Matthew 27 explained: Jesus Is Crucified and Buried

Judas and the silver (vv. 1-10)

The leaders hand Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor; a remorseful Judas throws back his thirty silver coins and hangs himself, and the priests, unwilling to put money paid for a death into the temple treasury, buy a burial field for foreigners with it. Matthew credits the prophecy to Jeremiah. The words are closest to Zechariah 11, while the potter and the bought field recall Jeremiah 18 and 32. Acts 1 tells of Judas's death with different details.

Pilate and the crowd (vv. 11-26)

Pilate knows the leaders' motives are selfish and offers to free either Jesus or Barabbas, a well known prisoner; urged on by the leaders, the crowd chooses Barabbas, and Pilate washes his hands to disown the death, then has Jesus flogged and crucified. The crowd's cry taking his blood on themselves (v. 25) was later twisted into blaming all Jewish people, fueling centuries of persecution, a reading most churches now reject, the Catholic Church formally since 1965.

Mocked and crucified (vv. 27-44)

The soldiers dress Jesus as a mock king, and then Rome crucifies him, its slow and public death for rebels, with the charge 'king of the Jews' posted above him. Passersby, religious leaders and the two men crucified with him all jeer, and details like the dividing of his clothes and the taunt that God should rescue him echo Psalm 22.

Jesus dies (vv. 45-50)

After three hours of darkness, Jesus cries out the opening line of Psalm 22, asking why God has forsaken him, which bystanders mishear as a call to the prophet Elijah, and then he dies. Christians differ on whether the cry voices real abandonment, points to the whole psalm, which ends in trust, or both.

Torn curtain, open tombs (vv. 51-54)

The temple curtain screened off its holiest room, and Christians read its tearing from top to bottom as God opening the way to himself, while a Roman officer, a foreigner, calls Jesus God's Son. The holy people raised in verses 52 and 53 appear only in Matthew, and interpreters are unsure whether he describes a literal event or a picture of death losing its grip.

Watched, buried, guarded (vv. 55-66)

Women from Galilee watch the death and the burial, and Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy follower, lays Jesus in his own new tomb cut from rock. The next day the leaders, fearing the disciples will steal the body and claim he rose, seal the stone and post a guard, though translations differ on whether Pilate grants Roman soldiers or tells them to use their own (v. 65).

Key verse: Matthew 27:54

Where Christians differ

Christian traditions differ over what this death achieves: some stress Jesus bearing the penalty for sin in others' place, others his defeat of evil and death, others the self-giving love it shows, and many combine these.

Something to think about

What makes it so easy for people in a group, each feeling it isn't really their fault, to let an innocent person be harmed?