‘In the same way also the chief priests, mocking him among themselves with the scribes, said, “He saved others, himself he cannot save. Let the Messiah the king of Israel now come down from the cross that we may see and believe.” '
This was the second charge mentioned at His examination, that He was the Messiah, the king of Israel. They would remember too His claim that from then on they would see His power and triumph. Well, they felt that they had scotched that. He was powerless to do anything now. Instead of seeing His power revealed they were satisfied that they were seeing His demise.
‘The Chief Priests --- with the scribes.' His enemies had come to gloat over His death in spite of it being a festival day. They were too sophisticated to mock directly and openly, a touch of authenticity, and so they did it between themselves. The lay elders are not mentioned. It was the religious leaders whose jealousy and enmity had sought to destroy Him.
‘He saved others, Himself he cannot save.' They had been jealous at His power to heal, but now they gloated because He could not heal Himself. Now His powers would do Him no good. Or perhaps they meant ‘in His mind's eye He saved others' signifying His claim to be the Messiah. To Mark however there was a deeper significance. He Whom they derided was dying precisely so that He may save others. And when He ‘saved Himself', as the One Who had power to raise Himself from the dead, it would be after having accomplished what was necessary to be the Saviour of the world (John 5:21; John 5:26; John 10:18). Had He saved Himself earlier He could not have been a Saviour.
‘Let the Messiah the king of Israel now come down from the cross that we may see and believe.' The ‘now' reflects their cruel sense of triumph at His helplessness. The statement indicates their old problem of sign-seeking. But He did ‘come down', and when He did they still did not believe. Mark is aware of the irony of it. In three days time His power would be demonstrated, and they would still not believe.
Note the contrast between ‘the king of the Jews', Pilate's incorrect description by an outsider (compare Matthew 2:2), and ‘the king of Israel' which was strictly correct in Jewish eyes.