And Pilate, seeing that it availed nothing, but that rather a tumult was arising, having taken water, washed his hands before the crowd, saying, I am guiltless of the blood of this righteous one see *ye* [to it].
The governor has already declared three times that he finds no fault in the prisoner. But the shouting outside is turning into a riot. The basin he calls for raises two questions: what was he claiming, and did it work?
The word Pilate picks for himself is rare. Only one other man in the New Testament uses it.
A word often used in the Old Testament in contrast to those showing wickedness. It occurs only twice in the New Testament. Judas used it of the Lord, and it fits Him truly — "guiltless." Pilate used it of himself. Matthew 27:4, 24. It was the true state of Adam and Eve before they fell.
The gesture had a precedent in Israel's law, and one writer measures Pilate against it.
This reminds us of Deuteronomy 21:6. When a man was found murdered, the elders of the nearest city had to wash their hands to affirm that they had no part in the crime. Pilate washed his hands and declared himself innocent of the blood of the Lord Jesus. Right afterward he took blood-guilt on himself by giving up the Lord Jesus to be crucified. So his hand-washing was mere hypocrisy.
There may also have been mockery in it. His accusers had refused to enter his hall that morning in case it made them unclean.
He knew their habit well. Every time they came home from the market, they washed themselves to be free from any defilement they might have caught from contact with a Gentile. So this household ritual was a daily witness by the Jews that the Gentile was "unclean." The governor saw a chance to answer back. With solemn irony he washed his hands in front of a crowd too particular to enter his palace in case it defiled them.
Behind the injustice there was a purpose, and inside it there was a weak man.
The moment came when God let iniquity have its full course, so that it would show itself for what it is. In this way propitiation came about through the suffering and death of Jesus. Pilate shows only the weakness of a man who despised everything around him. He would like to keep his conscience, but he had very little of it and still less of the fear of God. When holding to righteousness became too inconvenient, he gave way to the violence and persistence in evil of a will that fights entirely against God and good. In Pilate's eyes this was a poor just man with no human importance. He was not worth compromising himself and the public peace for. He washes his hands of it, and leaves the responsibility for this death with those who wanted it.
The pattern is still recognisable wherever the loudest voice decides the verdict.
What matters is not the correct moral judgement of the issue in question, but the opinion and mood of the crowd. ... We do well to respect the old warning: "You shall not fall in with the many to do evil" (Ex. 23:2).
His own actions in the same hour answer his claim.
There was no excuse for Pilate any more than for the leaders of Israel; all were guilty of condemning the innocent One. Pilate knew what he was doing. Three times over he declared Jesus to be guiltless. Yet he had the nerve to wash his hands in front of the mob and say, "I am innocent of this man's blood." How could he be innocent of His blood? He scourged Jesus and handed Him over to the will of those who cried for His blood.
The washing had an effect, but not the one Pilate wanted.
We see Pilate in effect giving up his role as judge in this case and throwing the responsibility on the people. Of course this did not clear him. But it did lead the people to put themselves under full responsibility for the blood of their Messiah. In verse 25 we find the explanation of the sorrows that fell upon the people, and that have followed their children to this day.
One writer turns the scene on his reader.
Poor cowardly Pilate — he could not get clear of the blood of Christ that way. And let me tell you, my reader, if the blood of Christ does not lift you into glory, it will weigh you down into the lake of fire.
- Water. Pilate reached for a basin because hand-washing was a known way of declaring "I had no part in this blood."
- Words. He called himself "innocent." Judas had used that same word of Jesus, and those are its only two appearances in the New Testament.
- Weakness. He had little conscience and less fear of God, so he gave way when righteousness became inconvenient. God let the evil run its full course.
- Wash. The washing settled nothing. He had already scourged Jesus, and then he handed Him over to the cross.
- Weight. Pushing blame away only let the crowd claim it. No one escapes the blood of Christ: it either lifts you into glory or weighs you down.
And all the people answering said, His blood [be] on us and on our children.
