King of the Jews - Mark 15:2
The Sanhedrin had condemned Jesus for blasphemy. Pilate would never execute Jesus because of a religious charge like blasphemy. The Jewish leaders brought the civil charge of treason against him. (See Luke 23:2.) Pilate asked Jesus if he was usurping Caesar's authority, claiming to be the
King,
of the Jews. Mark stressed that Jesus was condemned as the Messianic King. He was condemned by the Jews because they thought he claimed to be the Messiah in a blasphemous way. He was condemned by the Romans as a king in opposition to Caesar. For Mark, Jesus was the Christ, the Messianic King, from the first verse of the gospel all the way through to the end.
You say so - Mark 15:3
Jesus' words,
You say so are an affirmative answer to Pilate's question, but they are not a straight forward,
Yes. They have a puzzling character to them that is best explained by reference to John's report of the same interrogation (John 18:35-37). Jesus admitted that he was a king, but insisted that he was not a king in the same way that the Jewish leadership and Pilate were imaging. His kingdom was not of this world.
Jesus did not defend himself. - Mark 15:5
Pilate was
amazed that Jesus did not defend himself because Jesus still had the opportunity to be set free. (See Isa. 53:7.)
Pilate offered to free Jesus. - Mark 15:6-15
Pilate disliked the Jewish leaders and suspected they were using him to get rid of Jesus. He offered to free Jesus, but the crowd surprised Pilate and chose
Barabbas who had been convicted of leading a rebellion against Rome. It seems that Barabbas wanted to be the kind of Messiah that Jesus refused to be.
Manipulated the crowd - Mark 15:11
The
chief priests, manipulated the
crowd when he
stirred up a riot.
To pacify the shouting crowd - Mark 15:14-15
Pilate had Jesus crucified not because Jesus was guilty, but because he wanted to pacify the shouting
crowd. In this way Jesus' Roman trial was just as much a miscarriage of justice as his trial before the Sanhedrin had been. Before Jesus was crucified he was
scourged. The soldiers beat Jesus with a leather whip that was imbedded with pieces of bone or metal designed to rip open the flesh. Such scourging often preceded a Roman crucifixion.
The Crucifixion and Burial - Mark 15:16-47
Mark emphasized that Jesus was condemned and crucified by the Romans. It was important for the original readers of the gospel in Rome to know that Jesus, their Messiah, had already experienced everything that they were called on to suffer.
600 soldiers - Mark 15:16
A Roman cohort at full strength was made up of 600 soldiers. On this occasion it seems that much of the cohort had remained at Pilate's official residence in Caesarea.
Soldiers spat on Jesus. - Mark 15:17-20
The soldiers
spat on and
mocked the bloodied Jesus. in fulfillment of his prophecy in 10:34. A
purple robe was an expensive symbol of royalty. They hit him with a
reed staff an imitation of a king's scepter; put a
crown of thorns on his head; and pretended
to worship him.
Cyrene - Mark 15:21
Cyrene was a coastal city in what is today Libya in Northern Africa. Simon appears to have been a pilgrim in Jerusalem for the feast. His son, Rufus, may have been a member of the Roman church for whom this gospel was written (Rom 16:13). A convicted man was often compelled to carry the cross beam of his
cross.
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