Matthew 27:1  “When morning came…”
They had to wait until morning for it to become legal.  They weren’t allowed to condemn someone to death during the night.

3  “…seeing that He had been condemned…”
Wondering what made Judas change his mind.  Surely he must have known what the religious leaders had in mind.  Commentaries suggest it could have been that he expected Jesus to save Himself, then when He didn’t, Judas felt guilty over the betrayal.  They also suggest it could have just been the realization that what he’d done was going to lead to Jesus’s death.  Good possibilities.

4  “…What is that to us?…”
They knew Jesus was innocent.  They didn’t care.  They had Him on a technicality and were going to push it as far as they could.

18  “For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy.”
You get the idea from the previous verses that Pilate was going along with the religious leaders because he had to.  Like he was shining them on until he had a way out or could give them a little something to satisfy them.  Now it’s stated clearly that he knew their reasons had no real merit.

19  “…Have nothing to do with that just Man…”
Interesting occurrence.  Pilate can see that Jesus is innocent of any real wrong doing and wants to let Him go.  Now we have his wife having dreams about Jesus.  Wonder what God intended with this little sidebar.  Perhaps God was giving Pilate a way out if he would take it.  Commentaries suggest that or perhaps satan was trying to stop the divine plan or perhaps Pilate’s wife had been influenced by Judaism and didn’t want her husband to be involved with condemning Jesus.  No real information to let us know, but an interesting note.  I’ve wondered if God was giving Pilate a way out.  He knew Jesus was innocent, that the religious leaders were just jealous of Him, and he wanted to free Jesus.  Now his wife lets him know he’s not the only one who thinks Jesus is not worthy of condemnation.  Could have been enough influence to change his mind.  But we read in the other gospels that the leaders threatened to basically accuse him of treason to Caesar.  He took the easy, politically expedient way out.

24  “…he took water and washed his hands…”
He wanted it known for the record that he found no fault with Jesus and that it was only due to the religious leaders insistence that he was having Jesus crucified.

25  “…His blood be on us and on our children”
This verse is used to blame the Jews for Jesus’s death.  But just because the people were acting as a mob doesn’t put anything in stone.  Jesus died physically as a result of a Roman cross.  He died spiritually for the sins of the whole world, Jews and Gentiles.  It is sad though that they had no thought to what they were saying and no clue to what they were actually doing.

I hope you enjoy reading and studying His word.  May it accomplish what He desires.  Please feel free to comment or post questions.  Thanks for reading!

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.