Mark 15:5 But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.
Being amazed isn’t enough to create a new life. Salvation requires more than amazement. Watching a spacecraft being launched might bring amazement, but you would be no closer to a relationship with God. Listening to the voice of the LORD in the night sky might bring amazement, but you would still be lost. Singing a great congregational hymn with a gathering of hundreds or even thousands might raise the emotions and give you a feeling amazement, but it won’t bring salvation.
You see, the emotion of amazement or wonder is like every other emotion. It can come and go with the next moment. Amazement isn’t a conduit to God. No emotional response can serve that function. No emotion, even amazement, can bring us and keep us in the loving hands of God. It takes more.
Mark is recounting the final hours of Jesus life before He is crucified and raised to life. Mark doesn’t include all the details that the other gospel writers include. Mark always wants to get to the main point, and in our passage today he does. The Jews have found Jesus guilty, even before there was a trial. (Sound like some of the political theater we have seen in the last couple of months?) Evidence didn’t matter; they were going to push for Jesus’ death. They had made their plans (v1).
But they have a problem. The Jews are under Roman rule and under that rule, they don’t have authority to carry out capital punishment. They can do many other things, but kill someone isn’t within their authority. So they must bring Jesus to the Roman official to get their decision rubber-stamped. And this is what they do.
So Jesus is brought before Pilate and he becomes amazed at the silence of Jesus. He has probably never had anyone before him who didn’t put up a fight before their execution. I can almost hear the pleadings and accusations of false charges and false imprisonment ringing down through the millennia.
But Jesus is different. He doesn’t answer. He has already done His wrestling and pleading in the Garden of Gethsemane. The issue is already settled in His heart and mind. The Cross is now His next meal. He has already swallowed hard and He is ready.
But Pilate is amazed. He gives Jesus several opportunities to speak up. Jesus remains silent. Pilate also gives the leaders and the crowds the opportunity to change the direction of their pushes. He knows their political motivations for killing Jesus, and he wants to ensure their power stays limited and Rome’s continues strong. That is his job.
But Pilate, even though he is amazed, isn’t led to faith in Jesus. He has heard the stories, perhaps even met people who were healed. These events would most certainly have been part of his daily intelligence briefings. He had to keep his finger on the pulse of any possible threats to Rome’s rule, and the Jews were known to be rebellious people.
Amazement isn’t enough. It is the continued response of obedience to amazement that turns emotion into commitment. It is when we surrender and then follow Him that amazement can change a life. Otherwise it is just another passing phase, another emotion in the seemingly endless stream of emotions that control so many people’s lives.
But as Jesus-followers, we are not driven by emotions. We are driven by a living faith based on the history of God in the life of His people recorded in the pages of Scripture. The Scriptures give us a clear and salvific understanding of ourselves, of God and of the life that pleases Him. And we can experience that same salvation life flowing in and through us by the power of the Holy Spirit who is now at work in us and in His Church.
The Arnold Journey 