Mark: The End of Jesus (or Not)

In Mark, I read a different point of view of the encounter between Pilate and Jesus. Now I see that the gospels tell the story of Jesus, from their own points of view. As I stated in one of my previous posts while reading John, I defended Pilate. In John, I found some arguments that led me to believe that Pilate wasn't completely guilty. In Mark, Pilate decides to crucify Jesus in less than a paragraph and his methods of defending him are completely useless and seem to require no effort. Here, "And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him,to be crucified." (15:15) And that was it. So after reading Mark's point of view, I can say that I didn't see Pilate the same way as before.

While Jesus was carrying the cross, he said the following, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (15:35) This leaves me wondering. Didn't Jesus know that he was going to die in order to spread his religion and save his people? Didn't Jesus know that he was going to suffer? Didn't Jesus predict his death? Didn't Jesus know he would suffer for good? Then why did he think God had forsaken him? Was he in so much pain that he thought God had betrayed him and given up on him? Or maybe, he is just saying this for the Christian reader to know how much he suffered. For example, in the Catholic religion, we pay for our sins and we pay our debt to Jesus for carrying the cross for us. It's our duty. Maybe by stating that Jesus did actually suffer, even though he knew he was sacrificing for love, would encourage us to follow him? This is when I start thinking of the "commercial" side of the Bible, for lack of a better word. I mean, Jesus needed followers, he needed believers. Like Wal-Mart needs customers so they give discounts.




* I would just like to point out, completely removing myself from the subject at hand, how I found another passage mentioning "kissing" between 2 men, an issue that was heavily debated while we were reading Gilgamesh. Read at your own risk: "And he that betrayed him had given them a token, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; take him, and lead him away safely. And as soon as he was come, he goeth straightway to him, and saith, Master, master; and kissed him." (14:45) So, there.