Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

The opening of this chapter describes the delivery of our Lord Jesus Christ into the hands of the Gentiles. The chief priests and elders of the Jews led him away to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. We may see in this incident the finger of God: it was ordered by his providence that Gentiles as well as Jews should be concerned in the murder of Christ; it was ordered by his providence that the priests should publicly confess that the "?scepter had departed from Judah.?" They were unable to put anyone to death without going to the Romans: the words of Jacob were therefore fulfilled. The Messiah, Shiloh had indeed come (? Genesis 49:10).

The subject that principally occupies the verses we have read is the melancholy end of the false apostle, Judas Iscariot. It is a subject full of instruction: let us mark well what it contains.

We see in the end of Judas a plain proof of our Lord's innocence of every charge laid against him.

If there was any living witness who could give evidence against our Lord Jesus Christ, Judas Iscariot was the man. A chosen apostle of Jesus, a constant companion in all his journeyings, a hearer of all his teaching, both in public and private—he must have known well if our Lord had done any wrong, either in word or deed. A deserter from our Lord's company, a betrayer of him into the hands of his enemies, it was his interest for his own character's sake, to prove Jesus guilty. It would extenuate and excuse his own conduct if he could make out that his former Master was an offender and an impostor.

Why then did not Judas Iscariot not come forward? Why did he not stand forth before the Jewish council and specify his charges, if he had any to make? Why did he not venture to accompany the chief priests to Pilate, and prove to the Romans that Jesus was a malefactor? There is but one answer to these questions. Judas did not come forward as a witness, because his conscience would not let him. Bad as he was, he knew he could prove nothing against Christ; wicked as he was, he knew well that his Master was holy, harmless, innocent, blameless and true. Let this never be forgotten. The absence of Judas Iscariot at our Lord's trial is one among many proofs that the Lamb of God was without blemish, a sinless man.

We see for another thing in the end of Judas that there is such a thing as repentance which is too late. We are told plainly that Judas "?repented himself.?" We are even told that he went to the priests and said, "?I have sinned.?" Yet it is clear that he did not repent unto salvation.

This is a point which deserves special attention. It is a common saying that "?it is never too late to repent.?" The saying, no doubt, is true, if repentance be true; but unhappily, late repentance is often not genuine. It is possible for a man to feel his sins, and be sorry for them—to be under strong conviction of guilt, and express deep remorse—to be pricked in conscience, and exhibit much distress of mind—and yet, for all this, not repent with his heart. Present danger, or the fear of death, may account for all his feelings, and the Holy Spirit may have done no work whatever on his soul.

Let us beware of trusting to a late repentance. "?Now is the accepted time today is the day of salvation.?" One penitent thief was saved in the hour of death, that no man might despair; but only one, that no man might presume. Let us put off nothing that concerns our souls, and above all not put off repentance, under the vain idea that it is a thing in our own power. The words of Solomon on this subject are very fearful: he speaks of men who shall call upon God but he will not answer; who shall seek him early and not find him.(? Proverbs

Let us see for another thing in the end of Judas how little comfort ungodliness brings a man at the last. We are told that he cast down the thirty pieces of silver for which he had sold his Master in the temple, and went away in bitterness of soul. That money was dearly earned. It brought him no pleasure, even when he had it: "?the treasures of wickedness profit nothing.?" (? Proverbs 10:2).

Sin is, in truth, the hardest of all masters. In its service there is plenty of fair promises, but an utter dearth of performance. Its pleasures are but for a season: its wages are sorrow, remorse, self-accusation and, too often, death. They that sow to the flesh do indeed reap destruction.

Are we tempted to commit sin? Let us remember the words of Scripture, "?your sin will find you out?" (? Numbers 32:23), and resist the temptation. Let us be sure that sooner or later, in this life or in the life to come, in this world or on the judgment day, sin and the sinner will meet face to face, and have a bitter reckoning. Let us be sure that of all trades sin is the most unprofitable. Judas, Achan, Gehazi, Ananias and Sapphira all found it so to their cost. Well might St. Paul say, "?What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed??" (? Romans 6:21).

Finally let us see in the case of Judas to what a miserable end a man may come if he has great privileges and does not use them rightly. We are told that this unhappy man "?departed and went, and hanged himself.?" What an awful death to die. An apostle of Christ, a former preacher of the Gospel, a companion of Peter and John, commits suicide and rushes into God's presence unprepared and unforgiven.

Let us never forget that no sinners are so sinful as sinners against light and knowledge. None are so provoking to God: none, if we look at Scripture, have been so often removed from this world by sudden and fearful visitations. Let us remember Lot's wife, Pharaoh, Korah, Dathan, Abiram and Saul, King of Israel: they are all cases in point. It is a solemn saying of Bunyan that "?none fall so deep into the pit, as those who fall backward.?" It is written in Proverbs, "?He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy.?" (? Proverbs 29:1). May we all strive to live up to our light. There is such a thing as sin against the Holy Ghost: clear knowledge of truth in the head, combined with deliberate love of sin in the heart, go a long way towards it.

