“Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands,”
My Notes
What Does Matthew 26:67 Mean?
The trial is over. The verdict is in. And now the humiliation begins. "They spit in his face" — spitting on someone in the ancient world was the most degrading act of contempt imaginable. It wasn't just rude. It was a declaration that the person was beneath humanity, worthy of nothing but disgust. They did it to His face — not behind His back, but directly, looking at Him.
"Buffeted him" — the word means to strike with the fist, closed-hand blows. These aren't slaps. They're punches. Delivered to the face of the Son of God by the hands of the religious establishment. The men hitting Him are the Sanhedrin — the highest court of Jewish law, the spiritual leaders of the nation. The people entrusted with God's word are beating God's Son.
"Others smote him with the palms of their hands" — the marginal note suggests rods. Whether open-handed slaps or wooden clubs, the violence is escalating. Each act strips away another layer of dignity. Spit. Fists. Palms or rods. The sequence moves from humiliation to assault to beating.
Jesus could have stopped this at any moment. The same mouth they spit on spoke the universe into existence. The same face they struck was the face Moses begged to see on Sinai. The same body they buffeted would, within days, walk out of a sealed tomb. He absorbed every blow. He wiped nothing away. He struck no one back. The restraint of omnipotence in the face of contempt is the most terrifying kind of love there is.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Why is it important to sit with the suffering of this verse rather than rush to the resurrection? What do you miss if you skip past it?
- 2.How does knowing that Jesus voluntarily endured this contempt change the way you understand His love for you?
- 3.Have you ever experienced humiliation or contempt from someone in authority? How does Jesus' experience in this verse speak into that wound?
- 4.What does Jesus' restraint — choosing not to retaliate when He had the power to destroy them — reveal about the nature of divine strength?
Devotional
It's difficult to sit with this verse. The instinct is to move quickly past it — to get to the resurrection, to the victory, to the part of the story that feels triumphant. But the story requires you to stay here for a moment. In the spit. In the fists. In the open hands striking the face of the only truly innocent man who ever lived.
They spit in His face. The same face that looked at the woman caught in adultery with compassion instead of condemnation. The same face that wept at Lazarus's tomb. The same face that children ran to without fear. They spit on it. And He let them.
The violence here isn't incidental to the gospel. It's central. Every blow He absorbed was a blow you didn't have to take. Every insult He endured was the contempt that your sin deserved being redirected onto the only one who didn't deserve any of it. He didn't just die for you. He was degraded for you. Humiliated for you. Beaten for you.
If you've ever been treated with contempt — spat on, whether literally or figuratively, struck by someone who should have protected you, degraded by someone in authority — Jesus knows. Not from a distance. From the inside. He has been where you've been, and worse. And He stayed there voluntarily, because the only thing stronger than the fists hitting His face was the love holding Him in place.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Saying, prophesy unto us, thou Christ,.... Not that they owned him to be the Messiah; but because he asserted himself to…
Then did they spit in his face - This, among the Jews, as among us, was significant of the highest contempt and insult,…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture