Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to indicate the kind of death He was going to die.

“That the saying . . . might be fulfilled which he spake, signifying what death he should die--that is, by crucifixion (Joh 12:32, 33; Mt 20:19); which being a Roman mode of execution, could only be carried into effect by order of the governor.”

Pilate went back into the Praetorium, summoned Jesus, and asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”

“Pilate . . . called Jesus, and said . . . Art thou the King of the Jews?--In Lu 23:2 they charge our Lord before Pilate with "perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, saying that He Himself is Christ a king."”

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews.

“This was all that Pilate had to do with. The positive nature of His kingdom He would not obtrude upon one who was as little able to comprehend it, as entitled officially to information about it.”

“Then You are a king!” Pilate said. “You say that I am a king,” Jesus answered.

“His coming into the world, His existence before assuming humanity: The truth, then, here affirmed, though Pilate would catch little of it, was that His Incarnation was expressly in order to the assumption of Royalty in our nature.”

But it is your custom that I release to you one prisoner at the Passover. So then, do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”

“But ye have a custom that I should release one unto you at the passover, &c.--See on Mr 15:7-11. "On the typical import of the choice of Christ to suffer, by which Barabbas was set free, see the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus, particularly Le 16:5-10…”

And they went up to Him again and again, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and slapping Him in the face.

“And said, Hail, King of the Jews!--doing Him derisive homage, in the form used on approaching the emperors. "And they spit upon Him, and took the reed and smote Him on the head" (Mt 27:30).”

When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

“There was clearly a struggle in the breast of this wretched man. Not only was he reluctant to surrender to mere clamor an innocent man, but a feeling of anxiety about His mysterious claims, as is plain from what follows, was beginning to rack his…”

When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid, and he went back into the Praetorium. “Where are You from?” he asked. But Jesus gave no answer.

“When Pilate . . . heard this saying, he was the more afraid--the name "SON OF GOD," the lofty sense evidently attached to it by His Jewish accusers, the dialogue he had already held with Him, and the dream of his wife (Mt 27:19), all…”

So Pilate said to Him, “Do You refuse to speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You and authority to crucify You?”

“Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not to me?--The "me" is the emphatic word in the question. He falls back upon the pride of office, which doubtless tended to blunt the workings of his conscience.”

When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat on the judgment seat at a place called the Stone Pavement, which in Hebrew is Gabbatha.

“When Pilate . . . heard that, . . . he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in--"upon" the judgment seat--that he might pronounce sentence against the Prisoner, on this charge, the more solemnly.”

Pilate also had a notice posted on the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

“Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross . . . Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews . . . and it was written in Hebrew--or Syro-Chaldaic, the language of the country. and Greek--the current language. and Latin--the official language.”

After this, knowing that everything had now been accomplished, and to fulfill the Scripture, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of sour wine was sitting there.

“After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished--that is, the moment for the fulfilment of the last of them; for there was one other small particular, and the time was come for that too, in consequence of the burning thirst which the fevered…”

A jar of sour wine was sitting there. So they soaked a sponge in the wine, put it on a stalk of hyssop, and lifted it to His mouth.

“"The rest said, Let be"--[that is, as would seem, 'Stop that officious service'] "let us see whether Elias will come to save Him" (Mt 27:49). This was the last cruelty He was to suffer, but it was one of the most unfeeling.”

When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished.” And bowing His head, He yielded up His spirit.

“The Law is fulfilled as never before, nor since, in His "obedience unto death, even the death of the cross"; Messianic prophecy is accomplished; "He hath finished the transgression, and made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in everlasting righteousness, and sealed up the vision and…”

Instead, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.

“Had life still remained, it must have fled now. and forthwith came thereout blood and water--"It is now well known that the effect of long-continued and intense agony is frequently to produce a secretion of a colorless lymph within the pericardium (the membrane enveloping the…”

Now these things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of His bones will be broken.”

“Very different from such violence was that spear-thrust, for which not only doubting Thomas would thank the soldier, but intelligent believers in every age, to whom the certainty of their Lord's death and resurrection is the life of their whole Christianity.”

And, as another Scripture says: “They will look on the One they have pierced.”

“And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced--The quotation is from Zec 12:10; not taken as usual from the Septuagint (the current Greek version), which here is all wrong, but direct from the Hebrew.”

Afterward, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus (but secretly for fear of the Jews), asked Pilate to let him remove the body of Jesus.

“But if this be the first instance, it is not the last, that a seemingly dead Christ has wakened a sympathy which a living one had failed to evoke.”

So they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom.

“But even if one could conceive them mistaken, could anyone have lain thus enveloped for the period during which He was in the grave, and life still remained?”

Then Peter and the other disciple set out for the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

“Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came first to the sepulchre--These particulars have a singular air of artless truth about them.”

For they still did not understand from the Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

“For as yet they knew--that is, understood. not the scripture that he must rise again from the dead--In other words, they believed in His resurrection at first, not because they were prepared by Scripture to expect it; but facts carried resistless conviction of it in…”

and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and the other at the feet.

“But she is in tears, and these suit not the scene of so glorious an Exit. They are going to point out to her the incongruity.”

“Woman, why are you weeping?” they asked. “Because they have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I do not know where they have put Him.”

“Woman, why weepest thou?--You would think the vision too much for a lone woman. But absorbed in the one Object of her affection and pursuit, she speaks out her grief without fear.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

“Jesus saith unto her, Mary--It is not now the distant, though respectful, "Woman." It is the oft-repeated name, uttered, no doubt, with all the wonted manner, and bringing a rush of unutterable and overpowering associations with it.”

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them what He had said to her.

“Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her--To a woman was this honor given to be the first that saw the risen R edeemer, and that woman was not His mother.”