Mark 15:1-20 - Jesus Came to Be Crucified
Mark: The Road to the Empty Tomb • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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I love the ocean. The sight, the smell, the feel.
I’ve been on ships where I look out and all you can see is water—No land anywhere.
I’ve been to the beach dozens of times
I could rattle off all sorts of ocean animals I know about
But I don’t know hardly anything about the ocean.
We have only 5% of the ocean.
The ocean’s depth is 35,756 ft
Mt. Everest is 29,032 ft tall—the world’s highest point.
There’s still 6,724 ft left.
More marine life is being discovered or lives in an area we can’t go.
I can say all I want about the ocean, but in all reality I don’t know ANYTHING about the ocean.
It’s so surface level that it doesn’t do justice to what the ocean actually is.
The chief priests and the elders knew nothing of Jesus as the condemned Him to death.
They conspired together, but couldn’t get to who He truly was.
So they claimed blasphemy, and they had no clue what they were talking about.
They considered Him worthy to die.
But this was the purpose Jesus came for.
Big Idea: Jesus came to be crucified.
Big Idea: Jesus came to be crucified.
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1 And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. 2 And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” 3 And the chief priests accused him of many things. 4 And Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.” 5 But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
Leader: This is God’s Word
Everyone: Thanks be to God.
The morning has come, and Jesus is now standing before the Governor of Rome, who’s main job is to keep the peace through order.
The chief priest think they have reason to have Jesus killed, so they give Him over to a killing machine, the Roman Empire.
Pilate asks Jesus a question and Jesus’s answer points to the absurdity of the moment.
Jesus isn’t trying to evade the question, He’s trying to provoke a deeper reflection.
Pilate’s thinking Jesus is a political ruler—Someone who might pose a threat to the peace Pilate is trying to keep.
But Jesus is God and Lord over Pilate, Caesar, and everything else that has breathe.
He’s not going to say yes and let Pilate believe the false connotations. Pilate just can’t fathom who He truly is.
The summary “King of the Jews” is so basic that Jesus states the obvious: “This is all you know, so that is all you can say.”
Pilate has no clue who He’s talking to.
Pilate tries to force Jesus to answer to the accusations, but Jesus’s doesn’t respond. He’s fulfilling Isaiah’s prophesy (53:7)
Pilate appears to think Jesus is innocent and that it’s out of envy that the priests hand Him over (v. 10)
“These guys just want to kill Him because He poses a threat to them, not to me.”
So in an attempt to free Jesus, He decides to press into tradition where Rome would release a prisoner at the Passover feast.
He gives the people a choice.
7 And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. 8 And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. 9 And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?”
In one corner you have Jesus.
Embodied righteousness.
Perfection personified.
God in flesh.
In the other, you have Barabbas.
Loser criminal that participated in an insurrection and killed a guy.
Jesus vs Barabbas
Son of God Thug/Thief/Murder
Unjustly accused Rightly condemned
Deserves glory Deserves execution
Pilate offers them the innocent Jesus and the notorious murder, Barabbas.
This is an obvious decision, isn’t it?! You’d think so.
11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead.
*WHAT?*
They cheered for Barabbas to be freed.
This is a new scale of injustice.
Barabbas is VERY guilty
Jesus isn’t just innocent, He is innocence itself.
Pilate has to be shocked by this.
The crowd chose to free the guilty and condemn the innocent!?
12 And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” 13 And they cried out again, “Crucify him.”
Pilate’s actions are shocking too.
14 And Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.”
A Gentile pagan is the only one t o come to Jesus’s defense.
You’d think with Pilate thinking Jesus is innocent, and being the one to judge the sentence, the verdict would be favorable!
Do the right thing, Pilate!!
But no. In a spineless perversion of justice, Pilate orders of Jesus to be scourged and beaten, and handed over to be crucified (v. 15)
Now injustice meets brutality.
Leather whip with weights to tenderize flesh and sharp metal to catch the skin and tear it into ribbons.
This is a picture of the gospel.
The innocent one gets punished and the guilty one walks free.
Imagine that you were Barabbas.
You were just released and you know that you don’t have to go through torture, scourging, and crucifixion.
I’m sure he celebrated canceled plans! He’s free!
