30 Days In The Gospel Of MarkSample

Thought:

After Jesus was arrested, the religious leaders brought Him to Pilate, the Roman governor, to put Jesus on trial. Jesus agreed that He was the King of the Jews but made no reply to the false accusations. He did not defend Himself or try to prove His innocence, even though He was innocent. Pilate could tell that Jesus was a good man. He knew He did not deserve to be crucified and that the religious leaders had arrested Him because they were jealous. Pilate tried to release Jesus to the crowd, but the religious leaders stirred them up to shout, “Crucify Him!” In this story, we identify with the crowd. We are included in the people who shouted, “Crucify Him!” Because all of us have sinned, we have all betrayed God, just like the people who wanted to crucify Jesus betrayed Him. The right response to our selfish betrayal is to ask God for His generous forgiveness.

1. What did the religious leaders decide to do with Jesus?

2. How did Jesus respond to Pilate’s first question? How did He respond to the rest of the accusations?

3. Why did the chief priests have Jesus handed over to be arrested?

4. What did the crowd want to happen to Jesus?

Engage:

Confessing our sin can sometimes feel uncomfortable. We would often rather pretend it did not happen or blame somebody else. God tells us that confessing sin is a healthy part of the Christian life. When we confess our sins to God, we should remember that He has already forgiven us. His love for us does not depend on what we do. God already knows all we do, but we confess our sins to admit to God that we’ve made mistakes, need forgiveness, and want to do what is right. Write down five sins you can confess to God. Consider including betraying Jesus on your list. Spend some time confessing your list of sins to God. Listen to His love, grace, and forgiveness for you. Ask Him to empower you by the Holy Spirit to live differently this week.

Deeper Waters:

Look up Psalm 38:13-14 and Isaiah 53:7, which both make predictions about the Messiah. How do you see Jesus fulfilling these verses in today’s passage in Mark?