Mark 15:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we see, first, a meeting of the great Sanhedrim, the Jewish ruling council, held to press ahead with the case against the Lord Jesus. They met early in the morning and quickly worked out ways to have him put to death. They wasted no time, because they were afraid of an uproar among the people. The tireless effort of wicked people in doing evil should shame our slowness in doing good. Those who fight against Christ and your soul rise early, so why should you sleep, O sluggard?

Second, they handed him over as a prisoner to Pilate and bound him. He was to be the great sacrifice, and sacrifices had to be tied with cords (Psalm 118:27). Christ was bound so that bonds might become easier for us to bear, and so that we, like Paul and Silas, could sing while in chains. It is good for us often to remember the bonds of the Lord Jesus, as one bound with him who was bound for us. They led him through the streets of Jerusalem to shame him, though only a day or two earlier he had been honored there while teaching in the temple. We can only imagine how miserable he looked after such a night of abuse, being beaten, spit on, and insulted. Their handing him over to Roman power also pointed to the ruin of their own church, which they had now earned for themselves and brought on themselves.

This meant that the promise, the covenant, and the oracles of God, along with the visible state of the church, the glory of Israel, would now be handed over to the Gentiles. By giving up the king, they in effect gave up the kingdom of God. So, by their own choice, it was taken from them and given to another nation. If they had handed Christ over just to satisfy Roman desires or Roman suspicions, it would have been another matter. But they willingly betrayed him, Israel’s crown, to the people who were Israel’s yoke.

Third, Pilate examined him with questions (Mark 15:2). "Are you the King of the Jews?" In other words, "Do you claim to be the Messiah the Jews expect as a earthly ruler?" Christ answered, "You say so," meaning, "I am that Messiah, but not the kind they expect." He is the king who rules and protects spiritual Israel, those who are Jews inwardly by the inward work of the Spirit. He is also the king who will restrain and punish unbelieving Jews who remain in unbelief.

Fourth, the chief priests brought charges against him, and he kept silent under accusation. The chief priests forgot the dignity of their office when they turned informers and personally accused Christ of many things (Mark 15:3), and testified against him (Mark 15:4). Many Old Testament prophets had already spoken against the priests of their own time for great wickedness, and in doing so they had well foretold these priests too (Ezekiel 22:26; Hosea 5:1; Hosea 6:9; Micah 3:11; Zephaniah 3:4; Malachi 1:6; Malachi 2:8). Jerusalem’s destruction by the Chaldeans was said to be because of the sin of the priests who shed the blood of the righteous (Lamentations 4:13). Wicked priests are usually the worst of men. The better a thing is, the worse it is when it is corrupted. Lay persecutors have often shown more pity than church leaders.

These priests were loud and eager in their accusations, but Christ answered nothing (Mark 15:3). When Pilate pressed him to defend himself and wanted him to do so (Mark 15:4), he still remained silent (Mark 15:5). Pilate was amazed at this. Christ had given Pilate a direct answer (Mark 15:2), but he would not answer the accusers and witnesses, because their claims were plainly false, and he knew Pilate himself was convinced of that. As Christ spoke in a way that amazed people, so he also kept silent in a way that amazed them.

Fifth, Pilate proposed to the people that Jesus should be released, since it was the custom at the feast to free one prisoner and honor the occasion. The people expected him to continue his usual practice (Mark 15:8), and they were not upset with it, but wanted it kept up. Pilate saw that the chief priests had handed Jesus over out of envy, because Jesus had gained such a reputation with the people that it made the priests look less important (Mark 15:10). It was easy to see, from the strong pressure and the weak evidence, that they were not angry at his guilt, but at his goodness. Nothing wicked or shameful had moved them. What stirred them was something good, honorable, and glorious.

So, hearing how beloved Jesus was by the crowd, Pilate thought he could safely appeal from the priests to the people. He expected the people would be glad to rescue him from the priests’ hands. He also thought he could do it without causing an uproar. If they asked for Jesus to be released, Pilate would be ready to grant it, and that would shut the priests’ mouths. There was another prisoner, Barabbas, who had some support and might get some votes, but Pilate did not doubt that Jesus would beat him.

Sixth, the people shouted together in wild anger for Christ to be put to death, especially for him to be crucified. Pilate was greatly surprised when he found the people so controlled by the priests that they all asked for Barabbas to be released instead (Mark 15:11). Pilate did all he could against it. "What then do you want me to do with the one you call the King of the Jews?" he asked. "Would you not have me release him too?" (Mark 15:12). But they answered, "Crucify him." The priests had put that word in their mouths, and they held to it. When Pilate asked, "Why, what evil has he done?" a very important question in such a case, they did not answer it. Instead, they cried out even louder, more stirred up and irritated by the priests, "Crucify him, crucify him."

The priests were busy scattering themselves and their followers through the crowd to keep the shouting going, and they likely thought this would sway Pilate in two ways. First, it might make him think Jesus was guilty, since so many were against him. Pilate might reason that anyone so hated by everyone must be a bad man. He would then suppose he had been wrongly informed when he heard how much support Jesus had among the people. But the priests had pushed the case so quickly that those who were Jesus’ friends and would have answered the crowd were likely on the other side of the city and knew nothing about it. This has often been Satan’s method, to give Christ and his religion a bad name and then crush them by public opinion. Once this "sect," as people called it, comes to be spoken against everywhere, even without reason, that is treated as enough reason to condemn it. But we must judge people and things by their real worth and by the standard of God’s word, not by rumor or the cry of the crowd.

It might move Pilate to condemn Christ, both to please the people and from fear of offending them. He was not weak enough to accept their opinion and think Jesus guilty, but he was wicked enough to let their anger sway him into condemning one he believed was innocent. He gave in because of what seemed wise for the state, the kind of wisdom the world often trusts.

Our Lord Jesus was dying as a sacrifice for the sins of many, and in that same event he also became a victim of the rage of many.