SCRIPTURE: Here do a meditative reading of Jesus’ trial and suffering.

Mark 15:1-37

Jesus Before Pilate.

1^a As soon as morning came,^b the chief priests with the elders and the scribes, that is, the whole Sanhedrin, held a council.^* They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.

2Pilate questioned him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”^* He said to him in reply, “You say so.”

3The chief priests accused him of many things.

4Again Pilate questioned him, “Have you no answer? See how many things they accuse you of.”

5Jesus gave him no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.

The Sentence of Death.^*

6Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them one prisoner whom they requested.^c

7A man called Barabbas^* was then in prison along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion.

8The crowd came forward and began to ask him to do for them as he was accustomed.

9Pilate answered, “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?”

10For he knew that it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed him over.

11But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead.

12Pilate again said to them in reply, “Then what [do you want] me to do with [the man you call] the king of the Jews?”

13^* They shouted again, “Crucify him.”

14Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” They only shouted the louder, “Crucify him.”

15^* So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged, handed him over to be crucified.

Mockery by the Soldiers.

16^{* d} The soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort.

17They clothed him in purple and, weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him.

18They began to salute him with, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

19and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him. They knelt before him in homage.

20And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him out to crucify him.

The Way of the Cross.

21They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon, a Cyrenian,^* who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.^e

The Crucifixion.

22^f They brought him to the place of Golgotha (which is translated Place of the Skull).

23They gave him wine drugged with myrrh, but he did not take it.

24^{* g} Then they crucified him and divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take.

25It was nine o’clock in the morning^* when they crucified him.

26^* The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.”

27With him they crucified two revolutionaries, one on his right and one on his left.^h

[28]^*

29^* Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying,ⁱ “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,

30save yourself by coming down from the cross.”

31Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes, mocked him among themselves and said, “He saved others; he cannot save himself.

32Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.^j

The Death of Jesus.

33At noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.

34And at three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?”^* which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”^k

35^* Some of the bystanders who heard it said, “Look, he is calling Elijah.”

36One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down.”

37Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.

REFLECTION (from author Tim Muldoon SJ)

The scene of Jesus’ trial is in stark contrast with the scene of the agony in the garden. Here, Jesus appears resigned, even indifferent. There is none of the fear he showed earlier. We see no reference to the Father whose apparent absence from the scene is striking. Why does it seem to us that in our time of great need, God can be deafeningly silent? In his meditation on suffering, St. John of the Cross described the necessity of the “dark night of the soul”, the feeling of God’s absence. What Jesus shows us in his experience of trial and suffering is readiness to do what the Father has asked of him, even to go through a painful death. This is Jesus’ own act of faith: to trust the Father up to His death, even when the Father seems absent.