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Lenten Devotion

April 6, 2023

All Day

Mark 15:6-20 

Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. “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. 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.16 The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. 17 They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. 18 And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” 19 Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

Crucify the King

The decision to crucify Jesus was made by Pilate. However, although Pilate made the “final decision”, he was influenced by many others. Verse 6 sets the context of what happens. A tradition or “custom” of releasing a prisoner during the festival (Passover) had developed. The people came to Pilate and asked him to fulfill this custom by releasing a prisoner of their choice.

Pilate responded to them with his own question. He asked if they wanted him to release to them the one whom they called the King of the Jews. Did they want Jesus? They did not. They wanted Barabbas, the guilty one. Their choice was to release the guilty and to crucify the innocent. They openly rejected the one whom the previous week they had honored as their promised Messiah-King by waving palm leaves and casting their robes before him as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. What had changed their minds and hearts? Why were they now crying out “crucify him” when they had in the last week cried out “hosanna”? Verse 11 states that the chief priests stirred them up and encouraged them to ask for Barabbas, but it was their voices and their cries of “crucify him” that influenced Pilate to do as they requested.

Pilate honored the custom by releasing a prisoner, but his return question placed directly upon them the responsibility of who is released and what happens to the other. Their answer is like a two-edged sword: it cuts in two directions. It set the guilty Barabbas free and it put the innocent Jesus to death. 

As we approach Good Friday, it is an excellent time for us to reflect upon our own lives and attitudes towards our King Jesus. Have we made any “two-edged sword” decisions or do we have any “two-edged sword” attitudes regarding God and our lives? These decision and attitudes cut in two different directions. They are easy to identify because they always produce similar results. They are decisions or attitudes that result in crucifying the King and his way in our lives while at the same time releasing the guilty and its way in our lives. But God loves us. He has the power to transform and change us. How is it with your words, mind, heart and soul? Jesus was crucified. God the Father placed on him all our guilt and sin. He died the death we deserve. He is risen, demonstrating the Father’s acceptance of his substitute sacrifice on the cross taking the place that should be ours. Today our cry can be: “He was crucified for me.”

 

 

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