He answered nothing. "We have to realize the contrast between the vehement clamour of the accusers, the calm, imperturbable, patient silence of the Accused, and the wonder of the judge at what was so different from anything that had previously come within the range of his experience" (Plumptre). Attention may be given to the silences of Jesus during his trials. They are at least as striking and as remarkable as his speeches. Look especially at these.

1. His silence before the high priest. False witnesses, bribed witnesses, made an accusation, by twisting one of his figurative sentences. The high priest was prepared to twist any reply that Jesus might make. "But he held his peace." And the silence made the consciences of his judges speak out, and accuse them of unscrupulous and malicious wickedness.

2. His silence before Herod. "Herod poured out a flood of rambling remarks, but Jesus did not vouchsafe him one word. He felt that Herod should have been ashamed to look the Baptist's Friend in the face. He would not stoop even to speak to a man who could treat him as a mere wonder worker who might purchase his judge's favour by exhibiting his skill. But Herod was utterly incapable of feeling the annihilating force of such silent disdain."

3. His silence before Pilate (as in text). It does not seem that our Lord was silent to Pilate. It was when the clamour of the priest party arose, interrupting the trial, that Jesus preserved silence. Observe the very important distinction between the silence of moodiness and sulkiness and the silence of conscious innocence. Only the latter silence has the true, reproachful, conscience-quickening power. "A silent lamb amidst his foes." The lamb is the type of innocence. Christianity has glorified the silent endurance of wrong, and has made such "silent endurance" one of the most masterful forces that sway humanity. Illustrate these points.

I. INNOCENCE CAN AFFORD TO BE SILENT.

1. Because it sufficiently speaks in attitude and in countenance.

2. Because God is always on its side.

3. Because time works its vindication.

II. INNOCENCE CONVICTS THE INJURER BY SILENCE.

1. It takes away all possibility of contention.

2. It prevents the injurer keeping up the excitement of rage and malice.

3. It compels the injurer to question his own doings.

4. It takes away all the pleasure of the injurer, when a man bears the injury meekly and silently.

The silence of Jesus searches priest party, Herod, and Pilate. - R.T.

The trial of Christ is a part of His humiliation; He who shall judge the nations stands to be judged of another. He who is "life" expects the sentence of death. The Eternal Word keeps silence.

I. In speaking of the CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF PILATE, we desire to bring him before you, as far as possible, as a man. He has won a terrible pre-eminence among the sons of Adam. Every child is taught to say that its Lord was crucified "under Pontius Pilate." It is a mistake to suppose that these instruments of our Lord's sufferings were men of astounding depravity. Pilate was not of this class. He was a reluctant agent in these events. He was induced simply by expediency. Indifference to religion can issue in deeds as unpardonable as utter violation of its spirit. Again and again, on a narrower stage, has been acted over that scene of criminal irresolution, resisted impulses, and weak concession to the fear of man.

I. Consider THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD TOWARDS PILATE. We are sometimes tempted to think that they were in very hard case, who, like Pilate, were involved in events so peculiar as were all things connected with Christ's life on earth, that it must have been a great trial of faith to recognize a present God in Jesus as He stood before Pilate. The answer is twofold: First, Pilate's guilt did not lie in this, that he condemned the Son of God, but that without evidence, against his own convictions, he condemned an innocent man, — that to gratify the mob, he prostituted his high office. The fact that the prisoner was God in the flesh, only enters into the question of his guilt, so far as he might, if he would, have known Him. But, secondly, it is evident that Pilate was in a remarkable degree held back from his sin. It has been observed, that the Saviour appears to have exercised the most marked grace towards all who were concerned in His final agony. In Pilate's instance, every possible way consistent with his free-will seems to have been tried, in order to save him from consummating his guilt. Such was the long silence of Christ at the beginning. It is clear from the Gospels, that there was in the whole of our Lord's demeanour an almost supernatural dignity. No words dropped from His lips; He declined, i.e., to plead before an authority inferior to His own, insomuch, it is said, that "Pilate marvelled." And when, after Pilate had uttered the fatal words, "Take ye Him and crucify Him," yet another appeal was made to his conscience. The Jews triumphantly responded, "We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." This open and undisguised claim to superhuman rank, did for a moment startle the wavering judge: "When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid." Again, it may be, there recurred to his mind the feelings of involuntary awe inspired from the beginning by his mysterious prisoner; thoughts glanced across him, that there might be more than he surmised in the events in which he bore a part; "that Just Man," against whom no charge could be substantiated, and of whose miraculous power tidings so strange had reached his ears, might be (as old records told there had been in former times), at least a messenger of Deity. Hence his earnest question to our Lord, "Whence art Thou?" Throughout that dread scene of judgment there seems not to have been a moment when Pilate might not have been saved for ever. Again and again he was all but delivered from blood-guiltiness.

