“In the same way [that is, with similar mockery] the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.’”
(Matthew 27:41-42)
What do we mean today by the verb to save? Ask someone at random on the streets what the verb “to save” means, and what will be the response? Someone who is worried about his financial portfolio may reply, “‘Save’ is what you’d better do if you want money set aside for a comfortable retirement.” Ask a sports fan what the verb means, and he may reply, “‘Save’ is what a fine goalie does; he stops the ball from going into the net, and thus saves the point.” Ask computer techies what the verb means, and they will surely tell you that you jolly well better save your data by backing it up frequently, for otherwise when your computer crashes you may lose everything.
The mockers in verses 41 and 42 do not mean any of these things, of course. They are saying that apparently Jesus “saved” many other people—he healed the sick, he exorcised demons, he fed the hungry; occasionally he even raised the dead—but now he could not “save” himself from execution. He could not be much of a savior after all. Thus even their formal affirmation that Jesus “saved” others is uttered with irony in a context that undermines his ability. This would-be savior is a disappointment and a failure, and the mockers enjoy their witty sneering.
But once again, the mockers speak better than they know. Matthew knows, and the readers know, and God knows, that in one profound sense if Jesus is to save others, he really cannot save himself.
We must begin with the way Matthew himself introduces the verb to save. It first shows up in Matthew’s first chapter. God tells Joseph that the baby in his fiancée’s womb has been engendered by the Holy Spirit. God further instructs him, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (1:21). “Jesus” is the Greek form of “Joshua,” which, roughly, means “yhwh saves.” With this meaning so placarded at the beginning of his Gospel, Matthew gives his readers insight into Jesus the Messiah’s mission by reporting why God himself assigned this name: Jesus has come to save his people from their sins.
(from the book Scandalous, by D.A. Carson. Available in the BLB Bookstore.)