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

Many people wonder why Pilate would have bothered washing his hands of Jesus’ blood when he sentenced Him to be crucified.  After all, we know from historic records that Pilate was a typically brutal governor by Roman standards.  What we know about him suggests that Pilate would have had no qualms with crucifying an innocent man if he thought doing so was in his best interest.  So, why would Pilate have made the gesture of washing his hands in order to proclaim himself innocent of Jesus’ blood?  We find the answer to that question in the message Pilate received from his wife about her dream.  Many first century Romans believed that dreams were messages from the gods and often made important decisions based on their dreams.  So, Pilate ritually absolved himself of Jesus’ death by washing his hands in front of the crowd.  Further, that ritual was intended to transfer any guilt which may have accrued to Pilate to those in the crowd on whose behalf he ordered the crucifixion.  The acceptance of that guilt by the crown completed the ritual.  I do believe that those in the crowd did suffer for the guilt they willingly accepted of crucifying an innocent man, but we should note the crowd which was present did not represent the majority of Jews alive at that time, not even the majority of those living in Jerusalem.  So, even if they had been able to condemn their descendants for the guilt which they took upon themselves, they would have fallen far short of condemning all Jews for all time after.  The people in the crowd accepted the guilt for shedding the blood of an innocent man on that day and all of us are included in that guilt.  Only by accepting His sacrifice on our behalf can that guilt be expunged.

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