But when he saw Jesus getting condemned, scourged, mocked, beaten and murdered, did he ever think, “That should have been me?”
Pause here. Let this simmer.
Gospel Presentation
Friends,
Jesus took our place (It should’ve been you)
Jesus took our place (It should’ve been you)
The judgement of God was coming for your sins.
We have all sinned—No one is innocent.
Our sins are not viewed in varying degrees.
You’re guilty or you’re not—And we are.
The punishment for that is eternal death under the full weight of God’s holy anger.
God is infinitely perfect and holy.
The problem is we are not.
Justice must reign because God is just.
Meaning that sin must be punish and blood must be spilled.
This doesn’t make God mean—It means He’s just and fair, and right.
We are guilty and our sentence is death.
We have no defense to provide.
Yet through Pilate, gives His Son up to be sentenced to death instead of you.
Pilate gave Jesus over to the Praetorium, who are really good at what they do: Order through pain.
The Roman soldiers are really good at what they do: Order through pain.
When they kill, they kill all the way.
The whole battalion was about 600 soldiers, who see to it that Jesus is mocked to the maximum degree possible.
16 And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. 17 And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. 18 And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 19 And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.
At Arlington Cemetery, there is the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
There is a guard who is posted 24/7.
Out of respect for the tombs, the sentinels command silence at the tombs.
This is a solemn place.
If the guard walking the mat must vocally confront a disturbance from spectators, or a threat, the routine is interrupted and remains so until the disturbance is under control.
The sentinel will exit the mat and confront the disturbance. Once under control, the sentinel then walks on the pavement to the other side of the mat, turns to shoulder arms, and resumes the routine from the point of interruption.
These guards have demonstrate an intense amount of respect and reverence for the dead, unknown and unmarked graves.
These soldiers take Jesus, who is the worthy King of glory, and treat Him with the deepest display of irreverent ridicule.
The Roman soldiers mock Jesus as a “king”
King’s wear purple (Purple symbolized royalty)/Purple cloak
Kings wear crowns/Crown of thorns
Kings have scepters/Reed
Kings are knelt to/Fake worship
They mocked Him for what they thought He wasn’t, and in reality they were declaring Him to be who He truly was.
They made a sport out of the loving King who came to save men from such sinful behavior.
Gospel presentation
Notice (v. 20), “they stripped Him of His purple cloak and put His own clothes on Him”
Jesus was mocked and shamed in someone else’s clothes.
Something more happens here.
As Jesus suffers on your behalf, He takes your sin off you and puts it on Himself and He takes His righteousness and puts in on you.
The crime was ours, but the shame His
God provided a substitute to die in our place.
Jesus was totally sinless.
Therefore, God put Him forward to take the punishment for us.
Theologians call this “Substitutionary atonement.”
Jesus was condemned to death instead of you.
Jesus was condemned to death instead of you.
He will suffer instead of you.
His blood will be shred instead of yours.
His life will be taken instead of yours.
The innocent is taken and the guilty walk free.
He freely gave up His life so we can live by faith in His sacrifice.
Through faith in the Son of God, we can be made be made right with God.
Through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus, we can be forgiven of our sins!
Through faith in the finished work of Christ, who defeated sin, death, and the grave, we can have eternal life in God’s Kingdom!
This was the purpose Jesus came for.
The reason Jesus came was for the cross.
Mark 10:45 “45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.””
Jesus isn’t surprised by any of this and He isn’t intimidated it.
Jesus knew the only way we could be forgiven of our sins, is if He died on the cross in our place.
No one was going to keep Jesus from the cross.
Chief priests
Pilate
Barabbas
The crowd
The soldiers
Nothing could stop him.
He was going to die on the cross for your sins and my sins, and rise victoriously from the grave!
Nothing could stop Him, and nothing will stop Him from saving us who trust in Him by faith.
Invitation
So Pilate asked the right question (v. 12): “What do I do with Jesus?”
He says that He’s the Son of God, who purchased His people from their sins by dying on the cross and raising again.
He says that through faith in Him, you can be saved and forgiven and given assurance of eternal life with Him.
What do I do with this?
Will you receive this grace or will you reject it?
What will you do with Jesus?
