Lent: Friday

April 17

Friday
Mark 15: 1-47

Intro
Lent-one week to get ready-one week to go from no cokes, or sugar or chocolate. But prayerfully we’ll be more excited that Easter is here rather than getting to enjoy our favorite snack.

Happy Palm Sunday! Now let’s talk about the death of Jesus…kind of hard to do both.

We are going to be looking at Friday or Good Friday.
Doesn’t the designation of this dreadful day as ‘good” strike us as strange. Even the sky turns dark showing the cosmos itself joins in mourning what is happening. Reasons: Christians for centuries have affirmed that on this day, despite its horror, the redemption of the world was accomplished.

We won’t take a look at the whole day just one part of it, but it is interesting to note that Mark tells the story of Good Friday in precisely indicated three-hour intervals: from dawn to 9am, from 9am to noon, from noon to 3pm and from 3pm to evening.

Mark 15: 1-15
1 Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.

2 “Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.

“You have said so,” Jesus replied.

Doesn’t it seem strange that the ones who want to kill Jesus-the religious leaders take him to Pilate? Why can’t the Jewish leaders just kill Jesus?

Once again our theme of collaboration with the Empire comes out. They can’t kill without the permission of the Roman authority

And can’t you just hear the exchange between Pilate and Jesus-
Are “you” the king of the Jews? As if the man standing before him is unworthy to bear that title.
And Jesus responds-“You say so.” Jesus knowing full well that Pilate is no real king or authority.

3 The chief priests accused him of many things. 4 So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”

5 But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.

In order to have Jesus killed there had to be a reason. The Romans didn’t care about blasphemy. So they told different stories to try to have Jesus killed. Pilate sensing something was awry tries to give Jesus an out, but Jesus says nothing.

To refuse to respond to authority reflects both courage and contempt. Authorities do not like it. Pilate is amazed.
Also in the ancient near east silence is also an admission of guilt. If you didn’t defend yourself they pronounced you guilty-guilty unless proven otherwise. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus doesn’t speak again until his final cry from the cross-My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Can you imagine if one of us was before Pilate facing death. We would be passionately defending ourselves.
It’s hard to follow the Prince of Peace. Being a follower of Jesus is difficult.

6 Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. 7 A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. 8 The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.

9 “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, 10 knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

There are some things we need to know to better understand what is going on in this story.
Who was Barabbas? The leader of a rebellion
What is significant about Jesus being compared with an insurrectionist? Crucifixion was reserved for those who had rebelled against the Roman Empire.
For what reason would Rome have had to crucify Jesus? Jesus would have to speak out against the empire.

12 “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.

13 “Crucify him!” they shouted.

14 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

We need to ask ourselves some questions here as well.
Where exactly was this “trial?”
Who was the crowd? Who are the people shouting crucify him? What happened to those who celebrated at the triumphal entry and marveled at his teaching in the courtyard?

Almost certainly, this is not the same crowd that heard Jesus with delight during the week; Mark gives us no reason to think that crowd has turned against Jesus. Also, it is highly unlikely that the crowds from earlier in the week would have been allowed into Herod’s Palace. Herod’s Palace is where this trial took place.

Plus, what happened the night before? Why were all the people in Jerusalem? Passover-huge meal with wine-Would you be awake at 6am after a night like that? Maybe, but would you be functional at 6am after a night like that?

For the religious leaders, timing was critical. Given enough time the crowds who loved Jesus and hailed him as Messiah would have been on the streets and would have shouted to free Jesus instead of Barabbas.

This crowd had their chance to free him, but they were most likely the followers of Barabbas.

So after hearing this story does this story make us feel ashamed? Do we feel shame when we read it?
Are we any different? We call on Jesus on Sunday, but abandon him throughout the week. We follow, but we don’t.
Another question, for what do we crucify people unjustly?
We crucify people through the media when they don’t live up to our expectations. Tiger Woods, Charlie Sheen, Bush, Obama, Rob Bell
Along with that, what higher standard do we expect of others, but aren’t willing to live up to ourselves?
Thank you example from Chris Isaac-every time I expect a thank you and don’t get one I think about all the times I should have thanked God, but didn’t.

Finally, we have to ask why does Jesus die? For the sins of the world or because of them? If we believe in freedom of choice over predestination we have to deal with this question. Otherwise everyone in this story is God’s puppet. In other words, were the system and the people so corrupt they could not handle the challenge that Jesus provided to their corrupt system of collaboration? Was it the sins of Judas, the religious leaders, or his disciples that caused Jesus to go to the cross? Did they have a choice or were they predestined for their “roles?” If they had a choice, then Jesus would die because of their sins. We often say Jesus died for our sins, but we might consider that instead Jesus died because of their sins. That is your question for the week-Why does Jesus die? For the sins of the world or because of them?

As we journey this week through Holy Week-may you remember the journey to the cross we have covered these last few weeks and the lessons Jesus taught each day. We need to be separate from the empire, we need to produce fruit, we need to continue to learn, we need to belong to God, we need to trust, and we need to give. May this holy week journey be something special in your walk of faith.