What images or words come to mind when you
contemplate the story of the Passion and hear the music from Bach's St. Matthew Passion?
Mark 15
Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with
the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made
their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.
2 “Are you the king of the
Jews?” asked Pilate.
“You have said so,” Jesus replied.
3 The chief priests accused him of
many things. 4 So again Pilate asked him,
“Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”
5 But Jesus still made no
reply, and Pilate was amazed.
6 Now it was the custom at the
festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. 7 A man
called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed
murder in the uprising. 8 The crowd
came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.
9 “Do you want me to release to you
the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, 10 knowing
it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to
him. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have
Pilate release Barabbas instead.
12 “What shall I do, then, with the
one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.
13 “Crucify him!” they shouted.
14 “Why? What crime has he
committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd,
Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him
over to be crucified.
16 The soldiers led Jesus away into
the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company
of soldiers. 17 They put a purple robe on him,
then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. 18 And they
began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” 19 Again and
again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on
their knees, they paid homage to him. 20 And when
they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on
him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
21 A certain man from
Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on
his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. 22 They
brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the
skull”). 23 Then they offered him wine mixed
with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 And they
crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each
would get.
25 It was nine in the morning when
they crucified him. 26 The written notice of the
charge against him read: the king of the jews.
27 They crucified two rebels with
him, one on his right and one on his left. [28] 29 Those who
passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You
who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, 30 come down
from the cross and save yourself!”31 In the
same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among
themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! 32 Let this
Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we
may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
33 At noon, darkness came over the
whole land until three in the afternoon. 34 And at
three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi,
lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?”).
35 When some of those standing near
heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”
36 Someone ran, filled a sponge with
wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now
leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.
37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed
his last.
38 The curtain of the temple was
torn in two from top to bottom. 39 And when
the centurion,who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said,
“Surely this man was the Son of God!”
40 Some women were watching from a
distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the
younger and of Joseph, and Salome. 41 In Galilee
these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had
come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.
42 It was Preparation Day (that is,
the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached,43 Joseph of
Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for
the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. 44 Pilate
was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he
asked him if Jesus had already died.45 When he learned
from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. 46 So Joseph
bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and
placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the
entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary
the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.
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