If you will turn with me this morning to Mark chapter 15, we'll be looking at verses 1 through 20. Mark 15, 1 through 20. You ever heard somewhere someone say, it's not fair? Or maybe you've heard, he should get what he deserves. Whether it's a child on the playground, a teenager just observing the world, or whether it's an adult looking at any or perhaps every aspect of life. You see, we are quick to make judgment. We are also inconsistent. After all, we want what everybody else deserves, but not necessarily what we deserve. Is that not true? The contrast here in this passage as we look at the trial of Jesus before Pilate in particular, the contrast is between an innocent man and us. Follow as I read, 15.1 through 20. And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests 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 Pilate. And Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews? And he answered him, you have said so. 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. But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed. 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 the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do 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 priest had delivered him up. But the chief priest stirred up the crowd to have him released for them Barabbas instead. And Pilate again said to them, then what shall I do with the man you call the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, crucify him. And Pilate said to them, Why, what evil has he done? But they shouted all the more, Crucify him! So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released from them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. And the soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is, the governor's headquarters, and they called together the whole battalion. And they cloaked him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews. And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him. As we consider these words, let us bow briefly in prayer. Lord, this is your word regarding this historical event. This is not merely a story to tell to our children or grandchildren. This is the truth of what has happened in the world's history that is so important for all of us. Lord, may your spirit use your word to impact us and to change us, to rebuke, correct, reprove whatever is necessary that your people might be trained and equipped for every good work in righteousness. Father, we pray as well that the things done here, said here, thought here, would be pleasing your sight, consistent with your word, or else pass away, never to be heard from again. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. When you're looking at the news on a day-to-day basis, you might ask such things like, how can young women treat the new star on a basketball court with such contempt? Well, how do we treat newbies? After all, they've had to ban hazing on college campuses. They've had to call out people for treating people badly when they're simply new to an organization, new to a town, new to a situation. Are we really much different? Is there anything perverse, do you think, about the media and us constantly looking for the mistakes of politicians, celebrities, or celebrity politicians in order to mock and humiliate them? Yes, I think some of us have participated in that. Should we be shocked at what is known as flash mobs who go out and conduct evil in the night, or perhaps mindless protests and calls for blood. This is the state of man. And this is why the king of the Jews came. Because he wanted to save people just like that. those that are out to get others, those that are envious of others, those who would do anything for their own power or control. And here you have four groups of people, or one individual, actually. One is the religious leaders of the Jewish people. The second is a political leader from Rome. The third are the crowds who cried out. And the fourth is the soldiers. Religious leaders were jealous of Jesus. In fact, that seems to be the case throughout this time period. Now, some of them are denying that Jesus is who he says he is. Some of them are out to get him. Some of them just hate everything he says, but by and large, they're jealous of Jesus. They see the crowds. They see, even at some points, they say it looks like the whole world is going after him. They're jealous of Jesus. And so here are some of the verses in this text that remind us of the state of these jealous leaders. First of all, we're reminded in verse one of the context of the situation here. If you remember, he's just in the night been arrested from the garden when he was out praying, and through the night, partly because of the situation in which they wanted to see Jesus put to death, They, in the night, had a sort of mock trial or some way to get charges together in order to hand him over to Pilate. And it says here, they held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. That's the whole Sanhedrin. They make up three parts, the chief priests, or the priests, the elders, and the scribes. And as they did this, they found a way to get some charge to present to the Roman in charge, that is, Pilate, a prefect or procurator of the time. And he was there in order to control the area for Rome. Now also in those days we understand that a Roman gentleman of some sort would conduct his business at dawn. So why was it that they met throughout the night at three in the morning and so forth in order to do these things? Well, it was in order to present this to Pilate at first business in the morning or else it would