Mark 15:1-20 Pilate's Dilemma

Please turn with me to Mark, chapter 15

Last week, we looked at a very intense passage. Jesus was let down by his inner circle, betrayed by one of his followers, abandoned by all his disciples, falsely accused and condemned by a kangaroo court convened by the religious authorities, and denied by his leading disciple.

This week, we see Jesus in a hearing before Pilate, the Roman Prefect (basically the highest local authority of the Roman empire) of Judea. If you were here last week, remember that the Sanhedrin, or Jewish religious authorities had determined that Jesus deserved to die, and even found an excuse to carry it out, falsely claiming that Jesus has committed the crime of blasphemy, which deserves the death penalty under Jewish law.

But since Judea is under Roman occupation at the time, the Jewish leaders are not allowed to carry out death penalties - and since blasphemy is not a capital offense in Roman law, they had to come up with another accusation to bring to the Romans so that they would put Jesus to death for them. So they bring Jesus to the Roman authorities and accuse him of claiming to be a political insurgent, so that Rome will consider him a threat, and want him killed.

And that’s where we find ourselves in our passage today. Jesus’s hearing before Pilate. Mark’s gospel narrative does not focus much on the details of the hearing. It goes very quickly. Mark wants to point out to his original audience, the first century church, and so to us today, how Jesus responded, not particularly what he said.And it is in the way that Jesus responds, the way he carries himself in the trial, that we find our application for today. Let’s read.

Jesus Interrogated

Mark 15:1–5 (CSB)
1 As soon as it was morning, having held a meeting with the elders, scribes, and the whole Sanhedrin, the chief priests tied Jesus up, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. 2 So Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” He answered him, “You say so.” 3 And the chief priests accused him of many things. 4 Pilate questioned him again, “Aren’t you going to answer? Look how many things they are accusing you of!” 5 But Jesus still did not answer, and so Pilate was amazed.

Of the few details of the dialog that Mark gives us, we see Pilate’s Question to Jesus. “Are you [as the chief priests are saying] claiming to be King of the Jews?” Jesus’s response, recorded by Mark, is very sparse, and very simple. In fact it's a little vague.

Based on the other gospel narratives though, I think we’re meant to understand it as an affirmative response. But there’s some nuance to it. Something like, “You are saying a true thing, but you don’t know why, or what is meant by it. I’m so much more than you imagine.”

Pilate is not interested in the theology here, by the way, he is simply asking if Jesus is a political threat to Rome. And in that sense, Jesus’s response, as he is tied up, with no weapons, no armor, no army, is something like “what do you think?”

Jesus’s answer clearly leaves Pilate feeling like there is no case here. So the chief priests speak up and “accuse him of many things” - they’re worried they’re not going to get the death penalty. You can almost hear the panic and the clamor in the courtroom with all the false accusations of threats Jesus has made against Rome. Reasons why Pilate should have Jesus put to death. And to these accusations, Jesus remains frustratingly silent to Pilate.

Facing the possibility of crucifixion, one of the worst deaths mankind has ever devised for another human being, Jesus doesn’t try to defend himself. He doesn’t grovel. He doesn’t beg for mercy. He remains silent. Pilate has never seen this kind of response before, and so He is amazed. But he doesn’t see any reason that Jesus should be condemned. So he has an idea.

Jesus Condemned

Mark 15:6–11 (CSB)
6 At the festival Pilate used to release for the people a prisoner whom they requested. 7 There was one named Barabbas, who was in prison with rebels who had committed murder during the rebellion. 8 The crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do for them as was his custom. 9 Pilate answered them, “Do you want me to release the king of the Jews for you?” 10 For he knew it was because of envy that the chief priests had handed him over. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd so that he would release Barabbas to them instead.

Pilate has a question to the people: Jesus or Barabbas? Who should I free? The crowd's answer: Give us Barabbas! And then it gets crazy.

Mark 15:12–15 (CSB)
12 Pilate asked them again, “Then what do you want me to do with the one you call the king of the Jews?” 13 Again they shouted, “Crucify him!” 14 Pilate said to them, “Why? What has he done wrong?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him!” 15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them; and after having Jesus flogged, he handed him over to be crucified.

Pilate had a dilemma. On the one hand, he could find no guilt in Jesus. His judgement was accurate. On the other hand, he had an angry mob demanding that Jesus be put to death. We know from other historic documents that Pilate had a history of giving in to the crowds. It’s the reason he started this whole tradition of releasing a prisoner on their festival day in the first place.

Pilate’s judgement about Jesus was accurate, but his carrying out of justice was not. He was more concerned with appeasing crowds than making sure the right thing was done. This is a fact that would get him removed from his position just a few years later.

Note the insanity of the crowd. Whipped up into a frenzy by their leaders. There was no sense of rationality. No logic. No justice. They had been convinced that Jesus needed to die, and now they were blind to the facts. Blind to reality.

Pilate asks the crowd, what should I do with this innocent Jesus? They shout “murder him!” He asks for a reason: what has he done wrong? They give no answer. Just the frenzied shout: murder him! Pilate releases a convicted criminal, Barabbas, and hands over an innocent man, Jesus, to be killed in his place. The symbolism here should not be lost. Jesus stood condemned in our place for our crimes.

Jesus Mocked

Still stuck in the short-sightedness that Jesus was claiming to be an earthly king, even though he clearly was not, the soldiers mock him.

