GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
MARK 15:1
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15:1 Early in the morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and all of the Sanhedrin. They bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.
Mark begins with the time of day: “Early in the morning.” The word proi (πρωί) has two syllables, like our word holy. It is also the word Mark uses for the time of Christ’s resurrection, or rather the approach of the women “very early in the morning” (λίαν πρωὶ, Mark 16:2) when they found that Jesus had already risen. It is the fourth watch of the night, the time from 3:00 to 6:00 am. (Jesus described the four watches in this manner: “evening, midnight, rooster crow, and dawn” Mark 13:35).
The “consultation” (some translations say “decision”) was a meeting of the elders (the “grey beards” from each of the twelve tribes) the scribes, and the seventy men of the Sanhedrin (some of whom were chief priests). It was called or convened by Caiaphas and the other chief priests such as his father-in-law Annas as well as John, the son of Annas, who would become the next chief priest after Caiaphas (Acts 4:6). The judgment or verdict of this consultation doesn’t need to be stated since they once again bound Jesus and then led him off to Pilate.
That act, leading him off to Pilate, needs to be considered. But we also notice in passing that Jesus needs to be bound once again, since he was already bound when he was taken to Annas earlier that night (John 18:12), and he was sent, “still bound, to Caiaphas” (John 18:24). It was after the interview with Caiaphas that Jesus was beaten up, both by members of the Sanhedrin and by certain palace guards (Mark 14:65). It must have been the case that the beatings were so severe that the ropes binding Jesus’ wrists were so badly mangled that they had to be replaced, since no pity or mercy entered into that beating in any way.
Now they led him away. That is, the Sanhedrin itself, along with the elders, chief priests, and scribes who were not part of the Sanhedrin but who were there at the consultation in the palace of Caiaphas– they all led him away. It must have been an amazing sight. For although the sky above was beginning to grow lighter, and as long fingers of violet, red, and orange color climbed higher and higher into the sky (as happens all over the Levant) just before the brilliant disk of the sun erupts over the peaks to the east, the streets down in the city behind the high walls would still have been quite dark’ black as night. But suddenly a long parade of well-dressed men, the leaders of the Jews in all their finery, came with torches and shouts of “Out of the way!” at anyone who happened to be up and out at this early hour of the morning. “They usually let their servants bring the evil-doer before the governor with a declaration of what he had done wrong” (Gerhard), but here the ruling council of the Jews came in person. It was hatred that did this, the hatred that brought them to plot against Jesus’ life for very long time now. Herod the Great had wanted to kill him when he was nothing more than a newborn infant (Matthew 2:13). During his ministry, Herod’s son and others plotted to kill him (Luke 13:31), and the Jews were plotting to kill him in the months leading up to the Feeding of the Five Thousand (John 5:18). They had talked about killing him when he had driven the money changers from the temple (Mark 11:18), and they had all been plotting together during Holy Week to kill him by any means they found. Now they just wanted it done with, and since they had him, betrayed at last by Judas for cash (Mark 14:10-11), they wanted to give him to the governor, Pilate. But they refused to let their servants do it. They took him themselves through the streets in the torchlight.
Walking through the streets of Jerusalem, they had to enter into the temple courts to get to the doors of the Praetorium, the palace where Pilate stayed while he was visiting Jerusalem. Pilate spent most of his time in another city, the Roman administrative center of Judea, which was not Jerusalem at all but Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast a little south of Mount Carmel (Acts 8:40).
John tells us that these pillars of Jewish virtue and piety didn’t want to enter into Pilate’s home or they would have become ceremonially unclean, and there was still a week of Passover celebrations left and they didn’t want to miss any of the meals (John 18:28). But Peter said: “This man Jesus of Nazareth was handed over to you by the plan God decided on and foreknew, and with the help of lawless men you put him to death by crucifying him” (Acts 2:23). Jesus had foreseen and prophesied: “The chief priests and the scribes will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him” (Mark 10:33-34). So everything that was happening here in the streets of the city in the wee hours of a Friday morning had been foreseen by God. It was part of his plan, to allow both Jews and Gentiles to condemn him to death. For here in this city, on this morning, were the representatives of the whole human race. Caiaphas, the high priest of the Jews, and Pilate, the pagan Roman governor of Judea. They would speak on this day for all of mankind, and so the Son of God would be sentenced to death by all mankind through these two men, each one representing, on the one hand, all believers, and on the other hand, all unbelievers. “At morning’s light they carry out iniquity because it is in their power to do so” (Micah 2:1).
We read this passage and consider the parade of mock-piety that was walking the Son of God to the Gentiles to be put to death, and we wonder, what can I learn from this?
First, we learn that Jesus went willingly and did not struggle at all. “As a sheep before the shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).
Second, we learn that God’s plan from the fall until this moment was that the world would condemn Christ, and that no voice would be raised to spare his life apart from that of a heathen judge.
Third, we see ourselves joining in the sin of the Sanhedrin, a generation of Caiaphases, cruelly turning away from God with each commandment we violate. We are the ones who should know better, but we fall and rebel and violate and break his will. “Because I have sinned, I will bear the Lord’s wrath” (Micah 7:9). Or worse, we deny sin and bring an even heavier judgment, when God says, “I have indeed judged you because you say, ‘I have not sinned’” (Jeremiah 2:35).
Fourth, we see the grace of God willingly enduring anything to rescue his beloved people from the guilt of their sins. “My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger” (Hosea 10:8-9).
Fifth, our hearts are led to say, “I will treat my neighbor better because I am grateful to my Lord for what he has done for me.” And we have the example of what happened to him to allow us to say: “No one should be treated so poorly, so cruelly, so wickedly. I will treat my neighbor with kindness and compassion, even if he does not love me at all, because I love my Savior.” Paul says: “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. It trains us to reject ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2:11-12). Come quickly to help me, O Lord my Savior.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Mark 15:1 Over to Pilate