Passed On

Mark 15:15So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.Pilate handed Jesus over to his soldiers to be crucified.

Jesus keeps passing through hands. Judas handed him over to the arrest party, who handed him over to the Sanhedrin, who then handed him over to Pilate. One more pass to make. You might say that Pilate tried to hand Jesus over to the crowd, but they refused him. Jesus seems nothing more than a tainted object that everyone is trying to dispose of. They just want him off their hands. But do you recall Jesus’ last words on the cross? Luke records them (23:26): “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”Remember that. The passion of Jesus, as terrible as it was, is not like one of Shakespeare’s tragedies in which the main character is plunged into ruin because of some character defect or forces beyond his control. The passion of Jesus is happening precisely because Jesus is perfect and in perfect control. All this handing over is going according to script: 33 “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law (check). They will condemn him to death (check) and will hand him over to the Gentiles (check), 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.Jesus told his disciples of what was to come to restore their faith. Let this same knowledge store up your faith. Keep his words always before you when you read of his passion. Keep before you that he is going through this parody of justice to make you just before God; that he has consented to be handed over to evil men that you might be committed into the hands of God. Keep before you that he gladly descends into this valley of humiliation that he might be raised to glory and bring you to be with him.