Jesus - Enduring What We Deserve - Mark 15:1-20

Sermon Series: Spare Me the Details – Just Give Me Jesus

Have you ever had to serve jury duty?  I did once.  It wasn’t the most up-lifting experience in my life.  As I sat on the jury I saw a man who had been arrested and charged with not just one crime, but many.  Each day I had to sit and listen to evidence of the bad choices that this man had made over the course of several months, and I had to listen to the terrible consequences that another had to endure because of this man’s bad choices.  Then ultimately I and the other jurors had to condemn the man and he was sentenced to several years of prison confinement.  If you’ve ever served on jury duty before you know that the charges brought against individuals can be hard to listen to and condemning individuals can be a lot of pressure.  But at the same time, if an individual is guilty, you can take some comfort in knowing that you are helping to uphold and enforce the law. 

I think it would be much harder to serve on a jury for an innocent person’s trial in which there was no evidence that the individual had committed any crime.  To hear someone being charged with multiple crimes with no evidence at all that the person actually committed those crimes would probably leave a bad taste in our mouths.  The only thing worse would be to see that individual condemned for those alleged crimes without any evidence and then having to suffer some form of punishment.  While most of us are okay with the idea of getting what we deserve, most of us probably shutter at the idea of an innocent person enduring what they do not deserve.  But listen to this – that is actually what each of us needs.  Each of us actually needs an innocent person to endure what we deserve.  Each of us have committed numerous acts for which we are daily being charged, and for which we will all be condemned.  And each of us is in desperate need for a substitute who, though innocent, will stand in our place.  In our text this week we will see Jesus foreshadowing His mission to be a substitute for sinful humanity, but we have to ask the question ‘how?’  “How does Jesus endure what we deserve?”  And as we examine the text I’m going to argue that we see two ways that Jesus did just that.

In verse 1 we find that as soon as morning arrived Jesus was bound by the Sanhedrin, led away, and delivered to Pontius Pilate.  Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of Palestine at the time.  He was not a Jew and he was not a religious leader.  He was a political leader and representative of Rome who was to oversee the Roman occupation of Palestine.  Pilate did not oversee Jewish religious matters – the Sanhedrin had been given freedom to rule on those matters themselves.  But Pilate was able to hear matters of a political nature and condemn those found guilty.  This was important for the Sanhedrin for two reasons.  James Edwards writes, “The authority of the governor would be important in quelling any popular outcry that might arise on Jesus’ behalf,” and “a verdict of Rome against Jesus – and especially the shame of death by crucifixion – would severely damage attempts on the part of Jesus’ followers to rehabilitate Him.”  The timing was perfect for the Sanhedrin because Pilate did not normally reside in Jerusalem, but Rome required the presence of the governor in Jerusalem during Jewish festivals, and especially during Passover.  So Pilate was in town and the Sanhedrin wanted to get Jesus to him first thing in the morning, before Pilate gave himself to leisure activities in the afternoon. 

Notice in verse 2 that the accusation that Pilate is concerned about is different from the accusations the high priest, Ciaphas, and the rest of the Sanhedrin were concerned about.  Ciaphas and the Sanhedrin make accusations about Jesus threatening the temple and about Jesus being the Son of God (blasphemy).  Pilate on the other hand was not concerned about accusations of a religious nature.  It made little difference to Pilate or to Rome if Jesus believed He was going to destroy the temple or if He believed Himself to be Yahweh’s Son.  In the mind of Pilate and of Rome these assumptions posed little threat.  Pilate and Rome were very concerned about rival political leaders, those who may try to usurp Rome’s power and authority, and try to gain back their national independence.  So Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  He wanted to know if Jesus believed that He was the Jewish Messiah.  While claiming to be the Messiah was not a crime in Judaism, it certainly would have been to Pilate and to Rome.  So Pilate’s question and Jesus’ response became vitally important.  Jesus responds at the end of verse 3 with a very vague response, “You have said so.”  In Jesus’ response He neither gives direct affirmation, but neither does He deny it.  Pilate had the authority to both arrest and crucify individuals who were believed to be political threats.  If Jesus had given a strong and outright affirmation that He was in fact the Christ, then Pilate could have arrested Him immediately and sentenced Him to execution.  But Jesus’ answer affirms Pilate’s accusation without condemning Himself.

