Oct 14 2024 20 mins
Talk 45 Mark 15:1-15 The Trial before Pilate
Welcome to Talk 45 in our series on Mark’s Gospel. Today we’re looking at Mark 15:1-15 where Jesus is on trial before Pilate. We’ll begin by reading the whole passage.
1 Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.
2 "Are you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate. "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied.
3 The chief priests accused him of many things. 4 So again Pilate asked him, "Aren't you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of." 5 But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.
6 Now it was the custom at the Feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested. 7 A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. 8 The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. 9 "Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate, 10 knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him.
11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.
12 "What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?" Pilate asked them.
13 "Crucify him!" they shouted.
14 "Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!"
15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
Mark’s account of this trial is much shorter than the accounts in the other Gospels, but this passage reveals very clearly three things:
1. The continued determination of the Jewish leaders to have Jesus crucified
2. The total commitment of Jesus to the way of the cross
3. The complete moral failure of Pilate to do what was right.
The continued determination of the Jewish leaders to have Jesus crucified
This goes back as far as Mark 3:6 where they began to plot how they might kill Jesus for healing on the Sabbath day. Eventually, as we saw last time, after a mock trial before Caiaphas, they condemned him as worthy of death (14:64). So now they reach a decision. They have no power themselves to put him to death. So they hand him over to Pilate the Roman governor.
They demand that Jesus be crucified. But why crucifixion? The usual method of execution among the Jews was stoning (e.g. Achan in Joshua 7:25 and Stephen in Acts 7:58). Crucifixion was the Roman death penalty for rebellion. It was reserved for foreigners and slaves. Roman citizens were executed by the more merciful means of decapitation. So why did the Jews ask for Jesus to be crucified?
Probably because, although crucifixion was not a Jewish practice, the bodies of those who were stoned to death were sometimes hung on a tree until the evening as a public sign that they were under God’s curse (Deuteronomy 21:23). Paul refers to this in Galatians 3:13 when he says that Jesus was made a curse for us when he died on the cross.
It seems likely, then, that the Jewish leaders wanted the people to believe that Jesus was not the Messiah some of them thought he was, but that he was really under God’s curse. Another possibility, of course, is that they did it out of sheer spite because they envied him (v10) and hated him so much.
But, whatever their motivation, to achieve their end Mark simply tells us that they accused him of many things (v3). Luke 23, however, gives us a bit more detail:
…they began to accuse him, saying, "We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king." 3 So Pilate asked Jesus, "Are you the king of the Jews?" "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. 4 Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, "I find no basis for a charge against this man." 5 But they insisted, "He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here."
So the charges were:
· Opposing payment of taxes to Caesar
· Claiming to be Christ, a king
· Stirring up the people or inciting people to rebellion – v14.
Only one of these accusations had any basis in fact. Jesus did claim to be – indeed he was – the Christ, the Messiah, and he certainly was a king. But, as he told Pilate in John 18:36 his kingdom was not of this world… my kingdom is from another place. Jesus had never incited people to rebellion, quite the opposite. And he had never opposed payment of taxes to Caesar. In fact, he had encouraged it.
And the only way he had stirred up the people was to love their enemies. And far from inciting people to rebellion, he taught them to do good to those who persecuted them. In fact, if anyone was guilty of stirring up the people, it was the chief priests. When Pilate wanted to release Jesus, they stirred up the crowd (v11) to demand that Jesus be crucified, and Pilate, fearing a riot, hands Jesus over to be crucified.
The total commitment of Jesus to the way of the cross
We saw last time when we considered Jesus’ trial before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin that Jesus didn’t defend himself, that he refused to answer the charges brought against him, and that only when put under oath did he confess the truth as to who he really was. He knew it would lead to his death, even death on a cross, but he knew that the shedding of his blood was the only way to atone for our sins.
And that, of course, was his motivation when he conducted himself in much the same way when on trial before Pilate. There’s a distinct feeling of déjà vu here. Once again Jesus refuses to answer the accusations the Jews are bringing against him and Pilate asks him:
Aren't you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of (v4).
