When we remember who he was who was dying amidst the mockery of the world he came to save, we are no longer incredulous about this statement. The "Light of the world" was in darkness, the Savior was refusing to save himself, the King of glory was wearing thorns as his crown, and had ascended the cross as his throne. The event referred to in our text is one of many examples of the deep and secret connection existing between the kingdoms of nature and of grace. We believe that the Invisible created the visible, and still acts upon it, producing now and again transmutations of its energies, though never making a break in their continuity, and that when Christ Jesus came forth from the invisible world there was manifested in him a peculiar communication between these two realms. In him was seen the connection which had so often been indicated in the Divine economy, e.g. a curse had accompanied man's spiritual fall. Promises of temporal good were associated with moral worth. Images drawn from the "desert" and the "trees" and "rivers" by the prophets found their justification in the truth uttered afterwards by St. Paul, "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now," etc. The darkening of the sun was the testimony of Nature to her dying Lord; a hint that creation is dependent on him, that Nature is supported by unseen spiritual powers, and that the fate of the earth is involved in the kingdom of God. It is no meaningless portent described here, but an event which had its teaching both immediate and remote. Consider -

I. THE EFFECTS OF THIS DARKNESS ON THOSE AROUND THE CROSS.

1. This supernatural gloom would increase the solemnity of the event. As the darkness grew denser, silence would fall on the gibing tongues and every noisy laugh would be stilled; and as the gloom deepened into unearthly night over the busy streets, the open fields, and the sacred temple, many would ask themselves, "What meaneth this?" Carelessness and flippant scepticism are always out of place in view of the cross. If the narrative be mythical, it should at least be rejected intelligently and seriously; for, if it be true, it involves stupendous issues to us all.

2. It hid his agony from the onlookers. Faithful friends and, above all, the loving mother stood there till they could bear no more; and God would not suffer them to be tried above bearing, so darkness shrouded the Sufferer. And the foes of our Lord were shut out from a scene too sacred for them to witness. Beyond what was necessary, the well-beloved Son should not be exposed to their brutal jeers.

3. It was an admonition to our Lord's foes. They were readers of Old Testament Scriptures, and knew well how their fathers had been dealt with. They remembered that in the day of their national deliverance darkness had fallen on Jehovah's foes, and had proved the precursor of heavier plagues, and therefore we do not wonder that some went home "beating their breasts," and saying, "What next?" Would that they had turned even then!

II. THE SUGGESTIONS OF THIS DARKNESS TO THE WORLD.

1. It indicated the going out of the world's Light. Jesus had plainly declared, "I am the Light of the world;" "Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you." To some, at least, such words would come back with new meaning and power. To reject Christ is to shut off light from the soul, and become ready for the outer darkness. A Christless world was set forth when the sun was darkened.

2. It suggested the ignorance of the Gentiles and the malignity of the Jews. The soldiers were brutal, yet knew not what they did. Pilate, in political scheming, had lost all sense of righteousness and truth, and so in ignorance delivered Jesus to be crucified. "Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people." On the other hand, the Jews had in themselves the fulfillment of the words, "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not."

3. It reminded the Church of the mystery of the Atonement. The death of the Lord Jesus had a Godward as well as a worldward aspect. It was to attract human love, but at the same time to reveal Divine love. When the darkness passed away, and the sun shone upon the cross, the returning light was like the bow of promise after the Flood - a sign of peace between man and God, and a pledge of "the rainbow round about the throne," in the land where all give thanks to God and to the Lamb that was slain. - A.R.

