We are quickly approaching the end of Mark's Gospel, and I know that that sounds very strange to hear, quickly approaching the end, when it's been two and a half years. But, it'll be here before we know it, and soon will be completed, because at the end of this, of the message this morning, we will now find Christ, ready to be put onto the cross. We, recognize that from the beginning of Mark's Gospel, he has had many themes for us, and And often people will comment that Mark's gospel is the gospel that shows us the humanity of Jesus more clearly than the other gospels, which is true. So many instances in Mark's gospel, we are shown the humanity, the full humanity of Christ. Yet that is not to the exclusion of the deity of Christ, because Mark also shows us in startling imagery, the full, complete deity of Christ. In Mark's gospel, from the very first sentence of the first verse, we are introduced to Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Son of God. And from that point forward, Mark's gospel is a litany of examples of this man who speaks to weather patterns, and the weather patterns, even the most Disruptive and harmful storms that we could imagine storms that will make lifelong fishermen who have lived their entire lives on the Sea of Galilee, they will tremble in fear and yet Jesus will speak to these storms and He is the man who speaks to every type of sickness. There is no malady that attacks the human body that he does not hold complete power over. He heals with a touch and he does it over and over and over. He is the man who cleanses lepers, so he not only cleanses them from the disease of leprosy, but he represents, he holds within himself the full authority to declare them clean from the disease of leprosy, which is the manifestation of God's curse upon sin. And so he declares himself not only to have Full power over that sickness, but also full power over the sin, which that sickness represents in a physical way. He also is the one who will speak to demons, and they will flee from a word. In fact, even the demons that are so many and so powerful as the one known as Legion will flee with a very word from him. So again, and again, and again, he's shown to us. To be the very son of the very God, the one who holds all authority and all power, this the son of God who has always been, always will be, who created all things, holds all power over the natural world and the spiritual world. And so it is indeed the irony of all ironies that this man, the son of God, now finds himself on trial before men. And we all know this. We're so familiar with this that in fact, the familiarity of it. Actually is a danger to us that we will just sort of read through this and miss it, but we need to pause and reconvene our thoughts and focus our thoughts back on the incredible irony that the son of God will stand trial for his life. Not just for some penalty, maybe he does some prison time or has to pay a fine. He stands trial for the right, supposedly the right, to continue living. And he stands trial before men. And not just any men. Not just even the best men that humanity's ever known. Maybe those men who have gone down through the ages as having reputations for being moral and ethical and upstanding those men whom society would regard as a cut above the rest not even those but he stands trial before scoundrels those who are widely known it's no secret it's widely known just how corrupt the high priests are and he stands trial before the most corrupt of people and we'll see today as he stands trial before pilot That the same thing will apply to Pilate in different ways. So he'll stand trial not just before people, but before the lowest of people. The most corrupt, the most immoral, the most unscrupulous of people. He will stand trial before them. And what will he stand trial for? For loving. The Lord is God. With all of his heart, and all of his strength, and all of his mind. And for loving his fellow man like he loves himself and for healing again and again and having compassion and pity on the sick and on the outcasts and showing us the way to the Father for loving mankind as we all were intended to love mankind. That's what he's on trial for. The irony of all ironies can easily escape us. Those of us who have grown up in the context of the teachings of the Church of God. We can become immune to the incredible, the acute irony that's, that's placed here for us. That God himself puts himself into a position of such apparent weakness that his very life will be in the hands of the lowest and the most unscrupulous people. This is the passage that we turn to now in chapter 15, beginning from verse 1, Mark is going to relate to us the trial, the period of Jesus trial before Pilate in the most briefest of terms, a truncated version of what the other Gospels will extend and give us more information. In fact, all three other Gospels give us more information about what occurs between Jesus and Pilate than does Mark. Perhaps that's because Mark is writing to a Roman audience. Perhaps he's trying to be sensitive to his Roman audience. But whatever the case may be, the other three Gospels all give us more information about Jesus interaction with Pilate than does Mark. In particular, the Gospel of John, chapters 18 and 19, gives us a wealth of information of what occurs between Jesus And pilot. So we'll draw this morning from John 18 and 19. We'll also draw from Matthew. We'll also draw just a little bit from Luke's gospel as well. But as we begin in chapter 15 and verse 1, Mark is going to wrap up the section of Jesus trials that we would call the ecclesiastical trials, or the religious trials. As we said before, Jesus will stand trial six times, or twice with three segments. But I prefer to think of it as six trials. It's just easier for me to think, to break it down that way. So the