Law & Grace - Matthew 27:1-32 How just was the sentence?

We are in the weeks ahead going to be wrapping up our study of the book of Matthew and then continuing on into some other New Testament passages on the topic of law and grace. We're now in this part where it's just right before the time of the crucifixion and so here in the first part of Matthew 27.

Like we've done the last couple of weeks, we've also reproduced this map here. And as we've been having the map, we first started in the upper room, which is thought to be located in this section, the southwest section of what was then the configuration of Jerusalem. The Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives over here on the east side of the Kidron Valley. And then back to Caiaphas residence, interestingly enough, just a very short distance from where Jesus had the Last Supper with his disciples.

Now, Matthew's account, as you'll see as we go through it, is an abbreviated version. There are a number of details that are given in the other Gospels. There are different ways to put that together, and one of the ways that we've done is to provide This handout, which is available as a supplement on the cabinet to the right as you exit this room, it kind of provides a clock showing the things that took place during the time that we're reading about now with Pilate and the crucifixion and what took place then and shortly thereafter. And so that's available if you'd like to take a copy of that. This passage here then is the final prelude to Christ's crucifixion.

As we saw last Sunday in our study of Matthew 26, the Jewish High Council, known as the Sanhedrin, had held a middle-of-the-night trial at the house of Caiaphas. They, in going through that, declared Jesus to be guilty of blasphemy. Why would they do that? Because they concluded, well, he is certainly not the Messiah, so his claims to be the Messiah are patently false. They were expecting Jesus, if he were the Messiah, to come as what we would describe as the second coming. That's what they were looking for, and because they didn't see that, They thought certainly this man is false, certainly this man is not speaking the truth, and he's speaking in a way that is disrespectful of the Messiah and of God himself. Blasphemy as the Jews declared it, and anything else that the Jews happened to come up with, was not a crime in the Roman legal system. So the Jews were going to lay out all these charges against Jesus, including blasphemy, and none of them were going to make any sense under the Roman legal system. They would have to convince Pilate to condemn Jesus by public influence alone.

Now this is something that's curious. You see, in our legal system, it would not be right for the shout of the people out in the courtroom to influence the judge's decision. As a matter of fact, the judge would be rather upset to have people shouting and screaming. Under the Roman legal system, the governor was permitted to listen to what the people said and kind of take the pulse of the people and make decisions on that basis. And so that's exactly what we see here. So the people shouted and cried out what they wanted, and as a matter of fact, as Matthew records it, it was on the brink of riot. And so Pilate said, well, I have to make this decision. Now, this Hasmonean Palace, as you see located on your map, is the place thought by many, not all, to be the place where this trial took place. There is some dispute about it, but nonetheless, that's the location.

There's, in addition to the other supplement that we mentioned, a color supplement here showing the Temple Mountain vicinity at the time of Christ's crucifixion. And it's available also in the cabinet to the right as you exit this room. And this illustration I think is real helpful. One of the things it shows is on one end, the Fortress Antonia. This was the place where Jesus would be taken to, where the soldiers would prepare him for execution and also do all the mocking and abuse that they did. There is the temple area itself, and we're kind of looking at the backside of it from this perspective. This is looking east. And there's this Hasmonean Palace, that would be this right in here off to the right side of the diagram. And here would be Golgotha, the place where Jesus would be crucified. And one of the things we read as we read through this passage, it was a horrific abuse of justice on the one hand. All the charges that the Jews came up with, false or at least mistaken, So it was a horrific injustice from that standpoint.

Pilate could find nothing wrong with this man and yet would have him scourged, beaten terribly, and crucified purely on the basis of public opinion, at least of those who appeared there in front of him. One of the things that's curious Christ did not even defend himself in either case. As a matter of fact, the only things that he said at the trial with the Jews were things that would certainly get him condemned by the Jews. And with Pilate, Pilate was stunned that Jesus didn't defend himself at all.

This is as it should be. Christ really did nothing wrong because only the sinless one was qualified to take your sins and mine upon himself. It wouldn't do for any of us here, even me, to stand up and say, hey, you know, I'll pay for everybody's sins. That's not going to work, is it? Only the sinless one. Even the sins of his betrayer and the sins of those who judged him wrongly were put upon Christ. Christ was arranging to pay for their sins.

