#63 Jesus’ Trial And Torture Series

#63 Jesus’ Trial and Torture

Series: Mark

Chuck Sligh

February 20, 2022

NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chuckcsligh@gmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.

Skeleton outline and the idea of a retrial for Jesus are borrowed from David Dykes’ sermon, The Trial And Torture Of The King, on SermonCentral.com. The rest is all my fault!

TEXT: Mark 15:1-20 – “1 And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate. 2 And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answering said unto him, Thou sayest it. 3 And the chief priests accused him of many things: but he answered nothing. 4 And Pilate asked him again, saying, Answerest thou nothing? behold how many things they witness against thee. 5 But Jesus yet answered nothing; so that Pilate marvelled. 6 Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. 7 And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection. 8 And the multitude crying aloud began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them. 9 But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews? 10 For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy. 11 But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. 12 And Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews? 13 And they cried out again, Crucify him. 14 Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him.

15 And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. 16 And the soldiers led him away into the hall, called Praetorium; and they call together the whole band. 17 And they clothed him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head, 18 And began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews! 19 And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him”

INTRODUCTION

The right to a fair trial is a cherished American freedom. We recoil in horror at heart-wrenching stories of people wrongfully convicted of crimes.

Illus. – In 1982, Archie Williams was convicted of raping and stabbing a woman in Louisiana. Despite fingerprints from the crime reportedly not matching Archie’s, he was sent to prison and served over 36 years. For years, Archie worked with the Innocence Project in the hopes of having the evidence revisited. Finally, in 2019, the fingerprints were run through a national database that matched them to a serial rapist who died in prison in 1996. Archie Williams was not given a fair trial.

Jesus too was not given a fair trial—either before the Sanhedrin, nor before Pontius Pilate. In fact, it was one of the great legal travesties in history. Today we want to examine the trial and torture of Jesus and see what we can learn from it.

I. FIRST, IN VERSES 1-5, WE SEE SILENCE: AN INNOCENT MAN FALSELY ACCUSED – And immediately in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and they bound Jesus, and led him away, and delivered him over to Pilate. 2 And Pilate asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ And he answered and said to him, ‘You said it.” 3 And the chief priests accused him of many things: but he answered nothing. 4 And Pilate asked him again, saying, ‘Do you answer nothing? See how many things they testify against you.’ 5 But Jesus still answered nothing; so that Pilate marveled.

Jesus’ trial had a Jewish phase and a Roman phase, both of which are fleshed out in more detail in the other gospels. After His agony in Gethsemane, Jesus was betrayed by Judas, arrested, bound by temple officers, and carried to the house of Caiaphas, the high priest. The 23 members of the Jewish Sanhedrin were summoned from their beds to conduct a hasty trial for this rabble-rouser, Jesus. As we saw last Sunday, this was nothing but a kangaroo court. False witnesses were found to testify against Jesus, while He was not afforded the right to call witnesses in His favor or to cross-examine His accusers.