be considered rude or perhaps unavailable to interrupt him later. So here they are. The whole Sanhedrin handed Jesus over. Notice this phrase, delivered over or handed over. This is the same phrase that Jesus has used repeatedly through the gospel to say what was going to happen, that he would be handed over. And notice who does it. It's the religious leaders of the day. They hand him over. The idea here is that they want him to die. By verse three, we get this. The chief priest, one section of that group, accused him of many things. Now, we know some of the things they accused him of. They accused him of, for the Romans' sake, insurrection and treason. That's the charge they want to bring under Roman law to put him to death. Of course, they've also charged him with things regarding their own law. They've charged him with claiming to be the son of God. They've charged him with trying to harm the temple. They've charged him with all kinds of things, and here they are before Pilate, and they're probably listing off these charges to try to say how evil this man is in their mind, who would deserve death. Now, it's funny. Pilate knows exactly what's going on. By the time you get to verse 10, you have this simple phrase, Pilate perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. They were jealous of him. They saw what he was doing. They saw how the crowds loved him. They saw how they were following him around, wanting to get the crumbs of miracles and all those things, and they were jealous. And so what did the chief priests and those in this group do? They incited or stirred up the crowd in order that Jesus would not be the one chosen. Religious leaders were jealous. And you might think, hey, we know that history. We know that fulfills scripture. We also know that it reminds us that the Jewish people were rejecting Jesus as their king, were rejecting him as the Messiah and the Christ. And so what do we do? We often say, look at what they are doing, don't we? I can think of those times when we looked down the road at another church and seen all the cars there. Every day when I come out of my development, or every Saturday night or Sunday morning, I can look across the road when I come out of my housing development and see the multitude of cars at the Catholic Church in Carolina Forest. I can also go down the road and I can see some churches that have lots and lots of people attending them, and they seem to be very successful according to the world's standards. And so then what do we do in our hearts? Oh, they must be compromising. That's why they're getting so many people. They must be teaching error. That's after all how we get megachurches, right? If you teach good things and not describe all the things of the gospel, but just pick out pieces and parts. And we begin to judge them based on how many people are there, rather than looking to see exactly what they are teaching. Are they really friend or foe? But this is our heart. We're envious, aren't we? There are those who would be envious of a church that's growing. There are those who would be envious of a church that has good finances. There are those who are envious of a church that seems to have good programs or have a good reputation in the community. That's what the religious leaders do, isn't it? But what does the larger catechism on the 10th commandment about coveting say about the sins here? The sins forbidden include this, quote, envying and grieving at the good of our neighbor. This was the heart. of these individuals. They weren't looking to see whether Jesus was telling the truth. They were considering that whether or not Jesus really could be the Messiah. They were thinking of their own reputation and their own grasp over the people in the religious leadership of the nation. And they were considering that they might lose their place. They might lose their reputation. They might lose their status, whatever it is. And so they were jealous. And you know, I think that we Americans are often jealous of others. This is our heart. Of course, then we have the character pilot. In some ways, in this day and age, people have kind of lifted pilot up as a confused guy or as an enigmatic person or as someone who was caught in the wrong place between a rock and a hard place and all those things. But what is the heart of pilot? Well, by the nature of his position, and by the way he cruelly led these people, we know historically he was interested mainly in control, in maintaining his status in office and also being able to control a difficult place in Jerusalem. But what about Pilate? Here's some of the things about Pilate. First of all, when he encounters Jesus, and he asks that question, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answers, you have said so, but then he asks him some other things. They begin to make these charges against him, and the idea here is they're there, they're actually making these charges against him, and Jesus says nothing. It says in verse five, when Jesus made no further answer, Pilate was He was amazed at Jesus' silence. How is it that someone's being accused of all these things? Surely he would want to put up a defense and say things either about his accusers, which often happens, or to defend himself. But Jesus was silent. Pilate's amazed. We get the idea, particularly in Luke's gospel, that Pilate was convinced of Jesus' innocence. In fact, three times in the book of Luke, in this section, we see that Pilate said, I find no guilt. There is no guilt in this man. In fact, John in particular has that phrase, there is no guilt in him. He's convinced of Jesus' innocence. Remember, he's the leader, the procurator here. He's the one in charge of justice. There isn't a tribunal. There isn't a seat of judges. This is not the Supreme Court. He has the final say. Now, if he were to do the right thing in the eyes of God, what would he do with an innocent man? Have him released. He was convinced of Jesus' innocence. But what was his real heart here? Verse six, 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 or the insurrection, there was a man called Barsabbas. