DAY TWO: Mocked by the People and Soldiers

Please carefully read Mark 15:11–19 and answer the following questions.

1.  Yesterday we saw that, according to Passover custom, Pilate wanted to release a prisoner to them, hoping they would select Jesus.  The Zealot criminal Barabbas (whose name ironically means son of the father) had committed murder in his insurrection against Rome, and Pilate thought that surely they would pick Jesus over him.  Yet how did his plan backfire (vv. 11–13)?

2.  The crowd was stirred up by the priests, which in Greek literally means shook up like an earthquake.[iii] How did Pilate now crumble before the pressures of the crowd, just as Herod did in our study of the death of John the Baptist (vv. 13–15)?

Jesus’ scourging was actually much worse than its portrayal in The Passion of the Christ, as horrible as that was.  The Roman flagellum was a lash made of leather thongs embedded with bits of glass, bone, and metal.  The prisoner was stripped, often tied to a post, and beaten on the back by several guards using these whips. No limit was set on the number of blows, and often this was fatal. “Our Lord’s back was so lacerated by the scourge that it was one mass of open, raw, quivering flesh trickling with blood, not a series of stripes or cuts, but one mass of torn flesh;” and also “and the flesh of the victim was shredded, sometimes until bones or entrails appeared. Flogging was sometimes fatal.”[iv] “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5, nkjv). 

3.  After being scourged, what further mockery did Jesus endure under these heartless soldiers? Notice how many people were involved (vv. 16–19).

Scripture Memory:  Try to fill in the missing words in the blanks below, by memory if at all possible, and then review the passage several times today.

He canceled the _____________________ that contained the charges against us. He _________________ it and destroyed it by _____________________ it to Christ's cross. (Colossians 2:14, nlt)