One thing we know, He was alone; He had reached the climax of that loneliness in which His whole earthly work had been carried on. It is hardly possible for us to understand the nature of the solitude of the life of Christ. "It was not the solitude of the hermit or monk; He ever lived among his fellow men; not the solitude of pride, sullenly refusing all sympathy and aid; not the solitude of selfishness, creating around its icy centre a cold, bleak, barren wilderness; not the solitude of sickly sentimentality, forever crying out that it can find no one to understand or appreciate; but the solitude of a pure, holy, heavenly spirit, into all whose deeper thoughts there was not a single human being near Him, or around Him, who could enter; with all whose deeper feelings there was not one who could sympathize; whose truest, deepest motives, ends, and objects, in living and dying as He did, not one could comprehend. Spiritually, and all throughout, the loneliest man that ever lived was Jesus Christ." (Hanna.) Yet there were times when this loneliness deepened on His soul. Again and again, when in this place or that, "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." But one other stage was reached of yet more utter solitude when, in the darkness of that most mysterious noonday that veiled the scene of Calvary, and in the grossest darkness of unfathomable anguish that enveloped the human soul of Jesus, He trod the winepress of the wrath and justice of God alone, and entered that last stage of solitude in which He could no longer say, "I am not alone, because the Father is with Me," but uttered that hitter cry — a cry from the darkest, deepest, dreariest loneliness into which a pure and holy spirit ever passed — "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" We may in reverence consider three causes which seem to have produced this element of the Sacred Passion. The first cause of this awful desolation was the fact of the accumulated sin of the whole world, from the disobedience of Eden down to the last intention of sin that shall be disturbed by the archangel's trumpet, resting upon one Human Soul, to whom the faintest shadow of sin was intolerable. The second cause was the gathering of the hosts of darkness, vanquished in the wilderness, and in the garden, and in many of the souls they had possessed, but now, rallied and marshalled, and massed for one last supreme effort, hurling them. selves with the fury of despair and hate upon their Vanquisher. The third cause was the hiding of the Father's face. He who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity could not look even upon His beloved Son, when deluged thus in our sin. Beloved, out of the depths of this most bitter woe of the passion of Jesus there comes some solid comfort for us. He endured that utter loneliness that we might never be alone.

(Henry S. Miles, M. A.)

The black mephitic cloud of a world's sin came between God and Christ. Necessarily there was an eclipse of the face of God. An eclipse of the sun is caused, as you are all aware, by that opaque body the moon coming between the earth and it. That preternatural darkness of which we read in the preceding verse, was caused by some thick veil of sulphurous clouds being drawn across the face of the sun — the sun veiling his face, that he might not witness the perpetration of the blackest crime ever perpetrated on even our sin-cursed earth — a crime that made even incarnate nature shudder to its innermost core. So when this opaque body of our sins came between Christ and God, when that dark sulphurous cloud of a world's sins enwrapped the being of Christ like some great funereal pall, necessarily there was an eclipse of the loving face of God, who is light. Necessarily there was, on the part of Christ, spiritual darkness, and desertion, and loneliness — a darkness, and desertion, and loneliness which found expression in the wailing cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

(J. Black.)

What was it that enabled Ignatius, waiting to be thrown to the lions, to say — "Let me be food for the wild beasts, if only God be glorified;" that enabled the aged , the flames lapping his body, to cry — "I thank Thee, O Father, that Thou hast numbered me among the martyrs;" that enabled Latimer, under the same circumstances, to say — "Be of good cheer, Brother Ridley" — What but the feeling of His nearness to them; the thought of His approving smile; and that though they were hated and persecuted by men, they were not forsaken of God. But Christ, in His hour of deepest need — He is robbed of that all and alone sufficient help. When He most needs the presence of God, just then God forsakes Him. Friends! we are here brought face to face with a great mystery. Christ Himself feels that. His words, if they, mean anything, mean that. "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

(J. Black.)

one: —

I. And first, let us not forget that THIS CRY WAS A PANG PUT INTO OLD TESTAMENT WORDS. To be perfectly fair in any consideration of the phase of anguish expressed by them, we must look to the twenty-second Psalm, where the words first of all occur. Let us read a verse or two of the Psalm. Take verses 7, 8, "All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him: let Him deliver him, seeing he delighted in Him;" almost the very cry of the railing passers by. Verse sixteen is yet more remarkable in its application: "They pierced my hands and my feet." Equally so is the eighteenth verse: "They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture." If the Psalm had been written after the occurrences of that day, it might almost have been given as an historical record of them in these particulars. But I want you to think of the possibility — nay, extreme probability — that while our Lord's mind in that dark hour rested upon these portions of the Psalm, it would also recall other portions of it. For mark how from the cry of the twenty-first verse there arises a strong hope: "Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. I will declare Thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee." From these words forth there is no longer any sense of desolation. "For He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath He hid His face from him; but when he cried unto Him, He heard." Now, I say, we ought to remember this in our endeavour to interpret the cry. Heavy enough indeed, with all the suffering it involved, was the hand of God that day as it rested upon the patient Sufferer; and life was ebbing out even while the cry came forth. And yet surely the blessed Saviour was not long bereft of consolation. Did He cling only to the first cry of the Psalm? Was this all? Was there no mounting aloft into the blessed heights of faith and of hope and of praise? I would believe there was; and this, though it may not deprive the scene of all its mysteriousness, helps me somewhat to apprehend its significance, which, as I have already intimated, is about all I thought we could attempt to do — all we purposed to attempt.

