Matthew 27:1-31 

Transcript

We do study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel as Zwingli taught us. So grateful for that. If you want a paper copy of the Scriptures, just lift up your hand and someone will bring one along to you, so you can follow along in the text this morning. Also, glad to welcome all those who are worshiping with us online. Grace and peace to you wherever you might be this morning.

As we near the end of our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we have come to what are some of the most familiar passages in Matthew’s account of the life and work of Jesus. Matthew, the gospel writer who is very interested in showing his originally Jewish audience, and us this morning, what Christ has done in fulfilling the plan of salvation that had begun since the foundation of the world. So, as we open up the Scriptures this morning, we’ll set our eyes more closely on our Lord’s path to the cross: His approach, His passion, His suffering and His death. Throughout His ministry, if you recall in our study of Matthew, He’s been teaching His disciples about His mission to Jerusalem. From there He will lay down his life. If you recall Matthew 16 at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks Peter this question, “Peter, who do you say that I am?” That’s the most consequential, most inescapable question that every person must answer. Who is Jesus? Peter responds, “Lord, You are the Christ, The Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

And it’s from that great confession that Peter makes, and the disciples with him; that’s when Jesus most pointedly begins to reveal to the disciples what is to come. Matthew 16:21, I think it’s on the screen there.

“From that time,” from Peter’s confession, “Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
Matthew 16:21 (ESV)

The Gospel of Mark adds this “and He said this plainly.” He has been teaching His disciples from early on in this ministry here from Caesarea of Philippi Ford and all along, who Jesus is – His mission in salvation history. What He has done for us on this cross that we see behind me, the cross that we just sang about, all of those things are inextricably linked. It’s good for us to give attention to all the treasures of the Gospel that spring from the centerpiece of history, the suffering and cross of Christ.

It’s from this vantage point that we can even begin to scratch the surface, the vantage point of the sacrifice of the sinless, spotless Lamb. From that vantage point, we can even begin to scratch the surface of what is the breadth and the length and the depth and the height of the love of God in Christ. Nearly a quarter to a third of all of the synoptic Gospels, that’s Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are given to the account of Jesus and His approach and His victory over the cross. The Gospel of John, depending on how you divide it up, gives nearly a half of his text to that holy week. Matthew, our gospel writer here this morning is very careful, like I said at the beginning, to link the major Messianic prophetic texts in the Old Testament. The two major ones are the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, the man of sorrows acquainted with grief, and the glorified Son of Man from the prophet Daniel.

Matthew links these two so well throughout his Gospel: suffering servant and glorified Son of Man. A plan of salvation that was set in place for you since the beginning. The great old hymn, we sang it last week, tells it well, the suffering servant: “Man of sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came. Ruined sinners to reclaim. We say, ‘Hallelujah, what a Savior!’” His laying down His life, His life is not taken from Him. This is an important point. He lays down His life for ruined and sinners such as I, and because of what He has done on the cross that is the only hope that I have to stand forgiven before a holy and righteous God. So, we say “Hallelujah, what a Savior!”

As we encounter our Lord in our study today, I pray we will confess along with Peter, “You are the Christ! You are the Messiah!” and bow the knee. “You are the Son of God.” But also, do you remember John the Baptist, what his confession was when Jesus was coming to him in the Gospel of John for baptism? He says, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” And here we are on this fateful week and the approach to the cross to fulfill what John the Baptist said. I love what Dane Ortlund writes in his book, Gentle and Lowly,

“We love until we are betrayed. Jesus continued to the cross, despite betrayal. We love until we are forsaken. Jesus loved through forsakenness. We love up to a limit. Jesus loves to the end.”
Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly

In the course of the passion week, last week’s study with Pastor Matt in the Garden of Gethsemane left us at the evening of Thursday of that week, and today our text begins on the morning of Friday – what we might call a good Friday. So, I invite you to turn there, Matthew chapter 27 in your Bible. We’ll start with verse one in just a moment. Let me pray for us and we’ll get going. I’m delighted to study this with you today. Living God help us so to hear Your Holy Word that we may truly understand, and that understanding we may believe, and believing we may follow in all faithfulness and obedience, and in following You we may come to know You with such intimacy that our ears are attuned to Your voice, our Great Shepherd. May Your Spirit empower us to seek Your glory in all that we do. In Jesus’ name we all said, Amen.

