Mark 15:30 Commentary and Bible Study

All they thought about as being important was the preservation of present life. ‘Save your life. Live now. Live for now. This is all there is.’ That's all they could see, not the higher purpose of what he was doing. But of course they said it in derision. They said it because they though he could not save himself. His power had somehow gone from him, otherwise they were certain he would have used it to save himself. Who wouldn’t do so? So they mocked his inability to save himself.Christ himself had not long since taught the disciples that he would give his life a ransom for many, and they didn't understand it. They saw his crucifixion from afar from a distance, and the women and the apostle John alone stood up close near the cross. All the others had fled. His mother and the women alone were close up. But they'd heard him say clearly: he was going to suffer and die; he would be a ransom for many. They should have seen what was going on on that cross, but they didn't. But these, the crowds, actually scorned it, and reviled him and insulted him. They failed to see the higher purpose! Were there were some people who understood? At the birth of Christ, there was Anna, and there was Simeon, and God gave them eyes to see, and they knew he was the Messiah, and they knew that babe was born of God. He would be the Saviour of the world, the Saviour of lost souls. He was the eternal King. ‘Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel’, said Simeon – the fall of ancient Israel, the rise of the New Testament church of Christ, the new Israel. Of course Anna and Simeon were long dead. The years had passed, but God is never without witness. Maybe there was an Anna, a Simeon, at the crucifixion, not recorded. Did Christ’s mother understand what the disciples failed to understand, or even Mary Magdalene, who was privileged to be the first to see the risen Lord? Did she understand this is the fulfilment of Isaiah 53?