II. Next, we will view the words AS THE REVELATION OF A GREAT ANGUISH. And yet, when we began to think a little more about this, Christ's sense of utter desertion and loneliness, in the light especially of His relation to our race as its true head and High Priest; we should find ourselves ready to admit some sort of a congruousness in the fact. For we know that this experience, a sense of God-desertion, is one of the most real of men's troubles. And there seems a fitness in the ordination of the Redemptive scheme which allows a place for this sense of God-desertion in those sufferings by which that Redemption was secured and ratified. So far as we have any knowledge of Christ's inner experience during the years before, we fail to discern any trace of this God-desertion. On the contrary, it was the one sweetness and light of His life, even when He thought and told of the coming desertion of His chosen ones, that still amid all circumstances the Father was with Him. It was not always so in the case of the Old Testament saints and worthies. They had, as we have, intervals, when the clear shining of the Divine face is interfered with, and the summer of the soul ceases awhile. When God is nigh, when we feel able to say, "The Lord is at my right hand," we can add, "I shall not be greatly moved." But up comes the mist from the rolling sea of passion and self-will and pride and human weaknesses, and we find that the light of our life is awhile quenched. Many days we may have lost sight of land and sun and star, and God appears to hide Himself, until the soul cries out passionately, "Where is thy God — where?" And the tempter echoes and re-echoes the dreary desolate cry, "Where, ah, where indeed?" And anyone who has ever found himself in such darkness knows that it is most profound; he who has felt such a distance between God and him knows it is most terrible and dreary. He who perfectly fulfilled the Eternal Will, and who was at that very moment fulfilling its more mysterious ordinations, cannot wholly escape this bitterness. And yet, I say, never was Christ more truly fulfilling the Divine Will than now. Never was the Father more delighted in the blessed Son than now. Why, it was the suffering of a perfect sacrifice. It was a true self offering. If Christ had been dragged to this tree against His will, if Christ had tried to escape from the hands of his tormentors, it would have been different. O, my brethren, instead of trying to build upon this cry of the Saviour's any strange theory, let us rather think how much of real and abiding comfort we may draw from it. You and I may often have had to pass through the gloomy way unrelieved by any of heaven's sunshine. It may seem to us that everything has conspired against us, and that the very heavens are sealed against our cry. Our prayers may seem to return to us unanswered. All may appear to be lost, even God. Let us but at such moments look at the blessed Christ. Let us think how God put His best beloved One through the hottest fires and the most searching tests. He knew once what it was to have the heavens above Him darkened. And yet the Eternal Father loved Him. May He not love you too?

III. And now we come to these words from another point of view. We have seen in them the utterance of a great anguish; let us look at them as the expression of A CLINGING FAITH AND LOVE. You will perceive why we called attention to the twenty-second Psalm. That Psalm shows us one who felt himself forsaken, and who was by no means actually forsaken; and the words used by Christ may serve also to show us how very close Christ was to the Eternal heart when He uttered them. "My God" — O, if we can only say this, "My God." It matters little what we may say afterward. If we can only say "My God," the darkness will not long brood upon our souls. They are words of faith and love, which, when truly spoken, must bring in the daylight. In the battle of the Christian faith and life, the victory is more than half won when we can say, "My God." No soul that is lost can say, "My God." I turn again to the real comfort wrapped up within the very words which expressed the Saviour's agony. How often is this the case. The very words by which we express our sorrow, our trouble, are themselves often charged with deep and true solace and refreshment. We know not how long this cloud rested over the Saviour. I do not think it could be for long. Presently, we know, the Father was looking upon Him with shining, unveiled face; for calmly and restfully He breathed forth the dying sigh of thousands since, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit."

