Matthew 28

Chap. XXVIII. Ver. 1—10. The fatal end of Judas.—The repentance of Judas was an awful contrast to that of Peter. The one was a “repentance not to be repented of;” the other, a “worldly sorrow which worketh death.” ((2 Corinthians 7:10).) Conscience compelled Judas to tell the Jews, that he had “betrayed innocent blood.” Alas! for the thirty shekels of silver; had they been talents of gold, they could now have given him no satisfaction. Riches cannot purchase ease to the body, much less to the guilty mind. The wretch’s only hope of relief, is by getting rid of them: but they were like a garment spotted with the plague; all were afraid to touch them. “I have betrayed innocent blood,”

says he: “What is that to us?” reply they, “see thou to that.” Thus sinners attempt to shuffle off their guilt to one another. Judas may rid himself of the silver, by throwing it on the temple pavement; but guilt had seized his conscience, as a vulture fastens on his prey, and he fled to the last resource of hopeless misery: “he hanged himself!” And as he did this in the hurry of despair, he probably hung himself on the walls either of the temple or the city, where, the cord giving way, he fell into some part of the deep ravine beneath, when his bowels gushed out, and he perished miserably. ((Acts 1:18-19).)—Surely, “it had been good for that man if he had not been born.” ((Matthew 26:24).) Suicide is a crime so awful and so frequent, that we must not pass it without an observation.

In general, it proceeds either from insanity, or infidelity. In the former case it is much to be pitied; and all who have the care of persons constitutionally melancholy, owe a duty of constant vigilance over them, since we have an enemy who, “like a roaring lion, seeketh whom he may devour,” and is never negligent, in seizing such opportunities of doing mischief. The writer knew an instance of a good man—a minister of irreproachable character—who, in such a season of depression of mind, being alone, seized a razor and cut his throat; but immediately, as his friends came about him, he uttered this memorable sentence: “The Lord hath left me but one moment, and see what I have done!” Let us not be too severe in judging acts of unpremeditated suicide.

But it is much to be feared that the far greater part of self-murders are the fruit of infidelity. Among the higher classes of society, the writings of Hume, who justified the crime, may have deluded many; but among the lower classes, those of Paine have probably led astray many more. Not that he absolutely denied a future state; but he laboured to remove all the barriers of Christianity, and to persuade himself and others that there is nothing to be [dreaded] beyond the grave. The suicide of an apostate is, of all others, the most awful; and that of Judas the most dreadful crime of this class. “Here we behold ‘the rebel dead; Under the curse of God he lies; He seals the curse on his own head, And with a double vengeance dies!’”—Watts. But what did the hypocritical priests, to whom the money was returned?

They could not put it into the treasury of the temple, because, they said, “It is the price of blood!” thus acknowledging that they had received it as the purchase of the blood of Jesus! But they aim to cover their flagitious crimes by an act of charity; they will buy with it “the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.” Ah! this was in perfect consistence with the character of their nation. They are famed for having killed the prophets, and then raised sepulchres to their memory. ((Matthew 23:29-30).) They now buy a field to bury foreigners in, with the price of the blood of their own Messiah! Alas! how many professing Christians are there, who attempt to cover the sins of a whole life of injustice and oppression by a post-obit act of charity?

Very benevolently giving away that property which they can by no possibility retain a moment longer! Such is the charity of legacies in innumerable cases. But God accomplishes his own will as well by the crimes as by the virtues of mankind; and those who oppose it with all their might, do but thereby fulfil it. This act of hypocrisy and villany had been predicted some centuries before. (See note on verse 9.) “Wherefore it was called the field of blood unto this day;” the time when Matthew wrote his Gospel, and probably later. Indeed, the memorial is still preserved by [tradition].

Ver. 11—25. Jesus brought before Pilate, who orders him to be crucified.—The Sanhedrim having condemned Jesus, would scarcely, we think, have hesitated to stone him imme—Ver.

