11Now Jesus stood before the governor. And the governor asked Him, saying, "Are You the King of the Jews?"
Jesus said to him, "It is as you say." 12And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing.
13Then Pilate said to Him, "Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?" 14But He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.
I thought I would run through the progression that took Jesus to this point with the chief priests and all the plotting they had to do to get here. Some of the plotting was done by the Pharisees. I’m not sure of the relationship between the terms Pharisees and chief priests. I don’t know if they refer to two different groups of people or if they are the same or if one group is a subgroup of the other. But since they both were plotting against Jesus, I will include both here. Here is what is written so far in the Book of Matthew:
Matthew 2:1-5:
| 1Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him." 3When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. |
Matthew 12:9-14:
| 9Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. 10 And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" -- that they might accuse Him. 11Then He said to them, "What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? 12Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." 13Then He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other. 14Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him. |
Matthew 21:12-16:
| 12 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13And He said to them, "It is written, "My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a "den of thieves."' 14Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. 15But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant 16and said to Him, "Do You hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes. Have you never read,
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Matthew 21:23-27:
| 23 Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, "By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?" 24 But Jesus answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: 25The baptism of John -- where was it from? From heaven or from men?" And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, "From heaven,' He will say to us, "Why then did you not believe him?' 26But if we say, "From men,' we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet." 27So they answered Jesus and said, "We do not know." And He said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. |
Matthew 21:45-46:
| 45Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. 46But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet. |
Matthew 22:15-22:
| 15Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. 16 And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. 17Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" 18But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, "Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? 19Show Me the tax money." So they brought Him a denarius. 20And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?" 21They said to Him, "Caesar's." And He said to them, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." 22When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way. |
Matthew 26:3-5:
| 3Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. 5But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people." |
Matthew 26:14-15:
| 14Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15and said, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?" And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. 16So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him. |
Matthew 26:47:
| 47 And while He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and elders of the people. |
Matthew 26:59-68:
| 57And those who had laid hold of Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. 58But Peter followed Him at a distance to the high priest's courtyard. And he went in and sat with the servants to see the end. 59Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, 60but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward 61and said, "This fellow said, "I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days."' 62And the high priest arose and said to Him, "Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?" 63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, "I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!" 64Jesus said to him, "It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven." 65 Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, "He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy! 66What do you think?" They answered and said, "He is deserving of death." 67Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands, 68saying, "Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who struck You?" |
Matthew 27:1-2:
| 1When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death. 2And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor. |
Matthew 27:3-8:
| 3 Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." And they said, "What is that to us? You see to it!" 5Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself. 6 But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood." 7And they consulted together and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. 8Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. |
And now Matthew 27:
| 11Now Jesus stood before the governor. And the governor asked Him, saying, "Are You the King of the Jews?" Jesus said to him, "It is as you say." 12And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. 13Then Pilate said to Him, "Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?" 14But He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly. |
This story has gone full circle. It started with King Herod looking for the King of the Jews, and finally now Pilate is directly asking Jesus if He is King of the Jews.
The wise men were looking for the King of the Jews. Interestingly, all of Jerusalem was troubled with King Herod. Does that mean all the chief priests and scribes were troubled too regarding this news of the King of the Jews? Had the chief priest’s rejection of the coming King of the Jews already started at the time of Jesus’ birth?
The Pharisees who knew the law, first tried to accuse Jesus of not following the law since He was healing on the Sabbath. Jesus’ answer made their laws look bad. Jesus didn’t do as they taught, so they started plotting against Him. They wanted Him destroyed.
When Jesus cleansed the temple and the children praised Jesus as the Son of David, the chief priests became indignant. They question Jesus’ authority, but Jesus would not tell them by what authority He did these things.
As Jesus continued his teaching, the chief priests recognized themselves in the parables that Jesus told. From their perspective, Jesus was giving them a bad image, so they wanted to do away with Him. But they feared the multitude because they took Him for a prophet. So their first line of attack was to discredit Him as a prophet. They tried to entangle Him in His talk by asking about the lawfulness of paying taxes to Caesar. They were only able to marvel at Jesus’ answer.
Failing in their attempts to entangle Jesus, they started plotting to have Jesus killed. They finalized their plan by arranging to have Judas betray Him. They apparently stirred up a crowd to go with Judas with swords and clubs to capture Jesus.
But even after capturing Jesus, and bringing many false witnesses, the most they could accuse Him of from their perspective was blasphemy. Unfortunately, they were unable to execute a punishment of death, so they took Jesus to Pilate to execute the death sentence. Meanwhile, they wiped their hands clean of any responsibility to Judas’ feeling of guilt and got rid of the blood money that was used in Jesus’ capture.
And now Jesus faces Pilate, being asked if He is the King of the Jews. The chief priests accused Him of many things in front of Pilate, but Jesus said no more than to consent to Pilate that it is as he says.
This story has gone full circle. It started with a Gentile, King Herod, looking for the King of the Jews, and finally now Pilate, another Gentile, is directly asking Jesus if He is King of the Jews. King Herod wished to destroy the King of the Jews, Pilate could not allow a King of the Jews to come into power.
Imagine Pilate being presented with this lowly, beaten man, who claimed to be King of the Jews. He could see no evidence of kingship in Jesus’ presence. He had no army to support and defend Him. He had no loyal subjects present. He had no wealth to be seen. And the Jewish leaders were the one who were bringing Jesus in with these charges. How could Pilate believe that Jesus was the King of the Jews?
Jesus could have easily denied He was the King of the Jews and Pilate probably would have believed Him, as there was no evidence of such. In fact, if Jesus would have denied it, there probably wouldn’t have been any case against Jesus and Pilate would have been able to free Him. But Jesus would not deny it. Instead, Jesus said it is as he says. Pilate could not get Jesus to respond to any of the other accusations made against Him.
All Pilate could do was marvel at Jesus. He could not understand Jesus’ actions or lack of action. His curiosity was up about this Man. But what could he do for a man who would not defend Himself?
Why didn’t Jesus defend Himself? Jesus did many things while on earth. But the one reason He was really here, was to die for our sins. If He did nothing else, that was the one thing He needed to do. As He predicted, the Son of Man would be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they would condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. This story must unfold as was predicted. Jesus would do nothing to prevent it. But neither would He do anything to force Pilate to be the one to make it happen.
Jesus would accept the accusation of being the King of the Jews. But those words would be Pilate’s, not His own. Pilate, who did not know what Jesus must do, could only marvel at why Jesus was behaving the way He was.