Matthew 27:11-26 | Evaluating Our Desires

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Two roads diverged in a wood.

And I took which one?

The one less traveled by.

Thank you, Brian.

The one less traveled by.

Is that you?

Now some of the more adventurous among us would say, absolutely, I want to take that road less traveled by.

Maybe those who are a little more skittish and uncertain might say, no, I feel more comfortable taking the well-traveled path that is smooth and well traveled, that is, we know what to expect.

Which one do you desire to take?

The well-traveled path or the less traveled path?

And a different but similar kind of question.

What would you do if Jesus was handed over to you?

Think about that for a moment.

What would you do if Jesus was handed over to you?

Would you take the well-traveled path?

Or the one that was not quite as well traveled.

First, Judas handed Jesus over to the chief priests and the elders of the Jews in Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

They then delivered Jesus up to the Gentile ruler Pilate.

And then Pilate handed Jesus over to the soldiers to be scourged before being nailed to the cross.

What would you desire in that situation if Jesus was handed over to you?

Better yet, which Jesus would you wish to have as your vision?

Would you rather have a Jesus who satisfies the desires that you have for this life or a Jesus who satisfies for eternity?

And before you answer that question, think about it because it's not that easy to answer.

Remember the crowds who followed Jesus simply because he put food in their bellies.

That's all they wanted.

Natural human inclination.

The road well traveled is a Jesus that satisfies our own desires.

Is that the Jesus you would want, or a Jesus that satisfies for eternity?

Would you open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 27?

Matthew 27 · chapter mention

We've been working our way through Matthew's gospel.

This morning we're going to pick up in verse 11.

But to help us get a little bit of context again, I'd like to begin reading in Matthew 27, verse 1.

Matthew 27:1

And I'll read all the way through verse 26.

Again, that's Matthew chapter 27, beginning in verse 1.

Matthew 27 · chapter mention

It says, When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.

And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor.

Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.

They said, What's that to us?

See to it yourself.

And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed and he went and hanged himself.

But the chief priest, taking the pieces of silver, said, It's not lawful for us to put them into the treasury, since it's blood money.

So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers.

Therefore that field has been called the field of blood to this day.

Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, And they took the thirty 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 potter's field as the Lord directed me.

Now Jesus stood before the governor, Pilate, and the governor asked him, Are you the king of the Jews?

Jesus said, You have said so.

But when he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer.

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.

Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted.

They had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.

So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, Whom do you want me to release for you?

Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Christ?

For he knew that it was out of envy that they 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 righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.

Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.

The governor again said to them, Which of the two do you want me to release for you?

And they said, Barabbas.

Pilate said to them, Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?

They all said, Let him be crucified.

Pilate said, Why?

What evil has he done?

But they shouted all the more, Let him be crucified.

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.

And all the people answered, His blood be on us and on our children.

Then he released for them Barabbas.

And having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Amen.

This section of Matthew's gospel, beginning in verse 11 through verse 26, is about God's sovereign design for human desire gone wrong.

More specifically, it speaks to the results of desiring the wrong Jesus.

Even more pointedly, it highlights the disastrous results of choosing a Jesus of our own making rather than the only begotten of the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we can identify the desires of several individuals or groups as the Lord Jesus has brought before Pilate.

But as we do that, we need to remember that the Lord knew that this was going to happen.

This is no surprise.

Even as we read it and we we feel the depth of the intensity that's going on, Jesus knew that this would happen.

Back in Matthew chapter 16, verse 21, he told the disciples that he would be handed over to the chief priests and to the scribes to suffer and to be killed.

Matthew 16:21

Then in chapter 20, verse 19, he said to them that he would be mocked and flogged and crucified by the Gentiles.

So we see God's plan coming to fruition each step of the way.

And that's where we will begin.

By thinking about Jesus handed over to the Gentile ruler Pilate, the non-Jew Pilate.

Let's think about Pilate's desires.

Unlike other gospel accounts, Matthew doesn't tell us much about this interrogation.

He doesn't even care to inform us what these what the accusations really are.

In verse 13, Pilate says, Don't you hear how many things.

Apparently they had a list.

Here are the accusations.

Matthew doesn't care to tell us what those are.

He only hints at one accusation.

Are you the king of the Jews?

And it's in that question that we find Matthew's first hint at what he wants us to take away in this section.

You see, Matthew began his biography of Jesus the Messiah with a long list of names that we call a genealogy.

