February 10, 2014: Mark Chapter 15

The Gospel According to Mark Chapter 15

Originally posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Mark Chapter 15:1-20 Jesus Before Pilate  [see MT 27:1-2; 11-31]

This brief passage is key to understanding the tactics of Jesus' adversaries. After the first hearing before Caiaphas, Jesus has been in the custody of the High Priest's guard. Early in the morning a consultation is held by the Great Sanhedrin with all seventy-one members present in the Hall of the Hewn Stones. What was at issue is the charge they would bring against Jesus to convince Pilate that Jesus was a threat to the Roman Empire. The religious charge of Blasphemy or leading people astray would not be such an offense. Once they had agreed on the charge they led Jesus to the Praetorium, Pilate's palace residence when in Jerusalem.

Pilate's question put to Jesus reveals the Sanhedrin's decision: Jesus claims to be the King of the Jews. When asked by Pilate if the charge is true, Jesus will neither confirm nor deny it. Pilate has been Prefect of Judea for four years and would have reached an accommodation with Caiaphas and others of the aristocratic class. He would take their word and not investigate any further and would hold a presumption of guilt. Even if the charge were not factual (see vs. 10), Pilate would care little about justice in the matter of a Galilean peasant.

In the passage concerning Bar'Abbas and the release of a prisoner during Passover, we should note the change from Mark to Matthew in which the blame for Jesus' death shifts from Pilate to the Jewish authorities and the crowd. In Mark Bar'Abbas is a revolutionary Zealot, who had committed murder during an insurrection - presumably of a Roman soldier. In Matthew he is simply another prisoner. Also in Matthew - and not in Mark, Pilate's wife tries to intervene on behalf of Jesus because of a dream. In Mark, Pilate asks the crowds if they want him to release the King of the Jews (the charge brought by the Sanhedrin), while in Matthew the title is Messiah. This may be Matthew's way of alluding to the deceit of the Sanhedrin in bringing a false charge against Jesus. If being or claiming to be the Messiah was the charge it is probable that Pilate would not have heard them out, unless they could point to his armed forces or attempts at insurrection. At the end of Matthew's Passage, Pilate has concluded that Jesus is innocent but he can do little to persuade the crowd which he perceives to be on the edge of a riot. In a last act, he washes his hands as a symbol that he is innocent of Jesus' blood. The degree to which Matthew has shifted the blame is summed up in his vs. 25. The crowd responds to Pilate's claim of innocence by accepting the totality of the blame for Jesus' death, not only on their own heads but on those of their children as well. Thus the death of Jesus, the King of the Jews, has become the fault not only of the Sanhedrin but of the Jews in general.

Mark Chapter 14:21-32 Crucifixion  [see MT 32-44]

Most of this passage is the same in both Gospels. Psalm 22, (a Psalm of lament) serves as a source for many of the details including Jesus' cry of despair recorded in Aramaic (Ps. 22:1). See also vss. 6-8 and 14-18. In reading this Psalm we remember that while it is in the form of a lament, it moves toward an affirmation of God's faithfulness (see vss. 22-31). For Mark's Gospel this Psalm is one of ultimate confidence in God's coming Kingdom when all the laments will cease and the enemies will be no more.

Mark provides the time frame for the events of the cross. Jesus is before Pilate at daybreak on Friday. He is crucified at the third hour (9:00 a.m.). At the sixth hour (noon) a cosmic sign appears and darkness covers the "whole earth" until the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.) when Jesus cries out and breathes his last breath.

Two important and related signs remain. First, the curtain  of the Temple is torn in two (from top to bottom according to Matthew), as the symbol that God's dwelling presence, the Shekinah, can no longer be assumed to be in the Holy of Holies. God has forsaken the Temple and is present in the world for all peoples. It is Marks affirmation of Jesus' baptism when the heavens were torn apart as a sign of Jesus' anointing as the one in whom God will be present and through whom God will bring about the Kingdom. Second is the response of the Gentile Centurion who has seen the signs (dark sky  and curtain) and watched Jesus' die. His declaration, "Truly this man was God's Son" not only affirms the baptism voice of God (and Transfiguration) but also gives evidence for Mark that, with the Temple curtain ripped apart, God's voice can now be heard even through the witness of this Gentile.

In this passage we can discern something of Mark's theology of the cross. We have already been introduced to his concept of Jesus dying as a ransom for all; that is, as a means of liberation for all  who believe (who accept) that Jesus is the one in whom God has introduced the Kingdom. The cross for Mark is the gate at the intersection of the old age and the new. It has now been thrown open and all are welcome to pass through. On that cross Jesus cries out the lament of those who are forsaken, as those without hope. In his death he becomes that one who in power and glory beckons all humanity to enter, now liberated from that which we are to that which we can be.

Mark Chapter 15:42-47 The Burial of Jesus  [see MT 27:57-61]

In Torah the body of someone "hung on a tree" (Deut. 21:22-23) must be removed and buried before sunset, and particularly so in this case since sunset would be the beginning of the Sabbath. The disciples had fled but it would be unlikely they could have been able to retrieve Jesus' body without the assistance of someone of rank to intercede with Pilate. Fortunately there was a "respected member of the Council" who had come to believe in Jesus' vision of the Kingdom of God. Out of his sense of respect for Jesus and the Jewish piety that recognizes the burial of the dead as one of the highest duties of a Jew, he went to Pilate who, after determining that Jesus had already died, allowed Joseph of Arimathea to take the body for burial. With insufficient time to properly prepare the body, he wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid it in a tomb hewn from the rock and placed a large stone across the door. Watching from a distance were Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses.