Matthew 27

Matthew 27:1

K. Morning Trial Before the Sanhedrin (27:1, 2) The third stage of the religious trial took place before the Sanhedrin in the morning. No case was to be completed on the same day it was begun unless the defendant was acquitted. A night was supposed to elapse before the verdict was pronounced so that feelings of mercy might have time to arise. In this case the religious leaders seemed intent on stifling any feelings of mercy. However, since night trials were irregular, they convened a morning session to give legal validity to their verdict. Under Roman rule the Jewish leaders had no authority to inflict capital punishment. Therefore we now see them hurrying Jesus to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. Though their hatred of everything Roman was intense, they were willing to use this power to satisfy a greater hatred. Opposition to Jesus unites the bitterest foes.

Matthew 27:3

L. Judas’ Remorse and Death (27:3-10) 27:3, 4 Realizing his sin in betraying innocent blood, Judas offered the money back to the chief priests and elders. These arch conspirators who had cooperated so eagerly a few hours ago now refused to have any further part in the matter. This is one of the rewards of treachery. Judas was remorseful, but this was not a godly repentance that leads to salvation. Sorry for the effects which his crime brought on himself, he was yet unwilling to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. 27:5 In desperation Judas threw down the pieces of silver in the temple where only the priests could go, then went out and committed suicide. Comparing this narrative with Act_1:18, we conclude that he hanged himself on a tree, that the rope or branch broke, and that his body was hurled over a precipice, causing it to be disemboweled. 27:6 The chief priests, too spiritual to put the money into the temple treasury because it was the price of blood, were the guilty ones who paid that money to have the Messiah turned over to them. This didn’t seem to bother them. As the Lord had said, they made the outside of the cup clean, but inside it was full of deceit, treachery, and murder. 27:7-10 They used the money to buy a potter’s field where unclean Gentile strangers might be buried, little realizing how many Gentile hordes would invade their land and splatter their streets with blood. It has been a Field of Blood for that guilty nation ever since. The chief priests unwittingly fulfilled Zechariah’s prophecy that the burial money would be used to make a purchase from a potter (Zec_11:12-13). Strangely enough, the Zechariah passage has an alternative readingtreasury for potter (see RSV). The priests had scruples about putting blood money into the treasury so they fulfilled the prophecy of the other reading by giving it to the potter in exchange for his field. (Daily Notes of the Scripture Union). Matthew assigns this prophecy to Jeremiah, whereas it obviously comes from the book of Zechariah. He probably labels the citation from Jeremiah because that prophet stood at the head of the prophetic roll he used, according to the ancient order preserved in numerous Hebrew manuscripts and familiar from Talmudic tradition. A similar usage occurs in Luk_24:44 where the book of Psalms gives its name to the entire third section of the Hebrew canon.

Matthew 27:11

M. Jesus’ First Appearance Before Pilate (27:11-14) The Jews’ real grievances against Jesus were religious, and they tried Him on that basis. But religious charges carried no weight in the court of Rome. Knowing that, when they brought Him before Pilate they pressed three political charges against Him (Luk_23:2): (1) He was a revolutionary who posed a threat to the empire; (2) He urged people not to pay taxes, therefore undermining the prosperity of the empire; (3) He claimed to be a King, therefore threatening the power and position of the emperor. In Matthew’s Gospel we hear Pilate interrogating Him on the third charge. Asked if He was the King of the Jews, Jesus answered that He was. This brought forth a torrent of abuse and slander from the Jewish leaders. Pilate marveled greatly at the Defendant’s silence; He would not dignify even one of their charges with an answer. Probably never before had the governor seen anyone remain silent under such attack.

Matthew 27:15

N. Jesus or Barabbas? (27:15-26) 27:15-18 It was customary for the Roman authorities to placate the Jews by releasing a Jewish prisoner at Passover time. One such eligible convict was Barabbas, a Jew guilty of insurrection and murder (Mar_15:7). As a rebel against Roman rule, he was probably popular with his countrymen. So when Pilate gave them a choice between Jesus and Barabbas, they clamored for the latter. The governor was not surprised; he knew that public opinion had been molded in part by the chief priests, who were envious of Jesus. 27:19 The proceedings were momentarily interrupted by a messenger from Pilate’s wife. She urged her husband to adopt a hands-off policy with regard to Jesus; she had had a very disturbing dream about Him. 27:20-23 Behind the scenes the chief priests and elders were passing the word for the release of Barabbas and the death of Jesus. So when Pilate asked the people again which one they wanted freed, they cried for the murderer. Snared in the web of his own indecisiveness, Pilate asked, What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They unanimously demanded His crucifixion, an attitude incomprehensible to the governor. Why crucify Him? What crime had He committed?

