Mark · chapter 15 of 16
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Mark 15 tells of Jesus' trial before Pilate, the release of Barabbas, the soldiers' mockery, the crucifixion at Golgotha, Jesus' cry and death, the torn temple curtain, the centurion's confession and the burial of Jesus by Joseph of Arimathea in a tomb cut in the rock.
Mark 15 is the climax of the Gospel. Everything before it, the mystery over who Jesus is and the predictions of his death, converges on the cross. Mark tells the events soberly and lets a Roman centurion and some faithful women reveal the meaning of what happened.
At dawn the chief priests, elders, scribes and the whole Sanhedrin bind Jesus and hand him over to Pilate. Pilate asks if he is the king of the Jews, and Jesus answers that so he says; to the accusations he says no more, and Pilate is amazed. At the feast it was customary to release a prisoner; Pilate offers to release Jesus, but the chief priests stir the crowd to ask for Barabbas, a rebel who had committed murder. The crowd demands that Jesus be crucified. Pilate, wanting to satisfy the crowd, releases Barabbas and delivers Jesus.
The soldiers take him into the praetorium, dress him in purple, place a crown of thorns on his head, mockingly salute him as king of the Jews. They lead him out to crucify him and force Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. At Golgotha they offer him wine mixed with myrrh, which he does not take. They crucify him at the third hour and divide his clothes. The inscription of the charge reads: the King of the Jews. Two robbers are crucified with him. Many insult him.
From the sixth hour darkness covers the whole land until the ninth hour. Then Jesus cries out in Aramaic: Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani, which means My God, my God, why have you forsaken me. He gives a loud cry and breathes his last. The temple curtain is torn in two, from top to bottom. The centurion standing in front of him, seeing how he died, says that truly this man was the Son of God. Some women are watching from a distance, among them Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. In the evening Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, asks Pilate for the body; Pilate grants it. Joseph wraps him in a linen cloth, lays him in a tomb cut out of the rock and rolls a stone against the entrance. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses see where he is laid.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Pilate, wanting to satisfy the crowd, releases Barabbas and hands Jesus over to be crucified. The innocent takes the place of a guilty man, a picture of what the cross does.
Jesus cries out on the cross with words from Psalm 22, asking why God has forsaken him. It expresses the depth of his suffering in bearing sin, and the psalm itself ends in hope.
When Jesus dies, the temple curtain is torn from top to bottom. The sign indicates that God himself opens access to his presence through Jesus' death.
A Roman centurion, seeing how Jesus died, declares that he truly was the Son of God. It is the confession the Gospel announced from its first verse, spoken by a foreigner at the cross.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Whether he was the king of the Jews. — Mark 15:2
Answer: Barabbas. — Mark 15:11-15
Answer: Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. — Mark 15:21
Answer: The King of the Jews. — Mark 15:26
Answer: It was torn in two, from top to bottom. — Mark 15:37-38
Answer: Joseph of Arimathea, who laid it in a tomb cut out of the rock. — Mark 15:43-46
Mark 15 invites us to gaze at the cross without hurry. In a Sunday school class you can pause on each scene: Barabbas freed, Simon carrying the cross, the believing centurion. Jesus bore contempt, abandonment and death for us, and that is the root of our hope.
The faith of the women who watched from afar and of Joseph of Arimathea, who dared to ask for the body, encourages those who do not stand out but remain faithful. And the torn curtain reminds us that we can approach God with confidence, not by our own merit but by what Christ did.
Mark 15 ends with the stone at the tomb's entrance and the women watching where Jesus lies. In Mark 16 they will go to the tomb at dawn on the first day of the week, and the announcement of the resurrection will change everything.
Jesus quotes the opening of Psalm 22 in Aramaic. Many interpreters see in that cry the real pain of bearing sin, while others stress that the psalm ends in trust and victory. Mark keeps it in Aramaic and translates it for his readers.
The curtain separated the most holy place from the rest of the temple. That it tore from top to bottom suggests it was God's doing. The letter to the Hebrews explains that through Jesus' blood we have free access to God.
He was a prisoner accused of insurrection and murder during an uprising. Mark mentions him to show the contrast: the guilty man goes free and the innocent one is condemned. Christian tradition has seen in it a picture of the substitution the cross accomplishes.