Jesus on Trial - Matthew 27:11-31

©Copyright March 11, 2018 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

I have never been much of a chess player. I know how to move the pieces but I have never taken the time to learn how to think “several moves ahead” as you have to do to be a good chess player.

Dealing with other people sometimes is like a chess match. People dance around hoping to get the other person to do or agree to something. It is all about anticipating the moves of the other person. You see this a great deal in politics.

This is what we are going to see played out in front of us in Luke 27:11-31 this morning. Jesus has been tried by the Sanhedrin, and condemned in their Kangaroo Court. Now they must bring Jesus to Pilate, the man appointed by the Roman Emperor Tiberius, to rule over the land of Israel. Only Rome can sentence someone to death. The task before the religious leaders (who did not like Pilate; the feeling was mutual) was how to get Pilate to condemn an innocent man to death.

None of the gospel accounts give us the entire picture of this encounter. As you put the pieces together there are five acts to the drama.

Pilate interviews Jesus and concludes He is innocent and faces the wrath of the Jewish leaders.

Pilate tries to pawn Jesus off on Herod.

Herod returns Jesus to Pilate

Pilate tries to get out of his jam by offering to set a prisoner free (assuming the crowd will choose Jesus . . . the prisoner who actually is innocent)

When the people choose Barabbas, Pilate washes his hands and signs the death warrant

It is a chess game the Jewish leaders won. In order to understand what is happening you need to know that there was a significant history between Pilate and the Jews which handicapped Pilate in this sparring match. There were two major events.

First, Pilate violated the Jewish law against graven images when he brought images of the Emperor into Jerusalem at night, (which shows he knew he would provoke the Jews). He also put up shields bearing the Emperor’s name in the former palace of King Herod in Jerusalem. The people protested strongly.

Second, he built a 50 mile aqueduct to bring water into Jerusalem. The problem was that he paid for it out of the Temple Treasury. When the people gathered to protest the sacrilege, Pilate decided to teach them a lesson. He had a detachment of his troops to come in and silence the rioters. Many Jews were killed in the process. They even slit the throats (as if they were being sacrificed) of many of the Jews.

Pilate had one job in the mind of Tiberius. His job was to keep the peace in Jerusalem. After these problems Rome had Pilate on a very short leash. As a result, he could not allow this “Jesus situation” to turn into something that created major turmoil. His leverage was completely gone and the Jews knew it.

The Charges and Examination

The Jewish leaders brought Jesus to Pilate. They got Pilate up early which did not put him in a good mood. Pilate had to come out to them in the courtyard because the Jewish religion prohibited their entry into the home of a Gentile. They considered his home to be defiled! When he saw Jesus he asked them to state their case. (Some suggest the leaders did not expect a trial . . . they thought Pilate would just sign the death warrant and send them on their way). They were caught a little off guard. Pilate liked it that way.

Luke tells us,

2They began to state their case: “This man has been leading our people astray by telling them not to pay their taxes to the Roman government and by claiming he is the Messiah, a king.” (Luke 23:2)

Notice they do not charge Jesus with blasphemy (which is why the Sanhedrin condemned him). Now they are charging him with sedition. They said he was trying to undermine or overthrow the government. They said Jesus was setting Himself up as a rival King. This wasn’t true, but that didn’t matter, the chess game had begun.

The Jewish leaders knew Pilate would not sentence Jesus to death over a religious issue (like blasphemy) but a charge that Jesus was threatening the rule of Tiberius had to be taken seriously or Pilate could lose his job!

11Now Jesus was standing before Pilate, the Roman governor. “Are you the king of the Jews?” the governor asked him.

Jesus replied, “You have said it.”

12But when the leading priests and the elders made their accusations against him, Jesus remained silent. 13“Don’t you hear all these charges they are bringing against you?” Pilate demanded. 14But Jesus made no response to any of the charges, much to the governor’s surprise.

The words “You have said it” are hard for us to grasp. Pilate asks if Jesus is the King of the Jews. Jesus answers, in essence “that is what you are supposed to determine.”

