“Pilate asked Jesus, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Jesus replied, ‘You have said it.’” (Mark 15:2 NLT2)
Jesus’ response here is simply a restating of what Pilate has said. He’s not denying, but he’s not vigorously affirming it, leaving Pilate with little to go on, so the religious leaders pile on more claims.
“Then the leading priests kept accusing him of many crimes, and Pilate asked him, ‘Aren’t you going to answer them? What about all these charges they are bringing against you?’ But Jesus said nothing, much to Pilate’s surprise.” (Mark 15:3-5 NLT2)
You get the sense that Pilate really doesn’t buy what the religious authorities are selling, but Jesus isn’t helping him out. In fact, Jesus knows this is now all part of God’s plan, and though he had prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane asking God to free him from this path, he knows this is why he is here and he is ready to fulfill God’s plan.
He very likely was living out the biblical role of Suffering Servant that Isaiah prophesied about seven hundred years earlier. The Suffering Servant songs of Isaiah spoke of one who through their suffering would bring liberation and freedom.
“All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:6-7 NLT2)
Jesus would not defend himself. He was silent before his accusers. Jesus knew his mission – to be the Lamb of God, the sacrificial lamb that takes away the sins of the world. Christ followers believe Jesus’ death on the cross redeems us from sin. He wasn’t simply a great teacher or a good man – he was the Savior of the world.
“Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5 NLT2)
Not all of those things have occurred yet in these last 24 hours of Jesus’ life, but they will...
