactors; but God overruled this matter,
|
|
|
|
(1.) That it might be a further testimony to the innocency of our Lord
|
|
Jesus; for here was an accusation which, as it was worded, contained no
|
|
crime. If this be all they have to lay to his charge, surely he has
|
|
done nothing worthy of death or of bonds.
|
|
|
|
(2.) That it might show forth his dignity and honour. This is Jesus a
|
|
Saviour, <B><I>Nazoraios</I></B>, the blessed Nazarite, sanctified to
|
|
God; this is the <I>king of the Jews, Messiah the prince,</I> the
|
|
<I>sceptre</I> that <I>should rise out of Israel,</I> as Balaam had
|
|
foretold; dying for the good of his people, as Caiaphas had foretold.
|
|
Thus all these three bad men witnessed to Christ, though they meant not
|
|
so.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. The notice taken of this inscription
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Many of the Jews read it,</I> not only those of Jerusalem, but those
|
|
out of the country, and from other countries, strangers and proselytes,
|
|
that came up to worship at the feast. Multitudes read it, and it
|
|
occasioned a great variety of reflections and speculations, as men
|
|
stood affected. Christ himself was set for a sign, a title. Here are
|
|
two reasons why the title was so much read:--
|
|
|
|
(1.) Because the place where Jesus was crucified, though without the
|
|
gate, was yet <I>nigh the city,</I> which intimates that if it had been
|
|
any great distance off they would not have been led, no not by their
|
|
curiosity, to go and see it, and read it. It is an advantage to have
|
|
the means of knowing Christ brought to our doors.
|
|
|
|
(2.) Because it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin, which made
|
|
it legible by all; they all understood one or other of these languages,
|
|
and none were more careful to bring up their children to read than the
|
|
Jews generally were. It likewise made it the more considerable;
|
|
everyone would be curious to enquire what it was which was so
|
|
industriously published in the three most known languages. In the
|
|
Hebrew the oracles of God were recorded; in Greek the learning of the
|
|
philosophers; and in Latin the laws of the empire. In each of these
|
|
Christ is proclaimed king, in whom are hid all the treasures of
|
|
revelation, wisdom, and power. God so ordering it that this should be
|
|
written in the three then most known tongues, it was intimated thereby
|
|
that Jesus Christ should be a Saviour to all nations, and not to the
|
|
Jews only; and also that every nation should hear <I>in their own
|
|
tongue the wonderful works</I> of the Redeemer. Hebrew, Greek, and
|
|
Latin, were the vulgar languages at that time in this part of the
|
|
world; so that this is so far from intimating (as the Papists would
|
|
have it) that the scripture is still to be retained in these three
|
|
languages, that on the contrary it teaches us that the knowledge of
|
|
Christ ought to be diffused throughout every nation in their own
|
|
tongue, as the proper vehicle of it, that people may converse as freely
|
|
with the scriptures as they do with their neighbours.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. The offence which the prosecutors took at it,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:21"><I>v.</I> 21</A>.
|
|
|
|
They would not have it written, <I>the king of the Jews;</I> but that
|
|
he said of himself, <I>I am the king of the Jews.</I> Here they show
|
|
themselves,
|
|
|
|
(1.) Very spiteful and malicious against Christ. It was not enough to
|
|
have him crucified, but they must have his name crucified too. To
|
|
justify themselves in giving him such bad treatment, they thought
|
|
themselves concerned to give him a bad character, and to represent him
|
|
as a usurper of honours and powers that he was not entitled to.
|
|
|
|
(2.) Foolishly jealous of the honour of their nation. Though they were
|
|
a conquered and enslaved people, yet they stood so much upon the
|
|
punctilio of their reputation that they scorned to have it said that
|
|
this was their king.
|
|
|
|
(3.) Very impertinent and troublesome to Pilate. They could not but be
|
|
sensible that they had forced him, against his mind, to condemn Christ,
|
|
and yet, in such a trivial thing as this, they continue to tease him;
|
|
and it was so much the worse in that, though they had charged him with
|
|
pretending to be the king of the Jews, yet they had not proved it, nor
|
|
had he ever said so.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
4. The judge's resolution to adhere to it: "<I>What I have written I
|
|
have written,</I> and will not alter it to humour them."</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) Hereby an affront was put upon the chief priests, who would still
|
|
be dictating. It seems, by Pilate's manner of speaking, that he was
|
|
uneasy in himself for yielding to them, and vexed at them for forcing
|
|
him to it, and therefore he was resolved to be cross with them; and by
|
|
this inscription he insinuates,
|
|
|
|
[1.] That, notwithstanding their pretences, they were not sincere in
|
|
their affections to Cæsar and his government; they were willing
|
|
enough to have a king of the Jews, if they could have one to their
|
|
mind.
|
|
|
|
[2.] That such a king as this, so mean and despicable, was good enough
|
|
to be the king of the Jews; and this would be the fate of all that
|
|
should dare to oppose the Roman power.
|
|
|
|
[3.] That they had been very unjust and unreasonable in prosecuting
|
|
this Jesus, when there was no fault to be found in him.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) Hereby honour was done to the Lord Jesus. Pilate stuck to it with
|
|
resolution, that he was the king of the Jews. What he had written was
|
|
what God had first written, and therefore he could not alter it; for
|
|
thus it was written, that Messiah the prince should be <I>cut off,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Da+9:26">Dan. ix. 26</A>.
|
|
|
|
This therefore is the true cause of his death; he dies because the king
|
|
of Israel must die, must thus die. When the Jews reject Christ, and
|
|
will not have him for their king, Pilate, a Gentile, sticks to it that
|
|
he is a king, which was an earnest of what came to pass soon after,
|
|
when the Gentiles submitted to the kingdom of the Messiah, which the
|
|
unbelieving Jews had rebelled against.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. The dividing of his garments among the executioners,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:23,24"><I>v.</I> 23, 24</A>.
|
|
|
|
Four soldiers were employed, who, <I>when they had crucified Jesus,</I>
|
|
had nailed him to the cross, and lifted it up, and him upon it, and
|
|
nothing more was to be done than to wait his expiring through the
|
|
extremity of pain, as, with us, when the prisoner is turned off, then
|
|
they went to make a dividend of his clothes, each claiming an equal
|
|
share, and so they <I>made four parts,</I> as nearly of the same value
|
|
as they could, <I>to every soldier a part;</I> but <I>his coat,</I> or
|
|
upper garment whether cloak or gown, being a pretty piece of curiosity,
|
|
<I>without seam, woven from the top throughout,</I> they agreed to
|
|
<I>cast lots for it.</I> Here observe,
|
|
|
|
1. The shame they put upon our Lord Jesus, in stripping him of his
|
|
garments before they crucified him. The shame of nakedness came in
|
|
with sin. He therefore who was made sin for us bore that shame, to roll
|
|
away our reproach. He was stripped, that we might be clothed with
|
|
<I>white raiment</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+3:18">Rev. iii. 18</A>),
|
|
|
|
and that when we are unclothed <I>we may not be found naked.</I>
|
|
|
|
2. The wages with which these soldiers paid themselves for crucifying
|
|
Christ. They were willing to do it for his old clothes. Nothing is to
|
|
be done so bad, but there will be found men bad enough to do it for a
|
|
trifle. Probably they hoped to make more than ordinary advantage of
|
|
his clothes, having heard of cures wrought by the touch of the hem of
|
|
his garment, or expecting that his admirers would give any money for
|
|
them.
