John Calvin Commentary Matthew 27:12

"And when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing." — Matthew 27:12 (ASV)

He answered nothing. If it is asked why the Evangelists say that Christ was silent, while we have just heard his answer from their own account, the reason is that he had a defense available but voluntarily refrained from presenting it. Indeed, what he previously replied about the kingdom did not stem from a desire to be acquitted, but was only intended to affirm that he was the Redeemer promised long ago, before whom every knee ought to bow (Isaiah 45:23).

Pilate wondered at this patience; for Christ, by his silence, allowed his innocence to be suspected when he could easily have refuted frivolous and unfounded slanders. Christ's integrity was such that the judge saw it plainly without any defense. But Pilate wished that Christ would not neglect his own cause, so that he might be acquitted without offending many people. And up to this point, Pilate's integrity is commendable because, from a favorable regard for Christ's innocence, he urged him to defend himself.

But so that we may not, like Pilate, wonder at Christ's silence as if it were unreasonable, we must consider God's purpose. God determined that his Son—whom he had appointed as a sacrifice to atone for our sins—should be condemned as guilty in our place, though he himself was pure. Christ therefore was silent at that time so that he might now be our advocate and, by his intercession, deliver us from condemnation. He was silent so that we might boast that by his grace we are righteous. And so the prediction of Isaiah (Isaiah 53:7) was fulfilled: that he was led as a sheep to the slaughter.

And yet he gave, at the same time, that good confession which Paul mentions (1 Timothy 6:12), a confession not by words, but by deeds; not one by which he sought his own advantage, but one by which he obtained deliverance for the whole human race.