And now what is the state of our hearts? Are we ever tempted to rest on our knowledge and profession of religion? Let us remember Judas, and beware. Are we disposed to cling to the world, and to give money a prominent place in our minds? Again, let us remember Judas, and beware. Are we trifling with any one sin and flattering ourselves we may repent by and by? Once more, let us remember Judas, and beware. He is set up before us as a beacon: let us look well at him, and not make shipwrecked.

These verses describe our Lord's appearance before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. That sight must have been wonderful to the angels of God. He who will one day judge the world allowed himself to be judged and condemned, though "?he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth?" (? Isaiah 53:9). He, from whose lips Pilate and Caiaphas will one day receive their eternal sentence suffered silently, an unjust sentence to be passed upon him. Those silent sufferings fulfilled the words of Isaiah: "?as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth?" (? Isaiah 53:7). To those silent sufferings believers owe all their peace and hope. Through them they will have boldness in the day of judgment, who in themselves would have nothing to say.

Let us learn from the conduct of Pilate how pitiful is the condition of an unprincipled great man.

Pilate appears to have been inwardly satisfied that our Lord had done nothing worthy of death: we are told distinctly that "?he knew that for envy they delivered him." Left to the exercise of his own unbiased judgment, he would probably have dismissed the charges against our Lord, and let him go free.

But Pilate was the governor of a jealous and turbulent people; his great desire was to procure favor with them and please them: he cared little how much he sinned against God and conscience so long as he had the praise of man. Though willing to save our Lord's life, he was afraid to do it if it offended the Jews; and so, after a feeble attempt to divert the fury of the people from Jesus to Barabbas, and a fleeblier attempt to satisfy his own conscience by washing his hands publicly before the people, he at last condemned one whom he himself called a "?just person." He rejected the strange and mysterious warning which his wife sent to him after her dream: he stifled the remonstrances of his own conscience. He "?delivered Jesus to be crucified.?"

We see in this miserable man a lively emblem of many a ruler of this world! How many there are who know well that their public acts are wrong, and yet have not the courage to act up to their knowledge. They fear the people; they dread being laughed at: they cannot bear being unpopular! Like dead fish, they float with the tide. The praise of man is the idol before which they bow down, and to that idol they sacrifice conscience, inward peace and an immortal soul.

Whatever our position in life may be, let us seek to be guided by principle, and not by expediency. The praise of man is a poor, feeble, uncertain thing: it is here today and gone tomorrow. Let us strive to please God, and then we may care little who else is pleased; let us fear God, and then there is no one else of whom we need to be afraid.

Let us learn from the conduct of the Jews described in these verses the desperate wickedness of human nature.

The behavior of Pilate afforded the chief priests and elders an occasion of reconsidering they were about. The difficulties he raised about condemning our Lord gave time for second thoughts. But there were no second thoughts in the minds of our Lord's enemies. They pressed on their wicked deed; they rejected the compromise that Pilate offered: they actually preferred having a wretched felon named Barabbas set at liberty rather than Jesus. They clamored loudly for our Lord's crucifixion; and they wound up all by recklessly taking on themselves all the guilt of our Lord's death, in words of portentous meaning: "? His blood be on us and on our children!?" And what had our Lord done that the Jews should hate him so? He was no robber or murderer: he was no blasphemer of their God, or reviler of their prophets. He was one whose life was love: he was one who "?went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.?" (? Acts 10:38). He was innocent of any transgression against the law of God or man; and yet the Jews hated him, and never rested till he was slain! They hated him because he told them the truth; they hated him because he testified of their works that they were evil; they hated the light, because it made their own darkness visible. In a word, they hated Christ because he was righteous and they were wicked—because he was holy and they were unholy—because he testified against sin, and they were determined to keep their sins and not let them go.

Let us observe this. There are few things so little believed and realized as the corruption of human nature. Men fancy that if they saw a perfect person they would love and admire him; they flatter themselves that it is the inconsistency of professing which they dislike, and not their religion: they forget that when a really perfect man was on earth, in the person of the Son of God, he was hated and put to death. That single fact goes far to prove the truth of an old saying, that "?unconverted men would kill God, if they could get at him.?"

Let us never be surprised at the wickedness there is in the world. Let us mourn over it, and labour to make it less, but let us never be surprised at its extent. There is nothing which the heart of man is not capable of conceiving, or the hand of man of doing. As long as we live, let us mistrust our own hearts: even when renewed by the Spirit, they are still "?deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.?" (? Jeremiah 17:9).

These verses describe the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ after his condemnation by Pilate, his sufferings in the hands of the brutal Roman soldiers, and his final sufferings on the cross. They form a marvelous record. They are marvelous when we remember the sufferer—the eternal Son of God. They are marvelous when we remember the persons for whom these sufferings were endured. We and our sins were the cause of all this sorrow! He "?died for our sins?" (? 1 Corinthians 15:3).

Let us observe in the first place the extent and reality of our Lord's sufferings.