In verse 3 the chief priests began to accuse Jesus of many things.  Mark doesn’t specify what those accusations were.  He only records that Jesus gave no response.  Even after Pilate asks Jesus, “Have you no answer to make?  See how many charges they bring against you,” Jesus still remains silent.  And that silence amazed Pilate.  Jesus did not fight the false accusations.  He did not defend His own reputation.  Jesus stood silently resolved to complete God’s will for Him, and this was all a part of God’s plan.

One of the things that Mark begins to foreshadow in these verses leading up to the crucifixion is Jesus’ substitution on our part.  In Jesus’ death on the cross He would become our ultimate substitute for sin.  But Mark begins to foreshadow that even now.  Notice in verses 1-5 the emphasis on Jesus being bound and then facing the many false charges of the chief priests.  The Bible declares that one of the things that sin does to us is that it binds us.  Consider Proverbs 5:21-22 which says, “For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths.  The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.”  The Bible is God’s ultimate truth.  And when we read it and study it we also have to submit to it.  When we get into the practice of picking and choosing what we believe is true and what we believe is not true, we have made ourselves into God.  We say that we are the ultimate authority of truth and of right and wrong.  And that can’t be the reality.  If we go there, there is ultimately no subjective truth.  Truth is for me what I want it to be and truth is for you what you want it to be.  But God has graciously given us His word, and the words in this Bible have not changed for 2000 years.  When we compare our texts to the ancient Hebrew and Greek texts that we possess today and apply good textual criticism we can have great assurance that the words in our English Bibles are accurate translations of what were first recorded.  The Bible is God’s truth and it says that we are all bound by sin.  Not only is Jesus bound in verses 1-5, but He also faces many charges.  The reality the Bible declares is not only that we are all sinners bound by sin, but it also reveals to us that the sins we have committed bring charge upon charge before a holy God.  Consider Romans 3:9-20.  Paul writes to the believers in Rome and says the result of our sin is that none of us is righteous.  Not only does sin bind us, but it brings many charges against us.  The sin in our lives says we have spoken words of hate, malice, and slander.  The sin in our lives says we have coveted in our hearts and envied those around us.  The sin in our lives says we have lusted for other things and other people.  The sin in our lives says we have dishonored our parents and dishonored others.  And the sin in our lives says we have worshiped things other than God.  In fact, for most of us, even our good acts are really idolatrous acts.  We want others to see our good deeds and to make much of us for the good we have done.  In those times we are desiring that we would be the objects of praise and the recipients of great thanks and praise.  At the root of those acts are our own selfish motives which demonstrate that we are still attempting to reign on the throne of our lives – in God’s rightful place.  Pilate says to Jesus in 15:4, “See how many charges they bring against you.”  The statement made here to Christ is a reality for each of us.  The sin in our lives doesn’t bring one charge, but charges too numerous for us to count.  The difference between us and Christ is that the charges made against Christ were false accusations with no real validity.  The charges brought against us are not false accusations, they are right and true. 

In verses 1-5 we see Mark foreshadowing Jesus’ mission to be our substitute and Jesus enduring what we deserve because Jesus was bound and was facing many charges.  Jesus did not deserve to be bound and the charges brought against Him were all false.  We on the other hand are all bound by sin and facing the many charges that sin daily brings against us.  The binding and the charges were things that are realities for each of us and things that each of us deserve.  But in enduring them Himself, Jesus was demonstrating that He would be One who would take our place as our substitute.

