The Gospel According to Mark

1.) The pericope which I a m working on is Mark 15:33-38. My first impression of this pericope was the despair which is found in it through the description “darkness came over the whole land” and also Jesus’ words “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”  Also, what struck me, was the identity of Jesus not being seen by some who do not understand what Jesus is saying, and then the Roman soldiers understanding of Jesus’ relationship to God “Truly this man was God’s Son.” Also, the description of the temple curtain being torn in two at the moment Jesus died was very significant , especially since the author made it a point to write “from top to bottom.”

2.) I was having trouble uploading the picture that I drew so I will describe it and bring it to class tomorrow.  As I read this as I mentioned earlier, what struck me the most was how the author describes the loneliness that Jesus was feeling on the cross.  This feeling stuck with me after I read the passage. When I drew my picture, this loneliness is what I focused on. In the drawing Jesus is on the cross with no one around him and the sky darkened as in the passage. When I was reading this passage and drawing the picture, I thought about how many times in my life I have drawn comfort from this passage knowing that in my times of trials and durning my valley experiences, I know that Jesus felt the same thing in his life and through this I find strength through him and his life.

3.) When I spoke this pericope a few times out loud there were certain verses that stood out as important and were ones that I thought needed to be emphasized. The first was the “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” When I read this passage out loud, I did so slowly and in a somber way trying to present the feelings which the author is trying to get across through this passage. The second was verse 37 “Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.” This I also read slowly and in a somber way because it is the defining moment in Marks Gospel. The moment when the suffering Messiah and Son of God dies.  The thrid verse which I found very important was verse 38. It was important to read this verse with pauses to emphasize that with Jesus death, symbolically shown here, we see the relationship that Jesus has with God and which we also have. The last verse I read with pauses and more dramatically because it emphasizes the Son of God aspect of Jesus which was an important theme in Mark’s Gospel and which is an important theme in the relationship between Jesus and God.

4.) My understanding of the pericope and my impressions of it have changed after these experiences. I now see the importance of each verse and have gone over the significance of each one in relationship to Jesus, the pericope itself and the Gospel of Mark as a whole. Also, it helped reading the book which I was assigned on Mark and then looking at the pericope in light of that reading. Putting it all together really helped me have a deeper understanding of the pericope as a whole.