It's possible to be impartial about Maybe you don't really care one way or another about sports or fashion or politics, but there are some people who claim this kind of indifference toward Jesus. And today on Truth for Life Alistair Begg explains why it's impossible for anyone to be neutral about Jesus. Christ's life before the crucifixion.
And we've reached verse 6. Now at the feast, he—that is, Pilate—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 priests had delivered him up. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release 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 for them Barabbas.
And having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Amen. Gracious God, with our Bibles open, we earnestly ask that the Holy Spirit will reveal, convince, convict, convert, change, open blind eyes, soften hard hearts, redirect those of us on wandering paths. For the glory of Christ we ask it.
Amen. It would be hard to imagine that any who were present on this particular day would ever forget the events of the day for as long as they lived. That would certainly be true, surely, of Pilate and of Barabbas.
After all, Barabbas began the day imprisoned as an insurrectionist and as a robber, and he ended the day as a free man. Pilate ended the day stumbling over the cries and coercive powers of the crowd that confronted him, resulting in him doing what he knew was not right to do, and yet finding it impossible in himself to do the right thing. He was convinced of the innocence of Jesus, he was amazed by Christ's silence, but he was too shrewd to be conned by the religious authorities.
And that comes across again and again. You have the picture of Pilate trying to do just about everything he can in order to prevent Christ from being confronted by the malicious intentions of his opponents. And here we're told, in verse 6, that this particular feast was an occasion for the potential of clemency, therefore an opportunity for Pilate to take another exit from the freeway that seemed to be leading inexorably to the crucifixion of Jesus—a chance for him to release Jesus of Nazareth. Now, there's not much written about this particular event. It seems to me that it's somewhat similar to presidential pardons. Every so often—in fact, just this week, actually, in the press—it was announced that in the last little while, President Obama has pardoned seventeen individuals. And you can go into the presidential record and find how many hundreds and thousands of people have been pardoned by the presidents throughout the history of America. I did a little research on that—not much—but I was intrigued to discover that Garfield—of Moreland Hill's fame—that Garfield was one of only two presidents in the history of the United States who granted a pardon to nobody.
But of course, if you think about it, he was assassinated very, very early on in his presidency, and so we don't want to hold that against him. If you want to know who the other person was, look it up yourself. So, it was that kind of context—at the feast, an opportunity to set a prisoner free. Which would be not only a plus for the prisoner, obviously, but it would say something about the relationships between imperial Rome and those who were in subjection to them.
It's a good opportunity for the governor to placate the crowd, to engage in an act that is conciliatory. Now, as we look at this section, as Mark has it here, we keep in mind, of course, that there are parallel passages in the rest of the Gospels. And if I mention something that you look down at your text and find that it isn't there, as I've said before, I'm pretty confident that if you look either at the other Gospels of Matthew and Luke or John, then you will find the material there. If you don't find it there, then you must, of course, come and take me to task.
But here we have the section before us, between 6 and 15. Notice, first of all, the characters as they are set before us here by Mark. I've identified these various aspects of it all with words that begin with R, just to help me in my recollection. And so, the first word that I wrote down is the word Rome. Rome—representative of the power of Rome and that power being described and exercised in the person of Pilate himself. So, when we think of Pilate, we do not see him simply as an individual but as an individual who has behind him all of the authority of Rome itself. And there are a number of characteristics in relationship to Pilate that are worthy of our consideration.
I will not delay on them, but I want to point them out to you. First of all, he was proud. He was proud. Mark tells us here that he was amazed by the silence of Jesus.
In the parallel passage in John, John records that he wasn't simply amazed but he was annoyed. And this is what he said to Jesus. You won't speak to me? Don't you know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Don't you know who I am?
That's what he said. There is in that personal pride of position, there is in that the representative authority that is his as a servant of Rome, but Jesus' reply was very straightforward too, wasn't it? Remember, he said, Listen, Pilate, you would have no authority to do anything if it were not given to you by heaven. He was proud. Secondly, he was cruel. In Mark chapter 13, you read there of his actions in mingling the blood of the martyrs with their acts of sacrifice.
A picture of inhumanity. He was capable of vicious brutality. He was proud. He was cruel. Thirdly, he was shrewd.
You see that in verse 10 of our passage? For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests wanted him to be crucified. He wasn't conned by them. He was a shrewd character. Still in our passage, fourthly, he was a man-pleaser. It was important for him to be well thought of.
