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Such words never were, never could with truth and fitness, be applied to any but the one death.

I. The first point to be noted here is, THE VOLUNTARY CHARACTER OF THIS DEATH. There was no power, no law of nature that made death a necessity to the Lord Jesus. That pilgrimage into the regions of the tomb He could undertake or decline, according to His own pleasure. He died simply because He willed to die. He might have left the world in a very different way. Like His own servant Elias, with whom He conversed of this decease, He might have returned to heaven in a chariot of fire; or, if He must taste death in order that He might be perfectly like unto His brethren, His departure might have been calm and tranquil, in the stillness of home, amid the sympathies and tears of loving friends. Such a death would surely have been sufficient, if the end of His ministry had been simply the manifestation of God in the flesh. Instead of a close so fitting to a life of purity, He chose to accomplish a decease, in which He should be "numbered with the transgressors." Surely for this there must have been wise and sufficient reason. The fact that He died thus, is the proof that the great design of His advent could be fulfilled only by such a death. With Him it was the centre-fact of His whole history.

II. THE IMPORTANCE ATTACHED TO THIS DEATH. He had work to do in the world beside, a bright example to give; the true ideal of a human life to set before man; a perfect righteousness to win; a thousand blessings to scatter; His own deep love and sympathy with human sorrows to discover: but His great work was this — to die.

III. THE TRUE MEANING OF THIS DEATH. The New Testament speaks in various ways — sometimes it employs the language of type and symbol — sometimes it gives us distinct and explicit statements but all its representations of this death converge to one point, and enforce one grand idea. "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." Here is an expressive metaphor — one whose signification it cannot be hard to discover. What is the meaning of the apostle? The Paschal Lamb died for the deliverance of the nation — through his death the nation escaped the sword of the destroying angel — the animal was slain, the blood was sprinkled, and the people were saved. So was Christ our Passover sacrificed, that we might be delivered — His death is our life — in virtue of His blood of sprinkling we are purified and accepted. "The decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem." Thus, then, did the man Christ Jesus ever keep before Him that goal of suffering and humiliation to which His steps were tending. Not ignorantly did He rush on perils and death, entering on a path whose end He did not discern until retreat had become impossible. Knowing what the work was, He had deliberately undertaken it, and throughout all its stages, the issue was ever present to His eye. Very early in His ministry did He indicate that He was set apart to this service — was anointed unto sacrifice.

(J. G. Rogers, B. A.)

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KJV: And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias:

WEB: Behold, two men were talking with him, who were Moses and Elijah,