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September 29, 2019
Jason Meyer | Mark 15:1-20
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. And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” And the chief priests accused him of many things. And Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.” But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” And they cried out again, “Crucify him.” And Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor's headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. 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.—Mark 15:1–20
Introduction: Rejection and Irony
We have been on a 2.5-year journey through the Gospel of Mark. We began on March 5, 2017. We have only two more sermons to go after today. I am not going to try and summarize 2.5 years of sermons. But I do want to go back to the last sermon so that we can see the theme of these chapters begin to build and intensify.
Remember that chapter 14 was all about the all out abandonment of Jesus. He is despised and rejected—not only by his fiercest opponents, but by his closest followers. We see this theme of rejection keep building until there is no one left to reject him because everyone has forsaken him.
There is rejection on the surface, but there is something much deeper happening beneath the surface. Mark keeps highlighting this dissonance between the surface meaning and the deeper meaning. In literary terms, we call this the literary device of “irony.” We saw three movements of rejection and irony last time.
1. Betrayal, Arrest, and Desertion
In Mark 14, the dominoes of fulfillment began to fall. Just as Jesus predicted, Judas betrayed Jesus. It happened in the most despicable way. On the surface, a kiss of love, but the deeper meaning was that it served as a signal for an act of betrayal and treachery. And then a crowd of armed guards came to arrest Jesus. Jesus pointed out the irony of it all. Why were they able to capture him? Has he been a robber on the run—but now overpowered and outmaneuvered? He has been a teacher, not a robber. But they have all been blind and deaf and dull to what he has tried to tell them.
Is it not tragically comical that sinful humanity tried to capture God Almighty with sticks and swords? No, Jesus says the only reason that this time has come is because it is now his hour—the time to fulfill the Father’s plan, even if it looks like defeat or capture. Because the Shepherd was struck, the sheep scattered as all the disciples deserted Jesus and the word of God and the plan of God began to unfold before their very eyes.
2. The Trial of Jesus
In Mark 14:53–65, Jesus stood trial before the Sanhedrin and they all convicted him as guilty of blasphemy. But they blindly committed blasphemy. The One promised in Isaiah 53 and Daniel 7 stood before them as the Silent Suffering Servant and the Powerful Son of Man. They thought they stood as the judge of Jesus, but he really stood as the Judge of them. When they see him riding on the clouds in judgment, they would see that they were guilty of condemning and blaspheming God in the flesh.
3. The Trial and Denial of Peter
While Jesus was being tried and taunted in the high priest’s home, Peter was in the high priest’s courtyard on trial before the high priest’s servant girl (Mark 14:66–72). While Jesus was struck in the face and told to prophesy as to who hit him, his prophesy about Peter’s denial was coming true outside. Peter denied knowing Jesus three times before the rooster crowed twice. The irony is that Peter really did not truly know Jesus because he never understood the purpose and plan of the Father in the cross of Christ.
Why does Mark use irony? Irony forces the reader to take sides. Will they side with the characters in the story or against them? Irony “creates a sense of community” that will go along with what is happening on the surface or see and believe what is happening beneath the surface. In terms that Mark keeps using, irony divides readers into “insiders” and “outsiders.”
Will the reader reject Jesus, too—like everyone else in the narrative—or do you have eyes to see and believe what is happening beneath the surface? We are praying for eyes to see what is beneath the surface in these next three movements: (1) Jesus and Pilate (vv. 1–5), (2) Jesus and the Jews (vv. 6–15), and (3) Jesus and the Soldiers (vv. 16–20).
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. And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” And the chief priests accused him of many things. And Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.” But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
The Jewish leaders bring Jesus to Pilate in order for Pilate to join their verdict of condemnation. They accuse Jesus of many things—they do not merely have one charge, but a barrage of accusations.
Pilate asks Jesus if he is the King of the Jews, and Jesus calmly answers in a counterintuitive way: “You have said so” (v. 2). The Jewish leaders accuse him of many things, and Pilate tries to force Jesus to respond to their accusations, but he will not. Pilate is amazed.
