Mark 15:6 Commentary and Bible Study

On receiving Jesus back from Herod (Luke 23:12), Pilate gathers the chief priests and rulers together again (Luke 23:13) and once more informs them that, having examined Christ, he has found no fault in him; he is innocent of the crime he has been accused of (Luke 23:14), and Pilate adds that Herod has reached the same verdict (Luke 23:15). How shamefully this reflects on both Pilate and Herod, for this innocence has not stopped them abusing and mistreating Christ terribly. Rome was a brutal empire with much abuse of justice built into it. Pilate therefore proposes to chastise Jesus and release him. Was it not a shameful thing that he should chastise, that is, subject to a terrible Roman scourging, a man who by his own reckoning was innocent? But of course this was to be done not to satisfy justice, but to quench the hatred of his enemies. It was supposed to convince them and the crowd that Jesus had received at least some punishment, albeit less than the death penalty the chief priests were asking for.