(C. J. Proctor, B. A.)

This Scripture leads our thoughts to the desolation of our Jesus; to inquiry after the cause; and to the exclamation that passed from His lips, through the intense suffering of His heart.

I. FIRST, THE DESOLATION OF JESUS. It was not unforeseen. With regard to the desolation of Him, whose love undertook our cause; that we may understand the meaning of the term He used, it becomes us to enter on a clear, a Scriptural view of His person, and of the intimate relation which subsisted between the Father and Himself. He was emphatically "the Word," that was "in the beginning," eternal, before all time, before the glowing sun came forth from his chamber, as a bridegroom, and rejoiced as a giant to run his course. He "was with God" — distinct in His Person; and He "was God" — self-existent in nature or essence. "All things were made by Him;" then He is the mighty Creator of the universe, of which we form an insignificant part; and "without Him was not anything made that was made." As to the nature, then, of this forsaking, of which the lips of Jesus utter lamentation, it is clear, to him who receives the word of Scripture in simplicity, that there was no desertion of His humanity by the Word. This Eternal Word took His human flesh and reasonable soul into union with itself; and that union was never dissolved. By this oneness, the body never saw corruption, although, after death, it was laid in Joseph's tomb: nor was it separated from the reasonable soul in Paradise. By this Godhead body and soul were reunited on the morning of the Resurrection; that union is preserved to the present, and will be after that wondrous prediction shall be accomplished, that all things having been subdued unto Him, the Son, the Mediator, the ancient Daysman, shall Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him; that God may be all in all. We are instructed likewise by Holy Scripture, as to the nature of that intimate and mysterious relationship that subsisted between the Father and the Son, co-equal, co-eternal. What testimony can be plainer than the words of Christ Jesus, written in St. John 10:37, 38? "If I do not," says He, "the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do, though ye believe not Me, behove the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in Me, and I in Him." He entreats, with an earnestness His own, that all the children of faith may be one: as "Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us." If the Word forsook not the humanity, it follows that the Father essentially deserted not the same, because the Father and the Son are One in nature, eternally, inseparably. Hence, then, the question, What are we to understand by the complaint of being forsaken? That He was bereft of the countenance, the comforts, the consolations of the Father, in which He had rejoiced.

II. WE HAVE VIEWED THE FIRST PART OF OUR SUBJECT, NAMELY, CHRIST FORSAKEN; AND COME TO THE CAUSE, WHICH WAS ASKED BY HIS LIPS. The Father gives the answer to this interrogation — "Why?" Because you have become the Bondsman of sinners, have consented to stand in their stead; therefore, as at your hands, I look for a continual and perfect obedience to the law in its exceeding breadth, so, in your person, I exact the penalty to its utmost tittle." Here Isaiah, who seems to look upon the scene before us: "the Lord hath lain on Him the iniquity of us all." Be attentive to Paul: "He made Him to be sin for us," therefore to bleed and die, "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Little did the Jews imagine, when they exulted in the ignominy of Jesus, who was without sin, and lived without guile, that in gratifying their malice, they were but dealing the second blow; that the first was dealt by a secret, powerful, invisible hand; yet such was the fact, according to the testimony of prophets and apostles. St. Peter, addressing the men of Israel at Jerusalem concerning Israel, says, "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" — there is the secret purpose — "ye have taken, and by wicked hands crucified and slain;" there is the resulting blow. In a Psalm of the passion (Psalms 69:26) we read, "They persecute Him" (the second blow), "whom Thou hast smitten" (the first stroke), "and they talk to the grief of those whom Thou hast wounded." That secret blow was the fruit of sin, which covered perfect innocence with confusion. Thus Jesus speaks, in the seventh verse, "Shame hath covered My face." "Why?" As there was no impatience under the blow, there was no ignorance of the cause. Jesus asks, not for knowledge, but to call our notice to the fearful cause. Himself gives the answer, as me have it in the Vulgate. "Far from My deliverance is the matter of My sins."

