Biblical Words [709]
God sent a Servant, abused and slain by the world, but faithful to the
end.
The Revised Common Lectionary splits the traditional Palm Sunday in two, having one liturgy for the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday and a second Liturgy devoted entirely to the Passion narrative. I have given the Liturgy of the Palms only in last Sunday’s readings, but have moved the Liturgy of the Passion, with its reading of the full Passion narrative, to Good Friday.
The Prophetic, Psalm, and Epistle readings here are those given for Good Friday, the most awesome of the Suffering Servant passages. For the Passion narrative itself, however, I am using the Gospel According to Mark instead of the Passion in John, which is the traditional Good Friday reading. This is Lectionary year B, the year of Mark’s Gospel, so here we will listen to Mark’s version of the culminating events of the secret and suffering Messiah.
This prophetic reading is the climax of the Suffering Servant songs. Like the other Good Friday texts, this is a complex one. It involves different scenes and speakers, and we need a map to follow the full drama. Here is a rather simplified one.
God is speaking in the first and last parts of the drama, 52:13-15
and at least 53:11b-12. Someone else is speaking in the middle
section, at least 53:1-6 and probably all of 53:1-11a. This “someone else” is a plural, as in “we”
and “for our…” What the “we” passages
describe is the astonishing career of the Servant (whom God introduced in the
first God-speech). This Servant was
disfigured, despised, and generally hounded to death—a fate that he submitted
to like a sacrificial animal taken to slaughter. Further, this suffering by the Servant was on
somebody else’s account, or for their benefit.
“…the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (53:6,
Thus we have the following structure:
(A) God introduces the Servant as newly exalted, 52:13-15.
(B) A group (“we”) proclaims that the suffering was for their sins, 53:1-11a.
(A’) God announces the Servant’s reward for that suffering, 53:11b-12.
The whole passage spoken by the “we” or the “many” is designed to evoke great compassion at the suffering and disrespect endured by the Servant. But even more, it evokes wonder because this suffering was not only undeserved but was endured on behalf of others, to spare them from guilt and punishment because of their rebelliousness.
What is this really about? What lies behind the imagery of the Suffering Servant?
A fairly straightforward reading
sees here an interpretation of
The divine announcement is that there was a secret purpose working through that defeat and disaster—a secret purpose that, when known, will be astonishing to both the other nations and kings as well as to those very defeated and exiled folks who still call themselves “Israel.”
From the other parts of
That is,
In the later twentieth century,
scholars shied away from seeing royal features in the Servant. The Servant songs never say clearly that the
Servant is a king. Nevertheless, the
ambiguity of the collective-individual character of the Servant probably makes
most sense as a royal figure (rather than as a prophetic or priestly figure). The Servant will stand honored among kings
and he certainly plays a representative role:
his experience is
In the sacral realities and the
prophetic rhetoric of that age, City and King were the makers—and the victims—of
all major historical developments. In
our passage, God declares that such a major development is about to occur for
the insignificant community of exiles that still responds to the name “
Psalm
22.
The Psalm for Good Friday has, with good reason, been read as a Suffering Servant liturgy.
The Plea. The first part of this psalm
alternates between the miserable condition of the speaker and the goodness of
God’s actions in the past:
1a. I am
abandoned and unheard, vv. 1-2;
2a. You heard
and saved the Israelite ancestors, vv. 3-5;
1b. I am a
worm, despised and mocked, vv. 6-8;
2b. You have
known and kept me since my birth, vv. 9-10.
The logic of this alternation creates a claim upon
God by the speaker, expressed in the simple plea of verse 11: “Do not be far from me, for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.”
The Evocation of Pity. The piteous
descriptions of slaughter in verses 12 to 18 are intended to evoke indignation
at the cruelty inflicted upon the speaker.
Besides the opening line of the psalm (“My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?”), this description of physical death has the closest ties with
the Passion narratives in the Gospels.
In this passage, a single metaphor is
sustained, that of a hunted animal, probably the “deer” referred to in the title
prefixed to the psalm. This beautiful
wild animal is assaulted by enemies all about, bulls and lions.
Attention is directed steadily from a large ring
surrounding the animal toward the center of its body, as that body is
violated:
As these beasts pierce the skin of the victim, the
inner organs are exposed and torn open:
And the final drained and lifeless carcass is
evidence of a ruthless slaughter:
Nothing in the book of Job exceeds this evocation of
pity.
