o Gethsemane was an olive grove.

o Jesus was terrified with the thought of death but he was still prepared to do it.

o Jesus calls God ‘Abba’ in prayer which means ‘daddy’ - Jews did not use it because it was too informal. Early Christians used it in their worship.

o The disciples abandon Jesus - they do not see him again until he rises from the dead.

o The young man who runs away may have been an eyewitness who Mark knew, or even mark himself.

o Christian remember the Last supper and these events on Maundy Thursday.

The members of the Sanhedrin (Jewish council) meet in the morning to confirm their plans. Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor (‘procurator’ or ‘prefect’) of Judea. Jesus is condemned as the Messiah. This is translated as ‘king of the Jews’ for Pilate’s benefit: the crime is treason against Rome, the Jewish authorities cannot have him executed for a religious charge. The tradition of a Passover amnesty - the release of a prisoner. Mark’s aim in this is to show that even though Pilate was a coward it was not he but the Jewish authorities who were to blame. It might also have been wise to make out that Pilate was not responsible as Christianity was spreading throughout the Roman Empire and Christians did not want to cause friction. Jesus’ suffering is emphasised - he is a king even though the soldiers ridicule him.

o Simon helps Jesus because he is now too weak to carry the cross. Simon’s sons are mentioned which implies that they were known to Mark’s church. (Simon could therefore be an eyewitness.

o Golgotha is Aramaic for ‘place of the skull’. We are now not certain of the site.

o Jesus refuses a painkiller (Wine mixed with myrrh)

o The execution squad is entitled to the condemned man’s clothes. They throw dice for them.

o The notice above the cross is the charge. It may have been to frighten off would be messiahs or Pilate may have intended to insult the Jewish authorities. It highlights that Jesus was executed as the Messiah.

o Even at his death Jesus is with outcasts - the two bandits.

o The jeering of passers by misses the point - if he is to be the Messiah he must stay and die on the cross - not come down from it.

o The darkness may have been a thunderstorm or a dust storm. Mark is trying to show that God’s hand is at work. Amos the OT prophet predicted that God would make the sun ‘go down at noon.’

o ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani’ means: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ This may highlight Jesus’ intense suffering - even he feels he has been abandoned by God. People miss hear him say Elijah. the wine is perhaps a half sick joking experiment.

When Jesus died the temple curtain tore in two. The curtain separated the Holy of Holies, the most sacred part of the temple, from the rest of the building. This detail may mean one of three important things:

1. The Temple will be destroyed (as it was in AD70 by Rome)

2. The barrier of sin which separates God from people has been destroyed by Jesus’ death

3. The temple is no longer the place to find God. God is now to be found in Jesus.

o Jewish burial customs were strict, the Romans respected this, the body had to be buried on the day the person died. It was especially urgent and the next day was the Sabbath and burying someone counted as work.

The original text of St Mark (which ends at verse 8) records the resurrection by does not record any appearances of the risen Jesus to the disciples. the women who Jesus appeared to were terrified, this is the type of fear that the disciples felt when Jesus calmed the storm or when God gave Moses the ten commandments. It was the way people sometimes reacted when God was at work.

o Christians remember Jesus’ resurrection on Easter day, and on every Sunday. The resurrection has always been at the heart of Christianity. It was and is vitally important:

1. It showed that God approved of Jesus.

2. It showed that Jesus was who he said he was.

3. It was God’s new saving act. The crucifixion makes no sense without the resurrection. Jesus took away the sins of the world on the cross, and offers people a new life with his resurrection.

4. It shows that death is not the end, God raised Jesus to life and he will raise people to life as well.

o The first Christians thought it was as many died for that belief. It would be had to understand why they were willing to die if they had not really believed it. St Paul mentions that there were people still alive who were eye witnesses to his resurrection. The disciples genuinely believed they had seen the risen Jesus.

o The disciples would not have been willing to die if they had made it up or they had stolen the body.

o It could not have been an hallucination as so many claimed to see Jesus

o Some say Jesus might have survived the crucifixion but this is impossible as the Romans were very thorough when executing people.