The crucifixion and death of our Lord Jesus

It is already the Sunday of Lent and it is in fact Palm Sunday and today’s gospel reading comes from Mark 15: 22-39 which is the crucifixion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if you have been closely reading the Bible, in the chronological order of things, today should be Palm Sunday as it is the beginning of the week when He entered Jerusalem in triumph, greeted by people with palm leaves and shouting “Hosanna.”  But as we all know, those very same people would shout to Pontius Pilate to crucify Him a week later.

*  *  *

22 And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). 23 And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. 25 And it was the third hour when they crucified him. 26 And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” 27 And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left.

29 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 30 save yourself, and come down from the cross!” 31 So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. 32 Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.

33 And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice,  “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 35 And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” 36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” 37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

*  *  *

Today is Palm Sunday, but as you already read, the gospel reading today is about the crucifixion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. But it doesn’t diminish today’s celebration of Palm Sunday when finally the Hour of our Lord has come, his focus was to go Jerusalem to do the will of his Father who sent his only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to become like us in all our humanity, except for sin. So Palm Sunday is a great celebration of the triumphant entry of our Lord in Jerusalem and we celebrate it by posting dry palm leaves on our altars and the doors of our homes.

By now you must have already learned that the gospel of Mark is like a very short narrative of the crucifixion of our Lord, but then we cannot change what Mark has already written, but we can only fill the blanks of the many things that he wrote about. For instance, when Mark writes that Jesus was crucified between two thieves, we already got the lengthy version of this story in the gospel of Luke.

Perhaps the most significant portion of today’s gospel is the last verse after our Lord Jesus dies on the cross, which Mark wrote, “And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” The temple veil represented the old covenant that has been replaced by the new covenant, that henceforth there will be no more animal sacrifices, but only the sacrifice of the Mass.

*  *  *

For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.