The gospel of Mark. Mark for Beginners. This is lesson number nine,
entitled, The Passion. In this class, this final class here, we're going to go over
chapters 15 and 16 of the book of Mark.
I said that each gospel is different, in that it is written by a different person.
It records the life of Jesus
focusing on different events or recording the same events,
but with less detail or more detail or detail from another perspective.
And each gospel is similar, as well,
in that it tells the very same story and it also follows the same
sequence of events. All the gospels finish with the description of the death and the burial and the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So they had those things similar. In Mark's case, he leaves off telling the story -
I said, he's been telling it from three levels: the ministry to the masses, ministry to His disciples,
confrontation with various leaders; he leaves off that stream of information
and now he focuses entirely on the final hours of Jesus's life,
what some writers have called the passion. When you hear that term, the passion of Christ,
they're referring to the trials: the beatings, the torture, and all the way to the crucifixion, through
the resurrection. All the events and all the prophecies and all the teachings and all the promises,
have been leading to this particular moment in time. The problem with the Jewish leaders
was that they wanted to execute Jesus, but they had neither a valid reason nor
authority to do so. They didn't have a good reason, didn't have authority to do so.
They're really stuck. They really want this person dead, but they're missing a few elements here.
Under Roman law, only a Roman official could meet out the death penalty. As we continue
Mark's account from our last lesson,
we see that the previous night,
the council, in a hastily set up meeting, had finally found a charge to bring against Jesus.
That's kind of where we left off last time.
So Jesus acknowledges the truth about Himself, that He's the - they ask Him, "Who are you?
Are you the messiah?"
Well, He can't deny Himself.
He acknowledges it. And so the Jews are not interested
in any proof about this. If you would have said, I am the messiah and they say, well,
why do you say that? If they would have said, why do you say that?
Show us some proof, something. No no, they're not interested in proof.
They just want something that they can work with.
Something they can charge Him with. And, of course, they come up with the charge blasphemy,
because if you say
you're the son of God, and you're not, that is, well,
that is blasphemy. But in this case, it wasn't for Jesus. So let's go to
Mark chapter 15, verses one and two and three and four and five, so it says,
Pilate was the Procurator, which is the military representative from Rome, in
Judea, and actually his term was from 26 AD to 36 AD.
His normal residence was in Caesarea, by the coast, but he happened to be in Jerusalem to keep order during the
passover season.
So let's read, it says, "Early in the morning the chief priests with the elders and scribes and the whole council
immediately held a consultation and
binding Jesus, they led him away and delivered Him to Pilate.
Pilate questioned Him, 'Are you the King of the Jews?' And He answered him, 'It is as you say.'
The chief priests began to accuse Him harshly, then Pilate questioned Him again saying, 'Do you not answer?
See how many charges they bring against You!' But Jesus made no further answer. So Pilate was amazed."
That morning the council had met again to confirm their decision and formulate their plans and strategy in
bringing Jesus before Pilate.
Now, since Pilate would only consider a matter of a political nature,
the Jews framed their accusation in this way:
they said that Jesus was claiming that He was the King of the Jews.
That would resonate with the Roman official, obviously, because this represented a
direct threat to Caesar's authority and would have to be dealt with. Anybody that says they had some authority
towards Ceasar, that they also were a king, that wouldn't fly with Rome.
Now Mark does not describe the remarkable dialogue between Pilate and Jesus
that is recorded in John, for example, nor does he mention Jesus's brief appearance before
Herod. He is content to provide the briefest of descriptions.
Pilate questions Jesus as to His defense or explanation of these charges, and we see that Jesus
remains silent, simply acknowledging the charge.
The other writers explained Pilate's dilemma in realizing Jesus's innocence, and yet being
pressured by the Jewish leaders and the crowd, but Mark doesn't go - remember,
I told you at the very beginning of Mark, Mark doesn't go in for a lot of the interpersonal dialogue.
