Mark 15:1-15 | “Unfairness for Unfairness”

Life Is Not Fair

“Life is not fair.”  This is perhaps something you heard from your parents when you were a kid growing up.  It was likely said in the context of being asked to do something that we didn’t want to do or not getting something that we wanted.  Growing up in a family with five kids, there were many times when I didn’t get what I wanted, which would lead to grumbling and complaining, which would lead to my mom saying, “Life just isn’t fair sometimes.”

We all want life to be fair.  Right now, many of us are struggling with frustrations concerning the coronavirus.  This pandemic has created more disruption in our lives than anything in most of our lifetimes, and there’s no indication that it’s going to get better anytime soon.  We may be wondering why all this is happening and wish that it would just go away.  If you’re like me, over the last week, you’ve probably thought, “I wish I could just have my normal life and routine back.” 

Many of us are wondering how we’re going to make ends meet with the downturn in the economy.  Many of us are wondering if we or our loved ones are going to get the virus.  Many of us are wondering whether our healthcare system and grocery stores and basic services will hold up during this time.  As we think through these things, we may be prone to think, “Why does this have to be happening right now?  Why can’t things just go back to normal?  This is not fair.” 

God Is Fair

This idea of fairness is a thoroughly biblical idea.  God is a God of justice.  He loves what is right and hates what is wrong.  He’s impartial.  He doesn’t have favorites.  He’s committed to giving people what they deserve.  He is the fairest Person in the universe.

So when we desire fairness, we’re reflecting the image of God in us.  We want wrongs to be righted because we’re made in the image of a God of justice.  Our desire for fairness and equity and justice is thus a godly desire.

The problem is that we may think that fairness means that nothing bad should ever happen to us.  We may be tempted to think that fairness means that our lives shouldn’t have any suffering.  During this coronavirus outbreak, we may be thinking, “What have I done to deserve this?  Why should I have to struggle with finances?  Why should my wedding be disrupted?  Why should my family not be able to be at the birth of my child?  Why should I have to lose my job when others get to keep theirs?  Why should I have to go to work when others get to telecommute?  Why do I have to be quarantined and feel so isolated and alone?  This isn’t fair!” 

God Doesn’t Owe Us Anything

By the way, these are all legitimate complaints.  I wish that none of us had to feel or face these things.  I wish that coronavirus would go away.  I’m a creature of routine and I would love to have mine back!  But, however good these desires are, the reality is that God doesn’t owe us anything. 

Do you believe that God owes you the things you’ve lost or the things you may lose?  God is good and he loves to give good gifts to his children.  But his gifts are not given because we’ve earned them.  They’re given because of grace.  Because of our sin, the only thing that God owes us is justice.  Therefore, everything that we get besides justice is a free gift of grace. 

God has been more than fair toward us.  He’s lavished us with more gifts of grace than we can imagine.  In these strange times that we’re living in, we must remember that everything we have is a gift from God and that God doesn’t owe us anything. 

We must also remember that there’s only one person who ever lived who truly didn’t deserve the evil that befell him.  Jesus is the only person who ever had the right to say, “This isn’t fair!”  Yet, as we continue to study the Passion narrative in Mark’s Gospel, we’re going to see that Jesus willingly received unfairness so that God could lavish us with the unfairness of his grace.  The Passion of Jesus is a story of unfairness for the sake of unfairness.

In Mark 15:1-15, the scene shifts from the Sanhedrin to the Roman governor Pilate.  We’re going to see Jesus unfairly tried and sentenced to death, all while someone who truly deserves to die gets to go free.  We can break the text down like this: Jesus before Pilate (vv. 1-5), Barabbas instead of Jesus (vv. 6-11), and Jesus tortured for us (vv. 12-15). 

A Few Introductory Comments

First, let me make a few introductory comments.  Mark, and the other Gospel writers, narrate the events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion and the crucifixion itself with objectivity and restraint.  Mark doesn’t sensationalize these events.  He doesn’t exploit the savagery of Jesus’ torture and crucifixion in order to evoke emotion from us the reader.  He simply tells us what happened.  I pray, though, that as we look at what happened to Jesus during the last day of his life on earth, our eyes would see the glory of the grace that God displayed through the suffering of his Son.

Mark’s account of Jesus’ trial has less details than the other Gospels.  Matthew tells us about the dream of Pilate’s wife, how she said to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream” (27:19), and how Pilate washed his hands of Jesus’ blood before the crowd (27:24).  Luke tells us that Pilate sends Jesus over to King Herod to be interrogated (23:6-12).  John adds a theological discussion between Jesus and Pilate about Jesus’ kingdom (18:33-38).

Remember that Mark is writing to the church in Rome, to Christians under the nose of the evil emperor Nero who was capturing and killing Christians.  Mark wants these Christians in Rome to be encouraged by Jesus’ faithful example before the Roman governor Pilate.  They needed to know that they were following in the footsteps of their Lord, just as Jesus said they would (13:9-11).  They needed to know that Roman rulers couldn’t snuff out the testimony of Jesus.  They needed to know that faithfulness in the face of persecution was possible.

Jesus before Pilate

Verse 1 says that the Jewish leaders delivered Jesus to Pilate.  The Sanhedrin had lots of power, but they didn’t have the power of the sword.  They needed the Romans to complete their plan to kill Jesus. All of this was in fulfillment of God’s plan (Acts 4:23-28).

Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?” (v. 2).  Before the Sanhedrin, Jesus was charged with threats against the temple and blasphemy.  But those were religious questions that didn’t matter to the Romans.  Claiming to be the Messiah was a different matter.  Claiming to be the Messiah wasn’t a crime in Judaism, but the way these Jewish leaders framed Jesus’ claim before Pilate got his attention.  Someone who claims to be “King of the Jews” is a political threat.  In Luke’s account, the leaders say, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king” (23:2). 

Do you see what these religious leaders are doing?  They’re spinning Jesus’ claim into something that it wasn’t.  Jesus did claim to be the Messiah, but not in the sense that they were claiming.  They knew that the words “King of the Jews” would get Pilate’s attention.  They knew that “Messiah” would not.  They needed Pilate to kill Jesus, so they needed to find a way to make Jesus guilty before Pilate, or at least make him out to be a threat to Pilate.  Rome arrested and killed perceived political threats all the time.  Jesus would be no different. 

Ironically, the Sanhedrin dismissed Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah because it wasn’t according to the nationalistic ideas of what they thought Messiah would be.  And then they want Pilate to kill him because, as a nationalist messiah, he’s a political threat.  They don’t like him because he’s not nationalistic enough, but they get him killed by labeling him a nationalist leader, “the King of the Jews.”  People who don’t like Jesus will twist the truth to make it say or mean whatever gets them off the hook and whatever gets Jesus away from them.

Jesus responds by saying, “You have said so” (v. 2).  The emphasis is on “you.”  “You have said so.”  Jesus isn’t saying “yes,” or Pilate would’ve had reason to execute him immediately.  But he’s not saying “no” either.  In his great wisdom, he’s saying that his kingship isn’t the kind implied in Pilate’s question.  Jesus is the King of the Jews, but not in the way that the Jews are implying. 

Jesus’ ambiguous response leads the Jewish leaders to start accusing him of other things (v. 3).  Pilate asks Jesus if he wants to respond to these accusations (v. 4).  But “Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed” (v. 5).  Despite the truth about him being twisted and despite all these other accusations, Jesus remains silent.  He doesn’t try to set the record straight.  This isn’t a silence of defeat, but a silence of surrender to God’s will.  Jesus knows he’s innocent.  He knows that what’s being said isn’t true.  He knows that this is not a fair trial.  Yet, he quietly resigns himself to the will of his Father.  He isn’t argumentative or angry.  He’s resolved to do what God wants.

When we feel that life isn’t treating us fairly, we must remember this moment in Jesus’ life.  We must remember that God’s will often includes the pain and suffering of God’s children.  We must remember that Jesus allowed himself to be treated unfairly in order that we might avoid the fair judgment of God toward us because of our sins.  Life wasn’t fair to Jesus but he kept trusting God.

Barabbas Instead of Jesus

The events leading to Jesus’ death become even more unfair.  In verses 6-11, we learn that a murderer named Barabbas gets to go free instead of Jesus.  Pilate proposes to release Jesus in order to satisfy the crowd.  He’s using Jesus to gain political favor. 

The plan misfires and the crowd demands the release of a man named Barabbas.  In Hebrew, the name “Barabbas” means, “son of the abba (father).”  Ironically, Pilate asks the crowd if they want “the son of the father” or “the Son of the Father.”  The people had to choose who got to live, a murderer or an innocent man.  Verse 11 says that the chief priests “stirred up the crowd” to vote for Barabbas.  This is a great example of how popular opinion is not always right.  Just because the crowd is doing something doesn’t mean that we should do it. 

