ACC ~ Mark 15 v33 - 41

OVERVIEW:

In repeating the psalm that begins with “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Christ took on the speech of our human infirmity. By appropriating the psalmist’s voice to himself, his full humanity was evidenced by his longing to retain his life. His complete identification with our vulnerable humanity is seen in his experience of forsakenness (AUGUSTINE). As fully human, the affections of his soul were feeling the full weight and terror of forsakenness and so were bearing our terrors. Yet according to his divinity the incarnate Lord remained serenely faithful (AMBROSE). The hour was dark not only in the literal sense but also in the spiritual sense in reference to darkened hearts and minds (EUSEBIUS). With his last words all that had been prophesied of him was brought to completion. He breathed his last not under necessity but voluntarily. His freedom to die demonstrated his power, not his weakness (AUGUSTINE). He received and accepted the temporal ministries of women so the harvest of salvation might abound to their honor eternally (CHRYSOSTOM). Onlookers beheld the incomparable compassion of Christ on the cross (AUGUSTINE). The temple curtain and the rocks were split apart (EPHREM THE SYRIAN), the tombs opened and Jesus was recognized even by the Roman centurion as “Son of God” (GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS).

15:33a | When the Sixth Hour Had Come

THE SIXTH HOUR RATIFIED THE VERDICT OF THE THIRD HOUR

AUGUSTINE: The Lord was crucified at the third hour by the tongues of the populace, [1] at the sixth hour by the hands of the soldiers. [2] When Pilate took his seat before the tribunal, it was “about the sixth hour,” or early in the sixth hour. When Jesus was nailed to the tree between two thieves, it was the end of the sixth hour. It was between the sixth and ninth hour that the sun was obscured and the darkness prevailed, as we have it jointly attested on the authority of the three Evangelists Matthew, Mark and Luke. [3] TRACTATES ON JOHN 117.1. [4]

[1] Cf. Mk 15:25.

[2] Jn 19:14.

[3] Mt 27:45; Mk 15:33; Lk 23:44.

[4] NPNF 1 7:428**. The testimony of the Evangelists is not contradictory.

15:33b | Darkness over the Whole Land Until the Ninth Hour

THEIR UNDERSTANDING WAS DARKENED

EUSEBIUS: Note how clearly was fulfilled the prophecy of our Savior’s passion. It was to be a day in which “there shall be no light.” [1] “From the sixth hour to the ninth hour there was darkness over all the earth.” [2] … This was also fulfilled figuratively by his priestly persecutors, for among them came darkness, cold and ice, following upon their indignities to the anointed One. Their understanding also was darkened, so that the light of the gospel did not shine in their hearts, and their love to God grew cold. Then in the evening the light of the knowledge of the Christ arose, so that they who sat in darkness and the shadow of death saw a great light. [3] PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 10.7. [4]

[1] Eusebius is quoting from Symmachus commenting on Mt 27:45.

[2] Mt 27:45; Mk 15:33; Lk 23:44.

[3] Cf. Is 9:2; Mt 4:16.

[4] TLG 2018.005, 6.18. 44-47, 47.1-7; POG 2:214-15**.

15:34 | Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?

HIS RECOLLECTION OF PSALM 22

AMBROSE: As human he doubts. He experiences amazement. It is not his divinity that doubts, but his human soul. He had no difficulty being amazed because he had taken humanity fully to himself. In taking upon himself a human soul, he also took upon himself the affections of a soul. As God he was not distressed, but as a human he was capable of being distressed. It was not as God he died, but as man. It was in human voice that he cried: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” [1] As human, therefore, he speaks on the cross, bearing with him our terrors. For amid dangers it is a very human response to think ourself abandoned. As human, therefore, he is distressed, weeps, and is crucified. ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 2.7.56. [2]

[1] Ps 22:1; Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34.

[2] Cetedoc 0150, 2.7.25; NPNF 2 10:230**. In the affections of his soul he felt the full terror of forsakenness and so bore our terrors, yet as God-man he serenely bore our forsakenness.

APPROPRIATING THE PSALMIST’S VOICE TO HIMSELF

AUGUSTINE: Out of the voice of the psalmist, which our Lord then transferred to himself, in the voice of this infirmity of ours, he spoke these words: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” [1] He is doubtless forsaken in the sense that his plea was not directly granted. Jesus appropriated the psalmist’s voice to himself, the voice of human weakness. The benefits of the old covenant had to be refused in order that we might learn to pray and hope for the benefits of the new covenant. Among those goods of the old covenant which belonged to the old Adam there is a special appetite for the prolonging of this temporal life. But this appetite itself is not interminable, for we all know that the day of death will come. Yet all of us, or nearly all, strive to postpone it, even those who believe that their life after death will be a happier one. Such force has the sweet partnership of flesh and soul. [2] LETTER 140, TO HONORATUS 6. [3]

[1] Ps 22:1.

