Mark 15:33-47 “Has God Forsaken?”

As we come to that part in Mark that speaks of the crucifixion of Jesus, I want to mention something about our current Covid pandemic. I know how we all love statistics. In 2020 we are looking at numbers of those who have died from Covid in relation to the general population. We did reach the number of a quarter million this last week. That is very sad. Yet, that number is somewhere around 1%. The highest predicted that I saw was 1.3% of the US population. I know we are all doing our best to keep that number down. By the grace of God, we have had no Covid deaths on Kauai up to the time I was writing this sermon.

In AD 70, over 6,000 crucifixions were recorded by the Romans in Palestine. That would have been four percent of the local population in just that one year! Keeping that in mind, we might say that crucifixion was worse than a plague in the days of Jesus. You were just as likely to die from crucifixion than of any other cause.

The great Roman historian Josephus even wrote of three of his close friends having been crucified. For Christians of the early church to whom Mark was writing this gospel, the continued threat of crucifixion or other forms of lethal persecutions was acute. By the time Mark is writing this Gospel, killing Christians for sport was popular in the Roman arenas already.

To be sure, crucifixion was not simply a form of death. It is perhaps better described as a form of torture that finally ends in death. Depending on one’s overall health to begin, one can actually last many days on the cross and may in fact die from thirst or exposure before the typical asphyxiation.

It is interesting to note that the exact time on the cross is recorded by Mark. Jesus is crucified at 9am. At high noon, the sky goes dark. At 3pm Jesus is dead. That must be considered a relatively fast death on the cross.

During this time, Jesus cries out “Eloi, Eloi lama sabachthani?” in his native tongue of Aramaic. “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” We don’t use the word “forsaken” so much anymore. “God, why are you not talking to me anymore?” “God, why did you ‘unfriend’ me?”

As an aside, wouldn’t it be wonderful if rather than making up new words in English we just decided to use the words we already should know? Next time you have to drop a contact on social media, don’t unfriend him—“forsake” him in proper biblical English. When he asks about it later, state “Thou hast been forsaken.”

Did God actually forsake Jesus? This is an age-old question that even has a Latin phrase attached to it: “Deus absconditus.” Did God somehow disappear in that moment? Did God abscond during the crucifixion? Why else would Jesus cry out in that manner? Down through the centuries, humanity has answered that question in many different ways.

I believe that God was present throughout, that the shortness of the torture was part of the mercy of God. Right after Jesus cries out, an unnamed person gives him a bit of vinegar on a sponge. He cries out and there is this little sign of mercy right then and there.

We are always looking for God’s mercy in the big things, the huge miracles, and this is not always how God makes things work. For us Christians, we have to understand as we must from the crucifixion that even death can be counted as a miracle—if God’s mercy is present in that death! If that death leads to new life! Yes, death is the enemy, and God is always fighting on our side against it. But, we know our true life is in Christ Jesus.

In the scripture for this morning, we see that some of the people who were at Golgotha during that time were talking about Elijah. They were waiting for Elijah to come down to save Jesus perhaps. What is this thing with Elijah? What does it mean? According to scripture and Jewish tradition, Elijah did not die but was instead transferred up to heaven still very much alive. He never had to go through the pain and suffering of human death. That is why Elijah is suddenly being mentioned by the crowd. The people are wrongly thinking that if Jesus is really the Son of God, then he would be taken off the cross and up to heaven without having to suffer death.

That was not just an issue with the Jews of the day, but also with the Greeks and the Romans. You see, in the pantheon of minor gods that were being worshipped in that time, the very thing that makes them gods is that they were supposedly immortal. So, it is extremely significant that the Centurion, hence a Roman, would proclaim upon the death of Jesus that He was indeed the Son of God.

What turns around our perception of what it means to be God incarnate as Jesus was is that fulcrum of faith we find in John 3:16: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. . . .” What if an immortal being so loved all of us that He would choose to die in order to save us and give us everlasting life? That point is not lost on the Roman centurion. Yes, immortals do not regularly die, that is what makes them immortal! But what if? What if an immortal chooses to die out of love for us? That is the Christian story—the good news.

Jesus breathes His last breath. In that very moment, Mark records that the curtain in the Temple is ripped down the middle from the top down. Wow. How did that happen? What kind of a miracle is that supposed to portend? In that day, it was presumed that God resided in the inner sanctum of the Temple called the “Holiest of Holies.” That was also were the Ark of the Covenant was kept. God was supposed to sit upon the mercy seat that was on top of the Ark. Once a year on the Day of Atonement, a high priest was allowed to enter the Holiest of Holies to clean it out basically. Only one person got in behind that curtain once a year.

The curtain is ripped from the top down, meaning it is the hand of God that does it. It is not ripped from the bottom up as a human would. The veil between God and us is no longer through the death of Jesus. WE are now fully in the presence of the Almighty!

As we read further in the text, we see a lot of women were there. We must realize that there were more than just the three mentioned in Mark. Mark himself points out that there were more. We can read the other names in the other Gospels. What is clear from all the Gospel texts is that these women supported Jesus during his ministry and that they stayed with him through the difficult time of his passion up until the time of his resurrection. We will read about that next week.

These women did not run and hide themselves as the other disciples had done. They stayed right there to comfort Jesus as much as they were able through their presence. They prayed to God on their knees as Jesus was tormented. They were his prayer support team and most loyal followers.

These women have the greatest witness of all. They set the standard for Christian behavior. And, that standard is based on one very real Christian value that we call “humility.” Humility means to behave without self-pride. Humility means that you put the other person’s life ahead of your own. As Christ was humbly dying on the Cross for our sins, these women were humbly staying by him and giving all of themselves in prayer and support.

I know that the reason that the mobs of people who had been against Jesus and his disciples, the chief priests, and the Roman soldiers left the women alone is that they could see that they were utterly humble and sincere in their actions. This is very disarming to others to see people act in complete selflessness.

Now I want to make sure that we do not confuse the virtue of humility with obedience. The fact that these women were there supporting Christ in his hour of need was not an act of obedience. It was humility alone. One could argue that the women were being anything but obedient. They probably were warned not to go to Golgotha to see Christ die. The soldiers probably did tell them to stay away. Yet, they were there. I have to mention this because for a long time in the Christian church, women, specifically nuns, were held to an order of obedience. I really have to point out that these women were not obeying any orders. Jesus did not tell them to be there! Jesus did not tell them to come to the tomb later to anoint him with spices. What they did was out of spirit-directed humility only.

The great German feminist theologian Dorothee Soelle describes this action as women coming together not out of obedience but rather solidarity with Christ (Strength of the Weak, p. 114)! And that is the essence of their witness: humility of spirit and solidarity with Christ. What a truly blessed witness that is. Without their witness to the death and resurrection of Christ, we would not have the faith today.

These women refuse to forsake Jesus! I will be honest with you, we all have times when we feel as if God has forsaken us. The Jewish holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel called this the “dark night of the soul.” This matches the darkening of the sky at the time when Jesus cries out to God on the Cross. The women there might have felt forsaken by Jesus at that time, but they refuse to forsake Him. This is the greatest witness. No matter what you might be feeling in these terrible Covid times, stand by Jesus. Never forsake your faith. The miracles are coming. Jesus rises again. Next week.

Amen.