In Jewish historical terms, that ancestry shouted that Jesus was of the lineage of David, the ancient king of Israel.

So Jesus was born of royal lineage with the right to rule as Israel's king.

But then Matthew went a step further.

He said, this Jesus is not just of royal birth.

Because the angel told Joseph that his conception was a divine work because he was Emmanuel, which means God with us.

His human name would be Jesus, Savior, because he would save his people from their sins.

And that's a lot to consider about a single baby boy born to an obscure teenager from an insignificant village.

But that setup leads us to the implicit question in Matthew's biography.

What will you do with this Jesus?

What will you do with this Jesus?

If you look back at Matthew chapter 2, the next detail that Matthew includes in the life of Jesus after his birth is the arrival of some individuals that we know as the Magi.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

Gentile wise men from the East who seem to come out of nowhere and ask, where is he who has been born king of the Jews?

No Jewish people were asking about the royal birth.

Only unidentified Gentiles were wise enough to perceive his entrance into the world.

In Matthew's gospel, no one else pursues the idea of Jesus as the king of Israel until this point in chapter 27 when another Gentile, another non-Jew, asks, Are you, are you the king of the Jews?

Only this time it's not from worshipful intent, but doubt.

And maybe with a hinge of mockery.

Pilate's question is emphatic.

You are the king of the Jews?

Really?

You are the king of the Jews?

I mean think about it.

It would be difficult, if not impossible, for a Roman governor to imagine a royal king bound with ropes standing in front of him.

Really?

You are the king of the Jews?

As the crowds were amazed by Jesus' authoritative teaching after the Sermon on the Mount, Pilate is now amazed at the Lord's silence.

Of course, the Gentile ruler likely knows nothing about the prophet Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering servant who was oppressed and afflicted.

But didn't open his mouth.

Like a lamb that's led before the slaughter is silent.

He opened not his mouth.

In response to the pointed, scornful question, Jesus only responds, You say so.

You're saying that.

Are you the king?

Are you the king of the Jews?

Those are your words, but yeah.

In other words, Jesus is the king of the Jews.

That's what Matthew's been telling us from page one, but not in the way that he was accused of.

He is a threat to the political system.

Because submitting to the kingship of Jesus will change your life.

It will radically alter your convictions.

It will change your way of living, and all of that would subvert Judaism and the Roman Empire.

But no, Jesus is no immediate threat to Caesar in the way that the Romans thought.

He did not come to lead a revolt against Caesar with armies and swords and bows.

You see, Pilate didn't care about the laws of the Jews.

He didn't care about this trumped-up charge of blasphemy.

His job was to protect the Lord Caesar.

And if Jesus wasn't a political king with aspirations of deposing Caesar, then he wasn't a threat in Pilate's mind.

That helps us understand how Matthew presents Pilate's desires about Jesus.

Pilate first is interested in evidence about Jesus.

He hears from the accusers, he wants to hear from Jesus.

What's the evidence?

When he recognizes that Jesus is innocent, that there's really no evidence that this is a person, a king who is going to depose Caesar, that it's really maybe just somebody out of his right mind and kind of crazy delusions about leading a group of people.

He hasn't done anything wrong.

He seeks his release.

But not without wanting to be free of a sense of guilt in his own mind.

See, Pilate's job was to protect Roman interests, not Jewish interests.

But it was another story if Jesus was a king who could threaten Caesar.

Now there's some evidence that Roman law placed a good deal of emphasis on a defendant's testimony.

That's why Pilate's amazed.

See, you're not even going to say anything?

This is your chance.

All he received from Jesus was a yes and no.

I am a king, but not in the way you think of.

You see, in his Roman position, Pilate needed evidence and he didn't get much.

But knowing that the religious leaders were jealous of Jesus, that's what he says in verse 18, Pilate knew that they were jealous.

He thought of a way to let Jesus go, and that was through the customary Passover release of a political prisoner.

We'll think about that in a few moments.

But at the end of the matter, Pilate wanted to believe in his innocence.

That's why he said, I am innocent of this man's blood because he is innocent.

Jesus had been handed over to his authority.

Pilate now possessed the authority to release Jesus and to declare the Lord innocent of the charges against him.

What would you do if Jesus was handed over to you?

Now before we answer that too quickly, remember that we have the same sinful human nature as Pilate.

And in his natural sinful human tendency, Pilate only thought about himself.

He didn't want to bear the guilt of what happened to Jesus.

So in a symbolic gesture, he washes his hands in front of everybody.

