Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
And welcome to the penultimate instalment of ‘The Gospel of Mark’!
We now enter a darker and sad time in Jesus’ life as he’s on his way to be crucified in Chapter 15 of the Gospel of Mark. If you’ve missed the previous 14 chapters of this Biblical blog post series by me, check out by starting with Chapter 1 first. These are summaries of Jesus’ life according to the Holy Bible.
In the previous chapter of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus was anointed at Bethany. Then Jesus had the last supper with his disciples; he predicted Peter’s denial of him and they went to Gethsemane where Jesus was arrested. Jesus was put before the Sanhedrin and Peter denies Jesus as it had been predicted.
Let’s find out what happens to Jesus in Chapter 15 of Mark’s Gospel.
The Gospel of Mark, Chapter 15
In this penultimate chapter of Mark’s Gospel, the next day after Jesus saw the Sanhedrin, he was bound and taken away to be handed over to Pilate. Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “You have said so.” The chief priests soon accused Jesus of many things before Pilate.
Pilate asked Jesus whether he was going to answer for the things the chief priests accused him of. Jesus made no reply. Pilate was amazed. At that time, it was customary for a prisoner to be released to the people at one’s request. As well as Jesus, there was also a prisoned murderer named Barabbas.
The crowd asked Pilate to do this custom again during the festival. Pilate asked them if they wanted the king of the Jews – Jesus – released to them. The chief priests however stirred up the crowd, demanding that Pilate release Barabbas instead. Pilate then asked what they wanted done with Jesus.
The crowd shouted, “Crucify him!” Pilate asked why since he could see no crime that Jesus had committed. But the crowd shouted all the louder and demanded that Jesus be crucified. Pilate eventually decided to release Barabbas; have Jesus flogged and then to be taken away to be crucified.
Jesus was led by the soldiers into the Praetorium. A whole company of soldiers was called together as they put on a purple robe for Jesus. Then they twisted together a crown of thorns and set it upon Jesus. They began to call out, “Hail, king of the Jews!”, before they struck his head and spat upon him.
The soldiers mockingly fell on their knees and paid homage to Jesus. Afterwards, the soldiers took off the purple robe and put Jesus’ own clothes back on him. They then led him out to be crucified. A Cyrene man named Simon was made to carry Jesus’ cross as he passed by on his way from the country.
Jesus was brought to the place of Golgotha. There, Jesus was offered wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. Then they crucified him. The soldiers divided up his clothes and cast lots to see what each would get. It was nine o’clock that morning. The notice ‘THE KING OF THE JEWS’ was put on him.
There were also two other rebels crucified with Jesus that day, one on his right and one on his left. Many hurled insults at Jesus as they passed him by. They taunted him to come down from the cross and save himself. The chief priests and the teachers of the law also mocked Jesus while upon the cross.
It was at noon when darkness came over the whole land. It was three o’clock in the afternoon. At that time, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, what have you forsaken me?” Some thought Jesus was calling for Elijah. Someone then came with a sponge filled with wine vinegar on a staff and offered it to Jesus.
Eventually, with a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom and the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus saw how he died and said, “Surely this man was the Son of God.” Some women watched from a distance. One of them was Mary Magdalene.
It was the day before the Sabbath when the burial of Jesus took place. As evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea asked for Jesus’ body from Pilate. Surprised to hear Jesus was already dead, Pilate asked the centurion to check it was so. The centurion said “Yes”. Thus Pilate gave Jesus’ body over to Joseph.
Joseph bought some linen cloth before he took Jesus’ body down from the cross. He wrapped Jesus’ body in the linen and placed it inside a tomb cut out of rock. He then rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb as Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where Jesus was buried.
That’s it for Chapter 15 of Mark’s Gospel. Stay tuned next week for Chapter 16.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
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