Lesson # 44 | MARK 15:1-21 | INJUSTICE, HUMILIATION, YET BLESSING

I.    Greetings.

 

II.   Introduction:           

            Note:  The previous time we were together we examined the first stage of Jesus' trial:  the Sanhedrin trial.  In Mark there is one more phase:  the trial before Pilate.  In other Gospels there are two additional phases.  The other Gospel's have four phases:  Sanhedrin trial, Pilate trial, Herod Interlude, and then back to Pilate.  Mark, however, gives us a short, not a contradictory version.

 

III.  The Case Examined:  Mark 15:1-6.

>>>> Have someone read Mark 15:1-6.

            Note:  To get Jesus condemned the Jewish rulers were under a time constraint.  Roman rulers held court at dawn, so if the Jewish leaders had not held their court at night they would have gotten to Pilate too late in the day.  They had to get Jesus condemned and executed before the festival actually began that evening at 6:00 p.m.

            Q  Why does Pilate ask Jesus if He is King of the Jews, when in the Sanhedrin He was accused of blasphemy?

               An = That was the charge.  Jesus was convicted in the Sanhedrin of blasphemy but with Pilate the charge is changed to treason.  Pilate would not have been interested in the religious scruples of Jewish sensibilities. 

            Note:  There is weakness in their case.  This is shown by the changing of the accusation to fit the audience.  This is often the case when people want to condemn those they do not like and yet have a weak case.  The charges change with the winds. 

            Note:  There is also irony here.  Lane (pp. 550-551) notes that the irony is that Jesus was rejected as Messiah and therefore a blasphemer because He did not come in power, and yet they turn Jesus over to Pilate for being a power-threat to the great Roman state.

            Note:  Note how brief Mark is in his version.  He does not give us the discussion that led to the question of Pilate.  The reader is to assume that Jesus has been accused of claiming kingship.

            Q  How does Jesus answer?

               An = Again, Mark's version is brief.  Jesus' answer implies it is their idea.  In John 18:33-38 we have a fuller discussion.  Jesus does admit to being King, but not in their way of thinking.  This answer kicks off Mark 15:3.  The chief priests seem to try and add charges seemingly realizing that their original case was not going to stick.

            Note:  Jesus is silent.  >>>> Have someone read Mark 15:5.

            Q  Why is Jesus silent?

               An = 1) He is fulfilling Scripture:  Have someone read Isaiah 53:7.    

                    2) He is emotionally in control and has no need of losing of His calmness (i.e. He is confident in God.)      3) They will not listen anyway.  Gerhard von Rad says:  "God's final judgment is silence".  If God is still talking, still correcting, still reasoning, still trying to convict us of our sins, then there is hope.  When silence falls, we are left to our own foolishness and destruction.

            Q  Even in so brief an account as Mark, why is so much attention given to Jesus' various legal trials and their unfairness?

               An = God wants you to know that He knows that some of you have and will suffer.  He knows what it is like to meet injustice full in the face.

 

IV.  Another is Benefitted.   Mark 15:7-15.

>>>> Have someone read Mark 15:7-15.

            Q  Who gets away with murder?

               An = Barabbas.

            Q  Who lets Barabbas get away with murder?

               An = The very people that are quite willing to let Jesus be executed on less than substantiated charges.

            Note:  Again, there is clear irony here.  The great Roman justice system let go a true insurrectionist while condemning a totally innocent man.

            RQ  How many of you have truly been given the raw end of the deal?

            Note:  God does understand because He has been there.  He has not only been cheated of justice, wrongly accused, lied about and slandered, but there was injury as well as insult. 

>>>> Have someone re-read Mark 15:12-15.

            Note:  >>>> Have someone read I Timothy 6:12-14.

            Note:  Why did the crowd want Barabbas?  Some speculate that it was his followers that were gathered outside the residence of Pilate in hope of getting the favor of release.  The text says the crowd was stirred up by the chief priests (15:11).  Crowds do not think!

            Note:  They scourged Him.  This was usually done with a whip of many leather tongs with pieces of bone and lead tied into the ends.  Usually several soldiers did the beating until flesh hung in bleeding shreds.  Josephus records one was beaten until his entrails showed, others recount scourging until bones were bared.  Many passed out, some lost eyes, many died. (Lane, p. 557).  The scourging was done away from the crowd.

 

V.  Humiliation by the Mob:  Mark 15:16-20.

>>>> Have someone read Mark 15:16-20.

            Note:  This too was done in the courtyard so the disciples could not see.  In addition, there is the possibility there were 300 + men present at these humiliating events.  It is one thing to be cruelly beaten, but then to be mocked and stripped in front of 300 men is worse.

            Note:  Chrysostom charges us:  "Considering then all these things, control yourself.  For what have you suffered like what your Lord suffered?  Are you publicly insulted?  Not like this.  Are you mocked?  Not in your whole body, not being scourged and stripped.  Even if you were beaten, yet not like this."  (Chrysostom, p. 517).

 

VI.  Another one Receives Benefit, Simeon carries the Cross:  Mark 15:21.

>>>> Have someone read Mark 15:21.

            Note:  No doubt Simeon was a pilgrim, a visitor to Jerusalem, fulfilling a treasured dream to visit Jerusalem at Passover time and worship God.  He was from Cyrene in North Africa, and may at first hated his being involved in the brutal activities of this stranger he did not know.  He had come to Jerusalem to worship in the great Temple, not be forced to carry a stranger's cross.  Mark's description of Simeon is odd.  He does not give us Simeon's reaction but rather gives us the names of his two children.  Most scholars believe Mark was written to the church at Rome and so turn to Romans 16:13. 

>>>> Have someone read Romans 16:13.

            Note:  Many think this was Simeon's son. 

>>>> Have someone read Acts 13:1.

            Note:  Many think this was Simeon himself, involved in sending the first missionaries to the Gentiles.  Most of you tonight are Gentiles (not Jews), so if this was Simeon, you owe him.

            Note:  Notice the contrast between Barabbas and Simeon.  One receives physical salvation and is freed from physical death.  The other receives inconvenience and humiliation but receives eternal life and becomes a part of God's holy family, the church.  Both received, because both Simeon and Barabbas, were drawn into the sphere of Jesus Christ.  The one receives physical blessing, and we never hear of him again.  The other received inconvenience and was won to the faith.

            Q How did Simeon see Jesus?  Was Jesus presented to Simeon in a winsome manner?

               An = So often we want to present God to the world in a flashy and successful manner.  We must be winners, prestigious, important people.  Simeon was won by seeing Jesus in his weakness, in His humiliation, and as a humiliated one Simeon saw the Humiliated One.  He saw Glory!

            Note:  Some of you fear that God's work will cause you inconvenience and suffering.  Being involved with Jesus Christ may very well may cost you such things.  May you become like Simeon and may such an experience show you Him. 

            Note:  Have everyone turn to I Timothy 6:13-16.

>>>> Read to them I Timothy 6:13-16. 

            Note:  May we be like Simeon and Paul here.  He starts to encourage us to stand up well for our Lord and then seemed at that point in his writing of the letter to ponder directly about who his Lord was.  He goes into rapture (goes bananas!) and begins to speak of the beauty of his Lord.  We are spiritually