#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.
But Jesus would not have called any witnesses even if He had been given the opportunity, for silence is the primary thing you notice about Jesus during both phases of His trials. Caiaphas accused Him of blasphemy, and Jesus said nothing in His defense, so the Sanhedrin gave Him the predetermined verdict—guilty and deserving death.
But only the Romans could issue a death sentence, so early the next morning, Jesus was taken to Pilate, the Roman governor representing Caesar. As before in the Sanhedrin, the most notable feature about this encounter before Pilate was Jesus’s silence in His defense. Three times in this passage, we find the phrase, “Jesus answered nothing”—in verses 3, 4, and 5.
It’s not that He didn’t answer ANY of Pilate’s questions, but that He answered nothing in His defense. In fact, the one time he did speak, He complicated His case. When Pilate asked, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus did speak. He replied to Pilate, “You said it”—which most interpreters understand Him as meaning, “It is as you say.” So, Jesus wasn’t taking the fifth here; He was admitting to the one crime of all the charges brought against him that truly justified the death penalty—the treasonous crime of usurping Caesar by claiming to be a king. Right here, Jesus could have avoided torture and the cross that was to come. But He said nothing in His defense.
Look again at verse 3: “And the chief priests accused him of many things: but he answered nothing.”
In the face of these withering accusations, Jesus did not say another word. He didn’t try to defend Himself; He was silent before His false accusers.
This was in fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy found in Isaiah 53:7 – “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, Yet he opened not his mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”
Illus. – When we lived in England, I witnessed sheep being sheared a couple of times. The sheep farmer roughly grabs the sheep and pins its head between his legs and then systematically shears the wool off one section at a time. The sheep just sits there lamely, never making a sound. One time I watched, and the sheep stared directly into my eyes with a sad look. I was suddenly shaken to realize that this was how Jesus faced His accusers. “As a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”
Before the Sanhedrin and before Pilate, Jesus had a chance to speak up and make His case and avoid the torture and death that lay ahead. But He did not. He stood as a sheep before its shearers and remained silent.
Why?—Because He was committed to one single goal—to go to the cross, and suffer whatever necessary to get there—to die so that we might have forgiveness for our sin.
II. IN VERSES 6-15a WE SEE SUBSTITUTION: A GUILTY MAN GRACIOUSLY EXCUSED. – “Now at that feast he used to release one prisoner whom the people requested. 7 And there was one named Barabbas, who had been imprisoned with the insurrectionists who had committed murder…. 8 And the multitude, crying aloud, began to ask Pilate to do as he had always done for them. 9 But Pilate answered them, saying, ‘Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?’ 10 For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him over because of envy. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd, so that he should rather release Barabbas to them. 12 And Pilate answered and said again to them, ‘What then do you want me to do with him whom you call the King of the Jews?’ 13 And they cried out again, ‘Crucify him!’ 14 Then Pilate said to them, ‘Why, what evil has he done?’ And they cried out the all the more, ‘Crucify him!’ 15 So Pilate, willing to satisfy the people, released Barabbas to them…”
It seems Pilate wanted to release Jesus, so he came up with a plan. Every Passover, there was a custom of releasing a guilty prisoner to the Jews. After all, Passover was all about averting judgment. In the Exodus story, when the death angel saw the blood of the Passover lamb in Egypt, he passed over that house, and judgment was averted. Releasing a prisoner was a way for Rome to do a little PR and tip their hat to Jewish religious sentiments.
Pilate asked if he could release Jesus as this “Passover pardon,” but the religious leaders were stationed in the crowd. Verse 11 says they stirred up the mob to cry out to release Barabbas, not Jesus.
Mark and Luke describe Barabbas as an insurrectionist and a murderer, and John’s gospel adds that he was a robber. He was a bad man and there was a Roman cross waiting for him. But at the last moment, he suddenly found himself free, and Jesus was sentenced to die on the cross that had been prepared for Barabbas.