The imagery of the animal hunted and surrounded by
beasts is repeated, more briefly.
In this imagery, the “clothes” divided among the
hunters are, of course, the victim’s skin, to become “garments” for the
hunters.
The agonizing and suffering part of the psalm
concludes with the speaker’s final plea for deliverance, heightened by
repeating some key words from the imagery.
The Reversal. The rest of the psalm proclaims
a total
reversal! The prayer has been answered, and the
delivered one thanks God for salvation.
God raised the suffering one from ignominy to glory.
Furthermore, this deliverance has world-wide
significance:
All the ends of the earth shall remember
The sufferer in this drama is not just a marginal
resident; this is a figure of destiny (a royal figure) whose rescue from death
is good news for others far and wide.
The basic movement in the psalm is the same as in
the prophetic Suffering Servant passage.
Great suffering to death by a faithful servant is finally rewarded with
exaltation by God. And all of that is
recognized by the nations as an amazing work of God for their benefit!
When the Passion stories report Jesus’ great cry of
god-forsakenness on the cross, the hearers know what’s in the rest of the
psalm! The suffering one was on his way
to exaltation.
(This is the alternate reading;
the first reading is
The Epistle to the Hebrews is one of the most difficult major Biblical writings for modern progressive people to fathom, much less enjoy. However, this Good Friday reading gives us more of the human Jesus than is usual in this work. Let’s just listen to that.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every
respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin…. In the days of his flesh,
Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the
one who was able to save him from death [thinking of Jesus reciting Psalm 22 ?],
and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience
through what he suffered [like the “
THE PASSION ACCORDING TO MARK
(Originally written in March 2006; occasionally revised since.)
Introduction. The
following comments are based on a strict reading of the Passion narrative in
Mark. They avoid any attempt to
harmonize Mark with the other Gospels, and they do not seek to reconstruct any
actual history of the last night and day of Jesus’ life. What we have in Mark’s Passion is one of the
ways second-generation Greek-speaking Christians told the story of the Passion,
as it had become part of their reverence for their Lord.
Christian
tradition has always thought Mark wrote around 65 to 70 CE (after Peter’s
death) in
That the
Passion happens on Passover night and the following day is part of the later
Christian story, not at all historically probable. The narrative reflects what Christians were
doing while their Judean neighbors were doing the Passover. The Passion narrative was the Christian
counter-Passover. (See further below on
the Passover and the Last Supper.)
Careful
attention has been given here to how the narrative distributes its time over
the incidents. A word count (in Greek)
of all sections of the narrative has been made and the percentage of the whole
taken up by each episode is indicated. This gives us an objective measure of what the
narrators thought was important in their oral performances of the Passion, one
version of which Mark dictated to a professional scribe.
As to the meaning of the narrative,
Mark’s story
deals with the question “Why did Jesus die?” and answers it at various
levels. At one level, his answer is that
Jesus died because it was the will of God; at another, that he died because he
was obedient; at a third (paradoxically!), that he died because of the
wickedness of his enemies and the treachery of Judas. All three explanations tell us how it came
about that Jesus died: they do not tell
us what his death achieved. None of the
evangelists has a great deal to say about what we would call “the
atonement.”
Morna D. Hooker, The Gospel According
to Saint
An additional reflection (written 2012):
More than its
alternative Abrahamic faiths, Christianity bears the message, God Suffers. Judaism
and Islam have laid extreme emphasis upon the compassion and mercy of God, but
their equally extreme emphasis upon the unity of God makes the compassion and
suffering more difficult to feel and resonate to than the subtle, subliminal
Christian evocation that it is GOD who suffers.
That is forever the importance of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity: Jesus is actually God in some unqualified way, and thus the Passion narrative constantly carries the subtext, overtone, visceral religious message, that this is God suffering for humans. Human suffering (the lot of the vast majority of humans in all ages) is taken into God’s own being in incomprehensible but utterly profound ways.
“The Cross not
only reveals the nature of Jesus but the nature of God, not only the divinity
of Jesus, but the Christlikeness of God.”
(G.H.C. MacGregor, The Gospel of John, Hodder and
Surely this is the persisting and
awesome power and importance for Christians of the Passion narrative. And some think it’s power is especially
achieved in Mark’s version.
