Today we look at Mark 15- read it here first: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+15&version=NIV
We’re looking at good Friday- the culmination of Jesus work starting with the story of forgiveness. What prisoner do we set free- Jesus the blaspheming king of the Jews or the murderer Barabas? Who gets forgiveness? Barabas does. Jesus in a sense didn’t need forgiveness but he also didn’t need punishment. The crowd is wrong. The majority is often wrong. Thankfully our God is right and makes us right. Barabas represents all of us. We should be on the cross and Jesus should not. Yet Jesus willingly takes our place.
This story is also very similar to the story of the two goats on the day of atonement- one is sacrificed and one is set free. The Old Testament explains well what’s going on here. Leviticus 16:21-22 explains some of the practice.
Jesus is then mocked, beaten, put a crown and a robe on him. They’re crowning a king in so many ways without even knowing it.
Someone else is asked to carry his cross. It’s a small detail, but Jesus does often allow others to serve him- with a place to stay, he asks the samaritan woman for water, he’s always inviting himself to other people’s houses for dinner. Allow others to serve you too. That’s hard for us to do!
“He saved others but he cannot save himself” is an insult thrown at Jesus. How ironic! Thats the exact thing he’s doing! We proclaim this every Good Friday, Easter and Sunday. Salvation is here through a God who does not save himself!
We talk about the 7 words of Christ on the cross but Mark being brief only records him saying one thing- My God My God why have you forsaken me? In that moment God the father turns his back on Jesus and for the first time feels the true weight of sin that we feel daily but are completely immune too. Being with the Father is so ecstatic getting away from it is death.
After he breathes his last- the curtain is torn from top to bottom signifying that we can now go to the holy of holies because of Jesus death we have access to talk directly to God and receive forgiveness. Jesus blood is enough!
Then we hear about the women watching, not the guys, and the love they have for Jesus. Then he is placed in another borrowed item a borrowed tomb, but he’s only there for a couple nights it was more of a loaner.
Why this emphasis on Jesus getting help and receiving things from others in his final hours before death? Because our God had emptied himself to the point where he needed others to care for him. How crazy is that? How humiliating for our God to be cared for by his creation. How exalting of those like Simon and Mary who got to care for Jesus. The refrain of Mark is the first shall be last and the greatest the servant of all. Even in Jesus final hours before the cross and even after he shows this.
Marking It Up 