Mark 15:1-5--Jesus Delivered to Pilate

Mark 15:1-5
English Standard Version
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Jesus Delivered to Pilate
15 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. 2 And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” 3 And the chief priests accused him of many things. 4 And Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.” 5 But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.

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It was a long night for Jesus as He faced multiple hearings before Pilate, the Roman governor for the territory the Romans called Palestine, finally heard Jesus's case.  The chief priests in consultation with the elders, the scribes, and the whole Council delivered the indictment to Pilate.  At the same time, they bound Jesus and delivered him over to Pilate and the Roman authorities for a trial they hoped would end in execution.  The charge they offered that finally stuck was that Jesus claimed to be the King of the Jews.  The Jews hoped the Romans would fear Jesus as an insurrectionist, label Him as a political enemy, and put Him to death for telling the truth about who He was.

Pilate asks Jesus directly, "Are you the King of the Jews?"  Jesus's answer doesn't translate well into English.  It was very apathetic and more literally says, "You say so."  The implication is that Jesus never used those words to describe Himself.  They were used by the wise men who came to visit Jesus in Matthew 2, and the next time the phrase appears in any of the Gospels is here where those making the accusations against Jesus bring this charge against Him.  Jesus neither says "yes" or "no" but only answers the charge that He claimed to be the King of the Jews--He never claimed any such thing, but His actions spoke louder than His words and proved that He was their Messiah and King.  Pilate understood where Jesus was going with His non-answer answer and followed up on this in the other gospels asking, "So you are a king?" To that, Jesus got to tell Pilate that "My kingdom is not of this world." (See John 18:33-40 for this exchange).  It is also during this exchange when Pilate asks the famous question, "What is truth?" that Jesus doesn't answer.  We know the answer already from John 14:6 when Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life."  In fact, that is this week's lesson from "The Gospel Project" that I will be recording shortly, so if you'd like to hear a 45–60-minute lesson just on the fact that Jesus is the Truth, you can register for access to the members-only area of this website and you can view that lesson along with many other lessons from The Gospel Project and Gospel Foundations.

Jesus stood silent before Pilate and His accusers, just like the Scriptures said He would.  He never answered the false charges against Him, even with this non-answer answer that He gave when asked if He was King of the Jews.  The only time we saw Him actually answer something was when the High Priest compelled Him to answer using the Law of Moses to do so, and made Jesus tell them plainly His identity--that He was not only the Christ, but the Son of Man and Son of God.  Pilate was amazed that Jesus wouldn't defend Himself against any of the charges.  He goes out to the crowd and says he finds no guilt with them, and, furthermore, since they believe He is their king, it is an internal political affair, and they should take care of it themselves according to their laws.

The Jews did not accept this answer as they answered back that they had no authority under Roman law to put anyone to death--the Romans were supposed to do that for them.  We know they had no problem stoning people in the book of Acts, and they brought a woman to Jesus that they wanted to stone when she was caught in adultery, and they had picked up stones to try to stone Jesus on several occasions--they even tried to throw Him over a cliff on time.  No, they wanted the blood of the Son of God to be on the hands of these pagan Gentiles and not on them.  They were telling the truth that they were not supposed to kill anyone, but it was that they wanted Jesus to be crucified.  Stoning wasn't enough torture and punishment for them.  They wanted to see Him publicly shamed and humiliated by the Gentiles, beaten within an inch of His life, and then hung on a cross to suffocate under His own weight as He struggled to take His last breath--rubbing His torn flesh on His back against the splinters of the wooden cross and pushing against the spikes and nails so that he could exhale and inhale.

We'll talk more about this next time when we talk about Jesus being delivered over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified and the prisoner exchange of sorts that was made where Jesus died in the place of someone worthy of death--He also was "exchanged" for you and me who were worthy of death.  We'll talk about that next time.