TIM chapter details the combination of every earthly power, in spite of the remonstrance of conscience, and, at the sacrifice of all judicial honesty, to crucify the Lord of glory. “The whole multitude (of Jews) led Him to Pilate,” the Gentile governor. He sends Him to Herod, and though “nothing worthy of death is done unto Him,” yet the governor, contrary to his convictions and all justice, is overborne by the “loud voices requiring that He might be crucified.” “And the voices of them and the chief priests prevailed.” “He delivered Jesus to their will.”
“Jesus is led away!” “And there followed Him a great company of people and of women, which also bewailed and lamented Him.” To these, who are the types of the Jewish remnant, the Lord announces the still greater sorrows which will visit their people; for, if their sorrow is genuine in a day of such apparent prosperity,— “in the green tree,”—what shall it be in the dry, when every hope is withered and gone? Jesus is now at Calvary. He is placed between two malefactors. Human enmity and malice have done their worst! His last company on earth, its off-scouring!! From the cradle to the cross there was no room for Him on it!!! The people and the rulers may “deride” and the soldiers may “mock,” but Jesus, amidst the company to which He is reduced, discloses the treasures of His grace to faith. To one beyond earthly hope or human aid are revealed the glories of a heavenly kingdom. His eye was fast closing on all earthly objects; in faith he sought (according to Jewish hope) a place in the future kingdom, but “today,” we may say the day of salvation, shall paradise be opened to one of the poor of the flock, and as a first sample of the family who should be gathered there. The other thief represents Israel in unbelief. Jesus goes unto the Father. His blessed course is ended. A Gentile, a Roman centurion, glorifies God, and witnesses, (let it affect his place and station as it may,) “Certainly this was a righteous man.” He condemns the act which, as a commander of Roman soldiery, he had been the instrument to perpetrate. The Jew planned, the Gentile executed, the crucifixion of Jesus.
The Jew had the law; the Gentile, power: ill was the use both made of them.
The net and language of this centurion is such as every faithful Gentile must now adopt. The power vested in the Gentile crucified Jesus; it perpetrated an unrighteous act. Can I consistently glory in and enrich myself by such power? It is the times of the Gentiles, and the power given to them is not yet re-assumed; so that he who accepts part of it, accepts it as part of Nebuchadnezzar’s image, and as that which under sufficient pressure, as with Pilate, would again crucify Christ. The virus of that iniquity is in it; for, surely, no soldier in the execution of his duty could have prevented it, or attempted to do so.
When does invested power serve Christ? My personal exertions may be used of Him, but not delegated authority. Joseph of Arimathea effects nothing in the council; his attempt to serve there was vain; but, divested of official power, he begs from the Roman governor the body of Jesus. Those who “wait for the kingdom of God” now, will follow his example; they will, without the assertion of power, as a suppliant, remove the body of Christ from Gentile domination, and endue it with its proper character, as “wrapped in linen,” that is, its appearance unto men, and laid in a sepulcher, testifying that we are not alive unto this world, that we are set “wherein never man before was laid;” for the Church’s place is no common one. But they who add “spices and ointments” to give it an earthly fragrance, know not its calling, and their labor is in vain, for it is in resurrection; and this the next chapter opens out.