Matthew 27 verse one, “When morning came,” and you could translate that early morning, this is early on Friday, “All the chief priests and the elders of the people took council against Jesus to put him to death.” This is not the first time that we’ve seen these religious leaders do this. We saw it all the way back in Matthew chapter 12 towards the beginning and middle of Jesus’ ministry. But now in this week we are seeing the fever pitch, the escalation of their diabolical plan to destroy Jesus. Verse two, “And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate,” the governor. Pilate was the governor. The title really would be Prefect Governor of Judea; it was a minor role from 26 to 36. And we know that because in 1961 they found a plaque in Caesarea, by the Sea, Caesarea Maritima, that says “Pilate” from 26 to 36 was the prefect governor of Judea. Pilate was brutal.

We read in Luke that he mingled the blood of sacrifices of Jews and other Galileans. Pilate really was a part of the brutal Roman military operation. And here these religious leaders in this religious court have reached the end of their authority. They can’t actually put Him to death under Roman rule, and they sent him to a political court, to Pilate, and we’ll come back to him. Verse three, “Then when Judas, his betrayer saw that Jesus was condemned,” remember Judas betrayed Jesus in the garden last week, as we studied. “When Judas, his betrayer saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priest and the elders saying, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.’” Now this is not the same word that is used for repentance, metanoia, changing of the heart disposition.

This is the word that’s used here for changing his mind is more of a changing of his feelings. He doesn’t like the outcome of what his betrayal has done. He’s been with Jesus through this ministry for three years. He knows that Jesus is innocent and looks like a good religious man, he knows that. It says here in verse four, “He sinned by betraying innocent blood.” In Deuteronomy, we see the law of God says, “If you betray innocent blood, the curse of God be upon you.” Judas is racked with guilt, and he takes that guilt to these religious leaders, not to Jesus, to these religious leaders. They say, these leaders so-called, “What is that to us?” Hear the cynicism in their voice, the vitriol, the anger, hatred. What is your guilt to us? Essentially what they’re saying. “See to it yourself. And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and he hanged himself. But the chief priest taking the pieces of silver said, ‘It is not lawful to put them into the treasury since its blood money.’” Oh, so now they’re scrupulous about purity laws in accounting.

“So, they took council and bought with them the potters’ field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore, that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.” And in fact, even to today, we were just there in Jerusalem about a week and a half ago, you can see that Potters Field. Verse nine, though there’s such hope in the midst of all this evil. “Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah saying, and they took the 30 pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel and they gave them for the Potters’ Field as the Lord directed me.” Matthew is very interested in telling us who’s actually in charge, not Pilate, not these religious leaders, the Lord of history. He uses this wrangled mess of evil and deception and lies and betrayal, weaves those together for His plans and purposes for salvation.

As we witnessed this farce of a trial of Jesus, and that’s what it is before the Sanhedrin, which would be the chief priest, the elders, all these religious leaders, the focus and close attention that Matthew gives to both Judas and these leaders reveals in vivid color the heinous outcome of hearts that are willfully set against God and His chosen one in Christ. They have decidedly rejected God’s plan for salvation in Jesus. And we can see what that wickedness, how that bears fruit. Accounts like this can reveal to us the capacity for the human heart towards evil, towards self-deception, I think we see that here. Teaches us to keep our hearts steadfast, to be watchful over our own hearts. So, let’s consider for a moment Judas who we witnessed again in the garden last week. Here in this text this morning, Judas is obviously racked with a guilty conscience, and I think we all can understand what that feels like.