24. He washed his hands before the multitude.—This rite of “washing the hands in innocency,” appears to have originated in a Mosaic institution. Query, Have not all crowns more thorns than jewels in them?—A reed—Most probably a common walking cane. (Calamus.) Run up to punishment, and all to appease an infatuated mob? how are our resentments kindled at such base injustice! 2. They scourged Jesus. Who? The soldiers! Much has been said of the severity of military punishments, even when justly inflicted, and upon hardy soldiers; but was this severity exercised upon an innocent and benevolent individual, upon my dearest friend and benefactor? Alas! what language is sufficient to express our compassion and our grief!

Again, 3. They mocked him. Yes; while bleeding from the lashes of the Roman scourge, and from the crown of thorns with which his temples were environed, they array him in the faded and dirty robe, probably of some former Roman governor, and having placed a reed, or cane, in his right hand, by way of sceptre, they bow the knee, and hail him as their king, in ridicule. Thus injury is heaped on injustice, and insult upon injury, till they amount to an accumulation of crime altogether unprecedented. Yet this is but the beginning of sorrows! For, Lastly, They crucify him. With the form of the cross, painters have made our eyes familiar; and they seem generally correct. Arrived at the place of execution, the pieces of the cross being put together, the criminal was laid naked upon it, and commonly nailed to it, through the nerves and sinews of his hands and feet.

After being thus fastened, the cross was raised erect, with exquisite agony to the sufferer. Yet these wounds being all at the extremities, life departed but very slowly. Cicero calls crucifixion a “most cruel and horrid punishment; a punishment which must be far, not only from the body of a Roman citizen, but also from his eyes, and even his thoughts.” It was indeed never inflicted, but upon the vilest criminal and the basest slaves. (See Orient. Lit. No. [reference missing].) (Vinaigre, French) mingled with myrrh, bitter as gall. Myrrh itself, says Dr. [reference missing]. “Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?”—(Watts.)

Ver. 45—54. Prodigies attending our Saviour’s death.—These were, 1. A preternatural darkness in the middle of the day, which could not proceed from a solar eclipse at passover time, because that was always at the time of the full moon: nor could the sun be eclipsed for any such length of time as is here specified.

2. An earthquake, whereby the veil of the temple was rent in twain; “the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened.” Whether any monument of this event now remains, or whether the fissure in the rock now exhibited in the church of the sepulchre occurred at this early period, we presume not to decide; nor is it reasonable to demand ocular demonstration of an event which occurred nearly eighteen centuries ago. 3. Many bodies of the saints which slept, arose and came out of their graves after his (our Lord’s) resurrection, and went into the holy city (Jerusalem) and appeared unto many. The expression “after his resurrection,” demands our particular notice, as it secures to our Lord the honour of being the first-fruits of the resurrection.

Who these individuals were, or to whom they appeared, are secrets as impenetrable as the foundations of the world; nor can we guess the object of their resurrection, unless it were to bear witness to the resurrection of our Lord. Their going to show themselves in the holy city, seems to imply that they were persons recently deceased, and well known there. The design of providence in all the previous circumstances appears to have been to prepare the minds of the spectators for the acknowledgment which immediately follows: “Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, (namely, the Roman guard,) saw the earthquake, and those [things that were done],” [they feared greatly].

The persons were, the Roman centurion and his soldiers; men accustomed to view scenes of blood and horror, whose feelings, whatever they might naturally have been, we may reasonably suppose to have been greatly blunted by their profession, and the last feeling likely to possess them, was that of fear; yet they “feared greatly.” What did they see? They saw a man of the most unblemished character treated as the very chief of sinners, and that merely to gratify a few bigoted and cruel priests, and their blind, infuriated adherents. They saw those men transformed into worse than beasts—into monsters; for none other could surely ridicule a man in the article of death, and jest with his dying agonies.

They heard their taunts and their revilings; they heard, too, the dying prayers of the illustrious sufferer: they heard him address the Almighty as his father and his friend; they heard him, (so Luke informs us) pray for mercy to his murderers, and then patiently resign his soul into the hands of God. But what effect had all these extraordinary scenes upon them? “They feared greatly,” being convinced by what they had seen and heard, that Jesus could be neither an enthusiast nor an impostor, nor merely a wise and good man; they believed him to be truly what he declared himself to be, “the Son of God!” “I think (says Dr. Boothroyd) that the centurion could not be ignorant of what our Lord had so often said of himself, (that he was the Son of God,) and that under the impression which these awful events had made on his mind, he speaks, not as a heathen polytheist, but as admitting the claim which our Lord had made to be just.”