|
|
|
|
3. The sport they made about his seamless coat. We read not of any
|
|
thing about him valuable or remarkable but this, and this not for the
|
|
richness, but only the variety of it, for it was <I>woven from the top
|
|
throughout;</I> there was no curiosity therefore in the shape, but a
|
|
designed plainness. Tradition says, his mother wove it for him, and
|
|
adds this further, that it was made for him when he was a child, and,
|
|
like the Israelites' clothes in the wilderness, <I>waxed not old;</I>
|
|
but this is a groundless fancy. The soldiers thought it a pity to rend
|
|
it, for then it would unravel, and a piece of it would be good for
|
|
nothing; they would <I>therefore cast lots for it.</I> While Christ was
|
|
in his dying agonies, they were merrily dividing his spoils. The
|
|
preserving of Christ's seamless coat is commonly alluded to to show the
|
|
care all Christians ought to take that they rend not the church of
|
|
Christ with strifes and divisions; yet some have observed that the
|
|
reason why the soldiers would not rend Christ's coat was not out of any
|
|
respect to Christ, but because each of them hoped to have it entire for
|
|
himself. And so many cry out against schism, only that they may engross
|
|
all the wealth and power to themselves. Those who opposed Luther's
|
|
separation from the church of Rome urged much the <I>tunica
|
|
inconsutilis--the seamless coat;</I> and some of them laid so much
|
|
stress upon it that they were called the <I>Inconsutilistæ--The
|
|
seamless.</I>
|
|
|
|
4. The fulfilling of the scripture in this. David, in spirit, foretold
|
|
this very circumstance of Christ's sufferings, in that passage,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+22:18">Ps. xxii. 18</A>.
|
|
|
|
The event so exactly answering the prediction proves,
|
|
|
|
(1.) That <I>the scripture</I> is the word of God, which foretold
|
|
contingent events concerning Christ so long before, and they came to
|
|
pass according to the prediction.
|
|
|
|
(2.) That Jesus is the true Messiah; for in him all the Old-Testament
|
|
prophecies concerning the Messiah had, and have, their full
|
|
accomplishment. <I>These things therefore the soldiers did.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. The care that he took of his poor mother.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. His mother attends him to his death
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:25"><I>v.</I> 25</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>There stood by the cross,</I> as near as they could get, <I>his
|
|
mother,</I> and some of his relations and friends with her. At first,
|
|
they stood near, as it is said here; but afterwards, it is probable,
|
|
the soldiers forced them to stand afar off, as it is said in Matthew
|
|
and Mark: or they themselves removed out of the ground.
|
|
|
|
(1.) See here the tender affection of these pious women to our Lord
|
|
Jesus in his sufferings. When all his disciples, except John, has
|
|
forsaken him, they continued their attendance on him. Thus <I>the
|
|
feeble were as David</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Zec+12:8">Zech. xii. 8</A>):
|
|
|
|
they were not deterred by the fury of the enemy nor the horror of the
|
|
sight; they could not rescue him nor relieve him, yet they attended
|
|
him, to show their good-will. It is an impious and blasphemous
|
|
construction which some of the popish writers put upon the virgin Mary
|
|
standing by the cross, that thereby she contributed to the satisfaction
|
|
he made for sin no less than he did, and so became a joint-mediatrix
|
|
and co-adjutrix in our salvation.
|
|
|
|
(2.) We may easily suppose what an affliction it was to these poor
|
|
women to see him thus abused, especially to the blessed virgin. Now was
|
|
fulfilled Simeon's word, <I>A sword shall pierce through thy own
|
|
soul,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+2:35">Luke ii. 35</A>.
|
|
|
|
His torments were her tortures; she was upon the rack, while he was
|
|
upon the cross; and her heart bled with his wounds; and <I>the
|
|
reproaches wherewith they reproached</I> him fell on those that
|
|
attended him.
|
|
|
|
(3.) We may justly admire the power of divine grace in supporting these
|
|
women, especially the virgin Mary, under this heavy trial. We do not
|
|
find his mother wringing her hands, or tearing her hair, or rending her
|
|
clothes, or making an outcry; but, with a wonderful composure,
|
|
<I>standing by the cross,</I> and her friends with her. Surely she and
|
|
they were strengthened by a divine power to this degree of patience;
|
|
and surely the virgin Mary had a fuller expectation of his resurrection
|
|
than the rest had, which supported her thus. We know not what we can
|
|
bear till we are tried, and then we know who has said, <I>My grace is
|
|
sufficient for thee.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. He tenderly provides for his mother at his death. It is probable
|
|
that Joseph, her husband, was long since dead, and that her son Jesus
|
|
had supported her, and her relation to him had been her maintenance;
|
|
and now that he was dying what would become of her? He saw her standing
|
|
by, and knew her cares and griefs; and he saw John standing not far
|
|
off, and so he settled a new relation between his beloved mother and
|
|
his beloved disciple; for he said to her, "<I>Woman, behold thy
|
|
son,</I> for whom henceforward thou must have a motherly affection;"
|
|
and to him, "<I>Behold thy mother,</I> to whom thou must pay a filial
|
|
duty." And so <I>from that hour,</I> that hour never to be forgotten,
|
|
<I>that disciple took her to his own home.</I> See here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) The care Christ took of his dear mother. He was not so much taken
|
|
up with a sense of his sufferings as to forget his friends, all whose
|
|
concerns he bore upon his heart. His mother, perhaps, was so taken up
|
|
with his sufferings that she thought not of what would become of her;
|
|
but he admitted that thought. <I>Silver and gold he had none</I> to
|
|
leave, no estate, real or personal; his clothes the soldiers had
|
|
seized, and we hear no more of the bag since Judas, who had carried it,
|
|
hanged himself. He had therefore no other way to provide for his mother
|
|
than by his interest in a friend, which he does here.
|
|
|
|
[1.] He calls her <I>woman,</I> not mother, not out of any disrespect
|
|
to her, but because mother would have been a cutting word to her that
|
|
was already wounded to the heart with grief; like Isaac saying to
|
|
Abraham, <I>My father.</I> He speaks as one that was <I>now no more in
|
|
this world,</I> but was already dead to those in it that were dearest
|
|
to him. His speaking in this seemingly slight manner to his mother, as
|
|
he had done formerly, was designed to obviate and give a check to the
|
|
undue honours which he foresaw would be given to her in the Romish
|
|
church, as if she were a joint purchaser with him in the honours of the
|
|
Redeemer.
|
|
|
|
[2.] He directs her to look upon John as her son: "Behold him as thy
|
|
son, who stands there by thee, and be as a mother to him." See here,
|
|
<I>First,</I> An instance of divine goodness, to be observed for our
|
|
encouragement. Sometimes, when God removes one comfort from us, he
|
|
raises up another for us, perhaps where we looked not for it. We read
|
|
of children which the church shall have after she has lost the other,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+49:21">Isa. xlix. 21</A>.
