John Calvin Commentary Matthew 27:42

"He saved others; himself he cannot save. He is the King of Israel; let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe on him." — Matthew 27:42 (ASV)

If he is the King, of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we shall believe him. For they should not embrace as King anyone who did not fit the description given by the prophets. But Isaiah 52:14; 53:2 and Zechariah 13:7 expressly represent Christ as devoid of comeliness, afflicted, condemned, and accursed, half-dead, poor, and despised, before he ascends the royal throne. It is therefore foolish of the Jews to desire someone of an opposite character, whom they might acknowledge as King; for by doing so, they declare that they have no goodwill toward the King whom the Lord had promised to give. But let us, on the contrary, so that our faith may firmly rely on Christ, seek a foundation in his cross; for in no other way could he be acknowledged as the lawful King of Israel than by fulfilling what belonged to the Redeemer. And therefore we conclude how dangerous it is to depart from the word of God by following our own speculations. For the Jews, because they had imagined for themselves a King suggested by their own senses, rejected Christ crucified, because they considered it absurd to believe in him; while we regard it as the best and highest reason for believing, that he voluntarily subjected himself on our account to the ignominy of the cross.

He saved others; himself he cannot save. It was an inexcusable ingratitude that, taking offense at the present humiliation of Christ, they utterly disregarded all the miracles which he had previously performed before their eyes. They acknowledge that he saved others. By what power, or by what means? Why do they not, in this instance at least, observe with reverence an evident work of God? But since they maliciously exclude—and, as much as they can, try to extinguish—the light of God which shone in the miracles, they are unworthy of forming an accurate judgment of the weakness of the cross. Because Christ does not immediately deliver himself from death, they reproach him for inability. And it is all too common for wicked people to estimate the power of God by present appearances, so that whatever he does not accomplish they think that he cannot accomplish, and so they accuse him of weakness whenever he does not comply with their wicked desire. But let us believe that Christ, though he might easily have done so, did not immediately deliver himself from death, because he did not wish to deliver himself. And why did he temporarily disregard his own safety, except because he cared more for the salvation of us all? We see then that the Jews, through their malice, employed, in defense of their unbelief, those things by which our faith is truly edified.