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. The idea here is evidently there was a practice at the feast where he would release one particular prisoner. It's probably a practice that predated his time in office. But he's trying to assuage the crowd here because he's afraid of it. And it gives them two choices, a leading insurrectionist and murderer. Barabbas or an innocent man. Now, I'm glad that he wanted to include the innocent man and the opportunity to perhaps release this man. But at the same time, to put these two up, one someone who is a murderer and the other who is innocent, what kind of choice is that? But the idea here is that he wants to give the benefit to the crowd. He doesn't want to cause more problems. So by verse nine, he asks them that question, do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? And of course he's thinking, I wish they would do that because I feel at least a twinge of guilt if I were to do something with him. And then we find out that Pilate is also afraid concerning Jesus. If you look at Matthew's account, you find out that his wife had come to him and said, have nothing to do with this man because of my dreams. I saw him in my dreams. And so he feared out of superstition, perhaps, having a part in Jesus' punishment. And then in John, John tells us that when they said, he claimed to be the son of man, or he made himself to be the son of God. And when he heard that, he took him back in and he consulted him privately and he said, what is this? Where are you from? And he was shocked about it. When he heard these claims, there was a sense in which there was something about this man that was beyond the norm. And Pilate instinctually knew that, like any person would. There are claims here that are not normal. But what did he fear the most? He feared the most a riot. In fact, Matthew told us in his gospel that because he feared that there could be a riot, he decided to give in to them and hand Jesus over to be crucified. So what about Pilate? Is Pilate just one of those guys that really doesn't have much guilt, it's really the religious leader's fault? No, he was completely complicit in this. He knew Jesus was innocent. He heard the claim of this man that he could be divine. He is even using that phrase, mockingly, yes, king of the Jews, but knowing that there's a kernel of truth behind this, and yet he condemned an innocent man. Are we like Pilate? When was the last time you listened to gossip and rumors about someone else? When was the last time you read the social media posts that malign somebody, whether it was true or not, and you saw all the fires that the media puts out about somebody? Gossip, rumors, and such social media fires are in and of themselves sinful and wrong. But what of the one who sees someone being unfairly attacked, but sits on his hands on the sideline, even washing his hands of the whole affair? This is Pilate. After all, what did Pilate want to do? Matthew told us he wanted to wash his hands of it. In fact, Pilate also tried to pass the buck to Herod when he found out Jesus was from Galilee. He said, well, let's send him off to Herod. Herod was an enemy of Pilate. They hated each other. But from that moment that day, when he sent Jesus over to Pilate, or to Herod, and Herod even had his soldiers beat him and all these other things, they didn't gain anything else from him, Herod and Pilate became friends at that point. In this terrible event of the mocking and the humiliation and the beating of an innocent man, John tells us that he even mocked the truth. He said to Jesus, what is truth? And sometimes the world around us says about Pilate, oh, well, he was before his time. Because absolutely, this is something in our modern society when everybody's asking, well, what's truth anyway? It may be true for you, but it's not true for me. What is truth? He's a man before his times. But what he's doing here is he's mocking the man that says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Pilate is no innocent. He knowingly condemned an innocent man. He's completely complicit in all of this. He heard the king's testimony, even flinching at the claim that he might be the son of God, and he condemned him to death. What are we doing when without looking at the evidence, we condemn someone to humiliation and shame? We participate in the gossip and the rumors. We do those things. Are we any better than Pilate? And yet, what did the crowds do? We forget sometimes the crowds are the crowds at fault. They cried out for Jesus' blood. It's interesting about crowds. Crowds can be easily manipulated. Crowds can be riled up In fact, this is what people like to do, politicians, sports people, entertainers, all public people like to rile up the crowds and get them all moving and in motion and they'll do sometimes anything, lies even, to get them excited. Crowds are easily swayed by the enemies of truth. Here in Bercy Levin, a reminder, the chief priest stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. Here's the crowd, they've been asked the question, Do you want a murderous insurrectionist that might be someone you