Mark 15:1–39 — Seeing the Son of God

This sermon is from Mark chapter 15, verses 1 through 39, and is entitled, Seeing the

Mark 15:1–39

Son of God.

It was delivered to Ecclesia Churches on Christmas Eve, 2025.

Jesus is truly the name above all names, but he has been given many titles by both the

prophets who prophesied his coming and by the people who walked the earth when he did.

One of the most well-known passages that is read around this time of year was written by the prophet Isaiah, about 700 years before Jesus was born.

Isaiah 9.6 reads,

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.

And the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

The Gospel of Mark also began with a title for Jesus that has been both spoken and proven

throughout the account of Jesus' life. Mark 1.1 reads,

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And some, including the disciples,

have recognized him as the Messiah or the Christ, but they didn't really understand what that meant.

And the title Son of God has been missed by every human being thus far.

Remember, we heard God himself open the heavens and proclaim,

this is my son at the baptism of Jesus.

We've had demons cowering in fear while rightly recognizing Jesus as the Son of God.

If you remember, what have you to do with us, Son of God?

Jesus has done other things that were not so subtle, pointing to this identity, like commanding

demons with his own authority, commanding creation, calling storms to cease instantly.

He's walked on water, something scripture says only God can do, and many other things

over the course of his three-year ministry on earth.

But until our passage today, no human being will see it and proclaim it as true.

Until the cross is in view, we can't really see the Son of God for who he is.

Only as he is mocked and beaten and crucified do we finally get the full picture of what

the Son of God has come to do for us.

Only as he takes on the role of the suffering servant are we able to rightly understand what

kind of salvation it is that this Messiah brings.

And while his crucifixion seems to disqualify him as the Savior the Jews expected the Messiah to be,

it is his crucifixion on behalf of mankind that is what actually qualifies him to be the Savior that we need.

So it is right that as we gather together on Christmas Eve to celebrate the coming of Jesus,

we see him for who he is, that when we consider the child in the manger,

we see him not only in light of the star, but also in light of his finished work on the cross.

We'll begin today with Mark 15 verses 1 through 15, as we consider this exchange that happens

Mark 15:1–15

involving a leader named Pontius Pilate, a murderer named Barabbas, and Jesus, the Son of God.

And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and the

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. Now at the feast, he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. And

among the rebels in prison who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called

Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them.

And he answered them, saying, Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews?

For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up.

But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead.

And Pilate again said to them,

Then what shall I do with the man you call the king of the Jews?

And they cried out again, Crucify him!

And Pilate said to them, Why? What evil has he done?

But they shouted all the more, Crucify him!

So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas.

And having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

The mistreatment of Jesus has been going all night long at this point, but now this sham trial comes

to its first real hurdle from the religious leader's perspective, and that's getting a Roman

verdict. They come to Pilate early in the morning, probably around sunrise, because that is when court

business was conducted. On the average day, Roman dignitaries would be pursuing various

leisure activities by mid-morning. So business had to happen early. And Pilate has always been

an interesting character to me because you have to ask, is he a good guy or not? Is he trying to

save Jesus? Why is he seemingly in charge but also afraid of the crowd? So understanding a

little bit of his reputation makes a lot more sense of this interaction with Jesus.

Pontius Pilate is a Roman ruler placed in charge by Caesar to keep order in that district

that included Jerusalem, much like Herod had been placed in power.

He had a reputation of being somewhat heavy-handed in his dealings with the people.

He certainly had no love for these Jews he was charged with keeping in order, but he

had also developed a kind of respect, at least, for the level of trouble that they could cause

He's done things in the past that have angered the Jews and has been protested by them often,

sometimes with a violent outcome.

And he eventually gets removed from office by Caesar for this inability to keep the peace.

So with that, we can make sense of some of how he reacts.

Pilate asks Jesus somewhat sarcastically in verse 2 with the same type of statement that

the chief priest made earlier.

So you're the king of the Jews.

It's a question posed as a statement.

While an actual king rising up from the Jews would have been very troubling to Rome.

And Pilate, you kind of get the sense he doesn't feel very threatened by this man standing before him.

A man who is still being accused by the chief priests and still does not respond to these accusations.

So while Pilate has the authority to condemn him to death, he doesn't really find a reason to.

In fact, in verse 10, we get some insight that Pilate actually suspected that the chief priests

were just jealous of Jesus' popularity with the people. And the people are whose approval

Pilate really needs the most, even more than these religious leaders. So he makes a calculated

decision. It appears he had a kind of tradition of his own to release a political prisoner to

during Passover as a kind of goodwill gesture towards them. During one of the previous uprisings

by the Jews, a man named Barabbas had been captured after murdering someone during the rebellion.

