convicted

Good evening/morning sisters and brothers,
We're skipping through these readings from Jesus' life pretty quickly, since the story is familiar to most of us. Throughout the story of Jesus' ministry, the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders grows. Jesus challenges their sense of order and their power. Finally, things come to a head and they see an opportunity to have Jesus arrested. They try him of blasphemy and convict him in religious court, but they don't have the power to put him to death. For that, they need the Roman governor to condemn him as well. His next step is off to see the governor, Pontius Pilate. As we see, Pilate condemns him to avoid upsetting the crowd, not because he believes Jesus is guilty. Jesus was innocent, but suffered for us.

God bless,
Sam

Mark 15:1-15

As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. ²Pilate asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ He answered him, ‘You say so.’ ³Then the chief priests accused him of many things. ⁴Pilate asked him again, ‘Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.’ ⁵But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.

6 Now at the festival he used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked. ⁷Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection. ⁸So the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them according to his custom. ⁹Then he answered them, ‘Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?’ ¹⁰For he realized that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over. ¹¹But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. ¹²Pilate spoke to them again, ‘Then what do you wish me to do with the man you call the King of the Jews?’ ¹³They shouted back, ‘Crucify him!’ ¹⁴Pilate asked them, ‘Why, what evil has he done?’ But they shouted all the more, ‘Crucify him!’ ¹⁵So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.