Mark: Jesus before Pilate [Mark 15:1-15]

Mark: Jesus before Pilate []

To recap where we are, Jesus has been on trial, two weeks ago we looked at Jesus on trial before the Jewish council, last week we saw Peter’s denial of Jesus…which was going on at the same time as Jesus trial before the religious leaders. Today we pick up with Jesus before Pilate i.e. the Roman official over Judea. Jesus would stand trial religiously and politically and be put to death. Now let’s not miss something about this that we easily can as we take several weeks to study this…all this happened in the matter of hours. The expediency of this event remarkable, Jesus would face 6 different hearings, 3 before the Jewish leaders, 3 before the Roman leaders in a matter of hours and be put to death. So let’s pick up where we left off...

Stand for the reading of the word of God []

We live in a broken world. I’m not sure too many people, saved or not, would argue that statement. Most people, I believe, would agree that with all the injustice, crime, sickness, disease, and war…our world is broken and needs fixing…but how can it be fixed? We live in a unique time today. With the technological advances we see in our world today there are probably some who think the world can be fixed through technology…after all what is much of the push today with technology? Helping people be better people.

Just think about it, we have watches that keep track of our fitness levels, we have phones that organize our daily routines for us, we have entertainment outlets such as social media that track what we look at, who we are, age, gender, ethnicity, etc. and it puts things out there for us to see that might interest us and help us in or inspire us in our lives. I mean really the goal of technology, and I love technology, is to help people be better people.

While there is nothing wrong with this, there is a danger that we could buy into, the thinking that the world can be fixed with technological advances. We can have better air quality by having smart electric vehicles that don’t put toxins in the air. We can live healthier lives by letting devices tell us when to eat, what to eat, and how much to eat. Technology dictates much of our lives. Now I’m not trying to discourage the use of technology, I use it a lot, my sermon notes are on a ipad…but my point is that we are careful we don’t fall into the thinking that somehow man’s advancements make the world a better place…it may make it easier to live in this world, but ultimately the world is still…broken!

The world is broken because of sin in the world, and the only way that is overcome is by the blood of Jesus. We can never look at this too much, or over emphasize this too often…Jesus came into a broken world, lived a perfect sinless life, and gave up that life to die on a cross to fix what was broken…and Jesus conquered the grave and the issue of death by taking up His life again in the resurrection…and all those who believe on Jesus will have life eternal with God. The world is still broken, but Jesus offers the remedy for our brokenness…Himself...He was broken for us.

In today’s text we see Jesus sentenced to death for us by Pilate. Keep in mind this is not man’s plan, but God’s plan…I’ll try to point that out as we go through it.

The decision of the Sanhedrin []

1. The official council meeting. The three groups-priests, scribes, and elders-made up the Sanhedrin, we saw them in chapter 14. They were the Jewish leaders of that day. In chapter 14, we saw the night hearing of Jesus in the high priest court yard, this was a preliminary hearing, since it was against Jewish law to try a capital offense at night it wasn’t official. This, here in chapter 15, in the morning, serves as the official council meeting and trial. Notice how Mark emphasizes immediately in the morning. [three religious trials-before Annas, Sanhedrin at night, Sanhedrin in the morning]

The other gospels, Luke for example, focus primarily on the daytime hearing, Mark having covered the details of the night hearing doesn’t repeat the day time stuff. i.e. it was decided at the night hearing but as soon as day came and it was official they didn’t waste any time. Their nighttime meeting was illegal but to justify their actions they held a formal meeting briefly in the day time.

2. They bound Jesus and lead Him away. You know the saying “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Instead of the Sanhedrin using its position and power to give Jesus a fair trial, they used corruption and abuse of their power to condemn Him and get rid of Him. Now the Jewish council could’t carry out the death sentence as they were not a completely sovereign people, so they would need Rome for that, being under Rome’s rule. so...

3. They delivered Jesus over to Rome. They handed Jesus over to Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. Pilate was the person in charge of the Roman army of the area, collecting taxes for Rome, and keeping the peace in Judea. He not only held the power of life and death over subjects, he also appointed high priests and decided cases of capital punishment.