His choices and his decisions have contributed to the humiliation and suffering of Jesus, who he has followed along with the rest of the disciples for three years. He knows the innocence of Jesus, and now he’s seeing this innocent man suffer. He’s seeing the fruit of this betrayal. So, where does he go with his guilt? He takes his guilt to the vacuous empty religion and ultimately turns in on himself and in desperation sees no other relief than to end his life. This the man who walked with Jesus, he walked alongside with Peter and the other disciples. He would have heard Jesus say, “Come to me, all you are weary are carrying heavy burdens. Give them to me and I will give you rest.” But he does not. Yet this sorrow led him to despair and rejection of Jesus, the Bible distinguishes between different kinds of sorrow over sin.

Peter denied Christ three times the same night that Judas had his premeditated evil betrayal. But Peter wept. Peter wept with a sorrow that led to repentance and ultimately restoration. For Second Corinthians, Paul says this,

“Godly sorrow,…

sorrow over sin,

“…brings repentance that leads to salvation…”

We could say leads to life,

“…And leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”

2 Corinthians 7:10 (NIV)

Listen, friends, for those who are in Christ here today, sorrow, godly sorrow, is the fruit of conviction of sin from the Holy Spirit. It’s a good thing. It can lead us to the cross of Christ where our sin has been paid for in full. We fall to our knees, and we say “Hallelujah, what a Savior.” There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, but we should give thanks for the goodness of spirit-given conviction of sin that leads us back to Him. Worldly sorrow over sin is sorrow, not because we’ve turned from the Lord that we love, but because of the outcome. The consequences of our sin are not to our liking. In worldly sorrow, we don’t recognize our sin against a holy God.

Therefore, there’s nowhere to turn for grace and for mercy We see both kinds of sorrow in chapters 26 and 27. Again, where did Judas go when his conscience was pricked? But to these religious leaders, the very institution these leaders serve, the very institution, the very people whose job it was to offer the mercy of God to God’s people. And they say in essence, The New Living Translation says, “What do we care, Judas? That problem is yours.” Do you see the heinousness of this? And here it is fully on display, but there’s such encouragement the way the section ends, Matthew is always as constantly reminding us of the mystery of the Father’s sovereign hand, weaving this mixture of evil, deception, lies for His plans and purposes for salvation. Hallelujah, what a savior indeed? Let’s keep reading at the verse 11. “Now Jesus stood before the governor.” The lens has shifted now to the governor’s headquarters. “And the governor [that’s Pilate] asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Jesus said, ‘You have said so.’” Some of your translations will say “It is as you say,” or “The description is yours.”

In other words, Jesus is saying, “I hear the confession in your words here, Pilate.” He’s saying, “Yes, I’m the king of the Jews.” But when He was accused by the chief priest and the elders, He gave no answer. So, the other Gospels tell us that again, the scrupulous nature of these religious leaders, they couldn’t because it was Sabbath, they couldn’t even take themselves into the Roman Governor’s headquarters. So, the scene really is these religious leaders and Jesus in the middle. Pilate comes out of his headquarters and he’s hearing these chief priests and elders, Caiaphas and the rest hurling these lies, this deception, to Jesus, and Jesus is not answering them. And so, verse 13, “Then Pilate said to him, ‘Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?’ But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the Governor was greatly amazed.” Verse 15, “Now at the feast,” that’s the feast of Passover, unleavened bread. “At the feast, the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any prisoner whom they wanted.”

And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas,” notorious or you could say a celebrity prisoner. Everyone knew this man. The Gospel of John tells us he was a robber. Luke and Mark tell us that he was a murderer and insurrectionist. This was not a good man to have out on the street. And Pilate, I think, is thinking surely, they’re not going to say we want Barabbas. Barabbas’s name means son of the Father. Interesting. Verse 17, “So, when they had gathered Pilate said to them, ‘Whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas or Jesus who has been called the Christ.’” And I love that Pilate saying this. He’s not making a confession here, but he really is. Jesus who has been called the Messiah. For He knew Pilate was smart. He knew that it was out of envy that the religious leaders had delivered Him up. Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that religious man. For I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.”

