SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
2/5/2013 12:19 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Pilate
Before Jesus
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Mark 15:1-15
Message of the
verses: I think it best to share
with all the plans that I have for my Spiritual Diaries in the near
future. It is my desire to finish up
with the book of Mark this month and so I will continue to work on that until
it is finished. At that time we will go
back to the book of Proverbs and continue to work through it. Starting in the month of March we will
continue to look at Proverbs but will also begin to look at the book of Daniel,
but working through one chapter of Mark a month until it is finished. I first looked at the book of Mark while the
Holy Spirit of God was giving me His effectual call for salvation in January of
1974 as I was listening to messages by Hal Lindsey while visiting a friend in
Florida. I have studied it before, but
never studied it all the way through and I am looking forward to doing
that. The book of Daniel is like the Old
Testament account of the New Testament book of Revelations and since I am
putting my study of Revelations on the second blog it seems good to me to have
Daniel on the first blog. They can both
be found at the same web address www.2twokens.blogspot.com.
As we begin to look at the 15th chapter of
Mark we need to do a little bit of a review before jumping into it. We remember that the 14th chapter
of Mark was a very long chapter, some 72 verses and in that chapter we saw
Jesus come into Jerusalem, teach at the temple, then begin to continually teach
just His disciples which is actually seen in the gospel of John, chapters
13-17. The last Passover mean was
celebrated with His disciples, and then Judas leaves to betray Jesus. After he leaves Jesus shares the first
Communion with His remaining disciples.
John tells us that at this time Jesus would wash His disciples feet and
then they would all leave for the Garden of Gethsemane. We have had the bold disciple, Peter tell
Jesus that he would never forsake Him and Jesus telling him that he would. We see that the disciples all slept while
Jesus was praying three times in great agony.
Judas comes with possibly as many as 1000 men to arrest Jesus and then
the disciples run away. We see Jesus on
trial, but Mark does not tell about all of the trials that He has before the
Jews, which were three in number. We
also see Peter betray the Lord Jesus as He said he would do.
The three trials before the Jews were one before Annas
who was the High Priest before Roman put a stop to him having that position any
longer. Next to Caiaphas, and then after
daylight another trial with Caiaphas.
Here is what John writes: “John
18:13 And led him away to Annas first; for he was father in law to Caiaphas,
which was the high priest that same year.”
Now that the three trials are over with the Jews Jesus is
taken to Pilate which would be the first of the three trials that Jesus would
have before the Gentiles. Jesus would
see Pilate two times and Herod once.
Herod was the one who had John the Baptist beheaded.
Now we are ready to begin to look at the first fifteen
verses in Mark chapter fifteen.
“1 Early in the morning the chief priests with the elders
and scribes and the whole Council, immediately held a consultation; and binding
Jesus, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate. 2 Pilate questioned Him,
"Are You the King of the Jews?" And He answered him, "It is as
you say." 3 The chief priests began to accuse Him harshly. 4 Then Pilate
questioned Him again, saying, "Do You not answer? See how many charges
they bring against You!" 5 But Jesus made no further answer; so Pilate was
amazed. 6 Now at the feast he used to release for them any one prisoner whom
they requested. 7 The man named Barabbas had been imprisoned with the
insurrectionists who had committed murder in the insurrection. 8 The crowd went
up and began asking him to do as he had been accustomed to do for them. 9
Pilate answered them, saying, "Do you want me to release for you the King
of the Jews?" 10 For he was aware that the chief priests had handed Him
over because of envy. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask him
to release Barabbas for them instead. 12 Answering again, Pilate said to them,
"Then what shall I do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?" 13
They shouted back, "Crucify Him!" 14 But Pilate said to them,
"Why, what evil has He done?" But they shouted all the more,
"Crucify Him!" 15 wishing to
satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after having Jesus
scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified.”
We see it was early in the morning that Jesus was taken
to Pilate, for they had just finished their last trial before Caiaphas trying
to make it somewhat legal, but failing to do so. We know that according to the OT prophet
Isaiah that Jesus did not open His mouth: Isa 53:7 “He was oppressed and He was
afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His
mouth.” Jesus would only answer
legitimate questions and the question that Pilate asked him was legitimate and so
He answered that He was indeed the King of the Jews as seen in verse two.
