Pilate's Wife

Pilate's Wife

Matt. 27:11-26

The chief priests with the elders and scribes and the whole council of the Sanhedrin had decided to put Jesus to death. They had Jesus brought before Pilate the governor to pronounce the death sentence. (Mark 15:1; Luke 22:66; 23:1)

Pontius Pilate was the fifth governor of the southern half of Palestine. He was “governor” in the sense of being procurator, which is a title an officer of the Roman empire entrusted with management of the financial affairs of a province and often having administrative powers as ruling over an imperial province, and as such directly responsible to the emperor in Rome. Although he had been given power over the civil, criminal, and military jurisdiction, he was under the authority of the Emperor in Rome.

Pilate was a politician and an administrator, probably in that order. He was always concerned about Rome’s opinion of him.

.Pilate would keep his job only as long as he delivered relative peace and stability in the province he governed.

The narrative here continues from verses 1 and 2 of this chapter, which read: “Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people made their plans how to have Jesus executed. So they bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate the governor” (Matt. 27:1-3). It was in the ‘morning’ that followed the dark night in Gethsemane, and opened the dread day of the crucifixion So begins one of the few most significant days in human history. As stated, the purpose of the chief priests in bringing Jesus to Pilate was “to have Jesus executed.” The chief priests did not have the power to sentence a man to death, so they sought out Pilate with the purpose of convincing him to sentence Jesus to death. Thus, the action of bringing Jesus to Pilate was essentially an act of murder, for the chief priests knew that Jesus was innocent of any crime that deserved death

So Jesus stood before Pilate, who was the local governor, representing the Roman government which controlled Jerusalem at the time. In the book of Luke, we learn that the chief priests told Pilate: “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king” (Luke 23:2). This short statement is full of misleading half-truths, and lies. Jesus did “subvert” the chief priests, but called them out in matters of religion, specifically in regard to their religious hypocrisy. Jesus did not “oppose payment of taxes to Caesar”; on the contrary, Jesus said: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (Matt. 22:21).

Jesus did claim to be “the Messiah”, but not a political Messiah against the Romans. Jesus did not seek to bring political salvation from the Romans, but rather spiritual salvation from our own sins.. Following these false charges, Pilate confronted Jesus: Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ ‘You have said so,’ Jesus replied” (vs. 11). In Roman trials the magistrate normally heard the charges first, questioned the defendant and listened to his defense, sometimes permitted several such exchanges, and then retired with his advisors to decide on a verdict, which was then promptly carried out. Matthew abbreviates the conversation between Jesus and Pilate concerning Jesus’ kingship.

In the Gospel of John, we are given more details about this exchange between Jesus and Pilate: “Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ ‘Is that your own idea,’ Jesus asked, ‘or did others talk to you about me?’ ‘Am I a Jew?’ Pilate replied. ‘Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?’ Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.’ ‘You are a king, then!’ said Pilate. Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’ ‘What is truth?’ retorted Pilate” (John 18:33-38).

So Jesus made it clear to Pilate that He was no threat to Rome, saying, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Moreover, clearly, one sight of Jesus was enough to tell this experienced governor that this was no terrorist, no leader of a revolt aimed at overthrowing the Romans. Pilate would also have known that Jesus had no high position, no wealth, no soldiers, a preposterous position for anyone claiming to be a king

The chief priests then brought more specific charges against Jesus to Pilate, probably the same “false evidence” that was used in front of the Sanhedrin (see Matt. 26:59): When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate asked him, ‘Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?’ But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor” (vss. 12-14). Matthew does not even dignify the lies by enumerating the specific allegations of the chief priests. The specific allegations did not matter; they were determined to have him executed, and to refute their accusations was irrelevant. If these charges were shown to be false, they would raise others. They were not concerned with justice but with an execution.