Matthew 27:11-26 - Before Pilate

27:11

Jesus is now before Pilate. The chief priests were not in control of events, both because of the legal situation, and their own fears, but they had a definite agenda, to kill Jesus. Now we come to Pilate. He was another man who was not in control of events, he was also motivated by fear, and he did not want to be faced with the issue of Jesus. Pilate had no agenda except his own survival. He asked Jesus “Are you the King of the Jews?” He asked this to see if Jesus was leading a rebellion. Jesus did not answer him directly, merely saying “You have said so”.

27:12-14

The religious leaders were there, and after Jesus’ response, they made their accusations against Jesus. Much to Pilates’s surprise, Jesus did not give any answer to their accusations. Jesus is treating the religious leaders with the contempt that they deserved, He also knew where things were heading, and why they were heading there. It was the plan of salvation that was being fulfilled.

27:15

Pilate tries to wriggle out of the situation, using political means. This would not work as now was crunch time, one had to make a decision, but Pilate seeks to avoid making a decision and in the end has the decision made for him. It was the custom at the time to release one prisoner a year. This might seem a rather strange custom, but it was done as a sop to the governed people. So some political prisoner would be released. Pilate maybe knew that Jesus was popular among the common people, so hoped they would choose Jesus, and that would be the problem solved.

27:16-18

Pilate had another prisoner, Jesus Barabbas. He was a “well-known” person, presumably in prison for crimes against the Roman rulers. So Pilate offered the people a choice, Brabbas or Jesus. He knew full well that the religious leaders had offered up Jesus to him not out of any concern for the well being of the Roman regime, but “out of envy”. 

27:19

Pilate’s wife warns her husband to having nothing to do with Jesus. She recognises that Jesus was innocent and had a dream about Him. People took dreams very seriously in those days. We should also bear in mind that there are several instances in the Bible where God speaks to people through a dream. So why did this happen and why are we told about it? Maybe it is to show that although the things that happened were decreed by God, man still has responsibility. One could say that Pilate was unfortunate to be in the position, but he knew Jesus was innocent, and he was warned to have nothing to do with it. He should have told the religious leaders to get lost, but he did not do so.

27:20-22

Left to their own devices, the crowds may well have chosen Jesus. But the religious leaders persuaded the crowds to go for Barabbas, though it is not clear who they did this. Anyway, the result was that they shouted for Barabbas to be released. More than that, they shouted for Jesus to be crucified.

27:23

It is clear from all the gospel accounts that Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent and the whole charade was a setup by the Jewish religious leaders to get rid of Jesus. Pilate confronted the crowd with the reality of their actions, “What crime has He committed?”. But the crowd were not for looking at reality. Sin does that to us, it blinds and distorts our thinking. 

27:24

Pilate so he was getting nowhere and infamously washed his hands of the matter.  He was half right in what he said, “It is your responsibility”. The people had to accept responsibility for what they were doing, they were manipulating events in order to have Jesus killed. However, he was wrong when he said “I am innocent of this man’s blood”. He was not innocent. Pilate had the authority to release Jesus, he was the one who ultimately signed the death sentence. There are times when people object to saying the Jews killed Jesus, and terrible things have been done in history using this as a justification for the terrible actions. The Jews were guilty, but so were the Gentiles. We are all guilty. Romans 3:23 sums up the situation, “All have sinned ..” Anytime in history when one group decides that all their problems are the result of someone else's sins is a recipe for disaster. 

27:25,26

The people react foolishly, blatantly accepting the “guilt”, almost glorying in it. “His blood is on us and on our children”. So Pilate released Barabbas, had Jesus flogged and handed over to be crucified. Why have Jesus flogged? This was a gratuitous act of violence, but times were violent. Indeed, most of history has been violent. This was a dark day for mankind, but through the grace and power of God it would become the day of our salvation.

Matthew 27:1`-10 - Judas hangs himself

27:1-10

The chief priests and religious leaders seemed to be getting their way and made their plans to complete the task (as they saw it). Only the Roman occupier could have Jesus executed, so they handed Jesus over to Pilate the governor. 

Judas now started to realise the consequences of his actions, and how he  was being used. He tried to get some self respect back by returning the money he had been paid. The religious leaders weren’t interested. We need to beware when we sin, for there will be one to help us afterwards, only Jesus if we come to God in repentance. Judas went and hung himself. Superficially there seems to be a contradiction between Matthew's and Luke’s account in Acts, The simplest explanation is that after hanging himself the rope broke and Judas fell to the ground.

The chief priests demonstrate their hypocrisy be being fastidious about using the money that Judas had returned. Matthew saw this as fulfilment of scripture (Jer 19:1-13).

Matthew 26:65-75 - Trial and Denial

26:65-68

The high priest knew full well that Jesus was claiming equality with God. There really are only two choices. Either Jesus is the Son of God, and therefore we have to worship Him. Or He is not and is either utterly deluded or utterly evil.  The religious leaders chose the latter response and announced that Jesus is worthy of death. They then mocked, insulted and abused Jesus.  Oh, how foolish they are going to look on the last day. We need to remember that it is the Son of God in whom we believe and trust, the One who will return as Lord of all. We should remind ourselves of this, especially when tempted to give up. Doing so will help us to think clearly, and to avoid making stupid decisions.

