Mark 15:11 · World English Bible
Mark 15:11 Meaning But the Chief Priests Stirred Up
But the chief priests stirred up the multitude, that he should release Barabbas to them instead.
What does Mark 15:11 mean?
Offered a choice between innocence and violence, the mind under fear's persuasion asks for the violent one to be set free. This is the ego's preference laid bare: it would rather keep what attacks and destroy what heals, because guilt feels safer to it than the peace it does not trust.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
Mark 15:11 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
Offered a choice between innocence and violence, the mind under fear's persuasion asks for the violent one to be set free. This is the ego's preference laid bare: it would rather keep what attacks and destroy what heals, because guilt feels safer to it than the peace it does not trust. The crowd does not choose freely; it is moved, stirred by the part of itself that has most to lose if love is chosen.
So a mind releases the murderer within and condemns its own innocence, and calls this justice. The whole tragedy of the ego is here, that when shown the way home it reaches instead for the familiar prison, mistaking the thing that harms it for the thing that keeps it safe.
Chief priests: the part of the mind that stirs fear and sways the whole self toward its choice Barabbas: the violence and guilt the mind sets free when it prefers attack to innocence Jesus: the innocence condemned in the same breath that the guilty is released
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Christian Psychology lens
Live Mark 15:11 today
- When you reach for your phone at the exact moment you were about to rest, let the reach happen and then set it back down. Watch how strongly the familiar thing argues for itself.
- If there is a person who calms you and a person who winds you up, text the one who calms you first today. You usually already know which number your thumb is heading toward.
- In a tense moment at home or at work, you will feel two options, the sharp one and the kind one. The sharp one will feel safer. Take the other one anyway and see what actually happens.
What do I keep choosing even though I already know how it ends?
The same truth in other traditions
Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita
The mind can be your closest friend or your worst enemy, depending on which part of you is steering it. Untrained, it chooses against you and calls it choosing.
Buddhism · Dhammapada
We are shaped by what we keep choosing. The familiar path is worn smooth by our own feet, which is exactly why we take it again.
Stoicism · Epictetus
It is not easy to put on a new habit while the old one still fits. Freedom begins with seeing that the comfortable thing and the good thing are not the same thing.
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