|
|
|
|
Let none therefore reckon all gone with one cistern dried up, for from
|
|
the same fountain another may be filled. <I>Secondly,</I> An instance
|
|
of filial duty, to be observed for our imitation. Christ has here
|
|
taught children to provide, to the utmost of their power, for the
|
|
comfort of their aged parents. When David was in distress, he took care
|
|
of his parents, and found out a shelter for them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Sa+22:3">1 Sam. xxii. 3</A>);
|
|
|
|
so the Son of David here. Children at their death, according to their
|
|
ability, should provide for their parents, if they survive them, and
|
|
need their kindness.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) The confidence he reposed in the beloved disciple. It is to him he
|
|
says, <I>Behold thy mother,</I> that is, I recommend her to thy care,
|
|
be thou as a son to her to guide her
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+51:18">Isa. li. 18</A>);
|
|
|
|
and <I>forsake her not when she is old,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+23:22">Prov. xxiii. 22</A>.
|
|
|
|
Now,
|
|
|
|
[1.] This was an honour put upon John, and a testimony both to his
|
|
prudence and to his fidelity. If he who knows all things had not known
|
|
that John loved him, he would not have made him his mother's guardian.
|
|
It is a great honour to be employed for Christ, and to be entrusted
|
|
with any of his interest in the world. But,
|
|
|
|
[2.] It would be a care and some charge to John; but he cheerfully
|
|
accepted it, <I>and took her to his own home,</I> not objecting the
|
|
trouble nor expense, nor his obligations to his own family, nor the
|
|
ill-will he might contract by it. Note, Those that truly love Christ,
|
|
and are beloved of him, will be glad of an opportunity to do any
|
|
service to him or his. <I>Nicephoras's Eccl. Hist. lib. 2 cap. 3,</I>
|
|
saith that the virgin Mary lived with John at Jerusalem eleven years,
|
|
and then died. Others, that she lived to remove with him to
|
|
Ephesus.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
IV. The fulfilling of the scripture, in the giving of him vinegar to
|
|
drink,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:28,29"><I>v.</I> 28, 29</A>.
|
|
|
|
Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. How much respect Christ showed to the scripture
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:28"><I>v.</I> 28</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Knowing that all things</I> hitherto <I>were accomplished, that the
|
|
scripture might be fulfilled,</I> which spoke of his drinking in his
|
|
sufferings, <I>he saith, I thirst,</I> that is, he called for
|
|
drink.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) It was not at all strange that he was thirsty; we find him
|
|
<I>thirsty</I> in a journey
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+4:6,7"><I>ch.</I> iv. 6, 7</A>),
|
|
|
|
and now thirsty when he was just at his journey's end. Well might he
|
|
thirst after all the toil and hurry which he had undergone, and being
|
|
now in the agonies of death, ready to expire purely by the loss of
|
|
blood and extremity of pain. The torments of hell are represented by a
|
|
violent thirst in the complaint of the rich man that begged for a
|
|
<I>drop of water to cool his tongue.</I> To that everlasting thirst we
|
|
had been condemned, had not Christ suffered for us.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) But the reason of his complaining of it is somewhat surprising; it
|
|
is the only word he spoke that looked like complaint of his outward
|
|
sufferings. When they scourged him, and crowned him with thorns, he did
|
|
not cry, O my head! or, My back! But now he cried, <I>I thirst.</I>
|
|
For,
|
|
|
|
[1.] He would thus express <I>the travail of his soul,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+53:11">Isa. liii. 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
He thirsted after the glorifying of God, and the accomplishment of the
|
|
work of our redemption, and the happy issue of his undertaking.
|
|
|
|
[2.] He would thus take care to see the scripture fulfilled. Hitherto,
|
|
all had been accomplished, and he knew it, for this was the thing he
|
|
had carefully observed all along; and now he called to mind one thing
|
|
more, which this was the proper season for the performance of. By this
|
|
it appears that he was the Messiah, in that not only the scripture was
|
|
punctually fulfilled in him, but it was strictly eyed by him. By this
|
|
it appears <I>that God was with him of a truth</I>--that in all he did
|
|
he went exactly according to the word of God, taking care <I>not to
|
|
destroy, but to fulfil, the law and the prophets.</I> Now,
|
|
<I>First,</I> The scripture had foretold his thirst, and therefore he
|
|
himself related it, because it could not otherwise be known, saying,
|
|
<I>I thirst;</I> it was foretold that his tongue should cleave to his
|
|
jaws,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+22:15">Ps. xxii. 15</A>.
|
|
|
|
Samson, an eminent type of Christ, when he was laying <I>the
|
|
Philistines heaps upon heaps,</I> was himself <I>sore athirst</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jdg+15:18">Judg. xv. 18</A>);
|
|
|
|
so was Christ, when he was upon the cross, <I>spoiling principalities
|
|
and powers. Secondly,</I> The scripture had foretold that in his thirst
|
|
he should have vinegar given him to drink,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+69:21">Ps. lxix. 21</A>.
|
|
|
|
They had given him vinegar to drink before they crucified him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+27:34">Matt. xxvii. 34</A>),
|
|
|
|
but the prophecy was not exactly fulfilled in that, because that was
|
|
not in his thirst; therefore now he said, <I>I thirst,</I> and called
|
|
for it again: then he would not drink, but now he received it Christ
|
|
would rather court an affront than see any prophecy unfulfilled. This
|
|
should satisfy us under all our trials, that the will of God is done,
|
|
and the word of God accomplished.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. See how little respect his persecutors showed to him
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:29"><I>v.</I> 29</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>There was set a vessel full of vinegar,</I> probably according to
|
|
the custom at all executions of this nature; or, as others think, it
|
|
was now set designedly for an abuse to Christ, instead of the cup of
|
|
wine which they used to give <I>to those that were ready to perish;</I>
|
|
with this <I>they filled a sponge,</I> for they would not allow him a
|
|
cup, <I>and they put it upon hyssop,</I> a hyssop-stalk, and with this
|
|
heaved it to his mouth; <B><I>hyssopo perithentes</I></B>--<I>they
|
|
stuck it round with hyssop;</I> so it may be taken; or, as others, they
|
|
mingled it with hyssop-water, and this they gave him to drink when he
|
|
was thirsty; a drop of water would have cooled his tongue better than a
|
|
draught of vinegar: yet this he submitted to for us. <I>We had taken
|
|
the sour grapes,</I> and <I>thus his teeth were set on edge;</I> we had
|
|
forfeited all comforts and refreshments, and therefore they were
|
|
withheld from him. When heaven denied him a beam of light earth denied
|
|
him a drop of water, and put vinegar in the room of it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
V. The dying word wherewith he breathed out his soul
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:30"><I>v.</I> 30</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>When he had received the vinegar,</I> as much of it as he thought
|
|
fit, <I>he said, It is finished;</I> and, with that, <I>bowed his head,
|
|
and gave up the ghost.</I> Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. What he said, and we may suppose him to say it with triumph and
|
|
exultation, <B><I>Tetelestai</I></B>--<I>It is finished,</I> a
|
|
comprehensive word, and a comfortable one.
