St Matthew Chapter XXVII : Verses 39-44
Contents
- Matt. xxvii. 39-44. Douay-Rheims text & Latin text (Vulgate).
- Notes on the text.
Matt. xxvii. 39-44
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| Jesus is mocked on the Cross. J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
Prætereuntes autem blasphemabant eum moventes capita sua,
40 And saying: Vah, thou that destroyest the temple of God, and in three days dost rebuild it: save thy own self: if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.
et dicentes : Vah qui destruis templum Dei, et in triduo illud reædificas : salva temetipsum : si Filius Dei es, descende de cruce.
41 In like manner also the chief priests, with the scribes and ancients, mocking, said:
Similiter et principes sacerdotum illudentes cum scribis et senioribus dicebant :
42 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.
Alios salvos fecit, seipsum non potest salvum facere : si rex Israel est, descendat nunc de cruce, et credimus ei :
43 He trusted in God; let him now deliver him if he will have him; for he said: I am the Son of God.
confidit in Deo : liberet nunc, si vult eum : dixit enim : Quia Filius Dei sum.
44 And the selfsame thing the thieves also, that were crucified with him, reproached him with.
Idipsum autem et latrones, qui crucifixi erant cum eo, improperabant ei.
Notes
39. they that passed by, etc. The passers-by who came out to see the Crucifixion. Jerusalem was crowded with pilgrims at this time and the slopes of the suburbs were covered with tents. Golgotha was situated close to the high road.
blasphemed him. To blaspheme is to speak against God. Therefore, as Jesus was the Son of God, all mockeries were really blasphemies, though only intended as insults, by those who proffered them. Hence St Peter excuses the Jews, saying. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you. And now, brethren, I know that you did it through ignorance, as did also your rulers (Acts iii. 14, 17).
wagging their heads. In mockery, not in disapprobation. All these insults had been foretold by the royal Psalmist ; All they that saw me have laughed me to scorn : they have spoken with the lips and wagged the head (Ps. xxi. 8).
40. thou that destroyest the temple, etc. This was the formal accusation brought by the false witnesses, many of whom were possibly present on Calvary.
if thou be the Son of God, etc. Thus Satan puts in the mouths of these men the very words he used to tempt Christ in the desert, and the temptation was the same, the victory without the conflict.
41. In like manner also the chief priests, etc. They forget their dignity and join with the multitude in mocking at our Lord ; though they do not seem to have addressed Him, they spoke in His hearing. Their vengeance is now fully satisfied, and for a brief moment they exult over their triumph. It is their hour, but it will soon pass.
42. He saved others. At least now they acknowledge Christ’s miracles. He had saved others, and at that moment was saving all mankind. There is perhaps a reference to His name Jesus, i.e. Saviour.
if he he the king of Israel. They ask for a sign as of old, and presently one is given (though not the one they desired) when darkness covers the whole earth for three hours. Jesus had confessed before Caiphas that He was the Christ (xxvi. 64), and in presence of Pilate He had asserted that He was the king of the Jews (xxvii. 11). His enemies now put these two assertions together, and ask Him to establish His claims by a manifest miracle.
and we will believe him. Had Jesus condescended to their wishes, they would have attributed the miracle to magic.
43. He trusted in God, etc. This verse is peculiar to St Matthew’s gospel. The words are a quotation from Psalm xxi. 9 ; He hoped in the Lord, let him deliver him, let him save him, seeing he delighted in him.
44. the self-same thing the thieves also, etc. St Mark agrees with St Matthew, and records that they that were crucified with him reviled him (xv. 32), whereas St Luke only speaks of one blaspheming, while the other answering rebuked him (xxiii. 40).
St Jerome, Origen, Theophylact, and St John Chrysostom think that at first both taunted Him ; then one, Dysmas, repented, while the other continued to insult our Lord. Or St Matthew and St Mark may be using the plural by an uncommon use of the figure known as synecdoche (SS. Cyril, Ambrose, Augustine).
St Luke records that the soldiers also mocked him ; thus four classes of persons united in treating our Lord ignominiously —
(a) The people stood beholding.
(b) The rulers .... derided.
(c) The soldiers mocked.
(d) One of the robbers .... blasphemed.
Additional Notes
Christ’s sufferings on the Cross. These were of two kinds: (1) bodily, (2) mental.
(1) The bodily sufferings of Christ. These were greater than those endured by any ordinary human being who expired on the cross, on account of the extreme sensibility of our Lord’s all-perfect human body. Among the awful bodily torments we may mention —
(a) The terrible strain of the position, which threw the greater part of the weight of His body on His pierced hands and feet.
(b) The agony of the wounds in the hands and feet.
(c) The swelling of His sacred limbs.
(d) The burning fever, and the awful thirst that accompanied it.
(e) The suffering caused by the crown of thorns that pierced His sacred head, and the lack of support for His head.
(f) The intense weakness and prostration as life slowly ebbed away.
[Ed. Fr Patrick Pullicino adds a further source of extreme pain: a dislocated right shoulder, evidenced by an examination of the Turin Shroud and supported by St Padre Pio]
(2) The mental sufferings of Christ. Human thought and language are powerless to fathom and to express the interior Passion of Christ. We can but guess what He endured, and our poor human conception will give but the faintest outline of the reality.
Among the interior sufferings, commentators have placed the following : —
(а) The intense anguish of the soul of Christ when on the cross. God hid, as it were, His face from Him, and treated him as guilty of the crimes which, as our Substitute, He had taken upon Him.
(b) The awful humiliation of being an outcast ; rejected by God and man, mocked and jeered by His own nation, even in His death agony.
(c) The ignominy of the death of the cross.
(d) The black ingratitude, hatred, and cruelty of those for whom He suffered, and whom He loved so tenderly.
(e) The betrayal by Judas, the denial by St Peter, the desertion of all His disciples.
(f) The sorrows which our Blessed Lady endured at the foot of the cross.
(g) The inutility of His sufferings, since souls would be lost in spite of His Redemption, — notably the damnation of Judas, and perhaps of one of the thieves.
The kingly silence of Christ on the Cross
“ But amid this chorus of infamy Jesus spoke not. He could have spoken. The pains of crucifixion did not confuse the intellect, or paralyse the powers of speech. We read of crucified men who, for hours together upon the cross, vented their sorrow, their rage, or their despair in the manner that best accorded with their character, of some who raved and cursed, and spat at their enemies ; of others who protested to the last against the iniquity of their sentence; of others who implored compassion with abject entreaties ; of one even who, from the cross, as from a tribunal, harangued the multitude of his countrymen, and upbraided them with their wickedness and vice. But, except to bless and to encourage, and to add to the happiness and hope of others, Jesus spoke not. So far as the malice of the passers-by, and of priests and Sanhedrists and soldiers, and of these poor robbers who suffered with Him, was concerned — as before, during the trial, so now, upon the cross He maintained unbroken His kingly silence. But that silence, joined to His patient majesty and the divine holiness and innocence which radiated from Him like a halo, was more eloquent than any words” (Farrar, Life of Christ, p. 701).
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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