Verses 6 through 14 paint another interesting portrait in Mark’s gospel.  Mark begins by reminding his readers of a tradition which Pilate used to carry out around the time of the Passover, while he was residing in Jerusalem.  Each year Pilate would release to the people one prisoner whom they asked him to set free.  Mark tells us that one of the men who happened to be imprisoned at the time was a man named Barabbas.  Barabbas was a murderer who had committed murder in an unnamed insurrection.  Mark doesn’t specify what the insurrection was, but it must have been familiar to his readers.  When the time came for Pilate to release a prisoner he begins by first making an appeal for the release of Jesus.  In verse 9 Pilate says to the crowd, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?”  (What exactly is taking place in Pilate’s heart and mind is uncertain.  The presence of Roman soldiers in Gethsemane implies that Pilate had a hand in the arrest of Jesus.  And his questioning of Jesus in regards to His claim to be Messiah implies that Pilate was concerned about those charges being brought against Jesus.  But Jesus’ silence before Pilate and His accusers seems to make a huge impression on Pilate in verse 5 when we see that Pilate was amazed.  It seems that perhaps after questioning Jesus, Pilate realized what was taking place among the Jewish leaders.  Verse 10 tells us that he perceived that Jesus had been delivered to him because of the envy that the Jewish leaders had toward Jesus.  It appears that Pilate becomes convinced of Jesus’ innocence after questioning Him and sees no real reason to condemn Jesus to death.)  This is the first of three times that we will see Pilate making an appeal for Jesus.  But the chief priests are present in verse 11 stirring up the crowd and persuading the crowd to ask for the release of Barabbas instead.  Pilate makes another appeal for Jesus in verse 12 when he asked the crowd, “what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?”  The crowd cried out in response, “Crucify Him.”  So Pilate makes a third and final appeal for Jesus in verse 14 questioning the crowd, “Why, what evil has He done?”  But rather than offering any explanation the crowd cries out more, “Crucify Him!”

Verse 15 is incredibly important to this section of our text.  In verse 15 Mark writes, “So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.”  Two noteworthy things take place in verse 15.  First, we notice Pilate giving up on his appeals for Jesus’ freedom to seek his own.  Pilate, not able to find any guilt in Jesus, senses the growing dissatisfaction of the people and their frustration toward him to meet their demands.  But rather than acting in his rightful authority, he caves to the pressure of the people.  James Edwards writes, “Pilate, who begins by seeking amnesty for Jesus, ends by seeking it for himself.  The Jewish subjects, on the other hand, whose duty it is to obey, assert their will and win the day.  The governor is thus strangely governed.”  The second noteworthy thing that takes place in verse 15 is another foreshadowing of Jesus’ coming substitutionary death.  In verse 15 Barabbas, the one who is guilty of murder and deserving of death, is set free and Jesus, the innocent One who has done no wrong but is completely righteous, is condemned to death and is handed over to experience great pain and shame.  Jesus becomes the substitute for Barabbas.

Mark says in verse 15 that Pilate has Jesus ‘scourged.’  That is all that Mark had to write for his readers because they were familiar with the practice of scourging and all that it entailed.  Modern day readers need a little more explanation – otherwise they quickly read over the word and misunderstand some of the suffering that Jesus endured on their behalf.  First of all it’s important to understand that crucifixion was not a quick means of death.  It would not be unusual for individuals who were crucified to last several days on a cross.  Scourging was a practice that the Romans used to help speed up the death of an individual on the cross.  When an individual was scourged the individual was stripped and his hands and wrists were bound to the top of a post that was probably about 3.5 to 4 feet high.  Then the individual was beaten with a special kind of whip.  The Romans used a leather whip which spread out on the end with approximately 9 separate pieces and on the end of each of those separate pieces was embedded a sharp piece of metal or bone.  When the Romans struck the individual with the whip, the ends weighted with sharp pieces of bone and metal would cause the whip to wrap around the individual’s body and the pieces of bone and metal would pierce the skin and embed themselves in the person’s body.  Then the Roman soldier would yank the whip back causing the embedded pieces of bone and metal to literally tear the individual’s body apart.  The scourging was so brutal that it could leave an individual’s bones and entrails exposed, and many who suffered a scourging prior to their crucifixion would actually die before they made it to their cross.  The physical pain that is represented in the word ‘scourging’ is far beyond anything that we could ever imagine and yet we read over the word in a simple glance and never give any consideration to the great pain that Jesus suffered on our behalf. 

After Jesus was scourged, the Roman soldiers led Him awayand continued to beat and mock Him.  Mark says that the whole battalion, approximately 600 Roman soldiers, gathered around Jesus and they began to dress Him in purple (the most expensive color dye often only worn by those with large amounts of money), and twisting together a crown of thorns they put this mock crown upon His head.  Their antics continued in verses 18 and 19 as we see them mocking Jesus by saluting Him and kneeling down before Him as if they were paying Him homage.  And adding to their mocking they insulted Him by spitting on Him and beating Him on the head with a reed.  After they had finished mocking Jesus they stripped Him of the purple clothes, put His own clothes back on Him, and then led Jesus out to crucify Him. 

