-What do we do with sin? There has to be some way of dealing with it, fixing it, addressing the problems we see in the world.

-I’ve never talked to anyone who thinks everything is going great in the world. Wars, rumors of wars, death, sickness, political polarization. Car breaking down, getting a poor evaluation at work, or abruptly losing a job.

-As Christians, we have what I would argue is the most complete understanding of why there are so many problems in the world around us: sin. Everything is broken, down to our cells producing cancer. Did you know that if you live long enough, cancer is an inevitability because even our DNA decays. But what’s crazy about that is Christians believe in what we call “good news.” Yes, the world is completely broken, but there’s a solution.

-In order to deal with the problem of sin, the Creator of the universe came to earth and lived a perfect life, then He died in our place to deal with all the penalties for sin which now means there is hope! Where there once was just wishful thinking, now our hope has a name and a purpose. But at the core of it is this idea of replacement.

-In many cases, we don’t want to be replaced! I remember a call from a boss at my first job out of college where I was going to be pulled from my role to be replaced by someone else because I wasn’t up to snuff.

-But in this case, replacement is the only way for sin to be dealt with. None of us are good enough (perfect) to bear the penalty for our sins. We require a replacement, and that was promised from God all the way back in Gen. 3. But Jesus being the replacement for the world begins with the replacement of 1 man.

READ/PRAY (pg. 497)

1. Interrogation (1-5)

-After holding the fake trial overnight, things took a different turn today. Why wait until morning?

-Roman trials all started at sunrise so they could break in the later morning for their leisure activities. This shows us why last night was so critical for the chief priests to rush through their trial so they didn’t miss being the first in line the next morning to have their Jesus problem dealt with. 

-Theme of bounding (divine passive: 9:31, 10:33, 14:21, 41)

-Look at all the ways Jesus has talked about this up to this point. As you read it, it sounds like Jesus is the passive recipient of all these events. But don’t forget: who’s the Lord of the universe? Who created everything? Who upholds everything by His might? Do you think He is passively sitting back and questioning what’s happening to Him? Absolutely not! He’s in complete control of everything that has happened at each moment of His life. In John’s account of Jesus interaction with Him, Pilate asks Jesus “Do you not know that I have the authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been give you from above.”

-How frustrating do you think this situation was for Pilate? He’s got a no-win dilemma in front of him! This innocent man is being accused of a whole host of issues, but unless he deals with this Jesus guy, he’s going to have a riot on his hands, and then potentially lose his role in the government! So when he tries to reason with Jesus to get some traction with Him it goes nowhere. Jesus doesn’t play the same political game, He’s not worried about scoring point or the response of the crowds. Jesus is worried about what’s right and being obedient to what the plans of His Father. But don’t view Jesus as some passive observer throughout this! And this should give us comfort anytime we’re walking through a difficult season.

-What has God allowed to happen in your life? What kind of testing has God permitted, where you question where God is, but He’s not sitting back laughing at you, He’s allowing you to grow in reliance on Him, to grow in understanding of Him, and to better know and live the life He’s called you to. 

-Friends, this is a vital message for us to understand today. Jesus doesn’t promise us an easy life. He doesn’t promise us wealth and prosperity. He doesn’t even promise to fix all our problems. What he does promise is Himself. AND He said if you have Him you will face all sorts of difficulties, what’s different is that He’s with you in the midst of those difficulties walking you through them and ensuring that you’re never alone. But nothing ever catches God off guard or by surprise. What looks to us like passivity is held in God’s sovereign hand, so trust in Him and walk with Him.

-And keep that in mind as we continue walking through the rest of Mark’s Gospel. Everything that happens is the way God intended it to happen. All these characters in the story bear responsibility for their role in these events, but God knew what every person’s role would be, from the chief priests, to Peter, and even Pilate.

-Pilate – real person, prefect of Judea from 26-36 (historicity, helps us date Jesus’ crucifixion)

-Often impulsive and caving to crowd’s desires. There are a couple historical stories that help us understand Pilate’s MO. When he first arrived in Palestine, his army came in with armor that had the images of the Romans emperors (idols to the Jews). Protests broke out, and in response Pilate changed the armor the army wore to not have a revolt. Similarly, another time Pilate had shields brought in that had the images on them again, and he once again got rid of them because he was worried they would complain to Rome and tell him about all the other problems they had with him. Philo quote.

-Pilate was not the most upstanding guy! So when he begins in interrogate Jesus, he takes his typical approach of trying to appease the masses.

-“You have said so” Wesley from The Princess Bride “As you wish.”

-Parallels say “You say it” (Matt. 26:46, Luke 22:70) 

-Yes, but we’re talking about VERY different things (John 18:36). Initially the chief priests had accused Jesus of religious sins, but as soon as He’s brought to Pilate it changes to political sins. King of the Jews sounds like Jesus is trying to start an uprising, a revolt against the Roman occupation. What Pilate (and the chief priests) miss is it’s a true statement, but they’re not speaking the same language.

-Accusations continue, Jesus remains silent. Any defense He makes will be twisted and distorted anyway because they’re using a different dictionary.

-How often is this the case? And how often are Christians misunderstood because we mean different things by the words we use?

-Christians were initially accused of being atheists because they only worshipped 1 God. Accused of being cannibals (drinking blood and eating a body). Accused of having incestuous sex parties (brothers and sisters in the faith, communion was called a love feast). Why would we expect anything different from people who are deceived, and looking to the wrong sources of inspiration for how they should live in the world?

