Days 37 & 38, Thu.22 & Fri, 23 Mar.: Mark 15.1-47

Because today's and tomorrow's readings constitute all of Mark chapter 15 i'll treat them together. Rev Dr Robert McFarlane, who earned his PhD through his studies in Mark's gospel, has commented wonderfully on this passage in With Love to the World. I could not possibly do better, so I'll simply quote him at length. His commentaries for these 2 days are terrific advertisements for this bible study resource.

Here is Thursday's commentary:

"When I was in theological college I was taught not to preach on the crucifixion narrative, but to let the story speak for itself. As I listen, what stands out for me are the people speaking. Three moments catch my ear, each revealing Mark's particular focus on rejection and abandonment. First, along with passersby (vv. 29-32a) those crucified with Jesus ghoulishly taunt him from their own crosses (32b). There is no repentant thief to make the suffering more palatable (Luke 23.40-43). Second, Jesus' own words on the cross in Mark are words of utter abandonment, "Eloi, eloi! My God, my God!" (v.34) Mark records Jesus' words in the ordinary Aramaic of Galilee, not the literary biblical Hebrew of Matthew 27.46. For Mark, the abandonment is more stark, not a set-piece fulfilment of scripture (Psalm 22.1). Third, we hear the centurion describe Jesus as God's son (v.39) when he sees how Jesus breathes his last breaths. Jesus is spoken of as god's son three times in Mark: at his baptism (1.11), transfiguration (9.7), and death (15.39). In death, it is not a heavenly voice but a tough gentile soldier who speaks God's truth. Sometimes we hear God's voice through the least likely outsider."

And this is Friday's:

"Today's reading follows on from yesterday's. Finally, we reach a place where there are no words. In Mark the only followers are "some women at a distance", mentioned after he had died (v.40). Yesterday we read that the only words from the cross in Mark are Jesus' cry of abandonment. Jesus only received abuse from others when he was on the cross. As Mark tells the story there was no conversation with a repentant thief as in Luke, and no intimate family conversation, as in John 19.25-27. Mark tells his story for people who had themselves suffered and been abandoned, offering them a strange comfort. Jesus only begins to receive respect after his death. A member of the Sanhedrin, Joseph of Arimathea, goes to Pilate for Jesus' body (v.43). These two men were respectable themselves, but granting Jesus' body for burial was an act of honour. Crucifixion was physical torture, but also an act of total shame in a society built on a shame-and-honour code, where people valued an honourable grave above most else. Bodies of the crucified were left to disintegrate on their crosses, or went to the garbage dumps. Jesus' resurrection from death and humiliation begins as his humiliating nakedness is clothed and he is laid in a place of honour (v.46)."

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