Ver. 55—66. The burial of our Saviour.—It is much to the honour of the female sex, that the evangelists have taken so much notice of the attachment and fidelity of those women who attended on the ministry of our Lord; and who themselves ministered to his necessities and comfort. It was not a woman that betrayed him, or that denied him; nor is it said of them, “they all forsook him, and fled.” Dr. Doddridge, who remarks the pious attachment of these females, is inclined to think that their sex, “in the sight of God, constitute by far the better half of mankind: and to whose care and tenderness the wisest and best of men generally owe and ascribe much of the daily comfort and enjoyment of their lives.”

Ledyard, the celebrated American traveller, has remarked that “women, in all countries, are civil, obliging, tender, and humane. In wandering over the barren plains of Denmark; through honest Sweden, and frozen Lapland; rude and churlish Finland; unprincipled Russia; and the wide-spread regions of the wandering Tartar; women have been my friends and companions. If rough and boisterous in manners, they have always been kind and gentle in their actions. To a woman, whether European, Asiatic, or savage, I never addressed myself in the language of decency and friendship, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. If hungry, dry, cold, wet, or sick, they have always been willing to assist me, in so far as they had power.” Such is the testimony of a man who had travelled over half the globe, and who had no particular bias in favour of female benevolence. But when to this natural virtue (if we may so call it) the grace of God is added, to direct and to improve it, it is difficult to speak in too high terms of the female character. But the faithful followers of Jesus were not all females; nor were the men always of the lower class. Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man, though his disciple: and seeing his Master dead, knew not how better to show his attachment and respect, than by begging his body of the governor, in order to deposit it in a new tomb, which he had hewn out for himself in a rock in his own garden.

Nicodemus, another ruler of the Jews, and secretly a disciple, ((John 19:39),) brought also a large quantity of spices, and having obtained leave of Pilate, they took down his body from the cross, and having swathed the body in fine linen, and covered it with spices, (or perfumes,) they closed the door, and placed a heavy stone against it. The hypocritical Pharisees were at this time busy with their passover, or it is probable they would have tried to prevent this. Next morning, however, recollecting (what all his disciples seem to have forgotten) that Jesus promised to rise again, they beg that the governor will make sure the sepulchre, lest his disciples should steal the body, and by the substitution of a living person, pretend that he had risen from the dead.

Pilate, however, having on his part no apprehensions, leaves this to themselves. “So they went, and made the sepulchre sure; sealing the stone, and setting a watch.” These circumstances, fortuitous as they may seem, were doubtless all arranged in providence, not only for the accomplishment of our redemption, but also for the fulfilment of divine prophecy. Isaiah had said, “He made his grave with the wicked,” or, as we render it, “He was placed with the wicked in his death; but with the rich was his sepulchre.” Upon the cross “he was numbered among transgressors,” but he was honoured in his tomb; (see (Isaiah 53:9, 12), expos. and notes;) but he fell only to conquer; he died to rise and reign, and thus fulfil another prophecy, “O death, I will be thy plague; O grave, I will be thy destruction!” ((Hosea 13:14).)

Chap. XXVIII. Ver. 1—15. The resurrection of Jesus.—Very “early,” that is, about break of day, on the first day of the week, (corresponding with our [Sunday],) Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, mentioned ver. 56 of the preceding chapter, came to the sepulchre, with a view of embalming the body of Jesus, not knowing that the stone had been sealed, and [were] terrified by the appearance of an angel from heaven, and the earthquake that took place at the same time, that part of them had run into the city, to tell what had happened, while the rest lay around the sepulchre, terrified and insensible. The angel, who had rolled away the stone from the mouth of the sepulchre, was sitting on it, and had courteously invited the women to look in, and see the place where their Lord had lain, who was now risen from the dead.

