Matthew 27:26

Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified. Pilate scourged Jesus, that is, he had Him whipped, either to gratify the people, or else to show that it was he himself who had condemned Christ, …

Then released he Barabbas unto them,.... The seditious person, robber, and murderer, for which crimes he was in prison.

Scourged Jesus - This is allowed to have been a very severe punishment of itself among the Romans, the flesh being generally cut by the whips used for this purpose: so the poet: - - Horribili Sectere flagello. “To be cut by the horrible whip.” Hor. Sat. I. 3. 119. And sometimes it seems, they were whipped to death. See the same poet, Sat. I. 2. 41. - Ille Flagellis Ad Mortem caesus See also Horat. Epod. od. iv. v.

These verses describe our Lord’s appearance before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. That sight must have been wonderful to the angels of God. He who will one day judge the world allowed himself to be judged and condemned, though “he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth” ( Isaiah 53:9 ). He, from whose lips Pilate and Caiaphas will one day receive their eternal sentence suffered silently, an unjust sentence to be passed upon him.

These verses describe our Lord’s appearance before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. That sight must have been wonderful to the angels of God. He who will one day judge the world allowed himself to be judged and condemned, though “he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth” ( Isaiah 53:9 ). He, from whose lips Pilate and Caiaphas will one day receive their eternal sentence suffered silently, an unjust sentence to be passed upon him. Those silent sufferings fulfilled the words of Isaiah: “as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth” ( Isaiah 53:7 ). To those silent sufferings believers owe all their peace and hope. Through them they will have boldness in the day of judgment, who in themselves would have nothing to say. Let us learn from the conduct of Pilate how pitiful is the condition of an unprincipled great man. Pilate appears to have been inwardly satisfied that our Lord had done nothing worthy of death: we are told distinctly that “he knew that for envy they delivered him.” Left to the exercise of his own unbiased judgment, he would probably have dismissed the charges against our Lord, and let him go free. But Pilate was the governor of a jealous and turbulent people; his great desire was to procure favor with them and please them: he cared little how much he sinned against God and conscience so long as he had the praise of man. Though willing to save our Lord’s life, he was afraid to do it if it offended the Jews; and so, after a feeble attempt to divert the fury of the people from Jesus to Barabbas, and a fleeblier attempt to satisfy his own conscience by washing his hands publicly before the people, he at last condemned one whom he himself called a “just person.” He rejected the strange and mysterious warning which his wife sent to him after her dream: he stifled the remonstrances of his own conscience.

And when he had scourged Jesus - See the notes at Mat 10:17. Among the Romans it was customary to scourge or whip a “slave” before he was crucified. This was done to inflict greater suffering. than crucifixion would be alone, and to add to the horrors of the punishment. Our Lord, being about to be put to death after the manner of a slave, was also treated as a slave as one of the lowest and most despised of mankind. He delivered him to be crucified - Not merely gave him up to them to crucify him, as if they only were answerable, but he gave him up as a judge, when he ought to have saved his life and might have done it. Crucifixion was a Roman punishment; it was performed by Roman soldiers; Pilate pronounced the sentence from a Roman tribunal, and Pilate affixed the title to the cross. Pilate, therefore, as well as the Jews, was answerable to God for the death of the Savior of the world.