In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. He saved others, they said, but he can't save himself — the chief priests' mockery contains the Gospel's central irony: he saved others but can't save himself. They are stating the truth as a proof of failure — the accurate description of substitutionary atonement read as evidence of impotence. He saved others by refusing to save himself — the pattern of Mark 8:35 (whoever loses their life for my sake will save it) enacted at the cross.

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