Mark 15

Mark 15:16-47

Section 3. (Mark 15:16-47.)The Cup drunk.

1. Now we approach the drinking of the cup. He is crowned with thorns, the sign of the curse, as in Matthew, clothed with the purple, but without the reed-sceptre: that only smites Him. And it is indeed but a reed that smites the Rock; yet presently, through the marvelous working of God, the waters will flow out; and the waters will become a great river, going forth on all sides to gladden the earth. Notice that the robe is purple* here, not scarlet, as in Matthew. The blood-color is here, but mingled: as we have seen; even the precious blood of atonement, that it might sanctify the people, must be that of a sacrifice offered outside the camp (Hebrews 13:11-12). And “so Jesus, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate.” Here is the true sin-offering, and here is the purple, the composite color, - the blood, the death-penalty taken; but with that, the heavenly side also, that is, the blue. For that was heaven’s side, the consequence of sin laid upon Him, the hiding of the face of God from Him, - for us heaven opened.
   These are both royal colors also, as we plainly see; the scarlet of Matthew and the purple of Mark, just as the crown of thorns, the crown of curse, for Him was really a crown. The Sufferer reigns as that, in the Kingdom peculiarly His; and so only could He have, among the sinners of man’s race, such a throne as could satisfy Him.
2. The impressment of Simon the Cyrenian upon the road, to bear His cross, is recorded here, as in Matthew; but with an addition here which shows Simon, the “hearkener” and cross bearer, as the father of Alexander and Rufus, God’s grace being fruitful in him. Is not this the true way of fruitfulness ever, to hearken and bear the cross? Golgotha, the place of a skull, is reached, and then the vinegar and gall are offered Him, only to be rejected: Mark gives “wine mingled with myrrh;” the former, the sour wine of common use, much like vinegar; the latter is probably a different thing from “gall,” which would hardly seem a fitting term to describe it. The parting of His garments, according to the view that has been given of it,* is as naturally found in all the Gospels as the particularization as to it suits and is found in John. The mockery of the bystanders, and especially of the heads of the people is given almost exactly as in Matthew. \
3. And now from the sixth to the ninth hour, there falls a darkness over all the land. We have already considered its meaning generally, but every particular specified has surely its importance. The three hours, as such, speak naturally of the manifestation of what is hidden; and may most simply speak of the opening of the sanctuary, which takes place at its close. It is the blood of the sin-offering which on the day of atonement in Israel opened it for the moment to let in the high priest, the representative of the people. But that was but for a moment: the characteristic of the legal dispensation was in the veil which hung continuously before the presence of God, so that from man’s point of view He dwelt in the thick darkness.

It was a darkness forbidding man’s approach, and speaking of sin unmet, spite of the hecatombs of victims dying for it. And the true Sacrifice having now come, He must find His way through the darkness, laden with the sin which had forced God thus into distance from the creature of His love. The three hours of darkness were to Him the measure of what to any other would have been an infinite hopeless distance. The cry of desertion interpreted the darkness. The veil rent from top to bottom proclaimed that it was traversed and removed. The sixth hour speaks of the barrier-limit reached; the ninth, of perfected manifestation. The agonizing question shows the nature of the darkness, which is not outward but within upon His soul. The quotation from the twenty-second psalm gives us the clue to find the answer which the psalm gives to the question. If a holy God is to abide among the praises of a people taken from among sinful men, He under the weight of that sin must declare that holiness in God’s judgment of it. God is glorified in this redemption-work beyond the possibility of all man’s sin to cloud again for ever. The light bursts forth now, and as never yet. God is in the light. The separating veil is rent from top to bottom. To the mockers around the cross, the darkness is as dense as ever. They exclaim that He is calling for Elias. And while one brings to Him upon a reed the vinegar for His thirst, he joins in the cry they raise, to wait and see if Elias will come to take Him down. But Jesus cries again with a loud voice, and expires. Through all this account we have already seen how, by the omission of particulars recorded by Matthew, Mark emphasizes the sin-offering character of Christ’s sacrifice.* But there are positive testimonies, also, that we have noted. And now, as we go on to the after events of the book, we shall find the same character attaching to it, until we see the glorious Risen Man seated in heaven at the right hand of God. The veil is passed, but never closed again: He is gone in, our Forerunner, and we walk in the light as God is in the light.
4. Before we have left the Cross and its glory of sorrow, intimation is given of victories which it is to achieve, and changes resultant. The first voice, save that of the dying robber, which, in the midst of Jewish blasphemy and dishonor, owns the supreme glory of the Son of God, is that of the Gentile centurion. Christ already has His own among the uncircumcised, the beginning of the great host that are soon to follow Him. Then this company of ministering women gathered by His cross, and to be the first heralds of His victory over death, is not without significance. “The Lord gave the word; great was the company of the women that published it” (Psalms 68:11). The victory is so achieved, that not the men of might are needed, but the feebleness of women was abundantly enough. Indeed the men of might, the fighters on the Lord’s behalf, had not found their hands. But now the battle was over: He had fought alone, and of the people there were none with Him: with the last great shout of the battle-field, the cry of victory and not of exhaustion; He had entered into His rest. The women are now free to minister. The shadow of the Cross is but the shadow of the sheltering wings of divine love. It is this victory-shout which, according to Mark, impresses the soldier: “when the centurion saw that He so cried out and expired, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.” He had seen death upon the battlefield, perhaps in many a shape, but never a death like this. If we take John’s account, it is the cry that has rung through so many hearts since then, Tetelestai, “It is finished.” If it be not the great cry itself, it certainly went with it; and how has that become for Gentile faith the gospel-utterance! It has assured of peace made with God, stilled to rest the tumult of other things, and subdued the heart to Jesus, to the Son of God who loved and gave Himself for the sons of men. 5. “They assigned Him His grave with wicked men; but with the rich man when He had died.” So had Isaiah long before predicted, and now we have the fulfilment of it. The malefactor’s grave which would have naturally followed the death of the cross could not be permitted Him. That substitutionary work was accomplished which alone had made Him to be numbered with transgressors. In that character He could appear no more; and the righteousness of God, which He had declared in His death, claimed now divine intervention in His behalf. While He yet slept He must sleep in honor, and as it has been well said, the One born of a Virgin-womb could only be fittingly honored in a virgin-tomb. He who could not see corruption; could not lie in a tomb which corruption had defiled.

