Matthew 27:43

Having stripped and crucified Christ, they go yet further, and seeing Him on the cross revile Him.

"They revile him" because they passed by that way, and would not walk in the true way of the Scriptures. "They wagged their heads," because they had just before shifted their feet, and stood not upon a rock. The foolish rabble cast the same taunt against Him that the false witnesses had invented, "Aha! thou that destroyest the temple of God and rebuildest it in three days."

"Aha!" is an interjection of taunt and mockery.

What forgiveness then for them, when by the resurrection of His body they shall see the temple of God rebuilt within three days?

And as beginning to extenuate His former miracles, they add, "Save thyself; if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross."

He, on the contrary, does not come down from the cross, because He is the Son of God; for He therefore came that He might be crucified for us.

Even the Scribes and Pharisees reluctantly confess that "He saved others." Your own judgment then condemns you, for in that He saved others, He could if He would have saved Himself.

[ed. note, d: Hom. de Cruce et Latr. in the Latin Chrys. (ed. Paris. 1588.) vol. iii. p. 750] But attend to this speech of these children of the Devil, how they imitate their father's speech. The Devil said, "If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down;" [Matt 4:6] and they say now, "If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross."

From what source of error, O Jews, have ye sucked in the poison of such blasphemies? What teacher delivered it to you? What learning moved you to think that the true King of Israel, that the veritable Son of God, would be He who would not suffer Himself to be crucified, and would set free His body from the fastenings of the nails? Not the bidden meaning of the Law, not the mouths of the Prophets. Had ye indeed ever read, "I hid not my face from the shame of spitting;" [Is 50:6] or that again,:They pierced my hands and my feet, they told all my bones." [Ps 22:16] Where have ye ever read that the Lord came down from the cross? But ye have read, "The Lord hath reigned from the tree." [ed. note, e: Ps. 96, 10. "Dominus regnavit a ligno," in the old Italic Version; and so Tertullian adv. Marc. iii. The Vulg. follows the Heb.]

Had He then been prevailed on by their taunts to leave the cross, He would not have proved to us the power of endurance; but He waited enduring their mockery; and He who would not come down from the cross, rose again from the tomb.

But unworthy of credit is that promise, "And we will believe him." For which is greater, to come down while yet alive from the cross, or to rise from the tomb when dead? Yet this He did, and ye believed not; therefore neither would ye have believed if He had come down from the cross. It seems to me that this was a suggestion of the daemons. For immediately when the Lord was crucified they felt the power of the cross, and perceived that their strength was broken, and therefore contrive this to move Him to come down from the cross. But the Lord, aware of the designs of His foes, remains on the cross that He may destroy the Devil.

"He trusted in God, let him now deliver him, if he will." O most foul! Were they therefore not Prophets or righteous men, because God did not deliver them out of their perils? But if He would not oppose their glory, which accrued to them out of the perils which you brought upon them, much more in this man ought you not to be offended because of what He suffers; what He has ever said ought to remove any such suspicion. When they add, "Because he said, I am the Son of God," they desire to intimate that He suffered as an impostor and seducer, and as making high and false pretences. And not only the Jews and the soldiers from below, but from above likewise. "The thieves, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth."

It may seem that Luke contradicts this, when be describes one of the robbers as reviling Him, and as therefore rebuked by the other. But we may suppose that Matthew, shortly alluding to the circumstance, has used the plural for the singular, as in the Epistle to the Hebrews we have, "Have stopped the mouths of lions," [Heb. 11:33] when Daniel only is spoken of. And what more common way of speaking than for one to say, See the country people insult me, when it is one only who has done so. If indeed Matthew had said that both the thieves had reviled the Lord, there would be some discrepancy; but when he says merely, "The thieves," without adding "both," we must consider it as that common form of speech in which the singular is signified by the plural.

Or it may be said that at first both reviled Him; but when the sun had withdrawn, the earth was shaken, the rocks were rent, and the darkness increased, one believed on Jesus, and repaired his former denial by a subsequent confession.

At first both reviled Him, but afterwards not so. For that you should not suppose that the thing was arranged by any collusion, and that the thief was not a thief, he shews you by his wanton reproaches, that even after He was crucified he was a thief and a foe, but was afterwards totally changed.

That both the thieves cast in His teeth the manner of His Passion, shews that the cross should be an offence to all mankind, even to the faithful.

Or, in the two thieves both nations, Jews and Gentiles, at first blasphemed the Lord; afterwards the latter terrified by the multitude of signs did penitence, and thus rebukes the Jews, who blaspheme to this day.

The thief who was saved may be a sign of those who after many sins have believed on Christ.

10. Scripture again witnesses that the space of those three days themselves was not whole and entire, but the first day is counted as a whole from its last part, and the third day is itself also counted as a whole from its first part; but the intervening day, i.e. the second day, was absolutely a whole with its twenty-four hours, twelve of the day and twelve of the night. For He was crucified first by the voices of the Jews in the third hour, when it was the sixth day of the week. Then He hung on the cross itself at the sixth hour, and yielded up His spirit at the ninth hour. But He was buried, “now when the even was come,” as the words of the evangelist express it; which means, at the end of the day. …

52. Matthew goes on in the following strain: “And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself: if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Mark’s statement agrees with this almost to the letter. Then Matthew continues thus: “Likewise also the chief priests, mocking Him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save: if he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver him now, if He will: for he said, I am the Son of God.” Mark and Luke, although they report the words differently, nevertheless agree in conveying the same meaning, although the one passes without notice something which the other mentions. …

9. For they shook their head in derision, saying, “He trusted in the Lord, let Him deliver Him:” “let Him save Him, since He desireth Him” ( ver. 8 ). These were their words; but they were spoken “with the lips.”

“And His name, through faith in His name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.” Seeking to declare the matter ( ζητὥν τὸ πρἅγμα εὶπεἵν ), he straightway brings forward the sign: “In the presence,” he says, “of you all.” As he had borne hard upon them, and had shown that He Whom they crucified had risen, again he relaxes, by giving them the power of repentance; “And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.” ( v. 17 .) This is one ground of excuse. The second is of a different kind. As Joseph speaks to his brethren, “God did send me before you ( Gen. xlv. …

See, what a number of years the Promise has been given, and the manner of the Promise, and nowhere sacrifice, nowhere circumcision! He here shows, how God Himself suffered them to be afflicted, not that He had anything to lay to their charge. “And they shall bring them into bondage,” etc. But nevertheless, they did not these things with impunity. “And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage I will judge, said God.” For, to show that they are not to go by this, in estimating who are pious (by reason of their saying, “He trusted in God, let Him deliver Him,”) ( Matt. xxvii. 43 ). He, the Same that promised, He that gave the land, first permits the evils. So also now, though He has promised a Kingdom, yet He suffers us to be exercised in temptations. …