A biblical reading of Christ’s self‑emptying in Mark 15 (NRSV)
One of the main interpretive keys to the Gospel according to Mark is its very first verse, an incomplete sentence that reads almost like a title for the entire work: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
Mark places the emphasis on two titles: Christ and Son of God. Peter will be the first human to confess Jesus as the Christ (Mark 8:29). But he understands this title in the traditional Jewish sense: a royal liberator who would free Israel from Roman occupation. This becomes immediately clear when he rejects Jesus’s first prediction of his death (Mark 8:31–33). His reaction shows that he had not yet grasped the true meaning of Jesus’s identity — a meaning that will only become clear after the cross. The Roman centurion, by contrast, will be the first to confess Jesus as the Son of God — but only after witnessing the way Jesus dies (Mark 15:39). For Mark, the cross is the moment when Jesus’s true identity becomes visible.
The Disciples’ Inability to Understand Jesus
Throughout the Gospel, the disciples follow Jesus, hear his teaching, receive private explanations about the mystery of the kingdom, witness his mighty acts, and even share in his authority. Yet they repeatedly fail to understand him. Their hearts are hardened, their perception clouded, their expectations shaped by human categories rather than divine ones.
Their blindness becomes even more apparent in their reactions to Jesus’s predictions of his Passion. After the first, Peter rebukes him. After the second, they argue about who is the greatest. After the third, James and John ask for seats of honor. Even at the Last Supper, when Jesus tells them they will all fall away, they insist they will remain faithful — only to abandon him hours later.
Thus Jesus arrives at the cross alone, abandoned by everyone, at the mercy of his captors.
The Death of Jesus as Radical Self‑Emptying
At Golgotha, Jesus is mocked by passersby, by the chief priests and scribes, and even by those crucified with him. In Jewish thought, God does not abandon his messengers; Psalm 22 and the Book of Wisdom express this conviction clearly. Yet no divine intervention occurs — except for a cosmic sign of judgment: darkness at noon (Mark 15:33), echoing the prophecy of Amos.
After three hours of silence, Jesus cries out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Mark intends to show Jesus in his full humanity, dying in utter desolation, abandoned by all, even — it seems — by his Father. Yet he remains in dialogue with him, calling him My God.
The Tearing of the Veil: Revelation from the Abyss
It is from this abyssal point that the light of revelation bursts forth:
“And the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two, from top to bottom.” (Mark 15:38)
The sanctuary (naos) was the Holy of Holies, the place of divine presence, accessible only to the high priest once a year. Its tearing signifies the end of its separating function: nothing now separates God from the people. It also signifies the end of the sacrificial system, since without its veil the sanctuary becomes unusable.
Mark uses the verb schizô (“to tear”) only twice: here, and at Jesus’s baptism, when “the heavens were torn apart” (Mark 1:10). What opens can close; what is torn remains open forever. With the coming of the Son, nothing separates earth from heaven. With his death, nothing separates humanity from God.
With these two tearings, Mark frames the entire ministry of Jesus between an opening of heaven and an opening of the sanctuary.
Both tearings are followed by a declaration of Jesus’s identity:
- At the baptism, the Father proclaims him as his beloved Son.
- At the cross, the Church — represented by the centurion — confesses him as the Son of God.
But the centurion recognizes Jesus not because of the tearing of the veil. Mark writes: “When the centurion saw that in this way he breathed his last…” (Mark 15:39). Jesus had just breathed his last with a loud cry of abandonment. It is because he died in this way, forsaken by all, that his identity as Son was revealed — for at the same time, the image of the Father was revealed.
What the Cross Reveals about the Father
In the Old Testament, darkness at noon is a sign of divine anger and impending judgment. Amos announces that God will darken the earth in broad daylight as a manifestation of his wrath (Amos 8:9–10). In Jewish thought, God protects his faithful and punishes their enemies. Yet in Mark, although darkness covers the land at noon, no punishment falls on those who crucify Jesus. The expected divine vengeance does not materialize.
This silence reveals the true face of the Father. He is not the Lord who treats his subjects according to their faithfulness, but the Father who loves all his children, both the righteous and the sinners. He is not a vengeful or retributive Lord, but a loving and merciful Father — one who respects human freedom, even that of those who torture his beloved Son.
The tearing of the sanctuary’s veil confirms this revelation. The Holy of Holies was the place from which God exercised his justice, accessible only to the high priest once a year through the sacrificial system that made forgiveness possible. With the veil torn, that entire system becomes obsolete. Forgiveness no longer flows from the sanctuary but from the cross — the place of total rejection — revealing that God’s mercy is free, infinite, and offered to all without condition.
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (Mark 12:10).
Conclusion
The cross does not reveal a God who demands violence before forgiving.
It reveals a Father who respects human freedom, who loves without condition, and who manifests his justice not through retribution but through mercy.
It reveals a Son who empties himself completely, who dies in utter humanity, and who is exalted precisely in that moment of abandonment.
This is the good news according to Mark:
the cross is the place where the true face of God becomes visible.
This article is adapted from a chapter of my book Questions and Misconceptions about the Bible, published by WestBow Press in March 2026. The book develops related questions on sacrifice, forgiveness, judgment, and the image of God revealed by Jesus.