33 At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”
36 Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.
37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
40 Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. 41 In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.
One thing I find interesting about Mark’s account of Jesus’s
death is all the visual and auditory events happening during this critical
time. The passage opens with a visual description of the setting, in which the
land is miraculous dark even during the peak hours of the day (noon to three).
Then we hear the words “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, in which
some people still think Jesus is communicating with the prophet Elijah. Then we
continue to see some people’s unbelief in Jesus as someone offers wine vinegar
to Jesus to drink.
At the moment of Jesus’s death, we hear Jesus’s final loud cry
of emotion as he breaths his last, which is followed by the miraculous tearing
of the temple curtain. Finally, we hear the realization of the centurion that
Jesus is the Son of God, and we see the continued presence and support of Jesus
by the various women watching from a distance.
There is a lot of visual and auditory things going on that have
so much meaning and reveal a lot about this event and about Jesus. However, one
of the more significant visual things that happens is the tearing of the temple
curtain right after Jesus’s death.
As Christians, we believe that Jesus’s death (and later
resurrection) is the ultimate way of God demonstrating his love to us in that
Jesus died for all of our sins, and his death and resurrection allows us to
have a relationship with God. However, the bible is filled with many events and
symbols throughout history that point to this exact moment of Jesus’s death and
resurrection.
Back in the old testament, the temple curtain was literally a
separation between God’s divine holiness and mankind, who were not worthy of
being in God’s presence due to their sin. God was so holy that people who came
to close to God’s presence would actually fall and die. This idea carried on to
the new testament in that there was always a distance between God and humans
and they would always be separated by the “curtain”.
However, the symbolism continues in that the tearing of the
curtain after Jesus’s death can represent the removal of this barrier or divide
between humans and God, and we can have a direct access to God through Jesus’s
sacrifice. We can now be in relationship with God face to face as Jesus takes
on our sin to allow for this connection.
If there is a climax to the book of Mark, or perhaps even
the entire bible, this moment can be considered just that. Jesus’s death tore
the curtain and paved a connection for us and God, in which we can enjoy God’s
presence and look forward to eternal life with Him in heaven. This is the
ultimate good news!!
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