(A note on
terminology. The words “Jew,” “Jews,”
and “Jewish” are avoided here when the subject is the people referred to in the
New Testament. These words are later
translations into European languages of the Greek word ’Ioudaíos, which, more literally translated, is “Judean” and
“Judeans.” This is a respectful reminder
that there are no “Jews” in the New Testament; only “Judeans” and peoples of
the nations [“gentiles”].)
Main
Scenes of the Drama (as discussed here):
The Plot and the Extravagant Anointing, 14:1-11 (10.3%)
Quotations throughout are from the New
Revised Standard Version.
The Plot and the Extravagant Anointing, 14:1-11
(In Bethany
The
Plot, 14:1-2 (34 words). There was a plot to catch Jesus
and kill him.
The plot did not just begin two days
before it succeeded. It had been
building since
Later,
after Jesus has come to Jerusalem and challenged its leadership by attacking
the commercial activities in the temple, the chief priests and scribes “kept
looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole
crowd was spellbound by his teaching” (11:18).
Continuing his provocations in the temple, he told the parable of the
wicked tenants of the vineyard, which
patently accused the
It is no surprise, then, that two days before Passover, “the chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest him by stealth and kill him” (verse 1). They still needed to avoid a public incident, so they agreed to avoid the time of the festival (which lasted eight days altogether, beginning the 14th of Nisan, the day the Passover animals were sacrificed).
In
Mark’s presentation they faced a quandary.
Jesus was in
The Anointing, 14:3-9 (124 words). The story of the plot is interrupted to tell
the story of the extravagant anointing.
It is a common practice of Mark to “sandwich” one incident between two
parts of another. A prominent example is
the healing of the woman with a blood flow which is placed between the two
parts of the story of raising Jairus’ daughter,
Jesus
has friends in the neighborhood of
Mark says nothing about the woman’s motives; only reports her actions in succinct but indelible terms. The primary points of the narrative are not about her but about Jesus. This is a critical moment in sacred history. Extravagance that would be irresponsible at normal times is now praised as a “noble deed” (kalon ergon, verse 6). The reason is – and the Jesus of this tradition may be transforming a royal anointing into a burial service – “she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial” (verse 8).
This nameless woman becomes famous (her act to be remembered “wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world,” verse 9) because her action formalizes Jesus’ preparation for death. While others are plotting Jesus’ death, those who love him are sanctifying it.
Judas, 14:10-11 (30 words). The frame around this anointing story is closed by the action of a betrayer. “Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them” (verse 10).
In
most English versions Jesus is “betrayed.”
The Greek verb is paradidomi,
which literally means “give over,” and is applied to such benign things as
passing on tradition (“your tradition that you have handed on,”
However,
in the course of the whole narrative, Jesus will be “given over” in a series of
transferals, all using this verb. Judas
hands over Jesus to the priests (
When the chief priests heard Judas’ offer of betrayal, “they were greatly pleased” (verse 11). Judas offered them a way to take Jesus immediately but quietly, avoiding a public disturbance. This was just what they wanted. They strike a deal, and promise Judas money. The Mark narrative offers no speculations about Judas’s motives, not even greed (which he is accused of in other Gospels). There is no interest here in how one of the chosen twelve, associated with Jesus for some time now, could thus turn against him. In the really big picture, this is God’s doing (more on this later), and that is the essential story.
Passover and the Last Supper, 14:12 -26
(In the Upper Room. 259 words, 14.1%)
Preparing for the Passover, 14:12-16 (99 words, 5.39%). Still out in
This
is the point in Mark’s story where all commentators through the ages address a
big question about the chronology of Jesus’ passion. Did the Last Supper happen on Passover
evening? Did it happen at the same time
that
The historical question. This question is about “what really happened,” not about what Mark narrates.
There
are two major reasons why this dating in Mark seems wrong to historians. One is that the Gospel of John makes it a day
earlier. There Jesus has the last supper
on the evening before the Passover day (John 13:1), and Jesus dies on the next
afternoon while the Passover lambs are being sacrificed at the temple (John
The
other reason against the Last Supper being a Passover meal is a modern
one. The Passover meal took place
between twilight and
Nevertheless,
Mark’s Gospel definitely makes the Last Supper a Passover (
The
answer is suggested by considering what early Christians were doing in the
years after Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Were they still observing the regular Passover – whether in
The answer is given in the nature of Mark’s narrative of the last supper. The Last Supper is the Christian counter-Passover. Judeans celebrated liberation from slavery; Christians solemnly observed a time of betrayal, abandonment, mockery, and death.