The prosecution presented its case and Jesus says nothing. No defense, no rebuttal, nothing! Pilate was amazed and perhaps impressed by the calm of Jesus. Pilate was not a “nice” man. His reputation was one of a person who cared nothing for others. Yet, here is Pilate trying to save the life of Jesus. He had looked into the eyes of many criminals and he knew this guy was no criminal. He was baffled by the fact that Jesus was not trying to clear His name (as most criminals would do.) Pilate’s conclusion: Jesus is innocent! Now he has to try to find a way to save Him in this all important chess match.

Pilate’s Attempts to Save Jesus

Pilate made four different moves to try to save Jesus. First, Luke tells us the religious leaders responded to Pilate’s declaration that Jesus was innocent by saying Jesus was stirring up trouble from Galilee to Jerusalem. When they mentioned Galilee he thought he could avoid the whole matter by sending Jesus to Herod, who was the Jewish leader over that region. Herod was in town for Passover. So off to Herod Jesus went.

Herod hoped Jesus would demonstrate some of his great power. Jesus did not cater to Herod’s curiosity. When Jesus stood silent before him. Herod send him back to Pilate. He did not want to deal with this political hot potato either.

Then, according to Luke, Pilate offered to punish Jesus and then set him free. In Pilate’s mind, I’m sure he thought this was a win/win (except if you are Jesus or care about justice). The Jews would send a message to Jesus and Pilate would keep from killing one of the most interesting (and innocent) men he had ever met. The Jewish leaders were not satisfied.

Third Pilate tried to release Jesus by going around the leaders. Matthew records,

15Now it was the governor’s custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner to the crowd—anyone they wanted. 16This year there was a notorious prisoner, a man named Barabbas. 17As the crowds gathered before Pilate’s house that morning, he asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you—Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” 18(He knew very well that the religious leaders had arrested Jesus out of envy.)

19Just then, as Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him this message: “Leave that innocent man alone. I suffered through a terrible nightmare about him last night.”

20Meanwhile, the leading priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be put to death. 21So the governor asked again, “Which of these two do you want me to release to you?”

The crowd shouted back, “Barabbas!”

22Pilate responded, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?”

They shouted back, “Crucify him!”

23“Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?”

But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!”

Pilate had started a program of offering to release one prisoner during Passover. He wrongly assumed the people would ask for Jesus. It was still early in the morning. The Jewish leaders controlled the crowd and prompted them to call for Barabbas.

It is ironic that Barabbas was guilty of the very thing they claimed was true of Jesus. He sought to overthrow the Roman government. Because of that, many people thought of him as a hero.

Pilate was stunned. Even his wife had dreams about staying away from this mess.

Pilate tried one last time to release Jesus. The gospel of John tells us He had Him flogged (which can sometimes kill a person) and brought Him out to them. As soon as the people saw Him they cried for Him to be crucified. Pilate said, “But I find Him Innocent.” He talked to Jesus one last time and brought Him out again. This time the Jewish leaders said,

12Then Pilate tried to release him, but the Jewish leaders shouted, “If you release this man, you are no ‘friend of Caesar.’* Anyone who declares himself a king is a rebel against Caesar.”

13When they said this, Pilate brought Jesus out to them again. Then Pilate sat down on the judgment seat on the platform that is called the Stone Pavement (in Hebrew, Gabbatha). 14It was now about noon on the day of preparation for the Passover. And Pilate said to the people,* “Look, here is your king!”

15“Away with him,” they yelled. “Away with him! Crucify him!”

“What? Crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the leading priests shouted back.

16Then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified.(John 19:12-16)

The Jewish leaders moved to Checkmate. They said, “We have no King but Caesar.” What they said was blasphemous, but they didn’t care. No true Jew would ever say such a thing! Yet, here are the Jewish leaders saying their only King is Caesar! They were out to get what they wanted and this was the way to do it. They were making it look like they were loyal to Caesar and Pilate was not! It was a threat Pilate could not allow to continue.

Pilate washed his hands saying, “He was innocent of the blood of Jesus” and then he signed the death warrant!