This violates our inborn sense of justice. Jesus was innocent of ALL sin, yet He went through an unjust two-phase trial, punctuated by beatings and torture, culminating in His crucifixion. Barabbas was a rebel and a murderer, and a robber, yet he got off scot-free. Were we there and truly wanted justice, we would want the crowd to yell, “Release JESUS! He deserves freedom! Crucify Barabbas! He deserves judgment!” But instead, the mob yelled, “Release Barabbas! Crucify Jesus!”
Think of it: Barabbas, a scoundrel, a sinner, a criminal, a robber, a murderer, a rebel, …was set FREE, and Jesus took his place on a cross meant for BARABBAS! When I look inside myself, I realize that I am Barabbas—And so are you! We’re all in the same boat; we’re all guilty; we’re all scoundrels and sinners. But we get to go free because Jesus died in our place. Like Barabbas we deserve the punishment for our sins, but Jesus became our substitute, just as Jesus became Barabbas’s substitute.
Illus. – You don’t have to understand the Bible to understand what a substitute is. If you’re a basketball player on the bench and the coach says, “Go in and take #12’s place,” you run onto the court and #12 sits on the bench. You become his or her substitute. We deserved to suffer for our sins, but Jesus came into the game and we got to sit on the bench of grace!
Author and theologian John Stott said, “The concept of substitution lies at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man.”
Peter put it this way in 1 Peter 2:24 – “Who Himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we might die to sins, and live to righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.”
I wonder what happened to Barabbas after he was freed. Did he see Jesus being scourged and say, “Thank you.”? Did he follow Jesus to the cross and say, “Thank you.”? Did he think, “That should have been ME. That should have been MY blood.”?
We’ll never know, because after his brief mention in the Passion story, Barabbas walks off the pages of history. There is no BIBLICAL account of what happened to Him after this, nor any HISTORICAL record, nor even a CHURCH TRADITION about him. He just vanishes from history.
I wonder why that is. Maybe God never intended for us to know his response to what Jesus had done for Him. Maybe it’s to remind us that WE have a decision to make about what Jesus did for us. We can spurn His free gift of salvation out of sinful ungratefulness. Or we can look at all Jesus did in our place and say, “Thank you! Thank you, Jesus. That should have been ME being scourged, mocked, and tortured, carrying my own cross to Golgotha and crucified for my own sins.”
III. LAST IN OUR STORY, IN VERSES 15-20 WE SEE SUFFERING: THE GOD-MAN SHAMFULLY ABUSED. – “So Pilate, willing to satisfy the people, released Barabbas to them, and after having Jesus scourged, he delivered him to be crucified. 16 And the soldiers led him away into the palace, called the Praetorium; and they called together the whole garrison. 17 And they clothed him in purple, and twisted together a crown of thorns, and put it about his head, 18 And began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 19 And they kept striking him on the head with a staff, and spit on him, and bowing the knee, they paid homage to him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they took the purple robe off him, and put his own clothes on him, and they led him out to crucify him.
Before the cross, Jesus faced unspeakable torture by the cruel Roman soldiers. A squad of three soldiers usually performed a flogging. The prisoner was stripped, and his hands were tied to a ring in a wooden post. Two soldiers stood on each side with a Roman whip, call a flagrum, in their hands. This was a leather whip of nine thongs with pieces of sharp metal or stone embedded in the end of each thong.
Dr. C. Truman Davis, a physician who has studied the medical aspects of the crucifixion published this report about the flogging of Jesus: “The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again across Jesus’ shoulders, back, and legs. At first the heavy thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they cut deeper in the subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles… Finally, the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue.” (“The Passion of Christ from a Medical Point of View,” Arizona Medicine, 22, no. 3, March 1965, p. 185.)
There are accounts of Roman soldiers flogging prisoners to death. But the purpose of flogging was to bring them as close to death as possible so that the crucifixion time would be shortened. If you ever saw the movie, “The Passion of Christ,” you have an idea of what it was like, but no movie could truly portray the horror of Christ’s torture.
