NOTES for Mat 27:27-66

The chief priests and elders mock the Crucified One precisely for the way He shows His mercy to them. If He had suddenly come down from the cross and "saved Himself," would they have been able to withstand His glory? But He dies like the most ordinary robber, opening for many of His persecutors and enemies the possibility of living, and of living to the moment when they can understand their error and receive forgiveness and salvation. The death of the Son of God is the consequence of human freedom: to accept the Redeemer or kill Him. But precisely in this freedom, God's respect and love for humanity are revealed.