And Pilate knows this man is perhaps well known to the people, though maybe not someone that they

were particularly proud of. So he gives them a choice, Barabbas the murderous rebel, or Jesus

the so-called king. But the priests are busy behind the scenes stirring up this crowd,

and the crowd shouts for, of all people, Barabbas. Adding another layer to that, Barabbas means son

of Abba, literally, or son of the Father. And he is offered and taken in exchange for the actual son

of God. So instead of a solution, Pilate is left with another question. What in the world do I

do with this guy. And this is really where the trial is over, because while no charge stands,

Pilot is not, at the end of the day, driven by a desire for justice. And if we're honest,

he's not really in charge either, because his security and his position is reliant on satisfying

the public, the crowd. And so at this point, this very angry crowd, who doesn't want any more

discussion, just continues to shout, crucify him over and over again. So Pilate does really

exactly what we would expect and hands Jesus over to be crucified. He obeys the will of the people

who really seem to hold the power here. We've seen Jesus delivered or handed over a number of times

now. That's a recurring phrase that we've heard a number of times. Jesus said he was betrayed

into the hands of sinners. And then they laid hands on him during the arrest. He's been delivered

to Pilate, and now Pilate delivered him to the soldiers for crucifixion. And this isn't by

accident. It's important that we understand this point that Mark is making by the words that he's

using, that Jesus was not taken against his will. He willingly submitted to the will of God. And

He is willingly delivered into their hands for the sake of us.

He was born meek and mild into a manger, humbling himself to take on flesh.

And now he comes with the greatest humility, submitting himself to death.

So that all who put their trust in him for salvation will be saved.

Here's the sad truth that's on display here for people who, like Pilate, don't recognize Jesus for who he is, as the Son of God who suffered and died for our sake.

When you don't see that clearly, you will trade Jesus for just about anything else.

Pilate traded him for popularity that didn't last because he was removed from office a few years later.

So instead of a peace with God, he got a few more years of troubled sleep.

The people would trade him for a political revolutionary.

They chose someone who would pursue political freedom through the shedding of blood instead

of the eternal freedom through the shed blood of Jesus.

So gratefully, many of these same people would see what they had done.

They would recognize it and they would be, the Bible says, cut to the heart, finding

redemption in Jesus.

That story is found in Acts chapter 2 and beyond.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

So can I just encourage you before we move on to not trade Jesus for anything else this

Christmas?

It's so tempting to be distracted by the decorations and the programs and everything else that

comes with a holiday.

And it's easy to choose a kind of blissful ignorance and to fail to remember what Jesus

actually came to do for you.

So with that, let's turn now to the hardest part of this passage.

And really, the hardest part of Mark for us, because with the scourging of Jesus, which is

an intense whipping, the crucifixion begins. And Mark's account of the crucifixion is almost

jarring with his straightforward and in many ways, nondescriptive account. But one theme that you

will see come out, which is really the hardest to accept, is the consistent mockery of Jesus

throughout. So let's read from 16 through 32. And the soldiers led him away inside the palace,

that is the governor's headquarters. And they called together the whole battalion and they

clothed him in a purple cloak and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him.

And they began to salute him, hail King of the Jews. And they were striking his head with the

and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him,

they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him and led him out to crucify him.

And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country,

the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. And they brought him to the place called

Golgotha, which means place of the skull. And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not

take it. And they crucified him, and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them to

decide what each should take. And it was the third hour when they crucified him, and the inscription

of the charge against him read, The King of the Jews. And with him they crucified two robbers,

one on his right and one on his left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads

and saying, Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself,

come down from the cross. So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another,

saying, He saved others, but he can't save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel,

come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And those who were crucified with him also

reviled him. If Mark's account seems light on details of the actual crucifixion, it's because

his largely Roman audience knew, many from personal experience, what that entailed.

What he does call out throughout this account, though, is the mockery of Jesus. It begins with

the mockery of the soldiers, probably around 600 of them gathered in Herod's palace.

They were mocking this king of the Jews, this man who had been forsaken even by his own people.

But even while they mock him, kneeling before him, laughing and spitting on him,

Jesus is fulfilling the prophecy in Isaiah 50, verse 6,

Isaiah 50:6

that he would endure this and not hide his face or shy away from the abuse.

Making it even more incredible that Jesus walked into this knowing full well what was to come.

From here, they take Jesus out to what's called the place of the skull to crucify him.

And the usual route for crucifixion is the most public one, because crucifixion was designed

to send a public message, to not mess with Rome.

However, in their whipping and mockery of Jesus, they have made him too weak to carry

the weight of the cross beam up that road.

And so by about 9 a.m. after Simon carries the cross there for Jesus, being the first person to take up and carry his cross, Jesus is nailed to the cross.

But the mockery will continue.

And just like with the Romans, they fulfill prophecy without realizing what they are doing.

They offer him sour wine, which he refuses, a fulfillment of Psalm 69, verse 21.

Psalms 69:21

They cast lots for his garments and divide them among them, a fulfillment of Psalm 22,

18.

They put a thief on his left and his right, the places that, by the way, James and John

begged for earlier.

Jesus said, you don't know what you're asking for, but now they're nowhere to be found.

People wag their heads in disapproval at him, which is a fulfillment of Psalm 22, verse

Psalms 22:7

7.

You'll notice Psalm 22 and 69 come up over and over again.

The chief priests proclaim, save yourself, come down yourself if you're God, which is almost

a direct quote from Psalm 22, verse 8.

