Mark 15:33-39
A Reading from the Gospel According to Mark.
When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah.” And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he
said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Pslam 22 A psalm of David.
1
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
2
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.[b]
3
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.[c]
4
In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5
To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
6
But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
7
All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
8
“He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
“let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”
9
Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
10
From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
11
Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
12
Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13
Roaring lions that tear their prey
open their mouths wide against me.
14
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.
15
My mouth[d] is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16
Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce[e] my hands and my feet.
17
All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
18
They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.
19
But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
20
Deliver me from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
21
Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
22
I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.
23
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
24
For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.
25
From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you[f] I will fulfill my vows.
26
The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the Lord will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!
27
All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
28
for dominion belongs to the Lord
and he rules over the nations.
29
All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.
30
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
31
They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!
i love how the ends of these readings also are bound up together.
"Now when the centurion, who stood facing Him, saw that in this way He breathed His last, he
said, “Truly this Man was God’s Son!”
Remembering that when God creates the World, He does it by speaking- and when speaking happens, there is always an exhale of breath. And when humanity is made, the Hebrew is not in the past tense- God *began* making mankind. When Jesus breathes (exhales, speaks) His last breath, there is a Way in which it is in speaking the last line of that Psalm- but in first person. "He has done it" carries with it the weight of "It is finished".
The making of Man in the Image and Likeness of God is completed in that Holy Moment. And Spirit is the same word as 'breath' in Greek...
So, of all the crowd- who would have been (should have been...) intimately familiar with Psalm 22- it is the Centurion alone who has ears to hear and eyes to see immediately the achingly beautiful Divine Dance of the Trinity: Jesus, held in the Arms of the Father, exhales the Spirit, and creates (and saves) the World from the Cross. ❤️
Thanks for sharing this. :-)