first three trials are before the religious bodies. Mark skips over the very first one, the trial before Annas, the father in law of Caiaphas, in which Annas questions Jesus. John will relate this to us, but Mark skips over it. But Annas questions Jesus about his teaching. He's trying to find something to charge Jesus with. And that's where Jesus responds to him, All my teaching was in the public. If you want to know what I taught, go and ask the people who were there, ask them and they'll tell you what I taught. So, Annas not finding anything to charge Jesus with, he then sends him to his son in law, the official high priest, Caiaphas. That was the longer version of the, in the middle of the night trial that we've looked at previously. Now, beginning from verse 1, Mark is going to pick up the third segment, or the final phase, I guess you could say, of the religious trial. And what happens now is, as soon as the sun comes up, they're going to hold what's, what might be called something that would just make this look like something that resembles a legal trial. As we noted before, It was illegal to hold a trial at night. It was illegal to hold a trial on feast day. You could not hold a trial in a private residence. And then if there was a conviction on a capital offense, there had to be this three-day waiting period in which the Sanhedrin fasted for three days. And then they had to reconvene, take another vote. All those things were ignored and completely put aside. But now It's almost like this halfhearted attempt to say, let's just try to make this look legal somehow, in some way. Like maybe you take a stick of lipstick and rub it on a pig's snout. Just to say, we know that this is incredibly illegal, but let's just do something to make this dressed up just a little bit, to look a little bit legal. So when the sun comes up, it's still a feast day, so it's still illegal. But the sun nevertheless comes up and this same Sanhedrin reconvenes, verse 1. And as soon as it was morning. So as soon as the sun breaks, as soon as there's daylight, they reconvene again. The reason for this is that the Roman court, they need to get Jesus to Pilate. And the Roman court was first come, first served. So the earlier you got there, the quicker you could get in to be seen by, by Pilate. If you've ever been to traffic court. Any of you leadfoot drivers around, you've been to, you know what that's all about. You gotta get there first thing or else you're gonna be in the back of the line, you're gonna be there all day. Same thing with the Roman courts. It was first come, first serve. So the first thing, as soon as the sun was up, as soon as they could Possibly do this in a somewhat legal way. They reconvene again in order to just rubber stamp the decision that was made in the middle of the night previously, and as soon as it was morning, the chief priest 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 now. One of the things that Mark skips over that John tells us about is the fact that these religious leaders, these chief priests, they sort of. are putting on this show to maintain a religious cleanness or a ceremonial cleanness. From John 18 and verse 28, we read this, Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. In the epitome of hypocrisy. They maintain ceremonial cleanness, which means that they cannot enter under the roof of a Gentile, but they can stand outside his door. So they stand outside on the front porch, just picture in your mind, there's this Sanhedrin on the front porch. it's, Pilate is inside, holding council, holding court, but they can't go under roof with him or else they're defiled and can't observe the Passover later that day. So in the In the apex of hypocrisy, they say we will maintain ceremonial cleanness while we are conniving and bribing and lying in order to get an innocent man executed. But we're going to remain ceremonial and clean. Ceremonial and clean. Just the epitome of hypocrisy and religious emptiness. So they remain outside. So from the rest of the period, as we talk about what takes place between the religious leaders and Pilate, Imagine how John is telling us here that Pilate is sort of back and forth. He has to go outside to talk to the, to the chief priest and go back inside to talk to Jesus. So he's back and forth. John tells us that quite clearly. So we're given a picture of Pilate here who's just sort of like, he doesn't know where to go. He's in, he's out. He's like a messenger boy back and forth. Okay? So they bound Jesus and they led him away. So right here, he's given over to the, to Pilate, to the Gentiles. This is in fulfillment. Mark chapter 10 and verse 33 in which Jesus prophesied that he will be condemned and given over to the Gentiles. So that's fulfilled right here as the chief priest, as the soldiers lead him and hand him over to Pilate. And notice that we read here that he is bound, they bound Jesus to give him over to Pilate. We've noticed all along just the incredible overdoing of the security, how they come for Jesus with swords and clubs and torches when he went willingly. And even from then, it's just been this overdoing of security. Jesus is bound. We don't know if that's hands in front or hands in back, but his hands are tied tightly together. And he's here willingly. He's not running away. In fact, he was the one who pressed the soldiers to arrest him when they came for him in the garden. But nevertheless, he's bound. And what this does is this gives us a visual picture of what Jesus is becoming. He is becoming our sin. That's why he's here. That's what he's doing. He will be, he will be our sin bearer. He bears our sin for us. And what does our sin do? Our sin binds us. And so it's fitting for the picture to be complete, for Jesus to be physically bound. Think in your mind here of Genesis 22, when Abraham bound Isaac. Once