Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Cross, and the Torn Veil
Mark 15:21-47
21 They compelled one passing by, coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to go with them that he might bear his cross. · WEB
Darkness at noon, the cry of the psalm, the veil torn from the top — and the first human confession of the Son of God comes from the execution squad's officer.
They compelled one passing by, coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to go with them that he might bear his cross Mark 15:21.
A stranger from Africa carries the cross behind Jesus — the literal picture of the discipleship saying Mark 8:34 — and Mark names his sons because his readers knew them: a Rufus stands in Rome's own greetings Romans 16:13. The crucifixion itself takes one participle: crucifying him Mark 15:24 — Mark spends his ink instead on the fulfillments crowding the scene: garments parted by lot Psalms 22:18, the mockers wagging their heads Mark 15:29 Psalms 22:7, counted with transgressors between two robbers Mark 15:27–28 Isaiah 53:12 — at his right and left, the places James and John once requested Mark 10:37.
"He saved others. He can't save himself" Mark 15:31.
The priests' taunt is the Gospel's theology stated by its enemies: exactly true, in the one sense they did not mean. He cannot save himself — not for want of power Mark 14:36 but because saving others is what he is doing; the offer — come down from the cross, that we may see and believe Mark 15:32 — asks the one miracle that would cancel the ransom.
At the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice... "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Mark 15:34.
Three hours of darkness at midday Mark 15:33 Amos 8:9, and out of it the only word Mark records from the cross: Psalm 22's opening line, in Aramaic, translated so no reader can miss it. The cry is real dereliction — the cup drunk to its floor — and it is also a psalm's first line, a psalm that descends through pierced hands and parted garments to end in vindication and the nations turning Psalms 22:1 Psalms 22:16–18 Psalms 22:27. Both truths stand: forsakenness fully tasted, Scripture fully kept.
The veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. When the centurion... saw that he cried out like this and breathed his last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" Mark 15:38–39.
At the death, two answers arrive at once. The veil — torn from the top, God's side, the same verb as the heavens at the baptism Mark 1:10: the way into the holiest standing open Hebrews 10:19–20. And the book's title finally spoken by a human being — a Gentile centurion, watching how he died. The women watching from afar Mark 15:40–41 become the witnesses' unbroken chain: at the cross, at the burial Mark 15:47, at the tomb — while Joseph of Arimathea, a council member, boldly asks Pilate for the body Mark 15:43 and seals it in rock, with Pilate's own death-certification by the centurion entered on the record Mark 15:44–45.
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