At the same time they were directed to go and tell this joyful news to his disciples, (especially the apostles,) and to inform them that he would give them all an interview with him in Galilee. The women accordingly, with a mixture of fear and joy, ran to seek the eleven, and impart to them the joyful tidings. By the way, however, Jesus himself meets them, and after discovering who he was, directs them to proceed with their message, and confirm his promise by the angel, that he would be with his disciples in Galilee. The women of course proceeded to Jerusalem; and about the same time, some of the soldiers who had kept watch at the sepulchre, ran and informed the chief priests of “all the things that were done.”

So that between the women and the soldiers, considerable agitation must have been excited, among both the friends and enemies of Jesus: the former elevated to hope and joy; the latter alarmed, and justly, lest their malice should be defeated, and the Roman governor excited against them. The excuse here invented by the guard, though a very common one, was not only highly improbable, but very dangerous to the guard themselves, to be advanced. If they slept, how could they tell what became of the body? and besides, this was the confession of a capital offence, and at the same time laid them open to the suspicion of treachery and collusion. But it was the only apology they could think of, and to this day the Jews have not been able to suggest a better ground for their infidelity.

In all this, however, we may see the hand of Providence. Had no guard, or only a guard of Levites, been appointed to the sepulchre, such a pretence might have had the colour of possibility; but even then it was not likely that men who were themselves so hard to believe, should unite in a plot to persuade others. Certainly the extreme reluctance of the apostles [to believe] even that was scarcely found sufficient. (See (John 20:25-27).)

Ver. 16—20. Christ’s final exaltation, and last commission to his disciples.—Jesus had, previously to his death, appointed afterwards to meet his apostles in Galilee, which was repeatedly fulfilled. Doddridge, Wesley, and others, think it was on this occasion that our Lord appeared to 500 brethren at once, ((1 Corinthians 15:6);) but this is by no means certain. To us it appears this was the last interview which our Lord had with his disciples, previous to his return to heaven; so Mr. Preb. Townsend. In our Lord’s words we remark the following important points. 1. The dignity to which Jesus Christ was now about to be exalted, on his ascension to the Father. “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” This must refer to that delegated authority conferred upon the Messiah, which was the reward of his passion, and the ground of his authority, as King of the church. ((Psalms 2:7-9); cx. 1, &c. (Matthew 11:27). (John 12:35); xvii. 2. Phil. ii. 9—11, &c. &c.) Whether that authority could be exercised by a mere creature; that is, whether such creature could be every where present—every where reign, protect, and bless his people; is another question, which we leave to be resolved by those who wish so to degrade the Son of God.

2. The commission which Messias gives to his apostles and others, to disciple, to proselyte, to Christianize, or as Milton better expresses it, to evangelize the world. “I (says the divine Saviour) have all power in heaven and on earth; go ye, therefore, and proclaim the glad tidings of mercy to every human creature.” This did the first disciples and apostles of our Lord, to the extent of their means; and this, more or less have all their true successors done, up to the present day; and this is still the doing of what, in common parlance, is called, [missionary] enterprise. (Dr. Morrison’s Parting Memo- [reference missing].) The introduction of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity into this institution, may suggest to us, that the great point which concerns us therein, is to render equal honour to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in their respective offices in the economy of human redemption: a subject better studied upon our knees than in the schools.

But when it is added, “Teach all nations,” it is in unaffected simplicity, and in a plain and perspicuous style. That for which he is eminently distinguished, says Dr. Campbell, “is the distinctness and particularity with which he has related many of our Lord’s discourses and moral instructions. Of these, his sermon on the mount, his charge to the apostles, his illustrations of the nature of his kingdom, and his prophecy on mount Olivet, are examples. He has also wonderfully united simplicity and energy in relating the replies of his Master to the cavils of his adversaries. Being early called to the apostleship, he was an eye and ear witness of most of the things which he relates. And, though I do not think it was the scope of any of these historians to adjust their narratives by the precise order of time wherein the events happened, there are some circumstances which incline me to think, that Matthew has approached at least as near that order as any of them.”

