What' Going On Here?

Scripture – Mark 15:6-15: ⁶Now it was the custom at the Feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested. ⁷A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. ⁸The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. ⁹“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, ¹⁰knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. ¹¹But 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!” ¹⁵Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

Reflection: Often I wonder what Biblical conversations sounded like. What inflections were used? What was the tone of voice? What did the speaker’s face reveal as he was talking?

Mark tells us Pilate knew the Jewish leaders were envious of Jesus. That is, they had a person stake in seeing Him executed. At the same time, they wanted Pilate to do the deed for them.

Given all that, I come back to the dialogue recorded here. Who was playing who? On one level this was a confrontation between Pilate and the Jews. On another, Jesus, though He stands quietly in the background, is bringing about the salvation of humankind.

Lord, thank you again for the choice you made. Thank you for the assurance of eternal life. While they thought they were doing something to you, you were doing something wonderful for them – and for us all.

An Invitation: For anyone interested in sharing their personal reflections from this week’s readings, you are invited to come by the Tim Hortons donut shop at Dix-Toledo and Northline in Southgate this Sunday morning at 9:45am. We’ll have a cup of coffee and see what the Lord has been teaching us this week.