and saying, “You who were tearing down the temple and rebuilding it in three days, save yourself. If you are the Son of God, come down from that cross.”
These words show the crowd’s mockery and ignorance. They remembered Jesus’ saying about the destruction and rebuilding of the temple (John 2:19), yet they had understood it in a fleshly, literal sense. Before the cross they repeated that saying as sarcasm, not realizing that at that very moment His word was being fulfilled. The true temple was His body, which was to be “destroyed” by death and “rebuilt” by the resurrection. The phrase “If you are the Son of God” was the same temptation with which Satan had approached Him in the wilderness (Matt. 4:3), trying to turn Him aside from the way of the cross. But Jesus did not answer, because even through His silence His divine authority would be revealed. This scene shows that people often judge God’s works by outward appearances, while Jesus, instead of saving Himself, was saving humanity from sins. And if the human eye saw a course of defeat, in God’s eyes a complete victory was being formed.