Joel Brooks: It's good to have everyone back or most people back. I know we are still missing a number of our college students. I'm ready for some normalcy. And so if you would turn to your inner Bibles to chapter 15 of the gospel of Mark as we continue our study there. Last week, I'm not sure where all of you were.
It was our prayer service. I'm just assuming that a number of you were out of town, still traveling. Somebody came up to me, and said, you know this was their 6th or 7th time they've come to our prayer service, and they said, it it was, it was the least they have ever dreaded it. I was like, well that's a promotion that we're gonna put next year. You'll dread it less each year.
But I realized getting into small groups, and praying is not the most comfortable for some of you. Somebody said after one of the services, I actually hate that. And I said, that's okay, Satan hates it worse. And so we're gonna keep doing it. But I I am glad that we were back and finally, having a more normal service, and submitting ourselves to the word of God.
And with that, I've I want to just point out this, there as you're leaving, you could pick up one of these Bible reading plans. As a church, we're gonna be reading through the Bible, together this year. And so if you would like to participate in that, and I would encourage you to do so, pick up one of these. It's not too late. I know it's January 5th, and you're thinking I'm already behind.
Actually, this breaks down the readings to 25 readings per month. And so if you were to start tomorrow, you would be absolutely fine. But we wanted to do it together as a church, that way it would shape our conversations that we have together. We have some q and a's throughout the year that deal with, maybe the passages that we've been working through. We can hold one another accountable.
So I would love for you to pick up one of these as you're heading out so we could be reading together. Alright. So Mark chapter 15, and we'll read the first 15 verses. And, and we will not be easing back into, into the word of God this year. This is a, it's a beautiful but heavy text.
And as soon as it was morning, the chief priest held a consultation with the elders and the scribes and the whole council, and they bound Jesus, and they 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 priest 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 1 prisoner whom they asked, and among the rebels in prison who had committed murder and 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 priest had delivered him up.
But the chief priest stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. And Pilate again said to them, and then what shall I do with the man you call the king of the Jews? They cried out again, crucify him. 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. This is the word of the Lord. Would you pray with me? Father, as we were reading through your word, it has hit me again just no matter what I say, how inadequate my words will be.
So Lord, we, we need to hear you. You need to, through your spirit, speak to us, to show us Jesus. So I pray in this moment that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Amen. It's been a while since we've last been in, the gospel of Mark. So let me remind you of where we are as we approach this scene. This scene here it takes place Friday morning, early Friday morning on the week of Passover. But a whole lot has happened in the last 12 hours.
The evening before Jesus, he had celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples, and then after that, they all went over to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. And then around midnight, about a 1000 people consisting of soldiers, temple guards, the chief priest, and just part of the general crowd all came with their torches, and their spears, and their swords to arrest Jesus. They obviously expected that the type of revolution that Jesus was going to bring was gonna be one in which he had armed resistance. But Jesus, he went away with them quietly without a fight. All of his disciples though were scared, and they abandoned Jesus at that moment and fled.
And then somewhere between the times of 1 and 3 AM, Jesus was taken to the father-in-law of the high priest's house. And there he was interrogated for the first time. After he was interrogated there, he was then sent over to the high priest's house. For what could only you could only call maybe a mockery of a trial. It's completely illegal.
You can't have trials at night. But there they interrogated Jesus again, and they repeatedly beat him. They spat on him. And keep in mind, these are the most respected religious leaders of the day doing this. All of this was happening during the end of their most holy week, Passover.
But they're up all night abusing Jesus. During all of this, Jesus, he remained completely silent, as everybody is just hurling accusations at him. Jesus wouldn't open up his mouth once. He never said a word. The only time that he did speak was when the high priest asked him point blank, are you the son of the blessed?
Which was another way of saying, are you the Messiah? Are you the anointed one? And And there Jesus finally spoke and he says, I am. And you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds. And when Jesus said that, that had to hit the high priest like a thunderbolt.
Because think of who the high priest was. The high priest, he was he was the stand in if you will. He was the stand in for the anointed Messiah. When the Messiah came, he would be the anointed High Priest and the anointed King, but until that point, the High Priest stood in for him. And so when the High Priest asked, are you the son of the blessed?