III. THIRDLY, WE LOOK AT THE EXCLAMATION THAT PASSED THROUGH HIS LIPS, ARISING FROM THE INTENSE SUFFERING OF THE HEART. Jesus at this time does not simply speak; and who can imagine the bitterness of that cry — it pierced the heavens — He cried — "He cried with a loud voice." It before was the sweet word "Father," but not so now. Is He forsaken? why should we wonder at the hiding of Heaven's countenance? Jesus in His agony, inquires, "Why?" Is it not our wisdom to say, "Is there not a cause?" — to search it out and expose our sore to the pitying eye of a Father? Jesus was made desolate by that Father, that we might be supported, comforted, delivered. Jesus instructs us for a dying hour: He turns from creatures, and occupies Himself with God. Be this our happiness, as it is our privilege; and when heart and flesh both fail, the Lord will be the strength of our heart, and our portion forever.

(Thomas Ward, M. A.)

Alexander, Barabbas, Elias, Elijah, James, Jesus, Joseph, Joses, Mary, Pilate, Rufus, Salome, SimonArimathea, Cyrene, Galilee, Golgotha, Jerusalem, Place of the SkullCried, Elohi, Eloi, E'lo-i, Eloieloi, Forsake, Forsaken, Hast, Hour, Interpreted, Lama, La'ma, Lamalama, Lamma, Loud, Ninth, O'clock, Sabachthani, Sabach-tha'ni, Sabachthanisabachthani, Sabacthani, Saying, Translated, Voice1. Jesus brought bound, and accused before Pilate.
6. Upon the clamor of the people, the murderer Barabbas is released,
12. and Jesus delivered up to be crucified.
16. He is crowned with thorns, spit on, and mocked;
21. faints in bearing his cross;
27. hangs between two thieves;
29. suffers the triumphing reproaches of the crowd;
39. but is confessed by the centurion to be the Son of God;
42. and is honorably buried by Joseph.

Mark 15:34

     1511   Trinity, relationships in
     2054   Christ, mind of
     2333   Christ, attitude to OT
     2360   Christ, prayers of
     2366   Christ, prophecies concerning
     2570   Christ, suffering
     5196   voice
     5374   languages
     5561   suffering, nature of
     5564   suffering, of Christ
     5770   abandonment
     5831   depression
     6109   alienation
     6233   rejection, experience
     8330   receptiveness
     8341   separation
     8615   prayer, doubts
     8763   forgetting

Mark 15:25-37

     1680   types

Mark 15:29-34

     2525   Christ, cross of
     5901   loneliness

Mark 15:29-37

     2412   cross, accounts of

Mark 15:33-34

     1653   numbers, 6-10
     4948   hour

Mark 15:33-36

     4514   stick

Mark 15:33-37

     5338   holiday

Simon the Cyrenian
'And they compel one Simon, a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear His Cross.'--Mark xv. 21. How little these soldiers knew that they were making this man immortal! What a strange fate that is which has befallen chose persons in the Gospel narrative, who for an instant came into contact with Jesus Christ. Like ships passing athwart the white ghostlike splendour of moonlight on the sea, they gleam silvery pure for a moment as they cross its …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Christ and Pilate: the True King and his Counterfeit
'And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried Him away, and delivered Him to Pilate. 2. And Pilate asked Him, Art Thou the King of the Jews? And He answering said unto him, Thou sayest it. 3. And the chief priests accused Him of many things: but He answered nothing. 4. And Pilate asked Him again, saying, Answerest Thou nothing? behold how many things they witness against Thee. 6. But Jesus yet …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Death which Gives Life
'And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear His cross. 22. And they bring Him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull. 23. And they gave Him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but He received it not. 24. And when they had crucified Him, they parted His garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take. 25. And it was the third hour, and they crucified Him. 26. And the superscription …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Dying Saviour Our Example.
(On Good Friday.) TEXT: MARK xv. 34-41. HEAVENLY Father! On all who are assembling to day to commemorate the death of the Holy One, in whom Thou wast well pleased, look graciously down! Let not one go away from the cross of Thy Well-beloved without exclaiming, with new, living faith, Truly this was the Son of God! Let not one wipe away his tears of emotion until the heartfelt desire has taken possession of him that his end may be like that of this righteous One! Let not the feeling of holy reverence …
Friedrich Schleiermacher—Selected Sermons of Schleiermacher

