Tuesday 1st April
Read Mark 15:1-2
“Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.
2 ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ asked Pilate.
‘You have said so,’ Jesus replied.” (NIVUK)
Mark’s narrative drives us to recognise Jesus as King, Son of Man and Messiah. His kingdom is unexpected and the peace Jesus brings is very different to the ‘Pax Romana’ of the Romans. The Pax Romana, or Roman peace, proclaimed by Augustus just prior to the arrival of Jesus, was won at the end of sword and relied on no rivals to Rome’s power.
For Pilate there is only question of significance. Does Jesus claim to be king of Judea and hence is he a rival to Rome? Mark’s narrative, in typically direct fashion, goes straight to the heart of the issue. Pilate asks and Jesus provides this seemingly cryptic answer. Mark does not provide the fuller response we read in John but makes it clear that Jesus does not deny He is King of the Jews. It is the charge Pilate eventually places above him on the cross.
But Jesus’ kingdom is clearly different to Rome’s. Outside of a brief scuffle in the garden, shut down by Jesus Himself, Jesus’ followers have never presented themselves as revolutionaries and insurrectionists against Rome. Pilate is no fool and knows this also. What he does not grasp is the nature of Jesus’ kingship – with service and sacrifice and self-abasement at the centre. He does not grasp why anyone would follow this ‘king’. It has no power and poses no threat to Rome. History would eventually prove him very wrong.