Jesus is the Isaiah 53 Suffering Servant who is silent before his accusers.
When Pilate asks Jesus if he is the King of the Jews, Jesus’ answer points to the absurdity of the moment: “You have said so” (15:2). This is not an evasive answer. It is meant to provoke deeper reflection. He is a King but not the way Pilate is using the term. Pilate thinks of a mere earthly political ruler. Is this king posing a threat to the rule of Rome and Caesar?
He is God and Lord over all—Pilate, Caesar, and over everything that has breath—and so Jesus will not allow the web of false connotations to define him. Pilate simply cannot fathom who he is, so a simplistic summary like “King of the Jews” is so elementary that Jesus states the obvious: That is all you know, so that is all you can say (i.e., that is your category).
The other deeper meaning is Jesus’ silence. Jesus is silent, but that does not mean that he is not communicating. His silence is speaking volumes, and it is screaming: Isaiah (53:7) has something to say about that.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
According to Isaiah 53, the Silent Suffering Servant has come. Pilate is amazed because this is way out of the ordinary, but he does not know just how outrageously un-ordinary this all is. This is not a normal trial.
2. Jesus and the Jews (vv. 6–15)
Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” And they cried out again, “Crucify him.” And Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
Once again in the narrative, Mark does not record a single Jewish voice in Jesus’ defense. A pagan ruler seems to be the only one who can see through the injustice of this situation. Jesus is not guilty. The chief priests are guilty of envy.
The charge shifted from the religious sphere (blasphemy, 14:64) to the political sphere (King of the Jews, 15:2). Pilate thinks that he has found an ingenious, politically expedient way to exonerate Jesus before the Jewish crowd. He takes advantage of the tradition on the Passover feast of releasing one prisoner. He presents to them a notoriously guilty murderer and forces a verdict by making them choose between the “innocent” Jesus and the “guilty” Barabbas (15:6–10) The chief priests stirred up the crowds to choose Barabbas. When Pilate asked them what they wanted to do with Jesus, they cried out for his crucifixion (15:13).
The crowd’s choice of Barabbas is supposed to be shocking at one level. Barabbas was guilty of insurrection and murder. He was really guilty. Jesus was really innocent. But the crowd chose to release the guilty and condemn the innocent.
As mentioned above, the pagan Gentile Pilate is the only one to come to Jesus’ defense. One would think that the verdict would be favorable for Jesus since the judge of the trial became his advocate. However, in a spineless perversion of justice, Pilate ordered Jesus to be scourged and then released him to the crowd to satisfy their bloodthirsty cries for crucifixion (15:15). Jesus’ one-time advocate rejects him because he cares more for about the reign of Caesar and its demands on him than the reign of “the King of the Jews.”
The intensity of Jesus’ rejection and suffering now escalates to a new level with the report of his scourging. Mark gives one sentence to a scene that seems like it lasts for an eternity in the movie, The Passion of the Christ. Some have argued that Mel Gibson exaggerated the intensity and duration of the scourging, but one could make the counterpoint that the historical reality was actually worse. The Romans, unlike the Jews, were not limited by how many blows they could inflict (39 lashes; cf. 2 Corinthians 11:24). It was up to the whim of the torturer.
Mark not only drives home the innocence of Jesus; he also emphasizes the guilt of the chief priests and the crowd.[1] The reader has access to Pilate’s private verdict: He knew that Jesus was innocent because he saw that they handed him over because of their “envy” (15:10). The irony is that a pagan judge can see what all of God’s people can’t: the innocence of Jesus and the rotten falsehood of the chief priests and Jewish leaders.
It is also ironic that the crowd chose to release the guilty and condemn the innocent. Barabbas is what they think of when they think of a Messiah figure—someone who will murder the Romans and cause an insurrection. But Jesus is not that kind of Messiah. The crowd chose the wrong Messiah figure.
