Mark 15: The Crucifixion - The Second Temptation of Jesus as a Definition of His Existence
Mark 15: The Crucifixion - The Second Temptation of Jesus as a Definition of His Existence
29 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "Aha! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days,
30 save yourself by coming down from the cross!"
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.
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?").
The editor of the Gospel of Mark records the crucifixion of Jesus in a very dry and breathless manner. Without any embellishment or interpretation, he rushes from Pilate's trial to the burial. The editor conceals his own views within the brisk and unembellished narrative. There are no miracles. Where once the feeding of the five thousand could either be a multiplication of loaves or a change of heart where everyone shared their hidden provisions, at the moment of his own death, Jesus is as silent as his unanswered prayers.
Jesus faced three temptations at the beginning of his public ministry, and he faces another test before his death. Satan's temptation is essentially one test: the proof of existence/self-definition by turning stones into bread, surviving a fall from the pinnacle of the temple unharmed, and bowing down to Satan as a form of self-definition. Once again, Jesus is demanded to prove his existence on the cross, as the king of Israel and the Messiah, capable of coming down. While miracles echoed when he healed others or cast out demons, God does nothing when Jesus is tested at the beginning and end of his life, bracketing his human experience.
Jesus was thoroughly tested as the Son of Man twice. The first temptation scored well, but the last test before death reveals the limits of humanity. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus, faced with Satan's temptation to deny God and bow to him, chose rather to lament to God than to deny him. Inside the veneer of following Jesus through service and sacrifice lies the human proof of existence that would rather reproach God than deny him.