Mark 15:30 — Community Reflections

MARK 15:30 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“Save thyself, and come down from the cross.”

Come down from the cross and save yourself — the taunt to save yourself by coming down from the cross is the Gethsemane temptation renewed. Save yourself: the Satan of Mark 8:33 (who opposed the cross) speaks through the taunting crowd. If Jesus came down from the cross, he would save himself but could not save others. The inability to save himself while saving others is not weakness but the mechanism of salvation.

Church Fathers on Mark 15:30

The foal of Judah has been tied to the vine, and his clothes dyed in the blood of the grape, [Gen 49:11] and the kids tear the vine, blaspheming Christ, and wagging their heads.
Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

For the passers by blasphemed Christ, reproaching Him as a seducer. But the devil moved them to bid Him come down from the Cross; for he knew that salvation was being won by the Cross, therefore he again proceeded to tempt Christ, so that if He came down from the Cross, he might be certain that He is not truly the Son of God, and so the salvation, which is by the Cross, might be done away. But He being truly the Son of God, did not come down; for if He ought to have come…
Theophylact · 11th century

Thus also they confess, though against their will, that He saved many. Therefore your words condemn you, for He who saved others could have saved Himself.
Bede · 8th century

Read all 6 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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