It was an abuse of justice and yet it was perfect justice. It was exactly what we needed. It was precisely what we needed. You see, while this is amazing grace for us, God had to have every single sin of all time, even the smallest ones, even the ones in secret, even the ones unknown, every sin of all time be satisfied on that cross. For us, it was great grace. But for perfect justice to be done, the sinless one had to take all of our sins, every single one, upon himself. Christ certainly had the power and the authority to deal out justice against his betrayer and his judges. As Jesus said to Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, couldn't I call down, and he gave a number that was 36,000 to 72,000 angels, Couldn't I call down that many and deliver us if I wanted? We don't need your sword, Peter. Put it back. Put it back.

He could have done that, but he deliberately did not because this unjust proceeding had to take place. We see in the first verses of the chapter, Judas fills remorse. Judas fills remorse as he sees that Christ is condemned to death by the Sanhedrin who paid him to be the betrayer. He gets to the point, he says, No! This isn't what I wanted! And he begins to feel terrible remorse about it, so he goes back, takes the money, But the Sanhedrin would not take the money back. He said, we don't want that.

He realized he'd betrayed an innocent man. So Judas threw the silver paid to him in the sanctuary and hung himself. What that saying that he did, you see those doors there? Either through those doors or over the wall, he pitched the money, maybe even in the bag. even in the bag that he was given in the first place, but pitched it over the wall and then ran out. Here is the sanctuary of the temple given on your map there on the first page. So that's where all this would have taken place. Interestingly, lots of spiritually intense things happening in a fairly small area.

The Sanhedrin, knowing that this was blood money, apparently there's something about the identification of it that they knew, yup, this was the money they paid for Judas. They said, well, we can't accept this into the temple. Imagine having a conscience after what they did. We can't use this into the temple treasury, so they used the funds to buy a potter's field, a place to bury strangers.

But these injustices happened so that we could justly be called righteous. Christ didn't carry out any injustice or carry out justice against his betrayer, his accusers, no, the captors, the judges. He did this intentionally. Christ's life was not taken from him. He gave it. It's very important that that be understood. You have a slide here on page 2 that looks like this. It says he loved and he gave.

John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

Galatians 2.20, the son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

Ephesians 5.2, Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us.

Ephesians 5.25 in the same chapter. Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her.

He loved and he gave, he loved and he gave, he loved and he gave, he loved and he gave. He wanted this to happen. He gave himself, his life was not taken. Christ gave his judges exactly what they needed to condemn him to death, all the while not committing a single wrong, none. That qualified Him as a perfect and adequate, a sufficient sacrifice for you and for me.

Here at this time of the Passover, Christ was our Passover Lamb. Here Jesus is standing before Pilate, and actually the account in Matthew is abbreviated. He stood before Pilate twice that morning. So we have the abbreviated account here. But Jesus stands before the Roman governor Pilate.

Pilate asks Jesus if he is the king of the Jews. Are you the king of the Jews? In fact, Jesus was born king of the Jews. Remember the Magi? What did they come asking when they came into Jerusalem? Where is he who is born king of the Jews? So that had always been true. Jesus' response is to simply say to Pilate the exact same words that he said to Caiaphas earlier that morning. You upset it. Are you the king of the Jews? You said it. Yep.

So then the Jewish High Council, the Sanhedrin, comes in to make their false accusations. The leaders of the people set their charges before Pilate, and Pilate believes none of it. He says, this is all bogus. This is rubbish. And of course, I have jokingly here, Jesus is really irritating. That's really the only problem. You know, we don't like him. They should have said that because it would have sold just as well. Pilate is amazed that Jesus made no defense whatsoever against these false charges. These could easily have been dismissed. He knows they're bogus. Why doesn't Jesus defend himself? He doesn't at all.

It's time for a farm story. Okay. Time for a farm story. In Mendocino County, in Northern California, I spent some time And I would go to a neighboring farmer's place in a little tiny town called Floodgate. And when I say tiny, I'm not kidding. Here is an aerial view. And right over here, that's Floodgate. See those couple of buildings and some cars? That's Floodgate. That's the town. Right nearby up on the hill was the Lytle Ranch. And I would go over and help. Al Lytle and his son Charlie, he's a friend of mine, and helped them with the animals, usually the sheep.

I learned I had to be very careful about the ram. Never forget where the ram is. I learned that the hard way. I ended up studying soil real close. Okay. Anyway, one of the things we did with Al Lytle is we would go in and we'd do various things with the sheep at different times.

And the sheep, I found that they would just get all upset and they'd be running around. You see some of them here in a blur. They would be upset. I saw the sheep climb four deep on top of each other. I mean, they make noise and ruckus and climbing and jumping up and down until there's layers and layers of sheep. There's even one instance where they were in the corner, and it was kind of like a conveyor belt, where they just kind of went like this. The sheep that had, you know, three other sheep on top of them would back out.

