NOTES for Mar 15:1-15

Mark’s account of Jesus’ trial before Pilate is perhaps the most dramatic. Everything is clear-cut and swift; no one has any doubts; everyone is quite certain of being right. And the true faces of all those taking part 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 Roman authorities. They ‘accused Him of many things’, although in the Sanhedrin they had condemned Him precisely for calling Himself the Christ. And now the elders of God’s people, out of envy of a ‘rival leader’, renounce their only King before an earthly authority.

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; he knows that the people had only recently acknowledged Jesus as king. He directly asks the crowd demanding Barabbas’s release: ‘What, then, do you want me to do with the one you call the King of the Jews?’ Renouncing its recent king, the crowd cries: ‘Crucify Him!’ To please the crowd, Pilate hands over the King of the Jews for execution.

Jesus goes to His death not because of false accusations, but precisely for being who He truly is. He answers Pilate’s question directly: yes, He is King, and all those condemning Him stand against the true King. At this trial, the truth about everyone 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 manifest. Our judgement of Him is, in reality, His judgement of us.