Matthew 27:1

THE PASSION

‘When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death.’

Matthew 27:1

I. Our Lord’s example.—Christ is given us that all men should follow the example of His great humility. We pray that we may follow the example of His patience. How wonderfully humility and patience shine forth in the example of our Lord. Humility and patience! Is there any condescension to which He does not come? Is there any lowering of Himself from which He shrinks? Could He humble Himself more utterly than He does for our sakes? Could any patience be more wonderful than His? His example is to sink into our hearts. It is to tell on our lives. The mind which was in Christ is to be the mind of Christ’s followers.

II. Types of human character.—The various actors in those great scenes were permanent types of human character. The jealousy of the chief priests, the fickleness of the multitude, the disappointed ambition and lower covetousness of Judas, the moral cowardice of Pilate. How clearly, as one considers it, one sees the trace of characters that still survive, of tempers that are alive today—sins that even now crucify the Lord afresh, and put him to an open shame.

III. The mystery of redeeming love.—A great deal may be learned from books of Theology. But no book, no theory, can take the place, or supply the omission of the study of the Cross itself, of the actual contemplation of the Passion of our Lord. A well-spent Holy Week leaves a man with a far clearer sense of the Divine Love—a far clearer sense of what sin is in the eyes of God.

Bishop H. L. Paget.