Mark 15:1 – 20 Jesus before Pilate

A major division is marked as “authorities” confer and hand Jesus over to “the authority”. The features of the third passion prediction (10:32f) give sequence and structure to the passion.

There are a series of reversals going on:

1. The messianic-religious language of the chief priest (“Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed?”) now becomes the messianic-political language of Pilate (“Are you the King of the Jews?”)
2. The chief priests now become the accusers; what their accusations are we don’t know but do know they felt the challenge of Jesus’ clearing out of the temple.
3. Pilate is now the one who coxes Jesus for an answer and who attests Jesus’ innocence (“Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you” and “Why, what evil has he done?”)
4. Pilate is pictured as making the true confession "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus’ response to Pilate is identical to his response to Judas’ “Is it I?” “You say so” is not a negative response. The comment “Pilate wondered” (here and in 15:44 when he wonders if Jesus is already dead) implies religious wonder in the presence of the holy.
5. A condemned man Barabbas is swapped for an accused man. We have no independent historical confirmation that such a practice existed. There is a tradition that Barabbas’ first name was also Jesus (In the 4G, the choice is between Jesus Barabbas and Jesus the Christ, the two claimants to be the Good Shepherd of the Sheep). Barabbas was an insurrectionist as were those crucified with Jesus. This would indicate the pigeon hole that the historical Pilate would have placed Jesus in.
6. Pilate is portrayed as moving at the whim of the crowd; despite his better judgment, he “wishes to satisfy the crowd,” although it is his decision and his act to hand Jesus over to those who will do the crucifying. This reversal from the Pilate of history, who marches to no one else’s drum, is a part of Mark’s story; responsibility is moved away from Pilate towards some of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. It is only a partial move and it has a political motive in the post-70CE world of Mark. The Christians are not a threat to Rome. Behind Mark’s story we know that Jesus died a Roman death under the authority of the Roman Procurator, Pontius Pilate, with some degree of collusion by some Jerusalem Jews.
7. The guard detail that captured him in the garden is now swapped for a whole Roman cohort of 600 soldiers. Such an exaggerated number of soldiers underscores the irony of the perception of power; Jesus is a force to be reckoned with. The major irony lies in their mocking of Jesus as King. They dress him up in the purple robe and the crown of thorns, they correctly salute him as king and they mock him. The irony is that they don’t know just how true they are and that Jesus is redefining what it is to be king in the new scheme of things; the new king is mocked and crucified. We are seeing what we read in the third passion prediction: “… they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him …” He is stripped of the kingly apparel before they lead him away to crucify him.