And we all know that simply washing your hands and declaring your innocence doesn't relieve guilt.

Pilate was responsible for handing Jesus over to be scourged and crucified, and he did it because he refused to be accountable for what happened to Jesus.

He passed the buck, he skirted the responsibility to soothe his own conscience.

And that attitude continues today.

Why should anyone today bear any guilt about the death of Jesus?

I didn't participate in that.

I wasn't there.

I wasn't among the crowd that demanded Barabbas instead of Jesus.

Had nothing to do with that decision.

I can't be blamed.

I can't bear any guilt.

But that's wrong thinking.

Because every single human being bears guilt, even if we're not directly involved.

That's what Peter meant when he said in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 24, for he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

1 Peter 2:24

By his wounds you have been healed.

My friends, your sin condemned him.

My sin condemned him.

Any single one sin of our own brings guilt upon us.

We cannot hear of Pilate's decision and wash our hands and be innocent.

But here's the critical question.

What will you do with Jesus?

Do you want to be rid of him because he expects you to take up your cross and follow him, believing him to be your king and calling you to submit to him?

Or do you want to soothe your conscience by dismissing that call from your mind?

We're told that she had suffered much because of a dream the night before.

All we know is that it was something about Jesus.

And whatever it included, it convinced her that Jesus was not just innocent of the charges against him, but that he is righteous.

So Pilate's wife desired guiltlessness.

Where is it?

There we go.

I don't have it up there.

I have to apologize.

Pilate's wife desired guiltlessness regarding the righteous.

She looked out for her husband.

Pilate was in his judgment seat, the place of governing.

It's where he issued his decisions, much like a judge's bench in our modern world.

But he received this message from his wife before he could do so with Jesus.

There's a decision to be made about Jesus, but before he can issue his decision, a message comes from his wife saying, Have nothing to do with that righteous man.

She encouraged him to not get involved in anything against Jesus because of Jesus' righteousness.

She wanted to protect Pilate from the guilt of judging a righteous person.

But notice, notice that her efforts were not toward Jesus, but away from him.

Did you catch that movement?

It was not, hey honey, this is our king.

It's not.

Hey Pilate.

It's not Caesar.

It's Jesus.

No, no, no, no, no.

That's not what we see at all.

It's have nothing to do with him.

Why?

Because he's righteous.

Her efforts are not so different from those who would say today, Jesus is a good man.

Jesus is a fantastic teacher.

Jesus is a righteous prophet.

It's an attempt to avoid the wrong side rather than seeing him with eyes of faith, like the magi who worshipfully asked, Where is he who's been born king of the Jews?

Where is he that we may worship him?

Now Matthew leaves many questions about Pilate and his wife unanswered.

But Matthew makes the desire of the chief priests, the elders, and the crowd very clear.

In fact, Matthew uses the same word three times, beginning in verse 15, and he does it twice in questions.

What do you want?

Notice verse 15.

They could get any prisoner they wanted.

Verse 17, whom do you want?

Verse 21, which of the two do you want?

And it's there that Matthew now narrows our attention.

Yes, Pilate fulfills prophecy.

Yes, Pilate and his wife are like most of us in that they look out for themselves.

Human nature is not that much different across the ages.

Matthew portrays Pilate as the opposite of the Gentile Magi.

Pilate was an important man who considered Jesus royalty but did not believe in his kingship.

But Pilate and his wife are on the edges of Matthew's story.

In the middle is a focus on the crowds and the chief priests and the elders of the people during the Passover celebration.

And it isn't easy to portray this event.

That is quite difficult.

I've tried to figure out a modern parallel, and I even hesitate to say this, but maybe the closest thing that we could get would be January 6th of 2021?

Things that happened at the Capitol?

That might be the closest kind of modern parallel that we can come up with.

It's a ceremonial and religious event that is all at the same time very political.

It's an intersection of culture, personal interests, and influence.

It's insurrection, manipulation, and capitulation all at the same moment.

It's a tinderbox, a hotbed of elements ready to explode.

And if you don't feel that tension, you can't get what's going on here.

Pilate senses it.

The Jewish leaders know it.

And they're prepared to take advantage of it.

Pilate had a custom of keeping the populace happy and under control during the Passover celebrations.

Remember, the Romans are outsiders.

They're outsiders desperately trying to hold the rowdy Jewish population under control.

So Pilate's custom was to release a political prisoner during the holiday.

