Summary  The following morning, the Sanhedrin confirms its decision and takes Jesus before Pilate.  He is arraigned before Pilate, Judea's fifth procurator, CE 26-36. Jesus is said to have proclaimed himself king of the Jews, which would have implicated him in a political rebellion. Pilate suspects Jesus' popularity is the real reason for his being arraigned. A Jewish nationalist, Barrabas, is released in accordance with Passover tradition, even though the people have had their choice of Jesus or Barrabas.  Those who have been permitted to be present cry out for the death of Jesus, probably indicated they are a Jerusalem following associated with the Sanhedrin. Jesus is sentenced to crucifixion preceded by scourging. For the claim of king of the Jews, which Jesus has not made, he is mocked by the soldiers in a tradition of the "king" game in which he receives a crown of thorns, a scepter, and a mock robe. Simon of Cyrene carries the cross of Jesus to Golgotha, where he is crucified with two thieves.  The victims are offered the opportunity to have their senses dulled by drugged wine; Jesus refuses the opiate. A written notice of the charge against the victims is written on a banner and placed on the cross: Jesus is said to be King of the Jews.   He is taunted by passers-by.  Jesus, in agony, cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  He is offered wine vinegar and utters, "It is finished." At that moment, the curtain of the temple is reported to have been torn from top to bottom.  A non-commissioned officer in charge confesses that Jesus was indeed the Son of God. This is the climax of the Gospel.  We are told that Mary Magdalene and the mother of James the young look on the crucifixion from afar. Joseph of Armithea, a member of the Council, asks to be allowed to bury Jesus; he, no doubt, has been a sympathizer to the Kingdom of God to come. Joseph wrapped the body of Jesus in linen and laid it in a tomb, with Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus looking on. The traditional tomb closing occurs with a huge stone rolled across the door of the cave.

In Mark 15, divine power pours itself into the world.   Remember, the baptism of Jesus has been marked by the sky's splitting; at his death, the temple veil is torn from top to bottom.  Nothing any less decisive than an epiphany of the nature of Sinai is occurring here.  The light of God comes to rest in that place where heaven and earth seem to come together.  For Moses, this happened on Mount Sinai, where the definitive absolute commandments were revealed by the hand of God.   These commandments have been housed in the ark and carried until a temple is constructed. Recall the history of that ark:

As the years went by this object became ever-more venerated. It symbolized the presence of the living God at one particular spot on earth; for the God who dwelled "in the high and holy place" was also present at the ark in the midst of his people. As a result, later generations embellished descriptions of it in their traditions, seeing it as overlaid with gold both within and without (Exodus 25.10–16). The ark was transportable; it could be carried on poles overlaid with gold, which passed through rings on its side. It was considered to be of such sanctity that were an unauthorized person to touch it, even accidentally, this infraction would be punishable by death (2 Samuel 6.6).

The ark seems at one time to have contained only the two tablets of the law (1 Kings 8.9), but according to other traditions (Hebrews 9.4) it contained also Aaron’s rod that budded (Numbers 17.1–10) and a golden urn holding manna (Exodus 16.32–34).

The history of the ark parallels many of the vicissitudes of Israel. It was carried by the sons of Levi on the wilderness wanderings (Deuteronomy 31.9); borne over the Jordan by the priests (Joshua 8.1); captured by the Philistines (1 Samuel 4); brought to Jerusalem by David (2 Samuel 6; 1 Chronicles 13.3–14; 1 Chronicles 15.1–18). After being kept in a tentlike sanctuary (See Tabernacle), it was finally installed in the holiest chamber of Solomon’s Temple.

The ark had a cover or lid. Its name (Hebr. kapp�ret) is actually a theological term (cf. kipp�r, "to purify, atone"), so we do not know what this cover looked like (Leviticus 16.2; Leviticus 16.13–15). Martin Luther described it in his German Bible as the "mercy seat" because the Lord "sat" enthroned over it in mercy, invisibly present where the wingtips of two cherubim met above it, guarding the divine presence. So the ark represented for Israel the localized presence of God in judgment, mercy, forgiveness, and love; and because it contained the Ten Commandments, it was a visible reminder that their life was to be lived in obedience to the expressed will of God. Since the Ten Commandments were incised on stone so as to last for all time, Israel carried in her midst God’s demands for total loyalty and obedience to himself and for social justice and love of neighbor.

The ark is thought to have been captured when Jerusalem fell in 587/586 BCE, and nothing is known of its later history. Later legend reports that Jeremiah rescued it and hid it on Mount Nebo (2 Maccabees 2.4–8; but cf. Jeremiah 3.16) (Oxford Companion).

What we have in Mark, among other things, is a wonderfully compounded Kingdom of Christ in relation to the Kingdom of David.  Christ is not David's son, but his Lord. There is both continuity and discontinuity between the two kingdoms. Israel had been baptized into Moses in the cloud and sea; later, Paul, who carries the Christian message forward, is to baptize into Christ.  It seems clear that the Christian interpretation of the cross is that the divine has entered into history and turned its course decisively (John Drury in "Mark" in The Literary Guide to the Bible. Eds. Robert Alter and Frank Kermode. Harvard University Press, 1987: 410).

In the concluding chapter of Mark, the tradition of the Jews will have been completely transformed in Jesus as the new temple embraced by the heavenly light of God.  Recall the transfiguration: Moses and Elijah, both men who stand with Jesus have experienced unusual deaths: Moses died alone and was buried by God; Elijah was taken by a fiery chariot directly into divine presence.   Each of these Hebrew heroes had conquered death.  Just as Moses went up Sinai with three intimates (Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu), Jesus at the transfiguration is accompanied by three disciples.  In both cases, we have a cloud, and in both cases, they stayed for forty days. 

Christians came to believe that Jesus was nothing less than the new dwelling place of God, and that Jesus had himself become the ultimate and final sacrifice that rendered additional temple sacrifices irrelevant. They began to argue that Jesushad replaced the temple. This theme grew in intensity when the temple was destroyed in 70 CE. So the idea that the light of God had actually come to rest in Jesus expanded in the tradition (Spong, 79-79).

But what does one come to make of this narrative finally.  As human, the story is poignant: a man dies for his beliefs in the most agonizing way possible.  Even those present at his condemnation find him without evil: 14 Pilate asked them, "Why, what evil has he done?"  What he has proclaimed consistently is a difference between the realized Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Man.  He has seen himself as God and man.  For this blasphemy--even though others before him have claimed themselves one with God--he is condemned and crucified.  Moments prior to death, he asks the agonizing, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  and he dies uttering, "It is finished." He expired.  Then, wonderfully, the temple veil is rent from top to bottom, signaling that God at last has fully revealed Himself and that the entry into the Holy of Holies will always, hence forth, be mortal being to God with no priestly intermediary.  The notion of intermediary itself should be studied.  In Revelation, for example, the finite and infinite are at first separated by a sea of glass; in the end, there will be no more sea between the two realms.

The vision of the eternal is always in the realm of the prophet, a spokesperson for God, a priest, and sometimes a king.  Never before, however, have the three roles come together so decisively in one person. In the person of Jesus, the Son of Man has, indeed, become the Son of God, as proclaimed at the baptism, the transfiguration, and again at the resurrection.