want to have as a king in Judea because they're creating havoc and chaos in the Roman Empire? Or do you want this type of king who is sitting here without even defending himself, but you know in the history of what's been going on recently has been the subject of great debate over whether this might not be a great prophet or perhaps even the Messiah. Which one do you want? The crowd was easily swayed by the chief priests, the enemies of truth, and they called out, give us Barabbas. They're caught up in bloodlust. Notice what they begin to say. Crucify him. Crucify him. Mark says it twice. The other gospel writers also tell us they say these things. Do you understand what they're saying here? Crucifixion is abhorrent to the Jewish people. It was considered an awful way for capital punishment to take place. After all, what would happen is someone would be nailed to a tree and we're reminded in scripture that someone who hangs on a tree is cursed. We're also reminded that they were hanged often without clothes on in total humiliation. That was considered abhorrent, particularly to the modest Jews of the day. In fact, it was considered so unclean that they conducted these things outside of Jerusalem, outside the city gates. Some people would not even go out there. But the crowd here is caught up in such bloodlust that they're calling for the crucifixion of an innocent man. You think the crowd's not complicit in this? Now, we could debate whether or not it's the same crowd that cried out as Jesus came into Jerusalem about the King of David that had come in. I tend to think from my readings that it probably were two different crowds, yet at the same point here, the crowd here crying out for blood. Verse 15 says this, so Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. this quickly rebellious crowd to any authority. What do crowds do? You see, crowds sometimes, we refer to them as mobs sometimes, when they're unruly or out of order. Pilate was afraid they were going to cause a riot here, and we're reminded what happens in their demands and in their shouting. They're shouting out, wanting certain things from this authority figure, and they want what they think is due to them. They want a prisoner released, but they want the kind of prisoner that they think would cause problems with the Roman government. They want a prisoner who they thought might be someone who would lead to the overthrow of that government so they could once again create an earthly kingdom in Jerusalem and Judea. They wanted those things, but this is what crowds do, isn't it? You've seen it. You've seen the crowds over the last few years in our country who are shouting and demanding things. There have been crowds here just recently. Protesters on college campuses. When they interview people in the crowd, many of the people in the crowd have no idea even what they're doing there. They don't even know what the protest was really about. They don't know what they're really demanding of others, but they begin to say the things that everybody tells them to say, and the crowd gets caught up in the momentum of the day, and they begin to say things like, from the river to the sea, which is a phrase meaning, may the destruction of the Jewish people and the land of Israel be completely annihilated and killed. You think crowds can't do what they did here with Jesus now? It's not just college campuses either. It's in the great protests and crowds that are. For destructing the lives of children. Destroying them. It's for those who would be about all kinds of different kinds of evil. Here it is. This rebellious crowd, in their shouting, chooses Barabbas over Jesus. Don't let your mind be conformed to the world, but let it be transformed and discerning by the power of the word and spirit. Why does Paul write that? It's because if we go about life just totally mindless and we follow the crowds and we follow the fads and we follow the philosophies of the day, in the end, what is that? It is opposed to the truth of Jesus Christ because the crowds and the fads and the philosophies are from evil, depraved men, women, and children. And if we stop and pause and see what we're doing, Perhaps the Holy Spirit can change our hearts and transform us into those who are not seeking the blood of the righteous one. Are you like the crowds? Have you been going about your business, just believing everything you hear and finding yourself, as they say all the time now, in an echo chamber, remembering everything that you've believed about yourself and thinking, I'm gonna just do and repeat everything that's said, rather than thinking about what's being said and done. And then there's the soldiers. This is perhaps the most difficult to read. The soldiers, they don't have anything to do with the trial. They're just carrying out their orders. But they're doing more than that, aren't they? Soldiers led them away inside. This is verse 16. The palace, that is the governor's headquarters, they called together the whole battalion. In other words, there's a lot of soldiers in there. They clothed him in a purple cloak. We're not sure where they got the purple cloak. It's probably not an expensive garment. They're soldiers after all. It's probably some kind of crimson or red garment that they have here among the soldiers and the officers. And here they get this cloak. They take it together with a crown of thorns that they've twisted together and they put these things on him. In other words, they probably kind of rammed this on Jesus' head so that his thorns have begun to cut into his flesh. And what do they do? They salute him. Hail, King of