again, Isaac wasn't running away from Abraham. Isaac willingly went on to the altar. Nevertheless, he was bound when he was put on to the altar. And so there's this visual picture here of Jesus becoming the sin of his people and being bound by that sin. As we will read in John chapter 8, that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. So Jesus, now then, beginning to complete this picture of becoming the sin of his people, he is bound and he's handed over or he's delivered over to Pilate. Same word. That was, that Jesus used there in chapter 10, when, he speaks of being delivered over. It's the Father who's delivering him over to the Gentiles. So he's delivered over to Pilate. So let's pause at this point and let's speak for just a few moments about this man, Pilate. And just to get some background into our, our thoughts. of this man, Pilate, that we'll be dealing with for the rest of the morning. If you are like me, and you grew up in a church context, and you've heard the church stories your whole life, then you, you perhaps remember a point in time in which you first realized that Pilate was not P I L O T. I don't know if anybody else is like that, where you, there was this light bulb moment when you were about nine years old, when you realized, oh, he's not P I L O T, he's P I L A T E. So this man, Pilate, is the center of the story from this point to verse, to chapter 15, verse 15. He is one of the Gentiles that we, we know most about this man, Pilate, more than just about any other Gentile in the New Testament. We have a wealth of information about him from the New Testament. All four Gospels speak of him at length. But in addition to that, we have a wealth of information about him from non biblical historical sources. primarily speaking of the Jewish historian Josephus and the Roman historian Philo. These two men wrote about Pilate a great deal, and they gave us a lot of information about him. Now, if we think about the picture that's shown to us of Pilate in the Gospels, you might say, you know, there, there is Some ambiguity in understanding this man, Pilate, as presented to us in the Gospels. Because we don't have, in the Gospel accounts, we don't have the inflection of his voice. We don't have the facial expressions. And so often time we can read Pilate's words and wonder exactly what he was saying. What is truth? Or, what is truth? You know? We know that he declares Jesus to be innocent three times in John's Gospel. Publicly declares him to be innocent. We know he tries to set Jesus free, but what we don't know is Was he one who was really maybe on the brink of believing upon Jesus? Or was he just doing this self serving thing? Did he really just hate the Jews that much that he wanted to spite them? So there's a couple of ways that we could think through the gospel accounts of Pilate. But if the gospel accounts of Pilate give any ambiguity at all, Then the secular, the non biblical accounts of Pilate give us no ambiguity whatsoever. Because Josephus and Philo are in complete agreement that this man Pilate was inflexible, stubborn, and cruel. Particularly cruel to the Jewish people. So this man Pilate, he served as what's known as the Roman prefect. He served from 26 years, which by the way was the longest that anyone served as prefect. of Judea. And that wasn't because he was competent and that he did such a good job. It was due to some other factors, mainly the fact that Judea was such a difficult place for the Romans to rule. And they never really could find anyone that ruled it well. So as the Roman prefect, he would serve as a type of a governor. The Romans, the way that they went about their conquered people was they, they tried to involve themselves as little as possible in the day to day doings of all the peoples that they conquered. The Romans didn't try to inject themselves into every minuscule happening of the court systems and all the charges and all the laws and everything that went in place in all the lands that they conquered. Instead, they wanted to just basically take care of the big stuff. Capital crimes. They reserved for themselves, they of course wanted their taxes, and then the main thing was that Caesar was to be declared as divine. And if you did those things, that Rome was pretty much hands off. They wanted local officials to do most of the self governing. And then above that, they would have a prefect or a governor that was appointed that just sort of overlooked, or supposedly, he was to just overlook the big matters. Now, all of the areas that Rome conquered and ruled, of all those, Judea was the most problematic for them. Because, as we said, the main thing that they wanted was Above all else, you can practice whatever religion you like, just keep on practicing your, your, your own homegrown religion. Just acknowledge that Caesar is Lord. Caesar is divine. As long as you do that, then you just worship however you want to worship. And for all the other peoples, that was no problem. Except for the Jewish people. That, of course, was a big problem for the Jewish people. And that was at the root of why Judea was always so hard for Rome. to rule over well, because they're one place of non compromise, which was to say Caesar is divine. The Jews were unwilling to go along with that ever. And so there were exceptions made, there were exclusions made, that they tried to work with the Jewish people, and it just never really was a good working relationship between conqueror and conquered. Which, by the way, if you aren't aware of this, you should be aware of this, that Rome conquered Israel without, as we'd say today, firing a shot. But I guess Throwing a spear with no bloodshed, Rome conquered Israel. It was a voluntary, ab, ab, ab, what's the word I'm trying to say? There you go. It was a voluntary takeover of Israel, so it was a