They put a lot of stock in dreams in those days. And she felt earlier in this morning that she needed to send a message to him about this. Verse 20, “Now the chief priest and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. So, imagine while Pilate is reading this message from his wife or talking to his wife, they’re out there with placards saying, “Choose Barabbas! Choose Barabbas!” stirring up the crowd and Pilate comes back out. In 21, “The governor again said to them, ‘Which of these two do you want me to release for you?’ And they said, ‘Barabbas,’ and Pilate said to them,” and I think there’s some exasperation here, “’Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?’ And they all said, ‘Let him be crucified.’” Many in this crowd must have been there at the triumphal entry saying, “Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.” And here they are asking for His crucifixion.

Verse 23, “and he said [that’s Pilate] ‘Why? What evil has he done?’” Pilate knows that He’s innocent. “But they shouted all the more, ‘Let him be crucified.’” The escalation of this is just incredible. Verse 24, “So, when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing but rather that a riot was beginning…” Ah, the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome was now in question. So, now this really affects Pilate because that’s his primary job. A riot was beginning. “He took water, and he washed his hands before the crowd saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood. See to it yourselves.’ And all the people answered, ‘His blood be upon us and on our children.’” This is chilling. A mob in this particular time, in this particular place, wants to take the blame for the death of Jesus. There’s something interesting here. They say, “His blood be upon us and our children,” and in the fever pitch of that moment and the escalation of that moment, they were out for blood.

In Acts three we read that the apostles are talking to what’s likely many of these same in the crowd telling them what they’ve done to Jesus, but in some way, can’t you see in the irony that is the passion week? The blood of Christ is for them. It is for me; it is for you. I am a part of this crowd. And many of them do turn and believe and indeed the blood of Christ has been poured out for them. Verse 26, “Then he released for them Barabbas and having scourged Jesus,” which is an evil torture metal, bits of bone, stone, perhaps glass on a whip. Many people didn’t even survive that. “Jesus was then delivered to be crucified.” Did you notice that other than a few words that He spoke with Pilate, and He says a few more the Gospel John records, but other than that, Jesus is silent to these false charges. He’s silent to the religious leaders. The chief priest had originally charged Him with a theological crime, blasphemy claiming to be the son of God.

But once they realized the end of their own authority, that they couldn’t put Him to death, they turned Him over to Pilate and gave Him a political charge of sedition: claiming to be king. Because of envy, the text says, a foul sin of pride and malice all woven together. They betray even their own law and their own responsibilities. But Jesus is mostly silent, and His silence reveals, I think, an immeasurable confidence and His trust in His father and His father’s hand over all of history, over the affairs of men. And how could it not? Jesus wasn’t trembling before Pilate. Pilate was trembling. Pilate was trembling before the crowds because of the power of Rome, because he couldn’t bear to take responsibility for putting to death an innocent man. Pilate is such a weak character. I’m going to put up just a few things of the ways that he tries to obfuscate. He tries to release himself from responsibility. Number one, in Luke, it tells us that he actually sends Jesus to Herod, Herod Antipas, Herod, the great son.

So, the chief priest hands Jesus over, Pilate says, “No, this isn’t my responsibility.” If he’s Galilee, let’s send him to Herod. Herod sends him back, says he’s innocent. But Pilate is there trying to shirk his responsibility. Number two, he attempts to punish and then release Jesus again. We see this in the Gospel of Luke. Rather than putting him to death, Pilate tries to do kind of a half measure and say, “Okay, I’m going to scourge him. I’m going to torture him and then we’ll release him.” And the crowds wouldn’t have that. Again, Pilate trying to shirk his responsibility. Number three, he attempts to evade responsibility by offering to release this criminal Barabbas. Four, he attempts to relocate responsibility to the religious leaders in the crowd by symbolically washing his hands. “This is on you.” What self-deception! Actually, there’s a fifth that I should have put on the slide of the weakness of Pilate’s character. He didn’t listen to his wife. Always, always.