(J. R. Woodford, M. A.)

I. THE CIVIL MAGISTRATE UNDER WHOSE ADMINISTRATION HE SUFFERED. Pilate's name intimately interwoven with the history of Christ's sufferings; mentioned more than twenty times. The elements which composed his character were contradictory. He had good qualities, but associated with bad principles.

1. He was influenced by the fear of man.

2. He had a sordid regard to place and power.

3. He discovers a servile love of human applause.

4. The sequel of his history is affecting and instructive; the thing he dreaded came, he lost the favour of the emperor.

II. THE PECULIAR NATURE AND CHARACTER OF THOSE SUFFERINGS WHICH HE ENDURED. Look at the sufferings of Christ.

1. In their visible form.

2. Their moral design.

III. THE LESSONS THEY TEACH.

1. The infinite evil of sin.

2. The unbounded love of Jesus.

3. The full compatibility between the irreversible decrees of God and the freedom of man's agency, and the culpability of man's transgression.

4. The true ground of hope for the self-accusing sinner.

5. What a provision of comfort for the suffering Christian.

6. The fear of man bringeth a snare.

(G. Clayton.)

He had never been slow of speech when He could bless the sons of men, but He would not say a single word for Himself. "Never man spake like this Man," and never man was silent like Him.

1. Was this singular silence the index of His perfect self-sacrifice? Did it show that He would not utter a word to stay the slaughter of His sacred person, which He had dedicated as an offering for us?

2. Was this silence a type of the defencelessness of sin? Nothing can be said in palliation or excuse of human guilt; and therefore He who bore its whole weight stood speechless before His judge.

3. Is not patient silence the best reply to a gainsaying world? Calm endurance answers some questions infinitely more conclusively than the loftiest eloquence. The best apologists for Christianity in the early days were its martyrs. The anvil breaks a host of hammers by quietly bearing the blows.

4. Did not the silent Lamb of God furnish us with a grand example of wisdom? Where every word was occasion for new blasphemy, it was the line of duty to afford no fuel for the flame of sire The ambiguous and the false, the unworthy and mean, will, ere long, overthrow and confute themselves, anal therefore the true can afford to be quiet, and finds silence to be its wisdom.

5. Our Lord, by His silence, furnished a remarkable fulfilment of prophecy (Isaiah 53:7). By His quiet He conclusively proved Himself to be the true Lamb of God.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

Barabbas, Eli, Elias, Elijah, Israelites, James, Jeremiah, Jeremias, Jeremy, Jesus, Joseph, Joses, Judas, Mary, Pilate, Simon, Zabdi, ZebedeeArimathea, Cyrene, Field of Blood, Galilee, Golgotha, Jerusalem, Place of the SkullAccusation, Amazed, Amazement, Astonished, Charge, Exceedingly, Governor, Greatly, Insomuch, Marveled, Marvelled, Quite, Regard, Reply, Ruler, Single, Surprised, Wonder, Wondered1. Jesus is delivered bound to Pilate.
3. Judas hangs himself.
19. Pilate, admonished of his wife,
20. and being urged by the multitude, washes his hands, and releases Barabbas.
27. Jesus is mocked and crowned with thorns;
33. crucified;
39. reviled;
50. dies, and is buried;
62. his tomb is sealed and watched.

Matthew 27:14

     2036   Christ, humility
     2054   Christ, mind of
     2081   Christ, wisdom
     5547   speech, power of
     5784   amazement
     5932   response
     5950   silence