This is also a good example of how religious leaders can be blindly followed by people into grave sin and error.  Just because I say something doesn’t make it true.  Everything I say must be put up against the Word of God.  There’s only one voice that’s infallible, and it isn’t mine.  Please pray for Nick and I as we seek to do our best to lead our church during these difficult days.  The best way forward isn’t always very clear, but we’re trying to be faithful to the Word of God and to love and serve you well, and we need your prayers.

These verses give us a great picture of the substitutionary view of the atonement.  A convicted murderer is set free while an innocent man is condemned to death.  In this prisoner exchange, we see another exchange.  Jesus exchanged his life for ours.  He gave his life so that we could go free.  “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).  “Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous” (1 Pet. 3:18).  We’re the guilty ones.  Jesus is the innocent One.  We’ve sinned against the Father.  Jesus obeyed the Father.  We’ve grumbled and complained about the unfairness of life because we love our comforts.  Jesus silently accepted the unfairness of his life in order to give us true comfort.  Jesus, the true “Son of the Father,” gave himself willingly for everyone who will trust in him.

Jesus Tortured for Us

In verses 12-15, we see the crowd’s demand for Jesus’ death intensify and Pilate reluctantly hand Jesus over to be tortured and killed.  It’s hard to know the mind of Pilate.  We at least know that Pilate lobbied for Jesus’ release three times (vv. 9, 12, 14).  Pilate seems to be having some doubts as to whether Jesus needs to be executed. 

Perhaps he struggled with this decision because he knew that envy wasn’t a good reason for a man to die (v. 10).  Pilate was no fool.  He saw through the Jewish leaders.  He understood why they wanted Jesus dead.  Maybe he struggled because of the dreams his wife told him about (Mt. 27:19).  Maybe it was because of the private conversation he had with Jesus about the nature of his kingdom, truth, and authority (Jn. 18:33-38, 19:9-11).  John even says that Pilate became more afraid after the Jews said that Jesus “has made himself the Son of God” (19:7).

For these reasons and more, Pilate tried to exonerate Jesus.  But his desire for justice for Jesus didn’t outweigh his willingness to sacrifice an innocent man for political expediency.  The peace of the city of Jerusalem, which had swelled during the Passover, was more important than justice.  Jesus was getting a raw deal, and Pilate seemed to know it.  But he also wasn’t courageous enough to do anything about it. 

In an ironic twist, the governor is governed by the whims of the people.  The free ruler of the people loses his freedom to the people he’s supposed to be ruling over. All the while, the silent prisoner Jesus, who has no perceived control, remains true to his Father’s will and is therefore truly free. 

Verse 15 says that Pilate had Jesus “scourged” before he was crucified.  What is “scourging”?  Your translation may say “flogged.”  Flogging, or scourging, was a way to torture someone who’d received a death sentence before they died.  It was a brutal and cruel way to prepare someone for crucifixion.  The prisoner was stripped and bound to a post and whipped with a leather whip that had bits of bone or metal tied to the ends.  The flogging would strip the flesh off a criminals back, often exposing their bones or other vital organs.  It was so brutal that women weren’t allowed to watch or receive a flogging.  It was used to shorten the duration of a crucifixion, but it was so brutal that some prisoners died before reaching the cross.

Unfairness for Unfairness

Jesus deserved none of this.  The only person who didn’t deserve to die was condemned to death by envious religious people, a politically motivated coward, and a crowd blindly following the rage of their leaders.  Jesus did nothing wrong.  His identity was twisted and used against him and a murderer was set free instead of him.  This was unfair.  This was evil.  This was the darkest day in human history.  And all of this was to display the glory of God’s grace to us.

Some of the things happening to us right now because of the virus don’t seem fair.  What should we do?  We should keep trusting our God who gave his Son for us.  Paul says in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”  The logic of this verse is simple.  If God was willing to give up his Son for us, won’t he also work out all things for the good of those who love him (8:28)?  If God gave up Jesus for us, won’t he also do what’s best for us? 

God allowed the unfairness that happened to Jesus so that he could be unfair to us.  Jesus is the only person who ever had the right to say, “This is not fair!”  Yet he willingly received unfairness so that God could lavish us with the unfairness of his grace.  May this gospel truth sustain us and comfort us and empower us during these confusing days, for Jesus’ sake.