And then it'd go like this, and then it'd be this. And all the noise you could possibly imagine with this. So that's the way the sheep were until we took one out of the group to do something. And whatever one we took out that was previously noisy and making all sorts of ruckus would go quiet. whether we're tagging the ears so we can identify which sheep is this, whether we're docking the tails, because actually sheep are born with tails or long, you cut them off because it avoids disease problems, or shearing them or anything of the sort.

And Al Lytle pointed out to me, he says, you know what Isaiah said, Isaiah 53.7, what Isaiah said was exactly the way the sheep behave, every one of them. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth, like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth."

And that is exactly what Christ did. Al Lydell was right. Pilate knows that the charges are bogus. He knows. This is foolishness. He knows that Jesus is innocent. and the leaders were not motivated by facts and justice. He knows that, even without Jesus saying anything, and Jesus didn't.

Pilate tries to have Jesus released by a very odd custom, and that is, at this time of year, they have a tradition of letting loose one of the prisoners. And so Pilate says, ah, I know, because they actually tried to get out of this crazy situation where he was condemning an innocent man. So Pilate knows the charges are bogus so he asked the crowd whether they want the notorious criminal Barabbas released or Jesus.

Now Barabbas is an insurrectionist, he is a murderer and a robber. I mean a wild criminal. Multiple crimes and violent ones at that. And yet They say, no, give us Barabbas. We want Barabbas released, not this Jesus guy. The crowd had been quite manipulated.

Ah, yes, another interesting feature, Pilate's wife sends him a note. Now, passing notes can get you in trouble in some places, but anyway, Pilate's wife sends him a note, sends a note to him while he's there in the judgment seat, telling him not to have anything to do with this man Jesus. Don't make any decisions against this guy. Even calls him righteous. Now, why would she say? Because she had had a dream just the night before. A troubling dream about this man. So she says, don't do anything. I've got to have a bad feeling from a bad dream. Don't do that. Pilot, from anything we can tell, doesn't respond to the note.

It's interesting that Pilate's wife by a later document, so its historicity is doubtful. Pilate's wife later is claimed to be a Christian. But at any rate, she does at least call him a righteous man. But on asking if the crowd wanted Barabbas or Jesus released, the crowd had already been manipulated by the Sanhedrin to ask for Barabbas release. the notorious criminal.

So they began shouting out, Crucify Him! And in the Greek, it's just one word. They shouted out, Crucify Him! The crowd had been likewise persuaded by the Sanhedrin to demand that Jesus be crucified. When Jesus gets up there, say this, right? Okay, on cue. So that's the way they did it. So they all said, crucify him. And he said, why? What evil has he done?

And of course, that meant he didn't believe all the charges, and they could come up with nothing. But they kept shouting all the more, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. Even when Pilate asked the crowd what evil Jesus had done, They shout again and again, all the more, louder and with more enthusiasm, even on the brink of riot, Crucify Him! Pilate never hears any valid charges against Jesus.

So he makes a ruling based only on the demand of the crowd, against justice, what he knows is justice, and against his wife's wishes. He then, in an act attempting to rid himself of the blame, goes and publicly washes his hands there in front of everybody and says he's innocent of this man's blood. Well, that doesn't do it, does it? In order to satisfy the crowd and avoid a riot, because he sensed that things were on the brink of riot, the Sanhedrin and the crowd get their way, the release of Barabbas, The Sentencing of Christ, Scourging, and Crucifixion.

So here we have him taken to the Fortress Antonia, which is located right to the north of the Temple Mount area. We've said before the Temple Mount is an area about the size of six football fields and so right to the north and to the west end of that Temple Mount.

Here from the diagram that we have and is available as a supplement, that's this structure over here on this side, the Fortress Antonia. Here it is looking at a model of the temple area. So you see the temple porticos along the side, the colonnade along the side. You see the corner, often one corner of the inner temple area. And then here is the Fortress Antonia. And as you see on the colonnade, a little stairway that leads from the temple courtyard up into the fortress. This is the place where Jesus was taken. And by the way, Paul also later, Acts 22. And it's believed that this is the floor of the place where Jesus was mocked by the soldiers. He would have been in this location, scourged.

The scourging for many was the end of life. A lot of times they didn't have to crucify him because the scourging would be so intense some couldn't handle it. But Jesus was scourged and then from there proceeded on out to be crucified. The Roman soldiers, it says they're a cohort which if that's to be taken literally could be as many as 600. So, apparently, hundreds of them, a large crowd, put a robe on Jesus, a crown of thorns shoved down on his head, and they gave him a reed scepter at first, at any rate, to mock him, and then bowed down, Hail, King of the Jews.