He's a facts - this happened, this happens, this happens. He's more
describing that. So as I say, Mark simply records Pilate's overall reaction to Jesus, which is amazement.
He's just amazed at this individual. In verses six to 15 we read about the continuing story.
I'm not going to read it here.
The custom the time and it was done to gain popularity with the Jews and to, in some way,
be involved in the most important feast of the Jews, the Romans
found a way to be part of that. And the way that they were part of that is that during the passover,
they would release a prisoner
back to the Jewish people. That was the way that they participated.
Well, of course, the crowd was shouting for Barabbas.
And Barabbas was a, today we call him a guerilla,
a terrorist, would be very simple. He'd be a terrorist.
Part of the ongoing guerrilla fighting by some Jewish factions who wanted the Jewish nation to be
free from Rome. There was always this
undercurrent of violence going on and Barabbas was part of this movement.
Apparently he had killed someone during one of their recent military campaigns.
Like I say, like terrorists today, in the middle east. So the crowd says, we want Barabbas freed.
At this point, Pilate makes three attempts to free Jesus.
First of all, he tries to give them a choice between Jesus and Barabbas. One's a killer and a troublemaker,
one of them is a person who is very popular and had actually done some good to the nation.
He probably thought that this would
circumvent the plot of the leaders by getting the crowd to get Jesus -
Jesus was a crowd favorite. The leaders didn't like Him, but the crowds liked Him.
So he figured, I'll appeal to the crowds.
Maybe they'll overrule the the leaders.
But the leaders stirred up the mob, so that they would choose Barabbas and not Jesus.
Then Pilate defers to the crowd,
asking what they wanted done to the King of the Jews. Now, the Barabbas trade, that's not working.
They want Jesus. They want Jesus. They want Barabbas free. Okay, I'm going to free Barabbas.
What do you want me to do with this guy? What am I going to do with Jesus?
Maybe they're thinking, well, put Him in jail or tell Him to be quiet.
Threaten Him that if He keeps stirring stuff up, He will be killed. He's looking for a compromise.
And what is the compromise that they shout out? Crucify Him!
What do you want me to do to this guy? Kill Him. Crucify Him.
And so now the third time,
Pilate appeals to their sense of justice, saying, why do you want this person
killed? Why do you want us to kill Him, to condemn Him?
Pilate reminds them that Jesus has not been convicted of anything, but the mob does not even answer the question.
They just, they shout him down, is what today - they just shout him down.
No time to make any type of
discussion, here. of course, Pilate could have simply released Him, because there was no case.
But because he wanted the favor of the people and he wanted to avoid any trouble with his superiors in Rome,
he simply turned to the mob into a jury and allowed them to condemn a man that he knew was innocent.
He knew he was innocent.
So an innocent man is substituted for a guilty man, and Jesus is now turned over to the crowd,
or rather, the guards, for torture, for scourging, which is whipping. And, of course, the
execution, that is to follow. So let's pick up now in verse 16, the story.
It says, "The soldiers took Him away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium),
and they called together the whole Roman cohort.
They dressed Him up in purple and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on Him and
they began to proclaim Him, 'Hail, King of the Jews!'
They kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting on Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him.
After they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off Him and put His own garments on Him and
they led Him out to crucify Him." The palace, or the Praetorium,
was the Antonia castle, that was attached to the temple area. That's where the garrison was to keep order.
And that's where the guards were stationed, and there was a small plaza there. I've been to that plaza,
marked out there. It's a small, well small, roughly a large Plaza.
Not part of the temple, not the temple plaza,
but the the plaza in the fort, so to speak. A cohort is about a thousand soldiers
and what they were doing was the game of the king, the game of the king.
It was used, specifically, to demoralize a
prisoner. The idea for the Romans was that you, first of all, destroyed the prisoner psychologically
first. And then you destroyed them emotionally.
And then you destroyed them physically. I mean, it wasn't just a quick execution. They broke you down.
