READING: Mark 15-16
When Pilate speaks in the death narrative of Jesus, his words are often informative ones. After interviewing Jesus, he said to the crowd, “I find no grounds for charging him” (John 18:38). Having received a message from his wife to have nothing to do with “this righteous man” (Matt 27:19), He eventually told the rioting people, “I am innocent of this man’s blood” (Matt 27:24) before turning Him over.
It’s the question in today’s reading that strikes me. With the people crying for Jesus to be crucified, Pilate asked a basic and necessary question: “Why? What evil has he done?” (Mark 15:14). The question is a fair one. It makes little sense that Jesus would be crucified without just cause, but Pilate succumbed to the crowd’s cries of “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
The crowd had no answer to Pilate’s question of "why," but there is an answer — and it’s one that flies in the face of justice. Jesus had indeed done no evil, but that’s part of why He was the one about to be put to death. Sinless, He was the Lamb without blemish sent by the Father to die for a world that had committed much evil. He was dying as an innocent man in place of the guilty. None of this took God by surprise, and all of this was in His divine plan.
Why must Jesus be crucified? Because God loves us.
What evil has He done? None, but that’s why He could be our sacrificial substitute. He would die for our evil.
ACTION STEPS:
- Read through the story of the cross again. Pause long enough to meditate on what God did at Calvary.
- As you finish reading the Gospel of Mark, spend some time on who Jesus is in this Gospel. From being the One to whom John the Baptist pointed in Mark 1 to His resurrection in Mark 16, Jesus is the Son of God. That reminder ought to lead us to live differently today.
PRAYER: “Jesus, thank You for being my substitute. I love you.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Luke 1