Donald Senior, C.P.
The end comes swiftly in Mark's account; the story is told in few words, as
if it were too painful to say more. Pilate gives up his attempts to free
Jesus and condemns him to crucifixion. An execution detail brings Jesus to
Golgotha where he is offered a narcotic (which he refuses), stripped of his
garments and nailed to the cross. Two rebels are crucified with Jesus one
on each side of him, forming a sad entourage. The sign over the cross
acclaims in derision: "The King of the Jews."
During the death watch, a parade of mockery dredges up the issues of the
trial and hurls them at the man on the cross: his threats to the temple;
his power to save others and now his inability to save himself. Mark casts
this last taunt in strongly ironic tones: "Let the Messiah, the King of
Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe" (15:32).
But the reader knows that Jesus' power is demonstrated not in shedding the
cross but in carrying it, in giving his life for others. "Whoever wishes to
come after me must deny themselves, take up the cross, and follow me. For
whoever wishes to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their
life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it" (8:34-37).
Darkness envelops Golgotha and out of that darkness comes Jesus' final
lament: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It is the first verse
of Psalm 22, the great Jewish prayer of suffering faith. Mark's passion
story has been described as "dark passage'' -- Jesus stripped of his
disciples, his freedom, his dignity, his life as he gives every fiber of
his being for the sake of the world. And so in Mark's account, Jesus dies
with a wordless scream that echoes from that dread hill, splitting the veil
of the temple and igniting faith in the centurion's heart. This unlikely
witness sees in the manner of Jesus' death for others the true revelation
of God. The sight of the Crucified Jesus triggers in him the full first
confession of faith expressed in the gospel: "Truly this man was the Son of
God!" (15:39). A startling revelation--God's power revealed not through
staggering prodigies but in a selfless death motivated by love.
Mark has an eye for the unlikely. The chosen disciples had long fled. But
standing at a distance were other faithful followers, the women who had
been drawn to Jesus in Galilee and had come to Jerusalem with him. They
would stay with him now through death and burial, never abandoning him.
Two of them, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses, would keep vigil
at his burial and would be the first to discover the tomb empty and to know
that Jesus was victorious over death (16:1-8). These "unlikely disciples''
who proved true where others more prominent had failed, would be the ones
to bring the Risen Christ's message of joy and reconciliation to the
disciples who had failed.
Now the Easter story could begin.
Return to Mark 15:21-47
Index for the Passion According to Mark
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