As we think a bit about Pilate we know that he was hated
by the Jews, and also hated the Jews in return, but it seems that Pilate was a
bit afraid of the Jews. I suppose that Pilate
was not too much in the good graces of Rome or he would not have to come to
this part of the world. When he first
arrived in Jerusalem he had a great parade and in the parade he displayed
things on shields that were greatly offence to the Jews for they thought that
they were idols. Some of the Jews
brought this to the attention of the officials in Rome and they made Pilate put
these “idols” in his palace in Caesarea.
Another time Pilate began to build an aqueduct to get a better supply of
water in Jerusalem and took the money out of the temple treasury to do
this. This also upset the Jews for this
money was used for the purposes of the Lord; it was called “Corbin.” All of this put Pilate in a position that I
am sure that he did not want to be in so he tried hard not to have Jesus
crucified because he did have some appearance of justice in him. In between verses five and six we see that
when Pilate found out that Jesus was from Galilee that he immediately sent him
to Herod. As mentioned earlier Herod was
the one who was responsible for the death of John the Baptist. Herod had married his brother’s wife who was
actually the niece of both he and the brother she was first married to, so this
not only made him an adultery, but also committing incest. Jesus did not speak a word to Herod and
probably Herod thought that Jesus was now no threat to him, for Herod thought
that Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead.
As we look at the remaining verses in this section from
Mark we see that Pilate did desire to release Jesus, but in the end as Dr.
Wiersbe explains, “Pilate did not ask, ‘Is it right?’ Instead, he asked ‘Is it
safe? Is it popular?’”
We have seen in this great injustice different people who
we can blame for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. We first saw Judas, then Annas and Chiapas,
and of course all of the Jews who had Him on trail. Now we see Pilate and Herod as they too are
responsible for the death of Jesus. We
see all of these things happening at a very fast paste and when we think about
it long and hard we have to believe that God was the One behind the scenes to
make all of this happen. “Isa 53:10 But the LORD was pleased To crush
Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt
offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good
pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.”
Pleased means the following “to delight in, take pleasure in, desire, be
pleased with.” Now we could ask if it
pleased the Lord to kill His Son why are those who are participating in all of
this be blamed? I think that the answer
is that it was their desire to do all that they did. There is one more person that we can look at
as to why Jesus was crucified and that person is me. Paul writes that we have all sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God and so we can all blame ourselves, but the
good news is that it did please God to kill His Son in order to provide a way
of salvation for all those who accept His pardon.
In John MacArthur’s sermon on these fifteen verses he
brings up something about Pilate that is a legend that I want to share for in
some ways it is funny, but in some ways it is sad.
“Some legends grew up about the
end of his life. Really interesting ones. A little research reveals them. We
know he committed suicide, that’s history. But legend says that after he
committed suicide, his body was taken and thrown into the Tiber River, the main
river that runs through Rome. At which moment when the body hit the water, the
water became so disturbed by evil spirits, that the body was removed, taken to
Vienna and thrown into the Rhone River where there is a monument there today titled
“Pilate’s Tomb.” It’s a legend, but it’s not the end of the legend. The Rhone
apparently, according to another legend, rejected Pilate’s corpse so it was
again removed and it was thrown in the Lake in Luzon Switzerland. It was taken
out of that place because they didn’t want it and it was removed to a mountain
near Lucerne Switzerland. Some say it is in another lake called Lagodepilato in
the Sibylline Mountains in Italy. You could guess from the name of the lake,
Lagodepilato that somebody believes it was put there in that little lake, and
legend says that every Good Friday, Pilate’ body emerges from the waters and he
washes his hands.”
On more thing that is
surely worth mentioning and that is the story within the story of Jesus that
has to do with Barabbas, for Barabbas was the one who was let go in order for
Christ to be crucified. One has to
wonder what thoughts went through his head and what ever happened to him.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: When I think about all of the cruelty that
went on to Jesus, the beatings, the flogging, the crucifixion itself, and I
think that it was me who should have been there taking His place because I am
the one who deserves it and not Him I can only fall on my face and thank the
Lord for taking my place. Paul writes “2Co
5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be
sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” This is one of the most amazing verses in all
of the Bible. Think on it!
My Steps of Faith for
Today:
Think on 2Cor. 5:21.
Memory verses for the week:
Psalm 32:1
1 How blessed is he
whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered!
Turning Points Wisdom for Today:
“All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because
they reckoned on His being with them.”
(J. Hudson Taylor) “With men this is impossible, but with God all things
are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
2/5/2013 2:01 PM
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