In these verses we see the second way that Jesus endured what we deserved, He was condemned and endured great pain.  Though there was no evidence to convict Him, Jesus was sentenced to death.  And though there were no grounds for the scourging, the mocking, or the crucifixion, Jesus endured pain that we will never understand.  And while Jesus did not deserve either condemnation or great pain, we most certainly do.  Our sin does more than bind us and bring many charges against us, it also condemns us as guilty and makes us subject to the painful wrath of God.  When God considers our lives in light of His perfect holiness and righteousness, the sin in our lives declares us guilty.  God doesn’t judge us using scales to measure out the good in our lives verses the bad, and looking to see which way the scale is tipping.  God judges us by comparing us to Himself and all it takes is one sin to declare us unrighteous and guilty before Him.  And in each of our lives we don’t have just one sin declaring us guilty, we have many that are demonstrating how unrighteous we are before God and declaring us guilty before Him.  Paul tells us in Romans 6:23 that our guilt also requires a consequence.  He says there that “the wages of sin is death.”  This isn’t just a reference to a physical death (although we all do experience a physical death as a result of our sin); it is also a reference to a spiritual death that takes place as each sinner is separated from God because of their sin with no hope of ever drawing near to God again on their own.  The reality is our sin makes us guilty and our sin causes us to be separated from a holy God whose perfect righteousness cannot stand in relationship with sin and unrighteousness.  Because we turn our back on God our guilt also makes us deserving of God’s wrath.  The Bible says that sinners are subject to spend their eternity in a literal hell, where they will not only be separated from God, but where they will also experience eternal torment and wrath because of their sin.  (Many people want to tune out here, believing that God would never really do that to His creation.  But might I ask you to consider the incredible pain and torment that Jesus, God’s own Son, went through in the beatings, the scourging, and the crucifixion that He endured.  I would suggest that the gruesomeness of the pain that Jesus endured for the sins of humanity is a clear picture of how much God hates sin and how seriously He will deal with those who are sinners.  How could we believe that God would deal so severely with His perfect Son who came to be a substitute for sin, and not deal that severely with those of us who are actually guilty?)  Each of us stands condemned before God because of our sin and each of us deserves to endure the great pain and separation that that guilty sentence imposes.  There is still great hope though!

Our hope lies in the fact that Jesus endured condemnation and great pain on our behalf.  Just as Mark foreshadows substitution in the exchange of Barabbas for Jesus, on the cross Jesus substituted Himself for sinful humanity.  Now those of us whose sin has condemned us as guilty and who are deserving of death can, like Barabbas, experience freedom, because Jesus, the innocent One, died in our place.  God sent His Son Jesus to earth to redeem a sinful and dying humanity and Jesus made Himself our substitute taking the guilt of sin and the wrath of God upon Himself so that we would not have to endure those things.  But it requires a response from each of us.  The shedding of Jesus blood has taken place.  The availability for forgiveness and salvation is there for all people.  Jesus paid the price for every sin that has ever been committed.  But while it has been made available to all, it hasn’t been applied to all.  That is where our choice comes into play.  We have to come to the place where we understand our sinful and hopeless condition and realize our need for a Savior.  We have to understand that Jesus is the only One who can fulfill that role and that He came to be our substitute.  Then in faith we have to seek His forgiveness and claim His substitutionary death on our behalf.  We surrender control of our lives to Him, turn our back on our sinful way of living, and turn and follow Christ with all of our lives.  That is the hope that we have because Jesus endured what we deserved.

Questions for Small Group Discussion

1. Read Mark 15:1-5.  As we examined these verses we emphasized the truth that Jesus endured what we deserved by being bound and facing many charges.  Do you think that most people really believe that we are bound by sin, why or why not?  Do we as believers in Christ ever think back on or talk about the time when we were bound by sin, and if so when?  How can we articulate the grip that sin has on our lives when we are bound by it and the charges that it daily brings?

2. Read Mark15:6-20.  As we examined these verses we emphasized the truth that Jesus endured what we deserved by being condemned and enduring great pain.  What does the gruesomeness of Jesus’ beatings, scourging, and crucifixion tell us about how God views sin?  How does that mesh with the popular idea that God is a God of love and would not cause His creation to experience wrath or hell?  How should Jesus’ substitution for us and the fact that Jesus endured great pain that we deserved impact our worship?

3. What step of faith does this passage of Scripture require us to take as individuals and as a small group?  How do we work this out on mission?