That custom was Pilate's way of sort of giving in to the people's desires.

The people here are represented by Matthew as crowds.

Crowds are always a negative thing in Matthew's gospel.

Nothing good ever comes from the crowds in Matthew.

And in this case, the crowd gets what the crowd wants.

History tells us that Pilate made many unwise decisions in his political career, but he was also a very savvy politician.

Keeping riots under control was a constant political concern, especially with the tens of thousands of people swelling the city of Jerusalem during the Passover.

So Pilate's career is in the balance.

If things get out of control, he's toast.

Matthew tells us that the Romans were holding a particular political prisoner at the time.

The English Standard Version here in verse 16 calls him a notorious prisoner.

It's hard to say what that term means.

Could be a popular guy that Rome wanted to keep quiet.

He could be a zealot who stirred up insurrection against the Romans.

But whatever the case, he was well known by the Jewish population and imprisoned by the Romans.

His name, we are told, was Barabbas.

Not an unusual name for that time.

But it was probably more like our surnames, our last names, because it's a compound word, Bar Abba.

Son, Bar of Abba, Father.

Remember the phrase Abba Father that Jesus taught us?

It's the same thing.

He's known as Bar Abba, son of the Father.

Interestingly, a few ancient manuscripts say that Barabbas' first name was Yesus.

Jesus.

Baraba.

Jesus, son of the Father.

Now most Bible translations don't contain the name Jesus today because it's not found in most of the ancient copies of the Gospel of Matthew.

But interestingly, there is a church father, just a couple of hundred years after Matthew wrote, who said that Jesus was generally not recorded with the name Barabbas because Jesus was too great of a name to be given to sinners.

So many scholars today hold that Jesus was very likely Barabbas' name.

But that church tradition essentially erased his first name from history because they only wanted us to remember one, Jesus.

I agree with that conclusion.

Now would you would you consider with me for a few moments what that would mean?

If that's true, if this is Jesus Barabbas, and Jesus, who is called Mashiach or Christos, what would that mean?

As was the custom during the Passover, the crowd desired the release of a political prisoner.

Jesus, the son of Abba, was well known and had been in prison for some time, apparently.

So Pilate asks the crowd, who do you want?

Do you want me to release for you Jesus, the son of Abba, or Jesus who is called Christ?

Now look at verse 20, which says that the chief priests and the elders had already persuaded the crowd.

The leaders of Israel had been working the crowd to manipulate them into asking for the release of Jesus Barabbas.

That tells us that the chief priests and the elders desired the freedom of Jesus, the son of Abba, and the destruction of Jesus who is called the Christ.

Behind the scenes of the gathering crowd, and you know what happens whenever there's a crowd and things are happening, that crowd just keeps increasing and increasing and increasing, and things begin happening, and there's tensions rising, and Pilate's watching all of this and wondering, oh boy, what do I do?

The riotous crowd is stirred up by the Jewish leaders to achieve their goal of destroying Jesus, the Messiah.

Verse 20.

They persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.

Pilate knew the leader's desire.

But this is a public vote.

This is a public vote.

And so Pilate asks again in verse 21, which of the two do you want me to release for you?

Your options are Jesus, the son of Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Christ.

Who do you want me to release for you?

What is your desire?

Which of the Jesus do you want me to release for you?

And they said, give us the son of Abba.

Now, if Pilate really knew his theology, who is the true Son of the Father?

So much irony here, isn't there?

But when we get mixed up with our own perceptions of God's world, we can't even see that Jesus is the true Son of the Father.

Give us the Son of Abba, and as the leaders desired the freedom of Jesus, the Son of Abbas, so too the crowd's manipulated desire was for Jesus the Son of Abbas.

Which of the two do you want?

Your choice is the same, my friends.

However, you categorize them, whether it's two diverging roads, whether it's the two gates, or any other image, God presents you with two Jesuses.

One Jesus is the popular Jesus, the freedom Jesus, the Jesus that makes us happy and healthy and wealthy, the Jesus that will get rid of the Romans in your life, the Jesus that will work to be rid of all that you detest.

The other Jesus calls you to take up your cross and follow him.

If we're willing to admit it, we are just like our fathers.

And too often we desire the wrong Jesus.

We want a Jesus of our own making.

Or do you truly desire the Jesus who calls you away from your self-centered delusion?

Which Jesus do you prefer?

Verse 22 reveals that the disaster that comes from choosing poorly.