But it was too late to plead for calm deliberation; mob hysteria had taken over. The cry rang out, Let Him be crucified!27:24 It was obvious to Pilate that the people were implacable and that a riot was beginning. So he washed his hands in sight of the mob, declaring his innocence of the blood of the Accused. But water will never absolve Pilate’s guilt in history’s gravest miscarriage of justice. 27:25 The crowd, too frenzied to worry about guilt, was willing to bear the blame: His blood be on us and on our children! Since then the people of Israel have staggered from ghetto to pogrom, from concentration camp to gas chamber, suffering the awful guilt of the blood of their rejected Messiah. They still face the fearsome Time of Jacob’s Troublethose seven years of tribulation described in Matthew 24 and Revelation 6-19. The curse will remain until they acknowledge the rejected Jesus as their Messiah-King. 27:26 Pilate released Barabbas to the crowd, and the spirit of Barabbas has dominated the world ever since. The murderer is still enthroned; the righteous King is rejected. Then, as was customary, the condemned One was scourged. A large leather whip with bits of sharp metal embedded in it was brought down across His back, each lash opening up the flesh and releasing streams of blood. Now there was nothing for the spineless governor to do but to turn Jesus over to the soldiers to be crucified.

Matthew 27:27

O. The Soldiers Mock Jesus (27:27-31) 27:27, 28 The soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s palace and gathered the whole garrison around Himprobably several hundred men. What followed is hard to imagine! The Creator and Sustainer of the universe suffered unspeakable indignities from cruel, vulgar soldiersHis unworthy, sinful creatures. They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him, in imitation of a king’s robe. But that robe has a message for us. Since scarlet is associated with sin (Isa_1:18), I like to think that the robe pictures my sins being placed on Jesus so that God’s robe of righteousness might be placed on me (2Co_5:21). 27:29, 30 They twisted a crown of thorns and pressed it down on His head. But beyond their crude jest, we understand that He wore a crown of thorns that we might wear a crown of glory. They mocked Him as the King of Sin; we worship Him as the Savior of sinners. They also gave Him a reeda mock scepter. They didn’t know that the hand that held that reed is the hand that rules the world. That nail-scarred hand of Jesus now holds the scepter of universal dominion. They knelt before Him and addressed Him as King of the Jews. Not content with that, they spat on the face of the only perfect Man who ever lived, then took the reed and struck Him on the head with it. Jesus bore it all patiently; He didn’t say a word. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls (Heb_12:3). 27:31 Finally they put His own clothes back on Him, and led Him away to be crucified.

Matthew 27:32

P. The Crucifixion of the King (27:32-44) 27:32 Our Lord carried His cross part of the way (Joh_19:17). Then the soldiers compelled a man named Simon (from Cyrene, in northern Africa) to carry it for Him. Some think he was a Jew; others that he was a black man. The important thing is that he had the wonderful privilege of bearing the cross. 27:33 Golgotha is Aramaic for skull. Calvary is the anglicized Latin translation of the Greek kranion. Perhaps the area was shaped like a skull or received the name because it was a place of execution. The site is uncertain. 27:34 Prior to His being impaled, the soldiers offered Jesus the sour wine and gall given to condemned criminals as an opiate. Jesus refused to take it. For Him it was necessary to bear the full load of man’s sins with no impairment of His senses, no alleviation of His pain. 27:35 Matthew describes the crucifixion simply and unemotionally. He does not indulge in dramatics, resort to sensational journalism, or dwell on sordid details. He simply states the fact: Then they crucified Him. Yet eternity itself will not exhaust the depths of those words. As prophesied in Psa_22:18, the soldiers divided His garments … and … cast lots for the seamless robe. This was His entire earthly estate. Denney said, The one perfect life that has been lived in this world is the life of Him who owned nothing, and who left nothing but the clothes He wore.27:36 These soldiers were representatives of a world of little men. They apparently had no sense of history being made. If only they had known, they would not have sat down and kept watch; they would have knelt down and worshiped. 27:37 Over Christ’s head they had put the title, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. The exact wording of the superscription varies somewhat in the four Gospels. Mark says, The King of the Jews (Mar_15:26); Luke: This is the King of the Jews (Luk_23:38); and John: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews (Joh_19:19). The chief priests protested that the title should not be a statement of fact, but the mere claim of the Accused. However, Pilate overruled them; the truth was there for all to seein Hebrew, Latin, and Greek (Joh_19:19-22). 27:38 The sinless Son of God was flanked by two robbers, because hadn’t Isaiah predicted 700 years previously that He would be numbered with the transgressors (Isa_53:12)? At first, both robbers hurled insult and invective at Him (v. 44). But one repented and was saved in the nick of time; in just a few hours he was with Christ in Paradise (Luk_23:42-43). 27:39, 40 If the cross reveals God’s love, it also reveals man’s depravity. Passers-by paused long enough to jeer at the Shepherd as He was dying for the sheep: You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross. This is the language of rationalistic unbelief. Let us see and we will believe. It is also the language of liberalism.