They broke you down, every
level. It was an immensely cruel process. So the story here illustrates how close,
yet how far they really were, concerning the true nature of Jesus. They were mocking Him as the king, and yet,
He was the king. So in verse 21, it says,
"They pressed into service a passerby coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene, (the father of Alexander and Rufus),
to bear His cross." There are other references to
Alexander and Rufus in the New Testament, which suggests that these people either were or became
Christians afterwards. In verse 22 to 26
it says, "Then they brought Him to the place of Golgotha,
which is translated, place of a skull. They tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh,
but He did not take it and they crucified Him and divided up His garments among themselves,
casting lots for them to decide what each man should take.
It was the third hour when they crucified Him. The inscription of the charge against Him read,
the King of the Jews.
So myrrh is an opiate.
It was given to condemned men to dull their pain at the point of actual crucifixion.
You're going to crucify a guy, you're going to put nails through his wrists and through his feet.
I think that guy would be struggling.
He would be not wanting that. And so they would give him myrrh to, kind of, knock him out, to dull him,
so they could handle him easily and nail him to the cross without too much fuss.
We read that Jesus refuses it because He had accepted to drink the full cup of suffering for man and
man's sins. And, of course, he wanted to remain clear-headed for the important things that were still to take place.
The ancient writers, not in the Bible, the ancient writers of that time never mentioned a loincloth and so the
deduction is that Jesus was crucified naked, and His clothing was divided up between his executioners.
That follows suit for the Romans. They completely humiliate you.
You're completely humiliated, crucified naked, in front of the public. In any era that would be a horrific way to die.
And they gambled for His clothing. One of my arguments is - this is not a lesson on gambling, here -
but one of my arguments against gambling was that it was the activity carried on by
Jesus's tormenters at the foot of the cross. And so, there's no way I even want to be 10 feet
involved with any type of gambling. That's just me.
All prisoners had the charges against them posted on the crossbeam.
Jesus's charge read simply, King of the Jews.
A label that was meant to offend the Jews. So Pilate was trying to get the last word in, here's your king.
You like your king naked, crucified on a cross in public. Here's the King of the Jews.
This is what we do to those who decide they're going to be the king. Verse 27,
"They crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right, one on His left. [And the
Scripture was fulfilled which says, 'And He was numbered with transgressors.']
Those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads and saying, 'Ha!
You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!'
In the same way
was the chief priest also, along with the scribes, were mocking Him among themselves and saying,
'He saved others; He cannot save Himself.
Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!'
Those who were crucified with Him were also insulting Him."
So the final insult is that as He is suffering and dying on the cross,
the very people he had come to save,
those who were supposed to welcome Him, were actually ridiculing and
torturing Him. And note here, that Mark mentions that both robbers were hurling insults at Him at first.
One of them repented, but at the beginning both of them are
insulting Him. Now that He was crucified with thieves
was a stumbling block to the Jews later on, since they would see this as an unworthy
action that their messiah die in this way. And Mark mentions, however, that it was
done according to scripture. Every scripture is in place.
Why does Mark, who doesn't go into a lot of trouble to mention certain things were done according to the prophet,
that's Matthew, everything according to what was written, according to what was written,
Matthew shows Jesus as the Messiah,
according to the prophet. Mark is not interested in that. He's just going on and on, but he mentions it here. Why?
Because later on the Jews would say, how could he be the messiah? He died on, He was cursed on a tree.
Scriptures say, cursed is the man who dies on a tree, who's crucified. And
so, the response, for the apostles, early on, was,
but this was according to prophecy. This also, was prophesied, concerning the Messiah.
Now the common people challenged Him to do another miracle. Imagine.
The leaders, they felt smug because they thought they finally had
silenced Him. They even used it to justify themselves before the people, in the fact that they had not believed.
They say, look, look. See? We told you. Here's your miracle worker. Here's the big guy, right here.
