CREEDE HINSHAW: Anguish, abandonment and awe

I have spent the last couple of weeks reading the last week in Jesus’ life from the gospel according to Mark (chapters 11-16).

Mark’s account is the most abbreviated of the four accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) of Jesus’ last week. Here’s what struck me as I’ve studied these past two weeks:

THE ANGUISH OF THE FINAL WEEK: It is impossible to read these chapters without feeling profoundly overwhelmed with pain and sorrow. That sorrow is captured succinctly in Mark 14:34 where Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, says to Peter, James and John, “I am deeply grieved, even unto death.”

Gethsemane is not the only place where anguish is present in the story. The soldiers are brutal; the powers of state and religion combine to crush free grace; everybody mocks Jesus; the crucifixion is methodical and torturous. Anguish oozes from Mark.

The last days of Jesus’ life are filled with scorn, humiliation and rejection. I found myself recalling the death of each of my parents. I found myself again powerless, in shock and grief and confusion. Those feelings are still intense, even though my mother died over 40 years ago. The anguish of the last week of Jesus’ life becomes real and we must not run from it.

THE ABANDONMENT OF THE FINAL WEEK: A second emotion that emerged was the utter abandonment Jesus felt. Mark 14:50 captures it when describing what happened when Jesus was kissed by Judas and arrested in the garden: “All of them (the disciples) deserted him and fled.” He had chosen them, cultivated them, fished with them and eaten with them for three years. They had pledged undying loyalty to him. Then they evaporated.

But this is not the only abandonment in this story. Peter, given the opportunity to defend Jesus, says he never knew him. Bystanders, wanting so see how much pain Jesus can take, offer him sour wine and watch to see if he’ll live or die. Both criminals mock him. Jesus’ only words on the cross in Mark are words of despair and he cries out with a loud voice and dies.

Nobody wants to be abandoned. Everybody wants and needs inclusion. Jesus – in this most holy of weeks – is largely abandoned, a bitter pill for him and us to swallow.

THE AWE OF THE FINAL WEEK: Mark opens Holy Week with the adulation of Palm Sunday and concludes with a Roman centurion watching Jesus die upon the cross and proclaiming, (Mark 15:39) “Truly this man was God’s Son.” This unnamed soldier is the only person in the entire gospel to verbalize this truth. He watches Jesus die and by the power of God his eyes were opened to the glory of who Jesus was and is. This verse is perhaps the climax of the entire gospel of Mark, especially since the resurrection account in this gospel is muted and confusing. There is awe throughout the last week of Jesus’ life, an awe that I pray may overcome the anguish and abandonment that is inevitably part of this salvation story.

Email columnist Creede Hinshaw at [email protected].