Come down from the crossin other words, remove the offense of the cross and we will believe. William Booth said, They claimed they would have believed if He had come down; we believe because He stayed up.27:41-44 The chief priests, scribes, and elders joined the chorus. With unintentional insight they cried, He saved others; Himself He cannot save. They meant it as a taunt; we adapt it as a hymn of praise: Himself He could not save, He on the cross must die, Or mercy cannot come To ruined sinners nigh; Yes, Christ the Son of God must bleed, That sinners might from sin be freed. Albert Midlane It was true in the Lord’s life and in ours, too. We can’t save others while seeking to save ourselves. The religious leaders mocked His claim to be the Savior, His claim to be the King of Israel, His claim to be the Son of God. Even the robbers joined in their cursing. The religious leaders united with criminals in vilifying their God.

Matthew 27:45

Q. Three Hours of Darkness (27:45-50) 27:45 All the sufferings and indignities which He bore at the hands of men were minor compared to what He now faced. From the sixth hour (noon) until the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.), there was darkness not only over all the land of Palestine but in His holy soul as well. It was during that time that He bore the indescribable curse of our sins. In those three hours were compressed the hell which we deserved, the wrath of God against all our transgressions. We see it only dimly; we simply cannot know what it meant for Him to satisfy all God’s righteous claims against sin. We only know that in those three hours He paid the price, settled the debt, and finished the work necessary for man’s redemption. 27:46 At about 3:00 p.m., He cried out with a loud voice, saying, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? The answer is found in Psa_22:3, . . .You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel. Because God is holy, He cannot overlook sin. On the contrary, He must punish it. The Lord Jesus had no sin of His own, but He took the guilt of our sins upon Himself. When God, as Judge, looked down and saw our sins upon the sinless Substitute, He withdrew from the Son of His love. It was this separation that wrung from the heart of Jesus what Mrs. Browning so beautifully called Immanuel’s orphaned cry: Deserted! God could separate from His own essence rather; And Adam’s sins have swept between the righteous Son and Father: Yea, once, Immanuel’s orphaned cry His universe hath shakenIt went up single, echoless, My God, I am forsaken!Elizabeth Barrett Browning 27:47, 48 When Jesus cried, Eli, Eli … , some of those who stood by said He was calling for Elijah. Whether they actually confused the names or were simply mocking is not clear. One used a long reed to lift a sponge soaked with sour wine to His lips. Judging from Psa_69:21, this was not intended as an act of mercy but as an added form of suffering. 27:49 The general attitude was to wait and see if Elijah would fulfill the role Jewish tradition assigned to himcoming to the aid of the righteous. But it was not time for Elijah to come (Mal_4:5); it was time for Jesus to die. 27:50 When He had cried out again with a loud voice, He yielded up His spirit. The loud cry demonstrates that He died in strength, not in weakness. The fact that He yielded up His spirit distinguished His death from all others. We die because we have to; He died because He chose to. Had He not said, I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again (Joh_10:17-18)? The Maker of the Universe As man for man was made a curse; The claims of laws which He had made, Unto the uttermost He paid. His holy fingers made the bough Which grew the thorns that crowned His brow. The nails that pierced his hands were mined In secret places He designed; He made the forests whence there sprung The tree on which His body hung. He died upon a cross of wood, Yet made the hill on which it stood. The sky that darkened o’er His head By Him above the earth was spread; The sun that hid from Him its face By His decree was poised in space; The spear that spilled His precious blood Was tempered in the fires of God. The grave in which His form was laid Was hewn in rock His hands had made; The throne on which He now appears Was His from everlasting years; But a new glory crowns His brow, And every knee to Him shall bow. F. W. Pitt