He's the messiah. We told you not to believe in this guy. We didn't buy into it.
They see this as a justification of their non-belief.
We go to verse 33, it says,
"When the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. At the ninth hour
Jesus cried out with a loud voice, 'Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani?'
Which is translated, 'My God, My God, Why have you forsaken Me?'
When some of the bystanders heard it, they began saying, 'Behold, He is calling for Elijah.'
Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine,
put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink, saying, 'Let us see whether Elijah will come to take Him down.'
Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed His last. And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last,
he said, 'Truly this man was the son of God!'
There were also some women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary
the mother of James the Less and Joses, and Salome.
When He was in Galilee,
they used to follow Him and minister to Him; and there were many other women who came up with Him to
Jerusalem." So Jesus is crucified at 9 am, the third hour.
And from 12 to three pm,
there was darkness, to signal His death and God's displeasure. By His crying out
we know this is the moment of His greatest suffering, as Jesus
experiences the result, the punishment of sin, for men. And what is that?
Separation from God. So He is separated from God, the actual punishment itself,
separation from God.
And feels the pain of that condition. Some people sometimes think - when we think about the cross,
we think that the actual physical, biological pain,
this is the price that He paid.
The pain He had in His hands, and the pain He had in His back, and the pain He had in His feet, and
the pain that He had in His head, they think that pain,
that's the pain that pays for all the sins. No, that's the pain that caused Him to die.
The pain that pays for the sins is this pain right here. The pain He experiences in being separated from God.
From experiencing what hell is like on our behalf.
I'm not minimizing the actual physical pain,
but what some people in this world have suffered, equal physical pain: have been tortured for days and beaten,
and awful stuff, right.
Remember that the pain there, is that spiritual, the thing that pays for our sin, the exchange that's made,
that life, that pain, is the separation from God.
He tasted that for us.
So that we would not have to. Now, those who hear Him call out, they make a joke.
This is a joke, by the way, that they make. You see, in Hebrew, the name for God
was a similar sound as the name
for Elijah
And the Jews believed that Elijah would come to announce and
witness the arrival of the Messiah.
Of course, Jesus explains that John the Baptist was that person. John the Baptist came,
and he was in the spirit of Elijah.
He was a preacher, as Elijah was. He was out in the desert, as Elijah was. He was an ascetic, as
Elijah was. So Jesus explains that John the Baptist fulfills that particular prophecy.
These men, however, hear only the first two words of His cry.
And they mock Him, by saying, in effect,
this man is dying and He's still calling on Elijah, to come and witness that He's the Messiah.
Okay, so they're saying, man is this guy deluded or what?
He's been crucified. He's done. He has lost.
We've demonstrated that He has no power, and look, He's still calling out for Elijah to come and witness that
He's the true -
You know what we'd say today? That ship has sailed, right? We'd say, hey, that ship has sailed. What are you doing?
So they tried to revive Him. They give Him the wine to revive Him,
to see what will happen,
concerning His call to Elijah. Come on, dude, some more.
That's the cruelty here.
Of course, Jesus dies after crying out.
And several things happen at this point. Mark only mentions two that were significant to both gentiles and Jews.
First of all, the veil of the temple,
between the holy place and the holy of holies, is torn in two.
So we know how the temple is built, right? A series of courtyards, that keep -
the gentiles can go in this courtyard,
and then the men can go in this courtyard, and the women in that courtyard, and then the
priests can only go here, into the holy place, and then into the holy of holies, which was an inner
sanctum room, there was separated with a with a curtain.
And the high priest could only go into the holy of holies once per year.
He'd offer a sacrifice for himself, all kinds of special things before he would go into the holy of holies,
one time a year.
And the idea that God was teaching man through this, was that man cannot approach God.
Man cannot be intimate with God, because only one special person
could come into the inter sanctum
where God was, so to speak. Only once per year. And not to have a prayer of joy.