bloodless revolution, so to speak. Okay, so this relationship between Rome and Judea should have been healthier except for this one thing. So here along comes Pilate, who is the prefect, the governor appointed by Rome to rule over Judea. His place was there in Jerusalem, the capital of Judea. And it was always a very, very rocky and very troubled relationship between Pilate and the Jewish people. Pilate takes over and almost immediately he begins this conflict with the Jewish people. He has the Roman legionaries march into the Temple Square with their Roman eagles and they set up Roman eagles on the corners of the Temple Square which would have been no big deal anywhere other than Jerusalem. Because the Roman eagle was recognized by the Romans as a symbol of the divinity of Caesar. And so therefore they were just saying, you know, you guys keep on worshipping and sacrificing. We're just going to put the eagles up on the corner so that everybody knows Caesar's God, but you keep on doing your thing. To which the Jews said, uh we're not having that at all. And so they of course protested. And the protest grew so large and so violent. Here comes Pilate. Pilate calls out the soldiers. The soldiers show up with their swords and their spears and everything. And they have this sort of this face down between the protesters who are saying, we are not having the Roman eagle in the temple square. Or the Temple Courtyard. And so they have this stare down contest between the soldiers and the people. And the soldiers declare, We're about to start chopping off heads unless you disperse. To which the Jewish people, to their credit, took their cloaks, their garments, and bared their necks and said, Go ahead, we're not going anywhere because we're not having that idol in the Temple Square. And so what happened was that Pilate had to then back down. He had to acquiesce. That was the word I was looking for earlier. He had to acquiesce. He had to. And that's how the whole relationship between Pilate and Israel started on this, on this step in which, which Pilate tried to show his authority. He tried to bully the, the, those living in Jerusalem. They weren't having it, at least not having to do with their God. And Pilate had to back down. Well, then, just a short time later, there was another controversy that we might call the Aqueduct Controversy, in which Pilate began this building project in which he was building this aqueduct to bring water into the city of Jerusalem, which we might think, hey, that would be a great idea. The people in Jerusalem would love that. Fresh water? Yeah. Who would say no to that? Only, the only problem was that in order to pay for it, Pilate literally stole the money from the temple coffers, from the temple treasury. He stole the money from the temple to pay for this aqueduct. To which the Jewish people said, this not, that's not right. And so, even the very water, you can just imagine, pun intended. The bad taste in their mouth from even the water that they were drinking that they knew came from stolen money stolen from the temple. So this began to get a more and more heated type of issue and another protest erupted. Only this time Pilate went about it differently. Pilate was stubborn, he was inflexible, he was cruel, but he wasn't stupid. And so he learned his lesson the first time. He learned that when Roman soldiers show up and flash their swords, And you're dealing with these Jewish people having to do with their God. He learned they don't back down. So he went about it differently this time. And he had soldiers already prearranged. This could be a movie. Prearranged in Hebrew disguise. Wearing Hebrew clothing, looking like Hebrews, with swords underneath their garments, their cloaks, right? And so they infiltrated the crowd. And the crowd came for the sacrifices at the temple. And of course they got sort of Riled up. They were chanted, you know, down with Caesar, down with Aduc, whatever it was, they were chanting in Hebrew and they were getting, fever, sort of like a fever pitch. And then there was a signal, a prearranged signal. The signal was recognized. All the soldiers threw off their cloaks, pulled out their swords, and started killing people. And they killed a lot of Jewish people that day. In fact, that's what Jesus, what's being referenced in Luke's gospel when they come to Jesus and they say. Jesus, what about this man Pilate, and how he mingled the blood of Jews with their sacrifices? Because that's, they were there to sacrifice when all the slaughter took place. Now, the only thing about that, that of course quelled the rebellion, but that made the Emperor Tiberius furious. Not with the Jews. But with Pilate, because his job was to keep the peace. His job was to get along with the Jewish people. The last thing Rome wanted was a prefect who was constantly stirring up trouble. That's why Pilate was hated by the Jews and the Romans. Because he could not manage to not stir up trouble with the Jews. So the Jews hated him, Rome didn't like him either. And so Tiberius gave him then firm inflexible orders, get along with the Jews or else. Find a way to get along with them or you're coming home. And so this sets the whole context, that's how, that's what you should have in your mind as you think about this man Pilate and his dealings with Jesus and his dealings with the high priest. Have in the back of your mind this context in which Pilate is now placed in the position that he's the one in authority. But he's really not, because the chief priests know all they have to do is go to Tiberius. And Tiberius will reign Pilate in. Because he's already on thin ice, so to speak, with the Caesar. And this is in the entirety of his time as prefect is spent As being the one who's in charge, but not really in charge. He's in control, but yet the chief priests are really the