It
was important in Mark’s community that the Last Supper took place at exactly
the same time as the Judeans were doing their Passover. What for Judeans was a time of feasting,
ending in the singing of the Hallel in
Thus the Mark narrative spends over 5% of its total time describing how the Upper Room for the Passover was found (verses 12-16), doing just as Judean neighbors were doing. (In the Christians' case to re-enact the last supper, their sharing in the death.) Then another 4.5% of its time is spent on the announcement of the betrayer (verses 17-21), before the meal is even reached. These were important things in this version of how Jesus died.
When Judeans (in Rome, Ephesus, or Antioch) start preparing for their Passover by removing all the leaven from their houses, Christians start preparing for their vigil of watching through the night as their Lord is betrayed, abandoned, and condemned.
Announcement of the Betrayer, 14:17-21 (83 words, 4.5%). “When it was evening, he came with the
twelve.” Jesus and all of the twelve
come to the dinner. The first solemn
business of this evening – taking up more time in the narrative than the Last
Supper itself! – is telling the twelve that one of them is betraying
Jesus.
The response of the
disciples to this announcement is given in detail – and is very curious. When Jesus has just said, “one of you will
betray me,” one might expect someone like Peter to burst out, “Who is he? Let me at him!” No such thing. “They began to be distressed [grieved] and to
say to him one after another, ‘Surely, not I?’” (verse 19). What a strange response. Why the doubt? Self-doubt?
Is this only modesty, because one is never entirely sure of one’s own
deep places? One by one they almost
pleadingly ask if they are going to do this incredible thing. What’s behind this strange questioning?
Think of this scene told
to a community of Christians in
The year before, Nero had
rounded up many Christians – now distinct from Judeans for almost the first
time. Among other tortures administered
by Nero’s servants, many of the Christians were burned as human torches in his
gardens. What a time of scrambling to be
out of the way must have happened! How
many weak Christians betrayed the locations of their fellow believers? How many betrayed their Lord to save their
lives? How desperate and drastic the
action of Judas must have seemed to people who knew of betrayers among their
own number! Many were torn by those
agonies and betrayals in
This intensity about the betrayer is also seen in the
uncompromising damnation pronounced by Jesus on the betrayer. “The Son of Man goes as is written of him,
but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to
have been born” (verse 21). Why couldn’t
Jesus have been supremely understanding and forgiven Judas – said something
like the scribe has put in his mouth in
Words over
the Bread and the Cup, 14:22-26 (77 words, 4.2%). So far
we have heard about plotting a death, anointing for burial, betrayal, and
severe judgment upon the betrayer. Now
we hear about food and drink! Except
it’s not just eating and drinking …
Taking bread “he broke
it…and said, ‘…this is my body.’” They
drank from the cup and he said, “This is my blood…poured out for many” (verses
22 and 24). The Last Supper is also about death, the broken body and the
shed blood.
It is not just about one
person dying, however. It is about
others sharing in a particular special death.
They share in the death by eating the bread, which is pronounced
equivalent to the broken body, and by drinking the wine from the cup, which is
shed blood. The true point of the supper is giving the bread and the cup to the
others. They will not succeed in
staying together, much less in staying with Jesus, through the coming
ordeal. But in this meal they are united
with Jesus and in the transcendent event that he lets them feel is happening in
their midst.
Out of the heavy overtones
of death there are three positive notes. He says
“Take (the bread).” The command implies
that there is some point to this. The
brokenness leads to something beyond.
And the blood that the wine represents is blood of a “covenant,” of
something uniting persons and groups for a future. Finally, after they drink the wine, Jesus
speaks directly of a spectacular future.
“I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I
drink it new in the
That coming banquet time
was familiar from a prophecy in Isaiah:
On this mountain the Lord
of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with
marrow,
of well-aged wines strained clear.
