Study in Mark’s Gospel

1. Study in Mark’s Gospel Presentation 50

2. Jesus Before Pilate Chap 15v1-15 Presentation 50

3. Introduction What would you like for your dinner dear? You decide, her husband replied. What tie are you going to wear this evening? You decide her husband replied. In both situations the husband has passed the responsibility for decision making to his wife. These inane examples are clearly not of great consequence in the tide of human history – stew or steak pie, red tie or blue! But the decision that faced Pilate, like the decision facing each one of us is both life changing and destiny shaping- “What will you do with Jesus?” The judgement we make will determine the direction of our lives both in time and in eternity. Presentation 50

4. The Case Before Pilate Mark is not interested in recounting the precise details of the trial before Pilate. Instead, he is interested to explain what this trial means in terms of Jesus securing our salvation. At the inquest before Caiaphas, Jesus was found guilty of blasphemy because he claimed to be Israel’s Messiah - no crime, of course! The charges made against Jesus by the Sanhedrin were then tweaked to make them stick under Roman law. Jesus’ claim to be Israel’s Messiah, was also a claim to be a king. As such they would claim that Jesus challenged Caesar and was guilty of sedition.. Presentation 50

5. The Case Before Pilate Of course Jesus was truly Israel’s Messiah. He was the fulfilment of O.T. prophecy. He is not a pretender, or a zealot out to make a name for himself. When Jesus stands before Pilate, it is abundantly clear that he isno criminal and is absolutely innocent of any wrong-doing. Mark emphasises Jesus’ willingness to stand before a pagan Roman authority, this was particularly important for Mark’s readership who themselves would face the constant threat of arrest and imprisonment. Presentation 50

6. The Case Before Pilate Why did the religious leaders hand Jesus over to Pilate? The legal relationship between Rome and Israel was tenuous. The Romans would almost always let Jews solve their own internal disputes whenever this related to the purely ritual aspects of Mosaic law. Technically, Rome exercised the power over all criminal cases, even those covered by Jewish law. In those cases where Jewish law condemned a man to death on narrow theological grounds - blasphemy - the Romans generally stayed out of it. Presentation 50

7. The Case Before Pilate Where a crime had been committed both under both Jewish law and Roman law (e.g. murder), the Romans allowed the Jews to conduct their own trial, if they subsequently surrendered the guilty party to the Romans for a separate trial under Roman law. The Sanhedrin would then present the prosecution’s case before a Roman judge. Apparently, something like that happened here. Presentation 50

8. The Case Before Pilate The Sanhedrin wanted a Roman trial, for it would get them off the hook. Appropriate charges were drawn up as soon as a verdict was reached before Caiaphas, Jesus was then led to the Romans for a separate trial. Pontius Pilate’s would officiate. Pilate arrived in Judea in 26 A.D. and remained in office for ten years. He was a harsh ruler who despised the Jews and their law. This posting was far from ideal and Pilate was possibly marking time until a better post opened up elsewhere. Pilate began the trial by asking Jesus, `Are you the king of the Jews?’ Presentation 50

9. The Case Before Pilate He was trying to discover if Jesus was trying to undermine Rome’s authority? Clearly, that was what the Sanhedrin wanted Pilate to think. Jesus’ replied, “Yes, it is as you say”, but Pilate does not yet have the whole story. We know that many charges were brought against Jesus, “The chief priests accused him of many things.” “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king.” Luke 23v2. The charges were fabricated by the very men who claimed to be champions of the Jewish law including truth! They lied when it suited their own purposes. Presentation 50

10. Pilate’s Response to Jesus What did Pilate make of Jesus? He did not stand before Pilate with a halo over his head! Isaiah’s prophetic description reads, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” Isa. 53v2. Pilate was no fool. He knew the Sanhedrin had another agenda. He was being railroaded into putting an innocent man to death. When “Jesus still made no reply”, Pilate was amazed and frustrated that Jesus did not defend himself from trumped-up charges. He could not know that Jesus was God’s suffering servant [Isa. 53:7ff.] who would not respond to the charges brought against him. And so Pilate was forced to rule against him. Presentation 50

11. Pilate’s Solution However, Pilate did not believe Jesus was guilty and felt sure he had a way for Jesus to escape the death penalty. “Now it was the custom at the Feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested.”v6. Pilate could let Jesus go free if that’s what the people wanted but they didn’t. Jesus had gone from being the hoped-for Messiah (on Palm Sunday) to a reject the object of scorn. There was “A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising” v7-9. The crowd chose a trouble-maker, a man who had been tried and found guilty of murder instead of Jesus, much to Pilate’s great surprise. Presentation 50

