Matthew 27:1-66
Judah Hangs Himself
1 Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people made their plans how to have Jesus executed. 2 So they bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate the governor.
3 When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. 4 “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.”
“What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.”
5 So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.
6 The chief priests picked up the coins and said, “It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.” 7 So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. 8 That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on him by the people of Israel, 10 and they used them to buy the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”
Jesus Before Pilate
11 Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
“You have said so,” Jesus replied.
12 When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” 14 But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.
15 Now it was the governor’s custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. 16 At that time they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Jesus Barabbas. 17 So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” 18 For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him.
19 While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”20 But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.
21 “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor.
“Barabbas,” they answered.
22 “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked.
They all answered, “Crucify him!”
23 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
24 When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”
25 All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!”
26 Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
The Soldiers Mock Jesus
27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 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. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 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.
The Crucifixion of Jesus
32 As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. 33 They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). 34 There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. 35 When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 36 And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. 37 Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is jesus, the king of the jews.
38 Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” 41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
The Death of Jesus
45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
54 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!”
55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
The Burial of Jesus
57 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. 58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.
The Guard at the Tomb
62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”
65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.
Some of the most dramatic and mysterious events in the history of man happened while Jesus was on earth...When you believe in God you believe in miracles -and God's Miracles are truly mysterious events...Matthew writes in great detail about these moments in chapter 27, and they serve as a profound, supernatural commentary on the significance of Jesus's death and resurrection...
The events of this Great Mystery lead to the crucifixion, as told in Matthew 27, are a powerful reminder of Jesus’s suffering and humanity...The chapter opens with the betrayal of Judas, who, filled with remorse, returned the thirty pieces of silver he had received for his treachery...In his despair, Judas’s act of repentance was not rooted in faith, but in worldly sorrow, leading him to take his own life...The chief priests, seeing the money as "blood money," refused to put it in the temple treasury and instead used it to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners, a moment that ironically fulfilled a prophecy...
Jesus was then brought before the Roman governor, Pilate...Despite Pilate’s recognition of Jesus’s innocence, the crowd, incited by the religious leaders, chose to release the violent criminal Barabbas instead of Jesus...Pilate, symbolically washing his hands of the decision, handed Jesus over to be flogged and crucified...The Roman soldiers mocked Jesus, dressing Him in a scarlet robe and a crown of thorns, a cruel parody of His kingship...They forced Him to carry His own cross to the place called Golgotha, where He was crucified between two criminals...Even in this moment and with His True Authority and Power, Jesus did not fight back, embodying a Perfect Humility and a quiet resolve to fulfill His mission...At the end of His life on the cross, Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”..
Matthew writes about the resurrection of the saints...What a Great Mystery...The Bible tells us that when Jesus died, the tombs were opened, but the saints didn't come out until after Jesus's own resurrection three days later...This timing is incredibly important...The event shows that Jesus is the "firstfruits" of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20)...He is the first to be raised in a new, glorified body, and His resurrection is the key that unlocks the door for everyone else...The saints coming out of their tombs only after Jesus's resurrection is a dramatic visual of this Truth and His Reality and Kingdom...Their resurrection was a foretaste of the new life He won for all who believe, a powerful sign of His victory over death...
This question about Lazarus is interesting, too. Lazarus's resurrection was a temporary one; he would eventually die again...The resurrection of the saints in Matthew, however, seems to point to a permanent, eternal resurrection, a glimpse of the new life that awaits believers...The Bible doesn't say what happened to them—if they lived for a time with their families or if they ascended to heaven with Jesus...This silence is often seen as part of this Great Mystery of Jesus' life and His death...This emphasizes that the focus should remain on Jesus's victory over death, which made their resurrection possible...It is a powerful sign that points to a greater Truth: the end of death's reign...These men and women were probably ordinary followers of God and Jesus...By raising a group of anonymous, ordinary believers, God was making a clear statement: Jesus's victory over death was not just for Himself or for a select few...It was a promise and a reality for all of His followers, foreshadowing the coming resurrection of every believer who has died...Their resurrection was a preview of what is to come for all who walk the Way of Jesus...
We also read about the three hours of darkness...The darkness at the crucifixion is a fascinating and often debated topic...It probably was not a natural solar eclipse...For a solar eclipse to happen, the moon must pass between the Earth and the sun...This only occurs during a new moon...However, Jesus's death took place during the Passover festival, which is always celebrated during the full moon...This fact alone rules out a solar eclipse...As we study this: A new moon happens when the moon is positioned between the Earth and the sun...From our perspective on Earth, the moon is hidden in the sun's glare and looks invisible...A solar eclipse can only happen during a new moon, as that's the only time the moon can block the sun's light from reaching Earth...A full moon is the exact opposite...The Earth is positioned between the sun and the moon, so the sun's light shines fully on the moon's face, making it appear as a bright, complete circle in the night sky...The Passover festival, when Jesus was crucified, is always set for a specific time in the Jewish calendar that falls during a full moon...We must conclude that this is why the three hours of darkness could not have been a natural solar eclipse...The natural timing of the moon's cycle during Passover makes it physically impossible for an eclipse to have occurred...This powerful astronomical fact reinforces the idea that the darkness was a supernatural event, a Divine Sign from God...
So, if it wasn't a natural phenomenon, what was it?...The three hours of darkness from noon until three in the afternoon was a supernatural event—a miraculous sign from God...In the Old Testament, darkness often symbolizes God's judgment and mourning...For example, the prophet Amos foretold a day when God would "make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight" (Amos 8:9)...By covering the land in darkness, God was testifying to the magnitude of His Son’s sacrifice and expressing Divine Sorrow...
These Divine Signs from Heaven—the darkness, the earthquake, the tearing of the temple veil, and the raising of the saints—are not isolated events...They are all linked together to declare in a loud, physical way that Jesus was who He claimed to be and that His death was a cosmic event that changed the course of history forever...
For those who view these events with a measure of healthy skepticism, it’s helpful to understand that the Bible presents them not as mere historical anomalies, but as powerful Divine Signs...This Divine Testimony of God began long before the cross...At Jesus’s baptism, a voice from heaven declared, “This is My Son, whom I LOVE; with Him I AM well pleased.”...Later, on the mount of Transfiguration, the Father’s voice spoke again, telling Peter, James, and John, “This is My Son, whom I LOVE; with Him I AM well pleased...Listen to Him!”...From this initial affirmation to the final moments on the cross, God was speaking to all of us...The three hours of darkness, the shaking earth, and the tearing of the temple curtain were not coincidences; they were a profound, supernatural testimony from God Himself, confirming that this was indeed His Son and that death had been defeated...The resurrection of the saints was a dramatic visual of death's ultimate defeat...These Divine Signs invite us to move beyond doubt and see that Jesus's sacrifice was not a moment of human defeat, but the most pivotal and victorious moment in all of history...Ultimately, these Signs—from the voice at His baptism and Transfiguration to the tombs breaking open—are a consistent, loud declaration from heaven, inviting all of us to believe in the reality and power of the Son of God...