Three years ago, I preached a sermon here on today’s text from Mark. It was, of course, brilliant, and I was tempted to reheat it for today, and maybe I should have done that. But instead, I have decided to do what I have not done before, that is, take on all of Mark’s gospel. So here goes.

Mark’s gospel was written first; it was the original and the source for others. Matthew and Luke came along after, and added all those wonderful parables, and John added the message of love. Mark had a different job. He wanted to get the story out, just put it out there, before the oral tradition petered out.

So, Mark’s gospel is the shortest, just 16 chapters, compared to 21 to 28 for Matthew, Luke, and John. There is no birth of Jesus, no shepherds or wise men like we have in Matthew and Luke. Mark starts out chapter one with Jesus as a mature adult going from Nazareth over to the River Jordan to be baptized.

Out of his 16 chapters, the first ten cover three years of Jesus’ ministry; the last six, the events of Holy Week. The last three start with the chief priests and elders plotting to kill Jesus. The resurrection account is Mark’s briefest chapter, chapter 16, which has just eight verses. Other gospel writers add various Resurrection appearances; Mark gives it eight verses.

So what is the takeaway from reading Mark’s gospel? The author is in a hurry to get to what for him is the point of the story, which is the Crucifixion. Mark rushes through the rest of the narrative – Jesus and his disciples go here and there, and this and that happens – to get to the Cross. Mark’s gospel reads like a crucifixion account with a long introduction.

For Mark, it is the Crucifixion that makes sense out of the Resurrection and gives it meaning. It is the Crucifixion that all the gospels describe in agonizing detail, from the crown of thorns to the sword piercing Jesus’ side.

In honor of Mark, I will focus today on the Crucifixion. I have chosen three of our hymns today that reference the Cross: hymns 498, 474, and 473. Let’s start with the question, why was Jeasus killed? The standard answer is, well, he claimed to be the Son of God. And fair enough; at his trial before the Sanhedrin, blasphemy was the charge.

But there is a problem. If someone were to come to Salisbury today claiming to be the Son of God, we might be put off, or shrug and walk away, or call EMS. But we would probably not kill him. Before we could kill him, someone would have to incite us, get us riled, and bring out the worst in us.

Mark (15:11) says the chief priests and elders “stirred up the crowd” and persuaded them to have Jesus killed. Pilate, the Roman governor, asked them what he should do with this man, and they shouted, “Crucify him!”

Pilate asked the crowd, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him!” So Pilate, wishing to pacify the situation, had Jesus handed over to be crucified. And before that to be spat on, struck, pierced, flogged, mocked and stripped. Finally, at three o’clock, Mark (15:34) says, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

So, who killed Jesus? I get two answers. First, authority. The gospels are clear: the chief priests and elders, the Sanhedrin and Caiaphas, were the instigators. After the cleansing of the temple, according to Mark, they “sought a way to destroy him, for they feared him.” Jesus knew that authority is just another word for power; the authorities knew that he knew it, and they feared him.

The second answer might be, we are all capable of great weakness and cruelty, so we are all guilty. That is the takeaway from all the details about Judas and Pilate and the soldiers, the baying crowd, and the disciples who fled. The point is, we are all capable of deceiving ourselves; of showing cowardice in the face of force; and of doing unspeakable evil.

We are complicit when we let authority figures get us “stirred up”. We are capable of the same deranged mob violence, which is what makes Mark’s account believable and terrifying. Beneath the veneer of our civility lurks a terrible rage waiting to be incited, maybe against people who never did us any harm, sounding a lot like the crowd shouting “Crucify him!”

We are all unjust; we all stand accused. That is the point of the Crucifixion. From his cross, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He included all those standing by and watching, and all of us.

But thankfully that is not the end of the story. The Son of God endured all that suffering and despair and pain and betrayal and confusion and humiliation so that we might be saved.

By his precious death and sacrifice, he paid the price for us; our sins are all forgiven. The Father’s forgiveness is a full pardon. All the stuff that makes us flawed is forever and totally redeemed by his sacrifice.

It gets better. Our redemption by Our Lord Jesus Christ frees us to live a resurrected life. Our Lord’s Resurrection means eternal renewal, newness of life. Everything is reframed by the love of God in the Resurrection, which goes on all the time. In its light, all is made new. It imbues everything and everyone with importance and dignity and grace and beauty.

In chapter 16, Mark says the women brought spices to anoint Jesus’ body. When they got to the tomb, they saw the stone rolled away, and when they entered, a young man in a white robe – in Matthew, it was an angel – told them, “Jesus is not here. He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”

So, what do we say about Mark’s gospel? First, the Crucifixion confirms all our concerns and fears about mankind. They are real and justified and terrifying. And they will be just as real and justified and terrifying tomorrow. But the Resurrection recasts them in a new light.

As Christians we are called to believe a whole set of the craziest, most outrageous claims. We make wild, unfounded, irrational assertions all the time, about the deepest truths. We baselessly claim and hold fast in our belief in God, and that He or She is a God of love.

We claim that in His or Her own good time, God will sort it all out and make all things right and all of us whole; we claim that love wins in the end, and death is conquered, and we are free; our human frailty is gone; we are all God’s creatures and our divisions are overcome, and we don’t have to live in fear. And we believe all this because we have experienced the love of God in Our Lord Jesus Christ.

To borrow from Mark’s angel speaking to the women at the empty tomb, “Jesus is not here. He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”

God be praised. Love your neighbor. Amen.