Matthew 27:1-31 - The Approach to the Cross

We do study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel, as Swingley 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.

So 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 to 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.

All throughout his ministry, if you recall in our study of Matthew, all throughout Jesus' ministry, he's been teaching his disciples about his mission to Jerusalem, and 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 single person must answer.

Who is Jesus?

Peter responds, if you remember, 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 the scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

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 Philip High 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 sung 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 Daniel prophet, from the prophet Daniel, rather.

Matthew links these two so well all throughout his gospel.

Suffering servant, glorified son of man, a plan of salvation that was set in place for you and for me, friends, since the beginning.

The great old hymn, we sang it last week, if you were here 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 life is not taken from him.

This is an important part point.

He lays down his life for ruined 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.

So as we encounter our Lord in our study today, I pray we'll 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, What?

Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

And here we are on this fateful week, the approach to the cross to fulfill what John the Baptist said.

I love what Dane Ortland 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.

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, and your Bible will start with verse 1 in just a moment.

Matthew 27 · chapter mention

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 1.

Matthew 27:1

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 counsel 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.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

But now in this week we are seeing the fever pitch, the escalation of their diabolical plan to destroy Jesus.

Verse 2.

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 about 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 send him to a political court to Pilate.

We'll come back to him.

Verse 3.

Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, remember Judas betrayed Jesus in the garden last week, as we studied.

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

Now this is not the same word that is used for repentance, metaneo.

A 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 look, like a good religious man, he knows that it says here in verse 4, he has 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 it's blood money.

Oh, so now they're scrupulous about purity laws and accounting.

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.

And in fact, even to today, we were just there in Jerusalem about a week and a half ago.

You can see that potter's field.

Verse 9, 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 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.

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 witness 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 with 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 is 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 who are weary and 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.

We could say leads to life and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

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, served 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 this section ends.

Matthew, as always, is constantly reminding us of the mystery of the Father's sovereign hand.

Weaving this mixture of evil, deception, and 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.

So the lens has shifted now to the governor's headquarters.

And the governor, that's Pilate, asks him, or 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, 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, and 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, or 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.

Gospel of John tells us he was a robber.

Luke and Mark tell us that he was a murderer, an 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' 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 is called the Christ?

And I love that Pilate's saying this.

He's not making a confession here, but he really is.

Jesus who is called the Messiah, for he knew, Pilate was smart, he knew that it was out of envy that they, 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 priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.

So I'm imagining 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.

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 and the highest.

And here they are, asking for his crucifixion.

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 Pox 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 on us and on our children.

This is chilling.

A mob in this particular time, in this particular place, takes, wants to take the blame for the death of Jesus.

There's something interesting here.

They say, His blood be on us and on our children, and the fever pitch of that moment and the escalation of that moment, they were out for blood.

But in Acts 3, 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 weak?

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.

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.

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 in the trust of his trust in his Father.

In his father's hand over all of history, over the affairs of men.

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's son.

So the chief priest hand Jesus over.

Pilate says, No, this isn't my responsibility.

If he's Galilean, let's send him to Herod.

Herod sends him back, says he's innocent.

But Pilate 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.

Verse, or number three, he attempts to evade responsibility by offering to release this criminal Barabbas.

For 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, 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.

The 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 leaders said in the Gospel of John.

They knew Pilate's God was power, but so was theirs.

And just a few more moments later, the religious leaders, the crowd say, Pilate says, first, are you sure you want me to crucify your king?

And they 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, didn't they?

They had no other God but Caesar.

Their own scriptures testify 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.

And as I reflect at the beginning of the 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.

Let's keep reading at 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.

I think that reveals fear.

Six hundred 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 that had crown of thorns.

They weren't just bonking 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 to 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 5, all singing, Worthy is the Lamb who is slain, who was 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 a cross of wood.

The cost of salvation for those who are foolish, guilty, vile as I am runs through humiliation and injustice and sorrow.

He lays down his life, and for that we say, hallelujah.

What a saving.

Matthew is 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, 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.

Well, 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.

Most of whom 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 is 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 rend himself of responsibility, ultimately putting on a show, washing his hands in an 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.

The substitution of Barabbas preaches the gospel to us in miniature.

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 remained 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.

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've been studying in our text here this morning.

Here's what he has to say in part.

It's Friday.

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 is 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 cursed 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 him in 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 for in your suffering and 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 in you alone.

Keep us from turning things 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.