Conclusions

This is a sad story. It is right to ask, What in the world can we learn from this?

From Pilate we learn: It is impossible to please everyone, it will cost you your soul if you try to do so. Management experts tell you to make a To Do list at the beginning of each week. Rank the things on your list in order of importance (not necessarily in terms of urgency). They observe, if you do the most important things first, the other things will take care of themselves. However, if you get distracted by all the lesser things, you will not have the time or the energy for the important things. You will find yourself pulled in a hundred different directions and you will end up standing for nothing!

We live in a world where everyone wants a piece of us. If we allow ourselves to try to please everyone we will end up losing our souls as well. We get demands from:

Families

Bosses

Coaches

Civic Organizations

Teachers

Friends

The Bible is clear: We are to seek FIRST and foremost the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then and only then, will the other things fall into place. If we do not make this our FIRST priority we will find ourselves exhausted from running and distant from God! Satan loves to keep us so busy doing “good” things that we never get around to critical things.

Sometimes the Best Response to Others is to Keep Quiet. Jesus understood a defense before Pilate would accomplish nothing. It was better to let Pilate think and wrestle.

I went to a conference once and heard a stirring talk by one of the speakers. When the speaker finished the crowd started to stand and applaud. The man in charge of the music immediately put up his hands to stop us. He said, “No, let’s sing.” We started to sing Amazing Grace. It was a familiar song and it was the perfect song as a response to what we had just heard. I and many others sang through our tears as the words came alive in a brand new way.

Afterwards, I wrote the worship leader and asked him how he knew we should sing rather than clap and he said: “applause often is a release of the tension and it ends the work of God’s Spirit in us.” Stillness or an appropriate song allowed the Spirit to continue working.

We can talk too much. We fill “dead air” with noise that ends the thinking process. We must be careful not to quench the Holy Spirit by talking too much. This is why at times our best response to an especially powerful musical number is to sit quietly rather than to applaud.

Jesus remained silent forcing Pilate to wrestle with his own decision without finding some way to blame Jesus. The silence of Christ in this case was the most powerful tool Jesus had.

Finally, each of us, like Pilate, must make our decision about Jesus. Dr. James Montgomery Boice wrote,

No one can be neutral concerning Jesus Christ, for Jesus claims to be the only ultimate King whether we acknowledge or refuse to acknowledge him. Which brings us back to Pilate. Pilate was not a follower of Jesus. He only wanted to be neutral, to be innocent of his death, but he failed miserably. He was not able to be neutral, and in the end he took his stand against Jesus. So will you unless you decide for Jesus now.

When Pilate awoke that morning, he did not expect to be confronted by the greatest crisis of his career. All he expected to do was go through a pro forma trial for which he cared nothing. He would humor the Jewish leaders. Yet suddenly Jesus stood before him, and Jesus was either the King he claimed to be, or he was not. He was either innocent or guilty. What would Pilate do? We know what he did. He failed in his great crisis and condemned to death the very Son of God despite his knowledge of the case, his better judgment, and even the warnings of his wife.

Don’t let that happen to you. Jesus is before you every bit as much as he was before Pilate in a physical form that day. “Are you the King?” you ask. “Yes,” Jesus answers. Is he right? You have to face that claim. If he is the King, say, “Yes, Jesus, I acknowledge who you are, and I want to become your subject today.” Bow before him. If you do not, you will bow before him in terror at the judgment.[1]

While the story of Pilate with the religious leaders was very much like a chess game (which Pilate lost). The lessons we learn from Pilate are anything but a game. They are the difference between life and death; Heaven and Hell; inexpressible joy or unimaginable sorrow; forgiveness or condemnation.

Don’t keep this account at arm’s-length. Ask yourself: What should I learn from the example of Pontius Pilate? How can I adjust my life so it is in balance, addressing the most important things first? How do I keep from rejecting the One who was sent to save me?

Let me warn you, Satan will try to get you to postpone that decision until after you fulfill your other obligations. Don’t let him get you caught up a chess match you cannot win. Establish your foundation first . . . so you have something on which to build.

[1] James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001), 611–612.