From this act of Pilate's, I suppose, has arisen a phrase which has passed into the common language of mankind. We talk of washing our hands of a business, and we mean thereby that we will have nothing to do with it. This is exactly what Pilate meant. But there are certain situations in life where it is not possible to rid oneself of a responsibility, and Pilate was precisely placed in such a situation. Act he must, and act he did. How he desired to act the incident recorded in the text shows clearly enough. He would have given much to set our Saviour free. He went through a barren form, therefore, staining his hands with the very water wherewith he washed them, and proclaiming his own guilt even while he declared our Lord's innocence.
I. Most persons are secretly inclined to pity rather than to blame Pilate; for his conduct gives one the notion of a man driven by circumstances to pursue a course which was contrary to his nature. I take leave to say at once that this is a mistake. Pilate's nature is a matter of express record, and it proves to have been stubborn, pitiless, inflexible, implacable. Harsh, stern, relentless, and unfeeling he is proved by many of his known acts to have been. If we behold Pilate thus irresolute, it is not him we must pity, but the mercies of Christ which we must rather admire. We infer the calm majesty, the grand innocence, the overwhelming nobility of the Lord, that the sight of Him could fairly unnerve, and overawe, and paralyze, and perplex such a one as Pontius Pilate.
II. It is remarked by Bishop Pearson (in his book on the Creed) that it was "necessary to include the name of Pilate in our Creed: (1) that we might for ever be assured of the time when our Saviour suffered; (2) because Pilate gave a most powerful external testimony to the certainty of our Saviour's death, and the innocency of His life; (3) that thereby we might understand how it came to pass that Christ should suffer, according to the Scriptures." But I am persuaded that there is yet another reason why the name of the Roman governor is there, and it is in order that it might be an eternal reminder to men that, with every sinful transaction the name of him who connives at it, as well as of him who commits it, is linked in God's sight, and will be linked for ever. The contriver of an iniquity is the doer thereof, but the abetter of sin is by no means guiltless. His name is tied fast to it, and can never be disconnected from it any more.
J. W. Burgon, Ninety-one Short Sermons,No. 37.
References: Matthew 27:24. Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., p. 115; vol. iii., p. 213; W. M. Taylor, Three Hundred Outlines from the New Testament,p. 32.