1 Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.
The Jewish religious leadership had already decided to try to get Jesus killed - they had done it at night, against Jewish law. So in order to appear to follow the law, they met early in the morning to officially make their decision. But they couldn’t just go out and do it - because of the Roman occupation. Rome had taken away the Jews ability to carry out a capital sentence - so the Jews, who hated the Romans, had to turn to the Romans to do their dirty work. Its amazing how low people will go to fight against God - doing things they never would have imagined.
This is a short version of the story - Mark focuses on the key elements of the story. We don’t get the elongated conversation between the Roman governor and Jesus - only the bottom line:
2 "Are you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate.
"Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied.
Jesus was arrested on theological grounds - that is, blaspheme for calling Himself God. But that wouldn’t stand in a Roman court - so the Jewish religious leaders try to portray Jesus as a rebel - a rebel king.
3 The chief priests accused him of many things. 4 So again Pilate asked him, "Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of."
5 But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.
The Jews had tried to find Jesus guilty - but could not pin anything real on Him. Pilate too we hear in other gospels, thought Jesus was innocent. In the end, it was shear mob pressure that forced Pilate to have Jesus murdered.
6 Now it was the custom at the Feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested. 7 A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. 8 The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.
Apparently this may have been a way for Pilate, who was hated by the Jews, to try to get on their good side.
9 "Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate, 10 knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.
Pilate may have been cruel but he was no dummy. He recognized that Jesus was innocent, but this time the jealousy of the religious leaders would force him into an awkward position.
12 "What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?" Pilate asked them.
Perhaps Pilate thought that this would be a way out for him - not wanting to suffer the guilt of putting an innocent man to death. As if that wasn’t enough, we know from Matthew’s gospel (27:19) that Pilate’s wife had a nightmare about Jesus and begged Pilate not to have anything to do with him. His gut was telling him Jesus was innocent - and so was his wife - but in the end he does not heed the warnings and goes with the crowd.
13 "Crucify him!" they shouted.
The Jews wanted Jesus crucified because it carried with it a curse - Deut 21:23
"?anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse."
14 "Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!"
In the end it didn’t matter that Jesus was innocent - the miracles, the truths, the claims, the character - nothing stood in the way of the religious leaders getting what they wanted. Mob mentality is a very dangerous thing. You may sometimes find yourself in a situation where those around you are pressuring you to do things you know in your heart are not right. The question is, will you stand up, or give in?
Exodus 23:1-2 "Do not spread false reports. Do not help a wicked man by being a malicious witness. 2 "Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.
We see both these things happening in the gospel, and the principal applies to us too - it’s easy to follow the crowd - when you refuse you are treated like a pariah and an outcast.
Pilate bows to the pressure - thinking he is in control, he is not, nor is the crowd - but to show man guilty while still fulfilling his ultimate plan.
15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
Pilate was also afraid that if the people didn’t get their way that they might submit a formal complaint against him to Rome. Pilate was already in a precarious situation and was later removed as governor. There had already been uprisings in his district - and complaints had reached Rome - so Pilate was backed into a political corner.
Flogging consisted of baring a man’s upper body, then striking him repeatedly with a leather thong, with bits of bone and metal tied into it like a chain. Jewish law said there were to be no more than 40 lashes - but no such regulation existed in Roman law - the number of lashes was determined by the severity of the crime.
This punishment was always done just prior to execution and was done not only to torture but also to weaken the prisoner so they would die more quickly.
Pilate had no good reason to crucify Jesus - in fact Roman law prohibited putting a man to death if he was innocent. Pilate did what he did to satisfy the crowd - the flogging was supposed to mollify the crowd’s taste for blood - it did not.
John tells us that after the flogging the Jewish leaders threatened to report Pilate to Rome if he didn’t follow through - so he did.
16 The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers.
A company was a division of the Roman army that consisted of 200 men - these were the men who had come from Pilate’s normal residence in Caesarea to Jerusalem.
17 They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. 18 And they began to call out to him, "Hail, king of the Jews!" 19 Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
The robe was probably one of the scarlet robes worn by the Roman soldiers - cruel cruel men. All this was prophesied:
"I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting" (Isaiah 50:6)
21 A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.
Four soldiers and a Centurion would have been in charge of the crucifixion. They put the one hundred pound cross beam on the shoulders of the condemned man in order to further break their will to live.
Simon was from Cyrene, in Northern Africa. The solders had the right to randomly demand that anyone do their bidding. Mark mentions Simon’s two sons- Rufus could be the same one mentioned in Romans 16:13. If that’s the case, then its likely that Simon became a Christian because of this event.
22 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). 23 Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.
I’ve seen one of the places where it’s possible they crucified Jesus. It was a bus station when I saw it, but clearly in the cliff side above you can make out the outline of a skull. It’s also possible that its name derived from the death that took place there. The word Calvary comes from the Latin word for skull: calvaria.
The mixture was supposed to deaden pain - but Jesus wanted to feel the weight and punishment for our sin with a clear mind.
Contrary to the depictions we have come to know, it is likely that Jesus was crucified naked - the soldiers took his clothes and gambled for them, totally ignorant of the man or the event that they participated in.
