A PLAIN COMMENTARY ON THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CHAPTER OF St. Matthew's Gospel. 1 CHRIST is delivered bound to Pilate. 3 Judas hangeth himself. 19 Pilate, admonished of his wife, 24 washeth his hands: 26 and looseth Barabbas. 29 CHRIST is crowned with thorns, 34 crucified, 40 reviled, 50 dieth, and is buried: 66 His sepulchre is sealed, and watched. THE former Chapter ended with an account of St. Peter's three denials of his LORD,-and of his repentance. The Holy One was in the meantime undergoing the mock solemnity of a trial at the hands of the wicked men who had already determined upon His Death. He had been hurried from the Garden of Gethsemane to the House of Annas, thence to the Palace of Caiaphas, the High Priesta. The whole night long had been one continued scene of insult and cruelty. It was now the morning of Friday. XXVII. WHEN the morning was come, all 1 the Chief Priests and Elders of the people took counsel against JESUS to put Him to death: St. Luke alone describes the manner of their a St. John xviii. 13, 24. proceeding. See his Gospel, for an account of what took place when the Holy One was brought before the high Court of Sanhedrin. 2 and when they had bound Him, they led Him away, and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor. 3 For they judged it expedient, on every account, to transfer to Pilate the execution of their own sentence. How the Roman Governor conducted himself towards the Holy JESUS, we shall be told in the 11th and following verses; in the meantime, it would appear as if Judas, terrified at the success of his own villainy, had been watching the progress of events with remorse and horror. The Council of 'Chief priests and Elders' had probably been held in the Temple. Accordingly, it is added: Then Judas, which had betrayed Him, when he saw that He was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the Chief Priests and 4 Elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. "In the Temple he makes his Confession, and offers restitution; but they in the Temple, who ought to receive the penitent, are the partners of his guilt. It is the voice of the children of Cain b St. Luke xxii. 66 to 71. 'Am I my which answers What is that to us?' brother's keeper c?" Very striking and fearful is the picture contained in the words which follow: And he cast down the pieces of silver in 5 the Temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. Thus does Judas himself bear evidence to the innocence of Him, whose death he had been so carefully contriving. He is visited also with pangs of fruitless Repentance; confesses his crime; and after a miserable fashion seeks to make restitution: for when he dashed down the money on the floor. of the Temple,-(which act of his, had not failed to arrest the keen glance of ancient Prophecy d,)— he doubtless intended that it should be applied to some sacred use. But his was not that godly sorrow spoken of by the Apostle,-(sorrow like Simon Peter's,)-which "worketh Repentance to Salvation: ... but the sorrow of the World," which "worketh Death" Judas ' went and hanged himself,' (as Ahithophel, David's companion' and 'own familiar friend, had done before him :) whereupon, as St. Luke informs us, he fell forward upon his face, burst asunder, ́ and all his bowels gushed out 1.' It seems impossible to reach the close of the history of this most miserable of men, without e Williams, quoting Gen. iv. 9. e 2 Cor. vii. 10. g2 Sam. xvii. 23. d See below, on ver. 10. f Ps. lv. 14. See also Ps. xli. 9. h Acts i. 18. reflecting with awful interest on what had probably been his course of life. And it may be regarded as certain that the character of Judas, (from the blackness of which we have learnt to recoil with horror,) occupies far too small a share of men's attention. A few remarks on this subject have been already offered elsewhere; and this is not the proper place to pursue such a train of thought. We may not here discuss the nature of his peculiar sin,-its rapid growth,—and its hardening tendencies. It shall but be remarked that he will do well and wisely who shall set himself to gather up the many hints which, from first to last, fell from our LORD's lips on the subject of Covetousness; and to which the crime of Judas at the close of the Gospel, supplies the obvious clue. Nor should the many warnings which the traitor continued to receive to the very last, escape our notice either; for they not only shew the long suffering patience and love of CHRIST, but they furnish a comfortable assurance that no one should be deemed irreclaimable so long as he liveth. Some will be found to inquire, Might not even Judas have repented? Doubtless the door of Mercy is never closed against the true penitent: and the blood of CHRIST is powerful to cleanse from all sin. "But then," (as it has been truly remarked,) "it appears equally clear from the whole analogy of Scripture, that true Repentance becomes more and more difficult, according to the i See the notes on St. Matth. xxvi. 22 and 24. degrees of grace rejected; and after a certain point, impossible. Thus it may be observed that St. Paul never intimates that Repentance is in any case unavailable; or that the door of pardon is closed against those who are renewed unto repentance.' But he does say, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that it is impossible to renew unto repentance' those who have grievously fallen away, after great privileges. So that if the words, 'though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool,' describe the unbounded extent of GOD'S mercies in the Gospel covenant; yet notwithstanding this, the state of probation under the Gospel is described in a certain sense by those other words, 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil 'he which is filthy, let him be filthy still. Numerous, in short, as are those expressions which describe the Mercy promised to Repentance, yet not less numerous are those which speak of Repentance becoming more and more difficult, and at length, impossible, after the rejection of Grace given m❞ and, The end of this very wicked man, as recorded in ver. 5, must evidently be referred to a somewhat later moment. He may have even delayed adding the guilt of suicide to his other tremendous j Is. i. 18. k Jer. xiii. 23. m Williams. |