Matthew 27

Matthew 27:14

Mat. 27:14. “And he answered him to never a word.” The reason why he did not speak, or answer his accusers and those that sought his life from falsehood, malice, unreasonableness, and cruelty, was his wonderful meekness in the midst of all the affronts and injuries, afflictions and vexations, that he was surrounded with. He chose that there should not be the least appearance of a disquieted, ruffled temper; and he did not speak as vindicating himself, because he knew it would signify nothing, and that there might be no appearance as if he flinched and gave back, and was not willing to suffer, or endeavored to avoid that which was his errand into the world, or repented, when it came to that, that he had undertaken so great a task for his people.

Matthew 27:45

Mat. 27:45 Mat. 27:45. “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.” This darkness seems to be a presage of the approaching destruction of that land, for that sin of crucifying Christ. This darkness begins at noon, whereby the sun, as it were, went down at noon. The prophet Amos, in the 8th chapter of his prophecy, foretelling the destruction of the land, when the end shall come upon the people of Israel, and God will not pass by them any more, and the songs of the temple shall be turned into howlings, and there shall be many dead bodies in every place, says in the 9th verse (Amos 8:9), “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.” This also seems to be a fulfillment of Jer 2:12; Jeremiah 2:13, “Be ye astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be ye horribly afraid; be ye very desolate, saith the Lord, for my people have committed two evils, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters.”

Mat. 27:51

Matthew 27:51

Mat. 27:51. “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.” This was the veil that hindered our access to the throne of grace, or the mercy-seat in the holy of holies.

That hiding of the mercy-seat, and hindering of our access to the mercy-seat, figured a twofold hindrance of access to God.

1. The hindrance by which all men are kept off while they remain under the first covenant of works; they are hindered by their guilt, God’s law and justice.

2. That hindrance of free access that was under the first testament while the church was in a legal state, and in its minority, and under carnal ordinances, so that access was rare and difficult, only allowed to the high priest, and that but once a year: so that the veil signifies two things, viz. 1. The sin of man, both guilt and corruption of heart; which both in diverse respects are a veil to hide the mercy-seat, and hinder our access. Both these were typified by the flesh of Christ. The sin of God’s people, or elect church, was typified by Christ’s flesh; for sin is called flesh in Scripture, and the elect church is Christ mystical; so that Christ, in taking flesh upon him, took their sin upon him: he became sin for us, and when his flesh was crucified, when his human nature died, then this veil was removed, for that abolished the sin of the elect church. So likewise Christ in the flesh, in his infirm, weak state, signified the church, or Christ mystical, in its Old Testament minority, when it was in its weak, infirm, and carnal state, under carnal ordinances, under the elements of the world; and those carnal ordinances, and carnal dispensations, that Christ mystical was under, was as it were the flesh of Christ. When Christ died, then there was an end to those types and shadows, because they were then all fulfilled.

Christ’s human nature was a temple; it was the antitype of the temple; and his flesh, or the infirmity of his human nature, was the veil that hid the glory of God, or the divinity that dwells in him, and was in his person. So that the veil of the temple, in the 3rd place, typified the literal flesh of Christ, that had veiled his glory; which it ceased to do when his state of humiliation was at an end. Christ himself, our great High Priest, entered into the holy of holies through the veil of his own flesh. That day that Christ died, was the great day of atonement, typified by the day of atonement of old, when the high priest entered into the holy of holies. Christ, as God man, could enter into heaven no other way than by rending this veil. Christ offered his sacrifice in the outward court, in this world, and then in the conclusion of it rent the veil, that his blood might be sprinkled within the veil.

Mat. 27:60

Matthew 27:60

Mat. 27:60. “And laid it in his own new tomb.” Christ was laid in a disciple’s grave; he suffered that death which belonged to us, and he was laid in our grave. He entered into the shade of death in our stead; he went down into that deep pit where we were to have gone. He had no sin of his own, so he had no death of his own: it was our sin, and our grave: it was a tomb hewed out of a rock. Our state of death and misery was such, that it would have been impossible for us to escape; for our prison that we are going to is strong as a solid rock.

Mat. 28