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Mark 15: 6-15
On behalf of the Columbus Ministerial Alliance, we cordially invite you to join us for our Community Sunrise Service celebrating the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The service will be held at Beason Crossing Park at 6:45 a.m. on Sunday, April 20. Even though the service is brief, we still encourage you to bring a lawn chair with you.
It is easy to know why some in our community greet one another on this special day of remembrance with words like, “he is risen” to which some joyfully reply, “he is risen indeed.” Others say, “Happy Easter.”
What a wonderful day. However, before one arrives at Resurrection Sunday, there is another important gospel remembrance known as Good Friday. But some may wonder in curiosity, what makes the suffering and death of Christ a “good” Friday?
As I read through the Gospel of Mark a few weeks ago I saw the answer to this perplexing question in the unexpected pardon of a man named Barabbas as recorded in Mark 15:6-15.
It is strange how the Bible can connect with us personally in a way that is similar to a mirror showing us a reflection of ourselves in its pages. That is what happened when I read this historical account of how a guilty man was set free and in his place of punishment, Jesus was crucified.
Mark 15:6 in some ways resembles a picture of salvation, offering sinful mankind the release from the judgment of our sins. The verse that follows (15:7) addresses the problem of sin. The facts were that Barabbas was a rebel and a murderer. Romans says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23).
Isaiah the prophet spoke of the reason the Messiah would come, and he put it this way, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - everyone - to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (53:6). As we become aware of our sin, we humbly request a plea regarding our sentence as depicted in Mark 15:8.
We can also behold the sinlessness of Christ in Mark 15:14 as even a man who was no follower of Jesus admitted to the crowd, “why, what evil has he done?” The purity of the Savior is the basis for God the Father’s acceptance of the spiritual exchange, the debts of the guilty forgiven as the innocent Son of God sacrifices His life in order to offer a pardon through His substitute (15:15). This is why Good Friday is a good Friday. He died for our sins.