Psalms 22:8

So they see the shame of the cross.

They see the man on it.

But what they do not see is that this man is not bearing his own shame.

He is bearing their shame there.

The cross has become a strange symbol here in the West and in other places around the world.

We put it on necklaces and bracelets and we tattoo it on our bodies with various meanings

for various purposes.

But in that day, the cross was a symbol of gruesome public execution, carried the same

meaning as a noose or a gallows would today.

It was a shameful way to die and unthinkable that God himself would become flesh and submit

to this worst possible way to go.

And it was certainly not a symbol of hope in any way until Jesus.

But with Jesus, it does have a specific meaning because the symbol now is of the price Jesus

paid.

Here, the sin and shame of mankind was taken and paid for through the willing sacrifice

of the Son of God.

So yes, the cross was a shameful way to die.

But in spite of every person mocking Jesus there at the cross, it was our shame that

he took to the cross with him.

And it was actually the love of Jesus on display.

So let's read the first final verses here together, verses 33 through 39.

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth

hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?

Which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said,

behold he is calling out Elijah and someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine and put it on

a reed and gave it to him to drink saying wait let us see whether Elijah will come and take him down

and Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last and the curtain of the temple was torn in two from

top to bottom and when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his

last, he said, truly, this man was the son of God. Here, finally, is the declaration we have all been

waiting for and coming from the most unexpected person with all of the signs that are presented in

the three hours leading up to the death of Jesus. You would think someone else would have their eyes

opened. Let's talk about a few of those signs that were happening. For one, during the last three

hours of Jesus' life, it is inexplicably dark. We have no natural explanation for this, even today,

leading us to believe that it was indeed a supernatural event. It is also a fulfillment

of prophecy from Amos 8.9 that the sun would go down at noon and the earth would be dark and broad

daylight. This is also preserved in Roman records as this unexplained event from AD 33.

Mark doesn't record as many of the events that happen that others do, but he does record

the tearing of the temple curtain.

This curtain was well known as the thing in the temple that divided the holiest area where

God was from the areas where the unholy people could be.

And the only day on the entire calendar that someone could enter was the Day of Atonement,

when one priest would enter to represent the people and make atonement for their sin or

sacrifice for their sin. And on this day, it is ripped from top to bottom by the hand of God,

because the Son of God has atoned for sin.

There are two statements in these verses that I really want to highlight as we prepare to close.

The first is what Jesus says when he cries out.

He's not calling for Elijah, as some bystanders think, or for his own salvation.

He's actually quoting Psalm 22, verse 1, in which the righteous man has been forsaken and calls out to God.

Psalms 22:1

If you're keeping track, that is the same psalm that prophesied the people would wag their heads at him

and almost verbatim what the chief priest said about him saving himself.

He quotes this verse because Jesus is the righteous man that Psalm 22 was really talking about.

David wrote it, but it wasn't about him because he knew that he wasn't righteous.

Jesus is the suffering servant of Isaiah.

And he is also the righteous man of Psalm 22, who would be mocked and remain unrecognized

as he bore our shame.

And only after he breathed his last did this Roman commander look at this man on the cross

and proclaim, surely this man was the Son of God.

And he uses the definitive article and a specific title in the Greek, which means he is saying

this was the Son of God, the Jewish God, the one true God, coming from the mouth of a Roman soldier,

he is proclaiming, surely this was the Son of God. And the only correction that we would have

for him about three days later on a Sunday morning is to say that this is the Son of God,

because he rose from the dead.

Especially at Christmas, which is a holiday that infamously has overshadowed Jesus with

about anything else, we must be willing to fix our eyes on the cross. Because the cross

is the lens through which we understand the identity and the work of Jesus, and it is also

how we understand just how much we need him. And there is no cultural substitute that provides

peace on earth like the peace that has been secured by Jesus on the cross. There is no amount

of commercially sold Christmas cheer that secures the goodwill of God toward men. Only Jesus can and

has done that. When we see Jesus in light of the cross, his birth and his life become more than a

footnote among all of our other holiday traditions. He becomes the one that we have waited for,

the one that we celebrate, the one who bore our shame and sin on the cross and offers forgiveness

and life to anyone who would come to him for it. I had originally planned to read the Christmas story

from Luke as we close because that's traditional. But instead, I want to read you the end of Psalm

22, which has been quoted so often in this. It's the same Psalm with all that prophecy

fulfilled at the crucifixion. The same Psalm that Jesus quoted with one of his final breaths.

Because this is how it ends. And it's talking about a future that is yet to come.

So this is Psalm 22, verse 27 through 31.

Psalms 22:27–31

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.

For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.

All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship.

Before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.

Posterity shall serve him.

It shall be told of the Lord toward the coming generation.

They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.

Jesus is indeed the Son of God.

and he has come to be Emmanuel, God with us, that we might be set free.

So Merry Christmas, Church.

Ekklesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and in homes

throughout the week. We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching from Scripture

and making disciples of Jesus.

You can learn more about our statement of faith

and contact a pastor by visiting ekklesiachurches.org.