Matthew 27:11-26

     5203   acquittal
     5593   trial

Matthew 27:12-14

     2315   Christ, as Lamb

Matthew 27:14-15

     5327   governors

Matthew 27:14-31

     2585   Christ, trial

The Blind Watchers at the Cross
'And sitting down they watched Him there.' --MATT. xxvii. 36. Our thoughts are, rightly, so absorbed by the central Figure in this great chapter that we pass by almost unnoticed the groups round the cross. And yet there are large lessons to be learned from each of them. These rude soldiers, four in number, as we infer from John's Gospel, had no doubt joined with their comrades in the coarse mockery which preceded the sad procession to Calvary; and then they had to do the rough work of the executioners, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Veil Rent
'Behold, the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.'--MATT. xxvii. 51. As I suppose we are all aware, the Jewish Temple was divided into three parts: the Outer Court, open to all; the Holy Place, to which the ministering priests had daily access to burn incense and trim the lamps; and the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest was permitted to go, and that but once a year, on the great Day of Atonement. For the other three hundred and sixty-four days the shrine lay silent, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Sentence which Condemned the Judges
And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked Him, saying, Art Thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. 12. And when He was accused of the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. 13. Then said Pilate unto Him, Hearest Thou not how many things they witness against Thee? 14. And He answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly. 15. Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Crucifixion
'And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, 34. They gave Him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when He had tasted thereof, He would not drink. 35. And they crucified Him, and parted His garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted My garments among them, and upon My vesture did they cast lots. 36. And sitting down they watched Him there; 37. And set up over His head His accusation written, THIS …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'See Thou to That!'
'I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? See thou to that. 24. I am innocent of the blood of this just Person: see ye to it.'--MATT. xxvii. 4, 24. So, what the priests said to Judas, Pilate said to the priests. They contemptuously bade their wretched instrument bear the burden of his own treachery. They had condescended to use his services, but he presumed too far if he thought that that gave him a claim upon their sympathies. The tools of more …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Taunts Turning to Testimonies
'... The chief priests mocking Him ... said, 42. He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. 43. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him.' --MATT. xxvii. 41-43. It is an old saying that the corruption of the best is the worst. What is more merciful and pitiful than true religion? What is more merciless and malicious than hatred which calls itself 'religious'? These priests, like many a …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Fourth Word
"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani."--ST. MATT. XXVII. 46; ST. MARK XV. 34. There are three peculiar and distinguishing features of this fourth word which our Saviour uttered from His Cross. 1. It is the only one of the Seven which finds a place in the earliest record of our Lord's life, contained in the matter common to St. Matthew and St. Mark. 2. It is the only one which has been preserved to us in the original Aramaic, in the very syllables which were formed by the lips of Christ. 3. It is the …
J. H. Beibitz—Gloria Crucis

Let Him Deliver Him Now
It is very painful to the heart to picture our blessed Master in his death-agonies, surrounded by a ribald multitude, who watched him and mocked him, made sport of his prayer and insulted his faith. Nothing was sacred to them: they invaded the Holy of holies of his confidence in God, and taunted him concerning that faith in Jehovah which they were compelled to admit. See, dear friends, what an evil thing is sin, since the Sin-bearer suffers so bitterly to make atonement for it! See, also, the shame …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 34: 1888

The Rent Veil
THE DEATH of our Lord Jesus Christ was fitly surrounded by miracles; yet it is itself so much greater a wonder than all besides, that it as far exceeds them as the sun outshines the planets which surround it. It seems natural enough that the earth should quake, that tombs should be opened, and that the veil of the temple should be rent, when He who only hath immortality gives up the ghost. The more you think of the death of the Son of God, the more will you be amazed at it. As much as a miracle excels …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 34: 1888

Lama Sabachthani?
Our Lord was then in the darkest part of his way. He had trodden the winepress now for hours, and the work was almost finished. He had reached the culminating point of his anguish. This is his dolorous lament from the lowest pit of misery--"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" I do not think that the records of time or even of eternity, contain a sentence more full of anguish. Here the wormwood and the gall, and all the other bitternesses, are outdone. Here you may look as into a vast abyss; …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 36: 1890

Our Lord's Solemn Enquiry
"Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"--Matthew 27:46. IF any one of us, lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ had been anywhere near the cross when he uttered those words, I am sure our hearts would have burst with anguish, and one thing is certain--we should have heard the tones of that dying cry as long as ever we lived. There is no doubt that at certain times they would come to us again, ringing shrill and clear through the thick darkness. We should …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 62: 1916

The Eloi.
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"--ST MATTHEW xxvii. 46. I do not know that I should dare to approach this, of all utterances into which human breath has ever been moulded, most awful in import, did I not feel that, containing both germ and blossom of the final devotion, it contains therefore the deepest practical lesson the human heart has to learn. The Lord, the Revealer, hides nothing that can be revealed, and will not warn away the foot that treads in naked humility even upon the …
George MacDonald—Unspoken Sermons

Third Stage of Jewish Trial. Jesus Formally Condemned by the Sanhedrin and Led to Pilate.
(Jerusalem. Friday After Dawn.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 1, 2; ^B Mark XV. 1; ^C Luke XXII. 66-23:1; ^D John XVIII. 28. ^a 1 Now when morning was come, ^c 66 And as soon as it was day, ^b straightway ^c the assembly of the elders of the people was gathered together, both chief priests and scribes; and they led him away into their council, ^a all the chief priests and { ^b with} the elders ^a of the people ^b and scribes, and the whole council, held a consultation, and ^a took counsel against Jesus to put …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

