God’s Word for You

Mark 15:5 No answer at all

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, March 8, 2024

5 But Jesus gave no answer at all, so that Pilate was amazed.

The silence of Jesus was not in defiance of the court or out of any disrespect to Pilate. Jesus had not been asked any direct question that he did not answer. In fact, Jesus’ silence was a condemnation by the Lord of the false charges that had been leveled against him. We don’t have a record of very many of them, but since there are two, we can look more closely at them.

First, the testimony of the “two witnesses” in Mark 14:58 was that Jesus threatened to destroy the temple himself. Their words: “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands,’” made it sound as if Jesus was going to pull down the temple with some kind of attack. But Jesus had said, “If you destroy this temple, then I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19), and John explains the correct meaning of Jesus’ words: “The temple he had spoken about was his body” (John 2:21). Twisting a prophecy into a threat was not worth a response. Would they accuse Daniel or Isaiah of threatening to destroy the earth because they had spoken about the Last Days? The accusation was not worth a response.

Second, Pilate’s own question, “Are you the King of the Jews” (15:2) was about the only sort of King that a secular Roman governor could legally ask about: Are you a King who will rise up and oppose Caesar, and declare war against Rome to drive us out of Judea? Jesus had never made such a claim, nor had he made any claim about being a king, unless certain parables were taken in an absolutely literal sense. He had said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants…,” (Matthew 18:23), and, “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son…” (Matthew 22:2). And again, he had said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to be appointed king and then to return” (Luke 19:12). But they didn’t have any of those parables in mind. They were relying on their understanding of the prophecies about the Messiah, the Christ. Jeremiah had said: “The days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, who will reign wisely as king and establish justice and righteousness on earth” (Jeremiah 23:5). And the words of Zechariah related to what had happened the previous Sunday when Jesus rode into the city on a donkey: “You King is coming to you. He is righteous and brings salvation. He is humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). To this, Jesus’ answer was already given: “Am I a King? You have said so yourself.” But was Jesus an earthly King leading troops, sitting in a palace, giving commands and destroying Roman rule? Who is standing before you, Pilate? A battered, bruised, bleeding, beggarly man with no home at all, no followers to speak of, and not even a pocket knife to defend himself with? Is this a threat to Claudius or to any other Caesar, imperial legate, governor, centurion, or citizen of the Empire?

But we can look at the charges against Jesus from another point of view. The charge of blasphemy was the most serious charge before the Jews. The charge of claiming to be a King (treason) was the more serious charge before the Romans. Jesus was guilty of neither. He had no need to answer.

To be sure, Jesus was indeed the leaf Moses had foreseen: “The sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them” (Leviticus 26:36). “Scripture promises such terror and fear to all God’s enemies as the beginning of their damnation” (Luther). Those who were enraged by Jesus and his righteousness showed their own unrighteousness. “Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness” (Jeremiah 22:13).

Those who were furious about his right interpretation of the Scriptures only showed that their own interpretation was completely wrong. “Do not interpretations belong to God?” (Genesis 40:8).

Those who accused him of claiming power for himself only showed that they were unwilling to let go of their own power, stolen from others. “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (Matthew 22:29).

The more that Jesus was silent about his charges, the more Pilate judged him to be innocent. His silence brought God’s plan for our salvation closer and closer on that Friday morning. Minute by minute, the atoning sacrifice was being drawn inexorably toward the altar of redemption. The blood would be spilled, the life would be spent, the debt would be paid. The worshipers would be cleansed once for all, for we are no longer guilty of our sins.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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