This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to seeing
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see what’s
happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his gospel.

Let’s jump in.

Jesus is hung on the cross.

Jesus cries out some words from Psalm 22
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

The crowd misunderstand and thinks
he’s calling for Elijah to save him.

Waiting to see if Elijah will take him down,
they offer him sour wine on the end of a stick.

Jesus cries, gives one
final breath, and dies.

Immediately, the curtain in the temple
is torn from top to bottom.

The centurion overseeing
Jesus’ execution becomes

the first person in Mark to
identify Jesus as the Son of God.

As he dies, a group of female
disciples watch from a distance.

One of the religious leaders, Joseph of
Arimathea, asks Pilate for the body of Jesus.

Although the Romans usually leave the
deceased bodies of criminals as a warning,

Pilate grants Joseph’s request so that
Jesus can be buried before the Sabbath.

The women come to the tomb after
the Sabbath to embalm Jesus’ body.

However, when they
arrive, the tomb is empty.

An angel tells them to not be afraid
because Jesus has risen from the dead,

and they should go and
tell the other disciples.

The women are frightened, run away,
and say nothing.

And that’s how the Gospel
of Mark abruptly ends.

Jesus was separated and forsaken by
God so that we would never have to be.

Mark’s Gospel records two things that “tear”—
the heavens above Jesus at his baptism,

and the curtain in the
temple at Jesus’ death.

The temple contained two curtains: one that
separated God’s presence from the rest of the temple,

and another that separated Gentiles and women
from where only Jewish men could worship.

Although Mark doesn’t tell us which curtain
tore, he tells us that a Gentile is the first person

to confess Jesus as the Son of God and women
are the first witnesses of his resurrection.

When the curtain tore, it was a symbol that
the death of Jesus granted access for all
people to come into God’s presence.

But why does Mark end so suddenly?

Mark ends with the women, who
traveled with Jesus from the beginning,

running away from the tomb
in fear and telling no one.

This ending is
supposed to shock us.

Its goal is to make us ask
“Who is Jesus to me?”

Like the centurion, do we see
Jesus as the exalted Son of God?

Or like the women, do we not
know what to think and tell no one?

Mark leaves his gospel open-ended so that
each of us might gauge our own response to

the works of Jesus’ life recorded
in Mark and the empty tomb.

So, who is Jesus, to you?

May the Holy Spirit open your eyes to see
the God who is more powerful than death.

And may you see Jesus as the one
who was forsaken so you might never be.