Pilate was a true politician. He made decisions that would increase his stature and favor with Rome. The people’s desire and well-being was secondary to him. Pilate was especially careful when working with the Jewish people. The Jews of that day caused a lot of problems for Rome and Pilate so he knew he would have to be careful with this Jesus case.

Jesus is brought before Pilate, marking the beginning of His three civil trials he would face. One before Pilate, then to Herod Antipas, then before Pilate again.

Jesus before Pilate []

1. “Are you the King of the Jews?” Mark again highlights the event and leaves out much detail. The question Mark notes from Pilate is at the heart of the issue and the primary concern of Pilate…are you the King of the Jews. Pilate’s question and concern was quite different from the concern of the Sanhedrin. Pilate was not worried about religious issues of the Jews, blasphemy was the charge. This would not be sufficient for Pilate to kill Jesus so they used the king bit that would be threatening to Rome.

No one would be a king of major leader in this land without the approval of Rome, this was a big deal then because of the many uprisings from various Jewish groups such as the zealots. Jesus response is simple and straight forward, “it is as you say.” In the gospel of John we have more detail of Jesus interaction with Pilate. Jesus told Pilate, in John, that His kingdom was not of this world, i.e. a heavenly kingdom.

In a sense Jesus is saying to Pilate, the kingdom I rule over is no threat to your Roman empire. Not immediately anyway, it would be ultimately but not yet. Eventually the Roman empire would fade from existence, many nations and kingdoms have faded from existence, listen to me and hear me...America one day will fade from existence…but the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ will endure for all eternity. Pilate doesn’t get this, and many today don’t get this. Christ’s kingdom is the only kingdom that will last!

2. Chief priest accused Jesus. The chief priest, being the representative of the Sanhedrin accuse Jesus of many things. Luke gives us some of the accusations, they accused Jesus of threatening the temple, being a troublemaker, and being disloyal to Caesar. Jesus says nothing in His defense to these false accusations. and...

3. Pilate marveled at Jesus. Pilate was not a stupid man, he knew the hypocrisy of the Sanhedrin, in verse 10 it says Pilate knew it was because of envy they handed Jesus over. Pilate had dealt with these jokers before…and Pilate did not like them at all. But Pilate was amazed at Jesus’ lack of self-defense. [note: Jesus didn’t defend Him self because it was the Father’s will for Christ to die…not man’s]

Once again, the other gospels give us some detail to what’s happening. Pilate got upset with Jesus and threatened Him, saying, “Jesus, don’t you know I have power over you.” and Jesus responded… “you have no power over me except what has been given to you.” i.e. God’s in control of this situation.

This has always been one of those events to me that leave me pondering…what did it mean that Pilate marveled? You see Pilate marveled at Jesus, he was intrigued by Jesus, but yet he still would not believe in Jesus. People may marvel at Jesus and be intrigued with Jesus yet not be saved by repenting and turn to Christ by faith. We must ask ourselves…have I just marveled at Jesus or have I trusted in Him? Am I only marginally interested in Jesus as a historical figure or have I put my faith in Him as Lord and God?

Barabbas or Jesus? []

1. Pilates custom. Pilate, the crafty politician, had a custom of releasing a prisoner on the occasions of Jewish feast celebrations. This was a political move to try to appease the masses in Judea. And the Jews got to pick who would be released. This is where we get the...

2. Introduction of Barabbas. The name of Barabbas means “Son of the father.” Bar=son of; abba=the father. His first name is not given to us, we only know what we have in the gospels about him, which is not much. He was known, Matthew calls him notorious, we know he was a rebel, murderer, and Luke calls him a thief. Many think he was a zealot that caused many insurrections in that day. What is for sure is Barabbas was guilty and scheduled to die for his crimes. But the..

3. The crowd’s request. is perhaps not what Pilate would have expected. These individuals in the crowd may have been Barabbas supporters, thus serving as an opportunity for the religious leaders, The may have been just by-standers easily persuaded by the religious leaders agenda…we don’t know for sure, what we do know is they acted unjustly.

