As noted previously, the false piety of those seeking to make of this part of the narrative more than what it says have obscured the original intent of the author. Matthew continues to emphasize throughout his Gospel how completely the Jews failed to understand, how completely wrong they were about everything regarding Jesus. Further, Matthew takes pains to offer just the details necessary to show how Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies, and ended the Covenant of Moses with His sacrifice. By attempting to add to Matthew's depiction, we participate in the same lie as denying it all.
Having met and palavered throughout most of the night, the Sanhedrin took a short break. Then they reassembled at dawn, in some vague resemblance of Mosaic justice by holding a second hearing. They decided their best choice for actually securing a Roman death penalty was to accuse Jesus of treason. There is every reason to believe the Sanhedrin had conferred with Pilate prior to bringing Jesus before him. This would have been consistent with the oft stated Imperial concern for keeping public order. Pilate normally resided on the coast at Caesarea, but often attended Jewish festivals in Jerusalem simply to ensure a quick response to riots and such with full authority. Hearing from the Sanhedrin Jesus was another rebel, and prepared to accept their fallback plan of accusing Him of treason -- plotting to re-establish the Davidic throne -- Pilate was ready to go through the motions. It was convenient timing for everyone involved.
Matthew notes for us the end of Judas. The simplest explanation of his response is he realized Jesus was guilty of nothing, but had been condemned to a horrible execution. It appears he met with some of the leadership on duty in the Temple. Complaining to the Sanhedrin that Jesus was innocent of any crime, it seemed Judas was trying to exonerate Jesus, making himself a lying snitch. They were having none of it. Passing the offering box near the Temple entrance on his way out, Judas threw the coins on the ground near the box from which they ostensibly were taken. Oddly, the Sanhedrin were now pious about Judas' crime. Without admitting they had bribed for a man's death, they decided to use the money for a charitable gesture. They bought a field for burying non-Jews who died in the city.
There is a good bit of discussion why the text indicates the quote is from Jeremiah, when it is clearly from Zechariah. Matthew seldom mentions which prophet he is quoting, but in this case follows a rabbinical practice of referring to the Hebrew canonical collection of prophetical books by the name of the one which appears first in their order in some collections. The quotation makes reference to the complete failure of Jewish leadership to understand just what had passed them by, sarcastically calling the 30 coins a "princely sum" -- the compensation required for a slave gored by some else's ox. They hardly bothered to investigate His claims. They stood Him before a judge who hardly comprehended any better, but knew certainly the Sanhedrin had lied to him about the case.
Sitting in the official judgment seat out in the open plaza before the crowd gathered to observe, Pilate heard the representatives of the Sanhedrin make their accusation. Jesus was permitted to defend Himself, and Pilate rather expected feverish denials from a desperate man. Instead, the accused stood silent, seeming rather unconcerned about the whole thing. Without describing the private audience Jesus had before Pilate away from the crowd, Matthew tells us Pilate realized he had been set up, and decided to alter the custom of releasing a Hebrew prisoner at the Passover. He offered them the choice between Jesus of Nazareth, and a repulsive thug apparently also named Jesus, the son of Abbaiah (bar-Abbas). It didn't help Pilate had been warned by his wife of a very strong omen about Jesus. His attempts to break his deal with the Sanhedrin were rejected. Though he could have easily set the troops on them and driven the mob out, Pilate was pressed between his pre-arranged deal and the very real threat of a riot. The crowd howled for crucifixion.
It was a common legal practice for prominent men under suspicion of murder to ceremonially wash their hands over the body of a victim. This was a very powerful claim of innocence -- "my hands are clean of this man's blood." The mob, responding to the prompting of the planted provocateurs, ceremonially took full guilt for Jesus' blood, willing to gamble on His guilt. What followed were standard elements of a crucifixion. The intended victim was beaten nearly to death by a professional lictor. The soldiers were conscripts from Syria. This meant they spoke a similar tongue, but their mutual contempt for Jews helped insure there would be no collusion. The chance to abuse a Jewish prisoner helped reinforce this. They mockingly dressed Him as a king, reflecting the crime. The robe was part of the official governor's wardrobe for ceremonial occasions with the troops. The "crown of thorns" was actually made from acanthus, a flowering green ornamental bush with prickly leaves. This was more at mocking the Western style crown of laurel stems. This was more a matter of humiliation and emotional distress than about torture.
