Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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We were created to be emotional people. Have you ever thought about that? Emotions themselves are from God. God made us to feel, and to love, and relate to Him in an intimate way.

So I find it interesting how the same circumstances often elicit very different emotions from different people. A baby’s cry, for example, can really make our skin crawl sometimes, you know? But to a mother, a baby’s cry often causes her to feel compassion, because she wants to meet her child’s need, or more often, exhaustion, because it just seems like it never stops, right? But when we first heard our foster daughter crying, we were so happy because she was expressing how she felt, and we were comforted that if she really needed something, she’d let us know it. Now, we didn’t always know what she needed, but we knew that she needed something.

For the next few weeks leading up to Easter, I want to look at the last two chapters of Mark. These chapters showcase numerous emotions as Jesus is shown crucified, buried, and risen. There’s awe. There’s humility. There’s compassion, and astonishment, and fear. And sometimes these emotions caused the people who had them to praise God, and sometimes these emotions led to crucifying Jesus.

Emotions themselves are a gift from God. Love reflects God. Compassion is a beautiful picture of Christ. Even anger can be a good emotion as long as we’re angry about the right things, such as sin and injustice. But we can’t allow our feelings to dictate how we live, especially when we feel like sinning. We need to lead our hearts to find our greatest joy in Christ, and in serving Christ, because Jesus is so incredibly awesome, and He’s worthy of all praise.

“And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ And he answered him, ‘You have said so.’ And the chief priests accused him of many things. And Pilate again asked him, ‘Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.’ But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.” (Mark 15:1-5)

I realize that this passage cuts into the middle of the story. Leading up to this passage was when Jesus had the Last Supper with His disciples in the Upper Room, which we observed together last week. And immediately after that, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Judas kissed him, and where Jesus was arrested. And then immediately after that, Peter denied Jesus three times, and heard the rooster crow, and then we come to this passage where Jesus is before Pilate. But that’s the thing with the gospel of Mark. It’s an action-packed story where Jesus is the action-hero, and He shows Himself as the One who heals, and amazes crowds, and makes outrageous claims about Himself that can only be true if He is the Son of God who came to take away the sins of the world! And He is. And He’s awesome.

That’s why when we come to this passage, we should be a little confused as to what’s going on. I realize most of us have read this passage before, and that we’re familiar with the story and with what’s going to happen, but try to imagine that you’re not. Try to imagine that you’ve been with Jesus all this time, and you’ve seen His power, how He healed people and revealed Himself through miracles, but now you see Jesus bound and on trial. You’d be confused! I mean, Jesus can easily avoid this pain. Jesus can easily get out of this. And yet He remained in it. Why?

Because Jesus knew the purpose for which He came. Jesus came to save sinners! He came to glorify His own name by showing His grace toward us! And to fulfill His purpose, Jesus had to be arrested. He had to be beaten. And He had to die on a cross. Even though Jesus is so amazingly powerful, He chose to endure pain so that He would accomplish His purpose.

Now, as a side note, like Jesus, we need to realize that our painful circumstances are sometimes necessary for our purpose. If we’re going to be able to witness to and help those who are hurting, sometimes we need to have a past that shows that we understand. That we’ve been there. And through that connection, we can offer the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.

So Jesus allowed all this stuff to happen to Him: being arrested, being bound, and now, being questioned by Pilate (v. 2).

It’s interesting how Jesus answered here. I mean, it doesn’t really seem like an answer, did it?It wasn’t a yes or a no. But if you look at how the original language was written, Pilate actually asked the question this way: “You are the King of the Jews?” Not “are you,” but rather, “you are.” It’s almost as if Pilate was making a tentative statement rather than an outright question. “You…are the King of the Jews?”

Unfortunately, I think there are a lot of people today who claim to be Christians who make tentative statements about Jesus. They say they have a relationship with God, but they live as if they don’t know Him. They don’t treat Him as their Master and Lord. Listen, God calls us to humble ourselves, admitting that we’re sinners, and receiving His grace, and that humbling ourselves leads to us renounce everything to follow Jesus! You give Him your finances. You give Him your future. You give Him your sins, not just so that He’ll save you in the end, but so that He’ll change you even now. And, yes, we’re still going to mess up, and we’re going to show over and over again that we need His grace, but being a Christian means saying, “No matter what, I will follow Christ.” Don’t make a tentative statement about Jesus. Humbly admit that He is your Savior and Lord, and then follow Him all of your life.

So when Jesus answered the way He did, He was saying, “You got that right!” And this infuriated the Jews (v. 3). They called it blasphemy! They called it rebellion against Caesar, because Jesus claimed to be a King! They probably accused Jesus of all sorts of things ranging from lying, to sorcery, to leading an insurrection.

But Jesus didn’t respond to any of their accusations. Can you imagine? That’s the exact opposite that many of us would have done! When people are attacking us or our faith, we try to defend ourselves. We try to win the argument. But Jesus just stayed quiet at that point.

I’ve come to learn that I don’t have to respond to every attack. I don’t have to engage in every argument. I’ve heard it put this way: you don’t have to attend every argument you’re invited to. In fact, sometimes the best thing you can do as a witness is to keep your mouth shut. That’s what Jesus did.

And by doing this, Jesus left a huge impression on Pilate (v. 5). He was amazed! He couldn’t believe what he was seeing! Jesus was on trial, His life was on the line, and yet he didn’t even attempt to defend Himself. Pilate saw that there was something about this Jesus. Jesus was confident. Jesus was collected. Pilate was amazed by Jesus!

We’re going to see next week how this emotion didn’t lead to Pilate’s conversion. So simply being amazed by Jesus isn’t the goal. God wants you to be amazed by Jesus so that you’ll humble yourself before Him! So that you’ll embrace Him as your Savior and Lord! God can radically change your life! He can transform you so that you have joy, and peace, and so that no matter what happens in life, you have a confidence and assurance because you know Jesus, and Jesus is so awesome that He can get you through any trial that you face. But you’ve got to trust Him. You can’t just come to church and say, “What a great message. What a powerful Jesus. Man, He’s awesome.” But then go and continue to live however you please. Being in awe of Jesus ought to change us from being so consumed by our own lives, and instead being absolutely consumed by our awesome Savior and Lord, who is worthy of all praise because of how glorious He is, and how good He is, and how He showed His grace to us, even though He didn’t have to, but because He wanted you to know Him and love Him and receive His grace so that you might glorify Him in whatever you do in your life.

Do you have that kind of awe about Jesus?