Mark 15:16–20 (CSB)
16 The soldiers led him away into the palace (that is, the governor’s residence) and called the whole company together. 17 They dressed him in a purple robe, twisted together a crown of thorns, and put it on him. 18 And they began to salute him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” 19 They were hitting him on the head with a stick and spitting on him. Getting down on their knees, they were paying him homage. 20 After they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple robe and put his clothes on him. They led him out to crucify him.

Who is This Jesus?

In our passage last week and this week, we see a devastating story of people not understanding who Jesus was. Jesus, the Messiah of God, the king of the universe. According to the Sanhedrin, obviously not the Messiah. According to Pilate and the soldiers, obviously not King. He was both, but so much bigger than either group was thinking. Their misunderstanding of Jesus made them miss the beauty of who he actually is.

In their unjust and horrific treatment of their creator, their king, their savior, they reveal what is in every human heart. Without God’s help in removing our spiritual blindness, we are all the same. He doesn’t match our spiritual and religious expectations. He doesn’t match our political expectations.

He doesn’t match them because He isn’t enough, but because he is so much bigger. We tend to underestimate God. We tend to underestimate Jesus.

Pilate didn’t know what to do with Jesus. He thought he had a dilemma on his hands. Jesus is either a Liar, or a lunatic. One of the two. The reality is that he had a TRI-lemma. He was just leaving out one of the categories.

C.S. Lewis is famous for posing this “tri-lemma” that most people face with Jesus.

The Trilemma: Liar, Lunatic, or Lord.

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

~C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, book 2, chapter 3.

How do we make sense of the senseless mob, the unjust condemnation, and the lies they used to justify themselves in acting in such a senseless manner? This all happened because Jesus is on a mission. He is exactly where he is supposed to be. This was all part of God’s plan, which He declared beforehand. He hinted at it in Genesis, after Adam and Eve fell into the temptation of The Serpent, The Devil, The Satan. God levies his judgement on Satan: one day there will be a savior, a man, you will hurt him, but he will crush you.

Genesis 3:14-15 (CSB)
So the Lord God said to the serpent: …I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

And God explained it in detail through the prophet Isaiah 700 years before it happened, speaking of that same Messiah, that same savior:

Isaiah 53:7, 12 (CSB)
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth…

Therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.

What Is Mark Showing Us?

Remember that Mark wrote this gospel narrative account to the early church who was under threat from both the Roman empire and from the dwindling Jewish leadership. Both were putting pressure on the fledging church, God’s chosen people, to abandon their confession of Jesus. In our passage last week, we saw Jesus on trial before the Jewish authorities, and in our passage today, we see him on trial before the Roman authorities.

The early church would have been tuned in: how does Jesus respond in these situations, because we’re in that same situation! And we likewise should tune in as well.

Mark’s narrative shows us how Jesus responded: He did not resist. He did not flex his rhetorical prowess or His divine power to win the argument, to free himself, or to see justice done for himself, even though He could have!

Instead, He gently and plainly spoke the truth about who he was. When he was shouted down by the irrational mob, He did not shout louder so that they would see reason. He willingly allowed himself to be falsely accused and condemned and killed. And in this way, according to God’s plan, the result was the salvation of the world.In this way, it was proven who He truly was.

Mark 15:37–39 (CSB)
37 Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 Then the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 When the centurion, who was standing opposite him, saw the way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

The first human confession of Jesus as the Son of God. In doing this, Jesus set the pattern for His followers. And this is our application for today. Peter explains.

1 Peter 3:13–18a (CSB)
13 Who then will harm you if you are devoted to what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear them or be intimidated, 15 but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. 16 Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God.

This is also the message of the book of Revelation. Revelation can be a very confusing book if you don’t realize that it is written to the same group of people that Mark is, and bears the same message. The way we Christians overcome the beast: the political and religious powers of the world lined up in opposition to Jesus, is not through more political power, it is not through superior argumentation, it is not through military might. Rather, the way Christians win the battle is “through the blood of the lamb, and the word of our testimony…” as we proclaim the way that Jesus has saved us and changed our lives, we win, even though we may face terrible persecution and even death in this life.

Revelation 12:11 (CSB)
11 They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; for they did not love their lives to the point of death.

“The accuser of our brothers”, the great dragon described in Revelation, Satan, has had his back broken by Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. He’s been thrown out of heaven, no longer do his accusations against us hold any water, because Jesus has paid for all our sin.

The best he can do now is rage against us “with great fury” - through the spiritual opposition we face daily in our heads and hearts, through the political power he can send against us to oppose our message, and through false religious teaching. These all wage war on our body and our soul in this life.

Think of the different oppositions you face.Suffering and trials don’t always look like being thrown in jail for preaching the gospel. Sometimes it looks like holding your tongue when someone attacks your faith online. Sometimes it looks like losing the respect of family members, acquaintances, classmates, professors, bosses, or coworkers because you won’t compromise biblical ethics or mission.

Sometimes it just means fighting for joy and peace in Christ when your heart wants to give in to fear or bitterness or temptation. These, in small ways, are your opportunities to share in Christ’s suffering. Remember Peter’s encouragement:

Respond in gentleness, reverence, and hope, even in suffering!

Though we may suffer in this life as we seek to follow Christ and make him known, we can take heart because we are only sharing in the same kind of suffering Christ faced. And we are on the same mission of bringing help, healing, and love, and God’s offer of mercy and forgiveness to all those who repent of their sin and trust in him.

The world hates it, the devil hates it, and will do everything to try and counter our message. But it is the way to true life. It is the mission we were designed by God for. And after we have suffered in this life, we get to share with Christ in an eternal reward forever!