The consideration, that the gospel of St. Matthew is a history of what he heard and saw, merely allowing him to be a man of integrity, would of itself fully prove that he would make no mistakes in his narrative; and when we add to this the influence and superintendence of the Holy Spirit, under which he con—[tinued to write], {Mark is generally supposed to be the same with John surnamed Mark, who was “sister’s son to Barnabas,” ((Colossians 4:10).) and the son of Mary, a pious woman of Jerusalem, at whose house many were assembled together praying when Peter was delivered from prison. ((Acts 12:12).) St. Peter (1 Ep. v. 13.) calls him “Marcus my son,” probably implying that he was converted by his ministry, and served with him in the gospel.

He accompanied St. Paul in his travels, ((Acts 12:25); xiii. 5, 13; xv. 36—41, (2 Timothy 4:4). Phil. 24;) and he is said to have been particularly intimate with St. Peter, under whose inspection, it is generally agreed, he wrote his gospel at Rome, between the years A.D. 60 and 65. Eusebius informs us, (Hist. Eccles. l. ii. c. 15.) from Papias and Clement of Alexandria, that St. Mark composed his gospel at the earnest request of St. Peter’s hearers at Rome; and that the Apostle being informed of what was done by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, authorized it to be introduced into the churches. With this agrees the internal evidence furnished by the Gospel itself; for many things honourable to St.

Peter are omitted in it, which are mentioned by other Evangelists, while his weaknesses and failings are freely exposed to view. It is also undeniable, that from the earliest ages of the church, this Gospel was received, not only as genuine and authentic, but as a divinely inspired writing. Some learned men, in opposition to the unanimous

Notes on the verses

Chap. XXVIII. Ver. 1. In the end of the sabbath.—“The sabbath being over, and the first day of the week beginning to dawn.” This agrees with (Mark 16:1). The Jewish sabbath began on Friday evening (when stars of the second magnitude arose,) and ended at the same time on Saturday evening.

Ver. 3. His countenance.—Not his face only, but his whole appearance.

Ver. 9. As they went to tell his disciples.—Many MSS. omit these words. All hail.—Campbell, “Rejoice!” Doddridge, however, retains the term “hail,” without the word all, to which there is nothing answerable in the original.—Held him by the feet, &c.—“Exactly this kind of reverence may be seen daily among the Hindoos. A Hindoo disciple meeting his religious guide in the public street, prostrates himself before him, and rubs the dust off his feet.”—See Ward’s Hindoos.

Ver. 11. Now when they were going.—Campbell, “While they were going.”

Ver. 12. Gave large money.—Doddridge, “A large sum of money;” more literally, “silver in abundance.”

Ver. 14. And secure you.—The Roman (as well as Greek) law made sleeping on duty, death. Orient. Lit. No. [reference missing].

Ver. 15. Until this day.—When Matthew wrote. Justin Martyr says, “that the Jews sent chosen men of considerable rank over all the world, not only in the general to represent the followers of Christ as an impious sect, but to assert that the body of Jesus was stolen out of his tomb by night; and that the persons who thus fraudulently conveyed him away, took occasion from thence to report that he rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven.

And this message is spoken of as having been sent before the destruction of Jerusalem.

Ver. 17. But some doubted.—“Though some (of the company) had (at first) doubted.” So Doddridge explains it. Paley says, “It is to be supposed that Christ appeared at first at a distance, when the greater part worshipped him; but some doubted, till Jesus came up, and spoke to them.” So Dr. Townson.

Ver. 19. Teach all nations.—The word teach here, is quite different from the one used in the next verse. This word signifies to “disciple,” or make disciples (or Christians) of all nations; and is so rendered in our margin, and to the same effect, we believe, by all modern translators. Doddridge employs the term “proselyte;” but Campbell justly objects to this phrase, as too technical; to the verb “disciple” he objects, as not found in the [common] language; but it is hard to say this of a word used both by Shakspeare and Spenser, and among divines, by Bishop Beveridge, Dr. Scott, Mr. Wesley, &c.

Ver. 20. Unto the end of the world.—Some render this, “to the end of the age,” meaning the Jewish state; but Abp. Newcome understands it of the gospel dispensation, which will indeed run parallel with the duration of the world. “Nothing seems more unreasonable, (says Doddridge,) than to limit these words to the end of the Jewish state.”