Mark Chapter 15: 1-21

As with the previous chapter, we have two podcasts to proclaim the Gospel for Chapter Fifteen. Here we focus on verses 1-21 as Jesus is bound and handed over to Pontius Pilate. Pilate scourges Jesus and delivers him to be Crucified having first pardoned the murderer Barabbas. Jesus is mocked and clothed in a purple cloak – a crown of twisted thorns pushed down onto his head. He is stripped, spat on and led out for crucifixion. Simon of Cyrene helps carry the cross. About Reading Mark in Advent is an 18-part podcast series that sees us upload a chapter of Mark’s Gospel each weekday of the season. With a global pandemic sweeping the world and lockdowns and restrictions placed on our everyday living – not to mention patterns of worship and prayer – this is very much “the Word in Lockdown”. But the Word of God is never locked down, isolated and contained. As Pope Francis says: “The word of God is alive and active (Hebrews 4:12); it does not die, nor does it age, but it remains for ever (cf. 1 Peter 1:25). It stays young in the presence of all that passes away (cf. Matthew 25:35) and preserves those who put it into practice from inner aging.”