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Easter Reading | Day 1

Prayer

As you come to spend time with Jesus, calm your mind and body until you feel fully present. Ask Him to teach you more about Himself today.

Bible Reading: Mark 15:1-15

Read these verses three times slowly.

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.

“Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.

“You have said so,” Jesus replied.

The chief priests accused him of many things. So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”

But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.

Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.

“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

“What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.

“Crucify him!” they shouted.

“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

Reflection & Questions

This week in our readings in the lead up to Easter, we are going to focus on five moments that Jesus faced as he went to the cross. Today, in our reading from Mark, we focus on the moment when Jesus was condemned to death.

It is incredible that the Creator of the universe, the Lord of all, humbled himself to be questioned by a human ruler, and not even one of the major rulers. Pilate was just a governor of a small region. But here in these verses, Jesus embraced the very humiliation and was questioned by Pilate.

But he wasn’t just questioned, he was condemned. Not even Pilate’s offer to the crowd of the release of a convicted criminal or Jesus could save our Savior. The crowd released Barabas! When the crowd was asked, “What crime has he committed?”their response was simply to shout “all the louder, ‘Crucify him!” And so Pilate condemned Jesus to death. The Creator of the Universe, the Innocent One, the King of Kings, the Lord of Love was condemned. Why? So that we could be declared innocent. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:1 “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” He was condemned so that we would not be.

1. How does Jesus’ willingness to be condemned for you encourage you today?
2. Are you facing trials and injustice? How does Jesus’ acceptance of the unjust sentence for our salvation help strengthen you to endure in times of injustice?

Prayer

Pray in response to today’s reading. Thank Jesus for his humility and willingness to be condemned, taking the sentence that should have been ours. Ask Jesus for strength to endure in faith times of trial and injustice.

Worship Song

You might use this song today to worship Jesus today:

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Questions?