Matthew 27b: The Wrong Choice

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Introduction

We continue through Matthew’s Passion narrative in chapter 27. Today we’ll see how the crowd chose a criminal named Barabbas over Jesus which ultimately led to the Lord being handed over to be tortured and crucified.

15-23: Choosing Barabbas

Now that Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent, the Gospels tell us that he seems to really try to get Jesus released. All four attest to the custom that apparently happened ever year during the feast (Passover).
There is no record of this custom outside of the Gospels, but a local government making a local deal to appease the people isn’t that surprising. Rulers do whatever it takes to keep a rebellious people happy.
The question is simple: do they want Jesus or Barabbas?
Ancient tradition tells us that Barabbas’ first name was also Jesus (it was a more common name than we realize). So you can almost imagine the confusion in this moment. “Do you want Jesus the murderer or Jesus the Christ?”
The name Barabbas also means “Son of Abbas” which is only a single letter away from Abba, so it sounds very much like, “Son of the Father”. This only deepened the tragic irony of the situation.
The Gospels give different details about who Barabbas was. Matthew simply calls him a notorious criminal. “Notorious” can either be positive or negative. To the Romans it was certainly negative, but to the people this man may have been something of a folk hero for his past.
That past included robbery, murder, and partaking in an insurrection.
Matthew notes that the whole reason Pilate even suggested Barabbas was because “he knew it was out of envy that they had delivered him up”. This was no longer about having a real trial, which is why Pilate offered up such a ridiculous suggestion. And yet they took it.
Barabbas became the first sinner who did not deserve mercy and grace that Jesus took the place for. Barabbas in all of his sin represents all of us. We were the ones who should have been killed. But instead, Jesus went to the cross for us.
Matthew adds this detail that Pilate received a message from his wife encouraging him to leave Jesus alone and that she had been tormented in a nightmare about it.
This happened while Pilate sat on the judgement seat. More irony: the Judge being judged! John 19:13 “So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha.”
We know nothing else of Pilate’s wife, but the fact that she had a dream was probably important to Matthew. Remember, God communicates through dreams regularly throughout the OT. And now this Gentile woman has a dream and realizes who Jesus is - something the people do not.
The section ends with Pilate desperately trying to release Jesus, but the elders and the chief priests have now whipped the crowd into a frenzy calling for the release of Barabbas and the death of Jesus.
By asking, “What evil has he done?” Pilate echoes what the thief will later say on the cross: “this man has done nothing wrong”. All signs point to the innocence of Jesus.
John adds that the people had almost “threatened” Pilate by saying that “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend.”
The shouts only get louder and louder, “Let him be crucified!” “Crucify him!”
This is even more shocking considering that the Jews found crucifixion to be an incredibly barbaric practice by the Romans. And now they want it inflicted on one of their own.

24-26: Washing hands

The mayhem is clearly reaching riot status, and that is the one thing that Pilate absolutely cannot have happen. There is irony here because a riot was exactly what the religious leaders claimed to be trying to avoid by killing Jesus.
The washing of hands is also a detail that only Matthew tells us about. What Pilate may or may not have realized was that he was performing a custom from the OT, so the Jews would have recognized it’s meaning very easily.
Deuteronomy 21:6–8 “And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. Accept atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.’”
(There is GREAT irony in this.)
Psalm 26:6 “I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O Lord,”
Psalm 73:13 “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.”
So Pilate makes himself “innocent of this man’s blood”. Then who is guilty of it? We have volunteers!
Again, Matthew is the only one to record this curse that the crowd brought upon themselves: “His blood be on us and on our children!”
Later in Acts, the Jewish leaders would (hope) that the people forgot these words when they tell Peter and John to stop preaching about Christ! Acts 5:28 “saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.””
They intended? These men said it themselves!
I think it’s important to also bring in another detail from John’s account. John 19:15 “They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.””
This might be the most consequential thing said in the entire trial. “We have no king but Caesar.” A people who hated foreign rule, who hated the Romans, who wanted to be their own people again. And yet now here they are clamoring for that pagan Emperor they so despise.
And it comes with a total rejection of their true King. It echoes what they said to Samuel over 1,000 years earlier.
1 Samuel 8:4–7 “Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.”
With their rejection of their King firmly in place, Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified. And Barabbas was set free.

27-31: Fit for a King

The crucifixion on its own would have been brutal enough on its own. But Pilate allowed the soldiers to have their way with him. All of the Gospels testify to how Jesus was tortured throughout the trial and before the cross.
Jesus was scourged. This process involved taking a mult-tailed whip that had sharp objects attached to the end and whipping the person mercilessly. The objects would rip the skin off the bones. This process alone would kill many prisoners.
These things were done in fulfilment of Isaiah 50:6 “I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.” and Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
From there they took him into the Praetorium, or official Roman headquarters and tortured him further.
The “battalion” might have included up to 600 soldiers taking turns on this one man.
Their torture and mocking was clearly related to the fact that he was being charged with being “The King of the Jews”. He thought he was a king? Let’s show him how Romans treat kings!
They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. Stripping him naked would have been humiliating. The scarlet robe however would have been a “sign” of richness and royalty.
Scarlet cloth is listed among the riches of Rome (figuratively called Babylon) in Revelation 18:12 “cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble,”
Matthew could also be highlighting this as a reference to Isaiah 1:18 ““Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
For our sins to become “white as snow” he had to become “like scarlet”.
They put together a “crown of thorns”. These wouldn’t have been little rose thorns. They were big thick thorns that were probably smashed down into the Lord’s head.
Then they put a reed, or measuring stick, in his hand to mimic a royal scepter.
Finally they bow down in “worship”, mocking him by saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
Then they spit on him and beat him with his own “scepter”, striking him in the head.
This last detail is interesting to me. Remember Genesis 3:15 “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.””
You might almost get the sense that the devil sees Jesus’ head being struck and arrogantly thinking, “And it was said he was do that to me?”
Once they’ve had their fun with our Lord, they put his clothes back on him and led him away to be killed.

Conclusion

The soldiers didn’t realize it at the time, but they really were worshipping a King. And not just the King of the Jews. The King of the Universe. But they treated him with such contempt. Even saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” was using a phrase that was only reserved for the “true” king, Caesar.
How many kings would put up with such abuse when they had the power to stop it? None that I can think of. Only one did, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he did it quietly and faithfully.
It is as the Prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”
Why? All because he loved us, just like he loved Barabbas.
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