ones in control. He is to be feared, but he fears the chief priests. He fears the religious leaders. Because he's been shown clearly by Tiberius is to say, Do not stir up any other trouble with the Jews. Now, can you see the sovereign hand of God as he arranged that whole situation to put into place a Gentile ruler who will recognize the innocence of Jesus, yet still put him to death? Because that's what had to happen. A Gentile ruler had to recognize this man is innocent, yet still And you see how God arranged the situation to have a man in place that had been so cowed by the Jewish people, so cowed by Tiberius, that he knew he had a very short leash. And we will see. Now that you sort of have that background in your mind, particularly when you read John's account, look for that, and you will see how Pilate is afraid of the chief priests. John will tell the story, and if you, you just look closely, and you look at the details closely, you can now see how the chief priests are controlling the situation. They are telling Pilate what to do, and essentially, he does it. So look with me at the three times. that Pilate will declare Jesus to be innocent. John chapter 19 and verse 12. From then on, Pilate sought to release Him. But, the Jews cried out, If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Did you hear the veiled threat there? Do what we want, or we're going to Caesar. And he'll take care of you. You see that? If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. From chapter 18, verse 38, Pilate said to him, What is truth? After he said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, I find no guilt in him. So Pilate is in and out, in and out. He, he's, looks like some sort of trapped animal. Who doesn't know where to go, doesn't know what to do. He goes into Jesus, tries to find some way to let Jesus go. Goes back out to the, to the chief priest, sees if that'll work, goes back in, goes back out. So he goes back out to the chief priest and says, I can find no guilt in him. Yet, they're not having it. Chapter 19 and verse 4. Pilate went out again and said to them, See, I'm bringing him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in him. Chapter 19, verse 6, When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, Crucify him! Crucify him! Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. You see, Pilate is like a man trapped here. And God has sovereignly put this situation together so as to have a Gentile ruler who has the authority technically Yet, he really doesn't because God is orchestrating this whole thing in order for his son to be put to death under the false condemnation of a Gentile ruler. So now, with that being said, let's look on to verse 2. And Pilate asked him, Are you the king of the Jews? And he answered him, You have said so. And the chief priests accused him of many things. So again, you got in your mind this going back and forth, in and out, because the chief priests won't come inside. Luke tells us in chapter 23, verse 5, They were urgent, meaning the chief priests, saying, He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee, even to this place. So they bring this, these other charges. Luke says many other things, and among them they accuse Him of stirring up the people. So they're coming up with all these charges. One of the charges is, He stirs up people. Now, what do you call somebody who stirs up people? An insurrectionist may be the same thing that Barabbas was convicted of. So you see the irony here? A convicted insurrectionist is released because of a false claim against an innocent insurrectionist. You see the irony that just begins to build upon us here. So, they, They, they come to him and he says, Are you the king of the Jews? That's the charge that's going to really kind of stick. Because the charge of being one who claims to be king is a charge that really carries with it some sort of rebellion against the Caesar. And remember, rule number one, Caesar's divine. Caesar's God. You can do a lot of things, but you cannot challenge the authority of Caesar or the deity of Caesar. So that's going to be the charge that sticks. Which, by the way, it's helpful to know that there were no codes or laws or regulations that regulated the criminal treatment of non Roman citizens. Roman citizens had lots of rights. We think of Paul appealing more than once for his Roman, for his rights as a Roman citizen. They, they stretched him out in Philippi. They're about to beat him. No charges, no conviction, nothing. They're about just, they're just going to beat him because that's what you did in ancient Rome. You just beat people. And so they're stretching him out, getting ready to beat him, and he says, Do you normally do this to Roman citizens, which of course stops the presses. So a Roman citizen had a lot of rights, but a non citizen, there was no legal code. So basically what this means is the Roman prefect does what he thinks is right, does what he thinks is expedient, and whatever it is. That's all there is to it. Literally, Pilate can do whatever he wishes, as long as he thinks it's right. Because that's the whole code. So this charge, are you the king, the one, the king of the Jews? And Jesus answers, you have said so. That's a difficult phrase to translate. Literally, it's, you said. You said is just the, the literally the translation. And so translators struggle with that. The best, I think the best Greek Greek scholars see this as a Hebrew idiom that carries a much more forceful affirmation than you said. So, but it's a forceful type of affirmation. Like you said it. So, you said so, or you said it, and the chief priest accused him of many things, and Pilate again asked him, have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you. Remember, Luke says they're charging him with many things. See how many charges