[2] Eph 5:29.

[3] Cetedoc 0262, 140.44.6.166.11; FC 20:69**.

IDENTIFICATION WITH OUR INFIRMITIES

AUGUSTINE: In his most compassionate humanity and through his servant form we may now learn what is to be despised in this life and what is to be hoped for in eternity. [1] In that very passion in which his proud enemies seemed most triumphant, he took on the speech of our infirmity, in which “our sinful nature was crucified with him” [2] that the body of sin might be destroyed, and said: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” [3] … Thus the Psalm begins, which was sung so long ago, in prophecy of his passion and the revelation of the grace which he brought to raise up his faithful and set them free. LETTER 140, TO HONORATUS 5. [4]

[1] Augustine is asking how this messianic psalm anticipated his full identification with our death-resisting human infirmity.

[2] Rom 6:6.

[3] Ps 22:1; Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34.

[4] Cetedoc 0262, 140.44.5.165.16; FC 20:68**.

15:36 | Filling a Sponge Full of Vinegar

PSALM 69 RECALLED

AUGUSTINE: Among the other things prophesied about him, it was also written, “They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” [1] We know in the gospel how these things happened. First, they gave him gall. He took it, tasted it, and spit it out. Later while hanging on the cross, that all prophecies might be fulfilled, he said, “I thirst.” [2] They took a sponge full of vinegar, fastened it on a reed, and offered it to him as he hung there. He took it and said, “It is finished.” [3] What does “It is finished” mean? All that had been prophesied before my passion has been fulfilled. What then is there still for me to do? TRACTATES ON JOHN 37.9. [4]

[1] Ps 69:21.

[2] Jn 19:28.

[3] Jn 19:30.

[4] Cetedoc 0278, 37.9.6; FC 88:102-3*.

15:37 | He Breathed His Last

A SIGN OF POWER, NOT NECESSITY

AUGUSTINE: Those robbers crucified next to him, did they breathe their last when they wanted to? [1] They were held fast by the chains of the flesh because they were not the creators of the flesh. Fastened by nails, they were tormented for a long time because they were not masters of their infirmity. [2] But the Lord took on flesh in the virgin’s womb when he wished it. He came forth to humanity when he wished it. He lived in history as long as he wished it. He departed from the flesh when he wished it. This is a sign of power, not of necessity. TRACTATES ON JOHN 37.9. [3]

[1] The issue is, did Jesus breathe his last out of necessity or voluntarily?

[2] Cf. Jn 19:32-33.

[3] Cetedoc 0278, 37.9.17; FC 88:103.

HIS POWER OF DYING

AUGUSTINE: He departed by his [own] power; for he had not come by necessity. And so some marveled more at his power of dying than at his power of performing miracles. TRACTATES ON JOHN 31.6. [1]

[1] Cetedoc 0278, 31.6.12; FC 88:35.

15:38 | The Curtain of the Temple Was Torn in Two

ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATIONS

EPHREM THE SYRIAN: The curtain was torn. [This was] to show that [the Lord] had taken the kingdom away from them and had given it to others who would bear fruit. [1] An alternative interpretation is: By the analogy of the torn curtain, the temple would be destroyed because his Spirit had gone away from it. Since the high priest had wrongfully torn his robe, the Spirit tore the curtain to proclaim the audacity of the pride [of the Jews], by means of an action on the level of created beings. Because [the high priest] had torn his priesthood and had cast it from him, [the Spirit] also split the curtain apart. [2] Or [alternatively], just as the temple in which Judas had thrown down the gold [3] was dissolved and rejected, so too [the Lord] pulled down and rent asunder the curtain of the door through which [Judas] had entered. Or, [it was] because they had stripped him of his garments that he rent the curtain in two. For the heart of the rock was burst asunder, [4] but their own hearts did not repent. COMMENTARY ON TATIAN’S DIATESSARON. [5]

[1] Cf. Mt 21:43.

[2] Cf. Mt 27:51.

[3] Cf. Mt 27:5.

[4] Cf. Mt 27:51.

[5] CSCO 137:314; JSSS 2:319*.

HIS DEATH AS AN UNVEILING

GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: He surrenders his life, yet he has power to take it again. [1] Yes, the veil is torn, for things of heaven are being revealed, rocks split, and dead men have an earlier awakening. [2] ORATION 29, ON THE SON 20. [3]

[1] Cf. Jn 10:17-18.

[2] Cf. Mt 27:51-53.