The Centurion at the Cross.
MATT. XXVII. 54. Comp. MARK XV. 39. "Now, when the centurion, and they that were with him watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying: Truly this was the [a] Son of God." LUKE XXIII. 47. "Now, when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying: Certainly this was a righteous man." Note.--The centurion here spoken of is the one who, according to Roman custom, presided over the execution (hence called by Seneca centurio supplicio præpositus; …
Philip Schaff—The Person of Christ

Joseph of Arimathea
BY REV. ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D.. LL.B. "Joseph of Arimathea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God."--MARK xv. 43. The crucifixion of our Lord produced strange and startling effects in moral experience, as well as in the physical world. The veil of the Temple was rent from top to bottom as if a hand from heaven had torn it, in order to teach men that the ancient ritual was done with. Darkness covered the earth, suggesting to thoughtful minds the guilt of the world and …
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

"Himself He could not Save. " --Mark xv. 31
"Himself He could not save."--Mark xv. 31. "He saved others," scorners cried, Beholding Jesus crucified; "Is this the Son of God with power? Lo, in His own afflictive hour, Himself he cannot save." He was the Son of God with power, He "came unto that very hour;" I'll joy in His reproach and shame, "He savest others;" I'll exclaim, "Himself He could not save." His agony and bloody sweat, His cross and passion paid my debt; He saved others when he fell, Yet,--who the mystery can tell? Himself, He …
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns

Whether Christ was Buried in a Becoming Manner?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ was buried in an unbecoming manner. For His burial should be in keeping with His death. But Christ underwent a most shameful death, according to Wis. 2:20: "Let us condemn Him to a most shameful death." It seems therefore unbecoming for honorable burial to be accorded to Christ, inasmuch as He was buried by men of position---namely, by Joseph of Arimathea, who was "a noble counselor," to use Mark's expression (Mk. 15:43), and by Nicodemus, who was "a ruler of …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

H. The Crucifixion. Ch. 23:26-38
26 And when they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, and laid on him the cross, to bear it after Jesus. 27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people, and of women who bewailed and lamented him. 28 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming, in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the …
Charles R. Erdman—The Gospel of Luke, An Exposition

Pilate
"And straightway in the morning the chief priests with the elders and scribes, and the whole council, held a consultation, and bound Jesus, and carried Him away, and delivered Him up to Pilate." ". . . And they lead Him out to crucify Him." MARK 15:1-20 (R.V.) WITH morning came the formal assembly, which St. Mark dismisses in a single verse. It was indeed a disgraceful mockery. Before the trial began its members had prejudged the case, passed sentence by anticipation, and abandoned Jesus, as one …
G. A. Chadwick—The Gospel of St. Mark

Christ Crucified
"And they compel one passing by, Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to go with them, that he might bear His cross. And they bring Him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull. And they offered Him wine mingled with myrrh: but He received it not. And they crucify Him, and part His garments among them, casting lots upon them, what each should take. And it was the third hour, and they crucified Him. And the superscription of …
G. A. Chadwick—The Gospel of St. Mark

The Death of Jesus
"And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 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? And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, He calleth Elijah. 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. And Jesus …
G. A. Chadwick—The Gospel of St. Mark

Part 1 Christ's Humiliation, Exaltation, and Triumph. Phil. 2:8,9; Mark 15:20,24,29; Col. 2:15
Christ's humiliation, exaltation, and triumph. Phil. 2:8,9; Mark 15:20,24,29; Col. 2:15. The mighty frame of glorious grace, That brightest monument of praise That e'er the God of love designed, Employs and fills my lab'ring mind. Begin, my soul, the heav'nly song, A burden for an angel's tongue: When Gabriel sounds these awful things, He tunes and summons all his stungs. Proclaim inimitable love: Jesus, the Lord of worlds above, Puts off the beams of bright array, And veils the God in mortal …
Isaac Watts—The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts

The Fourth Word
"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani."--ST. MATT. XXVII. 46; ST. MARK XV. 34. There are three peculiar and distinguishing features of this fourth word which our Saviour uttered from His Cross. 1. It is the only one of the Seven which finds a place in the earliest record of our Lord's life, contained in the matter common to St. Matthew and St. Mark. 2. It is the only one which has been preserved to us in the original Aramaic, in the very syllables which were formed by the lips of Christ. 3. It is the …
J. H. Beibitz—Gloria Crucis