they bring against you. But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed. It's at this point, Mark leaves this part out, it's at this point that the second Civil trial of Jesus then begins. The first trial is before Pilate. The second one is when Pilate sends Jesus to Herod. And then the third one is the final trial before Pilate, when Herod sends Him back to Pilate. Only Luke tells us of the time before Herod, so we'll kind of skip over that. We'll just make mention of it. We all know the story. Pilate learns that he is a Galilean. And he says, oh, you're a Galilean. Well, then Herod is the one in charge of Galilee. And he happens to be in Jerusalem for the Passover. He's just down the block. So he sends him down to Herod. He goes to Herod. Herod is thrilled because Herod rules over Galilee. Jesus has performed most of his miracles where? In Galilee. So Herod has heard of all these miracles and he's long wanted to see one. So he thinks, here's my chance. I'm going to get to see a miracle. Jesus comes before him, the dog won't do tricks for him, and Jesus is just silent before him. Herod finally gets tired of that game, lets his soldiers have some fun with him again. Um, dresses him up like a king and sends him back to Pilate. So all that is narrated to us by Luke. We'll skip over that part. But that takes place right here. So here we go back a chapter, again to verse four. And Pilate asked him again, have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you. But Jesus made no further answer so that Pilate was amazed. Pilate is accustomed to prisoners groveling for their lives. Begging, pleading for their life, because as he says in John's Gospel, and he's exactly right, he says to Jesus, you won't answer me? Don't you know that I have the authority to release you or the authority to kill you? Jesus doesn't argue with that, because He does. Jesus says, you have that authority because it's given to you from above. But Jesus doesn't say, no, you don't have that authority over me, because he does. Remember, there are no penal codes that govern non Roman citizens. Pilate does whatever he wants. And so, he is accustomed to prisoners just groveling and begging and pleading before him. And here is Jesus, poised and dignified before him. Now, picture the scene in your mind. What does Jesus look like? Probably bruised. Maybe his eyes are already sort of swelling shut and blackening. Maybe his nose is crooked from the broken nose that he's almost certainly has. Maybe some dried blood on his face. What else is on his face? What were they doing to Jesus face? They were spitting in his face. So here's this man, already dressed like someone who has nothing, beaten to a pulp with dried spit on his face. Pilate, standing before Pilate, poised, in complete control of himself, and just not even answering. And Pilate doesn't know what to make of this. And we begin to see how Pilate now becomes afraid of Jesus. Pilate is a person who is afraid of a lot of people. He's afraid of the chief priests. He's afraid of Tiberius. He's also afraid of Jesus. You see, the Romans and the Greeks believed that the gods, you know, this Roman pantheon of God and the Greek pantheons of Greek gods, they believed that all these gods would frequently visit people in the form of people, that they would make themselves look like people and come and visit people. We see that show up in Acts chapter 14. You might remember the story when Paul and Barnabas go to Lystra and the crowd see that Paul has done this miracle and they raise their voices. They say, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes. And so they believed that the gods would visit people in human form. Now, I am convinced, Pilate, Now begins to fear that Jesus is some type of God. Ironically, he is the son of the only living God. But in his false mixed up pagan beliefs, he believes that these gods visit people. And he starts to think that this man, Jesus, is one. So, we have this going on. Jesus is standing before Pilate, unfazed by his threats. Completely poised and self collected. Then we have the episode of the wife who has the dream from Matthew 27. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream. Now, we don't know anything else about that. We don't know what the dream was. We don't know where the dream came from, from God, from demons. We don't know anything about that. But we know that this pagan woman sends a message to her husband saying, have nothing to do with that righteous, or we could translate, innocent man, because a dream has come to me about him. Look at John 19 verses 7 through 9 and you'll begin to see clearly the fear that Pilate has. The Jews answered him, We have a law and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the son of God. So Pilate is suspecting that this man might not be a man. And now he hears the Jews say, and he's been saying that he's not a man. He's been saying he's the son of God and others are saying he's the son of God. When Pilate heard this statement he was even more afraid. He's scared. He thinks that this Jesus is not necessarily human. He entered his headquarters again, said to Jesus, Where are you from? Have you ever thought of that question? Why does he ask Jesus, where are you from? He knows he's from Galilee. He's saying, where are you from? Are you a God? Come to visit us. But Jesus, again, Gave him no answer. Verse five, but Jesus made no further answer so that Pilate was amazed. So we all know of Jesus silence before his accusers. And we all know how this is the fulfillment of prophecy, Isaiah 53, verse 7. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. We're well aware of Jesus silence before his accusers. We might not be as familiar with the reasons for his silence. Why was Jesus silent before his accusers? Well, for one reason, it would be completely unbecoming of the Son of God to argue for his innocence. To argue with this kangaroo court, that he's really not guilty, to try to convince them. That would just be comp that would not be a picture becoming of Jesus. But that's really sort of an aside. That's a, that's a beside the point kind of thing. You see Jesus bound before the Gentile ruler. He is now becoming what our sin bearer. He's our sin bearer and sinners before God have nothing to say. A sinner who stands before God, despite all the things you might hear. A sinner, apart from the righteousness of Christ, who stands before God, will not open their mouth. And that's Jesus. He is our sin bearer. He's not a sinner in the sense that he committed sin, but he's made to be our sin. And so justly and rightly, he stands without a word of defense. The charges against him are preposterous. They could be so easily and conclusively refuted with a word, yet to be our sin bearer, he has nothing to say. Verse 6, Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison who had committed murder in their insurrection, there was a man named Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate as he usually did for them. And he answered them, saying, Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. So Pilate is not stupid. He realizes what's happening. He realizes that the chief priests have turned Jesus over for envy. Now, what are the chief priests envious about? They're envious that all the crowds have followed Jesus. So what does Pilate do? He's a rather intelligent guy. Realizing that the chief priests are envious because the crowds have followed Jesus, he appeals to those crowds. The crowds that he perceives are the ones now following Jesus. He appeals to them. So he appeals to the crowds. But it didn't work. The chief priest stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. And we're given no explanation of how they did that. How did the chief priests stir up the crowds? Remember, just a few days ago, they were shouting, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the son of King David. And we know that it's not necessarily the same people shouting a week ago as the crowds now. There was a million people in Jerusalem. But nevertheless, the sentiment, the public sentiment for Jesus has completely reversed. We would not have expected the crowds to do that. We would not have expected the crowds to turn on a dime. How did they do that? Why did they do that? We don't know. All we know is, Jesus, the one who is working all this together, the sovereign God who is working all this together, is determined His Son will be on the cross. And so the crowd is stirred up and they shout, No, don't give us him. Give us Barabbas. Then Pilate again said to them, What shall I do to the man you call the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify him. Don't forget this is a crowd of Jews screaming for a Gentile whom they hate to crucify a fellow Jew. Now if that sounds like something far fetched to you, It sounds that way because it is we would never have imagined a crowd of Jews. would clamor for a hated Roman Gentile to crucify one of their own, yet they do, because it is the Father's will to crush His Son. And so they cried out again, Crucify Him! You can't help but think of John 1 verse 11. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. Verse 14. And Pilate said to them, Why? What evil has he done? None! Not only did he not commit the crimes that he's accused of, but Pilate says the right thing. He asks the right question. What evil has he done? Is there any evil that he has committed? No, there is none. But they shouted all the more they don't care. The mob is bloodthirsty. They are seeing red. They just want Jesus crucified. It is a phenomenal thing to witness in the pages of scripture. It is a phenomenal thing to witness the bloodthirstiness of the crowd over this man, Jesus, who has healed and restored and cleansed lepers and cast out demons. And yet the crowd is so bloodthirsty for him. Why? The only answer is, it was the Father's will to crush him. So now, it's at this point, Mark doesn't narrate this, but it's at this point that Pilate would then do that thing of washing his hands. We see that in Matthew 27, so when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, in other words, Pilate better calm this down fast, or else this will get out of control and this will be the end of him. But rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying, I'm innocent of this man's blood. Doesn't that remind you of the Garden of Eden and the fig leaves? A man's futile attempt to wash away sin or to cover sin. And just like the fig leaves could not cover the shame of Adam and Eve, so also all the water in the Pacific Ocean will not wash away one sin off this man's soul. So it's futile, but it's for show. He's making this demonstration, but we know that this demonstration is utterly futile because sin cannot be washed away by water. It can only be washed away by the blood of one man Christ. So he says, take this man. I'm innocent, and all the people answered his blood beyond us and on our children. That is one of the most staggering statements in the Bible. His blood be on us and on our children. What do they mean by that? They mean we take responsibility. Like Paul, when he speaks to the Ephesian elders in the book of Acts, and he says, I'm innocent of your blood because I'm not responsible. I've preached the whole counsel of God's word to you. Therefore, I'm not responsible because I've preached it to you. You're responsible to believe and obey. So what they're saying is, His blood be on us, we take responsibility. They don't care. All they want is Him on a cross. His blood be on us and on our children. We will take the responsibility for that. That is an utterly staggering statement. And actually there's