33 And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 35 And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elijah. 36 And one ran, and filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let be; let us see whether Elijah cometh to take him down. 37 And Jesus uttered a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. 38 And the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood by over against him, saw that he so gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. 40 And there were also women beholding from afar: among whom were both Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; 41 who, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him; and many other women that came up with him unto Jerusalem.
How do we read the cry of desertion, which for Mark are Jesus’ last words. Does it mock my hope, just as the soldiers mocked Christ? I can easily rationalise it: take the first words of Psalm 22 to stand for the whole psalm, with its final hope as well initial despairing enquiry. But that sounds too glib. I suspect we have to let our hope be hung out to dry: that is what makes it hope, not certainty. Strangely, I find some comfort in the last couple of verses (which Mark expands): even, perhaps especially, in the face of such tragedy, the women minister to him.
October 14, 2009 at 3:05 pm |
I sometimes wonder whether it was because women were so ‘invisible’ in that society that they were able to stay with Jesus right up to the bitter end, when his male disciples might have felt themselves to be in more danger. The women’s ‘insignificance’ in the eyes of the world becomes their gift (like the mice and Aslan, perhaps). What’s striking then become the fact that two of them are even named, and that they are given so prominent a place in the accounts of the passion – this must have been quite radical at the time, that women were acknowledged as having been witnesses of both passion and resurrection.