Read: Mark 15:16-47
Throughout Mark’s narrative of the Holy Week of Jesus, he has given us markers for each day to help us understand the time and place, but now, as we approach the end, Mark shows us what is happening by the hour, giving us even more of an opportunity to orient ourselves to Jesus’ sacrifice.
Mark is using a Jewish measure of time, starting the count with the rising of the sun, or 6:00AM. So the third hour would have been 9:00AM while the ninth hour would have been 3:00PM.
The Break of Dawn, 6:00AM
Jesus’ trial before Pilate likely occurred shortly after the break of dawn. This would have taken some time as the Roman governor tried to figure out what to do with Jesus. After conceding to the cries of the crowd, demanding to have Jesus crucified, he turned Jesus over to the Roman guards and they began to beat Him.
The Roman soldiers would have hated the Jews. We already know that they had to quell an insurrection, and now they have just released Barabbas. It seems that they are taking out their aggression for the Jews on Jesus. They dress Him up as royalty in a purple cloak and a crown of thorns. Do you remember the image of the Roman Triumph? They mock Jesus, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” This moniker will come up again in a different context.
As the soldiers lead Jesus to Golgotha, they conscripted Simon of Cyrene to carry His cross. The fact that Simon was named, along with his two sons, was likely to provide the early Church readers with an opportunity to seek these individuals out and get a first person account of what happened that day.
The Third Hour, 9:00AM
Mark tells us that it was the third hour of the day that Jesus was crucified. They offered Him wine mixed with myrrh, as a way to dull the senses, but Jesus did not drink it. The soldiers divided His garments and gambled for them. All of this was to fulfill the ancient prophecies in the Old Testament.
Criminals would have had their crimes placed on a sign and hung from the cross so that a passersby would be able to see the charges which led these unfortunate individuals to their demise. Jesus’ sign read, “King of the Jews.” Unlike the Roman soldiers who used this term to mock Jesus, this sign was designed to mock the Jews. This was their king, and they had demanded His crucifixion.
Jesus was derided, mocked, and reviled by those who passed by, the religious leaders, and even the criminals that were crucified with Him. This demonstrated the disdain that Jesus experienced from the very people He had come to save.
The Sixth Hour, 12:00PM
At noon, the skies grew dark. Jesus has now been on the cross for three hours. He hadn’t slept on the day leading up to His betrayal. His suffering began in the Garden of Gethsemane as He cried out to God throughout the late evening. He had been on trial all night by the religious council. He had been beaten and flogged. Now, He has suffered the agonizing torture of the cross, a cruel form of capitlal punishement where many would last for days before succumbing to death.
Jesus had predicted that He would suffer in this way. As they journeyed toward Jerusalem, He told His disciples, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock Him and spit on Him, and flog Him and kill Him. And after three days He will rise” (Mark 10:33-34).
The Ninth Hour, 3:00PM
As bad as the physical suffering must have been, it couldn’t compare to what Jesus truly suffered on the cross. After hanging there for six hours, Jesus cried out, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This was what Jesus had come into this world to do. He was forsaken by the Father as He bore the sin of all humanity. He died, so that we might have eternal life. Shortly after, Jesus cried out and breathed His last. The savior had died.
Mark tells us that in the moment Jesus died, the curtain of the temple ripped from top to bottom. This curtain separated the temple from the Holy of Holies. Only the great high priest could go into the inner room and approach the throne of God. That system was no longer necessary. Jesus is our great high priest. He goes to the Father for us. He is our mediator, and we have access to God through Him.
After witnessing the death of Jesus, a centurion declared, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” The centurion recognized something majestic about Jesus. He was more than the king of the Jews. This man, Jesus, was God. What an amazing expression of the undeniable truth that the religious leaders, who were trained in the Scriptures, refused to believe.
Sunset, 6:00PM
After Jesus had died, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council that had sentenced Jesus to death, went to Pilate and asked for permission to take the body and prepare it for burial.
Mark tells us that Joseph had been looking for the kingdom of God. Perhaps he was the scribe who Jesus declared was not far from the kingdom. Unlike his fellow religious leaders, Joseph was not so entrenched in the kingdom of this world that he couldn’t recognize the greater riches of God.
By coming to bury Jesus, Joseph had crossed a line with his colleagues. Furthermore, he would have had to touch the body of Jesus in order to prepare Him for burial. This was unacceptable for someone of his class. Touching a dead body was considered the most severe form of uncleanness. And all of this took place in the evening, when the Sabbath had already begun (Jews begin their Sabbath at sunset). Like the woman who anointed Jesus on Wednesday, this was a sign of genuine love and sacrifice.
What do we make of the death of Jesus? Are we able to see through the physical agony He endured, and see the spiritual suffering as well? How did the Jews and the Gentiles perceive the events differently? Are there any glimmers of hope in this story that there are some who might actually bear fruit?