THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF JESUS
Matthew 27
“They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.”
In this telling of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, the focus is on the people involved. Only at the pivotal moment was our attention drawn to Jesus.
Judas was apparently OK with his betrayal until he realised that the Jewish leaders intended to execute Jesus. Money was likely his motive because he expressed his remorse by returning the money he was paid. Clearly he felt nothing for Jesus nor had he any semblance of faith in his teaching.
The Jewish leaders were fastidious about the use of “blood money” within their religious context but had no such qualms about plotting to execute Jesus within the walls of the Temple that Jesus had claimed to be “my Father’s house”.
Herod knew that the issue was a religious issue and had no desire to be the Jewish leaders’ executioner. The little detail about his wife’s dream tells us that God, in his kindness, decided to warn him, just as Jesus had warned Judas. But Pilate did not want to take any responsibility either way and gambled on the people choosing to free Jesus.
The crowd, to my mind, was basically clueless and, given a choice by Pilate, the Roman governor, chose against his wishes.
The soldiers were cruel bullies, enjoying the power they had to have a little fun.
These were the people that crowded the scene of Jesus’ trial and execution. Those who loved him, the women in v55, were kept at a distance, in the periphery, in this narrative.
At the centre of the narrative is the plaintive cry of Jesus as he approached his end, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” To the people within this crass show of human injustice and cruelty, it is probably a cry of despair and defeat—victory for the devil; to us who know better, it is the moment when our guilt was laid on his shoulders.
Matthew did not leave us in despair but tells us that at the moment of death, the curtain that separates us from God’s presence was torn by God himself, and the righteous rose from the dead as the world ruptured in an earthquake. Jesus’ sacrifice had triggered God’s power to accomplish God’s will to save.
It is interesting that Matthew concluded with Gentiles proclaiming the deity of Jesus.
When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”