16 Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governorās headquarters); and they called together the whole cohort.Ģż17And they clothed him in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him.Ģż18And they began saluting him, āHail, King of the Jews!āĢż19They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him.Ģż20After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
21 They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus.Ģż22Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull).Ģż23And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it.Ģż24And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take.
25 It was nine oāclock in the morning when they crucified him.Ģż26The inscription of the charge against him read, āThe King of the Jews.āĢż27And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left.Ģż29Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, āAha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days,Ģż30save yourself, and come down from the cross!āĢż31In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, āHe saved others; he cannot save himself.Ģż32Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.ā Those who were crucified with him also taunted him.
33 When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.Ģż34At three oāclock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, āEloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?ā which means, āMy God, my God, why have you forsaken me?āĢż35When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, āListen, he is calling for Elijah.āĢż36And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, āWait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.āĢż37Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.Ģż38And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.Ģż39Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, āTruly this man was Godās Son!ā
40 There were also women looking on from a distance; among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.Ģż41These used to follow him and provided for him when he was in Galilee; and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.
Ģż"New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved."
Transcript
All four Gospel accounts of Jesusā execution are indebted to Psalm 22 to explain the significance of the events they describe. This is the psalm of lament that begins. āMy God, my God, why have you forsaken me?ā but ends on a note of praise for the God who vindicates, āFuture generations will proclaim the Lordās deliverance to a people yet unborn.āĢż The central verses of the psalm have always reminded Christians of Jesusā death, and this includes the four evangelists. In addition to commonalities dependent on Psalm 22, all four Gospel account portray Jesus as crucified between two other men, that āthe King of the Jewsā was his capital offense, and that women disciples witnessed the execution.
Once again, the differences among the accounts reveal much of the evangelistsā minds. In Markās Gospel, the execution begins with Jesus being mockingly crowned with thorns by Roman soldiers. Jesus is led to the crucifixion site, but a passerby is made to carry his cross. Jesus is crucified at 9 a.m. and agonizes for 6 hours until his death at 3 p.m. Everyone ā bystanders, priests, and the other crucifixion victims ā mock Jesus. Jesus is offered a sponge soaked in vinegar to drink.
His last words in Markās Gospel are vs. 1 of Psalm 22, āMy God, my god, why have you forsaken me?ā However, it is unclear whether this is a cry of abandonment or only the first words of a psalm of vindication that Jesus is unable to complete. Mark may have deliberately left this ambiguous in order to challenge his readers to decide what Jesusā cross means to them. When Jesus expires, the curtain of the Temple is torn. Though no physical cause is described, it seems clear that the active agent is God. Mark is portraying divine judgment coming upon the Temple, an ominous allusion to its destruction four decades later.
The centurionās exclamation, āTruly this was Godās Sonā is the climax of the Gospel. For his entire narrative, Mark has presented every group of human characters ā Jesusā disciples, Jesusā family, the priests and scribes, the crowds ā as unable to fathom Jesusā identity. The reader has been made aware of Jesusā divine Sonship by the Gospelās first verse, twice by a heavenly voice, and on numerous occasions by the howls of demons. Now, at the moment of his death, the centurion is the first human Marcan character to perceive things clearly by āseeing the manner in which he died.ā For Mark, no one can appreciate Jesusā divinity unless they have encountered the cross. It is through his execution that Godās love is disclosed. This is a crucial message for Markās persecuted church.