The Gospel According To MarkНамуна

Jesus’ Experience of Suffering: Mark 14:1-15:47

The record of Jesus’ actual experience of suffering and death is filled with well-known events: the betrayal by Judas, the prediction of Peter’s denial, the failure of the disciples to watch and pray with Jesus in Gethsemane, Jesus’ arrest, the two trials and Peter’s denial, and finally Jesus’ crucifixion and burial.

These are dark, threatening chapters. The mood is foreboding. They are filled with failure: failure of the Jewish leaders, failure of the crowds, failure of the Jewish and Roman legal systems, and failure of the disciples. Writing to a persecuted Roman church, Mark made it clear that the Jerusalem birth pangs of Christianity had been as severe as any in Rome.

Mark’s record of Jesus’ experience of suffering and death can be divided into four main parts, beginning with his anointing for burial in Mark 14:1-11. In this section, Mark reported some very important details. First, he said that the chief priests and teachers of the law were looking for a way to arrest and kill Jesus. Second, a woman anointed Jesus with very expensive perfume, and he responded by saying that she had anointed him for burial. In this way, Jesus indicated that he would be killed in the immediate future. Third, Judas Iscariot began plotting to betray Jesus to the chief priests and teachers of the law. We might see this as the turning point in the story of Jesus’ suffering and death. His death was no longer a vague threat but an imminent reality.

Next, Mark reported Jesus’ last hours with his disciples in Mark 14:12-42. This part of Mark’s narrative begins with Jesus and his disciples preparing for and eating the Last Supper in Mark 14:12-31. It was during this meal that Jesus instituted the Christian ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. He also used this time to give his disciples some final preparations to help them through his suffering and death. For example, he warned them that they would all fall away from him, and he foretold Peter’s denials. 

After the Last Supper, the group went to the Garden of Gethsemane, as we see in Mark 14:32-42. According to this passage, Jesus was deeply distressed and troubled, and overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. He was clearly suffering greatly in anticipation of his crucifixion. 

The third section of Mark’s report of Jesus’ experience of suffering and death is the account of Jesus’ arrest and trials in Mark 14:43–15:15. This section begins with Jesus’ betrayal by his disciple Judas Iscariot in Mark 14:43-52. It continues with his trial before the Jewish leadership in Mark 14:53-65. Next, we read the report of Peter’s denials that he knew and followed Jesus in Mark 14:66-72. And finally, we read about his trial before the Roman governor Pilate in Mark 15:1-15. At the end of these humiliating experiences, Jesus was flogged, and then handed over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

The fourth part of Mark’s report of Jesus’ experience of suffering and death covers Jesus’ crucifixion in Mark 15:16-47. It begins with Jesus being handed over to the Roman soldiers to be beaten, humiliated, and put to death on a cross like a common criminal. From a human perspective, his suffering was overwhelming. 

The fact that Jesus suffered this mistreatment at the hands of the Romans would have connected these events strongly to Mark’s original audience of Roman Christians. They would have quickly seen the parallels between their Lord’s suffering and their own, and should have taken his courage as an inspiration for them to persevere through their own difficulties.

But the worst part of Jesus’ suffering was that the sin of the world was laid upon him, and he was subjected to the wrath of God the Father. Finally, after he was dead, he was laid in a tomb, his body unprepared for burial because there was no time left before the Sabbath.