Mark 15:11 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Mark 15:11

Comments

You could translate that, ‘But the chief priests urged the people [to require] that [Pilate] should rather release Barabbas unto them.’ The people were urged by the chief priests and they responded, but they too were responsible. They forgot all the healings they had seen, and they forgot the great stirring of the nation that the ministry of John the Baptist and then the Lord Jesus Christ had caused. Their response had been for the most part superficial. The chief priests find it easy to manipulate the malleable sentiments of the people and get them to call for the release of Barabbas. Luke tells us that Barabbas ‘for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison’ (Luke 23:19). Were there any individuals among the crowd who were not carried away by the general hysteria? Apparently not. Although some sympathisers may have witnessed what was happening, they could not change the outcome; the Jewish rulers had a firm grip on the situation.

Application

How fickle the people are! How quickly they have gone from crying ‘Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord’ (Matthew 21:9), to calling for his death. It is easy to get caried away by a great national movement, without it affecting us personally. There is a great difference between being carried along by the crowd and making a personal response to God ourselves. Without true conversion the church of God cannot be impressed by reformation of life, nor with loud praises to God, for it is quite possible for those who do not know the Lord to be temporarily lifted up to a state of great excitement and admiration for the visible signs of religion while the root of unbelief remains in them and will in due time resurface again. It is always dangerous to trust the sentiments of the unconverted.

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Mark 15:11 Commentary and Bible Study

Explain meaning of Mark 15:11