Look, he is calling for Ellijah!

I peak forward wearily at a massive week of work to be done.

But there is one thing that I have to do that I am very excited by. Our Gospel of Mark lecturer each week gets someone from the class to "story-tell" a part of Marks gospel. And this week, myself and another girl Jen from the class will be combining to 'perform' Mark 15

This has meant that over the last month I have been memorising the crucifixion scene from Mark's perspective. This is an amazing resource to have stored in my brain- think of the benefit of evangelism! But thinking it through and working out how best to express it has thrown me head-long into the text- and I wanted to share some of my findings.

The whole scene is dripping with hidden meaning that those who participate in it (besides Jesus) are oblivious too. The mocking and the death that Jesus previously described was going to happen is seen as a failer by one and all.
Those passing by say:
"So, you would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, come down from that cross and save yourself"
They don't realise that the temple he was talking about was his body- which that the moment was being destroyed
The Chief priest and teachers say:
"He saved others, but he can't even save himself"
Yet it is by staying on that cross that Jesus is able to save people from their sins.

But one aspect of the passage that puzzled me for a while is the curious word mix-up that occurs when Jesus cries out (in Aramaic) "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me".

The people around think he is calling for Elijah (whose name is similar to the word God)- and wait to see if Elijah will come and take him down (from the cross). There is this high point of expectation that Elijah will come to save him - then suddenly Jesus cries out and dies.

As I practiced saying this- I wondered at the movement. The whole of the gospel has been working its way towards the point of this death- and then there is this strange interruption that ends up leaving the death as almost an anti-climax?

But the more I thought about it- the more I realised that by including this aspect of the crucifixion- Mark helps to put us into the shoes of those who were there. They had perhaps heard Jesus, saw his miracles, and heard or believed that he could be the King they had been waiting for. They were puzzling why someone who appeared to have such power would let himself be crucified. They mock or hear others mocking and wonder- why won't he save himself?

Then- as they hear him cry- rather than understanding the meaning of the scripture he quotes (that he is at that moment experiencing the wrath of God over the worlds sin)- they assume this must be the last ditch effort to escape. He cries for Elijah- and surely if he is really God's Messiah Elijah will come and rescue him?

And then he dies. We are left, like those there, to wonder how things could have turned out like this, to assume because Elijah didn't come- that Jesus is in fact a failer.

But Mark doesn't leave it there. The curtain in the temple is torn in two-showing that his death has made a way for people to be in the presence of God. And a centurion, a Gentile- sees the way he died and realised what all those there (laughing at his failer) should have known: "Surely this man was the Son of God".

Praise God that Jesus didn't get down from that cross and save himself. Praise God that in this moment of apparent weakness and failer-that Christ was paying for our own.

I encourage whoever reads this to get out there Bible and read Mark's account. Sit with me at the foot of the cross- be there at that moment of greatest shame and purest glory.

"Oh what a mystery
Meakness and majesty
Bow down and worship
For this is your God
This is your God"