Pilate, perhaps hearing his wife's message echo in his mind, asks the crowd, Well, then if that's what you want, then what shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ?

And they all say, crucify him.

Let that ring in your ears for a moment.

Matthew emphasizes the far-reaching desire.

They all say, crucify him.

The implication is there's not a single voice to be heard saying, give us the Christ.

This is total abandonment of Jesus who is called the Christ.

This is a willful choice of one Jesus over another Jesus.

It's the tragic picture of the moment when desire goes wrong.

The crowd commands the Roman commander to destroy the Christ.

The crowd didn't ask Pilate for Barabbas.

He asked them who they wanted.

And then when they chose Barabbas, Pilate asked them what to do with Jesus the Messiah.

And their response was not a recommendation.

It's not a request.

Matthew tells us it's a command.

The crowd commanded Pilate to crucify Jesus the Christ.

How ironic is it that the crowd commands the commander to crucify the Christ.

When the Magi comes searching for the king of the Jews to worship him, Herod, the ruler at the time, sought to destroy Emmanuel.

And the way things began are the way things end.

Here his own people would command the Gentile ruler to do the same.

This happens, my friends, when our natural human desire goes wrong.

When we let our desires, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, when we let those rule in us, we not only choose the wrong Jesus, but we set out to destroy the Jesus who came to rescue us from ourselves.

Here's Emmanuel, Jesus who would save his people from their sins, rejected.

Isaiah spoke truly, did he not?

He was despised and rejected by men.

He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And as one from whom men hide their faces, he's despised.

Even Judas, back in chapter 27, verse 4, realized that he was betraying innocent blood.

Pilate himself saw that Jesus was innocent of wrongdoing.

That's because, unlike everyone present on that day, and all who have ever walked this earth, only one Jesus is truly righteous.

And only Pilate's wife saw that.

And only because it was revealed to her in a dream.

This would be a laughable story if it were not so despicable in the big picture.

The king of eternity.

The king of the universe, before whom the psalmist said, kings of the earth should bow down and kiss his feet.

Isaiah's great and awesome, holy God, held before a crowd as though it's perfectly fine to choose the Son of the Father over Jesus who is called the Christ.

And then to go a step further and demand that the Jesus who would save his people from their sins be condemned to the Roman penalty fit for a slave.

And that is a point we must not forget, my friends.

For from the beginning we've been told that a divine plan was in place to save God's people from their sins.

So there's a final desire to note.

And it's a desire that was held in the Triune Godhead.

And that was a desire to work, to take it upon the Godhead to declare the guilty innocent.

But that could only be accomplished through the truly innocent one bearing the judgment of the guilty.

Peter would later tell his readers, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.

Jesus, Barabbas, promised freedom, but would only bring death.

Jesus, the Christ, promised that others could genuinely live if he died.

Which Jesus do you desire?

We're faced with the same choice today.

Will we choose that which promises joy for today, the pleasures that last for a season, or will we die to ourselves, take up our cross, and follow the one who faced the cross so that we could live?

My friends, listen.

The accusations and the trial of the true Son of God enable every daughter and son of God to stand before the judge of all the earth without accusation and condemnation.

I love the way John Calvin said it.

He said, God's son stood trial before a mortal man and suffered accusation and condemnation so that we might stand without fear in the presence of God.

Jesus, the innocent, was declared guilty so that we, the guilty, could be declared righteous.

So what are your desires?

To be freed from your present oppression or to be freed from eternal condemnation.

To have your present desires fulfilled so that you might have a celebratory Passover, or for God's righteousness to thrive so that you could be right with God forever.

To have your way of darkness like Pilate and the leaders in the crowds, or to have the light of life.

One way.

One way will make all the difference.

One road will make all the difference.

Will you believe in the true Son of the Father?

That Jesus, the Messiah who came to save his people from their sins.

Will you repent and turn to worship him forever?

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, thank you for thank you for this clarity of your word on who you are and what you've done for us.

May your spirit come to work within us to give us a clearer sense of that and to enable us to appreciate it to a greater depth than we ever have.

At the same time, may your spirit give us a desire to be with you for eternity, forever.

As Job said, to one day see you with our own eyes.

Apart from the film across our eyes that sin presents where we cannot see you clearly.

Give us grace and mercy when we stumble.

Cause us to remember that we stand before you without condemnation if we trust in you and you alone.

Give us freedom to be bold for you, to follow you each step of the way, wherever you might lead.

To the praise of your glorious name.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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