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

Traditionally, when the crowd responded to Pilate during Jesus’ trial, “His blood is on us and on our children!” it has been interpreted as the Jews taking responsibility for Jesus’ death.  From that many Christians have interpreted the suffering of the Jews over the centuries as being God’s judgement upon them for His death.  Some have even gone so far as to interpret it as justification for hating Jews and doing horrible things to them.  However, it struck me that nowhere does Matthew identify the crowd as Jews.  Yes, I know that a crowd gathered in Jerusalem in the First Century right before Passover would have been overwhelmingly made up of Jews, but that’s not the point.  Throughout his Gospel, Matthew repeatedly refers to “Jews” opposing Jesus.  So, it occurred to me that when Matthew refers to the crowd here he intends for us to view ourselves as part of that body.  When the crowd cried out “His blood is on us and on our children!” we were part of that crowd.  The guilt for Jesus’ unjust crucifixion lies not on the Jews, nor on the Romans, not even on Pilate or the Sanhedrin.  It lies on all of us.  If not for my sins, if not for your sins, Jesus would not have died on that cross.

I use 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 first thing I want to point out is that Pilate found none of the charges against Jesus justified putting Him to death, despite the fact that Jesus mounted no defense against the charges.  I have often seen commentators write that from what we know about Pilate he was unlikely to have been bothered by condemning an innocent man.  From this, they conclude that the account of Pilate washing his hands and the crowd taking responsibility for Jesus’ death was an attempt to shift blame from the Romans to the Jews.  I think the people who see this are on to something, but I believe they see antisemitism where there is none.  Instead I believe Matthew meant for us to understand that “the crowd” was responsible for Jesus’ death, not the government.  And we are “the crowd”.  We are responsible for Jesus dying on the cross.

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

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.

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

I came across an Internet meme a few days ago which said that Christians identify with the heroes of the Bible and not with the villains.  They identify with Peter and not with Judas.  The meme had a point, but failed to truly comprehend the Bible.  Peter and Judas are in many ways two sides of the same thing.  Both betrayed Jesus and both felt remorse for their betrayal.  However, Judas punished himself for his failure, whereas Peter threw himself upon Jesus’ mercy.  Both felt terrible remorse for their sin, but Judas refused to live with the shame.  Yes, from a human perspective (and perhaps from God’s as well, but I won’t know that as long as I am on this earth), Judas’ sin was the greater sin, but it was also necessary for God’s plan.  I believe that if Judas had been willing to face others after his betrayal became obvious, Jesus would have forgiven him.  Neither Judas nor Peter could make their betrayal right, but Jesus could and did for Peter.  While Judas never heard Jesus say the final words Matthew recorded, I believe he was unwilling to live with their truth.  Are we?

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

Matthew’s description of Judas’ actions after Jesus’ arrest shed a different light on Judas than John’s account.  I have heard several speakers examine Judas’ motives.  Matthew’s account leads us to conclude that Judas thought he had reasons other than pure greed for betraying Jesus.  Also, we need to compare Judas’ betrayal to Peter’s denial.  What do we know about Judas’ betrayal?  We know that he did so for thirty pieces of silver and, from today’s passage, that he did not expect Jesus to be executed.  Further we know that Judas was among the Twelve when they were sent out with the power to heal the sick and cast out demons.  This leads us to why I think it important for us to think about Judas’ motives.  He had experienced God’s power first hand.  While I am sure that the money played a role in Judas’ decision to betray Jesus, I am also sure that he justified his betrayal on some other basis.  Perhaps he thought that by betraying Jesus he could force Jesus to start “The Revolution” which would overthrow Rome and bring in God’s Kingdom (as Judas perceived it).  Or, perhaps Judas thought that Jesus was about to start a revolt against the Romans and wanted to keep that from happening by getting Him locked up until after the Passover (after all, the Jewish authorities did not have the authority to execute Him).  Whatever his motive, Judas removed the option of forgiveness by killing himself.  Whatever his motives, Judas’ betrayal reveals a loos of faith and his suicide reveals the deep depression which results from that loss of faith.