-I was listening to a podcast this past week that was talking about the need for Christians to live distinctly different lives, and unfortunately that hasn’t always been true for those claim the name of Jesus on their lives. There are 3 ideas that philosophy calls “transcendentals” things that transcend every human culture and experience. They are: truth, beauty, and goodness. Christianity is true, but it’s not just true, it’s also beautiful and good. And we as Christians are called to live lives that are all 3 of these things. Do you/are you living a life that is beautiful and good? Is your marriage (or singleness) beautiful and good? Is your work beautiful and good? Is your parenting (or encouraging other parents) beautiful and good? 

-Friends, this is the call for all of us today! Everyone saw Jesus’ life that was marked by truth, beauty, and goodness, and all of us today are meant to live those exact same lives. And what will the response to that be? Look at the end of vs. 5.

-Why was Pilate amazed? Jesus’ silence. How does the world train us to respond to accusations (even when they’re true!) With anger, bitterness, cancelling, but how does Jesus teach us to respond? With love and graciousness.

-Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX). Crypto-currency company that went completely bankrupt, losing billions (with a B) of investors dollars. What I read about the trial was he made a bold (and foolish) move of taking the stand himself, because he was convinced his testimony would exonerate him. But it did the opposite! The jurors only took 4 hours to find him guilty on all accounts! 

-Yet so many of us live like that! We’re trained that we always need to defend ourselves, we view ourselves as the hero of every story instead of seeing Jesus as the hero. I’m just as guilty as anyone else of responding poorly, that’s why we need grace and forgiveness extended to each other on a regular basis. If we live in such a way where we don’t respond with harshness or bitterness we will leave people amazed, we will be a faithful witness to others.

• Insurrection (6-15)

-These other sections build off that first one, which is why I wanted to spend so much time on it! These next 2 sections are more detail about what was happening in those first 5 verses.

-The first thing we see is this odd tradition of a prisoner release.

-Again, opportunistic Pilate, follows the theme of Passover by “passing over” a convicted felon. But the felon Pilate chooses to contrast with Jesus is Barabbas.

-Not a lot of info about Barabbas, some early manuscripts name him “Jesus Barabbas” adding even more weight to Pilate’s question. Which Jesus do they want? 

-Notice the difference right away between these 2 Jesus’: one was convicted. He had committed murder! The other had done nothing wrong.

-Vs. 10. Pilate wasn’t dumb! He realized it was a sham, and the only thing Jesus was guilty of was influence. The chief priests were threatened by Him, so they deal with him the way they know how: hand Him over to the Romans.

-Pilate tries 3 times to change the outcome of these events.

-First is the ironic title “King of the Jews.” Had this story gotten back to Rome it would have led to major issues for Pilate! The ultimate king of the Jews was in Rome! Tiberius, ruling over the entire Roman Empire! Pilate thought (wrongly) that if these 2 men were contrasted with each other, the people would make the right decision. What he hadn’t counted on was the conviction of the chief priests. Look at vs. 11. These are the same people who had paid Judas to betray Jesus. Conjecture, but wouldn’t surprise me if they were bribing the crowd to ensure their way! Doing anything they could to continue their hold on their power.

-So Pilate tries again. The crowd has chosen the convicted felon to be released, so he asks “ok, fine, but then what should I do with this other Jesus?” The first tactic didn’t work, let’s try just outright asking for His release! But how do they respond? Capital punishment! 

-So Pilate tries a third time: What is he guilty of? At this point, the mob mentality has taken over and they will not be appeased until they get what they want. 

-Is Pilate more worried about pleasing people or doing what’s right? Just as we read the stories before, he just caves into the demands of the crowd. He’d rather stay in his position of power than live in an honorable way.

-Scourging is nearly a death penalty. Tied to a wooden post, stripped naked, whipped with a rope braided with pieces of bone and rock.

-Historical accounts of people dying merely from this. Read a story of someone who’s intestines spilled out from this beating, another whose bones were showing. I don’t share that to be grotesque, but to help us understand what Jesus went through. The Romans were MASTERS of torture and death, they had to be do continue exerting their influence over the expanding empire. And as if that penalty wasn’t enough, the abuse continues.

• Inside the Palace (16-20)

-Most likely those who were stationed at the governor’s palace. A fairly boring, routine night was broken up by the arrival of a newly condemned prisoner who was accused of looking to start an insurrection (but that guy was just freed).

-The irony reaches its pinnacle with the soldiers crowning Jesus with royal colors and a crown.

-The crown that connects back to the original problem with the world: sin. Gen. 3:18 “thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.” Instead of being royally crowned as the sovereign king of the universe, the true king is crowned with all the effects and penalties of sin. 

-The soldiers thought they were heaping abuse on Jesus, and they were! But it wasn’t any worse than the abuse that was coming because of the problem of sin that was affecting the whole world. In Luke’s account of Jesus’ last week of life, he tells the story of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. He sees the way sin has completely broken all of humanity and it grieves Him. Instead of living in truth, beauty, and goodness, people look to lies, ugliness, and evil, and all that will be heaped upon Jesus to deal with it once and for all. The weight of that burden would be far too much for any of us to bear, yet Jesus did, in full obedience and knowing exactly what was coming, He allowed all this abuse to be heaped upon Him. 

-Once they’d finished their humiliation of Jesus, they put his bloody clothes back on Him and took Him to the outside of the city.

-Jesus taking the place of Barabbas serves as a picture for the ultimate replacement Jesus would take for the entire creation order. And that replacement means that for us today, we have a new lease on life. We can now live lives that are marked by: truth, beauty, and goodness. We can amaze others with a life fully surrendered to Jesus, being content in all circumstances. Not by putting on a front or pretending that everything is fine when it’s not, but by living the life Jesus calls us to.