Mark 15:33-39 33And when it was the sixth hour, darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which when translated means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 35And some of the bystanders when they heard it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” 36And someone after running filled a sponge with sour wine, after putting it on a reed gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see if Elijah will come to take him down.” 37And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.
Mark gives a clear time indicator of the following events. The sixth hour was 12pm noon in Roman clock. Jesus had been hanging on the cross now for about three hours. The heat of the day had come, and Jesus’ previous injuries had taken their toll on him. The occurrence of darkness at noon cannot be accounted for naturally. Solar eclipses last only minutes. Plus, it was also the rainy season, making dust storms unlikely. The darkness represents the sadness and weight of what was happening on Golgotha. Nature itself cried out at the death of its creator and sustainer.
At noon, Jesus cried out quoting from Psalm 22:1. Verse 34 is one of the rare places in the New Testament where we have Jesus’ actual Aramaic words. Aramaic was the common language of Israel and Galilee of the time. It is similar to Hebrew, sharing many of the same root words. It evolved during the Babylonian and Persian Empires and because the common language of the Jews of Jesus’ day. Mark’s readers would not have known Aramaic, so he provides the Greek translation. Some of those standing around probably either did not hear Jesus clearly or did not know Aramaic well, for example, the Roman soldiers. The Aramaic for My God sounds similar to the name Elijah (Eli).
Psalm 22 lies behind much of what happens with Jesus on the cross. What did Jesus mean by quoting from this psalm? Obviously Jesus had in his mind this psalm. This psalm is a cry to God for help at the mockery and abuse of people, much like Jesus was experiencing. It ends with confidence that the good word about God will go out to the nations. Jesus knew that his Heavenly Father had not abandoned or forsaken him but that through his death, the nations would come to praise God. The unbelieving world cannot understand the reason and necessity for Jesus’ suffering and death, but through these, the world will be changed as people come to know and experience the depths of God’s love.
The mockery continues in verse 36 as someone runs to fill a sponge with vinegar. The gall could have served as a mild sedative if taken in large quantities and probably did not take good, especially on a sponge. The could be viewed either as an act of compassion or an extension of the cruelty. The Jews had the popular belief that Elijah would come back because he never died but was taken up to heaven, based on the story in 2 Kings 2:11. Those standing around made some mental connections, and since they were thinking Jesus was calling for Elijah, they taunted Jesus about Elijah coming back to rescue him.
The words of verse 37 shook eternity with the last breath of Jesus. He had fulfilled the mission he had come to do by dying for the sins of the world. Mark does not record what Jesus said or if it was just a loud cry. The other Gospels record other last words of Jesus (Luke 23:46; John 19:30). Mark and other Gospel writers do not get much into the theology of Jesus’ death as we see Paul, Peter, and John do in their epistles. Mark’s focus is more on discipleship and the call to recognize Jesus’ power and authority as the Son of God. Mark does a wonderful job of describing the scene is a simple way that helps the reader know the suffering of Jesus but not with all the details that draw our attention away from the call to believe in Jesus. The question echoes from 8:29: “Who do you say that I am?”
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