Jesus before Pilate
23
📚And their whole assembly got up and led him away to Pilate. 2 📚And they began to accuse him, saying, “We found this fellow leading the nation astray and forbidding people to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ, a King”. 23:2 Verse 14. This first accusation was false. The real rebel was Barabbas the one these Jews asked to be released (v 19). The second accusation was also false. See Luke 20:22-25. The third accusation, in the way they made it, was also false. It was true that He said He was the Messiah (Luke 22:67-70; Matt 26:63-64). But these Jews hoped they could get Pilate to misunderstand what this meant. The Lord Jesus was able to satisfy Pilate that He had not come to end Rome’s rule over Israel (John 18:33-37).⚜
3 📚And Pilate asked him, saying, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him and said, “You say it”.
4 📚Then said Pilate to the chief priests and the people, “I find no fault in this man”.
5 📚And they were the more fierce, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching among all the Jews, beginning with Galilee, to this place”.
6 📚When Pilate heard “Galilee”, he asked if the man was a Galilean. 7 📚And as soon as he knew that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also at Jerusalem at that time.
23:7 Herod was ruler of Galilee. See Luke 3:1.⚜
8 📚And when Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had wanted to see him for a long time, having heard many things about him; and he had been hoping to see some miracle performed by him.
23:8 Luke 9:9. Herod was merely curious. He had no desire to learn God’s truth or practice it. That is why the Lord Jesus said nothing to him (v 9). We see Herod’s character in Matt 14:1-11.⚜
9 📚Then he questioned him with many words, but he gave him no answer.
10 📚And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him.
23:10 They were determined that someone in authority put Jesus to death; they didn’t care who it was. See John 18:31.⚜
11 📚And Herod, together with his soldiers, treated him with contempt, mocked him, dressed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him back to Pilate.
23:11 Luke 22:63-64. Herod was superstitious and cowardly like Pilate, and wanted to escape from the responsibility of condemning Jesus to die.⚜
12 📚And the same day Pilate and Herod became friends with one another. Before that there had been enmity between them.
23:6-12 Only Luke records this event. Pilate tried in this way to escape the responsibility of condemning Christ. Compare Matt 27:24.⚜
23:12 They had both been caught in difficult circumstances, being urged to condemn someone who they knew was innocent, and both showed insensitivity and brutality, and acted against their own laws, and the laws of God. Their weakness and wickedness drew their hearts together. See Acts 4:23-30.⚜
13 📚And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, 14 📚said to them, “You have brought this man to me, as one who leads the people astray, and, look, having examined him in your presence, I have found no fault in this man concerning those things with which you accuse him. 15 Neither has Herod, for I sent you to him and, as you see, nothing worthy of death has been done by him. 16 📚Therefore I will punish him and release him”.
23:16 Pilate himself had repeatedly said that Jesus was innocent. For what reason would he punish Him? Punishment meant a terrible whipping that sometimes resulted in death (Matt 27:26).⚜
17 For it was necessary for him to release someone to them at the Feast.
18 📚And they cried out all at once, saying, “Away with this man, and release Barabbas to us”. 19 📚(He had been thrown into prison for some revolt in the city and for murder.)
20 📚Therefore Pilate, wishing to release Jesus, spoke to them again.
21 📚But they cried out, saying, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
22 📚And he said to them the third time, “Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no cause deserving of death. So I will punish him, and let him go”.
23 📚And with loud voices they insistently demanded that he be crucified. And their voices and those of the chief priests prevailed.
23:23 Wicked shouts prevailed over law and reason and conscience and humanity, as often happens.⚜
24 📚And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they demanded. 25 📚And he released to them the one who had been thrown into prison for revolt and murder, for whom they had asked. But he handed Jesus over to their will.
Jesus goes to Calvary and is crucified
26 📚And as they led him away, they laid hold of someone named Simon, a Cyrenian, coming in from the country, and they laid the cross on him, so that he might carry it after Jesus. 27 📚And a great crowd of people followed him, including women also who mourned and lamented him.
