View Luke 23 in the note window.
1: (Mt 27:1,Mr 15:1,Joh 18:28).
4: Then said Pilate - After having heard his defence - I find no
fault in this man - I do not find that he either asserts or
attempts any thing seditious or injurious to Cesar.
5: He stirreth up the people, beginning from Galilee - Probably
they mentioned Galilee to alarm Pilate, because the Galileans
were notorious for sedition and rebellion.
7: He sent him to Herod - As his proper judge.
8: He had been long desirous to see him - Out of mere curiosity.
9: He questioned him - Probably concerning the miracles which were
reported to have been wrought by him.
11: Herod set him at nought - Probably judging him to be a fool,
because he answered nothing. In a splendid robe - In royal apparel;
intimating that he feared nothing from this king.
15: He hath done nothing worthy of death - According to the
judgment of Herod also.
16: I will therefore chastise him - Here Pilate began to give
ground, which only encouraged them to press on.(Mt 27:15,Mr 15:6,Joh 18:39).
22: He said to them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done?
- As Peter, a disciple of Christ, dishonoured him by denying him
thrice, so Pilate, a heathen, honoured Christ, by thrice owning
him to be innocent.
26: (Mt 27:31,Mr 15:21,Joh 19:16).
30: (Ho 10:8).
31: If they do these things in the green tree, what shall be
done in the dry? - Our Lord makes use of a proverbial expression,
frequent among the Jews, who compare a good man to a green tree,
and a bad man to a dead one: as if he had said, If an innocent
person suffer thus, what will become of the wicked? Of those
who are as ready for destruction as dry wood for the fire?
34: Then said Jesus - Our Lord passed most of the time on the
cross in silence: yet seven sentences which he spoke thereon
are recorded by the four evangelists, though no one evangelist
has recorded them all. Hence it appears that the four Gospels
are, as it were, four parts, which, joined together, make one
symphony. Sometimes one of these only, sometimes two or three,
sometimes all sound together. Father - So he speaks both in the
beginning and at the end of his sufferings on the cross: Forgive
them - How striking is this passage! While they are actually
nailing him to the cross, he seems to feel the injury they did to
their own souls more than the wounds they gave him; and as it were
to forget his own anguish out of a concern for their own salvation.
And how eminently was his prayer heard! It procured forgiveness
for all that were penitent, and a suspension of vengeance even for
the impenitent.
35: If thou be the Christ;(Lu 23:37).
If thou be the king - The priests deride the name of Messiah:
the soldiers the name of king.
38: (Mt 27:37,Mr 15:26,Joh 19:19).
39: And one of the malefactors reviled him - St. Matthew says, the
robbers: St. Mark, they that were crucified with him, reviled him.
Either therefore St. Matthew and Mark put the plural for the
singular (as the best authors sometimes do) or both reviled him
at the first, till one of them felt "the overwhelming power of
saving grace."
40: The other rebuked him - What a surprising degree was here of
repentance, faith, and other graces! And what abundance of good
works, in his public confession of his sin, reproof of his fellow
criminal, his honourable testimony to Christ, and profession of
faith in him, while he was in so disgraceful circumstances as
were stumbling even to his disciples! This shows the power of
Divine grace. But it encourages none to put off their repentance
to the last hour; since, as far as appears, this was the first
time this criminal had an opportunity of knowing any thing of
Christ, and his conversion was designed to put a peculiar glory
on our Saviour in his lowest state, while his enemies derided
him, and his own disciples either denied or forsook him.
42: Remember me when thou comest - From heaven, in thy kingdom - He
acknowledges him a king, and such a king, as after he is dead,
can profit the dead. The apostles themselves had not then so
clear conceptions of the kingdom of Christ.
43: In paradise - The place where the souls of the righteous
remain from death till the resurrection. As if he had said,
I will not only remember thee then, but this very day.
44: There was darkness over all the earth - The noon - tide darkness,
covering the sun, obscured all the upper hemisphere. And the
lower was equally darkened, the moon being in opposition to the
sun, and so receiving no light from it.(Mt 27:45).
45: (Mr 15:38).
46: Father, into thy hands - The Father receives the Spirit of
Jesus: Jesus himself the spirits of the faithful.
47: Certainly this was a righteous man - Which implies an
approbation of all he had done and taught.
48: All the people - Who had not been actors therein, returned
smiting their breasts - In testimony of sorrow.
50: (Mt 27:57,Mr 15:43,Joh 19:38).
