Whose Hands Are Dirty?

Matthew 27:11–31 ESV

Now Jesus stood before the governor, 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 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. And 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 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!” And he 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, delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. 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. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.

Next week is Palm Sunday, and I’m planning to back up to Matthew 21, to a much happier and more joyful event that took place not even a week before these events that we’ve been following. Thinking about that, maybe getting to Holy Week and the thought of not coming to worship together really makes this whole isolation thing real or heavy. That’s true for me. As most pastors would probably agree, this is one of the high points, I’ll even say, my favorite time of the year. Being apart just don’t seem right.

I want to encourage all of us to remember, though, we don’t celebrate Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection just one day a year. As Paul writes in Romans 6, we’re always united with him in his death and resurrection. Also, part of why we regularly gather on Sundays, “the first day of the week,” is holding onto the resurrection day. This doesn’t mean that all of this isn’t hard or strange, it doesn’t mean that you can’t feel bad or mad or sad that we aren’t together, that you can’t see your friends, not at all. But allow that desire to be both in Christ and with his body to be part of what fuels our love for God and one another, and carry that passion into whenever we meet again.

           Back to today’s Scripture, we’ve come to Friday morning, to what we might call normal daytime hours. Last week we heard part 1 of Jesus’ trial, when he was with the Sanhedrin, “the Leaders.” Now we move to part 2, his trial before Pilate and his flogging before the crucifixion.

           Brothers and sisters in Christ, who we listen to is usually who we hold responsible. Like a lot of people, I’ve been following what’s come out over the last 3 weeks or so about COVID-19. When it started to hit the U.S., I began looking at the Center for Disease Control, the CDC’s website. Since then, some days I listen to part of the White House Task Force press conferences with President Trump and Vice-President Pence. Other days I’m more tuned into Governor Evers and Madison. Probably every day I’ve looked at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ website to see how our state’s numbers are changing or to skim through the emergency orders. I’ve also listened to some longer interviews with Dr. Fauci, the nation’s infectious disease expert. 

           That all sounds like a lot, and yet I can guarantee you, there is information I haven’t heard and things I don’t know. I feel like I have a fairly decent grasp on the situation, though. This variety of sources helps me to discern what news is likely hopeful optimism and what is extreme caution, what is the gravity of the spread of this disease and what is the situation locally. I’m sure there are things that have not been reported and some things have been twisted, but I’ve developed ideas of who I trust and how much stock I put into what certain ones say. So, with those ideas, I consider who I give credit to and who I would either blame or ignore.

           All of us do that. Whether it’s regarding coronavirus or the economy or what brand to buy at what store or who we trust when it comes to sports information or where to go fishing or hunting—all of us make judgements about who we listen to and what we’ll trust from them. All of us probably have some person or people whose words tend to go in one ear and right out the other, and yet there are other people whose every word we trust. We listen to them because they have a certain authority—they’re an expert on certain topics or have a record of being credible. So, when different people on this spectrum are right or wrong, we might treat them differently.

           That seems to be a fitting frame of mind for how we look at what’s happening in our passage. As we look at this Scripture, we’re going to focus on three different people or groups of people. The first is a conflicted politician. Pilate, or Pontius Pilate, had the ability to sentence Jesus to death. That is why the Sanhedrin brought Jesus to him. But Pilate knew they were up to something. You’ve probably heard before how Pilate, for his own political sake, needed to crush any and all rivals. These Jewish leaders played into that. In Luke 23:2, they brought these accusations to Pilate, “‘We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes the payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king.’” From Pilate’s perspective, if that was true, that’s not good. So, the primary question he asked Jesus is “‘Are you the king of the Jews?’” Jesus replied, “‘Yes, it is as you say.’”

Theoretically, that should have been enough for Pilate to want to get rid of him, and yet that wasn’t the end. Verse 14 tells us he was greatly amazed that Jesus continued in silence to the accusations. Verse 18, “[Pilate] knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.” Verse 19, his wife told him to be careful, “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man.” And Verses 23 and 24 seem to put Pilate’s personal views on display. He was working in Jesus’ favor, “‘What crime has he committed?’” He had heard Jesus claim to be the king of the Jews. He had to have had some understanding of their concept of “the Christ.” Yet he wanted to help Jesus get off the hook! His verdict was that Jesus was not guilty. He must physically wash his hands of this matter, “‘I am innocent of this man’s blood.’”

That all seems good, and yet “he released Barabbas [and] had Jesus flogged, and handed him over [to his soldiers] to be crucified.” Pilate wanted to leave Jesus as a Jewish matter. They had brought him, they can make their decisions, they wanted him dead. He heard them out, and it’s on them, not his problem. Yet his hands were dirty; he was the one who sentenced Jesus to death. Pilate was guilty! Just because he declared this to not be his fault doesn’t mean it wasn’t.

The Heidelberg Catechism Question and Answer 38 brings up part of the Apostles’ Creed, “Why did [Jesus] suffer ‘under Pontius Pilate’ as judge?” Why is the inclusion of this politician important? The answer is, “So that [Jesus], though innocent, might be condemned by an earthly judge, and so free us from the severe judgment of God that was to fall on us.” Pilate proves that Jesus didn’t deserve to die. It’s easy to twist things, like the Sanhedrin did, to make their case; yet Jesus had done nothing wrong. His perfection, like a lamb without blemish or defect. showed he was innocent. He didn’t deserve death, let alone any type of punishment. Yet because of his political motives and reputation, because evil was in his heart as well, Pilate sided with the accusers rather than the falsely accused.