|
|
|
|
(1.) <I>It is finished,</I> that is, the malice and enmity of his
|
|
persecutors had now done their worst; <I>when he had received</I> that
|
|
last indignity in <I>the vinegar they gave him, he said,</I> "This is
|
|
the last; I am now going out of their reach, <I>where the wicked cease
|
|
from troubling.</I>"
|
|
|
|
(2.) <I>It is finished,</I> that is, the counsel and commandment of his
|
|
Father concerning his sufferings were now fulfilled; it was a
|
|
<I>determinate counsel,</I> and he took care to see every iota and
|
|
tittle of it exactly answered,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+2:23">Acts ii. 23</A>.
|
|
|
|
He had said, when he entered upon his sufferings, <I>Father, thy will
|
|
be done;</I> and now he saith with pleasure, <I>It is done.</I> It was
|
|
<I>his meat and drink to finish his work</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+4:34"><I>ch.</I> iv. 34</A>),
|
|
|
|
and the meat and drink refreshed him, when they gave him gall and
|
|
vinegar.
|
|
|
|
(3.) <I>It is finished,</I> that is, all the types and prophecies of
|
|
the Old Testament, which pointed at the sufferings of the Messiah, were
|
|
accomplished and answered. He speaks as if, now that <I>they had given
|
|
him the vinegar,</I> he could not bethink himself of any word in the
|
|
Old Testament that was to be fulfilled between him and his death but it
|
|
had its accomplishment; such as, his being <I>sold for thirty pieces of
|
|
silver, his hands and feet being pierced, his garments divided,
|
|
&c.;</I> and now that this is done. <I>It is finished.</I>
|
|
|
|
(4.) <I>It is finished,</I> that is, the ceremonial law is abolished,
|
|
and a period put to the obligation of it. The substance is now come,
|
|
and all the shadows are done away. Just now <I>the veil is rent, the
|
|
wall of partition is taken down,</I> even <I>the law of commandments
|
|
contained in ordinances,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eph+2:14,15">Eph. ii. 14, 15</A>.
|
|
|
|
The Mosaic economy is dissolved, <I>to make way for a better hope.</I>
|
|
|
|
(5.) <I>It is finished,</I> that is, sin is finished, and an end made
|
|
of transgression, by <I>the bringing in of an everlasting
|
|
righteousness.</I> It seems to refer to
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Da+9:24">Dan. ix. 24</A>.
|
|
|
|
<I>The Lamb of God was sacrificed to take away the sin of the
|
|
world,</I> and it is done,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+9:26">Heb. ix. 26</A>.
|
|
|
|
(6.) <I>It is finished,</I> that is, his sufferings were now finished,
|
|
both those of his soul and those of his body. The storm is over, the
|
|
worst is past; all his pains and agonies are at an end, and he is just
|
|
going to paradise, entering upon <I>the joy set before him.</I> Let all
|
|
that <I>suffer for Christ,</I> and with Christ, comfort themselves with
|
|
this, <I>that yet a little while</I> and they also shall say, <I>It is
|
|
finished.</I>
|
|
|
|
(7.) <I>It is finished,</I> that is, his life was now finished, he was
|
|
just ready to breathe his last, and <I>now he is no more in this
|
|
world,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+17:11"><I>ch.</I> xvii. 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
This is like that of blessed Paul
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ti+4:7">2 Tim. iv. 7</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>I have finished my course,</I> my race is run, my glass is out,
|
|
<I>mene, mene--numbered</I> and <I>finished.</I> This we must all come
|
|
to shortly.
|
|
|
|
(8.) <I>It is finished,</I> that is, the work of man's redemption and
|
|
salvation is now completed, at least the hardest part of the
|
|
undertaking is over; a full satisfaction is made to the justice of God,
|
|
a fatal blow given to the power of Satan, a fountain of grace opened
|
|
that shall ever flow, a foundation of peace and happiness laid that
|
|
shall never fail. Christ had now gone through with his work, and
|
|
<I>finished it,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+17:4"><I>ch.</I> xvii. 4</A>.
|
|
|
|
For, <I>as for God, his work is perfect; when I begin,</I> saith he,
|
|
<I>I will also make an end.</I> And, as in the purchase, so in the
|
|
application of the redemption, <I>he that has begun a good work will
|
|
perform it;</I> the mystery of God shall be finished.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. What he did: <I>He bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.</I> He was
|
|
voluntary in dying; for he was not only the sacrifice, but the priest
|
|
and the offerer; and the <I>animus offerentis--the mind of the
|
|
offerer,</I> was all in all in the sacrifice. Christ showed his will
|
|
in his sufferings, <I>by which will we are sanctified.</I>
|
|
|
|
(1.) <I>He gave up the ghost.</I> His life was not forcibly extorted
|
|
from him, but freely resigned. He had said, <I>Father, into thy hands I
|
|
commit my spirit,</I> thereby expressing the intention of this act. I
|
|
give up myself as a <I>ransom for many;</I> and, accordingly, he did
|
|
give up his spirit, paid down the price of pardon and life at his
|
|
Father's hands. <I>Father, glorify thy name.</I>
|
|
|
|
(2.) <I>He bowed his head.</I> Those that were crucified, in dying
|
|
stretched up their heads to gasp for breath, and did not drop their
|
|
heads till they had breathed their last; but Christ, to show himself
|
|
active in dying, <I>bowed his head</I> first, composing himself, as it
|
|
were, to fall asleep. God <I>had laid upon him the iniquity of us
|
|
all,</I> putting it upon the head of this great sacrifice; and some
|
|
think that by this bowing of his head he would intimate his sense of
|
|
the weight upon him. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+38:4,40:12">Ps. xxxviii. 4; xl. 12</A>.
|
|
|
|
The bowing of his head shows his submission to his Father's will, and
|
|
his obedience to death. He accommodated himself to his dying work, as
|
|
Jacob, <I>who gathered up his feet into the bed, and then yielded up
|
|
the ghost.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_31"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_32"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_33"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_34"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_35"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_36"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Joh19_37"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec4"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Crucifixion.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the
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bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for
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that sabbath day was a high day,) besought Pilate that their
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legs might be broken, and <I>that</I> they might be taken away.
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32 Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and
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of the other which was crucified with him.
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33 But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead
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already, they brake not his legs:
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34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and
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forthwith came there out blood and water.
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35 And he that saw <I>it</I> bare record, and his record is true:
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and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.
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36 For these things were done, that the scripture should be
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fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
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37 And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him
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whom they pierced.
