NOTES for Mat 27:27-66
Each of the evangelists describes the crucifixion and death on the cross of the Savior in his own way. And while the other Gospels mention, for example, the beloved disciple standing by the cross or the repentant thief, Matthew's Gospel contains no such references. The evangelist notes only that after Jesus' death some of the Roman soldiers guarding the Crucified One were struck and frightened, recognizing that He was 'truly the Son of God' (v. 54). He does mention the women, but in his description they are all 'watching from afar' (vv. 55-56), so that there is no one at the cross who could support Him even simply by presence. Such an ending fits the evangelist's overall concept, in which the whole story of the last days and hours of the Savior's earthly ministry is a story of betrayal and apostasy. And at the moment of His death on the cross, the faithful either stand far away or, like Joseph of Arimathea, appear when everything is already over (vv. 57-61), while at the foot of the cross there remain only rejoicing evil and triumphant darkness (vv. 39-44).
Against the background of the other evangelists' accounts, such a picture might appear excessively, almost schematically, contrasted, if not for the logic of the sacred author, who views the entire earthly ministry of the Savior as a conflict between the Kingdom and the forces opposing it, forces eager to destroy the One who brought the Kingdom into the world. From this point of view, what happens at the foot of the cross, sadly, cannot be called something out of the ordinary. Here we see everything and everyone Jesus had to face throughout His earthly ministry. There are the malicious jeers of people from the street crowd who understand nothing and do not want to understand (vv. 39-40), the gloating of religious rigorists, the mockery of learned theologians (vv. 41-43), and even the derision of those who above all have no place deriding anyone - the thieves crucified beside Jesus (v. 44). One thing united all these very different people: rejection of the Kingdom. For each of them it was an obstacle in its own way, and now they have all gathered at the cross to rejoice in their victory - an imaginary victory over the One whose very life gave them no peace.
Of course, none of them guessed that this victory was imaginary. In their world - a world where there was room for everything and everyone except Christ and the Kingdom - their victory was indeed absolute. It became nothing only in another, larger, divine world; but of that world those mocking the Crucified One either knew nothing at all or had only the most approximate and vague notions. And so the Resurrection became for them a thunderbolt out of a clear sky - the same thunderbolt that the Savior's return will be for many, perhaps even for some who are used to considering themselves Christians.