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Mark Looks at the Cross

I was reading the account in Mark's Gospel of Christ's crucifixion.  In this account Mark emphasizes the rejection of Jesus by those who encounter the cross.  Those who pass by wag their heads and rebuke Jesus for his statement about destroying the temple.  The Chief Priests and the scribes joke among themselves that he could save others but not himself.  When he cries out in agony that the Father has forsaken him, the religious leaders have no sympathy.  Even the thieves are mocking Jesus.

The one exception in Mark's account comes immediately after Christ dies.  The centurion in charge of the execution squad watches Jesus die and then proclaims, "Surely this was the Son of God."  How odd.  The religious Jews who should have recognized the Messiah from the Old Testament Scriptures can only mock.  It is only a trained Gentile killer who understands what has just happened on that cross.

Yet, when I really think it through, it really isn't that odd.  God's grace constantly surprises us with the strange people it reaches.  The upright and the self-righteously good are consistently passed over for the wicked, the desperate and the weak. 

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;  God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
 (1Co 1:26-29 ESV)

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