Important
points
Gethsemane was an olive grove, a garden on the Mount of Olives, which overlooks Jerusalem.
Jesus was terrified with
the thought of death but he was still prepared to do it.
Jesus calls God ‘Abba’
in prayer which means Father or Dad – the Jews did not use it as a name for
God because it was too informal. Early Christians used it in their worship.
The disciples abandon Jesus
- they do not see him again until he rises from the dead.
The young man who runs away
may have been an eyewitness who Mark knew, or even Mark himself.
Christians remember the
Last Supper and these events on Maundy Thursday. It is remembered in the saying
of the Rosary as ‘the Agony in the Garden’.
Important
points
Mark
presents the Sanhedrin convening an unfair trial, because they are so
determined to have Jesus put to death.
Witnesses
are brought against Jesus, but they are lying, and their evidence does not
agree.
The
trial is held at night
Jesus
is not able to bring any witnesses in his defence.
The
High Priest asks Jesus a direct question to incriminate himself. This also was
probably against the rules.
It
is unlikely that the claim to be Messiah is, according to Jewish law, blasphemy.
Messianic
Secret Ends: When
Jesus is asked if he is the Messiah he openly admits that he is. This is the
only time in Mark’s Gospel when Jesus admits he is the Christ and does not try
and make witnesses silent.
Blasphemy:
The tearing
of the robes is a common Jewish reaction to the hearing of blasphemy. (Blasphemy
is words or an act which insults God.) The penalty for blasphemy under the
Jewish law is stoning. This sentence which was carried out on Stephen (Acts
7:58). The other Gospels explain that the Romans did not allow the Jews to carry
out executions, so the Council had to take Jesus to Pilate for the sentence..
Important
points
The
crowd seem to recognise Peter because of his accent.
His
denies Jesus three times – just as Jesus had predicted. (Notice – he denies
that he knows Jesus, but he does not betray him).
Peter
has always been the chief apostle, and later he is to be leader of the Church
and the first Pope.
Important
points
Pontius Pilate was the
Roman governor ‘procurator’ or ‘prefect’) of Judea.
Jesus is condemned as the
Messiah. This is translated as ‘king of the Jews’ for Pilate’s benefit:
the crime is treason against Rome, the Jewish authorities cannot have him
executed for a religious charge.
The tradition of a Passover
amnesty - the release of a prisoner. Mark’s aim in this is to show that even
though Pilate was a coward it was the Jewish authorities who were to blame. It
might also have been wise to make out that Pilate was not responsible as
Christianity was spreading throughout the Roman Empire and Christians did not
want to cause friction.
Jesus’ suffering is
emphasised - he is a king even though the soldiers ridicule him.
Important points:
Simon helps Jesus because
he is now too weak to carry the cross. Simon’s sons are mentioned which
implies that they were known to Mark’s church. Simon could therefore be an
eyewitness who gave Mark information.
Golgotha is Aramaic for
‘place of the skull’. We are now not certain of the site.
Jesus refuses a painkiller
- Wine mixed with myrrh
The execution squad is
entitled to the condemned man’s clothes. They throw dice for them.
The notice above the cross
is the charge. It may have been to frighten off would be Messiahs or Pilate may
have intended to insult the Jewish authorities. It highlights that Jesus was
executed as the Messiah.
Even at his death Jesus is
with outcasts - the two bandits.
The jeering of passers by
misses the point - if he is to be the Messiah he must stay and die on the cross
- not come down from it.
The darkness may have been
a thunderstorm or a dust storm. Mark is trying to show that God’s hand is at
work. Amos, the Old Testament prophet predicted that God would make the sun
‘go down at noon.’
‘Eloi, Eloi, lema
sabachthani’ means: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ This may
highlight Jesus’ intense suffering – he even feels he has been abandoned by
God. People mishear him say Elijah.
When Jesus died the temple
curtain tore in two. The curtain separated the Holy of Holies, the most sacred
part of the temple, from the rest of the building. This detail may mean one of
three important things:
1.
The Temple will be destroyed (as it was in AD70 by the Romans)
2. The barrier of sin which
separates God from people has been destroyed by Jesus’ death
3. The temple is no longer
the place to find God. God is now to be found in Jesus.
Important
Points
Jewish burial customs were
strict, the Romans respected this, the body had to be buried on the day the
person died. It was especially urgent and the next day was the Sabbath and
burying someone counted as work.
Important
Points
The original text of St
Mark ended at verse 8.
Thisrecords the
resurrection but not any appearances of the risen Jesus to the disciples.
The women who the young man
spoke to were terrified. This is the type of fear that the disciples felt when
Jesus calmed the storm or when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. It was the
way people sometimes reacted when God was at work.
Christians remember
Jesus’ resurrection on Easter day, and on every Sunday. The resurrection has
always been at the heart of Christianity:
1. It showed that God
approved of Jesus.
2. It showed that Jesus was
who he said he was.
3. It was God’s new
saving act. The crucifixion makes no sense without the resurrection. Jesus took
away the sins of the world on the cross, and offers people a new life with his
resurrection.
4. It shows that death is
not the end, God raised Jesus to life and he will raise people to life as well.
The first Christians
thought it did - many died for that belief. It would be had to understand why
they were willing to die if they had not really believed it.
St Paul mentions that there
were people still alive who were eye witnesses to his resurrection.
The disciples genuinely
believed they had seen the risen Jesus.
The disciples would not
have been willing to die if they had made it up or they had stolen the body.
It could not have been an
hallucination as so many claimed to see Jesus
Some say Jesus might have
survived the crucifixion but this is impossible as the Romans were very thorough
when executing people.
If Jesus did survive the
crucifixion, what happened next?
If he did die, why could
none of the opponents of Christianity produce the body or prove that the tomb
was not empty?
Important
Points
This is not part of the
original text. It was added much later by a different author.
It looks as if it may have
been compiled from others gospels or similar texts.
It is important to know the
resurrection appearances which are in this passage, and the words of Jesus at
the end.
A
Go through each passage in your Bible and highlight or underline in red
the words which Jesus says.
B
Use another colour to go
through the same passages to highlight the words said by other speakers.
C
The Resurrection – Fact of Fiction
Do a table of arguments for and against the truth of
the resurrection.