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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This passage concerning the piercing of Christ's side after his death
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is recorded only by this evangelist.</P>
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<P>
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I. Observe the superstition of the Jews, which occasioned it
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:31"><I>v.</I> 31</A>):
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<I>Because it was the preparation for the sabbath, and that sabbath
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day,</I> because it fell in the passover-week, <I>was a high day,</I>
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that they might show a veneration for the sabbath, they would <I>not
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have the dead bodies to remain on the crosses on the sabbath-day,</I>
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but <I>besought Pilate that their legs might be broken,</I> which would
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be a certain, but cruel dispatch, and that then they might be buried
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out of sight. Note here,
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1. The esteem they would be thought to have for the approaching
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sabbath, because it was one of the days of unleavened bread, and (some
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reckon) the day of the offering of the first-fruits. Every sabbath day
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is a holy day, and a good day, but this was a high day, <B><I>megale
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hemera</I></B>--<I>a great day.</I> Passover sabbaths are high days;
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sacrament-days, supper-days, communion-days are high days, and there
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ought to be more than ordinary preparation for them, that these may be
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high days indeed to us, <I>as the days of heaven.</I>
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2. The reproach which they reckoned it would be to that day if the dead
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bodies should be left hanging on the crosses. Dead bodies were not to
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be left at any time
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+21:23">Deut. xxi. 23</A>);
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yet, in this case, the Jews would have left the Roman custom to take
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place, had it not been an extraordinary day; and, many strangers from
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all parts being then at Jerusalem, it would have been an offence to
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them; nor could they well bear the sight of Christ's crucified body,
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for, unless their consciences were quite seared, when the heat of their
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rage was a little over, they would upbraid them.
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3. Their petition to Pilate, that their bodies, now as good as dead,
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might be dispatched; not by strangling or beheading them, which would
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have been a compassionate hastening of them out of their misery, like
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the <I>coup de grace</I> (as the French call it) to those that are
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broken upon the wheel, <I>the stroke of mercy,</I> but by the breaking
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of their legs, which would carry them off in the most exquisite pain.
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Note,
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(1.) <I>The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.</I>
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(2.) The pretended sanctity of hypocrites is abominable. These Jews
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would be thought to bear a great regard for the sabbath, and yet had
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not regard to justice and righteousness; they made no conscience of
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bringing an innocent and excellent person to the cross, and yet
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scrupled letting a dead body hang upon the cross.</P>
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<P>
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II. The dispatching of <I>the two thieves that were crucified with
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him,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:32"><I>v.</I> 32</A>.
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Pilate was still gratifying the Jews, and gave orders as they desired;
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<I>and the soldiers came,</I> hardened against all impressions of pity,
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<I>and broke the legs of the two thieves,</I> which, no doubt, extorted
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from them hideous outcries, and made them die according to the bloody
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disposition of Nero, so as to feel themselves die. One of these thieves
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was a penitent, and had received from Christ an assurance that he
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should shortly be with him in paradise, and yet died in the same pain
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and misery that the other thief did; for <I>all things come alike to
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all.</I> Many go to heaven that <I>have bands in their death,</I> and
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<I>die in the bitterness of their soul.</I> The extremity of dying
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agonies is no obstruction to the living comforts that wait for holy
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souls on the other side death. Christ died, and went to paradise, but
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appointed a guard to convey him thither. This is the order of going to
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heaven--<I>Christ, the first-fruits</I> and forerunner, <I>afterwards
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those that are Christ's.</I></P>
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<P>
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III. The trial that was made whether Christ was dead or no, and the
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putting of it out of doubt.</P>
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<P>
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1. They supposed him to be dead, and therefore <I>did not break his
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legs,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:33"><I>v.</I> 33</A>.
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Observe here,
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(1.) That Jesus died in less time than persons crucified ordinarily
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did. The structure of his body, perhaps, being extraordinarily fine and
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tender, was the sooner broken by pain; or, rather, it was to show that
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he laid down his life of himself, and could die when he pleased, though
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his hands were nailed. Though he yielded to death, yet he was not
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conquered.
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(2.) That his enemies were satisfied he was really dead. The Jews, who
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stood by to see the execution effectually done, would not have omitted
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this piece of cruelty, if they had not been sure he was got out of the
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reach of it.
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(3.) <I>Whatever devices are in men's hearts, the counsel of the Lord
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shall stand.</I> It was fully designed to break his legs, but, God's
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counsel being otherwise, see how it was prevented.</P>
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<P>
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2. Because they would be sure he was dead they made such an experiment
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as would put it past dispute. <I>One of the soldiers with a spear
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pierced his side,</I> aiming at his heart, <I>and forthwith came
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there out blood and water,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:34"><I>v.</I> 34</A>.</P>
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<P>
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(1.) The soldier hereby designed to decide the question whether he was
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dead or no, and by this honourable wound in his side to supersede the
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ignominious method of dispatch they took with the other two. Tradition
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|
says that this soldier's name was <I>Longinus,</I> and that, having
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some distemper in his eyes, he was immediately cured of it, by some
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drops of blood that flowed out of Christ's side falling on them:
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significant enough, if we had any good authority for the story.</P>
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<P>
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(2.) But God had a further design herein, which was,</P>
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<P>
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[1.] To give an evidence of the truth of his death, in order to the
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proof of his resurrection. If he was only in a trance or swoon, his
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resurrection was a sham; but, by this experiment, he was certainly
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dead, for this spear broke up the very fountains of life, and,
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according to all the law and course of nature, it was impossible a
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human body should survive such a wound as this in the vitals, and such
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an evacuation thence.</P>
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<P>
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[2.] To give an illustration of the design of his death. There was much
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of mystery in it, and its being solemnly attested
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:35"><I>v.</I> 35</A>)
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intimates there was something miraculous in it, that <I>the blood and
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water</I> should come out distinct and separate from the same wound; at
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least it was very significant; this same apostle refers to it as a very
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considerable thing,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Jo+5:6,8">1 John v. 6, 8</A>.</P>
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<P>
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<I>First,</I> the opening of his side was significant. When we would
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protest our sincerity, we wish there were a window in our hearts, that
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the thoughts and intents of them might be visible to all. Through this
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window, opened in Christ's side, you may look into his heart, and see
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love flaming there, love strong as death; see our names written there.
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Some make it an allusion to the opening of Adam's side in innocency.
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When Christ, the second Adam, was fallen into a deep sleep upon the
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cross, then was his side opened, and out of it was his church taken,
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which he espoused to himself. See
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eph+5:30,32">Eph. v. 30, 32</A>.
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Our devout poet, Mr. George Herbert, in his poem called <I>The
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Bag,</I> very affectingly brings in our Saviour, when his side was
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pierced, thus speaking to his disciples:--</P>
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<CENTER>
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<TABLE BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD>If ye have any thing to send, or write
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<BR> (I have no bag, but here is room),
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<BR>Unto my Father's hands and sight
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<BR> (Believe me) it shall safely come.
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<BR>That I shall mind what you impart,
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<BR>Look, you may put it very near my heart;
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<BR> Or, if hereafter any of my friends
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<BR> Will use me in this kind, the door
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<BR> Shall still be open; what he sends
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<BR> I will present, and somewhat more,
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<BR> Not to his hurt. Sighs will convey
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<BR> Any thing to me. Hark, Despair, away.
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</TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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</CENTER>
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<P>
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<I>Secondly, The blood and water</I> that flowed out of it were
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significant.
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1. They signified the two great benefits which all believers partake of
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|
through Christ-justification and sanctification; blood for remission,
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water for regeneration; blood for atonement, water for purification.
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|
Blood and water were used very much under the law. Guilt contracted
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|
must be expiated by blood; stains contracted must be done away by
|
|
<I>the water of purification.</I> These two must always go together.
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<I>You are sanctified, you are justified,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+6:11">1 Cor. vi. 11</A>.