But at an even deeper level, Jesus and Barabbas is a picture of substitutionary atonement. This is like a twist on the substitution: the just for the unjust. The innocent gets punished and the guilty goes free. But that is what is true for everyone in Christ. We were guilty and because Jesus took our place, he suffered for us. Imagine if you were Barabbas. You were just released and you know that you do not have to go through torture, scourging, and crucifixion. How would you react? I can picture him there with his thug, crony friends rejoicing that he got to go free. But he surely didn’t understand. When he sees Jesus getting condemned, scourged, mocked, beaten, and murdered, does he ever think, That should be me and shouldn’t be him?
It is also ironic that the “pagan Gentile” judge now functions as the public defense attorney for God’s true “Son” before the crowd composed of those who were supposed to be “God’s children.”[2] Pilate comes to Jesus’ defense with an interrogating question for the crowd concerning the supposed “evil” that Jesus had done that could possibly justify the charge of crucifixion (15:14). The crowd refuses to produce any evidence; they simply shouted more for his death (15:14). This lack of evidence turns out to be the clearest evidence against them, which highlights how guilty they are.
It is also ironic that the “pagan Gentile” judge now functions as the public defense attorney for God’s true “Son” before the crowd composed of those who were supposed to be “God’s children.” 3 Pilate comes to Jesus’ defense with an interrogating question for the crowd concerning the supposed “evil” that Jesus had done that could possibly justify the charge of crucifixion (15:14). The crowd refuses to produce any evidence; they simply shouted more for his death (15:14). This lack of evidence turns out to be the clearest evidence against them, which highlights how guilty they are.
Now injustice meets brutality—intense injustice as Jesus is scourged. The cat of nine tails spreading out with weights to tenderize the flesh and then something sharp to catch the flesh and tear it or filet it into ribbons. Jesus had red stripes up and down his back.
Wounds are not a marks of health, but marks of injury. But Isaiah has something to say about these wounds.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.—Isaiah 53:5
Do you see the logic of substitutionary atonement here? Let’s highlight this logic and use it to confront another kind of logic that is prevalent in our day. A growing number of people in our culture feel so weighed down with guilt and shame that they feel the need to punish or harm themselves. Those who cut themselves testify that they feel a release to the pressure of guilt and shame through wounding themselves. It feels somewhat right or good, or like a relief. I do not mock you in your pain. It is a horrible thing to be so weighed down with guilt and shame that self-harm feels like a necessary or helpful step. What I will say is that the structure of thought came close to the gospel and then veered the wrong way in the end. Guilt and shame are real things. Sins and failures lead to guilt and shame (inner wounds). But giving yourself wounds cannot heal your wounds. Shedding your blood cannot bring you healing. The gospel says, “His wounds can heal your wounds.” There is healing in the shedding of his blood, not yours. Find healing and forgiveness and peace here forever.
3. Jesus and the Soldiers (vv. 16–20)
And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. 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.
The Roman soldiers do not carry out their orders in a workman-like way. They energetically join in the rejection of Jesus. It seems that they took sadistic delight in taking special pains to ensure that Jesus is mocked to the maximum degree. Imagine a crown of thorns pressed into one’s scull like a series of nails hammered into place. The manifold disgrace that the soldiers heaped upon Jesus probably exceeds the way in which they would have carried out the capital crimes of common criminals. They cast lots for his clothes just like Psalm 22:18 said they would (Mark 15:24).
Now it is the soldiers’ turn to mock the apparent Messianic pretender.
They clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him,“Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. 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.—Mark 15:17–20
The irony is unmistakable. The purple robe, the crown of thorns, the chanting and acclaiming as “King of the Jews,” the reed, the anointing (spitting), the kneeling and bowing all bear royal connotations. They are clearly mocking him, but just as clearly, the reader recognizes the truth hidden behind the scorn. He is royalty and thus he should be dressed in royal robes with a crown and a reed. They should anoint him, hail him as King, and bow before him. The truth of his deity is suppressed, but at the same time they almost can’t help expressing it, even in a twisted and perverted way.
Unbelievers
Do you see how out of place indifference is? Even people who reject Jesus can’t help but state the truth but in twisted ways that suppress the truth. It is as though the truth is so present before them that they have to stuff it down and radically and energetically reject it.
