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.
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