Gospel – Mark 15-16
Today we continue reading about Jesus being delivered to the cross and finish reading the Gospel according to Mark.
Bible Passage: Mark 15-16
We may quickly read through the process of Jesus being captured till He ended up on the cross in the 2 chapters of Mark 14 to 15. But the sufferings of Jesus did not only begin when He was crucified on the cross. Let’s list out the sequence of events (with references to other gospels):
- Jesus is betrayed after supper
- Jesus faces the Sanhedrin – they spat on Him, blindfolded Him to beat Him, and struck Him with the palms of their hands.
- Jesus handed over to Pontius Pilate
- As soon as Pilate knew that Jesus belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, Pilate sent Jesus to Herod
- Herod asked Jesus many things but got no response, thus he and his men of war treated Jesus with contempt and mocked Him, arrayed him with a gorgeous robe, and sent Him back to Pilate
- Pilate released Barabbas as the crowd desired, and scourged Jesus
- Soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him. They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. They twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head. They spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head.
- Pilate scourged Jesus, and delivered Him to be crucified.
- Jesus had to carry His own cross to the cruxifixion ground, but by then He has lost much blood and had barely any strength left, and the soldiers compelled another man to bear the cross with Jesus.
Just how many hours did all these events occurred? I tried to relate the time and count the hours before, but I will not attempt to type it now but just post a link as many people have done even better research on this and posted online already: http://www.loriswebs.com/lorispoetry/hours.html
Scourge
- a whip or lash, esp. for the infliction of punishment or torture.
- To flog
| The Roman scourgeThe Romans would, according to custom, scourge a condemned criminal before he was put to death. The Roman scourge, also called the “flagrum” or “flagellum” was a short whip made of two or three leather (ox-hide) thongs or ropes connected to a handle as in the sketch above. The leather thongs were knotted with a number of small pieces of metal, usually zinc and iron, attached at various intervals. Scourging would quickly remove the skin. According to history the punishment of a slave was particularly dreadful. The leather was knotted with bones, or heavy indented pieces of bronze |
There are people who says that we should not always concentrate on the physical sufferings of Jesus and His cruxifixion, but still, it remains the ultimate story of Jesus’ life on earth – to draw people to Him through the cross. And I feel that young children who are brought up in church can only begin to become grounded in their faith when they are finally able to appreciate the love of Christ for each of them through the cross, and shed a tear in Holy Communion when they consider the love of Jesus.
But moving on from tears, Christians need to lead a positive life of hope. Hope not of this world but of our heavenly kingdom, which begins from the time we accept Jesus as King in our lives and entrust our lives to Him, and we embark on our journey to share the gospel with those who have not heard.
I find no better way to conclude then to quote the words of confidence that the end of the book writes for us.
16:15-17
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
16:20
“And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.Amen.”
Amen.
One Comment
PS
4 points touched me as i read Mark 15-16:
1) Pilate knew that the chief priests had handed Jesus over bec o envy. This is sobering. Many a times, others can see but we (ie the chief priests) can’t.
2) Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. One of the Chinese hymn sings that the land cannot bear to see the suffering of Lord Jesus. Has the land averted its eyes bec it cannot bear to watch? Yes, and may be God dimmed the light bec He wants Lord Jesus to trust Him with His heart not his eyes, to persevere by faith not by sight. God was indeed with Lord Jesus till the second when He left. Lord Jesus felt it and cried out, “MY God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
God had to leave Lord Jesus bec he was to die and enter hell where there is no mercy of God.
3) Lord Jesus’ prophesy of His crucifixion was fulfilled point-blank (Mk10:33-34). Yet the eleven did not believe, 16:11, 13 &14. Let us hold fast to our faith bec He lives.
4) The description of Lord Jesus’ physical sufferings in Mark was considerably less than the other 3 gospels. May be it is bec Mark penned the account from the word-of-mouth recollection of the apostles. Ultimately, the gospel is a gospel of life. Mark ended aptly with Lord Jesus’ commission for us to go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature.