15:1 And 1 straightway in the morning the chief priests held a
consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole
council, and bound Jesus, and carried [him] away, and aa delivered [him] to Pilate.
(1) Christ being bound before the judgment seat of an earthly
Judge, is condemned before the open assembly as guilty unto
the death of the cross, not for his own sins (as is shown
by the judge's own words) but for all of ours, that we who
are indeed guilty creatures, in being delivered from the
guiltiness of our sins, might be acquitted before the
judgment seat of God, even in the open assembly of the
angels.
(a) It was not lawful for them to put any man to death, for
all authority to punish by death was taken away from
them, first by Herod the great, and afterward by the
Romans, about forty years before the destruction of the
temple, and therefore they deliver Jesus to Pilate.
15:6 Now at [that] feast he b released unto them one prisoner,
whomsoever they desired.
(b) Pilate used to deliver.
15:172 And they clothed him with purple, and platted a crown
of thorns, and put it about his [head],
(2) Christ going about to take away the sins of men, who went
about to usurp the throne of God himself, is condemned as
one that sought diligently after the kingdom, and mocked
with a false show of a kingdom, that we on the other hand,
who will indeed be eternal kings, might receive the crowns
of glory from God's own hand.
15:21 And they 3 compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by,
coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and
Rufus, to bear his cross.
(3) The rage of the wicked has no measure; meanwhile, even the
weakness of Christ, who was in pain under the heavy burden
of the cross, manifestly shows that a lamb is led to be
sacrificed.
15:224 And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is,
being interpreted, The place of a skull.
(4) Christ is led out of the walls of the earthly Jerusalem
into a foul place of dead men's carcasses, as a man most
unclean, not because of himself, but because of our sins,
which were laid upon him, with the result that we, being
made clean by his blood, might be brought into the heavenly
sanctuary.
15:245 And when they had crucified him, they parted his
garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should
take.
(5) Christ hangs naked upon the cross, and as the most wicked
and base person that ever was, most vilely reproved. This
was so that we, being clothed with his righteousness and
blessed with his curses and sanctified by his only
sacrifice, may be taken up into heaven.
15:33 And when the sixth hour was come, there was 6 darkness
over the c whole land until the ninth hour.
(6) How angry God was against our sins, which he punished in
his son who is our sure substitute, is made evident by this
horrible darkness.
(c) By this word "land" he means Palestine: so that the
strangeness of the wonder is all the more set forth in
that at the feast of the passover, and in the full
moon, when the sun shone over all the rest of the
world, and at midday, this corner of the world in
which so wicked an act was committed was covered over
with great darkness.
15:34 And at the 7 ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice,
saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being
interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
(7) Christ striving mightily with Satan, sin and death, all
three armed with the horrible curse of God, grievously
tormented in body hanging upon the cross, and in soul
plunged into the depth of hell, yet he clears himself,
crying with a mighty voice: and notwithstanding the wound
which he received from death, in that he died, yet by
smiting both things above and things beneath, by the
renting of the veil of the temple, and by the testimony
wrung out of those who murdered him, he shows evidently
unto the rest of his enemies who are as yet obstinate, and
mock at him, that he will be known without delay to be
conqueror and Lord of all.
15:408 There were also women looking on afar off: among whom
was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less
and of Joses, and Salome;
(8) Christ, to the great shame of the men who forsook the Lord,
chose women for his witnesses, who beheld this entire
event.
15:43 Joseph of Arimathaea, an d honourable counsellor, which
also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in e
boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.
(d) A man of great authority, of the council of the
sanhedrin, or else a man who was taken by Pilate for
his own council.
(e) If we consider what danger Joseph put himself into we
shall perceive how bold he was.