Are you the Messiah? Jesus said, I am. He's essentially saying, you're in my chair. And the High Priest at that point rips his garment and he says, what more do we need to hear? Blasphemy.
We need to kill this man. Well, this trial went on through the night. They couldn't make it legal until the morning, because once again, it had to be daylight for it to be a legal trial. So, Jesus is in prison all night. They're beating him.
They're spitting on Him all night, and finally as the sun is beginning to rise, they hold this other mock trial, the Sanhedrin comes together, all the religious leaders, and there they rubber stamp the decision they've already made. Jesus deserves to die. The problem is they can't do it. They don't have the power of the sword. Rome alone can do that.
So they send Jesus off to Pilate, as the day is breaking, and they ask Pilate to put Jesus to death. That's where we are now. Jesus is at the governor's house before Pilate. Now in in all of these trials that we see Jesus going through here, we need to understand that it is not the people making judgments about Jesus. They think they're judging Jesus, but it's really them who are on trial.
So in the scene here, Jesus is not on trial before Pilate, Pilate is on trial before him. The religious leaders were on trial before him, and God is going to judge them by how they respond to Jesus. So here, Pilate's someone on trial. Pilate is the one whose heart is going to be exposed and weighed by God. Just like every one of us, our hearts will someday be exposed and weighed by God.
And in that moment, only one thing will matter. How did you respond to Jesus? Who did you think he was? Did you submit to his lordship or not? It's the only thing that matters.
I mean, this is this is where Mark has been driving us all along. How are you going to respond to Jesus? We've been reading through Mark, he's presented the evidence, this is who Jesus is. We've seen everything that Jesus has done, everything that Jesus has said, and now we come to the point where Mark says, it's time for you to make your decision. Who do you believe Jesus to be?
Because you're on trial. So, Mark presses that into us. Jesus, he's brought bound now to stand before Pilate. And now for the first time in Jesus's life, he is standing before someone with political power. First time.
All of his previous conversations, previous confrontations, or or trials, they were with the religious leaders. And then he was being asked religious questions, questions about the commandments or the law, questions about the temple, questions, about the resurrection. But now he's on trial before a government official who couldn't care less about those things. Pilot wants to know one thing. One thing only.
Does Jesus consider himself to be a political leader? That's it. Jesus has a massive following. He knows that. He knows that people paraded him into Jerusalem calling him a king.
And he wants to know what exactly is Jesus claiming. Is he claiming to be their spiritual authority, or is he claiming to be their political authority? Which is it? Is the type of revolution that Jesus is bringing to this world, is it is it the type that is just, a inner peace spiritual? Or is it political?
And of course, this is a very relevant question for our time, isn't it? What exactly is the church's relationship with the state? Contrast is even greater here because if you think what Rome was claiming to bring to this world, and what Jesus was claiming to bring to this world, the same thing. Rome was claiming to bring justice and peace to this world, and they did it through force, by forcing people to obey their laws. Jesus claimed to bring justice and peace to this world.
But how is he gonna do it? Was it just through offering inner peace? Or was it through wielding a political power? And so Pilate asked, are you the king of the Jews? This title, King of the Jews, has not been used in Mark up until this point.
The reason it hasn't been used is because it's a political title. Mark's now gonna use this title 6 times in the next 30 verses, because Pilate is asking political questions here. The chief priests, they didn't ask if Jesus was the king of the Jews, asked if he was the Messiah or if he was the Son of God. Those terms mean absolutely nothing to Pilate. He is asking about what he understands.
He understands kingship. He understands political power and authority. Jesus, are you a king? All 4 Gospels mention this question. Rarely do all 4 Gospels repeat the exact same thing.
All 4 Gospels ask this question. All 4 Gospels record Jesus's answer. Shows you how important it is. Pilate asked, are you the King of the Jews? Jesus answered, you have said so.