Pilate has just washed his hands in front of the crowd and declared himself clear of Jesus' death. The people answer by calling that blood down on themselves and on their children — the same blood, commentators say, that can one day cleanse them.
Pilate tried to push the blame onto the crowd, and the crowd took it. One writer links his gesture with a law about an unsolved killing, then weighs who carried the heavier guilt:
Whatever the Jews thought of Pilate's act, they accepted full responsibility. Perhaps it reminded them of the law about an unsolved killing (Deut. 21:6), and perhaps it did not. Either way, they cried out in reckless boldness, "His blood be on us and on our children." Theirs, then, was the greater guilt. Yet the Gentiles were not excused, as the Lord said to Pilate, "he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin."
The verse says all the people answered. One writer weighs what that shout was willing to risk:
The people were in no way deterred by the thought of civil punishment from their cruel rulers. They answered him with one voice, recklessly defying every consequence: "His blood be on us and on our children."
What the crowd asked for, they received. One writer reads their cry through the Old Testament picture of the avenger of blood. A killer was safe from him only inside a city of refuge:
Even if they cannot lift the load from Pilate, they accept their own responsibility in the fullest way. Ever since, however far they fled into all the countries of the earth, the avenger of blood has been behind them. They have found no effective city of refuge, and they never will — until they look on Him whom they have pierced and, in repentance and faith, find in Him the source of all their blessing.
They named their children in the cry, and another writer traces what followed:
This verse explains the sorrows that fell on the people, and that have followed their children to this day. They have yet to face the great tribulation before the account is settled according to the government of God.
Yet Jesus had already prayed for these same people from the cross. One writer explains why that prayer left them a way out:
Suppose God had counted Israel's national sin, the crucifying of their Messiah, as murder. Then there would have been absolutely no hope. All must have fallen before the avenger of blood. But on the cross Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." It was as if He had said, "Father, count this sin of theirs as manslaughter and not murder." God heard that prayer, so there was hope even for those who brought about His death. So on the Day of Pentecost Peter preached forgiveness to those who would turn in faith to the risen and exalted Jesus. That day the heavenly city of refuge was opened, and three thousand souls fled to it.
In God's hands, the curse the crowd called down becomes the means of their rescue:
This poor people calls a terrible curse down on itself. That curse weighs on it until sovereign grace changes the blood of a curse into the blood of expiation. Grace does this by bringing a small remnant to repentance, in which they will feel the sin that has been committed. And this is on God's part, who will cleanse them from the sin they committed in shedding it. The sovereign grace of God alone can find, in the very wickedness of man, the means of saving the man who was guilty of it.
The scene reaches past that crowd. One writer puts the people's cry into plain words, then tells the reader what the same blood will do to him:
They say, "Let the weight of His murder lie on us. We cannot stand Him, we do not want Him, we will not have Him." And Pilate says, "I wash my hands of it all." Poor spineless Pilate! He could not get clear of the blood of Christ that way. And let me tell you, my reader, if the blood of Christ does not lift you into glory, it will weigh you down into the lake of fire.
- Claimed — the crowd took full responsibility for His death. Their guilt was the greater, and Pilate's hand-washing did not clear the Gentile side.
- Carried — what they asked for came upon them. The avenger of blood has followed the nation, and the account is still open.
- Covered — "Father, forgive them" counted the crime as manslaughter, not murder. That kept a way of escape open.
- Converted — sovereign grace turns the blood of a curse into the blood of expiation for a repentant remnant.
- Chosen — the same blood either lifts you into glory or weighs you down; no one washes their hands of it.
Then he released to them Barabbas; but Jesus, having scourged [him], he delivered up that he might be crucified.
Matthew's account of the trial ends with a swap. A rebel and murderer walks free. An innocent man is whipped and handed over to be crucified. The verse raises two questions. How could a judge who knew better do this? And why did God let the exchange happen this way?
Pilate had already washed his hands and announced that he wanted no part in this death. The sentence he then passed shows what that gesture was worth.
