The Greatest Trail in History. (Mark 15:1-15)
Every day in Towns and cities the length and breadth of the UK trials are held both large and small. Most of these go unnoticed but once in a while the media will pick up on a case and it will be called something like the trial of the decade or even the century. If you live in America, the O J Simpson trial a few years back definitely met that criterion. But I want to talk about a trial that took place 2000 years ago, one that I sincerely believe was the most important trial in the history of the human race. This trial stands head and shoulders above all others in terms of significance. Although it happened 2 millennia ago it is as relevant today as it was the day it happened. It is relevant because it still affects us, and it affects us all in a profound and deep way
In the passage that we are looking at today we have one of the trials of Christ, if you have been following us through this series on the life of Christ you will know I have pointed out that there were six trials (six cross examinations) in the last week of Jesus’ life. You have to look across all the gospels to see them all but there were six in total, three Jewish and three Roman. This is the last of the six trials and it is the most significant and it takes place before someone called Pontius Pilate. So, let’s start at the beginning and look at verse 1 of mark 15.
Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So, they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.
(Mark 15: 1)
We saw a few days ago that the Jewish leadership held a trial. That trial was not an official trial, as a matter of fact it was illegal in every possible way. This opening verse picks up the narrative the next morning when both the whole teachers and the elders in fact the whole council of Sanhedrin”, are meeting together. We are told they tie Jesus up and take Him and hand Him over to Pilate. Now they had to do that, because if you recall they had already decided to have him killed, and they didn’t have the power or authority to carry out that sentence.
So, they hand Jesus over to Pontius Pilot because being the Roman Governor, he was the only one who had the power to issue the order to put Christ to death. So, the problem is the Sanhedrin had found him guilty of something that although under their law made Him worthy of capital punishment. It did not meet the criteria under Roman law to warrant execution. In the Jewish trial the charge had been blasphemy, but what could they say to the Romans authorities that would enable them to execute him. Well we are given the answer to that question in verse 2.
“Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate. “You have said so,” Jesus replied.
(Mark 15: 2)
Are you the king of the Jews? There my friends is the answer to that question. They told Pilate he was claiming to be a “King of the Jews”.
This would have been significant to the Romans because if they thought that someone was trying to usurp the authority of Rome and claim to be a king that was very serious indeed and even worthy of execution. So, Pilate asks Jesus, “are you the King of the Jews”, and Jesus’ response is a very straightforward, “You have said so”.
Now that is all that Mark tells us, however Johns Gospel gives us much more detail. But here is Jesus’ full answer from the text in John’s gospel account of this.
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
(John 18:36-37)
Because of this interaction between Jesus and Pilot he reaches a conclusion spoken later in the chapter when he says, “I find no fault in him”. A bible scholar has written “Pilate must have concluding that such a claim of kingship was not politically motivated or dangerous”. It seems that Pilate concluded that Jesus was not a dangerous revolutionary and therefore was no threat to Rome. OK so that’s Pilate’s conclusion, but the story continues.
The chief priests then accused him of many things.
(Mark 15: 5)
Having failed on their first accusation of something serious enough to warrant execution the chief priests come up with other accusations.
Now Mark didn’t choose to elaborate on the detail, but Luke does.
Let me read to you from Luke Ch 23.
1 Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, ‘We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king.’ So, Pilate asked Jesus, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ ‘You have said so,’ Jesus replied. Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, ‘I find no basis for a charge against this man.’ But they insisted, ‘He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.’
(Luke 23: 2-5)
As well as being a false king he now stands accused of corrupting the system. Telling the people not to pay their taxes and raising insurrection. So, we’ve had the Sanhedrin make another accusation, but note how Jesus responds this time.
So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.” But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.
(Mark 15: 4-5)
He simply doesn’t answer their charges. His silence is not motivated by hostility, and it is certainly not motivated by guilt. He may have chosen to remain silent because he wanted to allow the false accusers to make their claims and thereby reveal their true motivations. However, his main reason for remaining silent was so he could fulfil the will of God both in prophecy (Isa 53) and by doing so fulfil his plan for the redemption of the whole human race. He accepts all that will come to pass as from the will of God. This tells me sometimes being patient is just waiting on Gods time to fulfil his promises no matter how difficult or unjust the circumstances. Then the plot thickens.
Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested.
(Mark 15: 6)
This extra twist in the story adds a deep significance to the narrative that is often overlooked. The festival referred to here is of course the Passover, when a prisoner chosen by the people would be released.
Look now at verse.
A man called Barabbas was in prison (Chained up) with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.
(Mark 15: 7-8)
So, a man actually convicted of being and insurrectionist, a guilty prisoner will be set free. Pilot must have thought are you sure about this, do you really want me to choose to release this man a murderer and insurrectionist? Someone whom we would today describe as the leader of a terrorist group. Pilate qualifies this by double checking with the crowd again in verse nine.