You see, once a man had been condemned to be crucified, there was no legal limit to the abuse you could carry out on them. No protection whatsoever. You could do anything. You could abuse them, because after all, they're going to be crucified anyway, and that's harmful and shameful and deathly. They beat him with the rod, they spit on him, and then they led him to be crucified.

As Jesus is unable, after the scourging and beating, to carry his cross, Simon of Cyrene is pressed into carrying it. Now, the soldiers were not doing anything out of line in pressing Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross. There was a set of laws in the Roman legal system where the soldiers could press people to do various things. It even comes in the Sermon on the Mount, remember, where Jesus says, if the soldier forces you to carry his stuff for a mile, go with him too. The first mile is one that they were allowed to. It's part of that set of rules. They were likewise allowed to press somebody from a crowd, anyone who happened to be there, to carry the cross.

And so that was simply part of the Roman legal system where the soldiers could press someone to do that. And Simon of Cyrene was the one who was picked. Cyrene is in the coastal area of North Africa in what is now Libya. And so Simon was probably just coming in for his pilgrimage and was caught up in this thing. It's certainly not something he would volunteer for.

Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent and his wife even said that Jesus was a righteous man. It's very doubtful that she knew the depth of what that was. But it is important for us to recognize Jesus wasn't just innocent. He wasn't just free of wrongdoing. You see, Adam in the garden was innocent, wasn't he, until he sinned. He was free from having sinned yet. Jesus was beyond innocent. He was fundamentally righteous. He was the definition of righteousness.

It had to be in order for his death to be sufficient to pay for the sins of the whole world. You think about it. How long does it take one person to pay for their own sins? Forever. How long did it take Jesus to pay for the sins of the whole world? Less than a day. Why? He had great capacity because he was infinitely righteous.

Not just innocent. In 1 John 2, 1 and 2, this point is brought forward. My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, the righteous one.

And he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also those of the whole world. See, Jesus Christ is the righteous one, not just innocent, certainly that, but far beyond that, infinitely righteous, the very definition of righteousness.

That made him adequate, sufficient, completely so as our sacrifice and as our righteousness now. As he died for us, as we are in Him and He is in us. His righteousness then and His righteousness now as we live. Propitiation means that Christ's death satisfied God's holiness and God's justice entirely, completely. There was no deficiency in Christ's payment on the cross. As we look at this account, something else comes forward between the last chapter and this.

Both Peter and Judas blew it big time. Peter had blown it big time denying that he knew Christ with an oath and cursing. And then Jesus and he matched eyes from across the courtyard. Can you imagine what went through Peter's mind? Both Peter and Judas were remorseful about what they had done.

So how are they spiritually different in terms of the outcome? What's the difference between the two guys? They both did something wrong within hours of each other, and they both were remorseful. So what's the difference? Well, we start to see it this way. Judas and Peter Both felt remorse, so in that way they were identical. But Peter, while he was at that time confused, did see and realize that Christ was and is grace revealed, grace personified. Judas, on the other hand, knew no grace. That's the difference.

John chapter 1, 14 through 18 reads this way, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about him and cried out saying, that's John the Baptist, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me has a higher rank than I and he existed before me.

For of his fullness we have all received and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him." This may also explain why Peter, when he wrote 1 and 2 Peter, wrote grace ten times, and especially in 1 Peter, and even Second Peter, he finished off the book, but grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter understood grace. Judas knew none of it and took his life. Something else that's interesting too to look at. Here is Pilate standing in judgment of Jesus. Will that always be the case? No, there's going to be a reversal.

John 18, 37 and 38 records this for us. For this I have been born and for this I have come into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate said to him, what is truth? A different time will come. A day will come and Pontius Pilate will stand before the one he judged. And he'll have no excuses. The truth will come out. He'll stand before the one who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He will be judged by absence from his name being in the book of life and by his deeds. And I have to tell you, next week I won't be here, but we'll have somebody else as a guest speaker. It'll be Valerius Maximus will be our guest speaker next Sunday, okay? So, just so you're forewarned. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you as we look at these verses that precede the time of your crucifixion. They are momentous verses, verses of great injustice but perfect justice. They're verses of lack of insight on the part of many and great insight because we've come to know you. And we thank you as we look forward to this next passage here, your crucifixion. It is what for many would be a horror and yet it is for us indeed a very good Friday. We thank you that we can look at something so awful, so horrific, done so unjustly, and rejoice in it. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.