[3] FGFR 260; TLG 2022.009, 20.29-31.

15:39 | Truly This Man Was the Son of God!

A FEW DROPS OF BLOOD RENEW THE WHOLE WORLD

GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: Many indeed are the wondrous happenings of that time: God hanging from a cross, the sun made dark and again flaming out; for it was fitting that creation should mourn with its creator. The temple veil rent, blood and water flowing from his side: the one as from a man, the other as from what was above man; the earth shaken, the rocks shattered because of the rock; the dead risen to bear witness to the final and universal resurrection of the dead. The happenings at the sepulcher and after the sepulcher, who can fittingly recount them? Yet no one of them can be compared to the miracle of my salvation. A few drops of blood renew the whole world, and do for all men what the rennet does for the milk: joining us and binding us together. ON THE HOLY PASCH, ORATION 45.1. [1]

[1] TLG 2022.052, 36.661.42-664.5; SSGF 2:261.

15:40a | Women Looking On from Afar

WHAT WE BEHOLD ON THE CROSS

AUGUSTINE: As they were “looking on,” [1] so we too gaze on his wounds as he hangs. We see his blood as he dies. We see the price offered by the redeemer, touch the scars of his resurrection. He bows his head, as if to kiss you. His heart is made bare open, as it were, in love to you. His arms are extended that he may embrace you. His whole body is displayed for your redemption. Ponder how great these things are. Let all this be rightly weighed in your mind: as he was once fixed to the cross in every part of his body for you, so he may now be fixed in every part of your soul. [2] ON VIRGINITY. [3]

[1] Cf. Mt 27:55; Mk 15:40.

[2] Cf. Gal 2:20; 6:17; Phil 3:10.

[3] Cetedoc 0300, 54.55.300.12; GMI 428*.

WHERE THE WOMEN WERE STANDING

AUGUSTINE: How can we understand the same Mary Magdalene both to have stood afar off along with other women as the accounts of Matthew and Mark bear, [1] and to have been by the cross, as John tells us? [2] It could have been the case that these women were at such a distance as made it quite natural to say at once that they were near because they were at hand there in the sight of him, and yet afar off in comparison with the crowd of people who were standing round about in closer vicinity along with the centurion and the soldiers. It is open for us, then, to suppose that those women who were present at the scene along with the Lord’s mother, after he commended her to the disciple, [3] began then to retire with the view of extricating themselves from the dense mass of people, and from a greater distance looking on at what remained to be done. HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS 3.21.58. [4]

[1] Cf. Mt 27:55-56; Mk 15:40.

[2] Cf. Jn 19:25.

[3] Cf. Jn 19:26-27.

[4] Cetedoc 0273, 3.21.58.348.4; NPNF 1 6:207-8. As they withdrew, the women who were once near may have then viewed the horrible scene from farther away.

15:40b | Mary, the Mother of James the Younger

WHICH JAMES?

BEDE: How could it be said that the brother of the Lord was not the apostle, but a third James, since Paul also gives him the name of an apostle, saying, “I saw none of the other apostles except James, the brother of the Lord”; [1] and the evangelist Mark names the same man, not a third, but one of the two Jameses, saying, “There were women also watching from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of the James the younger and of Joseph and Salome?” [2] Now “greater and lesser” are customarily used to establish a difference not among three, but between two. Hence the lesser James is named “of Alphaeus,” in distinction from the greater, who was the son of Zebedee. COMMENTARY ON ACTS 1.13. [3]

[1] Gal 1:19.

[2] Mk 15:40.

[3] Cetedoc 1357, 1.139; CAA 15*. There were not three but two Jameses, the younger of whom is James, the son of Alphaeus, whose mother stood afar with the women. Cf. Mt 10:3; 27:56; Mk 3:18; Lk 6:15; Acts 1:13.

15:41 | The Women, When He Was in Galilee, Followed Him and Ministered unto Him, and Also Many Other Women

RECEIVING THE SUPPORT OF WOMEN

CHRYSOSTOM: For what reason then was he being supported by women? [1] For women, it is said, followed him and ministered to him. [2] It was to teach us from the first that he is ready to receive those who do the good. Could not Paul, who supported others by his own hands, have maintained himself without assistance from others? But you see him receiving and requesting aid. Now hear the reason for it. “Not because I want a gift,” he says, “but I want fruit that may abound to your account.” [3] HOMILIES ON TITUS 6. [4]

[1] Why did Jesus accept substantial support from those least able to offer support?

[2] Cf. Mk 15:41.

[3] Phil 4:17.

[4] TLG 2062.166, 62.697.50-58; cf. NPNF 1 13:541.