You could translate this, so you say, or you said it, or according to you. In Greek, it's literally only 2 words, you say. Clears it up, doesn't it? If you're having a hard time understanding exactly what Jesus meant by that, you're not alone. Jesus is purposely being ambiguous here.
Those two words you say, they're actually an idiom that means half yes, half no. It's a way of Jesus saying this. The words you said are right, but your association with those words are wrong. Yes. I guess you could say I'm the King of the Jews.
However, that is such a simplistic summary of who I really am. But since it's all you know, it's all you understand, sure. So you say. To give you an illustration, I hope helps you understand what Jesus is communicating here. So it's a slightly silly illustration, but but maybe this will help.
Imagine that you lived 500 years ago in Florence, Italy, and you saw a child walking down the street. And the child goes up and sees some people painting the side of a building. It's it's several men. They're they're painting of these huge brushes, and they're just painting the side of the building gray. Nothing special, just painting it.
And the child goes up and goes, hey, are you guys painters? They're like, yeah. He goes, cool. Then the kid just walks on. Next door, there's Leonardo da Vinci.
He's out there painting the Mona Lisa. The kid walks up and goes, hey, are you a painter too? How does Leonardo respond? Probably say, sure kid. Be because technically the kid's right.
He's a painter. But, is that term really adequate to describe who he is? To describe someone so gifted, so skilled, creating something of such beauty that it will endure for generations? You're right, but you're wrong. So is Jesus a political king?
Well, I guess you could say he is, but political power is such a inadequate vehicle to bring about the changes and the beauty that God is bringing to this world. It's inadequate. The revolution that Jesus is bringing is just simply too big to fit into any political box. In the gospel of John, Jesus actually expounds on his answer just a little bit. He tells Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world.
For if my kingdom was of this world, then my servants would have been fighting that I might not be not might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from this world. In other words, Jesus is saying my kingdom is not anything like the kingdoms of this world because you guys use force to force people to obey your laws, to do what you want them to do. But Jesus is not out there to kill his enemies. He's out there to lay down his life for his enemies.
He's not out there to force people to obey his laws, he's going to change their hearts. So of course, by changing people's hearts, he's going to do more than just be these these people's spiritual inner peace, it will result in real social change. So what is Christianity's relationship to politics? It's complicated. It's a yes, it's a no.
And I would say we should certainly, as Christians, we should advocate and we should vote for righteous laws. Absolutely. But we must never think for a moment that we can ever vote in the kingdom of God. We can never vote in Christianity. God's kingdom is simply too big for politics to carry.
Now, after Jesus answers Pilate's questions, we see that everybody else, they begin to hurl accusations against Jesus. They're all chiming in. But Jesus, at this point, he never says another word. He's done speaking in the gospel of Mark. That's it.
Pilate asked Jesus, make your defense. But Jesus will just remain silent. And I've never noticed this until But when you read through all the gospel accounts of the trials of Jesus, you will notice that when Jesus is asked a question about his identity, he will answer you. Are you the son of the blessed? Are you the Messiah?
You will say, I am. I'm actually more than that. But if you make accusations against him, he's silent. He will not respond to any accusations. Simply put, I think those accusations are not even worth his response.
He's unbothered by them. Pilate can't believe this. And he's listening to everybody throw these accusations, and he's like, how can you just stand there and take it? I mean, don't Why can't you give a defense? Don't you know what's going on here?
And how can you be so unbothered as people sling these things at you? Mark tells us that Pilate was amazed at Jesus's silence. Amaze is a very positive word. It means that he was awestruck. He was filled with wonder.
It's the same word that's used to describe the reaction of the crowds after Jesus cast out demons. People could not believe such a display of power over darkness. Pilate's amazed. He is quickly realizing that this is unlike any man he has ever encountered. He is unlike any revolutionary, any king, or any person he's ever talked to.
And here, we are reminded of Isaiah's prophecy concerning the Messiah found in Isaiah chapter 53, where we read, 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 is silent before his shears, so he opened not his mouth. It is Passover week. It's coming to an end, and here we see the Lamb of God silently walking to the slaughter. At this point, it's obvious to Pilate that Jesus is innocent.