When our Lord is near, we cannot help but tremble in some ways. Do you remember when Jesus entered Jerusalem? What did it say? The city stirred. When Jesus was born, Herod the Great trembled and demanded a massacre. Here the chief priests fear loss of their power, of their privilege, and they want him killed. Pilate fears what the crowds will do. And so, that could reflect on his place in the Roman hierarchy. So, he tries to get rid, washes his hands of Him. Gospel of John tells us, the religious leaders told Pilate in order to manipulate. They said this, “You are no friend of Caesar if you let this man live.” That’s what the religious leader said in the Gospel of John. They knew Pilate’s god was power, but so was theirs. And just a few moments later, Pilate says, “First, are you sure you want me to crucify your king?” And they, the religious leaders, the crowd, say, “We have no other king but Caesar.”

When Jesus came near, their hearts were revealed indeed, for Pilate and for these religious leaders. Their God was power. They had a lust for it, a lust for position. And indeed, they spoke the truth in some kind of twisted way. They had no other God, but Caesar. Their own scriptures testified that “…some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we will trust in the name of our Lord Yahweh.” That’s what their scriptures told them. Yet here they’ve decidedly chosen another God, chariots and horses. It was a day of decision for each of these people. As I reflect at the beginning of this study here, the most consequential, the most inescapable question that anybody can ever be asked and will be asked one day is: “Who is Jesus? And how will you respond to him?” Our Lord knew the power of God and trusted His Father, trusted His guiding hand. How else could He stay silent? He lays down His life. They don’t take it.

He lays down his life. I love what Michael Green says about this silence.

“Total injustice, met by total, silent suffering. Jesus is in control of the proceedings. It is Pilate, it is Caiaphas, it is the reader…”

[that’s us]

“…who is on trial. Jesus is the one with moral authority at His own trial, majestic in silence.”
Michael Green, The Message of Matthew

Let’s keep reading at verse 27, “Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion.” That’s about 600 men before him. Yeah, I think that reveals fear. 600 men for this Galilean preacher. Verse 28, “And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him and twisting together a crown of thorns,” and those thorns would be about an inch long. They put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand, a fake scepter and “…kneeling before him, they mocked him saying, ‘Hail king of the Jews,’ and they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.” The head with a crown of thorns.

They weren’t just boinking Him on the head. They stripped Him of his robe and put His own clothes on Him and led Him away to crucify Him. The mockery here, this mock confession, hail king of the Jews, king of the Jews. Of course, it’s mockery, but what they don’t even know is that it doesn’t go far enough. He’s the King of kings, before them as they’re playing this game, this farce of a trial culminates in the pinnacle, I think, of foolishness and injustice as these soldiers dress up our Lord, as an earthly king. The Roman soldiers play with Jesus not knowing that before them was their creator, the Lord of all, the king of all creation, and by their foolish and wicked torture, they foreshadow a victorious Son of Man. And I don’t think this is lost on Matthew. I think he wants us to hear this.

The victorious Son of Man that is to come – their foolishness foreshadows this, where a multitude will be kneeling with a real crown and a real scepter and in heaven. We hear it in Revelation five, all singing “Worthy is the lamb who is slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and honor and glory and power.” They didn’t know it, but their foolishness was foreshadowing that day. But the road to that glory runs through a suffering servant and the cross of wood. The cost of salvation for those who are foolish, guilty, vial as I am, runs through humiliation and injustice and sorrow. He lays down His life and for that we say, “Hallelujah, what a Savior.” Matthew’s not writing his gospel just to give us more data. I hope you’ve caught that. He’s not there just to give us an account and give us some more information about Jesus.

