Loading…

The Cross from a Distance: Atonement in Mark’s Gospel is unavailable, but you can change that!

“They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha.… And they crucified him.… Some women were watching from a distance” (Mark 15:22, 24, 40). At the climax of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus of Nazareth is put to death on a Roman cross. The text tells us, in that lonely hour, that a group of women were watching the crucifixion “from a distance.” In a sense, they are given a stance toward the cross that we can...

Here the two previous passion predictions come together. Verse 34, in particular, spells out what was meant by ‘suffer many things’, that is, all the cruelties involved in the crucifixion process. The subsequent passion narrative will show us these details fulfilled to the letter. When it is read against various passages in the Old Testament, both in the Psalms and in Isaiah’s servant material, these details also have theological significance. We shall examine some of these when we turn to the mockery
Page 56
Buy this book at Logos.com