The Passion Begins: Jesus' Utter Abandonment - Part 1: Mark 15:1-20

Our familiarity with the Passion Narrative can sometimes inhibit our attention to details within the Gospel itself. For many of us, our reflection on the Passion Narrative occurs piecemeal. We reflect on segments of the Passion during the Rosary. The Stations of the Cross take us step by step through Jesus’ march to Calvary. Personal devotions to the Wounds of Jesus or the Divine Mercy Chaplet allows us to hone in on the treasure of Jesus’ Incarnate, crucified love for us. This does not detract from our reading of Scripture; these meditations help to enflesh these mysteries in our own lives. At the same time, these different devotions often blend the different stories of the Passion together in ways that will, at times, lose sight of the theological insights and goals of each Gospel’s own account of the Passion. Because of this, it’s worthwhile spending time with the Gospel of Mark itself. Mark’s Gospel – many Scripture scholars believe –established the core narrative for the other three Gospels; especially Matthew and Luke. Insights into Mark will therefore help us to navigate the other narratives by seeing how they diverge from or add to Mark’s account.  
 
Mark 15:1-5, 6-20 
 
The Gospel of Mark relates the worst-case scenario that anyone could face. First, we have the most innocent man who ever walked the earth. This perfect man, completely righteous, without a drop of guilt in his life, now confronts both the religious and secular powers set on destroying him. We witness, then, the most unjust of moments with the Passion Narrative. Jesus did not deserve execution. He is who he says he is, the Messiah. Jesus fulfills the very law and prophetic utterances that the religious authorities are meant to safeguard. Jesus never threatened the Roman Empire, nor did he strive to make the earthly throne of Caesar his own. Yet these two systems of governance meant to preserve proper order, the common good, and exact justice allied with each other to condemn Jesus.  
Mark emphasizes the all-encompassing nature of the injustice against Jesus when he writes “the chief priests, with the elders and scribes, and the whole council” (v. 1). This wasn’t an isolated group or faction within the religious authorities, this was everything single member who either actively or passively cooperated with the execution of Jesus. Not only this, but they even used the very Laws that the LORD gave them to condemn their Lord in the flesh. Unraveling this mystery would take a lifetime or more. How is it that the very people who knew the Scriptures the most could miss the very one the Scriptures foretold? It’s a cautionary tale, to say the least.  
Mark then shifts to the Pontius Pilates role with the crowd to speak about the secular authority’s complicity in this unjust execution. In a show of democracy, Pilate delegates his authority to the crowd who call for the release of an actual criminal and the murder of Jesus. Then, the very person meant to preserve the common good and keep such injustice in check allows not only for the execution of Jesus but his torture: “and having scourged Jesus” (v. 15). Pilate knows that Jesus did nothing wrong, but he acquiesces to the demands of the mob. The Roman justice system falls apart and Jesus reveals that it’s more interested in leveraging popularity than truth in governance.  
This is followed by a rather terse but harrowing account of Jesus tortured further by an entire battalion of a no doubt frustrated Roman praetorium (v. 16). This battalion might have included a couple hundred soldiers (or more). Jesus standing alone before them, condemned, weakened from scourging, is then striped and reclothed before the battalion and mocked. This echoes humiliation rituals throughout the darker aspects of our human story whereby we often ridicule and dehumanize those we condemn and execute. What terror did Jesus feel with that battalion? We have hints of the level of humiliation Jesus went through, hints of unspeakable abuse hover beneath the surface of the account in verses 16-20.  The sense of utter powerlessness, abuse, humiliation, and mockery of his public, prophetic ministry only further isolated Jesus from any sense of support from his followers and family and friends.  
Within these twenty verses, we have the entire religious hierarchy, the representative of Roman authority, the crowd that represents all of us, and those charged with executing the laws of the land working together against the King of Kings. These were legitimate sources of authority in the world, but something, some evil, corrupted them at this inflection point within human history. These power centers each failed to protect the very one they’re meant to protect: the innocent and helpless. Mark’s Gospel gives us, then, an insight not only into the person of Jesus, but into the very structure of our worldly powers. Whereas the Kingdom of Heaven is authentically just and directed towards our true good, these worldly powers sought, what exactly? We face in Jesus’ persecution – especially at this heightened degree before his execution – the summary of every injustice against each innocent victim that the powers in control use to maintain their influence and legitimacy. Jesus does not raise his voice against these powers. Only later, on the Cross, with his dying breath as blood drained from his body and his heart struggled to beat, does Jesus give voice to a prayer to his Father. And, even in that prayer, which we read later in the chapter, Jesus reveals that he also experiences abandonment by God his Father (v. 34). This is the depths of utter abandonment into which the Passion consumed Jesus. 
 
Questions for Meditation: 

1. How could it happen that the very people meant to uphold both the Law and the Prophets not only brought about Jesus’ condemnation, but believe such an act was virtuous? How might that speak into our own lives and our own experience of the Church? 
2. Secular authority receives legitimacy from the will of those they govern and by the God given structure of human nature. What does the section about both Pilate and the crowd reveal about laten weaknesses within all systems of governance? How might that speak into our own lives and our own experience of government?  
3. Jesus wasn’t “play acting” during his Passion. He experienced the trauma of his Passion and deeply felt its pains. What does this say about God’s love for you personally? What do you think Jesus would like to say to you in your own experiences of pain, isolation, rejection, injustice and/or abuse?