Matthew 27:51

R. The Torn Veil (27:51-54) 27:51 At the time He expired, the heavy, woven curtain separating the two main rooms of the temple was torn by an Unseen Hand from top to bottom. Up to then that veil had kept everyone except the high priest from the Holiest Place where God dwelt. Only one man could enter the inner sanctuary, and he could enter on only one day of the year. In the book of Hebrews we learn that the veil represented the body of Jesus. Its rending pictured the giving of His body in death. Through His death, we have boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh (Heb_10:19-20). Now the humblest believer can enter God’s presence in prayer and praise at any time. But let us never forget that the privilege was purchased for us at tremendous costthe blood of Jesus. The death of God’s Son also produced tremendous upheavals in natureas if there was an empathy between inanimate creation and its Creator. There was an earthquake which split great rocks and opened many graves. 27:52, 53 But notice that it was not until after the resurrection of Jesus that the occupants of these tombs were raised and went into Jerusalem where they appeared to many. The Bible does not say whether these risen saints died again or went to heaven with the Lord Jesus. 27:54 The strange convulsions of nature convinced the Roman centurion and his men that Jesus was the Son of God (while there is no definite article in the Greek before Son of God, the word order does make it definite ). What did the centurion mean? Was this a full confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, or an acknowledgment that Jesus was more than man? We cannot be sure. It does indicate a sense of awe, and a realization that the disturbances of nature were somehow connected with the death of Jesus, and not with the death of those who were crucified with Him.

Matthew 27:55

S. The Faithful Women (27:55, 56) Special mention is made of the women who had faithfully ministered to the Lord, and who had followed Him all the way from Galilee to Jerusalem. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and Salome, the wife of Zebedee, were there. The fearless devotion of these women stands out with special luster. They remained with Christ when the male disciples ran for their lives!

Matthew 27:57

T. The Burial in Joseph’s Tomb (27:57-61) 27:57, 58 Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man and member of the Sanhedrin, had not concurred in the Council’s decision to deliver Jesus to Pilate (Luk_23:51). If up to this point he had been a secret disciple, he now threw caution to the wind. Boldly he went to Pilate and requested permission to bury his Lord. We must try to imagine the surprise to Pilate, and the provocation to the Jews, that a member of the Sanhedrin would publicly take his stand for the Crucified. In a real sense Joseph buried himself economically, socially, and religiously when he buried the body of Jesus. This act separated him forever from the establishment that killed the Lord Jesus. 27:59, 60 Pilate granted permission and Joseph lovingly embalmed the body by wrapping it in a clean linen cloth, placing spices between the wrappings. Then he placed it in his own new tomb, carved out of solid rock. The mouth of the tomb was closed by a large stone, shaped like a millstone and standing on its edge in a channel also carved out of stone. Centuries before, Isaiah had predicted, And they made His grave with the wickedbut with the rich at His death (Isa_53:9). His enemies had doubtless planned to throw His body into the Valley of Hinnom to be consumed by dump-fires or eaten by foxes. But God overruled their plans and used Joseph to insure that He was buried with the rich. 27:61 After Joseph had departed, Mary Magdalene and the mother of James and Joses stayed to keep vigil opposite the tomb.

Matthew 27:62

U. The Guarded Tomb (27:62-66) 27:62-64 The first day of the Passover, called the Day of Preparation, was the day of the crucifixion. The next day the chief priests and Pharisees were uneasy. Remembering what Jesus had said about rising again, they went to Pilate and asked for a special guard to be placed at the tomb. This was allegedly to prevent His disciples from stealing the body, thus creating the impression that He had risen. Should this happen, they feared, the last deception would be worse than the first; that is, the report concerning His resurrection would be worse than His claim to be the Messiah and the Son of God. 27:65, 66 Pilate answered, You have a guard; go your way, make it as secure as you know how. This may mean that a Roman guard had already been assigned to them. Or it may mean Your request is granted. I now assign a guard to you. Was there irony in Pilate’s voice as he said as secure as you know how? They did their best. They sealed the stone and stationed guards, but their best security measures were just not good enough. Unger says: The precautions His enemies took to make the sepulchre sure, sealing it and stationing a guard, 62-64, only resulted in God’s overruling the plans of the wicked and offering indisputable proof of the King’s resurrection.