Palm Sunday
MARK 14:1-15:47 (Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24; Philippians 2:6-11)
The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark is the oldest version of the Passion in our four gospels. Luke and Matthew expanded Mark’s version according to their own theology and traditions and sometimes subtracted from Mark. John’s version is very different from the other three and seems to be dependent on none of them. On to Mark: the context is the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread. These two feasts, at one time distinct, became one feast. There is a plot against Jesus’ life by the Sanhedrin, the High Council in Jerusalem, but they shy away from any attempt on him during Passover. Passover was always a time of high tension in Jeru-salem because it celebrated freedom from slavery but now the Jews were subjected to the power of the Roman Empire. No need to stir things up at the wrong time and bring upon the capital city the wrath of the Roman occupation. Judas however intervenes as facilitator and the chief priests seize the opportunity, Passover or not. The stage is set for the rest of the story.
Since it is impossible to cover the whole story in this column, let us comment mostly on inci-dents in which Mark strikingly differs from Matthew and Luke. During Jesus’ prayer in Gethse-mane only in Mark does Jesus address his Father in the affectionate Aramaic word for Father, “Abba,” just as a child calls its Daddy. Mark writes in Greek. He translates the Aramaic word into the Greek form for “Father,” so his readers will understand. Then the Marcan Jesus makes a blunt demand, “All things are possible to you. REMOVE this cup from me!” Matthew and Luke dance around this bluntness – too much for them to handle. Matthew: “My Father, if it is possible, remove this cup from me.” Luke: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.” Both authors then follow Marks lead expressing “Not my will, but Thine be done.”
Next is an occurrence that takes place only in Mark’s version. At the arrest of Jesus, after all his other disciples had fled, Mark inserts a story that is intended to throw into glaring light the weak-ness of Jesus’ closest companions who deserted him. To negatively criticize Jesus’ disciples and his family is a theme that runs throughout Mark’s gospel. So what happens now that his friends abandoned him? “A young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth wrapped around his body. They seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.” The first streaker? No. Mark has a purpose here. He intends an insult. In Mark 1:16-20 Jesus chooses his first four disciples in pairs. He writes of both pairs that they immediately answered his call and followed him. Mark uses the naked young man to symbolize that when the going got too rough, his disciples left all behind, even their clothes, to get away from Jesus. Matthew and Luke have been studiously copying from Mark. When they arrive at this incident, they delete it. It is the custom for both authors throughout their gospel to draw a more positive picture of Jesus’ disciples.
At his trial before the high priest Caiaphas, the high priest asks the question that could bring a death sentence, “Are you the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the living God?” The Marcan Jesus’ answer is simple and direct, “I AM.” Does Mark intend this answer as Jesus claiming for himself the sacred divine Name revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14? The high priest understands Jesus’ answer thus and reacts accordingly. In Matthew and Luke, Jesus answer to the high priest’s question is more indirect. They shy away from the “I AM” of the Marcan Jesus. Matthew: “You (the high priest) are the one who says so.” In Luke’s version, the question of the high priest is only about whether Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus gives an evasive answer.
When Jesus thunders his final words on the cross, only Mark returns again to Jesus’ native lan-guage. He depicts Jesus saying in Aramaic, “Eloi! Eloi!” Mark translates the Aramaic into Greek, “ ‘o Theos mou! ‘o Theos mou!” (My God! My God!) Then Mark adds the rest of Psalm 22:1, “Why have you forsaken me?” Matthew keeps the same cry of desolation as Jesus’ last words, but in Hebrew. In Luke, Jesus’ last words are, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” The desolation and abandonment of Jesus’ last cry in Mark is even more heartbreaking if we remember that in the garden he began his prayer with the affectionate “Abba!” There was no answer. Mark wants to show the total abandonment the humanity of Jesus experiences, when he depicts him no longer affectionately calling for help, but with a more distant cry, “Eloi! Eloi!”
To the end of his gospel Mark has adhered to a major theme of his gospel – the total abandon-ment of Jesus by everyone. The first and final abandonments, at least in Mark’s theology, come from the divine family. The Holy Spirit expels Jesus into the wilderness to be tried, tempted. The Father, the Abba, does not answer until after Jesus’ death. In between, in the body of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is either misunderstood, or rejected, or abandoned by his human family, by the leaders of his religion, and by his disciples. Mark cannot give up on this theme even after Jesus rose from the dead. At his now empty tomb, we find some disciples who have not abandoned him yet. These are his faithful women disciples from Galilee – Mary Magdalene (of the town of Magdala close to Capernaum in northern Galilee), “and the mother of James, who was probably Jesus maternal aunt. At the empty tomb they see a young man in white. He announces the gospel of the resurrection and commissions them to announce it to his disciples. Their response is Mark’s final statement of abandonment, “They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid!”
