NOTES for Mar 15:1-15

Mark perhaps gives the most dramatic account of the scene of Jesus' trial before Pilate. Everything here is clear-cut and swift; no one has any doubts, and everyone is quite sure of being right. And the true faces of all the participants in the drama are immediately revealed.

The chief priests have long since passed their sentence on Jesus. Their task is to have it carried out by the hands of the Roman authorities. They ‘accused Him of many things’, although in the Sanhedrin they had condemned Him precisely for calling Himself the Christ. And so the elders of God's people, out of envy of a ‘rival leader’, disown their Only King before the earthly authorities.

Pilate, appointed to uphold Roman law, knows perfectly well that Jesus has done no evil, unlike the rebel Barabbas; he knows the true motives behind all the accusations and knows that only recently the people acknowledged Jesus as king. He asks the crowd, who want him to release Barabbas, directly: ‘What, then, do you want me to do with Him whom YOU call the King of the Jews?’

The crowd disowns its recent king and cries: ‘Crucify Him!’ Pilate, to please the crowd, hands the King of the Jews over to be executed.

Jesus goes to His death not because of false accusations, but precisely because of who He truly is. He answers Pilate's question directly: yes, He is King, and all who condemn Him stand against the true King. At this trial the truth about each person is revealed: about the elders, about Pilate, about the crowd. In our relationship with Christ, the truth about who we are and whose side we are on becomes plain. Our judgement of Him is, in fact, His judgement of us.