Matthew 27: Jesus Dies Without Miracles
Matthew 27: Jesus Dies Without Miracles
6 The chief priests picked up the coins and said, "It is against the law to put this into the treasury since it is blood money."
7 So they decided to use the money to buy the potter's field as a burial place for foreigners.
9 Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on him by the people of Israel,
10 and they used them to buy the potter's field, as the Lord commanded me.”
18 Pilate knew that it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him.
57 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus.
58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him.
59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. Then he rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.
62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate.
63 "Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.'
64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first."
Jesus was sold for the price of a servant. God was firm in Jesus’ death, not allowing even a hint of luxury. The text implies that Jesus had the authority and power to summon more than twelve legions of angels, yet it seems Jesus couldn't come down from the cross. The miracles of healing the sick, driving out demons, and even raising the dead no longer occurred through Jesus. Any miracle's power is not the agent's but belongs to God. God remained silent as Jesus walked the path of death. However, angels in human form did assist Jesus. On the way to the cross, the woman who anointed Jesus and the provider of the Passover meal were angels, and after death, Joseph of Arimathea was an angel. This was the greatest care God bestowed upon Jesus.
The pinnacle of hypocrisy is persistent. While the priests stirred up public opinion to capture a living man, they refused to put the blood money Judas returned into the temple treasury. Moreover, they guarded the tomb fearing Jesus’ followers would steal the body and claim he had risen, as he had said. The day the priests went to Pilate was the day after the Preparation Day, which is the Sabbath. The devil's meticulousness does not consider days. The priests' persistence and meticulousness surrounded Jesus' death. Later, our faith ancestors could not bring themselves to say the priests killed Jesus, so they put Pilate's name in the Apostles' Creed instead. Weren't these the same priests who made a fuss when Jesus healed a man with a shriveled hand on the Sabbath? Meanwhile, the women who intended to anoint Jesus’ body with perfume visited the tomb the day after the Sabbath. Despite being snubbed and treated poorly even in the temple, what makes these women so observant of the Sabbath?