To acknowledge his sinfulness and to receive
some atoning work. So the fact that the veil is ripped in two,
the significance of that, is that that separation between God and man, that no longer exists now.
We no longer need a special person to go in, in the presence of God. All can now go in
the presence of God. So the veil of the temple, between the holy place, the holy of holies torn in two.
The barrier of sin separating God from man has now been removed.
Everyone can go to God for salvation, at all times. Not just once per year. And then the second
significant thing, a Roman centurion
also confesses the name of Jesus.
We read about that in the book of Acts, but here, you've got a Roman centurion
confessing the name of Jesus. This would be significant as a witness to future non-Jewish readers of this gospel.
So if anybody in the church, the Judaizers - the Judaizers in the church, those Jewish Christians who
wanted to keep gentiles out, if any one of them was trying to use the
Gospel to prove that, you gentiles, the gospel is not for you.
They could point to Mark's gospel and say, well, right here.
Here's a Roman centurion who believes in Jesus. If he believes in Jesus, why can't I believe in Jesus?
Then we go to the burial. Again, too many scriptures.
I think we're familiar with that.
The body was taken down, was buried before sundown, in the beginning of the Sabbath day.
Of course, this took boldness on the part of Joseph of Arimathea, because the Roman's custom was simply to
leave the bodies on the cross,
until they decayed.
It was a reminder. Every day you go by and you see this guy on the cross there, his body is decomposing.
And it says to you,
don't step out of line and do not challenge us, because what happened to him is going to happen to you.
So it took a lot of courage for Joseph of Arimathea to go
to Pilate, can we take the body down?
That took courage.
Joseph's concern, also,
was, because he was a believer in Jesus,
but also as a Jew, he wanted to bury the body of Jesus before nightfall,
in order to avoid the defilement of the land,
according to Deuteronomy chapter 21, verse 23.
The Linen cloth is a shroud into which spices had been folded and Jesus is hastily
wrapped in this and laid in a new tomb, with a stone placed in front of it.
I think I mentioned before, the Jews did not embalm.
They simply, clean the body and spiced it and so on, and wrapped it in linen and put it in the tomb.
Then they would go back a year or two, whatever, later, when all the skin had decomposed
from it, they would take the bones and, kind of, take all the bones and put them in an ossuary, a bone
casket, if you wish, and then they put it on a shelf in
the tomb. That way they could get in grandpa, grandma.
Several generations would be buried in the same tomb. We go to the resurrection, chapter 16,
It says,
"When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices,
so that they might come and anoint Him.
Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the
sun had risen. They were saying to one another, 'Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?'
Looking up they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large.
Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right,
wearing a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, 'Do not be amazed; you are looking for
Jesus the Nazarene,
who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him.
But go, tell His disciples and Peter,
'He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you."
They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them;
and they said nothing to anyone,
for they were afraid."
So Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Joses
have seen the death and the burial and they returned to the tomb in order to finish the cleaning and the
anointing of the body.
Mark describes the resurrection through the eyes of the women, who first are to witness the empty tomb.
Very interesting. They are met by an angel, who has rolled away the stone.
He instructs them to go tell the apostles, especially Peter, because Peter,
he's denied the Lord. He might be thinking, I'm done.
I'm done. I did exactly what I said I wasn't going to do and I've done it.
So I guess He has no use for me anymore. And yet, right here,
Jesus says, oh the apostles, and don't forget to mention Peter, as well.
Mark mentions that they are frightened.
But we know from other gospels that they did do what the angel instructed. And remember, it's funny,
not that I'll appear to you in
Jerusalem. Go back to Galilee, where all of this started. It all started in Galilee.
The first appearance to women was significant to Jews and gentiles, because in both cultures women were
treated as inferior.
Less so in Jewish culture, however.
There were certain rights and respect that women had in Jewish culture, that they did not have in gentile culture.
Especially in religious matters, they were segregated. There was the court of the women, for example.
