Mark 15 – 16
Verse 15:15 starts the torture that Jesus went through to his death:
When Pilate saw that he could not persuade the crowd to change its mind, he released Barabbas to them and had Jesus publicly whipped, which was the normal prelude to crucifixion. Then he had Jesus led away to be crucified.
Pilate has tried to release Jesus and not kill Him, yet the people insisted. Now he is being beaten, ridiculed and mocked before his death. As you look back to prophecies you will see many that match the events here. Mark does not embellish the story much with flowery comments but rather give bullet points of the events.
Verse 15:28 is another one of those points I wonder why it’s missing in some accounts:
[28 And the Hebrew Scripture was completed that said, “He was considered just another criminal.”]
This is quoting from Isaiah 53:12 which says:
Because he exposed his very self—
laid bare his soul to the vicious grasping of death—
And was counted among the worst, I will count him among the best.
I will allot this one, My servant, a share in all that is of any value,
Because he took on himself the sin of many
and acted on behalf of those who broke My law.
The exact quote is not in here and I can only assume that is a translational issue, but either way the ramifications are significant when you look at Isaiah writing this some 700 years before Jesus walked the lands. It’s significant when you really look at it from a big picture. At the same time we need to explore this deeper, because inconsistencies like the text not being in all manuscripts or it not matching exactly are ammo for non-believers or weak in faith to dismiss Jesus as real. If you read Isaiah 53:10-12 you see there is no one else that matches this prophecy other than Jesus. It’s very cool once you study more.
Mark 16:15 & 16 spell out the Gospel simply:
15 Go out into the world and share the good news with all of creation. 16 Anyone who believes this good news and is ceremonially washed will be rescued, but anyone who does not believe it will be condemned.
Believe and get baptized, it’s that simple. The difficult part is following Jesus. We have so many parts tugging at all aspects of our beliefs. We have some saying salvation is secured and that’s it, this of course gets twisted to mean “do what thou wilt” on earth. Or salvation requires works, which gets twisted into works are required for salvation. The key with any “doctrine” or religious “dogma’s” is to verify them and allow the Holy Spirit to help you understand the translation.