Today, we continue our study of Mark 15 where the Lord Jesus Christ was still before the Jewish mob that was gathered at Pilate's place. The Lord Jesus stood before Pilate and He was awaiting Pilate's verdict. Just a few days before, the crowd had welcomed the Lord Jesus into Jerusalem as the Messiah. Now, they see Him differently. Now, they want Him crucified. The Jewish religious leaders had swayed them to see the Lord Jesus differently. At this point, the Lord Jesus did not meet their expectations as the political King they had expected.
The disappointment of the people drove them to reject the Lord Jesus. It is really unwise to be defined by something like disappointment. In the economy of God, disappointment is necessary for the development of our faith in Him. Patience is a must when we are disappointed and we are making a very important decision. Change one little letter and our disappointments turn out to be His appointments. As Philip Yancey says in his book, Disappointment with God, "Where there is no longer any opportunity for doubt, there is no opportunity for faith either."
In Isaiah 55:8-9 we read, "My ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."
God is forever not performing in the way we prefer. His culture is quite different than the culture we grew up being defined by. And, like this crowd, when we are disappointed with God, we usually turn away from Him. When we do this we are in danger of lacking biblical understanding of Him and the situation at hand. And, when we lack proper understanding of Him, we are in danger of following the wrong Jesus.
Patience is so key in our walk with God. Waiting on God is so difficult, but if we are walking with Him, He will produce this fruit of His Spirit, patience, in us. It is in the waiting that we come to know Him and His ways best. Patience is most important because it makes us listen to the Lord. There is also another great part to patience, it seems to give us ears to hear the Lord better.
In v.12-13 of today's passage we read, "12 'What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?' Pilate asked them. 13 'Crucify him!' they shouted."
Pilate knew that the crowd wanted him to release one of his prisoners. In fact, he expected the people to call for the release of the Lord Jesus. But, when given the opportunity, they demanded Barabbas. Pilate had no ground upon which to crucify the Lord Jesus. Yet, the crowd demanded Pilate crucify Him. The crowd had been manipulated by the religious leaders of Israel.
In v.14-15 of today's passage we read, "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."
Pilate released Barabbas and he had the Lord Jesus beaten nearly to death. The flogging the Lord Jesus endured was bloody. Long leather cords were imbedded with bits of metal and bone, so that as the thongs whipped around the body of the Lord Jesus, the skin on His back was cut and flayed open, until He was a bloody mass.
Pilate ordered the flogging, thinking he would not have to crucify the Lord Jesus. He had hoped to awaken the sympathy of the crowd for the Lord Jesus. In John 19:5, John tells us that after the flogging, "Pilate led the Lord Jesus out before the crowd and said to them, "Behold the man!" The Lord Jesus was a bloody mess and had lost a lot of blood. As a result, the Lord Jesus died a relatively quick death. Those who had been crucified before had hung on their cross for weeks at a time before they died.
In John 10:18, we read, "No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." In submitting Himself to the Roman flogging, and by continuing to stand to His feet after being so severely beaten, the Lord Jesus continued to lay down His life. Medically, He died quickly, because he submitted Himself to the torture of flogging. He had once told His disciples, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down his life for his friends."
Love comes naturally and flows fully out of a heart that is itself conscious of being loved. In Gethsemane that night, the Lord Jesus Himself reflected on how the Father loved Him. As a result, having been strengthened and steadied, the Lord Jesus availed Himself to the cruelest form of human death. One cannot go further than laying down His life for another, especially when He has the power to wipe those who mean Him harm off the face of the earth in the twinkling of the eye. The Lord Jesus did not wait for us to arrive at the street of loveworthiness to die for us. He knew that we were incapable of such, so, when He died on the cross, He spelled out the fact that God loves us. And, that is enough.