There is no neutrality here because there is no neutrality with eternity. Eternity is long; heaven is glorious, and hell is hot—the difference is between eternal death and eternal life. Jesus is the hinge of history and decisively determines where you spend eternity. He claimed to be the way, the truth, and the life—the only way to the Father. I am warning you against a posture of whining and complaining that there is only one way. You should not lament that there is only one way; you should be head over heels happy that there is a way!
So who do you say Jesus is? There is no neutrality with Jesus. Like C.S. Lewis said, he is either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. You can reject him as the devil of hell, scoff at him as a lunatic like someone that says they are a poached egg or fall down and worship him as the Lord of heaven come down to save humanity. But there can be no patronizing nonsense about him as being merely a good teacher. There is no neutrality. You must totally reject it or totally embrace it. If you are ambivalent about it, it only shows that you don’t get it.
All eternity hinges on this question: do you see what everyone else in the story missed?
Isaiah has a question for you:
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?—Isaiah 53:8
Unlike everyone else in that story—have you considered that he was taken from the land of the living to death so that you could be rescued from the land of eternal death into the courts of glory? Have you ever considered that it was the Father’s plan for his Son to take our place? Do you see that he is suffering not because he is guilty, but because we are? He is paying the price not for his sins but for our sins? Do you see that Jesus was rejected so that we could be accepted? He suffered the agony of the cross to save you from the agony of hell. I plead with you to embrace this ultimate truth for the sake of your eternal trajectory!
Main Point: Jesus is the divine King who should be received and worshiped by the Jews and Gentiles, but instead he was rejected and condemned by the Jews and Gentiles in fulfillment of the Father’s plan to save the Jews and the Gentiles.
Seeing this truth means that you can no longer live as the king of your life or try to save yourself—your King came from heaven to earth to take your place and bring you salvation. Embrace him as Savior. Hail him as Lord. Worship him as God.
Believers
Do you see how unfitting indifference is? How can we show indifference to something that makes all the difference? What about you? Has the gospel become so familiar that it has become ho-hum? There is nothing more wrong to the core than being bored with the cross. Have you lost the wonder and the joy of your salvation? Do you hate “ho-hum”? Do you fear it when you become more excited about lesser things?
I fear losing my wonder and losing a sense of awe in the face of such truths. Are they intensely personal to you? Can you watch each step that Jesus took toward the cross with indifference? You should watch Jesus at his trial and say, “That should have been me—I should have been declared guilty. I should have been condemned! Not him—not him! It should have been me being mocked and scorned and shamed. Not him—not him!
Do you feel each lash and stripe of the scourging and say, “No, not him, not him—it should have been me!” How could God take my place? Amazing love how can it be that Thou my God shouldst die for me? Now my debt is paid, it is paid in full, by the precious blood that my Jesus spilled. Now the curse of sin has no hold on me, whom the Son sets free, O is free indeed! O that rugged cross my salvation—where love poured out over me—now my soul cries out, “Hallelujah! Praise and Honor unto Thee.” We should be doing now what we will be doing for all eternity: worshiping the Lamb who was slain. It is not just true then, it is true now!
_______
[1] Matthew makes this point even more explicit. Pilate announces that he is innocent of Jesus’ blood, but the crowd claims “His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matthew 27:25).
[2] Jesus himself pointed out the irony of this response in John’s Gospel. To those who claimed to be the children of Abraham (8:33, 39) and God (8:41), he pointed out that they wanted to kill him and therefore they were not acting like their professed fathers, Abraham (8:39-40) and God (8:42), but acting like their real father, the devil (8:44).
Outline
Main Point: Jesus is the divine King who should be received and worshiped by the Jews and Gentiles, but instead he was rejected and condemned by the Jews and Gentiles in fulfillment of God the Father’s plan to save the Jews and the Gentiles.
Discussion Questions
Application Questions
Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to feel how inappropriate indifference is in response to these ultimate truths. Pray for a grace to embrace them so that ultimate truth and immediate reality come together.