And he will destroy on
this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
(Isaiah 25:6-8)
In Mark’s simple
presentation of the words of the Last Supper, we come closer to transcending
death and loss than anywhere else in Mark’s passion narrative – including his
account of the empty tomb on Easter.
Abandonment:
Prophesied and Fulfilled, 14:27 -52
Predicting
Desertion and Denial,
14:27-31 (79 words, 4.3%). Many of
Jesus’ words in the early Passion narrative are predictions. The anointing woman’s act will be remembered,
the man in the city will lead the disciples to the upper room, one of the
twelve will betray him, he will drink wine in the coming reign of God. Jesus’ word guides and authorizes the
events. Now, with the predictions of the
disciples abandoning him and Peter’s denying him, Jesus in effect gives
permission for these bad things to happen.
All is within God’s will, to which obviously Jesus has access.
Leaving the city walls,
they move to the
There is also a positive prediction, though it is virtually
an afterthought. This word anticipates
that after their flight the disciples will reassemble in
Peter protests that the
prophecy of desertion will not apply to him (verse 29), to which Jesus replies
with another prediction – that Peter in particular will deny knowing Jesus that
night. Peter denies this prediction even
more vigorously, saying he will die for Jesus first, and the other disciples
say likewise.
All of this reminds the
hearer, who knows how this turns out, that the best of intentions and the
surest confidence are still in God’s hands.
One lives as a Jesus follower hoping that God will not allow the testing
to overwhelm one (the meaning of “lead us not into temptation [literally
testing]”). The proper spirit is better
expressed in “Surely, not I?” (verse 19) than in “Even though I must die with
you, I will not deny you” (verse 31).
Prayer
and Sleep in the Garden, 14:32-42 (181 words, 9.9%). In
between the prediction of abandonment and its fulfillment is the prayer in the
olive grove.
The
The
The portrayal of the very
human dread, followed by resignation and acceptance, is profound. He prayed “that, if possible, the hour might
pass from him. He said, ‘Abba, Father,
for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I
want, but what you want’” (verses
35-36). (Note the narrative
technique: Mark tells you what Jesus
prayed, then he lets you hear the prayer in Jesus’ own words. Solemn treatment!)
It is noteworthy that
there is no response from God. If you were ever going to have a heavenly
voice support Jesus, this seems like a good time. (One of the scribes copying the Gospel
According to Luke couldn’t resist giving Jesus a heavenly answer and wrote how
an angel appeared to him at this point and gave him strength,
The only answer Jesus gets
is that the disciples have gone to sleep on him! What Jesus expected of the three key
disciples especially was that they “keep awake and pray that you may not come
into the time of trial” (verse 38).
Jesus hoped to be supported in his distress by this prayer-chain of
three. Instead he finds them asleep
three times and finally concludes, “Enough!
The hour has come; the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners”
(verse 41).
The
Arrest and Flight, 14:43-52 (140 words, 7.6%). Judas brings the posse from the high priests,
scribes, and elders. This is Judas’s
moment in the Gospel drama. “Now the
betrayer [his function in the crime, not his name] had given them a sign,
saying, ‘The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under
guard.’ So when he came, he went up to
him at once and said, ‘Rabbi!’ and kissed him.
Then they laid hands on him and arrested him” (verses 44-46).
After Judas’s arrival, the
narrative is a bit choppy. This is the
point in the Passion narratives where questions of non-violence come up.
First we have the incident of the sword, which all four Gospels
report. Mark’s version only tells that
someone drew a sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s slave. In itself this seems incomplete, and the
other Gospels all add something else.
Here, the sword whack is
followed only by Jesus’ criticism of his opponents for sneaking up on him with
swords and clubs as if he were a bandit instead of arresting him by day in the
temple (which is, of course, exactly what the priests were avoiding). But even this comment by Jesus is only in
passing, for he resigns himself to the inevitable, in conformity with the
scriptures (“But let the scriptures be fulfilled,” verse 49).
The conclusion of this
scene is the flight of the disciples.
“All of them deserted him and fled” (verse 50). Done.
Except that there is
another brief astonishing incident. “A
certain young man was following him [Jesus], wearing nothing but a linen
cloth. They caught hold of him, but he
left the linen cloth and ran off naked” (verses 51-52). What is this oddity? The other Gospels omit this incident; it is
Mark’s only.