the Jews. They're mocking the king. Soldiers joining in this cruel savagery. They mock him. They don't care what it means. They don't care what the charges have been. They don't care any of this. They just find an opportunity to mock somebody and here notice what else happens. They strike his head with a reed, spit on him, kneel down in homage to him, again mockery, and when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him and they led him out to crucify him. They mocked him and they beat him and they humiliated him. You ever seen those videos? of a group of young thugs in the city who come across an elderly person and they push them down to the ground and they begin to just rail on that individual. I hope you don't watch it for very long. It's terrible to look at. And he asked the question, how can anyone be so inhumane? That's the problem. We talk about it being inhumane. It's inhumane in that we're made in the image of God and we should never treat anyone like that. But it's not inhumane in the fact that we are those with original sin and we are so depraved that given the pressures and the stresses of sin upon us, we would easily, in certain situations, join in the beating and destruction of an innocent person. You all know it. You know the rage that has been in your heart at times, particularly we men. We men sometimes, we recognize there is an anger within us because of our sinful nature. And particularly when we're young, sometimes that rage comes out in such a degree We know the danger of how it would be upon a child or upon a spouse or upon someone else. Why is there abuse all through our land? It is because our sin is so depraved, our hearts are only evil continually, that we will take out our anger even unrighteously on those we love, let alone a stranger. That's how depraved we are. The depravity of man, how quickly we join with evil. So think of this. You think you're better than religious leaders? Think about the times when you've been jealous of somebody else. Think you're better than Pilate? Think of those times when you've done nothing, when you know someone is being unfairly treated. You think you're better than the crowds? Know this. You have followed the crowd sometimes and done what you know is wrong just because you want the crowd to like you. You think you wouldn't participate in this beating? Think about the savagery of your own heart and how sometimes you have wanted to participate in terrible violence or mocking or humiliation of others. This is why the King of the Jews came. Think of what Jesus has done here. Jesus certainly could have maligned his enemies. They were unfairly treating him. He could have said to Pilate, you know, I know these men. I know how jealous they are. And let me tell you all about how awful they are. You know, we have famous people right now in courtrooms who are all about not defending themselves, but all about telling how awful the other people are. He could have also clearly defended himself. He was innocent. In fact, he could have told Pilate, I am the Son of God, I am the Christ, I am the Messiah, and I can prove it to you by all the scriptures that have been fulfilled, by all the miracles that confirm these things. And he could have done all of those things, but why did he remain silent? Because the glory of the Father was more important than the will of the Son. Jesus could have thrown off his enemies. In fact, when Pilate says to him and takes him privately and he reminds him here of how he's being called the king of the Jews, Jesus not only says, my kingdom is not of this world, he also says, you have authority only because God has given it to you. I could throw off that authority and have nothing to do with all of this. That's what he said in summary, according to John. Jesus could have decided to skip the suffering. After all, the mocking, the humiliation, the distress, but why? Because the King of the Jews was out to protect and defend his people. You and I, by believing in Jesus Christ, are grafted into these individuals chosen by God. And he did all of this. Went through the religious leaders jealousy. Went through pilots. Just unjust justice. Went through the crowds crying out, crucify him, crucify him, looking for his blood. Went past the soldiers, saw them spit on him, humiliate him, strip him down, and beat him. Why did he do all this? Because in the garden he made that final decision. Lord, let this cup of suffering pass from me, this cup of your wrath. But Lord, not my will, but yours be done. What is God's will? The salvation of some of these jealous, disinterested, unjust, terrible, violent, vile people like you and me. that he would change them, transform them, and save them. Have his actions changed you? How will you now live after your own transformation? How is it that Christ has changed you? Are you still struggling with jealousy? Repent. Are you still struggling with the justice of this world? Look to God for justice, not man. Are you still looking out for the blood of your enemies? That's not God's design for you. Vengeance is his, saith the Lord. Are you savage? In your heart, cry out for grace. That's our only hope. The king of the Jews. Mocking humiliation for his enemies, but our hope in the king of heaven. Let's pray. Father, grant us repentance and faith. that we both might turn from our sin and place our faith upon Jesus Christ, who in this text was about to, but we know in history has already died for his people. Lord, change us and mold us, shape us to follow you and to be Christ-like in what we do think and say. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.