“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.
(Mark 15: 9)
Pilate probably questioned this again in order to get himself off the hook in case this situation backfired. He knew Jesus was innocent, but he was probably also nervous of releasing such a man as Barabbas back into the community.
Knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him.
(Mark 15: 10)
Pilate knew, Pilate recognized that this whole situation was being driven and motivated by the chief priests out of envy and self-interest. The evidence of this is clear in the next verses.
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. (So, Pilate asked them yet again) “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.
(Mark 15: 11-12)
Pilot gives them another opportunity to offer something a little less that the death penalty, but the crown respond again by saying.
“Crucify him!” they shouted. “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
(Mark 15: 13-14)
The crowds are baying at this point, they are no longer interested in thinking about what he might or might not have done, they are just crying “crucify him” every chance they get. Pilate for his own fearful reasons may have been reluctant to do that but this is the crowd’s final response. By the way, the other Gospel writers tell us that at this point Pilate actually washed his hands of this whole grubby affair an again said, “I find no fault in him”. Finally.
Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged and handed him over to be crucified.
(Mark 15: 15)
Jesus is innocent, and Barabbas is guilty of murder and insurrection, but the crowd manipulated by the religious leaders want the lawbreaker set free and the law keeper crucified. So, Jesus took Barabbas’ place. Barabbas deserved to die under the law, but Jesus being crucified in his place meant Barabbas the guilty one could walk free. Ring any bells for you? Imagine Barabbas a few hours later walking past the cross of Jesus and seeing Him hanging there and saying, ”wow that should have been me”.
What was true of Barabbas is true of all of us, as well. When we look at the cross, what we should say is that should have been me. We are all lawbreakers, for every one of us have not lived up to God’s standards. The difference is sometimes we think we are getting away with it because we haven’t been caught yet but does anyone know you the way God knows you. Are you just being complacent because you haven’t been found out yet.
As a practical joke sir Arthur Conan Doyle (The writer of Sherlock Holmes) is said to have send a telegram to 12 of his closest and most influential friends. The telegram had just 4 words on it. Flee - all is revealed…. Within 24 hours 6 of those 12 friends had left the country. The plain truth is, God knows everything, and by the way fleeing the country won’t solve the problem. But although we are guilty like Barabbas, also just like in Barabbas’s case, Jesus took our place.
At the beginning of today’s message, I suggested that this was the greatest trial in History and let me tell you why. Have you ever noticed how when you read across the 4 Gospel accounts how much material there is available to us about the last week of Christs life. I read somewhere that over 30% of the Gospel narratives cover the last 7 days of Jesus’ life. That’s very different to most biographies that seem to focus on the childhood and development of an individual. What went into making them the person they are today.
In a modern biography the last week and death of an individual I have been reliable informed is usually less than 1%. So, what’s going on here, why is nearly 1/3 of the text given over to these final events.
Perhaps the Gospel writers are trying to tell us that the death of the Lord Jesus is important? That is why I believe this is the most important trail in human history. It is ironic that the greatest atrocity committed by humanity, ever, the killing of the Son of God, at the same time brought about the greatest blessing ever to humankind.
I want to make one quick final point. Why when participating in the greatest trial in history did Jesus remain silent? In the book of Ecclesiastes, it tells us this;
A time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
A time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
A time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
A time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
A time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak.
(Ecc 3:2-7)
Friends, there is a time to speak, and there is a time to be silent. When Pilate asked him, are you King of the Jews, he answered, “it is as you say”. When the chief Priest accused him of all kinds of things, He remained silent. Jesus knew there was a time to speak and a time to remain silent.
May I suggest we should do the same. May I also suggest we in fact usually do the exact opposite of what we should. We speak when we should be quiet, and we don’t speak up when we should. We are silent when we should witness to Christ, and we speak out when we should not. Frankly there are times when we should avoid and not even bother to give the oxygen of publicity to those who make false accusations against us.
In this case the accusers were set on killing him no matter what he said, and there are times in our Christian life when your answer will be of no avail and you might as well just be silent.
I Cor 15, that great chapter on Love, it says, “love does not express itself rudely”. Sometime even in defending our position we focus to much on being right and not enough on helping the other person find truth. Love does not give us the right to prove we are right if it damages someone else search for God. Silent service of others is I believe the most powerful expression of the love of God in Christ.
In the final analysis knowing when to speak and when to keep silent is actually all about love. It the hallmark of mature love. James in chapter three tells us if we can control our tongue and know when to speak and when not to speak, we are then able to control our whole body and our whole personality. The next time you face false accusations the response of your lips will may well be the evidence of how Christ-like you really are…. I would simply add this, and with this as I close.
The voice of a spiritually mature person speaks the loudest by being silent when all around them the gossip rages and tongues wag.