I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 27-28.

    The center of this passage is Jesus’ trial before Pilate. It is unclear to me why Jesus remained silent while the charges were levied against Him before Pilate. Perhaps it was because anything He said would be used to support further accusations. I do know that Matthew makes a point of mentioning Jesus’ silence in order to demonstrate the fulfillment of Isaiah 53:7. However, for me the key element of Jesus’ trial before Pilate is the crowd. The religious leaders manipulated the crowd into calling for the release of a murderer and for Jesus’ crucifixion. Now, since Pilate was attempting to find a reason to release Jesus it seems likely that he would have chosen an alternate(Barabbas) who was disliked by most of the common people. In addition, we know that Jesus was generally liked by the common people. They liked Him for the miracles He performed and for the way in which He managed to tweak the religious leaders for their hypocrisy. When we read this passage we need to recognize how the same thing can happen today. When the crowd is calling for immediate action, it is calling for something its members would not approve of in their calmer moments.