Mark 15:1-15 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is Mark 15:1-15. With an open mind and a humble heart, read this passage and see what sticks out to you in this passage. Is there a verse, a phrase, or a lesson you think the Holy Spirit may be highlighting for you in this passage? After you’ve thought about the passage yourself a bit, read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
Mark 15:1-5 (NIV)
1 Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.
2 “Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate. “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied.
3 The chief priests accused him of many things.
4 So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”
5 But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.
On verses 1-5: “As a lamb before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). That’s Jesus for you. In the face of so many accusations, Jesus remained silent. Why? It’s not because Jesus was guilty of any sin or crime. This was Jesus submitting to the Father’s will, and in so doing fulfilling the mission His Father gave him and the prophecy about him in Isaiah 53:7.
Mark 15:6-15a (NIV)
6 Now it was the custom at the Feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested.
7 A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising.
8 The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.
9 “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate,
10 knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him.
11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.
12 “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.
13 “Crucify him!” they shouted.
14 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them…
On verses 6-15a: What can we learn from this?
1. You and I are like Barabbas. We were guilty of insurrection, that is, revolting against established authority. In Barabbas’ case it was the Roman government he revolted against. In our case it was God Himself. Like Barabbas, we deserved to die for our sin, but instead we were set free because in our place Jesus was crucified.
2. You and I are like the crowd. At some point each of us has chosen someone or something over Jesus. We are in far greater need of mercy than Jesus, who is blameless.
3. Like Pilate, sometimes you need to choose between satisfying the crowd and doing what’s right. In Matthew 10:28, Jesus tells us which choice to make: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” The benefit you get from pleasing the crowd will not last. The benefit you get from doing what’s right and serving Jesus lasts much longer.
Mark 15:15b (NIV)
15…He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
On verse 15b: Mark does not go into detail about what flogging is because it was widely understood in Mark’s day what flogging was. But for us today flogging is a foreign concept. But flogging was no small form of punishment. When a person was sentenced to crucifixion, the first thing the Roman government would do is flog them. They would first take them to a room, tie them to a post and whip them.
By the time Jesus is sentenced to crucifixion, Jesus has already been whipped once (John 19:1). Many scholars believe that Jesus didn’t go through one flogging, but two. The first one was a light flogging in verse 1 called fustigatio. It was just Pilate’s way of appeasing the Jews. But it didn’t work. The chief priests want Jesus dead, and Pilate gives in. Now that Jesus is officially sentenced to crucifixion, that’s when the most severe flogging begins. It’s called verberatio. Since crucifixion was a long process, verberatio was meant to speed the execution process, to tenderize the meat, if you will, before the crucifixion even began.
In verberatio, the Romans would use what’s called a flagellum. It’s a leather whip that has attached to it bits of metal, glass, and bone. They would take Jesus, expose his back, and whip him with this flagellum. In the process, the metal, the glass and the bone would penetrate his flesh, rip his skin, and shred his body into strips. History records that the verberatio floggings were so brutal they could leave victims with their arteries, organs and bones exposed. Sometimes victims died from that alone.
If you want to get a sense of just how brutal that verberatio flogging was, watch a movie like The Passion of the Christ.
For us today, let us not take those words lightly: “He had Jesus flogged…”.
Jesus, thank You for taking the place of a Barabbas like me. Thank You for having mercy on a Pilate like me. Thank You for Your mercy which covers all of my mistakes. Thank You for paying the highest price so that I could be set free. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
copyright © 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.
