Mark 15:32 — Community Reflections

MARK 15:32 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.”

Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, so that we may see and believe. Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him — the condition for belief offered by the chief priests — come down from the cross and we'll believe — is the demand for a sign on the questioners' terms (Mark 8:11–12 refused). The cross is the sign they have been given; they refuse it. Both crucified criminals mock him according to Mark; Luke 23:39–43 distinguishes the penitent from the impenitent thief.

Church Fathers on Mark 15:32

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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