Jesus Faces Pontius Pilate
Matthew 27:1-31
Jesus’ hands were tied behind his back as He stood in front
of the clamoring group of religious leaders.
They waved their fists at him and shouted insults and accusations. Jesus had just been arrested and this trial
was set up quickly in the middle of the night.
The priests and elders were anxious to kill Jesus and indeed before
morning they pronounced Him guilty of death because He had admitted that He is
the Son of God. (Matthew 26:64)
When Judas saw that the religious leaders had condemned
Jesus, he began to worry that perhaps he had done wrong by charging money for
helping Jesus’ enemies arrest Him. Judas
knew the religious leaders were plotting to kill Jesus when he joined forces
with them. But now he could have been
worrying that God might hold him accountable for scheming as to how to arrest
Jesus while pretending to be His devoted disciple!
Judas ran back to the
chief priests and elders and told them that he didn’t want the thirty pieces of
silver after all and that he had betrayed “innocent blood”. The religious leaders laughed at him and
said: “What is that to us?” (Matthew 27:4) Judas in desperation threw the
pieces of silver down on the temple floor and ran away and hanged himself. The chief priests took the silver pieces and
later bought a plot of land to bury strangers in and named the field the “Field
of Blood,” since it was paid for with blood money!
When morning came the religious leaders bound Jesus and
dragged him out to be judged by Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. The nation of Israel
When Jesus arrived in Pilate’s court, all hell broke loose
and vile hatred spilled over in the courtroom!
Hate in the name of God?? The mob
of religious leaders began waving their fists and angrily accusing Jesus of one
crime after another. Pilate needed to
know how bad He was. Since Jesus claimed
to be a king He might pose a danger to Rome
“Don’t you hear all of the terrible things they are saying
about you?” Pilate asks Jesus. “Aren’t
you going to stand up for yourself?” But
Jesus just stood there! He just stood
there and never said a word! He never
defended Himself! Never countered any of
the lies told about Him! Never tried to
protect His reputation! Scripture says
that Pilate was very impressed with Jesus.
About this time
Pilate’s wife interrupts the session and she runs over to her husband crying
and whispers something in his ear. She
has just wakened from a dream about Jesus.
She tells her husband that Jesus is a just man and she warns and begs
Pilate not to be a part of sentencing Jesus to death. Dreams were believed to be messages of divine
revelation and indeed this one was I believe.
Pilate dismisses his wife and her dream and turns to Jesus
and asks Him: “Tell me, are you the King of the Jews?” And Jesus answers: “It is as you say.” (Matthew 27:11) Pilate asks Jesus: “You are a King
then?” And Jesus answers: “You are right
I am a king. For this cause I was born
and for this cause I have come into the world.
That I should bear witness to the truth.
Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” (John 18:37)
And then Pilate looks at Jesus and asks the question: “What is the
truth?” (John 18:38a)
What is the truth? Pilate’s question regarding truth rings down
through the millennia. The answer is
that Truth is not a principle. Truth is a Person. Truth is Jesus Christ. One of the clearest and best-known
statements of Jesus is: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through
Me.” (John 14:6
Notice that Jesus says, “I am the
truth…” He does not say that truth is a
religion or a ritual or a set of rules and regulations. He says “I am the Truth.” Truth is Jesus Christ. This is what separates Jesus Christ from
every other leader of every other faith.
Other leaders have said, “I am looking for the truth,” or “I am teaching
the truth,” or “I point to the truth,” or “I am a prophet of the truth.” But Jesus comes out and says, “I am the
Truth.”
A lot of people say, “I think
Jesus was just a great teacher.” But He
could not be just that. No great teacher
would claim to be God if he wasn’t.
Either Jesus is fooling 2.3 billion people who call themselves
Christians and believe a lie, or Jesus was insane when He said He was the Truth
– or Jesus is who He said He was. We
Christians dare to believe that Jesus is the Truth. that He is our Savior – the Way and the
Life. We step out and believe and then
it happens! We are never the same
again. We are born again – changed. He didn’t just go about Israel
Pilate likes Jesus and believes
that He is innocent. He wants to save
Him and believes that the religious leaders are just trying to have Jesus put
to death because they are envious of Him.
(Matthew 27:18) But Pilate may
disregard his conscience to please the religious leaders. He has to work with them and he doesn’t want
more political uprisings. That wouldn’t
look good on his record. So what is he
to do? Will Pilate do what he believes
is right and use his power to stop this injustice – this murder - or will he
take the easy way out and please the crowd?
What do we do in these kinds of situations?
Each year the Romans practiced the
custom of releasing one prisoner back to the Jewish people. At these times the Jewish people could choose
which prisoner they wanted to have freed from prison. A crowd had gathered as Pilate announced that
he found no fault in Jesus. And hearing
this the crowd went wild and yelled back angry insults.
One of the prisoners named
Barabbas was a notorious murderer and Pilate thought that the crowd would never
think of releasing him. So Pilate had
the guards drag Barabbas out in chains so that both Jesus and Barabbas were
standing together in front of the crowd. Jesus stood there silently in chains with his
head hanging down while Barabbas swore and spit and tried to kick a guard. Then Pilate called to the crowd: “Which
prisoner do you want me to release to you?
Barabbas the murderer or Jesus who is called Christ?” (Matthew 27:17) .
Pilate was sure the Jewish people
would choose Jesus over Barabbas. Hadn’t
Jesus gone about healing so many of these same people? Why would they want to kill Him? And then surely the Jewish people would not
want a hardened criminal and murderer like Barabbas living in their midst! But to Pilate’s surprise the crowd shouted back
“Barabbas” “Barabbas” “Release Barabbas to us!” Scripture says “the
chief priests and elders had persuaded the crowds that they should ask for
Barabbas to be released and to crucify Jesus.”
(Matthew 27:20) And the people
were too lazy to think for themselves but they just did what their leaders told
them to do! Do we ever do that today?
Pilate was amazed and
disappointed. “Then what do you want me to do with
Jesus?” he yelled back at the enraged mob. “Crucify him, crucify him!” They all shrieked back at Pilate shaking
their fists and jumping up and down! And
Jesus stood there silently before them with his head hanging down. “What evil has he done?” Pilate screamed back. But the crazed mob had gone into a frenzy of
hate! Hate and more hate spilled out
everywhere. “Crucify him, crucify him!”
was their answer. And they
shrieked it out again. .”CRUCIFY HIM,
CRUCIFY HIM.” The mob was stirred up now
and running around yelling and grabbing their clubs and waving their swords and
Pilate feared they could start an uprising!
So Pilate gave in to the angry mob
and told them that they could have their own way. He asked for a bowl of water and he sat down
and washed his hands in front of the crowd and announced to them all: “I am
innocent of the blood of this just Person.
You see to it.” (Matthew
27:24b) And the pumped up crowd agreed
that this death was on them. Then Pilate
released Barabbas to the crowd and he ordered the sorrowful Jesus to be whipped
and sent Him away to be crucified.
God foretold these terrible events
seven hundred years before they happened through the prophet Isaiah. Let’s listen: “He is despised and rejected by men. A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And
we hid, as it were, our faces from Him.
He was despised and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows. . He was wounded for our sins
and bruised for our iniquities. The
chastisement for our peace is upon Him.
And by His stripes we are healed. “(Isaiah 53:3-5,)
And then we can almost see Jesus
standing there silently with his head down when we read more of Isaiah’s
prophecy of old. “He was oppressed and
afflicted yet He opened not His mouth.
He was led away as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so He opened not His mouth. He was taken
from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the
living. And for the sins of the people He
was striken. (Isaiah 52:7-8)
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