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Christ has joined them together, and we must not think to put them
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asunder. They both flowed from the pierced side of our Redeemer. To
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Christ crucified we owe both merit for our justification, and Spirit
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|
and grace for our sanctification; and we have as much need of the
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latter as of the former,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+1:30">1 Cor. i. 30</A>.
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2. They signified the two great ordinances of baptism and the Lord's
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supper, by which those benefits are represented, sealed, and applied,
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to believers; they both owe their institution and efficacy to Christ.
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|
It is not the water in the font that will be to us <I>the washing of
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|
regeneration,</I> but the water out of the side of Christ; not the
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blood of the grape that will pacify the conscience and refresh the
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soul, but the blood out of the side of Christ. Now was the rock smitten
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+10:4">1 Cor. x. 4</A>),
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now was the fountain opened
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Zec+13:1">Zech. xiii. 1</A>),
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now were the wells of salvation digged,
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|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+12:3">Isa. xii. 3</A>.
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Here <I>is the river, the streams whereof make glad the city of our
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God.</I></P>
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<P>
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IV. The attestation of the truth of this by an eye-witness
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:35"><I>v.</I> 35</A>),
|
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the evangelist himself. Observe,</P>
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<P>
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1. What a competent witness he was of the matters of fact.
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|
(1.) What he bore record of he saw; he had it not by hearsay, nor was
|
|
it only his own conjecture, but he was an eyewitness of it; it is
|
|
<I>what we have seen and looked upon</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Jo+1:1,2Pe+1:16">1 John i. 1; 2 Pet. i. 16</A>),
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and <I>had perfect understanding of,</I>
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|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+1:3">Luke i. 3</A>.
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(2.) What he saw he faithfully bore record of; as a faithful witness,
|
|
he told not only the truth, but the whole truth; and did not only
|
|
attest it by word of mouth, but left it upon record in writing, <I>in
|
|
perpetuam rei memoriam--for a perpetual memorial.</I>
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(3.) <I>His record is</I> undoubtedly <I>true;</I> for he wrote not
|
|
only from his own personal knowledge and observation, but from the
|
|
dictates of the Spirit of truth, that leads into all truth.
|
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|
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(4.) He had himself a full assurance of the truth of what he wrote, and
|
|
did not persuade others to believe that which he did not believe
|
|
himself: <I>He knows that he saith true.</I>
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(5.) He <I>therefore</I> witnessed these things, <I>that we might
|
|
believe;</I> he did not record them merely for his own satisfaction or
|
|
the private use of his friends, but made them public to the world; not
|
|
to please the curious nor entertain the ingenious, but to draw men to
|
|
believe the gospel in order to their eternal welfare.</P>
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|
<P>
|
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2. What care he showed in this particular instance. That we may be well
|
|
assured of the truth of Christ's death, he saw his heart's blood, his
|
|
life's blood, let out; and also of the benefits that flow to us from
|
|
his death, signified by the blood and water which came out of his side.
|
|
Let this silence the fears of weak Christians, and encourage their
|
|
hopes, <I>iniquity shall not be their ruin,</I> for there came both
|
|
water and blood out of Christ's pierced side, both to justify and
|
|
sanctify them; and if you ask, How can we be sure of this? You may be
|
|
sure, for <I>he that saw it bore record.</I></P>
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<P>
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V. The accomplishment of the scripture in all this
|
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:36"><I>v.</I> 36</A>):
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<I>That the scripture might be fulfilled,</I> and so both the honour of
|
|
the Old Testament preserved and the truth of the New Testament
|
|
confirmed. Here are two instances of it together:--</P>
|
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|
<P>
|
|
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|
1. The scripture was fulfilled in the preserving of his legs from being
|
|
broken; therein that word was fulfilled, <I>A bone of him shall not be
|
|
broken.</I>
|
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|
|
(1.) There was a promise of this made indeed to all <I>the
|
|
righteous,</I> but principally pointing at <I>Jesus Christ the
|
|
righteous</I>
|
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|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+34:20">Ps. xxxiv. 20</A>):
|
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|
|
<I>He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken.</I> And David,
|
|
in spirit, says, <I>All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto
|
|
thee?</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+35:10">Ps. xxxv. 10</A>.
|
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|
|
(2.) There was a type of this in the paschal lamb, which seems to be
|
|
specially referred to here
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+12:46">Exod. xii. 46</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Neither shall you break a bone thereof;</I> and it is repeated
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+9:12">Num. ix. 12</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>You shall not break any bone of it;</I> for which law the will of
|
|
the law-maker is the reason, but the antitype must answer the type.
|
|
<I>Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Co+5:7">1 Cor. v. 7</A>.
|
|
|
|
He is <I>the Lamb of God</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+1:29"><I>ch.</I> i. 29</A>),
|
|
|
|
and, as the true passover, his bones were kept unbroken. This
|
|
commandment was given concerning his bones, when dead, as of Joseph's,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+11:22">Heb. xi. 22</A>.
|
|
|
|
(3.) There was a significancy in it; the strength of the body is in the
|
|
bones. The Hebrew word for the bones signifies the strength, and
|
|
therefore <I>not a bone of Christ must be broken,</I> to show that
|
|
though <I>he be crucified in weakness</I> his strength to save is not
|
|
at all broken. Sin breaks our bones, as it broke David's
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+51:8">Ps. li. 8</A>);
|
|
|
|
but it did not break Christ's bones; he stood firm under the burden,
|
|
mighty to save.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. <I>The scripture was fulfilled in the piercing of his side</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:37"><I>v.</I> 37</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>They shall look on me whom they had pierced;</I> so it is written,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Zec+12:10">Zech. xii. 10</A>.
|
|
|
|
And there the same that pours out the Spirit of grace, and can be no
|
|
less than the God of the holy prophets, says, <I>They shall look upon
|
|
me,</I> which is here applied to Christ, <I>They shall look upon
|
|
him.</I>
|
|
|
|
(1.) It is here implied that the Messiah shall be pierced; and here it
|
|
had a more full accomplishment than in <I>the piercing of his hands and
|
|
feet;</I> he was pierced by <I>the house of David</I> and <I>the
|
|
inhabitants of Jerusalem, wounded in the house of his friends,</I> as
|
|
it follows,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Zec+13:6">Zech. xiii. 6</A>.
|
|
|
|
(2.) It is promised that <I>when the Spirit is poured out they shall
|
|
look on him and mourn.</I> This was in part fulfilled when many of
|
|
those that were his betrayers and murderers <I>were pricked to the
|
|
heart,</I> and brought to believe in him; it will be further fulfilled,
|
|
in mercy, <I>when all Israel shall be saved;</I> and, in wrath, when
|
|
those who persisted in their infidelity shall <I>see him whom they have
|
|
pierced, and wail because of him,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+1:7">Rev. i. 7</A>.
|
|
|
|
But it is applicable to us all. We have all been guilty of piercing
|
|
the Lord Jesus, and are all concerned with suitable affections to look
|
|
on him.</P>
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<A NAME="Joh19_38"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh19_39"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh19_40"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh19_41"> </A>
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<A NAME="Joh19_42"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec5"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Burial of Christ.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TR><TD><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>38 And after this Joseph of Arimathæa, being a disciple of
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Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he
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might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave <I>him</I> leave.
