OUR LORD STANDS BEFORE POMPOUS PONTIUS PILATE. Matt 27

Broken-hearted Peter wept through the night. Now morning came, ‘When all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death. (v1)

They did not disguise their evil intentions of death as their ultimate plan for the holy, sinless Son of God. Evil was rampant throughout Jerusalem, ‘for they bound Him, led Him away and delivered Him to the arrogant governor, Pontius Pilate.

It was absurd that man, created by the Lord, should presume to bind the One who held the stars in His hand and the waters of the oceans. He is the almighty One, the omnipotent Being, yet man put ropes about His wrists; which sisal rope had grown under His direction.

The fiasco of Judas followed. ‘Condemned for his betrayal, Judas was remorseful; and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. (v3) An infinitely wise God has revealed Judas’ wantonness in Holy scripture.

Of course he had been condemned by his own conscience, the Holy Spirit’s work in his heart, and the Scripture which foretold the selling of the Son of God for a miserable fee. The chief priests would have regarded it as ’dirty money’, revolting at the thought of handling it twice. Once it was the fee, now the denunciation of it. Judas honoured his Lord in describing ’the innocent blood, which he had betrayed. Shame was inadequate when God looked for deep repentance. The priests barked ’what is that to us? You see to it.’

Judas, frustrated, disloyal, dethroned his false god ‘ In throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple.’ Sadly it is humorous that the chief priests should scramble on their knees in the sacred temple to recover these infamous silver pieces, ( a mark of redemption ) , lest the temple should be polluted. No one else could recover them. Scripture recorded that Judas departed and went and hanged himself. 2000years later, he is a solemn lesson to all, lest we turn from following our Lord for the gaudy treasures of this passing world.

Dusting their hands and robes after recovering the silver, the chief priests solemnly pontificated, ‘It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of Blood.’ ( Yes, even the precious blood of God’s dear Son.) Even in this solemn moment, they sought counsel and purchased some real estate’ buying with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. ‘ ‘To this day, it retains the title of the Field of Blood. (v8)

This infamous act fulfulled prophecy, ‘As spoken by the prophet Jeremiah,’ ( 32;6-9). Zechariah complemented this with ‘and they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was pierced, whom they of the children of Israel priced. And gave them for the potter’s field as the Lord directed me.’ Oh, the power of the prophetic word for it establishes the Scripture as the gift of an all-wise and loving heavenly Father.

Zechariah 11;12-13 added ‘ So they weighed out for My price thirty pieces of silver, the value of a female slave. And the Lord said to me. ‘Cast it to the potter, the sum at which I am priced by them. ‘And I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord.’ This had been foretold 500 years before our Lord was born of the virgin. Such marvellous support for our faith. That’s why the Spirit gave all the gruesome details of Judas’ treachery. It was foreordained. His Word is settled forever in heaven.

The scene has changed, ’for now Jesus stood before the governor.’

He immediately challenged our Lord‘s eternal Being, ’Are you the King of Israel?’(v11) ‘It is as you say’, was the immediate response. How could the everlasting King of glory deny His royalty? He was the Messiah, and as such He was Prophet, Priest and King. Pontius Pilate staggered at the stand of our Lord; yet, with no visible crown, sceptre, or marks of royalty- yet He was King, eternal, immortal, invisible, God only wise.’

Our Lord preserved a dignified silence as the chief priests and elders hurled their unfounded accusations at Him. ‘He answered nothing.‘ Isaiah had foretold ‘ that He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a Lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not His mouth. ‘ (Isaiah 53:7) Again the prophetic scripture was fulfilled. How rich and strengthening are these precious truths.

Scripture does not tell what false accusations were heaped on God’s dear Son: except that our beloved saviour manfully faced the malicious charges, tenderly observing the repulsive enemies, who should have joyfully received their long-anticipated Messiah.

Pilate discerned the distorted accusations levelled at the Son, when he interjected, ‘Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?’ Not one word of self-defence came from the Saviour. Shame would have covered Pilate that he was inveigled in such a corrupt scene. How he hated the religiosity of the Jewish leaders, ( and we too ) who had dragged him into it. Pilate’s wife would have known the prophetic passages relating to Christ’s trial and suffering , and adding to his misery. As the deity of our Lord Jesus shone, ’Pilate the governor marvelled greatly’. ‘No man spoke as this Man spoke.

Pilate should have grasped his moment to repent and turn to the Lord for salvation, spurning our Lord’s grace.

‘It was customary at the feast of Passover to release to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished,’ (v13) Securely locked in their jail was ‘a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.’

Pilate looked for escape, ’Whom do you want to release to you, Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ.?’ They chose a villainous criminal and rejected the holy Son of God.

Pilate had enough insight into human nature ‘for he knew that for envy they had delivered Him.’ Oh, the destructive power of envy, especially in religious people.

Intruding the judicial scene, Madame Pilate sent an urgent message to her husband, ’Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.’ (v19) He would have been wise to have heeded his wife’s restraint.

We do not know whether God’s Spirit had alerted her to our Lord’s true nature, to prevent the judgment of God falling upon Pilate and the religious leaders.

Pilate’s final question was ,’Which of the two do you want me to release to you?’. ‘Barabbas,’ they thundered. ‘What then shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ.?’ Let Him be crucified,’ was their murderous counter. The governor feebly asked, ‘Why what evil has He done?’ They intensified their demand. ‘ Let Him be crucified,’ as they cried out all the more.

Pilate could not prevail, and foreseeing a riot , cleansed his hands before the multitude as though he could wash away the cowardly, compromising stains of his life.

‘I am innocent of the blood of this just Person.’ ‘You see to it.’

Israel bore God’s judgment for 20 centuries, when they yelled, ‘ His blood be on us and on our children..’ (v25) They brutally shed the blood of the Passover Lamb, and rejected God’s dear Son. My preaching interpreter was a Messianic Jew. He wept in a break of translation as the sheer size of the evil of his own beloved people gripped him. Minutes later, he continued turning the language into Russian.

‘Pilate released Barabbas to them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered HIM to be crucified. ‘ (v26)