Scripture students
concluded long ago that this is the narrator’s signature, written in an obscure
corner, as it were. The John “whose
other name was Mark” (Acts
Critical scholars have
doubted that all these references are to the same person – Mark was a very
common Roman name. Still, the range of
New Testament references to Mark (more than any other Gospel writer, except
John) suggests that in his mature adulthood he was continuously involved in
Christian missionary work. The tradition
makes this Gospel his writing, from
How otherwise explain this
almost absurd little episode? (That he
was Jesus’ homosexual lover smacks rather too much of modern wishful
thinking.) Let’s accept it as Mark’s
modest but, somewhat embarrassed, signature that – “I was there also!”
Jesus’ Trial – and Peter’s,
14:53 -72
(Before the High
Priest. 350 words, 19.1%)
Exposing
Who Jesus Really Is,
14:53-65 (222 words, 12.1%). The
night-time trial of Jesus was the subject of enormous study in the twentieth
century, much of it heated without much light.
In general, it is fairly clear that a night session of the Sanhedrin –
the highest council of Judean leaders – was illegal. Furthermore, it would have been impossible on
a Passover night. It is also reasonably
clear that the Council did not have legal authority to inflict the death
penalty, though they could certainly have made a plan to seek the death penalty
from the Romans.
Mark’s narrative is a
reconstruction forty years after the fact, based on events that Jesus followers
had come to believe must have happened.
What is really important in the narrative itself is not the legalities
of the Judean trial, but the revelation of Jesus’ identity from Jesus’ own
mouth.
The narrative portrays an
almost humorous attempt to trump up a charge against Jesus concerning the
destruction of the temple. As presented,
those giving “false testimony” against him could not get their act together
well enough to condemn him, even in a hostile court! Only a final show-down between the High
Priest and Jesus can reveal the truth – and then only because Jesus must really
tell the truth when the Priest puts the question, “Are you the Messiah [the
Christ], the Son of the Blessed One?” (verse 61).
The answer Jesus gives is
the first fully public
admission of his messiahship in this Gospel. God, the angels,
and the demons knew who Jesus was from the beginning (
As Judas solved the
priests’ problem of how to capture Jesus, so Jesus himself solves their problem
of how to condemn him. “Why do we still
need witnesses? You have heard his
blasphemy! What is your decision?”
(verses 63-64). The decision is that he
“deserves death.” If Jesus has admitted
being the Messiah, he can be accused to the Romans as claiming to be a
king! And Jesus will indeed be condemned
as “the King of the Judeans,” convicted, as Mark presents it, on his own
testimony.
Peter
Fails His Trial,
14:66-72 (128 words, 7.0%). The denial
story is superbly told. The opening line
was given before the narrative of Jesus’ trial (verse 54) – the “sandwich”
technique again. Peter is confronted by
a persistent slave girl. “You also were
with Jesus, the man from
Traditional interpreters
have always said that Peter himself told this story of his denial. Whether it was personal experience or not, it
is a powerful confession of the weakness of the best available men in the face
of the trials that following Jesus may bring!
At least before Jesus’
resurrection.
Tried, Condemned, and Mocked, 15:1-20
(Before Pilate. 236 words, 12.9%)
The
Accusation, 15:1-5
(71 words). When morning comes,
the priests gather all their allies comprising the Jerusalem Council and then
“hand over” Jesus to the Roman prefect, Pilate.
The main accusation is that Jesus claims to be a king.
We do not hear the Judean
leaders state the charge, but it is assumed in Pilate’s question to Jesus: “Are you the King of the Judeans?” (verse
2). Jesus’ reply seems ambiguous. “You say so.”
Commentators think this is neither a denial nor an affirmation, but
leans toward an affirmation. It seems to
be something like our, “Whatever you say.”
The narrative says that the chief priests also accused him of other
things, but Jesus does not deign to reply to them, which amazes Pilate.
What
the People Wanted,
15:6-15 (96 words). The trial
scene expands to include, not just the Council, but a large crowd of
people. They are involved (according to
this narrative) because it is the first day of a festival and one prisoner held
by the Romans may be released from custody upon popular request (verse 6. No such practice is known from historical
records.). Thus, Pilate offers Jesus to
the people as the candidate for release (verse 9), but the people, egged on by
the chief priests, ask for Bar-abbás instead.