Victim of crucifixion were required to bear the crossbeam on which they died. This was more torture by way of exhaustion and humiliation, since they would be marched publicly to the place normally used for this, easily taking an hour or more. At some point, it became obvious Jesus could no longer carry the beam, and we are hardly surprised. The soldiers grabbed a fellow coming from the opposite direction down the road, Simon, known as one who had once lived in a large Jewish community in modern day eastern Libya, a very important city on the Mediterranean coast. The name Golgotha simply designates a grisly place of execution. Skulls littered the place because most victims of crucifixion were left until the birds ate their flesh, easily taking two or more days to die. Jesus rejected the standard offering of drugged wine. The typical division of loot by the guards fulfilled yet another prophecy. Guarding crucified bodies was not a choice duty, but the chance of some little plunder was a consolation. Matthew notes Pilate had the charge written somewhat mocking the Jews -- this is the King of the Jews! Beside Him were a pair of robbers. Obviously they had murdered too, since robbery alone was not a capital offense, only murder and treason.
Jesus was fully alert to the hours of mocking. All His grandiose sounding claims of spiritual authority and power were turned into ludicrous literalisms. No one is precisely certain of the details of crucifixion. What we know for sure is something in the positioning caused near asphyxiation while slumped down hanging by the arms. They could push upward on their nailed feet to breathe until their legs collapsed from exhaustion. This was something the Romans had adopted from the Persians and perfected. It's not enough to simply die, but the victim had to be utterly miserable in every way possible. Whatever the actual geophysical causes, the sky was darkened in a clear symbol of God's own sadness, from noon to mid-afternoon. What is so easy to miss in recounting all the details is the far more important issue in Matthew's mind: Jesus was paying the price for the sins of mankind, because He had no sin of His own. Three hours was long enough, apparently, because Jesus cried out in His native tongue a quote from Psalm 22. It was mistaken by Hellenistic Jews for another chance to mock Him. Perhaps to ensure they heard Him aright, they offered Him a drink of the low grade vinegary wine issued to the Roman conscripts, soaked with a sponge so He could suck it out.
Rather than the miracles of Elijah, Jesus did something far greater. Showing absolute authority over all things, He dismissed His spirit from His human body. Matthew notes at that moment the veil in the Temple, passed only once each year on the Day of Atonement, was torn apart. Jesus now moved that day by opening the way into the Holy of Holies for all. The proximate cause was an earthquake. This was the final closure of an earth-bound covenant of rituals, the final element of God's dealings with humankind on the earth. It was done. To celebrate this new beginning, Matthew notes, many of the bodies ejected from their graves by the earthquake -- which could not be re-buried until after the Sabbath -- were resuscitated after Jesus resurrected.
The hardened Roman officer in charge of the execution knew this for what it was, the death of someone divine. There were plenty of witnesses to the actual death, including some of the entourage which had followed Jesus down from Galilee. Two women named Miriam; one from Magdala, often believed to be a former prostitute, but there's no biblical basis for that. Another was the mother of James the Less (and Matthew), married to Jesus' uncle. The third woman was Salome, a sister of Jesus' mother Miriam (who was also apparently there in other Gospels), and mother of James and John. At some point, one of the Sanhedrin petitioned Pilate for the now dead body of Jesus. Matthew doesn't say much about the details, noting only Jesus was given a hurried but proper burial, wrapped in a linen strip up to the neck, held in place by a mixture of gum arabic and burial spices. This fellow, Joseph from Arimathea (Ramathaim), was wealthy enough to have his own tomb cut into the rock nearby, recently finished just in time to accept this body. To protect it from thieves, he covered the opening with a large stone, a common practice. The two Miriams Matthew mentioned earlier observed the location of the tomb.
During all those debates Matthew recorded between Jesus and the Pharisees, we had to wonder if they were being obtuse at times. Apparently they understood the real meaning of one of Jesus' comments regarding His resurrection three days after His death. After discussing this with the chief priests of the Sanhedrin, a group of them came before Pilate again. Matthew slyly notes they did this on a Sabbath; whether a calendar Sabbath or simply a celebratory Sabbath we don't know, but a Sabbath by Law nonetheless. After revealing their concerns, Pilate agreed it might be a problem if the disciples manage to steal the body of Jesus and claim He had risen. So Pilate permitted them to seal and guard the grave under Roman authority.
How often do we read this passage in Matthew and make the same mistakes of the Pharisees? The traditions of their scholars had added a great pile of manure on top of God's Word, in some pitiful effort to protect Almighty God. They bore an intense focus on the mere appearance of things, never seeing beyond the flesh. For so long, the church has become entangled in magnifying Jesus' death experience as if it were unique in human history. It was not. To the world around Him, this was just another execution of troublemakers. Most of the actual events were rather mundane. What made it unique was the spiritual reality, as testified by the unusual response by Creation, and the ramifications for the end of Judaism. Those miracles were well below the threshold of logical proof. Without a spiritual understanding, this event was only somewhat noteworthy, and easily explained away. That is as it should be, for if the Holy Spirit does not make the message real, it's just a wild and improbable tale. The focus of this chapter is the spiritual reality; the events testify of that reality only if your spirit is alive in Christ.
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Ed Hurst
26 January 2008
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