Sometimes words fail us. As. T.S. Eliot observed, they slip and slide and will not stay in place. We are too used to them, as many Christians are too used to the story of Jesus’ death. We need, regularly, to find ways of making the story strange again, unfamiliar, so we can hear it once more as though it were new. Indeed it is a strange story full of the unexpected, the ironic, the disturbing. - N.T. Wright
Can you think of a time words failed you or someone else in trying to express something important?
Read Mark 15:1-15.
The cross was a political symbol (Roman’s power of death) long before it became a religious symbol. Pilate knew, the crowds knew, the chief priests knew, and Jesus knew, what it meant. It was the ultimate symbol of Roman power. It said, “We are in charge here, and this is what happens to people who get in our way.”
How does Jesus respond to His accusers (vv. 1-5)?
Pilate wasn’t looking to crucify Jesus. What different motivations that Pilate has are revealed by his questions and actions (vv. 6-15)?
Pilate might have flogged an errant prophet if he was causing trouble. He would have dismissed a blasphemy case with a flick of his hand. But would-be kings spelled political trouble. This was the charge he had to take notice of, even though he knew Jesus wasn’t leading the normal sort of messianic revolt (He didn’t bother to round up any of His followers). Mark wants to be sure that we think of Jesus’ death in terms of His messiahship, confronting the power of Rome, built as it was on the power of death.
How does the Barabbas story help us understand some of the significance of Jesus’ crucifixion?
What is your reaction to God’s grace shown in this incident?
Read Mark 15:16-39.
Mark builds up the story of Jesus’ crucifixion through small pictures, one detail after another that together tell the story in a clipped sequence, moving swiftly from scene to scene. What short snapshots does Mark capture in verses 16-32?
What do they teach us about Jesus’ death?
What is ironic about the taunts people make to Jesus as He hangs on the cross?
The main theme that emerges over and over is that Jesus is crucified as the King of the Jews. It is because He is bearing the fate and destiny of Israel, as its anointed representative, that His death means what it means to Mark. Israel is where the world’s violence and wickedness seem to have concentrated itself; but the Messiah, the King, has already taken it upon Himself, and so has made a way of rescue, of ransom, for any who will follow Him.
If we were reading Mark for the first time, we might expect that, after the mocking of the crowds, all that would be left would be for Jesus to die. We might have imagined that this would take some time, since crucified people often hovered between life and death for days, and (as John’s Gospel informs us in 19:31-34) only the imminent arrival of the Jewish sabbath would make the soldiers finish off the job more quickly. But nothing could have prepared us for the bizarre events that Mark relates in this short account of Jesus’ last minutes.
What happens right before Jesus dies (vv. 33-39)?
How is Jesus’ cry in verse 34 the climax of His sufferings?
How does verse 38 tie in the previous four chapters of Mark?
While Son of Man has been the common title Jesus uses for Himself, another title has made a few appearances also. First, “God’s Son” is found in the opening line of Mark’s Gospel (1:1). Then the voice at Jesus’ baptism hails Him as God’s beloved Son (1:11). Evil spirits identified Him the same way (3:11; 5:7). So does the voice at the transfiguration (9:7). Then the high priest asked if He was God’s Son (14:61).
Why is it significant that a Roman soldier now gives Him this title?
What difference has Jesus’ death on the cross made in your life?
Trent Dean
dean008@gmail.com
Next Week: “Victory Over Death” Mark 15:40-16:20