26:69-75

The chapter finished with Peter denying Jesus, the very thing he so vehemently denied he would ever do. The denial is made worse by the fact that he denied Jesus before a servant girl, though she may well have spoken to a soldier or someone if Peter had admitted knowing Jesus. It is significant that in 1 Peter 1:13 Peter tells us to prepare our minds for action, or to have sober minds. We can so easily be caught off guard. We will react with our flesh, whose first response will be to avoid danger, so we will lie or deny Jesus. Living by the Spirit is not some mystical way of living, it involves resolving in our minds to put Christ first. In fact, in 1 Peter 3:15 Peter tells us to do that very thing. Peter had clearly learnt from his failure. At the end of it Peter calls down curses upon himself and wept bitterly. Finally he remembered what Jesus had said he would do. 

Jesus knew what Peter would do, but knowing this He did not reject Peter. When He told Peter what he would do, Jesus said that He had prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail (Lk 22:31,32), and that after he had turned back he was to strengthen his brothers. In John 22:17 when Jesus restores Peter He tells him to “feed my sheep”. Likewise, God knew that all of us would fail Him. Like Peter we must not lose our faith, and we must turn back to Jesus.

Matthew 26:57-61 - On Trial

26:57,58

These events must have occurred at some unearthly hour. The religious leaders were ready at this hour for the “trial”. Peter was following from a distance. There was part of Peter that wanted to be with Jesus, to be identified with Him. But, as we know, there was another part that was motivated by fear, and it is that part that ultimately determined his actions.

26:59-61

Matthew does not mince his words, saying that the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence in order to condemn Jesus to death. When we think the death of an innocent person is the answer to a problem we are in serious trouble. Today we can see this scenario when we think abortion is the answer to a problem, or the death of an elderly person is the answer. Many false witnesses came forward, but they could not find a coherent case (Mark 14:56). Finally they found two who said Jesus was able to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. These words resembled what Jesus said, except that He did not say He would destroy the temple. The importance of their being two witnesses was that this complied with the Law.

Matthew 26:47-56 - Jesus Arrested

26:47-49

Judas now arrived, this was no surprise to Jesus as v46 shows. He came with an armed crowd from the religious leaders.  Judas gave Jesus the infamous “Judas kiss”. All this was done for political purposes. The religious leaders wanted it to seem that it was Jesus’ own people who had given up on Him. As we know, all this was achieving the purposes of God. Periodically we hear of “well known” Christians giving up on their faith for some reason or other. In these situations we should feel sorrow for that person, but we should never despair, for God is always in control, men never are.

26:50-52

The word “friend” here is used as a mild rebuke, or an ironic sense. Jesus was then arrested by the religious leaders “soldiers” and Jesus is now in the hands of men. From John 18:10 we know that it was Peter who cut off the ear off the high priest’s servant. Jesus tells Peter to put his sword away. “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword”. This would be drastically true for the religious leaders, if they lived another thirty five years or so, for the Roman armies would crush the city. Armed strength does not achieve the purposes of the kingdom of God.

26:53-56

Moreover, Jesus could have called upon His Father, and myriads of angels would have been at His disposal. He could have crushed any army if He chose to do so. But this was not God’s plan. God’s plan was now fully in operation and death, sin and the devil would be defeated. This would all happen according to the Scriptures.

Matthew is recording Jesus’ words here to make it clear that this is no earthly rebellion. The battle is not against flesh and blood, and the only life that would be lost in this battle would be that of Jesus. The hypocrisy and weakness of the religious leaders is exposed, and we see that Jesus is the only one who is really in control.

Matthew 26:32-46 - Gethsemane

26:32,33

As well as the “bad news” Jesus has the good news of the resurrection, “after I have risen”. But this went completely over the heads of the disciples. See that Peter immediately talks about the denial, saying that he would never deny Jesus, even if everyone else denied Jesus he would not do so. 

26:34,35

Jesus knew Peter better than Peter himself did, like wise Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves, he knows the depths of our sinfulness, and our weaknesses. Yet he still loves us , as He still loved Peter. However, Peter still insisted that He would stick by Jesus, no matter what.

26:36-46

We now come to Gethsemane, where the weakness of Peter’s commitment becomes even clearer, for He cannot even stay awake to pray with Jesus. We see here the depths of what Jesus was feeling. He knew what He was about to go through, yet remained committed to doing the Father’s will. Jesus was resolute.

Matthew 26:27-33 - Denial predicted

26:27-30 

The sacrifices were a central part of the old covenant. Leviticus is particularly important in showing how they represented the taking away of our sins. The wine represents the blood of Jesus shed for them all, and all who believe. The blood represents death. The old testament sacrifices were ineffective in themselves, but pointed ahead to the blood of Jesus. The new covenant is founded on the blood of Jesus. His sacrifice is for the forgiveness of sins (and as Hebrews makes clear, renders all other sacrifices irrelevant and superseded). “I will not drink ...” This looks forward to the heavenly banquet. At Passover the meal was concluded by the singing of Ps 115-118. This is the hymn that the disciples sang.

26:31

The “bad news” continued, with Jesus telling them that they would all fall away. We have just had Jesus talking about Judas betraying Him. Later He will tell Peter that he will deny Him. Here we have Jesus saying they will all fall away. Peter may have been the most obvious “denier”, but the rest were little better. We are faced here with the complete failure of humanity. Of course, Pilate and the religious leaders are the most overt failures, but even His disciples, His followers, were failures. We are saved purely by the grace of God. And they would fall away “on account of me”, they would fail to remain loyal to Jesus. This was a fulfilment of Zech 13:7.

26:32,33

As well as the “bad news” Jesus has the good news of the resurrection, “after I have risen”. But this went completely over the heads of the disciples. See that Peter immediately talks about the denial, saying that he would never deny Jesus, even if everyone else denied Jesus he would not do so.