But Jesus still makes no reply (v5). Again, he refuses to respond to their false accusations, but he will speak about who he is. When Pilate asks, Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answers, Yes, it is as you say (v2). But John gives us a fuller picture. When Pilate asks the same question (18:34), Jesus replies:
36 My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.
37… You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.
To which Pilate replies, What is truth? but doesn’t wait for an answer. Little did he know that the personification of truth was standing right in front of him!
And in John 19:9, when Pilate asks Jesus, Where do you come from?, Jesus remains silent, so Pilate retorts:
Do you refuse to speak to me? Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you? (v10),
to which Jesus replies:
You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above... (v11).
No human authority could destroy the Prince of Life. They were able to crucify him only because God himself allowed them to. And knowing that this was his Father’s will, and the only means of our salvation, Jesus deliberately invites the death sentence by refusing to defend himself and by acknowledging who he is – the king, who had come into the world to bear witness to the truth, to whom everyone who is on the side of truth will listen. But, sadly, that was not something that Pilate was willing to do.
The complete moral failure of Pilate to do what was right
Mark’s account is, as usual, briefer than those in the other Gospels. Mark’s summary of Pilate’s failure is twofold:
1. he knows that the chief priests have handed Jesus over to him out of envy (v10)
2. it’s because he wants to satisfy the crowd that he has Jesus flogged and hands him over to be crucified (v15).
In other words, he knows that the accusations brought against Jesus are wrongly motivated, and, despite that, because he himself is wrongly motivated, he condemns Jesus to death. But in Luke and John, Pilate’s guilt is compounded by the fact that Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent. In both these Gospels Pilate proclaims Jesus’ innocence three times.
Look at Luke 23. In verse 4 we read:
Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, "I find no basis for a charge against this man."
In verse 15 we read:
he has done nothing to deserve death.
And in verse 22:
For the third time he spoke to them: "Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty.
Now look at John 18 and 19
In 18:38
I find no basis for a charge against him.
In 19:4 he says again:
I find no basis for a charge against him.
And in 19:6 he says it again:
As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.
So there can be no doubt about it. Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent. His wife had even sent him a message:
Don't have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him (Matthew 27:19).
And yet, despite the fact that he knows Jesus is innocent, he has him flogged and hands him over to be crucified.
But that is not all. Another aspect of Pilate’s failure is his refusal to accept responsibility. As the Roman governor he enjoyed a privileged position. But privilege carries with it responsibility. It was Pilate’s responsibility to judge fairly in these matters, but throughout the whole story we see him trying to pass the buck.
First, we see him trying to pass the matter back to Sanhedrin. In John 18:31 he says:
Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.
But they object saying:
But we have no right to execute anyone.
Next, he attempts to get King Herod, who was in Jerusalem at the time, to deal with the case (Luke 18:6-12). Herod agrees that Jesus has done nothing to deserve death, but the Jews are insistent that Jesus be crucified.
Then Pilate tries to pass the responsibility over to the crowd, by offering according to the custom at the Passover to release to them a prisoner of their choosing, but they choose Barabbas rather than Jesus – as might have been obvious to Pilate bearing in mind the hostility of the crowd to Jesus (Matthew 27:15-21).
And finally, having exhausted all options, he takes water and washes his hands in front of the crowd, saying, I am innocent of this man’s blood. It is your responsibility (Matthew 27:24).
So who was responsible for the death of Jesus? Was it Judas who betrayed him, or Peter who denied him, or all the disciples who deserted him, or Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, or Herod or Pilate, or the Roman soldiers who crucified him? Surely the answer is ALL OF THE ABOVE. They must all bear some measure of guilt. But ultimately the judgment lies with God alone.
But are they the only guilty ones? Or are we ourselves also to blame? Jesus’ death was necessary to atone for our sins as well as theirs. Let’s not, like Pilate, refuse to take responsibility for our actions. Let’s not pretend we are innocent, when we know we are not. Let us rather acknowledge our weaknesses, our failings, our faithlessness, our shortcomings, our sin. Forgiveness was available to all those responsible for the death of Jesus if only they would admit their guilt and believe in him. Some, like Peter and the disciples who forsook Jesus, did just that. The others, as far as we know, did not. Let’s not make the same mistake. God’s promise in 1 John 1:9 still holds good:
If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Prayer.