Thus all was in harmony, and God silently controlling all things before visible intervention could take place. Joseph of Arimathea, inspired with a boldness he had not yet shown, goes in to Pilate and asks of him the body of Jesus. Pilate, finding from the centurion that He is indeed already dead, commands it to be given; and in the new tomb, awaiting its predicted resurrection on the third day, that sacred body rests. Subdivision 3.Resurrection; and Heaven really opened. As every one knows, doubt has been cast upon the authenticity of the last twelve verses of this Gospel; and if they are, as Meyer calls them, but an “apocryphal fragment,” a waif without parentage known; introduced into Mark we know not how, to mend the ragged end of his mutilated or unfinished work, doubt would naturally be cast on more than its authenticity, and most of all for those who are slow to believe in inspiration moving after this fashion. We need not, however, discuss it here, as the authority for the full text is abundant in both MSS. and Versions. The spiritual relationship of the closing verses to the Gospel as a whole is perfect; and this, if proved, is a better argument of itself in favor of authenticity than all besides that has ever been produced against it. Moreover there is reason of an internal kind for the difference that in fact exists between the two parts of this last chapter, - the first, which gives the promise from the (unseen) Lord to meet His disciples in Galilee: a promise of which Mark gives no fulfilment: while the second briefly relates His actual appearances in and around Jerusalem, and His sending them forth with signs attesting their commission to preach the gospel in all the world. These two parts we have now to consider in their scope and connection with one another.