So he begins looking for a way out. In the gospel of Luke, someone mentions that Jesus was from Galilee and he's like, he's a Galilean. Well, Galilee is not my district. That's Herod's district. And you know what?
Herod's in town for the Passover. Send Jesus to Herod. And Pilate is so happy, he's like, I don't have to make a decision about this. Not my problem anymore. And so Jesus is taken off to Herod, and I don't know if you remember this, but when Herod sees Jesus, it says, and Herod was glad.
Do you remember why we looked at this in Mark? Herod thought that Jesus might be John the Baptist raised from the dead. John whom he had executed. He lived in fear of that, and now Jesus is presented to him and he's like, it's not John. And he was glad to see Jesus.
And then he interrogated Jesus, but Jesus never said a word to him. So Herod sends him back to Pilate. Pilate can't believe Jesus is coming right back into his headquarters, and now he does have to deal with him. And so he begins thinking, is there another way out? Is is there is there a way I cannot condemn an innocent man to die?
And at this point, he's reminded of a passover tradition, in which he would release 1 of the prisoners they had. And and the the people got to ask for which prisoner they would release he would release. And he thinks, that's it. I I mean, that's that's my way out. Because of course, if I say, do you want me to release Jesus to you?
They're gonna say yes. Because Jesus was wildly popular with the people. The people loved him. He went around healing people, preaching grace, forgiveness. He raised people from the dead.
They all loved him. It was only the chief priest who hated him, and who were envious of him. So certainly, they would select Jesus. And so he says, do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews? But to his dismay, the chief priests were able to stir up the crowd, for the crowd to shout for a man named Barabbas to be released instead.
All four gospels mention Barabbas. We know from Mark's account and from their accounts that Barabbas, who was a notorious prisoner, he was in prison for robbery, for murder, for being part of an insurrection. Barabbas was the type of person that the religious leaders would have zero tolerance for. He's the type of person they would want to be executed or forever locked in prison. But, if they had to let him go, in order to kill Jesus, well, let that happen.
That's how much they hated Jesus. In Matthew's gospel, Pilate actually brings out just 2 prisoners. And he says, which 1? Jesus or Barabbas? Which 1?
It's a more interesting decision when you understand what Barabbas's name means. Bar means son, Abba, Abbas means father. So the people are presented with 2 sons of the father. Who will you choose? Will you choose the son of the father that went around feeding the hungry, healing people, their diseases, raising the dead, or will you be or will you choose the son of the father that chooses to murder and to take in order to try to bring change?
He's an insurrectionist. Which one do you want? Pilate's question has been asked to every generation since, which son of the father do you want to try and change the world? The one that takes the life of his enemies or the one who lays down his life for his enemies? Which one?
Let's continue to read. Verse 11, but the chief priests, they 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 that you called the King of the Jews? And they cried out again, crucify him. Pilate said to them, why?
What evil has he done? But they shouted all the more, crucify him. Paul or Pilate had, vastly underestimated the chief priests way here. They were able to convince the crowd to ask for Barabbas to be released. But even more than that, they began to shout for Jesus to be crucified.
Now, when Pilate asked, what should I do with Jesus? The people didn't have to respond crucify him. There are many other options on the table. They could have said, lock him up in prison. Make him pay a fine.
Sell him off to slavery. Banish him from the land. There were options. But the chief priest knew, we can't have Jesus alive. Crucify him.
Crucify him. Pilate can't believe it. He asked the crowd, why? What evil has he done? That word why is an imperfect tense, it means that he kept asking why.
Why? Somebody tell me, why? Exactly why? What has he done? Some can somebody tell me one thing that he's done deserving death?
Pilate is arguing his case as to why Jesus should not be killed. And notice not one person in the crowd can answer him. He asked why no answers are given. They just say, crucify him even louder. Because no one can make an accusation against Jesus.
The scene, I mean, the more I read it, the more it just it seems surreal to me. When you're reading it, you're thinking, does this really happen? That God came to this world as a human, and our response was to yell crucify him? Did that really happen? Every person in that crowd should be on their knees before him.
