Mark 15:33-39

The Death of Jesus

33At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

35When some of those standing near heard this, they said, "Listen, he's calling Elijah."

36One man ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down," he said.

37With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

38The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"




BACKGROUND READING:


Genesis 1


Psalm 22


Matthew 27:45-56


Hebrews 10:18-25



Dig Deeper

One of the great dangers for those of us who have been Christians for a long time or who have grown up reading the Bible, is for the account of Jesus’ death to become routine for us. We have read it so many times and seen it in so many movies, that it no longer affects us the way that Mark intended for it to affect his readers. No matter how many times we read it though, we must find ways to keep this story fresh, to read it anew each time, for it to strike us as a strange story every time we read it.


If we were reading this gospel for the first time, surely this passage would strike us as strange. I doubt that we would have expected anything that Mark describes. And Mark jumps from scene to scene here in his usual breathless but infinitely deep style. Each brief scene is strange and unexpected, only surpassed by the next scene which is even stranger.


The first little scene that Mark recounts for us is that of the strange darkness that fell over the land from noon to three in the afternoon. Because Passover is held during a full moon, we know that this could not have been any sort of timely eclipse. This is clearly a sign from God, that Mark felt was important enough to include. What was the sign, however? I believe that it has to do with the creation of the world, which saw God’s good and new creation brought to reality out of the darkness and void. In the same way, God’s new creation, his new kingdom is breaking forth from the darkness and chaos.


Right at the time that the darkness was receding, Jesus cries out Eloi Eloi lama Sabbachthani. Jesus has taken upon himself, the dark evil of Israel and the world, which has cut him off from the one he knows as ‘Abba’ in a way that he has never known. He has so perfected a life of union with the Father in prayer, that this separation causes him to cry out not in rebellion, but in anguish and despair at the loss of contact he is experiencing for the first time. This is the perhaps the most stunning torture of the whole ordeal of the Cross that Jesus faces throughout the long day. The son, who has been rejected and is about to be killed by the tenants, calls out to his Father in vain. From this scene we see the startling fact that out of the darkness comes new creation, but it is only made possible by the son of God taking on the sin of the world and suffering a cruel death. This is what was necessary for God’s kingdom to break into the present age.


Those standing and watching think that Jesus is calling for Elijah. They were wrong but it does remind us of the earlier theme involving Elijah. Jesus said "Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected?" (Mark 9:12). They thought that perhaps Jesus was still waiting for Elijah, the same mistake the disciples had made earlier. But his Elijah, John the Baptist, had come and gone and done his work. Elijah had come and suffered in doing his part, now it was left to the son of man to go through the suffering, rejection, and shame that would bring the kingdom of God to the world.


Just as we begin to settle into the scene about Elijah, Mark shifts us to the vision of Jesus breathing his last breath. At that moment, the curtain of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. This is another sign of what Jesus has been saying since he arrived in Jerusalem. The Temple is finished. It is no longer needed. The curtain that symbolized the separation between God and man was unnecessary through the death of Jesus. In the Old Testament the priest could only enter the Holy of Holies once a year, and only when he had sprinkled the blood of the sacrificed animal to cleanse the area. In Jesus’ death, his blood had cleansed the true Temple of God once-for-all. Man would now have unfettered access to God for sin has been defeated and the kingdom was now here in the present age.


Throughout Mark’s gospel he has stressed the theme of Jesus being the true son of God, and whether or not people were able to see that. At his baptism, the heavenly voice declared that Jesus was his beloved son. The voice at the transfiguration confirmed the same thing for Peter. The disciples had trouble seeing this truth that blind Bartimaeus had seen readily. The parable of the wicked tenants taught of the beloved son, who was sent by the father, only to be killed by the workers. Caiphas derisively asked if Jesus was God’s son, and the crowds mocked him with the same words. At last someone utters the words that for Mark signals that God’s kingdom has come, but it is not the high priest, a rabbi, or even one of Jesus’ loyal disciples. It is a Roman centurion. This gentle was the first human to say it and mean it, which begs the question for Mark. If the centurion had come to that conclusion, why not you?



Devotional Thought

Mark has constantly brought the theme of seeing Jesus as the son of God to the forefront. Each person had to learn in their own way that Jesus was the son of God and what all that meant. How can you make the message clear to those in your life who have not yet seen that Jesus is truly the son of God? How can you help them to understand all that this truth means?