Matthew 27:11-44 – Guilt, Dreams, and Glory

Our deliverance from evil has been secured by means of Jesus’s deliverance unto evil. Matthew writes,

11 Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You have said so.” 12 But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” 14 But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

Matthew 27:11-14

When Jesus stood before the governor, the chief priests, and the elders, there was no charge they could level at him for which he might be able to plead guilty other than the charge of being the Messiah. Once that charge was answered, Jesus remained silent, but his silence spoke for us all. It would not take long for any court to find a valid reason to prosecute any of us if the standard of law to be applied was the law of God. Even if such a trial were to occur, as we stood in front of the judge, most of us would probably end up giving a response somewhat similar to the reply Adam and Eve gave when they were accused: it’s someone else’s fault. But such a reply would be nonsense: we are guilty of breaking the law of God; we stand before the judge with no excuse; we have no evidence to offer that would deny our guilt. When Jesus stood silent in front of his accusers, he stood in our place doing what we should do if we had been there instead of him. Our guilt silenced Jesus as he stood in the face of judgment.

The judge in this case, Pilate, seems to know that Jesus was not guilty as he questioned him. Matthew writes,

15 Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. 16 And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. 17 So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” 18 For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. 19 Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.” 20 Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. 21 The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” 22 Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” 23 And he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”

Matthew 27:15-23

The most obvious observation we could make about this passage is how Jesus has been pitted against a murderer (Mark 15:7). Pilate asks the crowd if they would prefer to crucify Jesus, a man guilty of no sin, or Barabbas, a man guilty of what is often seen as the most heinous of sins: murder. But the crowd, persuaded by the chief priests and elders, preferred that Jesus would die and the murderer be set free. At face value, this shows us how easily a mob of people can be influenced, a closer look reveals the dark hearts of the religious leaders, and a recognition that the punishment meted out upon Jesus is the punishment that should have been given to Barabbas. An even closer look reveals that Jesus endured punishment so that all sinners could go free; not only Barabbas, but we are also recipients of this grace. When Jesus was delivered over to the hands of evil men whose hearts were filled with evil intentions, Barabbas was delivered from the punishment due him, but most importantly any who looks upon Jesus as their sole means of salvation was delivered, at that moment, from eternal punishment in hell for their sins. Our deliverance from evil comes as a result of Jesus’s deliverance into evil hands.

However, Jesus’s substitution for Barabbas is not the only meaningful observation we can make made from this passage. Nestled in the middle of the cries for Jesus’s death is an event the likes of which we haven’t seen since the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel (Matt. 1:20; 2:12, 13, 19, 22). Just like Joseph and the wise men in Matthew 1 and 2, Pilate’s wife had a dream. We aren’t told the content of the dream, we are only told that Pilate’s wife was greatly disturbed and, as a result, she warned Pilate about becoming involved in Jesus’s trial. This placed Pilate in an odd position. On the one hand, Pilate was a Roman-appointed governor charged with, among other things, keeping the peace in the territory. He may have known something about the religions of the area, but he was not subject to them. As governor, it mattered not to him which person was crucified, it only mattered that the crowds were placated and the peace was preserved. But on the other hand, Pilate was the husband to his wife, and when she told him that Jesus was righteous and the trial was unjust Pilate risked peace in his marriage. Some have suggested that Pilate was a spineless ruler who just wanted things to go well for himself both in his kingdom and in his marriage, and perhaps he was. But we must not forget that God places rulers in their positions of authority (Rom. 13:1), as such, God had placed Pilate in his position so he would be a key figure in the crucifixion of Jesus, the Father’s only begotten son. The real question we must ask is regarding the role Pilate played.

It is possible that Pilate thought that the crowd would choose Barabbas, a murderer, for crucifixion, instead of Jesus. Perhaps his wife’s dream, most assuredly sent by God, influenced his decision to question the crowd multiple times regarding their will in the matter. But with Pilate being a somewhat dispassionate Roman governor, there seems to be no reason why God would warn him about Jesus’s innocence through a dream unless God either wanted his Son to be pardoned, something that did not happen, or God wanted the guilt of the crime to be properly assigned. When Pilate offered the notorious prisoner Barabbas, a man guilty of murder, as a more reasonable option for crucifixion, he forced the Jewish crowd to take responsibility for Jesus’s death. Matthew emphasizes this very point when he writes,

24 So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” 25 And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” 26 Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.
27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. 28 And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. 31 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.

