Mark 15-16 - And...
You've been bought at a price. Be reminded of how high that price was.
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Mark 15–16 (ESV)
1 And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate.
2 And Pilate asked him,
“Are you the King of the Jews?”
And he answered him, “You have said so.”
3 And the chief priests accused him of many things.
4 And Pilate again asked him,
“Have you no answer to make?
See how many charges they bring against you.”
5 But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
6 Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked.
7 And among the rebels in prison,
who had committed murder in the insurrection,
there was a man called Barabbas.
8 And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them.
9 And he answered them, saying,
“Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?”
10 For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up.
11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead.
12 And Pilate again said to them,
“Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?”
13 And they cried out again, “Crucify him.”
14 And Pilate said to them,
“Why? What evil has he done?”
But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.”
15 So Pilate,
wishing to satisfy the crowd,
released for them Barabbas,
and having scourged Jesus,
he delivered him to be crucified.
16 And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion.
17 And
they clothed him in a purple cloak,
and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him.
18 And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
19 And they were
striking his head with a reed
and spitting on him
and kneeling down in homage to him.
20 And when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of the purple cloak
and put his own clothes on him.
And they led him out to crucify him.
21 And they compelled a passerby,
Simon of Cyrene,
who was coming in from the country,
the father of Alexander and Rufus,
to carry his cross.
22 And
they brought him to the place called Golgotha
(which means Place of a Skull).
23 And
they offered him wine mixed with myrrh,
but he did not take it.
24 And they crucified him
and divided his garments among them,
casting lots for them,
to decide what each should take.
25 And it was the third hour when they crucified him.
26 And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.”
27 And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. 29 And those who passed by derided him,
wagging their heads
and saying,
“Aha! You who would
destroy the temple
and rebuild it in three days,
30 save yourself,
and come down from the cross!”
31 So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying,
“He saved others; he cannot save himself.
32 Let
the Christ,
the King of Israel,
come down now from the cross
that we may see and believe.”
Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.
33 And
when the sixth hour had come,
there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice,
“Eloi, Eloi,
lema sabachthani?”
which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
35 And some of the bystanders hearing it said,
“Behold, he is calling Elijah.”
36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine,
put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink,
saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.”
37 And
Jesus uttered a loud cry
and breathed his last.
38 And the curtain of the temple
was torn in two,
from top to bottom.
39 And when the centurion,
who stood facing him,
saw that in this way he breathed his last,
he said,
“Truly this man was the Son of God!”
40 There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were
Mary Magdalene,
and Mary the mother of
James the younger
and of Joses,
and Salome.
41 When he was in Galilee,
they followed him and ministered to him,
and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
42 And when evening had come,
since it was the day of Preparation,
that is, the day before the Sabbath,
43 Joseph of Arimathea,
a respected member of the council,
who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God,
took courage and
went to Pilate
and asked for the body of Jesus.
44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died.
And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead.
45 And when
he learned from the centurion that he was dead,
he granted the corpse to Joseph.
46 And Joseph bought a linen shroud,
and taking him down,
wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock.
And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.
47 Mary Magdalene
and Mary the mother of Joses
saw where he was laid.
1 When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.
2 And
very early on the first day of the week,
when the sun had risen,
they went to the tomb.
3 And
they were saying to one another,
“Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”
4 And looking up,
they saw that the stone had been rolled back—
it was very large.
5 And entering the tomb,
they saw a young man sitting on the right side,
dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.
6 And he said to them,
“Do not be alarmed.
You seek Jesus of Nazareth,
who was crucified.
He has risen;
he is not here.
See the place where they laid him.
7 But go,
tell
his disciples
and Peter
that he is going before you to Galilee.
There you will see him,
just as he told you.”
8 And
they went out and fled from the tomb,
for trembling and astonishment had seized them,
and they said nothing to anyone,
for they were afraid.
[Some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 16:9–20.]
9 Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. 12 After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. 14 Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.
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Mark 15-16 Summary
v1-5 - The Jewish establishment handed Jesus over to the Roman establishment so that Jesus could be legally executed and His blood 'technically' wouldn't be on Jewish hands.
v6-15 - The establishment manipulates Pilate to release Bar-abbas instead of Jesus (so the Jews chose 'son of man' instead of the 'Son of Man').
v16-47 - The crucifixion of Jesus.
16:1-8 - The resurrection account.
Dig Deeper
You may have noticed that we're using the English Standard Version (ESV) for the Bible resources that are embedded in the DIG DEEPER posts this year. The primary reason for this is quite boring and has to do with more lenient copyright permissions from the ESV publisher.
It's often said that the ESV is a more 'literal' translation than the NIV, and while I would disagree with that, it often does follow the actual Greek cadence more closely, which sometimes makes it more difficult to read in English.
But there are examples like today's chapters where the clunky grammatical expressions the ESV uses really capture the feeling of what Mark intended. If you haven't already, take a look at the chapter in the Outlined Format (linked above), especially from v16 on, and notice how often the sentences begins with the word 'and.'
When Mark's crucifixion & resurrection account is read in the ESV, it has the feeling of one great big long run on sentence. Most scholars think that Peter was Mark's primary source in writing this account of Jesus. You can almost imagine Peter telling Mark about Jesus' torture, crucifixion and then resurrection, going from one awful memory to the other - "and... and... and... and...," punctuated only by Peter's tears & sobs, and Mark writing as fast as Peter was talking.
Be reminded today of the sheer awfulness of the price that your Savior paid for your redemption, and be grateful for the victory over sin and death that this sacrifice culminated in.
This Sunday, we will be remembering the awful death of our Savior along with His glorious resurrection as we come before the Lord's Table at Worthington CRC. Prepare yourself by being reminded often on your complete dependence upon Christ's forgiveness and righteousness.
AAA Prayer:
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Your Father, who will not forsake you because Christ atoned for your sin on the cross (v34)
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Ask the Holy Spirit to continually remind you of the fact that the centurion discovered at the foot of the cross: that surely Jesus is the Son of God.
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