The catalogue of all the pains endured by our Lord's body is indeed a fearful one: seldom has such suffering been inflicted on one body in the last few hours of a life. The most savage tribes, in their refinement of cruelty, could hardly have heaped more agonizing tortures on an enemy than were accumulated on the flesh and bones of our beloved Master. Never let it be forgotten that he had a real human body, a body exactly like our own, just as sensitive, just as vulnerable, just as capable of feeling intense pain. And then let us see what that body endured.

Our Lord, we must remember, had already passed a night without sleep, and endured excessive fatigue. He had been taken from Gethsemane to the Jewish council, and from the Council to Pilate's judgment hall. He had been twice placed on his trial, and twice unjustly condemned. He had been already scourged and beaten cruelly with rods. And now, after all this suffering, he was delivered up to the Roman soldiers, a body of men no doubt expert in cruelty, and, of all people, least likely to behave with delicacy or compassion. These hard men at once proceeded to work their will. They "?gathered together the whole band;" they stripped our Lord of his raiment and put on him, in mockery, a scarlet robe, they "?plaited a crown of sharp thorns,?" and in derision placed it on his head. They then bowed the knee before him in mockery, as nothing better than a pretended king; they "?spit upon him?" they "?smote him on the head again and again?"; and finally, having put his own robe on him, they led him out of the city to a place called Golgotha and there crucified him between two thieves.

But what was a crucifixion? Let us try to realize it and understand its misery. The person crucified was laid on his back on a piece of timber, with a cross-piece nailed to it near one end—or on the trunk of a tree with branching arms, which answered the same purpose: his hands were spread out on the cross-piece, and nails driven through each of them, fastening them to the wood; his feet in like manner were nailed to the upright part of the cross. Then, the body having been securely fastened, the cross was raised up and fixed firmly in the ground. And there hung the unhappy sufferer, till pain and exhaustion brought him to his end—not dying suddenly, for no vital part of him was injured; but enduring the most excruciating agony from his hands and feet, and unable to move. Such was the death of the cross. Such was the death that Jesus died for us! For six long hours he hung there before a gazing crowd, naked, and bleeding from head to foot—his head pierced with thorns, his back lacerated with scourging, his hands and feet torn with nails, and mocked and reviled by his cruel enemies to the very last.

Let us meditate frequently on these things: let us often read over the story of Christ's cross and passion. Let us remember, not least, that all these horrible sufferings were borne without a murmur: no word of impatience crossed our Lord's lips. In his death, no less than in his life, he was perfect. To the very last Satan found nothing in him (? John 14:30).

Let us observe in the second place that all our Lord Jesus Christ's sufferings were vicarious. He suffered not for his own sins, but for ours. He was eminently our substitute in all his passion.

This is a truth of the deepest importance. Without it the story of our Lord's sufferings, with all its minute details, must always seem mysterious and inexplicable. It is a truth, however, of which the Scriptures speak frequently, and that too with no uncertain sound. We are told that Christ "?bare our sins in his own body on the tree?" that he "?suffered for sins the just for the unjust?" that "?He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God? in him." that he "? was made a curse for us?" that "?he was offered take bear the sins of many.?"that "?he was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities,?" and that "?the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all.?" (1 Peter 2:22, 1 Peter 3:18, 2 Cor 5:21, Gal.3:13, Heb 9:28,? Isaiah 53:5-6). May we all remember these texts. They are among the foundation-stones of the Gospel.

But we must not be content with a vague general belief that Christ's sufferings on the cross were vicarious. We are intended to see this truth in every part of his passion. We may follow him all through, from the bar of Pilate to the minute of his death, and see him at every step as our mighty substitute, our representative, our head, our surety, our proxy—the divine friend who undertook to stand in our stead, and by the priceless merit of his sufferings, to purchase our redemption. Was he scourged? It was that through"? his stripes we might be healed." Was he condemned, though innocent? It was that we might be acquitted, though guilty. Did he wear a crown of thorns? It that we might wear the crown of glory. Was he stripped of his raiment? It was that we might be clothed in everlasting righteousness. Was he mocked and reviled? It that we might be honored and blessed. Was he reckoned a malefactor, and numbered among transgressors? It was that we might be reckoned innocent, and justified from all sin. Was he declared unable to save himself? It was that he might be able to save others to the uttermost. Did he die at last, and that the most painful and disgraceful of deaths? It was that we might live forevermore, and be exalted to the highest glory.

Let us ponder these things well: they are worth remembering. The very key to peace is a right apprehension of the vicarious sufferings of Christ.

Let us leave the story of our Lord's passion with feelings of deep thankfulness. Our sins are many and great, but a great atonement has been made for them. There was an infinite merit in all Christ's sufferings: they were the sufferings of one who was God as well as man. Surely it is meet right and our bounden duty to praise God daily because Christ has died.

Last, but not least, let us ever learn from the story of the passion to hate sin with a great hatred. Sin was the cause of all our Saviour's suffering. Our sins plaited the crown of thorns; our sins drove the nails into his hands and feet; on account of our sins his blood was shed. Surely the thought of Christ crucified should make us loathe all sin. Well says the Church of England Homily of the Passion: "?Let this image of Christ crucified be always printed in our hearts. Let it stir us up to the hatred of sin, and provoke our minds to the earnest love of Almighty God.?"