He's the author of their life, And yet they yell, crucify him, crucify him. Now at this point, Pilate has a decision he has to make. A decision about Jesus. And this is actually once again, it's where Mark has been leading us through the entire time in his gospel. He wants every one of us to make a decision about who we think Jesus is.
He's saying you can no longer stay on the fence concerning Him. Pilate's been trying to stay on the fence, he's been trying to avoid having to make a decision, he's trying to outsource that decision to Herod, outsource it to the people, do whatever, but now he has to make a decision. Just like every one of us have to make a decision as to who Jesus is. Remember, you're the one on trial, not Jesus. We read these tragic words in verse 15.
So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. In this moment when Pilate releases Barabbas and sends Jesus off to be crucified, we are actually given one of the clearest pictures of the gospel. Jesus acts as a substitute for Barabbas. Barabbas is the one who should die, yet he goes free, and Jesus dies for him instead. The sinner goes free, the righteous one takes his place.
Jesus receives the condemnation we all deserve, so that we might be liberated and have new life. I mean this whole scene here, it's just it's a picture of the gospel. When you see Barabbas, you should be looking at a mirror and seeing yourself. You're the one who stood condemned. Here we see God's son standing on trial before a mortal man, suffering accusations and condemnation, and he does all that so that someday we might stand before God without any fear of condemnation.
The scourging that Jesus receives here, it's it's beyond horrific. The whip they would have used, the the thongs at the end of it, they would have been tied to it, pieces of bone or glass or metal. It was designed not to just break through the skin, but actually to tear out the skin. And so, you would have had Jesus's bones exposed, likely his entrails exposed as well. Many people who received the scourging died and never made it to the cross.
And here, we again remember Isaiah's words, in chapter 53. By His wounds, or by his stripes, we are healed. Jesus was wounded so that all of our wounds might be healed. Now it's obvious, I hope you see this at this point, Pilate did not want to do this. This is what we know at this point, Pilate was amazed by Jesus.
We know that Pilate knew Jesus was innocent, so he thought well of Jesus. In Matthew's account, we even read that Pilate's wife had a dream saying, don't I have anything to do with that righteous one. In John's account, Pilate declares Jesus to be innocent three times. But none of that matters. What is Pilate known for?
We just read it at the start of the service in the Apostle's Creed. Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. That's what he's known for. Pilate had his moment to make a decision, He chose poorly. Pilate failed his trial.
He's not remembered for being amazed at Jesus or for find trying to find creative ways to release Jesus. No, he's known for this, sending Jesus to be crucified because he was trying to please the crowds. He cared more about pleasing the crowds than pleasing Jesus. We don't know what happened to Pilate immediately after this, but we do know what from historians, what happened to him many years later. Many years later, he actually he was removed from his position, he lost his job, and he killed himself.
Apparently, when he no longer had the applause or could please the crowds, he no longer had a reason to live. For those of you here who have not surrendered your life to Jesus as lord, why not? You can't stay on the fence. Why not? I I found that over the years, most people's objections to Christianity, they actually have little to do with maybe this bible verse they don't understand or offended by.
Or maybe one of the big questions about, you know, if God's so good, why is there evil in the world? I'm not saying those things are not important, but I have yet to find somebody reject Christianity because of them. Usually, it's either they're offended by Jesus, or actually they just want to please the crowds. They care more about what others think about them than what God thinks about them. If this is you here, and that's why you haven't surrendered your life to Jesus, because you care more about the crowds than what he thinks about you, if that's you, know that in the end, having the crowd's affirmation will mean nothing.
Only one affirmation matters. So all that matters here is how are you going to respond to Jesus who gives his life for you. It's time for you to make a decision. Let's pray. Jesus, right now I pray that through your spirit, you would deeply unsettle those in this room who do not know you.
May they hear you calling calling to them, calling them to yourself. May they get off the fence, and all they're doing is walking away from death and into life. So Lord, would that happen in this moment? Jesus, thank you for being our substitute, thank you for the new life that you have given us, thank you for the wounds that were inflicted upon you on our behalf that we might be healed. You are our present and our future king, and we pray this in your name.
Amen.