JESUS DIES

MARK 15:33-41

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 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?” And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” 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.” And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 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!”

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Text Reflection:

On the cross, Jesus battled against satan, sin, and death, the “un-holy trinity” of the curse. Under the cloud of thick darkness, Jesus shuddered at this victorious moment for the kingdom of darkness. Bearing the curse of our sins upon himself, he plunged himself into death.

But this wasn’t a victory for death. At that moment, the massive veil of the Temple was torn from top to bottom. The veil was a blue, scarlet and purple tapestry embroidered with a panorama of the heavens guarded by cherubim. This enormous screen served as the boundary between heaven and earth, clean and unclean, sacred and profane, blessing and curse, life and death. It was the primal liminal space of sacred transformation.

As Jesus crossed the boundary between life and death, the curtain of the temple was torn from top to bottom. He became the door, the threshold through which God and human could meet. Heaven brought to earth, unclean made clean, profane made sacred, curse restored to blessing, death resurrected to life.

“Consequently, (as stated in the letter to the Hebrews) “he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Jesus, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”