Discuss: How do you react when the guilty go free, but the innocent are punished? Can such injustice be tolerated?
1. Who is responsible for the death of Jesus?
2. What is motivating Pilate in the trial of Jesus? (v. 6, 10, 14, 15)
3. How would you feel if you were Barabbas? (v. 7, compare v. 48)
Notes:
(a) Barabbas: Some manuscripts of Matthew 27:16 have Barabbas name as “Jesus Barabbas”. Barabbas means “son of the father”.
(b) Pilate: Prefect of Judea from AD 26. He was known as a harsh man (cf. Luke 13:1), but in AD 31, his patron Sejanus was executed in Rome, leaving Pilate vulnerable to Caesar and explaining his deference to the Jews (cf. John 19:12-13).
4. List all the groups that Mark identifies who forsake Jesus?
5. Where is the irony in the soldiers’ mockery of Jesus?
6. Why were two robbers killed with Jesus? (Isa 53:12)
7. Why did the soldiers’ cast lots for Jesus’ clothes? (Ps 22:18)
8. What is the irony of the challenge of the passers-by and chief priests? (cf. Mark 10:45, 11:7-10; Ps 22:7-8)