           As I said at the beginning, who we listen to is usually who we hold responsible. That brings us to our second point, a group of people, the responsible crowd. Again, Pilate wanted to spin this sentence as coming from the Jews’ determination of guilt. We heard in verses 22 and 23 about the frenzy this crowd had been whipped into. When asked about what to do with Jesus, “They all answered, ‘Crucify him!’” When asked for a reason for such a drastic punishment, “‘They shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’” Louis Barbieri, Jr., or Louie—I’m not positive, writes about this, “The Greek text shows their cry was one word…One can almost picture this scene, somewhat like a football stadium in which the crowd shouts ‘Defense!’ Their cheer was ‘Crucify, crucify!’”

           I love loud, passionate crowds at sporting events. To picture this “trial” in that light, which is probably appropriate, is sobering. It’s terrible to think these leaders’ and these regular people’s hatred was at this level. They were proud of their chants, their jeers—so much so that when Pilate says, “‘I am innocent of this man’s blood…It is your responsibility!’ All the people answered, ‘Let his blood be on us and on our children!’” Our hands won’t just be dirty, pour it on us and let this be for future generations!

If you remember a couple weeks ago, we looked at Judas’ part in all this, and back in Matthew 27 verse 4 he confessed to having betrayed innocent blood, and the Sanhedrin’s response was “What is that to us?...That’s your responsibility.” But now they, through this crowd, also took responsibility.  They believed they had gotten rid once and for all of this man who they accused to be a blasphemer. This man they had been envious of—a menace and a thorn in their side. We can lump the humiliating actions of the soldiers in with this crowd. The way they treated Jesus and hit him and mocked him—all of that they’re guilty of.  

           As believers today, we might look back on these events, these people, and all that we can form in our minds and with our mouths is, “I’m sorry, Jesus.” We’re sorry. We’re distressed, we’re hurt, and upset that these people treated Jesus that way! Jesus is God, Jesus is innocent, “how could they do this to him?” We want to come to his defense, to step in and say, “If I was there, I wouldn’t have been among them!” Maybe even, “I would have put myself in his place.”

           Yet the Christian faith and the truth we take from Scripture emphasizes that it was for all of us that Jesus went through this. He suffered not just in his death, but in the unjust and torturous treatment leading up to the cross. As much as we and anyone else might try to clean ourselves of guilt, the truth is our hands are dirty in this. Our sin is our attempts to say we know better than God, we deserve to be god in charge of every part of our lives, we don’t need someone else’s help. Maybe we don’t think that’s true of us, because it’s not true of our mindset now, but having been born in sin, every person’s nature is against God. Our fallen nature wants to put him to death without expectation or hope of his resurrection.

But, brothers and sisters, if you’ve been reborn, if you’ve put faith is in Jesus Christ, then by his Spirit, God has given you that hope of resurrection that overcomes all rejection of him. Again, we can celebrate daily and weekly and we look forward to a date on the calendar in two weeks to especially focus on that hope. But in order to get to that point, Jesus had to take on himself our rejection of him.

So, we come to our final point and person today—the suffering servant. Jesus remained the same through all these events. He was willing to do whatever the Father required him to do. He did not turn from the pain and agony that was coming. He did not disprove with his own perfect rhetoric the lies of his accusers. He allowed his mockers to do their worst without easily asking for divine intervention.

We’re now one step closer to understanding this incredible reality that’s playing out through the death of Jesus: it isn’t just that he washed our hands, our guilt away, but he took our dirt upon his hands. I’m not talking about Jesus getting dirty just with his own blood and the dust and rocks and spit that were around him during his beating. He took upon himself every bit of our sin and guilt, that we would be washed clean. It’s as if with each lash of the whip he could say, “Your sin is forgiven, and you are saved. I have redeemed you from sin and the curse.”

Last week I heavily focused on the courtroom imagery, and we ended on that note that in God’s courtroom, if we think about Judgment Day, God can justly sit as judge and jury and plaintiff. In his absolute perfection, he’s able to simultaneously sit in all those roles fairly. When a repentant believer takes his place in the defendant’s seat, Jesus can say, “I’ve taken your sentence, and I’ve paid for it myself.”

That’s so important that we understand Jesus doesn’t just get rid of our sentences, our punishments. He didn’t forget about them or ignore them or lose them in paperwork. What Jesus went through in these final hours, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, is as Isaiah 53 referred to, “the punishment that brought us peace.” It is God’s just wrath being poured out on his Son, because the Son decided that he would substitute himself in our place. He would declare himself, though innocent, to be wholly guilty. God accepted this sacrifice, and afforded grace to us. No matter how Christian you might feel your life is now, no matter how put together it seems, no matter how well you’re walking with God, never forget how great a price Jesus paid for you.

           From a historical time in which there was a conflicted politician to a responsible crowd representing all humanity in their rejection of God to the one and only suffering servant who died for our punishment and to give us hope, we are now standing at the cross. I started out today by saying: who we listen to is usually who we hold responsible. What priority do we place on listening to Jesus, and not just listening to him, but trusting him? He is the only one in whom there is hope. He is the only one who can be responsible for our salvation. If we yearn for that to come from him, if we’re yearning for complete redemption and salvation, then may we not just talk about that good news, but may our lives be changed, showing how he is reconciling us with God. Amen.