People who give their lives to religious work usually do so because they want to serve God, which makes the chief priests and elders in Matthew 27 hard to understand. These were the men entrusted with Israel’s worship, men who knew the Scriptures and offered the sacrifices, and yet they condemned the Messiah and handed him over to Pilate. Matthew’s first readers must have asked a question that many still ask today: how could the people closest to the things of God reject the One God sent?

This week, we will discover how Matthew answered that question, and why his answer still matters for those of us who gather in God’s name today..