12. Pilate’s Solution Pilate knew that “it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him.” What he didn’t know was that “the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.” Pilate never expected the crowd’s reaction to his offer, they shouted, “Crucify him!” Pilate asked them “Why? What crime has he committed?” Pilate was unaware that Jesus had failed to meet the false messianic expectations of the crowd who preferred Barabbas to Jesus. Presentation 50

13. Pilate’s Solution The Jews wanted a warrior king who would drive the Romans out of the land. Ironically, the very thing that Jesus was falsely accused of being! Their Messiah stood, humbled, weak, and helpless before the power of Imperial Rome and that was not something they could accept. Pilate gave in to the crowd’s demands and “wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them.” Presentation 50

14. Pilate’s Solution Jesus was handed over to be flogged. A Roman flogging is one of the worst punishments imaginable. The prisoner was stripped to the waist and tied to a post. The whip was made of multiple straps of leather with pieces or bone or of lead imbedded. Many died from the flogging before they ever made it to the cross. The flogging resulted in a significant loss of blood and the victim became too weak to survive for very long upon the cross. Mark spares us the gory details for much worse lay ahead, the ultimate humiliation and suffering upon the cross. Presentation 50

15. Pilate’s Solution Mocking the now-helpless Jesus, the soldiers, probably egged on by the crowd, “put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, `Hail, king of the Jews!’ Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. Then they led him out to crucify him.” Presentation 50

16. Pilate’s Solution Pilate had tried to get out of making a decision. He sent Jesus off to Herod but Jesus was sent right back. He suggested finding Jesus guilty and then pardoning him in line with his annual clemency policy – the crowd chose Barabbas. He ordered Jesus to be whipped, that did not alter the crowd’s sympathy. None of these compromises proved acceptable. And so Pilate's solution was to wash his hands in front of everyone. Thereby saying, Jesus’ death sentence not his idea, he did not want the blame. Did he really think that this public drama would wash away the guilt of sending the Son of God to his death? You cant get rid of guilt by saying, "I was under pressure to do wrong and I capitulated because I wanted people to think well of me”. Presentation 50

17. Pilate’s Solution Trying to absolve ourselves of any responsibility for making a decision about Jesus simply won’t wash with God. There are still many Pilate's, many hand-washers, around today, people who will not commit themselves to Jesus. They say they do not wish to do Jesus or his cause any harm but they turn their back on him because they cannot bear the scorn of others. They want to be popular, to be well liked by those who have no time for Jesus. They try to sit on the fence. What a shock to find that the fence on which they are sitting is an imaginary one. Jesus did not say, "If you are not for me… I will consider you to be pleasantly neutral," he said, "If you are not for me you are against me". Presentation 50

18. Rejection Of Jesus The sad fact is that God had come to his people (Israel) in the person of Jesus to save them from their sins. Israel had rewritten the script they wanted to be rescued from Rome and have Israel returned to its former glory under a Davidic king. The people simply could not grasp that true messianic glory would come only after the cross and the empty tomb. The people wanted the kingdom to come right then and there, not realising that the kingdom Jesus came to bring was not of this world. His kingdom didn’t have a flag, an army, or a capital city. When Jesus didn’t bring the kingdom the people wanted, he was rejected and despised for having raised their hopes so high and then disappointing them so deeply. Presentation 50

19. Conclusion Jesus remains a disappointment or even an irrelevance to many today because they have failed to grasp that Jesus came to save sinners. His death on the cross was not due to a miscarriage of justice. It was not due to a terrible twist of fate or some unfavourable circumstance. It was not as a result of a weak judge or a malicious prosecutor. Ultimately, Jesus’ death was a death he chose to die. This was the climax of his mission as Saviour of the world. If you are not aware of your sin and your need of a Saviour then Jesus will just seem just like yet another defeated messianic pretender. He will have no appeal to you whatsoever. He seems weak, bloodied, shamed, a despised failure! What can he do for you? Presentation 50

20. Conclusion But if you see in Jesus, God’s promised Redeemer, unjustly sentenced to death, beaten and flogged and spat upon, then this horrible scene will mean only one thing. Jesus did all of this for you and in your place, bearing the shame and humiliation you deserve because of your sins. Even though completely innocent, Jesus took those guilty verdicts from Caiaphas and Pilate so that he might go to the cross and do for us what we could never do for ourselves - offer to God a sacrifice that forever removes the guilt and stain of our sin. He was shamed, beaten and mocked, so that we might be justified through faith. He was humiliated before men so that we not be humiliated before God. He did all of this for love of us, and in our place. Presentation 50