It was important that he was regarded highly by those who were around him, and so wishing to satisfy the crowd, he capitulated. Fifthly, he was superstitious—superstitious enough to pay attention when his wife said to him—and this you'll find in Matthew 27, Pilate, Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream. So he was unsettled by the silence of Christ.
He was unsettled by the statement of his wife. He was superstitious. And sixthly and finally, he was prepared to attempt the impossible. He was prepared to attempt the impossible.
What was the impossible? Adopting a position of neutrality when confronted by Jesus of Nazareth. Again in Matthew, he says, washing his hands, I am innocent of this man's blood.
See to it yourselves. But in actual fact, he's unable to do what he sets out to do. Little did he realize that by his silence, Jesus was actually unveiling his true identity. By saying nothing, Jesus was saying something of significance. He was identifying himself as the one to whom John the Baptist pointed at the very beginning of the gospel records when he sees Jesus on the other side, and he says, Behold, you will see over there the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Led as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before it, shearers is silent. So he didn't open his mouth.
By his silence, he was unveiling his true identity. That's Rome. Second in the characters involved in this scene, the robber. That is Barabbas. You will notice that he comes from a group.
In verse 7, we have essentially a CV. He was one of the rebels in prison amongst those who had committed murder in the insurrection, and his name was Barabbas. Matthew tells us that he was actually notorious. In other words, Barabbas's name wasn't being picked out of the hat, as it were.
He was a standout in relationship to the people who were opposed to the power of Rome. And people knew his name. John, interestingly, gives him just this little sentence where he points out that he was a robber.
Now, if you think about it, it almost seems sort of inconsequential in the vast scheme of things. We've got all these cries for crucifixion, we've got stories of insurrection and rebellion and murder and everything else, and he says, And he was a robber. So there is a reason for him making sure that we understand that.
I think there really is. If you look at verse 27, if your Bible is open here at 15 of Mark, Mark records, And with him, that is, with Jesus they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. And Barabbas was a robber. In other words, when he awakened in the morning, he was presumably heading for the same place as his two fellow insurrectionists. He has no speaking part in this event. His freedom, as we're going to see, was about to be purchased for him by the death of an innocent. So we have Rome, represented by Pilate.
We have the robber in the character of Barabbas. Thirdly, we have the crowd, who I'm referring to just as a rabble. A rabble. I think they are a rabble. They're rabble-rousers.
They are swayed and moved. And it is characteristic of preachers, particularly on Palm Sunday, which will be coming along soon enough, to deliver a sermon at least once in their ministerial career that points out the fickleness of the crowd. You've been present on Palm Sunday for these sermons. I think I probably preached one or two myself.
I'm not sure I'll do it ever again. And it goes like this. The crowd was such a dreadful group of people. At one minute, they are shouting, Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! And the next minute, they were shouting, Crucify him! And the point is then made about how they vacillate and change and so on.
And that may well be right. But having studied my Bible longer and more carefully, I think it's highly improbable that this crowd described here actually contained many, if any, of the crowd that had welcomed him when he arrived not so long ago riding on the cold of a donkey. If that is true, then they're released from the charge of fickleness. If that is true, then what you have is a crowd that welcomes him into the city, largely the Galilean crowd. They come along with him, announcing triumphantly his arrival. Remember the Pharisees say, Tell your disciples to be quiet.
We don't like this. He says, Well, listen, if they stop, even the stones will cry out. So the Galilean crowd ushers him in. Now the Jerusalem crowd seeks to usher him out. The Galileans' praise is more than matched by the opposition of those who cry for his crucifixion. They were stirred up, verse 10 and 11, by the chief priests, who were the religious authorities—Rome, Pilate, Robber, Barabbas, Rabble, crowd, religious authorities, chief priests. What a dreadful thing it is. Now, those who were the very representatives of the Jewish faith were so opposed to he who was their king.
That's, you see, what Martha just couldn't get. You are Jewish people. You're in subjugation to Rome. I represent Rome. Here is apparently a really nice man, and he is your king.
And you don't warn your king? He just couldn't get it. Well, when you think about that, there is another character here, isn't there? That's the final R. That's the Redeemer. The presence of Jesus permeates this entire scene. But he's not identified. He doesn't speak.
He's there. He's there observing this, listening to the words of Pilate, hearing the cries for his crucifixion, pondering what's about to happen to Barabbas. How did Jesus usually respond to large crowds like this? And when he saw the crowd, he looked at them with compassion, because he saw them as sheep without a shepherd. He was about to say from the cross, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
What kind of love and mercy and kindness and grace is this? That he who is most opposed responds with such tenderness. Well, those are the characters. Those are the individuals that would be identified in the scene. Secondly, let's notice the questions that are posed by one of these individuals—namely, by Pilate.