4. Pilate’s offer to release Jesus. Twice Pilate offers to release Jesus the innocent. Pilate knew Jesus had done nothing wrong. Pilate hated these religious leaders, they were nothing but a thorn in his side, Pilate wasn’t interested at all in fulfilling their bidding and doing their dirty work, so he tried to use his custom to get Jesus released. Pilate goes as far as to refer to Jesus multiple times as your king or king of the Jews, probably as a dig to the religious leaders who hated Jesus.

5. The failure of Pilate’s ploy. But the priest outmaneuver Pilate and frustrate his plot to release Jesus. They incited the crowd to ask for Barabbas to be release instead of Jesus. There has been much made over this crowd and their fickle nature. But I don’t think this is the same crowd that we saw a few days prior worshiping Jesus as he rode in on Palm Sunday…that was a Galilean crowd…this is a Judean crowd. We know from earlier in Jesus ministry that the Judean crowd didn’t welcome Jesus like others did. I think the picture is the Galilean crowd welcoming Jesus into the city and the Judean crowd escorting Jesus out of the city.

Jesus sentenced to die []

1. Pilate asked what to do with Jesus. Given the crowd’s request to release Barabbas, Pilate asks… “what should I do with Jesus?” That’s a good question. Actually that’s the question of all time isn’t it… what shall I do with Jesus? What are you going to do with Jesus, what am I going to do with Jesus? Every person who has ever lived will have to face that question…what do we do with Jesus? Do we trust Him or shun Him?

2. The crowd cried “crucify Him”. Why? What evil did he do? Crucify Him, crucify Him! Pilate relented, the other gospel show the religious leaders put extra pressure of Pilate to crucify Jesus. The other gospels tell us Pilate tried to wash his hands of the situation…but you can’t avoid the question of what will you do with Jesus.

We are all faced with the same situation Pilate was in…neutrality is not an option! You can’t straddle the fence…what will you do with Jesus...you are either with Jesus or against Jesus…it’s that simple. Pilate is at the crossroads…what does he do...

3. Pilate released Barabbas, scourged Jesus, and delivered Him to be crucified. What a sad sad sad situation and response. Pilate didn’t want to kill Jesus, but his weak character caved to the pressure of the crowd insisting Jesus must die. I wonder what crowds of people do we cave to in our own lives? Do we cave into the crowds at work to keep quiet about Jesus? Do we cave into the crowds at school about openly following Jesus? Do we give into the crowds of political correctness to not offend by the name of Jesus? I bet we would find ourselves in Pilates shoes more often than we would even think if we take a close look.

Closing: We can look at this event and learn great lessons from just the characters in this section…the religious leaders hypocrisy, Pilates fickleness, the crowd’s persuasion, but there is one character that stands out to me and interests me in this, it’s Barabbas. I’ve always wondered if I’m going to get to met Barabbas one day in heaven. You might think, “that’s an odd thing to think, that guy was a bad dude.” But is it odd to think that??? I mean if anyone would ever get what it is that Christ did for man kind…don’t you think Barabbas would have got the best picture???

Picture this…one day Barabbas woke up bound in shackles, guilty of rebellion, and facing certain death…and by the end of the day, he had been loosed from those shackles, released a free man, and been given new life…all because of who??? Jesus! Because Jesus took his place. If anyone could have understood the gospel and what Christ did for mankind…it would have been Barabbas. If anyone would have gotten the picture of Christ in my place it was Barabbas! That’s the heart of the gospel. Christ in my place Christ in your place.

I’ve often wondered if Barabbas followed Jesus to Golgotha and looked at the cross where he was supposed to hang, with the two other thieves and watched as the Son of God hang dying in his place? Don’t you think that would affect a man? It should. It should have then and it should today…because Christ just didn’t die in the place of Barabbas…He died in the place of all of us, in my place, in your place. Christ bore the punishment I deserved for my sin, Christ bore the penalty for my rebellion, for Christ took my death sentence…Christ died for me and Christ died for you…so what will you do with Jesus who died in your place?

Have you turned to Him in repentance and faith trusting Him as Lord and Savior? if not you can in the quite of this moment.

If you have trusted Him as Lord and Savior, praise God for the freedom given to us and secured by Christ blood.