two sides to this, if you think about this. So the blood of Jesus is on them, in a convicting way, because they were the ones who screamed for His death. Just like the blood of Jesus is on all who hear this gospel and reject the blood of Jesus is on them as a curse, meaning you are the cause. But then there's another sense that the blood of Jesus also covers us by believing by repentance that blood covers our unrighteousness. So you see, in a real way, the blood of Jesus is on all people. All people carry the blood of Jesus. It either convicts you or it cleanses you. It either damns you or it covers you. And so, now we turn to verse 15, the final verse of our passage. So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Just a word or two about scourging. We won't dwell on scourging very long. I'm sure all of us have heard. It's probably more than we wanted to hear about Roman scourging, but it was utterly, utterly inhumane and incredibly violent. They used a flagellum, that would be the technical term, but the street term for it was a scorpion. And that's a very fitting term because it was a short wooden handle with multiple leather thongs. And on the ends of those leather thongs would be either a, a metal ball, a lead ball, or a piece of stone. Usually there would be like a hook on the end. And the whole purpose was that that would grab the flesh. And when the, the, the one doing the flogging would pull the scorpion back, it would rip the flesh. And so the way that a man was scourged in Jesus day, there would be a, an altar like, a knee high or maybe a waist high sort of a. an altar or a pillar and the person would be stretched over it and tied down hands, feet, feet on one side, hands on the other side so that the back is stretched over and there would be two floggers, one on either side and there'd be no moment to catch your breath. between the lashes, back and forth and back and forth. There was no prescribed number, like the Jews had the 39 lashes. There was no prescribed number. The purpose of the flogging actually, in a sense, was almost merciful. Because the purpose of the flogging was to weaken the victim so that the time spent on the cross was shortened. So this scourging then takes place. You can't help but to think of Peter's words here, 1 Peter 2 and verse 24. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. Or Isaiah 53 and verse 5, But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. So, the wounds of Jesus are like this visible picture, we've got the binding, we've got the silence, we've got the scourging, we've got all these pictures of redemption. Jesus being wounded for our sins, but then we see this final insulting blow, I guess you could think of it this way. Wishing to satisfy the crowd, he released for them Barabbas. Barabbas was a convicted criminal, convicted of murder and insurrection and thievery. So we could think of Barabbas like something like a, an ancient day freedom fighter. You know how sometimes in, in areas in which there are these freedom fighters who are supposedly fighting against an oppressive army? that sometimes the lines between fighting for freedom and stealing from your own people really get blurred. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, how we've read stories you've seen. Things in movies about how those lines really get blurred between are you really fighting for your people or are you really just stealing from your people? That was Barabbas. And so he was the leader, he was notorious, in Matthew's words, he was a notorious insurrectionist, a notorious murderer, convicted. Barabbas would have been on the cross that day had Jesus not been on his cross. And so Barabbas, this man Barabbas, is released and the picture here is just so clear and stark, isn't it? The guilty goes free because the innocent dies. But Barabbas is not just the guilty. He is given a very unique name. His name, Barabbas, literally means son. of the Father. Bar, that's Aramaic for son, like Ben, for his Hebrew for son, Bar, like Simon Bar Jonah. Abbas, or Abba, Father, Romans 8. By his spirit, we cry out, Abba, Father. So literally, Son of the Father. Many commentators believe that Barabbas father was a priest, and that's why he has the name he has. And so he's literally, his name literally means Son of the Father. The irony here is so thick, you could cut it with a knife, couldn't you? The false son of the father is released because the true son of the father is given up. The crowds clamored for the false son of the father. They didn't want the true son of the father. They wanted the false son of the father. And because the true son of the father gives his life on the cross, the false son of the father is freed. The picture of the gospel is crystal clear and startling and glorious. If it's not glorious for you to see how it is a sovereign God gives himself over to death so that the guilty go free. If you don't see the glory in that, then you have a long way to go in order to see the truth of the gospel. Because that is the glory of the gospel. A sovereign God for His people will take on their guilt and be bound and be spit upon, not speak a word in His defense, stand before such ridiculous accusations, accepting them, and then be led away to a most torturous and excruciating death Barabbas deserved. Meanwhile, Barabbas goes free. Haven't you ever wondered whatever happened to Barabbas? We never hear him again. What would happen to such a man who was the picture of the substitution of the gospel, of the penal substitution, Christ punished in his place, he goes free. Whatever happened to such a man? How could he ever know that and not be led to repentance? We don't know. We don't know. But what we do know is, he deserved the cross. Christ deserved his worship. Instead, Christ takes his cross. And goes to it willingly while he goes free.