The Shortest of the Seven Cries
As these seven sayings were so faithfully recorded, we do not wonder that they have frequently been the subject of devout meditation. Fathers and confessors, preachers and divines have delighted to dwell upon every syllable of these matchless cries. These solemn sentences have shone like the seven golden candlesticks or the seven stars of the Apocalypse, and have lighted multitudes of men to him who spake them. Thoughtful men have drawn a wealth of meaning from them, and in so doing have arranged …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 24: 1878

Third Stage of Jewish Trial. Jesus Formally Condemned by the Sanhedrin and Led to Pilate.
(Jerusalem. Friday After Dawn.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 1, 2; ^B Mark XV. 1; ^C Luke XXII. 66-23:1; ^D John XVIII. 28. ^a 1 Now when morning was come, ^c 66 And as soon as it was day, ^b straightway ^c the assembly of the elders of the people was gathered together, both chief priests and scribes; and they led him away into their council, ^a all the chief priests and { ^b with} the elders ^a of the people ^b and scribes, and the whole council, held a consultation, and ^a took counsel against Jesus to put …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

First Stage of the Roman Trial. Jesus Before Pilate for the First Time.
(Jerusalem. Early Friday Morning.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 11-14; ^B Mark XV. 2-5; ^C Luke XXIII. 2-5; ^D John XVIII. 28-38. ^d and they themselves entered not into the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled, but might eat the passover. [See p. 641.] 29 Pilate therefore went out unto them, and saith, What accusation bring ye against this man? 30 They answered and said unto him, If this man were not an evildoer, we should not have delivered him up unto thee. [The Jewish rulers first attempt to induce …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Third Stage of the Roman Trial. Pilate Reluctantly Sentences Him to Crucifixion.
(Friday. Toward Sunrise.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 15-30; ^B Mark XV. 6-19; ^C Luke XXIII. 13-25; ^D John XVIII. 39-XIX 16. ^a 15 Now at the feast [the passover and unleavened bread] the governor was wont { ^b used to} release unto them ^a the multitude one prisoner, whom they would. { ^b whom they asked of him.} [No one knows when or by whom this custom was introduced, but similar customs were not unknown elsewhere, both the Greeks and Romans being wont to bestow special honor upon certain occasions by releasing …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Crucifixion.
Subdivision A. On the Way to the Cross. (Within and Without Jerusalem. Friday Morning.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 31-34; ^B Mark XV. 20-23; ^C Luke XXIII. 26-33; ^D John XIX. 17. ^a 31 And when they had mocked him, they took off from him the ^b purple, ^a robe, and put on him his garments [This ended the mockery, which seems to have been begun in a state of levity, but which ended in gross indecency and violence. When we think of him who endured it all, we can not contemplate the scene without a shudder. Who …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Morning of Good Friday.
The pale grey light had passed into that of early morning, when the Sanhedrists once more assembled in the Palace of Caiaphas. [5969] A comparison with the terms in which they who had formed the gathering of the previous night are described will convey the impression, that the number of those present was now increased, and that they who now came belonged to the wisest and most influential of the Council. It is not unreasonable to suppose, that some who would not take part in deliberations which were …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Crucified, Dead, and Buried. '
It matters little as regards their guilt, whether, pressing the language of St. John, [6034] we are to understand that Pilate delivered Jesus to the Jews to be crucified, or, as we rather infer, to his own soldiers. This was the common practice, and it accords both with the Governor's former taunt to the Jews, [6035] and with the after-notice of the Synoptists. They, to whom He was delivered,' led Him away to be crucified:' and they who so led Him forth compelled' the Cyrenian Simon to bear the Cross. …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Death of Jesus.
Although the real motive for the death of Jesus was entirely religious, his enemies had succeeded, in the judgment-hall, in representing him as guilty of treason against the state; they could not have obtained from the sceptical Pilate a condemnation simply on the ground of heterodoxy. Consistently with this idea, the priests demanded, through the people, the crucifixion of Jesus. This punishment was not Jewish in its origin; if the condemnation of Jesus had been purely Mosaic, he would have been …
Ernest Renan—The Life of Jesus

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