1. In the first part we have then promise which, as far as Mark’s account of it goes, is not fulfilled. Jesus does not meet them in Galilee; and the end for them, the account closing abruptly, is in fear and trembling, rather than the joy and gladness we should have expected from it. If, then, nothing is without a purpose here (and we at least are not going to question this), there must be for us some meaning in this non-fulfilment, this fear instead of joy. If we think, also, of the disciples as what they were undoubtedly till after (and a good while after) the resurrection, - a Jewish remnant, with hopes still clustering round the Old Testament promises, we can see something very like what Mark pictures here. Christ is come, Christ is risen; there is a promise for believing Israelites which to them as such is not fulfilled; and in short their history, and that of the ministry to the circumcision; with which especially is connected Peter’s name (ver. 7, Galatians 2:7; Galatians 2:9), is just such a broken fragment as is here presented to us. It will be completed, but only in another dispensation, after the parenthesis of the Church’s history shall be over, and the “remnant of” the King’s “brethren shall return to the children of Israel” (Micah 5:3): that is, when Israelites converted to God shall again be partakers in the hopes and promises of the nation. This, I doubt not, is what is intimated in the first verses of Mark’s closing chapter. We shall find similar things in the close of John’s Gospel, and more fully brought out there: things hard to he uttered, indeed, when the meaning, even of divine history, is so generally considered to be merely in the letter, and when belief in the inspiration of God’s word - in any proper sense of inspiration - is being so largely given up. That cannot affect the truth itself, nor its importance for those that have ears to hear.
2. The second part begins once more with the resurrection, and is of another character. Here the Lord Himself appears, and first to one who had been delivered from the power of Satan; which had completely possessed her. This supremacy of power over the whole array of the enemy - seven demons - characterizes the full salvation which is now to be proclaimed. The message given her we find only in John; here only that at first it was disbelieved. The very men who are to be the heralds of it in the world are at first incredulous as to what they long to receive. As Luke says of what took place afterwards, “they believed not for joy”: it was, according to the common phrase, “too good to be true.” The appearance to the two on the road to Emmaus, next referred to, is still incompetent to bring conviction; and the Lord then Himself appears to the eleven - the company now spoken of as that number, though Thomas, as we know, was not among them at the first, - and upbraids them with their unbelief and hardness of heart. The commission that follows is entirely different from that in Matthew, though some have represented it as but another version of it. They were given at different times and places clearly; while they reflect each the character of its respective Gospel. Matthew, whose subject is the Kingdom, gives the mode of reception into it by baptism and teaching. This supposes Mark’s commission as being already acted on, - the “what shall we do?” of those already wrought upon by the good news proclaimed. Mark’s view of the sin-offering is the basis of the gospel: this blessed work accomplished, the going forth of the good news naturally results. Faith, therefore, which is implied in the commission in Matthew, is insisted on here: “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” On the other hand, “he that disbelieveth” - no baptism affecting the case of such an one - “shall be condemned.” The signs that follow those who believe introduce us into a region of controversy in different quarters. It is plain, however, that even in the apostles, days they were not signs which necessarily followed in every individual. “Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues?” implies the negative. But the apostle asks moreover, “Are all workers of miracles?” - any kind of miracles? - and this must have a similar answer (1 Corinthians 12:29-30). Here then is what at once destroys any argument founded upon the universality of such gifts as these. It could not be said of any Christians that as such they would have them. The question was a much simpler one, - a question of fact: who have them? who have them not? If no one in a generation had them, we could not say they ought to have had, according to the Lord’s words. As “signs,” the apostle’s words as to one of them might apply to others, or to all, “wherefore tongues are for a sign; not to those that believe, but to those that believe not” (1 Corinthians 14:22); and if unbelievers ceased, we might even expect that these would cease. But miracles do not produce faith; though they may produce conviction. Those who “believed in His Name when they saw the miracles that He did,” He “did not commit Himself to, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man” (John 2:23-25). It was but an intellectual conviction; quite possible to men without divine work at all; so that if this were accomplished - if only the gospel were going out amidst a people who accepted Christianity as true - one still would not expect these signs to follow. Thus we are brought very near to the actual condition of things that obtains in Christendom today. Nor do the Lord’s words make that condition a hard matter to reconcile with them. The signs did follow, and fulfilled the object for which they were designed. As Christianity became known; and the truth came to get hearing, the miraculous accompaniments ceased, after the manner of all such whenever their purpose was fulfilled. Miracles have always been temporary, gathering around certain crises in the divine history of mankind, times of special divine intervention, and then passing away; and Christianity is no exception to the rule. As to power for conviction; where the word of God is once fairly before men; the Lord Himself has assured us that, if they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. That which comes first among these signs has special significance. Satan had possessed himself of the world largely by means of the religions of men; the perversions of that original worship which through successive generations became ever more corrupt. “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice,” says the apostle; “they sacrifice to demons, and not, to God” (1 Corinthians 10:20). And as in Egypt, when God brought out His people, the delivering judgments fell upon their gods, so now in Christianity. “They shall cast out demons in My Name” is the proclamation of Christ’s supremacy over the religious rulers of the heathen world. The gift of new tongues was grace surmounting the judgment of Babel, while yet the primitive “one speech and one language” could not be restored. The taking up of serpents and the innocuousness of any deadly draught would fence round life from the insidious attack of the destroyer; while the miraculous healings were a manifestation of power over the power of death in others. All together testified to the Lord’s victory over Satan; over death, and over sin: for sin was that which gave power to both death and Satan. Nothing could affect these which had not gone to the bottom of the question of sin. Thus, then, were the messengers of salvation equipped for their work.
3. And now, His end achieved, the shadow taken from the face of God, the sanctuary opened to all seekers of Him, the Servant-Son returns up where He was before. But He returns not as He was before. He returns with the humanity that He has taken: sure pledge that though He has changed the sphere of His service, the service itself He has not given up. He takes humanity itself up to the throne of God, and sits down there with it at the right hand of God. He has been in the lowest place: He receives the highest. It is the same Gospel which fitly shows Him to us in both. The blood of the sin-offering opens the sanctuary; but more, He who has shed it has entered heaven in the power of it; has entered it a Man, and with this link of Manhood connecting Him thus with others who are men, and for whom He offered Himself. The consequences of this are not pursued in this Gospel. They must be sought in after-communications of divine grace, which has traced for us His path step by step from lowest humiliation to glory, and how we are concerned in every step. The place at the right hand of God is, of course, peculiar to Himself; but not only does His heart still abide with His people here, but His hand also works for them and with them; and thus Mark presents Him at the close as One whose love makes Him still the Servant of man’s need. For “they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.”