Mark 14,1-15,47.
Mark’s Passion narrative, written about 35 years after the events which it describes, is the oldest Passion account we have in the New Testament. His gospel has been described “as a Passion narrative with an extended introduction.” It leads up to the climax of the Passion Story. From 3,6 where the Pharisees and the Herodians are plotting to kill Jesus and the opposition mounts throughout the gospel. The three predictions of the Passion by Jesus, his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, his cleansing of the Temple, the controversies with the Scribes and Pharisees lead inevitably to the climax. The Passion story consists of four main parts; 1) The Preliminaries – the conspiracy to put Jesus to death, the anointing at Bethany , the betrayal by Judas; the preparations for the Last Supper, the institution of the Eucharist, the prediction of Judas’s betrayal and of Peter’s denial, and the agony in the Garden; 2) the Arrest of Jesus, the Sanhedrin trial at night and the triple denial by Peter; 3) the Roman trial (Pilate), Jesus’ rejection in favour of Barabbas, the condemnation and mockery of Jesus; 4) Jesus carries his Cross to Calvary, is crucified, mocked, dies and is buried.
Before the Sanhedrin the charges are religious: that he claimed to be able to destroy the Temple, and rebuild it in three days; and that he claimed to be the Messiah the Son of God, which he admits openly here for the first time.
Before Pilate he is questioned on being king of the Jews and on a number of other trumped-up charges.
Three times in Gethsemane Peter, James and John fell asleep instead of praying as Jesus asked them to. At his arrest in the garden, they abandoned him, at the very time when he most needed their support. At the Sanhedrin trial, Peter denied him three times in fulfilment of Jesus’ earlier prediction at the Last Supper. Ironically at the very time when Jesus was being mocked as a false prophet Peter was denying him, fulfilling Jesus’ prediction.
Three times Jesus is mocked; after the Sanhedrin trial as a false prophet; after the Roman trial, as a fake king crowned with thorns; and on the Cross he was mocked about his claim to destroy and rebuild the Temple, and about being the Messiah king of Israel. He is mocked by three different groups; the passers-by, the chief priests, and scribes, and those who were crucified with him. The chief priests and scribes, the professional religious, mocked him to come down from the cross for them “to see it and believe.” Ironically the one person, who, seeing the way Jesus died, believed in him, was the Roman centurion, a pagan. “Truly this man was a son of God,” was his perfect description of Jesus. For Mark this statement finally answers, accurately and eloquently, the many people, who throughout the gospel, wondered who this person could be, who taught so authoritatively, worked so many wonderful miracles, like the calming the sea, and droving out demons etc. May the centurion’s faith inspire us to a deeper faith as we ponder on how the Son of God died on the cross for us.
The Passion is the story of Jesus’ total, self-giving love for each of us. The Cross is the primary Christian symbol of that love. As we ponder and wonder at this mystery, we try to make our own the well-worn words of the hymn –“love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
Fr Geoff O’Grady