It's as if God preferred men, and this idea
is shattered right here.
The fact that it was women that were at the cross, the fact that it was women that Jesus first appeared to.
Very, very significant. To us today, women do the same jobs as men, and such.
But back in that time, that was an extremely significant image.
So we get to the appearances and instructions. Now, in most translations, the
verses, from nine to twenty,
are omitted or are in some form of brackets or they come with a brief explanation,
when you get to verse nine there.
There's like, they're in italics or there's a little star or something. The reason for this is because
this section is not included in several of the oldest manuscripts of Mark's gospel.
But they do appear in other later documents, and there may be some
explanations for this.
The original ending by Mark, perhaps was lost. And this is a summary of the endings that are found in
Matthew and Luke and John, to cap it off.
Perhaps it was added by a scribe, because Mark died before he could finish it. We don't know.
Various other endings appear on different manuscripts.
They're all saying the same thing. It's just, they're composed differently.
There's no ending that says He didn't resurrect.
He didn't see the apostles. He didn't appear. There's nothing that says that, they just describe it differently.
Why do we include it - verses nine to 20? Why do we include it? Well, several
important manuscripts do have it and
it is completely accurate, according to every other New Testament book and
every other New Testament teaching.
It was not rejected by the early church or the apostles.
We don't have the exact identity of the writers of Hebrews, for example,
but because it was accepted by the early church and perfectly accurate according to all teaching,
we accept the inspiration of the book of Hebrews.
So let's read nine to 13.
It says, "Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary
Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.
She went and reported to those who had been with Him, while they were mourning and weeping.
When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it.
After that, He appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking along on their way to
the country. They went away and reported it to the others,
but they did not believe them either."
So a quick summary of different appearances to Mary and then the
disciples. Those are the ones on the way to Emma's, the two disciples.
A simple description of His appearances.
Verse 14 to 20 finishes up, "Afterward, He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table;
And He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed
those who had seen Him after He had risen.
And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons,
they will speak with new tongues;
they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them;
they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them,
He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.
And they went out and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word
by the signs that followed."
So a final description of an appearance, not necessarily His last appearance.
However, at this one, there is a summary of the final teachings and the ministry to the apostles.
Interesting, He rebukes them for not believing. I mean, what do these people need?
I mean, He walked on water, and multiplied the fish and the bread. He healed, he raised the dead,
He himself is risen from the dead, and still, they're hesitating to believe.
We see in this final section, He gives the great commission. Isn't it similar to the one in Matthew 28?
Same thing, same idea, just written in a different way, but same thing as Matthew 28.
He also describes some of the miracles that the apostles will be able to do as a result of the holy spirit
empowering them to do the miracles, right? It's always strange when I see guys handling snakes,
"Christians" today, handling snakes and everything, claiming Mark 16.
Yes, Mark 16. They'll handle poison, it won't hurt them, and then all of a sudden the snake goes *bite*,
and the guy keels over. And someone will say, well, I guess he didn't have enough faith.
No, it's not that he didn't have enough faith. He didn't understand the passage.
Who is Jesus talking to? He's talking to His apostles.
He's the One that gave them the empowerment to do what? To do miracles.
Why? So that what they said,
would be backed up with supernatural power, in order to give power to their words.
Do we need that anymore? No. We have the miracles, we have the words,
they're all here.
So I encourage you and those of you watching, don't blame Jesus
if that rattlesnake bites you. All right, then a final summary of His ascension to Heaven and
the subsequent ministry carried on by the disciples in Jesus's name. And then Mark mentions that
Jesus's promise of spiritual power was fulfilled as the apostles began
spreading the gospel. And how do we know that? Well, we look at Acts.
Luke starts telling the book of Acts, whoa,
they have the power, they start speaking in tongues, they start doing miracles.
And the story continues. Alright, so that is
the end of the book of Mark.
Appreciate your patience and your attendance in this class. Thank you very much and God bless you.