Matthew 27:24-31

Pilate washed his hands of the blood that was about to be shed. Some might think this was a futile act, an act more like a fantasy than anything real, but I think it is possible that when Pilate washed his hands it was more than just a symbolic fantasy. Even though Pilate had Jesus scourged, allowed him to be mocked, and delivered Jesus over to those who would crucify him, the Jewish religious leaders at that time took full responsibility for Jesus’s innocent blood. This is not, as some are wont to claim, a statement of anti-semitism; it is a statement of fact. Matthew, a Jew, records that the Jewish religious leaders incited the crowds to demand Jesus’s crucifixion and then accept the responsibility for spilling Jesus’s blood. Or, if we want to put this in other words, the religious leaders of the nation chosen by God to be his own people rejected God and thus were used by God to bring the grace and mercy of the cross to the rest of the world. This is, I believe, exactly what Paul addressed when he wrote the following,

22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

Romans 9:22-24

Like Esau and Pharaoh, the Jews at the time of Jesus had hardened their hearts in such a way that they became the tools of God to bring his mercy to the world. History shows that within a very short period of time — some forty years — Jerusalem was sacked and Israel dispersed: Israel experienced God’s wrath so the world might receive God’s mercy. Our deliverance from evil — from judgment and hell — comes by means of Jesus’s deliverance into the evil hands of that generation so they might carry out their evil intentions. But, as Joseph told his brothers who had sold him into slavery, what man means for evil, God uses for good (Gen. 50:20). This truth brings us hope, but it also bears with it a warning. We have hope because, even though many bastions of evil take root in the soil of this fallen earth, God still brings forth mercy and grace and peace. But we are also warned because if we are not careful, our hearts can become hardened and we may find ourselves being used, as were the Jewish religious leaders in Jesus’s time, as vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make knows the riches of the Father’s glory. Our prayer for deliverance from evil is not only so that evil does not touch us, but it is also so that we do not become a hardened evil vessel used by God to bring forth his mercy to others.

It is for this reason, I believe, that Matthew included the following narrative. He wrote,

32 As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross.

Matthew 27:32

The cross, the implement used for Jesus’s death, may have been carried by Simon, but our sin placed it on Simon’s back. Much like the release of Barabbas showed us how we have gone free at the expense of Jesus’s condemnation, Simon’s conveyance of the cross to Golgotha shows us that we, even though now free from condemnation, are still responsible for the death of our Savior. Jesus may have taken our place as he walked to Golgotha, but we carried his cross to the hill so the Romans would accomplish the will of the crowds. Once that journey was taken, Matthew writes,

33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. 35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. 36 Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. 37 And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” 38 Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. 39 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.

Matthew 27:33-44

I don’t know why Jesus refused to drink the wine. Perhaps it tasted bitter, perhaps it was infused with a pain inhibitor, perhaps it wasn’t as good as the wine he made in Cana, I just don’t know. But I do know that Jesus chose to be hung on the cross we carried to Golgotha for the sins we have committed and will commit. The pain and humiliation accompanying such a public spectacle should have been ours, but it wasn’t. We should have been the ones hanging naked on a cross watching others tear up the last of our worldly possessions, but we weren’t. We should have been mocked in the last moments of our life, but those words were scowled at Jesus, not us. Even though we were not on the cross like we should have been, we were all still, in a very real way, present. Like the guards, some of us don’t care about what is happening on the cross and we sit by dividing up the wealth of this world. Like the criminals, some of us mock Jesus, even with our last breath. But some of us stand at the foot of the cross, looking up, and are thankful that Jesus endured our pain, bore our humiliation, and received the mockery due us. We look up and see that when Jesus was delivered into the hands of evil an answer was given for every one of the prayers we have ever and will ever utter for deliverance from evil. And, if we are paying close attention to the answer on the cross, we will realize that our deliverance from evil is an invitation into the Father’s eternally powerful and glorious kingdom. For such we pray.

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