James Nisbet Commentary - Mark 15:15 - 15:15

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James Nisbet Commentary - Mark 15:15 - 15:15


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PILATE’S SIN

‘And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged Him, to be crucified.’

Mar_15:15

The story of Pilate and his yielding to the clamour of the chief priests, and delivering up Jesus to be crucified, though he knew quite well that He was innocent, is one of the most strange and sad that history records. No doubt he was a weak man set in difficult circumstances. But he ought not to have yielded to those circumstances. ‘Hard positions and difficult circumstances are posts of honour … The hours of difficulty are great men’s opportunity: the times of danger call with trumpet-voice to the heart of the brave.… These are the times when men show of what stuff they are made.’ We may note three particulars.

I. He was false to his own convictions.—He was convinced that Jesus was innocent. Why, then, did he not act at once upon his conviction and release Him? Why did he begin to parley with the Jews, as if there was room for doubt on the question?

II. He tried to satisfy his own conscience, and at the same time to satisfy the people, by evasion and compromise. If he was convinced of the innocence of Jesus, why send Him to Herod, as Luke tells us he did? And why offer to chastise Him and then release Him? If he was innocent He ought not to be chastisedn!

III. He allowed worldly interest to predominate over the sense of duty.—That at last became the plain issue. Should he do what he knew was right and take the risk? Or should he do what he knew was wrong and escape danger? And he chose the latter course, showing himself thereby to be weak and unprincipled.

IV. Had I been in his position, with only his lights to guide me, what should I have done?—How often when conscience and duty point in one direction and passion and self-interest in another, have we not acted over again the part of Pilate? We have hesitated, wavered, argued, and surrendered. How soon the conscience may become hardened! How difficult it is at once to take and keep the straight course! The great surrender has often been made over again since Pilate’s day, and Jesus Christ been given over into unfriendly hands.

This is the great lesson from this scene.—Be decided for Christ, and for right. ‘Them that honour Me,’ says Christ, ‘I will honour.’

—
Rev. Prebendary Eardley-Wilmot.

Illustration

‘Mark the revenges of history. Before the dread sacrifice was consummated, Judas died in the horrors of a loathsome suicide. Caiaphas was deposed the year following. Herod died in infamy and exile. Stripped of his Procuratorship shortly afterwards, on the very charges he had tried by a wicked concession to avoid, Pilate, wearied out with misfortunes, died in suicide and banishment, leaving behind him an execrated name. The house of Annas was destroyed a generation later by an infuriated mob, and his son was dragged through the streets, and scourged and beaten to his place of murder. Some of those who shared in and witnessed the scenes of that day—and thousands of their children—also shared in and witnessed the long horrors of that siege of Jerusalem which stands unparalleled in history for its unutterable fearfulness.’