Bar-abbás was a terrorist convicted of assassinations.
What then should be done
with Jesus, "the king of the Judeans"?
Here is where the Gospel narrators
make the crowd of Judean people (manipulated, indeed, by the high priests)
finally responsible for Jesus’ death.
They represent Pilate as willing to let Jesus off, but “the crowd”
demanded that he be crucified. “Why,
what evil has he done?” replies Pilate.
“But they shouted all the more, ‘Crucify him!’ So Pilate, wishing to
satisfy the crowd, released Bar-abbás for them; and after flogging Jesus, he
handed him over to be crucified” (verses 14-15).
The
Mocking of a King, 15:16-20
(69 words). The mocking of Jesus
is clearly ironic. One being pantomimed
as a fake king is in reality the true king.
This is clear throughout to the hearers of the narrative.
After the flogging that
Pilate had ordered, the Roman soldiers dress up Jesus in a purple robe, put a
crown of thorns on his head, and engage in mock obeisance before him, whacking
him with a reed that might have been his scepter. “Hail, King of the Judeans!” they tease
(verse 18). When they grow weary of this
sport they put his old clothes back on him and take him out to be
crucified.
The Crucifixion, 15:21 -41
(At
The
Deed, with Brief Details, 15:21-24 (55 words). The
narrative of these events had become widespread in Christian circles. Occasionally, well-known people were
mentioned as associated with it. One
drafted to carry the cross-bar out to the execution place for Jesus (implying
that Jesus could not do it?) was “Simon of
The place of the execution
was
In one brief clause the
deed occurs: “they crucified him.” The narrative is more interested in the
division of his clothes than in the crucifixion itself. From the Gospels we would learn little about
the technology of crucifixion.
The dividing of the
clothes was according to scripture.
“They divide my clothes among themselves, / and for my clothing they
cast lots” (Psalm
Mocking
the Crucified,
15:25-32 (98 words). From here on
Mark starts keeping a close clock on the crucifixion. The actual crucifixion – hanging Jesus on the
cross – happened at
His crime was posted on
the cross with him: “The King of the
Judeans.” Two condemned terrorists were
crucified with him, one on each side (“he poured out himself to death, and was
numbered with the transgressors,”
In the meantime,
bystanders and enemies make mockery over his fate.
·
You who would replace the temple, “save yourself and
come down from the cross” (verses 29-30).
·
The priests taunted, “He saved others; he cannot
save himself.”
·
“Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from
the cross now, so that we may see and believe” (verse 32; the irony here is
particularly intense).
·
Those who were crucified with him also taunted him
(verse 32).
The
Death and Its Echoes,
15:33-41 (149 words). At
The first words of the
psalm Jesus quotes have a sound similar to the name Elijah. That explains the play by bystanders who want
to wait and see if “Elijah” answers him.
This is one last twist of mockery.
Now Jesus gives a terminal scream and dies.
The narrator reports two
immediate consequences – one supernatural, the other surprisingly human. The curtain of the holy place in the temple is split from
top to bottom (verse 38). This is, of
course, a symbolic event. The most holy
place in the temple is exposed. The
mystery is no longer located there. The
implication is that a new means of access to God is becoming available. The old way is abolished; the reign of God
will be manifest in other ways (in
Secondly, the
centurion who was in
command of the execution squad, seeing how Jesus died, confesses, “Truly this
man was God’s son!” (verse 39).
Commentators have often noted that this is the true climax of Mark’s
Gospel. A non-Judean, professional
soldier, employee of the empire, says out loud what God, demons, disciples, and
joyous crowds had declared earlier, that this was “the gospel of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God” (1:1).
Returning to the scene at
The Burial, 15:42 -47
(With Joseph of Arimathea. 101
words, 5.4%)
The narrative of the
burial is the solo performance by a man who appears nowhere else. Joseph of Arimathea, another one of those
friends of Jesus in
We hear that Pilate,
surprised that Jesus could have died so soon, consults the centurion to confirm
Jesus’ death – a point of some importance to Mark, because doubters would soon
appear denying that Jesus had really died.
Joseph then purchased the linen cloth for the body (a cloth that would turn up
centuries later at
The passion narrative
concludes with a note anticipating Easter morning, “Mary Magdalene and Mary the
mother of Joses saw where the body was laid” (verse 47).
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