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He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
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39 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to
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Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about
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a hundred pound <I>weight.</I>
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40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen
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clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
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41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden;
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and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet
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laid.
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42 There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews'
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preparation <I>day;</I> for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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We have here an account of the burial of the blessed body of our Lord
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Jesus. The solemn funerals of great men are usually looked at with
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curiosity; the mournful funerals of dear friends are attended with
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concern. Come and see an extraordinary funeral; never was the like!
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Come and see a burial that conquered the grave, and buried it, a burial
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that beautified the grave and softened it for all believers. <I>Let us
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turn aside now, and see this great sight.</I> Here is,</P>
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<P>
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I. The body begged,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:38"><I>v.</I> 38</A>.
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This was done by the interest of <I>Joseph of Ramah,</I> or
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<I>Arimathea,</I> of whom no mention is made in all the New-Testament
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story, but only in the narrative which each of the evangelists gives us
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of Christ's burial, wherein he was chiefly concerned. Observe,
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1. The character of this Joseph. He was a disciple of Christ
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<I>incognito--in secret,</I> a better friend to Christ than he would
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willingly be known to be. It was his honour that he was a disciple of
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Christ; and some such there are, that are themselves great men, and
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unavoidably linked with bad men. But it was his weakness that he was so
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secretly, when he should have confessed Christ before men, yea, though
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he had lost his preferment by it. Disciples should openly own
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themselves, yet Christ may have many that are his disciples sincerely,
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though secretly; better secretly than not at all, especially if, like
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Joseph here, they grow stronger and stronger. Some who in less trials
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have been timorous, yet in greater have been very courageous; so Joseph
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here. He concealed his affection to Christ <I>for fear of the Jews,</I>
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lest they should put him out of the synagogue, at least out of the
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sanhedrim, which was all they could do. To Pilate the governor he
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<I>went boldly,</I> and yet <I>feared the Jews.</I> The impotent malice
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of those that can but censure, and revile, and clamour, is sometimes
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more formidable even to wise and good men than one would think.
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2. The part he bore in this affair. He, having by his place access to
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Pilate, desired leave of him to dispose of the body. His mother and
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dear relations had neither spirit nor interest to attempt such a thing.
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His disciples were gone; if nobody appeared, the Jews or soldiers would
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bury him with the thieves; therefore God raised up this gentleman to
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interpose in it, that the scripture might be fulfilled, and the decorum
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owing to his approaching resurrection maintained. Note, When God has
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work to do he can find out such as are proper to do it, and embolden
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them for it. Observe it as an instance of the humiliation of Christ,
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that his dead body lay at the mercy of a heathen judge, and must be
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begged before it could be buried, and also that Joseph would not take
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the body of Christ till he had asked and obtained leave of the
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governor; for in those things wherein the power of the magistrate is
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concerned we must ever pay a deference to that power, and peaceably
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submit to it.</P>
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<P>
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II. The embalming prepared,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:39"><I>v.</I> 39</A>.
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This was done by Nicodemus, another person of quality, and in a public
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post. He brought a <I>mixture of myrrh and aloes,</I> which some think
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|
were bitter ingredients, to preserve the body, others fragrant ones, to
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perfume it. Here is.
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1. The character of Nicodemus, which is much the same with that of
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Joseph; he was a secret friend to Christ, though not his constant
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follower. He at first <I>came to Jesus by night,</I> but now owned him
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publicly, as before,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+7:50,51"><I>ch.</I> vii. 50, 51</A>.
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That grace which at first is like a bruised reed may afterwards become
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|
like a strong cedar, and the trembling lamb <I>bold as a lion.</I> See
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+14:4">Rom. xiv. 4</A>.
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It is a wonder that Joseph and Nicodemus, men of such interest, did not
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appear sooner, and solicit Pilate not to condemn Christ, especially
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|
seeing him so loth to do it. Begging his life would have been a nobler
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|
piece of service than begging his body. But Christ would have none of
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|
his friends to endeavour to prevent his death when his hour was come.
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|
While his persecutors were forwarding the accomplishment of the
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|
scriptures, his followers must not obstruct it.
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|
2. The kindness of Nicodemus, which was considerable, though of a
|
|
different nature. Joseph served Christ with his interest, Nicodemus
|
|
with his purse. Probably, they agreed it between them, that, while one
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|
was procuring the grant, the other should be preparing the spices; and
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|
this for expedition, because they were straitened in time. But why did
|
|
they make this ado about Christ's dead body?
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(1.) Some think we may see in it the weakness of their faith. A firm
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|
belief of the resurrection of Christ on the third day would have saved
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them this care and cost, and have been more acceptable than all spices.
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|
Those bodies indeed to whom the grave is a long home need to be clad
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|
accordingly; but what need of such furniture of the grave for one that,
|
|
like a way-faring man, did but turn aside into it, to <I>tarry for a
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|
night or two?</I>
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(2.) However, we may plainly see in it the strength of their love.
|
|
Hereby they showed the value they had for his person and doctrine, and
|
|
that it was not lessened by the reproach of the cross. Those that had
|
|
been so industrious to profane his crown, and lay his honour in the
|
|
dust, might already see that they had imagined a vain thing; for, as
|
|
God had done him honour in his sufferings, so did men too, even great
|
|
men. They showed not only the charitable respect of committing his body
|
|
to the earth, but the honourable respect shown to great men. This they
|
|
might do, and yet believe and look for his resurrection; nay, this they
|
|
might do in the belief and expectation of it. Since God designed honour
|
|
for this body, they would put honour upon it. However, we must do our
|
|
duty according as the present day and opportunity are, and leave it to
|
|
God to fulfil his promises in his own way and time.</P>
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<P>
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|
III. The body got ready,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:40"><I>v.</I> 40</A>.
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|
They <I>took it</I> into some house adjoining, and, having washed it
|
|
from blood and dust, <I>wound it in linen clothes</I> very decently,
|
|
with the spices melted down, it is likely, into an ointment, as <I>the
|
|
manner of the Jews is to bury,</I> or to <I>embalm</I> (so Dr.
|
|
Hammond), as we sear dead bodies.
|
|
|
|
1. Here was care taken of Christ's body: It was <I>wound in linen
|
|
clothes.</I> Among clothing that belongs to us, Christ put on even the
|
|
grave-clothes, to make them easy to us, and to enable us to call them
|
|
our wedding-clothes. They wound the body <I>with the spices,</I> for
|
|
<I>all his garments,</I> his grave-clothes not excepted, <I>smell of
|
|
myrrh and aloes</I> (the spices here mentioned) <I>out of the ivory
|
|
palaces</I>
|
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|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+45:8">Ps. xlv. 8</A>),
|
|
|
|
and an ivory palace the sepulchre hewn out of a rock was to Christ.
|
|
Dead bodies and graves are noisome and offensive; hence sin is compared
|
|
to a <I>body of death</I> and an <I>open sepulchre;</I> but Christ's
|
|
sacrifice, being to God as a sweet-smelling savour, hath taken away our
|
|
pollution. No ointment or perfume can rejoice the heart so as the grave
|
|
of our Redeemer does, where there is faith to perceive the fragrant
|
|
odours of it.