He’s writing so that we might know who Jesus is; that He is the beloved Son of God, the suffering servant, the Son of Man, the one with all authority in heaven and earth. The King of kings is the one whose blood is poured out for the forgiveness of sins. He’s writing for a decision, a choice that everyone will have to make. What do we learn from his account of the first half of Friday of Holy Week? And we’ll study the last half next week. While on the approach to the cross, we see the betrayal of Judas. We see the wickedness of the religious leaders, the fickleness of the crowds just a few days ago, saying “Hosanna.” Now saying, “Let him be crucified.” We see the weakness of Pilate, the cruelty of the soldiers, and we see the release of this hardened criminal Barabbas. We see those who stood before the King of kings and willingly chose to reject Him, chose another God. Judas teaches us that a life turned in on itself has nowhere to take our guilt, worldly sorrow.

The religious leaders teach us about the fruitlessness of empty religion, vacuous religion, the ugliness. There’s perhaps nothing uglier than a godless Christless religion. Whitewashed tombs are what Jesus called them before. Pilate shows us the tragedy of a man who has bowed his knee to the idol of power. Even his bravado gives way to his insecurity. In John, Pilate tells Jesus, “Don’t you know that I have authority to release you and to crucify you?” He has to show that bravado any chance he can get. He tries to rent himself of responsibility, ultimately putting on a show, washing his hands in attempt to relinquish that responsibility. Pilate teaches us how tantalizing self-deception can be. His hand washing is comical. It’s comical. There is no middle ground when it comes to how we respond to our Lord Jesus. The substitution of Barabbas preaches the gospel to us and literature. We don’t know much about Barabbas other than he was a notorious criminal. This robber, this murderer, insurrectionist. The cross our Lord was crucified on was meant for him.

That is the core of the Gospel. The just for the unjust, the righteous for the unrighteous, and in all the evil that swirled around our Lord that day, He remains silent, trusting His Lord, His father, that all these things will be woven together for the salvation of those who belong to Him. Is that you today? I pray it is. John Stott says this about that substitution

“For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be. God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives that belong to God alone. God accepts penalties that belong to man alone.”
John Stott, The Cross of Christ

Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

He’s worthy of our worship this morning. Amen. Hallelujah, what a Savior! Many of you are familiar with the great preacher, S.M. Lockridge. He’s most famous for his sermon, “That’s My King,” that we watch almost once a year here. He wrote a reflection on Holy Week that captures so much of what we have been studying in our text here this morning. Here’s what he has to say in part, “It’s Friday, and Jesus is praying. Peter is sleeping, Judas is betraying, but Sunday’s coming. It’s Friday. Pilate’s struggling. The council is conspiring, the crowd is vilifying. They don’t even know that Sunday is coming. It’s Friday, the disciples are running like sheep without a shepherd. Mary’s crying. Peter is denying, but they don’t know that Sunday’s coming. It’s Friday. The Romans beat my Jesus. They robe him in Scarlet, they crown him with thorns, but they don’t know that Sunday’s coming. But it’s Friday. It’s only Friday. Sunday’s coming.”

The road to Sunday runs through a suffering servant and a curse of a tree, friends. Because Sunday has come, we can all say with full assurance, “Hallelujah, what a Savior!” Because of the great love He poured out in His suffering and His death for fools like me, ruined sinners like me, because there was a Thursday, because there was a Friday and a Saturday and a glorious Sunday. The cross that was due to Barabbas, the cross that was due to you and to me, has been taken up by the Son of Man, so that we never have to face that penalty again. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. All that is required is to turn to faith, acknowledging our need for a savior. How do you respond to this great love, but “Hallelujah, what a Savior!”

Let’s pray: Lord, we give You thanks this morning for Your kindness to us most vividly displayed on this sorrowful Friday. Open our eyes this morning that we might see, recognize, and give You praise for all that You are and all that You have provided and for Your suffering. In Your work on the cross, by Your wounds, we are healed. Let us never lose the wonder of that truth. May we find life this morning. You alone keep us from turning to things that have no power to save. Holy Spirit, wake us up to the beauty of who You are. In Jesus’ name we all said, Amen.

(Edited for reading)