Yet how can Pilate think this frees him from responsibility? Popular opinion had worn him down completely, and he is guilty of passing the sentence of crucifixion. He released Barabbas, but he also added to his guilt by scourging Jesus before His crucifixion. This may have been an attempt to satisfy the Jews without condemning Him to death (compare John 19:1-4), but Matthew only states the fact. Pilate's stalling only involved him in greater guilt.
Pilate did not act as a private man. He spoke for the Roman government.
This man, who stood for a Roman government that took great pride in its justice, was guilty of the worst abuse of justice the world has ever seen.
The verse gives one word to the whipping. Roman writers had a heavier name for it.
His hands were tied and His back bent as the cruel whip of cruel Rome fell on the Son of God. Satan's hatred of the Holy One supplied the strength to inflict that terrible punishment. Roman writers called it "the intermediated death," the one that came before death by crucifixion. At last that holy body was a mass of torn and bleeding flesh.
The last phrase does more than say how He died. The kind of death carries its own meaning.
Of our old man we read that it has been crucified with Christ… Crucifixion and death do not always mean the same thing. Crucifixion speaks of judgment passed by law, and it assumes someone has the right to pass it… So Pilate, having scourged Jesus, delivered Him to be crucified (Matt. 27:26). A person might die in many ways, but crucifying was punishment under law: criminals were crucified. God, we learn, has passed judgment on our old man in the cross of Christ.
Pilate's own terms tie the two men together.
Barabbas stands here as a chief of sinners, a rebel and a murderer. The feast of redemption offers him a possible release, but only, under Pilate's choice, if Jesus is given up. Jesus becomes, as it were, the Substitute for the chief of sinners. To "release Barabbas" is "to destroy Jesus." … Looking deeper than the wicked wills of men, we can see in the purpose of God that holy Sin-offering, the true passover, by which even a Barabbas may go free — not for any good in him, for Barabbas shows none.
The freed prisoner had a vantage point no one else in the story had.
Barabbas went free, though he was guilty and condemned, because the Lord Jesus took his place. Christ was his substitute. Once released, Barabbas might have gone out, looked up at Him who hung on the cross, and said, "He died for me; He paid my penalty." It is a blessed illustration of the atonement.
Many read the words "with His stripes we are healed" straight into Pilate's whip. Commentators warn against that. One writer answers those who made the scourging itself the suffering that saves:
The proof drawn from Calvin and Witsius is that "with His stripes we are healed" refers to His scourging by Pontius Pilate, and that He was judged before a human court to match our being charged as guilty before God. I do not feel this needs an answer with any sober Christian. The word "stripes" does not even mean scourging, but the bruising left by blows.
Note: the older translation these writers used says "stripes" where the ESV says "wounds." A second writer draws the same line. Cruelty from men is real, but it is not what saves.
These cruelties from violent men are terrible for those who worship the Lord to think about. Yet they are not the stripes that healed us. God struck the holy Sufferer, and not men only.
Behind the governor's cowardice stands a purpose that was never at his mercy.
God knew what men would do with His Son, and took the occasion of man's wickedness to work out His plans for the blessing of mankind. When Pilate delivered up Jesus to be crucified, God delivered Him up for our trespasses (Rom. 4:25).
- Delivered by a coward. Pilate refused to take the blame. Then he whipped Jesus and sentenced Him to keep the crowd happy. Disowning the guilt only deepened it.
- Delivered to a penalty. Crucifixion was not just a way of dying. It was a legal sentence, the death of criminals. There God passed judgment on our old man.
- Delivered in place of a murderer. Barabbas could go free only if Jesus was given up. He is the story's clearest picture of a guilty man saved by a substitute.
- Delivered, not healed by the whip. The scourging was real torture. But writers warn that the stripes which heal are not Pilate's whip. God's striking of the Sufferer is another matter.
- Delivered by God. One act was man's worst crime and God's plan. Pilate handed Him over to be crucified. God handed Him over for our trespasses.