Pilate Delivers Jesus to be Crucified & Jesus is Mocked

GOSPEL MEDITATION # 234

Pilate Delivers Jesus to be Crucified & Jesus is Mocked

Mark 15:6-20

  1. Find a quiet place without distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
  4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
  5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
  6. At the feast of Passover Pilate had begun a tradition of releasing one prisoner selected by the people. There was a notorious “rebel” not robber as in most English translations, named Barabbas (Aramaic for “son of the father”).
  7. At this time Pilate hopes the crowd/mob will select Jesus to be released. Pilate asks if they want the “King of the Jews” set free. But it was not to be and we are not privy to the machinations beyond the scenes.
  8. Pilate goes so far as to ask what the crowd what they wanted to do with Jesus, perhaps trying to find a way out of the mess he was in.
  9. “Crucify him” is the single shout; Pilate wants to know what evil he has done. Just more, “Crucify him.”
  10. Pilate plays every inch the politician, and for unknown reasons orders Jesus to be scourged, which kills many.
  11. This event takes place in the open air, but now the soldiers take Jesus out of view, into the governor’s palace, to be mocked by the whole garrison of Roman soldiers, and this after He had been scourged.
  12. What evil lies within us that we, and we must say—“we”— could do such a thing. We do not understand neither the depths of our own depravity nor the influence of that “hideous strength”.
  13. A purple cloak or gown, the color of royalty as a king would wear, is placed on Jesus. The soldiers knelt down before Him, as they will do again one day and that on the judgment day. Little did they know. Will they will recall that day? I suspect so.

Now Jesus is taken away, bloody and bruised, but not humiliated or defeated.

Jesus Before Pilate Mark 15:1-15

GOSPEL MEDITATION # 233

Mark 15:1-15

Jesus before Pilate

  1. Find a quiet place without distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
  4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
  5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
  6. Friday morning early, the Sanhedrin is ready to proceed with the killing of Jesus. Bound once more, Jesus is taken to Pilate.
  7. Mark cuts right to the critical question. Pilate asks: “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus quickly and assertively answers “yes.”
  8. Why the chief priestly faction continued to accuse Jesus is not plain. But Pilate must have seen something so he asks Jesus if He has anything to say. Jesus, to Pilate’s surprise, remains silent.
  9. It so happened that a tradition had developed, which Pilate may have initiated, that a prisoner would be released at the Feast of Passover—perhaps a good will gesture to appease the Jewish population.
  10. Barabbas, meaning ‘son of the father,’ a notorious revolutionary who had failed in a murderous attempt to revolt against Rome, was a possible candidate to be freed.
  11. Pilate saw a chance to escape having to hand Jesus over to be crucified, so in desperation because he did not want to see Jesus dead (see Matthew 27:19) wanted to grant the release of Jesus. The crowd would not have it and all the more demanded that Jesus be put to death.
  12. The Mob mentality had taken hold and there might have been some of Barabbas’ followers amongst those shouting to have Jesus crucified, not mentioned in the text, and Pilate the politician gave in. We must wonder what we might have done.
  13. The stage is now completely set—Jesus would die.

 

 

Jesus Before the Council Mark 14:53-65

GOSPEL MEDITATION # 232

Mark 14:53-65

Jesus Before the Council

  1. Find a quiet place without distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
  4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
  5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
  6. From memory, determine the central points.
  7. After a brief stop at the house of Annas, the former high priest, Jesus is now taken to Caiaphas, Annas’ son-in-law.
  8. All or part of the 71 member Sanhedrin is in place and ready to deal with Jesus. All done in secret for fear of the people.
  9. Peter has recovered his courage and risks entering into the courtyard of Caiaphas’s house.
  10. The Sanhedrin needed a list of charges against Jesus in order to then send Him to Pilate, who alone had the power to condemn Him to death.
  11. Witness after witness, however prepared, did not produce enough substance that would convince Pilate of the need to kill Jesus.
  12. The high priest, and we notice in this passage the name Caiaphas does not appear, is desperate to find something incriminating.
  13. Some witnesses either lied or misunderstood the statement Jesus made as we find in Matthew 24:2 about the Temple’s destruction.
  14. As predicted in Isaiah 53:7, Jesus remains silent and offers no defense.
  15. What angered the religious leaders was Jesus’ not so subtle claim to being the Son of Man or Messiah—the King of the Jews. So the high priest asked Jesus directly who He was.
  16. Whenever questioned about who He was, Jesus answered.
  17. “I Am” Jesus said, and this is the English rendering for the Greek for Tetragrammaton, the four letters in Hebrew found in Exodus 3:14, and is very name of God, which we know now as Yahweh.
  18. The high priest, either as a genuine gesture or as an act put on for the rest, tears his tunics, quite a feat really, to express his utter disgust. Blasphemy, here is a man claiming to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, indeed the God of Israel. The Sanhedrin now has no trouble sending Jesus to Pilate and His certain death.
  19. Now begins the humiliation of the King of the Jews.