Mark 15:1-20
Don’t defend yourself today!
Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
He answered and said to him! “It is as you say.”
Jesus is who He says He is, He is trustworthy and can be relied on. This is sound doctrine!
“And the chief priests accused Him of many things, but He answered nothing.”
Don’t defend yourself today!
Pilate was the 6th Roman Governor over the Jews who had a quirky habit of rioting over anything. That was strongly on Pilate’s mind. He wanted to appear to Rome to be in control of his province, which he was not.
Now, Satan always has a counterfeit ready for us. Here he has Barabbas, a thief and murderer, available to be released instead of Jesus. The chief priests “stirred up the crowd” against Jesus and so as per custom, they asked for and were given the release of Bar (son of) Abbas (the father) a true counterfeit to Jesus, the One and Only “Son of the Father.”
Be careful to avoid, and not support people, leaders who unfairly and selfishly stir up trouble against another brother or sister. Try not to fall for Satan’s counterfeits in your life today too!
Do not defend yourself today!
Here is a very sad scene. This is bullying gone very bad. Jesus is mocked, teased, spit upon, and for me the most harmful part of all this, is when they put a bag on His head and started to hit Him and mocked him by saying “prophecy who hit you?” The blows that landed on Him with no ability to prepare for the blow were likely very painful and unsettling. Still, He never fought back!
Don’t defend yourself today!
What pain are you enduring today from others? What betrayal has happened to you even years ago that you still suffer from? Who has abandoned you where like Jesus even His closes disciples “abandoned Him.”
Remember, Jesus “will never leave you nor forsake you.” In this resurrection season, know too that God will “return to you the years the locust has eaten.” You are living in resurrection power as a believer. Your suffering is but for a moment “but joy comes in the morning!”
Have you been the accuser and one like the chief priests who has stood around and stirred up dissent or helped bring another down lower?
Best to repent and go to those you have done wrong to and apologize so you won’t end up “reaping what you sow.” As Charles Stanley puts is: “we reap what we sow, more than we sow, longer than we sow and later than we sow.”
Let’s sow something healthy today and remember:
Don’t defend yourself today!