|
|
|
|
2. In conformity to this example, we ought to have regard to the dead
|
|
bodies of Christians; not to enshrine and adore their relics, no, not
|
|
those of the most eminent saints and martyrs (nothing like that was
|
|
done to the dead body of Christ himself), but carefully to deposit
|
|
them, the dust in the dust, as those who believe that the dead bodies
|
|
of the saints are still united to Christ and designed for glory and
|
|
immortality at the last day. The resurrection of the saints will be in
|
|
virtue of Christ's resurrection, and therefore in burying them we
|
|
should have an eye to Christ's burial, for he, being dead, thus
|
|
speaketh. <I>Thy dead men shall live,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+26:19">Isa. xxvi. 19</A>.
|
|
|
|
In burying our dead it is not necessary that in all circumstances we
|
|
imitate the burial of Christ, as if we must be buried in linen, and in
|
|
a garden, and be embalmed as he was; but his being buried after <I>the
|
|
manner of the Jews</I> teaches us that in things of this nature we
|
|
should conform to the usages of the country where we live, except in
|
|
those that are superstitious.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
IV. The grave pitched upon, in a garden which belonged to Joseph of
|
|
Arimathea, very near the place where he was crucified. There was a
|
|
sepulchre, or vault, prepared for the first occasion, but not yet used.
|
|
Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. That Christ was buried without the city, for thus the manner of the
|
|
Jews was to bury, not in their cities, much less in their synagogues,
|
|
which some have thought better than our way of burying: yet there was
|
|
then a peculiar reason for it, which does not hold now, because the
|
|
touching of a grave contracted a ceremonial pollution: but now that the
|
|
resurrection of Christ has altered the property of the grave, and done
|
|
away its pollution for all believers, we need not keep at such a
|
|
distance from it; nor is it incapable of a good improvement, to have
|
|
the congregation of the dead in the church-yard, encompassing the
|
|
congregation of the living in the church, since they also are dying,
|
|
and in <I>the midst of life we are in death.</I> Those that would not
|
|
superstitiously, but by faith, visit the holy sepulchre, must go forth
|
|
out of the noise of this world.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. That Christ was buried in a garden. Observe,
|
|
|
|
(1.) That Joseph had his sepulchre in his garden; so he contrived it,
|
|
that it might be a memento,
|
|
|
|
[1.] To himself while living; when he was taking the pleasure of his
|
|
garden, and reaping the products of it, let him think of dying, and be
|
|
quickened to prepare for it. The garden is a proper place for
|
|
meditation, and a sepulchre there may furnish us with a proper subject
|
|
for meditation, and such a one as we are loth to admit in the midst of
|
|
our pleasures.
|
|
|
|
[2.] To his heirs and successors when he was gone. It is good to
|
|
acquaint ourselves with the <I>place of our fathers' sepulchres;</I>
|
|
and perhaps we might make our own less formidable if we made theirs
|
|
more familiar.
|
|
|
|
(2.) That in a sepulchre in a garden Christ's body was laid. In the
|
|
garden of Eden death and the grave first received their power, and now
|
|
in a garden they are conquered, disarmed, and triumphed over. In a
|
|
garden Christ began his passion, and from a garden he would rise, and
|
|
begin his exaltation. Christ fell to the ground <I>as a corn of
|
|
wheat</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+12:24"><I>ch.</I> xii. 24</A>),
|
|
|
|
and therefore was sown in a garden among the seeds, for <I>his dew is
|
|
as the dew of herbs,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+26:19">Isa. xxvi. 19</A>.
|
|
|
|
He is the <I>fountain of gardens,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=So+4:15">Cant. iv. 15</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. That he was buried in a new sepulchre. This was so ordered
|
|
|
|
(1.) For the honour of Christ; he was not a common person, and
|
|
therefore must not mix with common dust He that was born from a
|
|
virgin-womb must rise from a virgin-tomb.
|
|
|
|
(2.) For the confirming of the truth of his resurrection, that it might
|
|
not be suggested that it was not he, but some other that rose now, when
|
|
many bodies of saints arose; or, that he rose by the power of some
|
|
other, as the man that was raised by the touch of Elisha's bones, and
|
|
not by his own power. He that has <I>made all things new</I> has
|
|
new-made the grave for us.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
V. The funeral solemnized
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+19:42"><I>v.</I> 42</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>There laid they Jesus,</I> that is, the dead body of Jesus. Some
|
|
think the calling of this <I>Jesus</I> intimates the inseparable union
|
|
between the divine and human nature. Even this dead body was
|
|
<I>Jesus--a Saviour,</I> for his death is our life; Jesus is still the
|
|
same,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+13:8">Heb. xiii. 8</A>.
|
|
|
|
There they laid him because it was the preparation day.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. Observe here the deference which the Jews paid to the sabbath, and
|
|
to the day of preparation. Before the passover-sabbath they had a
|
|
solemn day of preparation. This day had been ill kept by the chief
|
|
priests, who called themselves the church, but was well kept by the
|
|
disciples of Christ, who were branded as dangerous to the church; and
|
|
it is often so.
|
|
|
|
(1.) They would not put off the funeral till the sabbath day, because
|
|
the sabbath is to be a day of holy rest and joy, with which the
|
|
business and sorrow of a funeral do not well agree.
|
|
|
|
(2.) They would not drive it too late on the day of preparation for the
|
|
sabbath. What is to be done the evening before the sabbath should be so
|
|
contrived that it may neither intrench upon sabbath time, nor indispose
|
|
us for sabbath work.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. Observe the convenience they took of an adjoining sepulchre; the
|
|
sepulchre they made use of was <I>nigh at hand.</I> Perhaps, if they
|
|
had had time, they would have carried him to Bethany, and buried him
|
|
among his friends there. And I am sure he had more right to have been
|
|
buried in the chief of the sepulchres of the sons of David than any of
|
|
the kings of Judah had; but it was so ordered that he should be laid in
|
|
a sepulchre nigh at hand,
|
|
|
|
(1.) Because he was to lie there but awhile, as in an inn, and
|
|
therefore he took the first that offered itself.
|
|
|
|
(2.) Because this was a new sepulchre. Those that prepared it little
|
|
thought who should handsel it; but the wisdom of God has reaches
|
|
infinitely beyond ours, and he makes what use he pleases of us and all
|
|
we have.
|
|
|
|
(3.) We are hereby taught not to be over-curious in the place of our
|
|
burial. Where the tree falls, why should it not lie? For Christ was
|
|
buried in the sepulchre that was next at hand. It was faith in the
|
|
promise of Canaan that directed the Patriarch's desires to be carried
|
|
thither for a burying-place; but now, since that promise is superseded
|
|
by a better, that care is over.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Thus without pomp or solemnity is the body of Jesus laid in the cold
|
|
and silent grave. Here lies our surety under arrest for our debts, so
|
|
that if he be released his discharge will be ours. Here is the Sun of
|
|
righteousness set for awhile, to rise again in greater glory, and set
|
|
no more. Here lies a seeming captive to death, but a real conqueror
|
|
over death; for here lies death itself slain, and the grave conquered.
|
|
<I>Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
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