After the scourging, Jesus was taken inside the fortress where an entire company of Roman soldiers came and continued to torture him. In mockery, they put a purple robe on the bloody back of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the very God of the universe, and twisted a crown of long, sharp thorns and then crushed it on His head. They blindfolded Him and struck Him in the face and head with clubs.
At the end of His torture, Jesus was unrecognizable. We know that because in Isaiah 52:2, Isaiah prophesied this of the suffering of the Messiah: “…many were astonished…; His appearance was… marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.” And Jesus was not even near the end of His suffering.
CONCLUSION
Legal experts agree that Jesus didn’t receive anything close to a fair trial. When Israel was established in 1948, a Supreme Court was created. Some of the first cases filed before it were petitions for a retrial of Jesus Christ. The court ruled they no longer had any jurisdiction over the case.
So, this morning, I’m calling for a retrial of Jesus. I’m going to empanel all of you as members of the jury. You must decide what you will do with Jesus—based on who He claimed to be, and what He did.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the evidence I present to you are Jesus’ own claims. I present to you exhibits Alpha through Omega: Jesus went about claiming to be God, that He had the power to forgive sins, that He has always existed, and that He will judge the world at the end of time, all claims reserved only for God in the Old Testament scriptures. Many witnesses heard these claims. The question is not whether Jesus made them, but are they true? What is your verdict?
As C.S. Lewis eloquently pointed out, we have only 3 logical choices.
• Choice #1: Was Jesus a LIAR?
He clearly claimed to be God, but if He knew He were not God, that makes Him nothing but a liar and a deceiver. Liars have selfish motives. Either they want personal gain, or they want to protect themselves from harm. But if Jesus were a liar, what did He gain? Jesus died owning nothing but the clothes on His back, and when faced with the opportunity to defend Himself, He deliberately kept silent. That would have been the perfect time to back down from His lies.
Some people say, “Well, Jesus wasn’t God, but just a great teacher.” But if Jesus was intentionally deceiving people, He certainly would not be a good teacher; it would make Him one of the most evil teachers in history. He spoke against hypocrisy, and He taught honesty. If he was a liar, He was also a hypocrite of the worst sort. Yet when you study His teachings, you discover a moral standard based on kindness, unselfishness, mercy and forgiveness. How could someone so sublimely honest and innocent and good be the biggest deceiver in all of history?
• Your second choice: Was Jesus a LUNATIC?
Jesus made outrageous claims about being God, and if He believed He was God, but really wasn’t, then He was a deluded lunatic. But if you listen to all the testimonies about Jesus in the Gospels, He is without a doubt the sanest person who ever spoke and lived. How could a crazy person be such an extraordinarily wise teacher and guide.
When you look at the symptoms of people in psychiatric wards, you see that every other part of their life is out of balance, and they are totally self-focused. When you look at the life and teachings of Jesus, you see extraordinary wit, calmness and control in adversity and opposition, unparalleled wisdom, and monumental love and mercy and compassion for OTHERS. Jesus exhibits the opposite of lunacy in every possible way.
• Our final choice: Is Jesus the LORD?
The only other option we have is that Jesus IS who He claimed to be. He is the one and only Son of God who existed before Abraham was born; who forgave sins, who performed miracles witnessed my multitudes of people. He lived a life so exemplary that even His enemies could not claim any sin He ever did other than the trumped-up charge of blasphemy because He claimed to be God. In every way imaginable, He was the exact replica of what God would be if He came to earth to live as a man. And He not only claimed to be God, but He claimed He would die for the sins of mankind and that He would rise up from the dead. And then HE DID IT!!!!
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it’s time for you to decide your verdict. Be careful how you decide, for Jesus was clear about those who reject His claims. In John 8:24, He said, “…If you do not believe that I am he [that is, who He claims to be], you will die in your sins.”
As you decide your verdict about Jesus, remember, one day the situation will be reversed. – He will be the judge and we will be the ones on trial.
There’s an old Southern Gospel song that talks about answering the question Pilate asked in verse 12, titled “What will you do with Jesus?” – The chorus says, “What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be; Someday your heart will be asking; What will He do with me?”
