33Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
35Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, "Look, He is calling for Elijah!" 36Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink, saying, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down."
37And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.
38Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, "Truly this Man was the Son of God!"
40There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome, 41who also followed Him and ministered to Him when He was in Galilee, and many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.
The only thing that can separate us from God is sin. Here as the world turned to darkness, this Man who had never experienced sin had all the sins of the world added to His shoulders. He felt that deepest human despair of feeling of being separated from God, forsaken by God. Know that if you ever feel such a deep despair, pray to Jesus. He understands, He has experienced as deep a despair as you could ever feel.
Those around Him had just been taunting Him to save Himself a few verses ago. Now that they hear Him calling out to God, they taunt Him with sour wine and wait, expecting to prove Jesus was a mere man. Did they really expect God would come take Him down? I don't think so, otherwise they would have had a greater fear of crucifying Jesus. I think this was just another taunt, expecting no real intervention from God.
The fact that Jesus cried out with a loud voice when he breathed His last makes me think it was a swift death. I would have thought death on the cross would have been more of a slow, lingering death. And I also don't believe it was a swift death brought on by some action of the soldiers or other onlookers, as they were just saying to let him alone to see if Elijah would come take Him down. I believe God did step in to finally remove Jesus from the cross, but not in the way His tormentors expected. The swift death was an act of mercy from a God who had to put all the sins of the world on the shoulders of His Son.
Footnotes in my Bible say that the veil of the temple was a thick curtain between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. The Old Testament said God resided in the Holy of Holies. No one was allowed entrance. On Jesus' death this curtain was torn from top to bottom. Jesus' death opened the way to the presence of God for everyone. The fact that it was torn from top to bottom signifies that this destruction was from God, not Man.
Who was the first to proclaim that Jesus truly was the Son of God? Jesus was surrounded by many, including the chief priests and scribes who had been taunting him. Surprisingly, it was a centurion, an officer commanding a century in the Roman army, who was first to say it. Jesus died for all, not just the Israelites. Others would come to recognized Jesus as the Son of God too.
Though I'm surprised the connection was made as the Son of God. I just did a quick scan through the Book of Mark and the only ones who ever recognized Jesus as the Son of God were the demons who Jesus silenced. Jesus often referred to Himself as the Son of Man. Others looked to Jesus as the Messiah, their Savior, or as the Son of David. But until now, no one else had even suggested He might be the Son of God. I wonder if the tearing of the curtain to allow access to God also tore open a curtain of blocked understanding. Being closer to the presence of God cleared the way to more understanding. I wonder if God gave this additional understanding at this point. As I thought through Mark:4:24-25, I wondered if Jesus was talking about understanding God's Words when He said "to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given", meaning as more is understood, more will be given to understand. I think this leap to realizing Jesus was the Son of God is the more that was given to those who were really trying to hear who Jesus was.
The presence of the women... Is this supposed to help make a case that women are braver than men? That the men all scattered and only the women were brave enough to stick around? No, I don't think so. It says they watched from afar. These women were also Jesus' followers. They too scattered, as they were not present to comfort Jesus through this time, and Jesus was not with them to comfort them. The chief priests who were trying to squelch Jesus' following had nothing to fear from these women. So the men had greater reason to fear for their lives than the women did. It makes sense that the women were able to get closer to Jesus than the men at this time.
These women had a job to do. They needed to be there. It was their job to handle the matters of preparing His body for burial. In Mark 14:3, it was a woman who anointed His body. Jesus said she had come beforehand to anoint His body for burial. It is the women here who will prepare his body for final burial. Yes, women were part of Jesus' following. They ministered to Him in different ways. Women were not better than men, and men were not better than women, but they both had equal footing in Jesus following. Both were important. This statement in this verse simply sets the stage for the women's involvement in the next verses.