28 📚But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. 29 📚For, look, the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’
23:29 Only Luke records the facts of vs 27-31. The words mean that it would be better not to have children than to have them suffer what was to come on Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44).⚜
30 📚Then they will begin to say to the mountains,
‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’
23:30 They would think sudden destruction better than prolonged suffering. Compare Rev 6:16.⚜
31 📚For if they do these things in a green tree, what will be done in the dry?”
23:31 Jesus was referring in vs 29,30 to things that would happen when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD. While He was still there in Israel things were spiritually “green” – there was still life and hope. After His departure the nation of Israel which rejected Him would become “dry” indeed – without any spiritual life.⚜
32 📚And others also, two criminals, were led out with him to be put to death.
33 📚And when they had come to the place that is called Calvary, they crucified him and the criminals there, one at the right hand, and the other at the left.
34 📚Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”. And they divided up his clothing, and cast lots.
23:34 The Lord Jesus was here practicing the truth He taught His disciples. See Matt 5:44. He never told others to do something He was not willing to do Himself (except to ask for forgiveness of sins – He never sinned and so could not do this). He came to bring forgiveness to others (Luke 24:46-47), and His first words after His crucifixion concerned forgiveness. This prayer was for the Roman soldiers who were the ones who actually crucified Jesus. They ignorantly supposed Jesus was another criminal. His prayer perhaps included the crowd of people who were there and hardly knew what was going on, yet sided with the priests in calling for His death. The prayer was that God would forgive them the act of crucifixion, not all the sins they had ever committed. For complete forgiveness, repentance is required (Luke 24:47; Matt 3:2).⚜
35 📚 📖And the people stood watching. And even the rulers with them scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ, the chosen of God”.
36 📚And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, 37 and saying, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself”.
38 📚And above him there was an inscription, written in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew letters:
The repentant thief
THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
39 📚And one of the criminals who had been hanged reviled him, saying, “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us”.
23:39 At first both criminals insulted the Lord Jesus (Matt 27:44). But one changed his mind about Him.⚜
40 📚But the other in response rebuked him, saying, “Don’t you fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 📚And we indeed justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong”.
23:40-41 This is evidence that repentance was at work in his heart. He did not defend himself, but confessed that his sins deserved crucifixion. And he could see that the Lord Jesus was innocent and different from themselves.⚜
42 📚And he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom”.
23:42 Faith in the Lord Jesus was born in the heart of this criminal, and a remarkable faith it was. He saw that this condemned and crucified man was the Messiah of Israel with a kingdom God had given Him. He knew that Christ’s death would not be the end, but that He would come into His kingdom. And he believed, guilty criminal that he was, that Jesus could and would show him mercy.⚜
43 📚And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise”. 📖
Jesus dies and is buried
44 📚And it was about noon, and darkness covered all the earth until three in the afternoon. 45 📚And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two.
23:45 This was a supernatural darkness caused by God, and not merely clouds obscuring the face of the sun. On the tearing of the curtain see Matt 27:51.⚜
46 📚And Jesus crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”. And having said thus, he expired.
47 📚Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying, “Certainly this was a righteous man”.
23:47 See Matt 27:54. Here we see another person in this Gospel praising God – Luke 1:46, 64; 2:13. This Roman military officer recognized that Jesus was dying in peace, and that God had vindicated Him by signs from heaven. It is possible that God granted him on the spot a true faith in Christ.⚜
48 📚And all the people who had assembled for that sight, seeing what had happened, beat their breasts, and returned. 49 📚And all those who knew him, and the women who followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
50 📚Now there was a man named Joseph, a Council member. And he was a good man and a righteous one. 51 📚(He had not consented to their decision and deed.) He was from Arimathea, a Jewish town, and he was waiting for the kingdom of God 📖. 52 📚This man went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. 53 📚And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen cloth, and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, where no one had ever been placed before.
54 📚And that day was the Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was drawing near. 55 📚And the women also, who came with him from Galilee, followed him, and saw the tomb and how his body was placed. 56 📚And they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils, and rested on the Sabbath day according to the commandment 📖.