Mark 15:14 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Mark 15:14

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Pilate tried again: ‘What evil hath he done?’ What intelligent answer did they give to that? All we read is ‘they cried out, the more exceedingly, Crucify him.’ They didn't want to reason; they didn't want to think. They just wanted Barabbas, and away with Christ. That is unbelief. Pilate in spite of his deep discomfort with that is happening and his certainty that Jesus is innocent, lacks the moral courage to stand up to the Jewish leaders and the crowds who have been manipulated by them. He makes one last attempt, but even the way he poses the question shows how weak he feels. It was the will of God that the crucifixion should go ahead, and the weakness of Pilate was one factor in that outcome.The Roman scourging was vicious indeed. It consisted of leather thongs on a stout wooden handle, and attached to the end of each thong was a sharp piece of metal. Two lictors flogged him, one on one side, one on the other, and Christ was bent forward over a stone. That’s how they did it. Stripped and lashed until the wounds gaped. The experts say that half to two thirds of people who were scourged, died as a result, and the sight was terrible. No wonder he needed Simon to bear the cross for him. He could scarcely walk after the scourging. We believe the vicarious sufferings began with the scourging. But the main suffering was yet to come on Calvary's cross.

Application

We notice that all the militant atheists – Professor Dawkins and all the rest of them – say that to have faith is to abandon reason and thought and thinking. Oh no, it’s the other way round. When the people were asked, ‘Are you sure you want to banish Christ and release Barabbas, banish the healer, the preacher, the man of righteousness, the one who many say is Messiah, and choose the lifelong criminal and murderer, the vicious one? What evil has Christ done?’, they just respond, ‘Do away with him.’ There is no thought, no reason, no intelligent application. Just get rid of him. That is atheism. That is unbelief. That is where there is no thinking, no rational mind. The response of sin, the response of the heart! ‘I want my moral liberty. I want my self-determination. I want material things. I don't want the things of the Spirit. I don't want God. I don't want redemption. I don't want eternity.’ It is atheism that is an abandonment of all thought and a capitulation just to sin.

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Mark 15:14 Commentary and Bible Study