Because you will notice that they're here in the text. First of all, in verse 9, Pilate said to them, Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? That's a fascinating question as to, what did Pilate have in mind when he said that? Was he just actually tweaking their noses? Is he saying to himself, I know they don't want him released, but I'll just ask him if they do, and that'll get them even more annoyed than they are already.
I don't know. Does he expect that their answer is going to be yes? When he poses it in the way that he does, when he gives them the option of this Barabbas character, an insurrectionist and part of murderous plots and so on, does he assume that they will go for the good guy, not for the bad guy? Perhaps he does.
Certainly, there's an opportunity for him now to release Jesus, to release the innocent, and leave the guilty in his place. But he couldn't ever understand the depth of the animosity of these people towards Jesus. It's really hard to figure, isn't it? Their hatred, their envy. It's my experience that it is often those who are most religious who have the greatest animosity towards the story of Jesus and his grace. Religious formalists and Pharisees who have devised a man-made religion of rules and regulations that keep your toes to the fire all of life are often those most opposed. Those who have developed a religion that has no substance to it at all, that is a vacuous thing, that is empty of any truth and reality and power and impact—those individuals have venom towards Jesus and the message he proclaimed. Just yesterday, as I recall to mind, in one of the newspapers that I read, there was an article written by a fellow from a university responding to those who are teaching Christianity in schools. And the fascinating thing was that the fellow who was so opposed to what was being done was himself a religious professional from a denominational university in the country. And the thing that annoyed him so much was that these people who were apparently getting to the tender minds of these youngsters were suggesting that what they had to say about Jesus was true—that his resurrection was true, that his claims were valid, and the opposition was not coming from secular minds.
Actually, it was—secular minds dressed up in religious robes. And anyone who's going to pay careful attention to the way this drama unfolds has to reckon with the fact that here you have worked out in large measure what John says in his prologue to his Gospel, summarizing so much. Remember, he says that Jesus came to his own, and his own did not receive him. He came to that which was his own, and his own did not receive him. Now, Peter made this perfectly clear after Pentecost, when he began to speak to the crowds on the Jerusalem streets.
He didn't pull his punches. In fact, it's absolutely remarkable the clarity and bravery of Peter in relationship to these things. Do you want me, Pilate is asking, to release your king of the Jews? Are you kidding me, they say? Now, here's Peter speaking in Solomon's port of call, after the ascension of Jesus.
Listen to this. Man of Israel, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. And you killed the Author of Life, whom God raised from the dead. And to this we are witnesses. Such clarity, such boldness, addressing these people—significant numbers of whom would then be convicted by the Holy Spirit and would come to trust in Jesus as their only Savior and be added to the vast company of those from nations and peoples all around the world that will finally be assembled in on that day when we're gathered to Christ. Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? And they shouted, No. Stirred up by the chief priest. No.
We would rather have Barabbas. You're listening to Truth for Life. That is Alistair Begg with a message entitled, Pilate's Dilemma.
We'll hear more tomorrow. You know, there are millions of believers around the world who see the Easter story as the miracle at the heart of the Christian faith. There are others, though, who see it as simply a story.
Maybe you have people in your circle who fit that latter category. And if that's the case, be sure to ask for copies of the book we're recommending. It's titled, Is Easter Unbelievable? Four questions everyone should ask about the resurrection story. In fact, we have selected this book so that you can give it to others.
When you request it, we'll send you three copies bundled together so you have extras to give to skeptical friends. They'll learn the historical facts about Jesus. They'll consider evidence that affirms the credibility of his resurrection, not only evidence from Scripture, but from other sources, including ancient Roman history. This brief book also explores tough questions like, how can Jesus' death on the cross be considered justice? Did Jesus really come back to life?
And why is this good news for me? Easter presents a great opportunity to talk to others about Jesus and explain why you trust the Gospels. So give a copy of the book, Is Easter Unbelievable?
to friends or neighbors or co-workers, maybe include an invitation to your church's Easter worship service. Ask for the book bundle today when you donate to support the ministry of Truth for Life. Go to truthforlife.org slash donate or call us at 888-588-7884. And if you'd rather mail your donation along with your request for the book, write to Truth for Life at Post Office Box 398000 Cleveland, Ohio.
Our zip code is 44139. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we'll examine Pilate's dilemma. He was faced with the option of doing the right thing or doing what pleases the crowd. Of course, the question is, what would we do in his place? The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.
