5. Pilate sentences Jesus. Mark 15:6-15

6 Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. 7 A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. 8 The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. 9 "Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate, 10 knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. 12 "What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?" Pilate asked them. 13 "Crucify him!" they shouted. 14 "Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!" 15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

“Finding Voice”

Pottery

Sara Gray

On the day of the exhibit, after setting up the piece on the pedestal, water will be poured into the center of this bowl, where the artist has placed a red iron powder. The water will turn red, representing Pilate washing his hands of the blood of Jesus. Touching the water will stain your fingers red. If you read the text inscribed on the bowl you’ll see, in addition to the crowd’s cries to “crucify Him,” two other words: No and Why.

Were there courageous voices in the crowd that day that stood up, that said, “No!”? Or was there a child in the crowd, holding her mommy’s hand, scared, asking, “Why do they hate Him, Mommy? What did he do?”

Are we standing up for those around us today?- Sara Gray