Jesus and Pilate

Mark 15:1-15

The Jews did not have power over their own country. So their leaders did not try to kill Jesus. Instead, they sent Jesus to Pilate. Pilate ruled Judea on behalf of Caesar (the king of Rome). They asked Pilate to decide what would happen to Jesus.

Perhaps they thought that Pilate would want to kill Jesus. Jesus had said that he was the Christ. And the Christ was the Jews‘ future king. If the Jews had a new king, that king would be Caesar‘s enemy. So it would be Pilate‘s duty to kill the king of the Jews.

But Pilate had his own ideas.

First, Pilate tried to save Jesus. Pilate did not like the leaders of the Jews. Perhaps he wanted to make them angry. But also, Pilate was afraid of Jesus. Like Herod, Pilate thought that Jesus came from God (Mark 6:14-16; John 19:7-11). Pilate did not want God to be angry with him.

Pilate always wanted to feel powerful and important. That was why he liked to make someone free at Passover. He decided that he would make Jesus free. But the crowd did not want Jesus. They asked for Barabbas. Barabbas had fought against Pilate‘s government.

Jesus had not fought against the government. But Pilate was afraid of the crowd. He thought that they might fight against him. So he did the thing that the crowd wanted. He made Barabbas free. And he told his soldiers that they must kill Jesus.