25 It was the third hour when they crucified him.
The Jews told time from sunrise to sunset - so the third hour from sunrise would have been 9:00 am.
26 The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS.
We know from other gospels that it was Pilate who had this inscription made - in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. A man’s crime was posted by him as a warning to others - but for Jesus it was only the accusation - and Pilate probably did it with some irony and to show his contempt for the Jewish leaders.
27 They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left. 29 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, 30 come down from the cross and save yourself!"
Luke gives us the conversation that took place - that one of the robbers heaped insults on Jesus, the other realized his guilt, asked for Jesus’ mercy - which was granted with the promise that today that man would be with Jesus in Paradise.
The people hurling insults of course didn’t realize that Jesus saving Himself would mean not saving them.
Your Bible may or may not have verse 28 which says and the scripture was fulfilled that he was counted among the lawless ones (Isaiah 53:12).
31 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. "He saved others," they said, "but he can’t save himself! 32 Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
It’s interesting that they called Him Christ - even though they didn’t believe it. They knew who He claimed to be and they openly rejected Him. But even if He had come down from the cross they wouldn’t have believed.
33 At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"-which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
So at noon, three hours after being put on the cross, darkness settles on the land. We don’t know how it happened - but it seems that nature too, mourned the death of the Son of God. At three in the afternoon, Jesus cries out in the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew from Psalm 22.
Though the physical death of Jesus was torture - that spiritual separation from the Father was worse - the "cup" that Jesus prayed to avoid, but the "cup" that bought our salvation - as Jesus took upon Himself every sin of humanity.
35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, "Listen, he’s calling Elijah."
36 One man ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. "Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down," he said.
In John’s gospel we read that Jesus said He was thirsty - it may have been in response to that that a man offered him a drink (not the same as the drug earlier refused). The idea would be to keep Jesus alive longer. Crucifixion could take days - as the victims lapse into a coma from sheer exhaustion and finally suffocate to death. Jesus did not die a normal death, He was conscious to the end.
37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
This may have been "It is finished" that John 19 records. We also know that Jesus gave up His Spirit. Jesus wasn’t killed - He willingly died, voluntarily gave up His life.
Now watch carefully the two events that follow:
38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"
The curtain of the temple separated the area of between the holy place, where the priests performed their duties - and the most holy place, reserved only for God - where the ark of the covenant rested and where the high priest went only once a year on the day of Atonement. The curtain was several inches thick and was torn from top to bottom - signifying that God had reached down and through Jesus death removed the barrier that exists between Himself and man.
At the same time the gentile centurion who watched the crucifixion take place, realizes that the man killed was "the Son of God." There is some debate about whether he said that or "a son of the gods" but never-the-less, we know that many centurions actually came to faith in Christ and helped the fledgling church.
It shows that even the hardened can be touched with the love of Christ on the cross.
40 Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.
We know that John was also there, but I find it interesting that those with the most courage were the women. Mary Magdalene was freed from demon possession by Jesus (Luke 8:2), and Mary the mother of James was probably well known to the early church. Salome was probably Jesus’ mother’s sister- Jesus’ aunt.
42 It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. 45 When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. 46 So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.
John tells us that both Joseph and Nicodemus went to ask for Jesus’ body - a bold act for two Jewish leaders who had remained quiet about their faith. For us there is comes a time when quiet faith must be replaced with bold action.
The two needed to take the body down from the cross - and Jesus was definitely dead - before sundown, the beginning of the Sabbath - a time when work was prohibited. Also, Deuteronomy 21:23 told them that they should not let a body exposed overnight.
We know that after they placed Him in Joseph’s new tomb, that the Jewish leaders got Pilate to authorize a guard for the grave. Even though they had "won" they were afraid that someone would come and take the body away then claim Jesus was alive. Of course, they had no idea what was coming.
We’ll get to that next week, but first:
There is a time for every purpose under heaven
Notice that at one point Jesus is asked to defend Himself - yet he remains silent. Later, when its time to get Jesus’ body, Joseph speaks boldly when others would have kept their distance - after all, this would forever mark Joseph as a disciple.
I don’t say this as a hard and fast rule, but as an observation - it seems that when it comes to defending yourself, more often than not the Bible tells to "not". Turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, pray for your enemies, why not be defrauded - and on and on. Yet when it comes to defending our Lord - the Bible is equally clear that we are to speak, and loudly for the hope that is within us. Just a thought.
If you have never faced Jesus on the cross, now is the time.
For many of us, we go about our lives and never give Jesus much thought. "Oh, that’s something people do because they need a crutch" or "it’s a social thing" or perhaps "Jesus was a great man, but so are all other religious leaders."
What I’d ask you to do for a moment is lay aside all preconceptions you may have about Jesus or Christianity - and just consider the cross. Consider the love, the death, the gift of His life as a ransom for yours. There is no other religious leader that did or could do that.
Which will you be? The religious leaders who chose not to believe - so comfortable in their system and their self power - or the heathen gentile centurion who looked the cross and said "You are the Son of God."
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