First Stage of the Roman Trial. Jesus Before Pilate for the First Time.
(Jerusalem. Early Friday Morning.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 11-14; ^B Mark XV. 2-5; ^C Luke XXIII. 2-5; ^D John XVIII. 28-38. ^d and they themselves entered not into the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled, but might eat the passover. [See p. 641.] 29 Pilate therefore went out unto them, and saith, What accusation bring ye against this man? 30 They answered and said unto him, If this man were not an evildoer, we should not have delivered him up unto thee. [The Jewish rulers first attempt to induce …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Third Stage of the Roman Trial. Pilate Reluctantly Sentences Him to Crucifixion.
(Friday. Toward Sunrise.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 15-30; ^B Mark XV. 6-19; ^C Luke XXIII. 13-25; ^D John XVIII. 39-XIX 16. ^a 15 Now at the feast [the passover and unleavened bread] the governor was wont { ^b used to} release unto them ^a the multitude one prisoner, whom they would. { ^b whom they asked of him.} [No one knows when or by whom this custom was introduced, but similar customs were not unknown elsewhere, both the Greeks and Romans being wont to bestow special honor upon certain occasions by releasing …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Remorse and Suicide of Judas.
(in the Temple and Outside the Wall of Jerusalem. Friday Morning.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 3-10; ^E Acts I. 18, 19. ^a 3 Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned [Judas, having no reason to fear the enemies of Jesus, probably stood in their midst and witnessed the entire trial], repented himself, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood. [There are two Greek words which are translated "repented," …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Crucifixion.
Subdivision A. On the Way to the Cross. (Within and Without Jerusalem. Friday Morning.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 31-34; ^B Mark XV. 20-23; ^C Luke XXIII. 26-33; ^D John XIX. 17. ^a 31 And when they had mocked him, they took off from him the ^b purple, ^a robe, and put on him his garments [This ended the mockery, which seems to have been begun in a state of levity, but which ended in gross indecency and violence. When we think of him who endured it all, we can not contemplate the scene without a shudder. Who …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Morning of Good Friday.
The pale grey light had passed into that of early morning, when the Sanhedrists once more assembled in the Palace of Caiaphas. [5969] A comparison with the terms in which they who had formed the gathering of the previous night are described will convey the impression, that the number of those present was now increased, and that they who now came belonged to the wisest and most influential of the Council. It is not unreasonable to suppose, that some who would not take part in deliberations which were …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Crucified, Dead, and Buried. '
It matters little as regards their guilt, whether, pressing the language of St. John, [6034] we are to understand that Pilate delivered Jesus to the Jews to be crucified, or, as we rather infer, to his own soldiers. This was the common practice, and it accords both with the Governor's former taunt to the Jews, [6035] and with the after-notice of the Synoptists. They, to whom He was delivered,' led Him away to be crucified:' and they who so led Him forth compelled' the Cyrenian Simon to bear the Cross. …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Jesus in the Tomb.
It was about three o'clock in the afternoon, according to our manner of reckoning,[1] when Jesus expired. A Jewish law[2] forbade a corpse suspended on the cross to be left beyond the evening of the day of the execution. It is not probable that in the executions performed by the Romans this rule was observed; but as the next day was the Sabbath, and a Sabbath of peculiar solemnity, the Jews expressed to the Roman authorities[3] their desire that this holy day should not be profaned by such a spectacle.[4] …
Ernest Renan—The Life of Jesus

The vicariousness of Prayer
The Vicariousness of Prayer I The work of the ministry labours under one heavy disadvantage when we regard it as a profession and compare it with other professions. In these, experience brings facility, a sense of mastery in the subject, self-satisfaction, self-confidence; but in our subject the more we pursue it, the more we enter into it, so much the more are we cast down with the overwhelming sense, not only of our insufficiency, but of our unworthiness. Of course, in the technique of our work …
P. T. Forsyth—The Soul of Prayer

The Fifth Word from the Cross
The fourth word from the cross we looked upon both as the climax of the struggle which had gone on in the mind of the divine Sufferer during the three hours of silence and darkness which preceded its utterance and as the liberation of His mind from that struggle. This view seems to be confirmed by the terms in which St. John introduces the Fifth Word--"After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished,[2] that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst." The phrase, "that the …
James Stalker—The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ

The Love of the Holy Spirit in Us.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not."--Matt. xxvii. 37. The Scripture teaches not only that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and with Him Love, but also that He sheds abroad that Love in our hearts. This shedding abroad does not refer to the coming of the Holy Spirit's Person, for a person can not be shed abroad. He comes, takes possession, and dwells in us; but that which is shed abroad …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Lastly; they who Will Not, by the Arguments and Proofs Before Mentioned,
be convinced of the truth and certainty of the Christian religion, and be persuaded to make it the rule and guide of all their actions, would not be convinced, (so far as to influence their practice and reform their lives,) by any other evidence whatsoever; no, not though one should rise on purpose from the dead to endeavour to convince them. That the evidence which God has afforded us of the truth of our religion is abundantly sufficient. From what has been said, upon the foregoing heads, it is …
Samuel Clarke—A Discourse Concerning the Being and Attributes of God

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