"Truly this Man was the Son of God!"

Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And 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?" Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, "Look, He is calling for Elijah!" Then 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." And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So 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!"

- Mark 15:33-39

Yesterday's reading told us about events of the Crucifixion. The inscription, which normally reports the crime of the prisoner, said: THE KING OF THE JEWS. Jesus refused the wine mixed with myrrh He is offered. Jesus' garments (His only possessions) are divided between those executing Him, and He is crucified between two robbers, probably nationalist rebels. Everyone mocks Him on the cross, from His enemies, the scribes and chief priests who condemned Him, even to those crucified with Him. And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, "Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!"

Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. The times mentioned here are from noon until three o'clock in the afternoon. My study bible says, "When the Creator suffers, the creation suffers with Him. The lights of heaven hide themselves and are darkened until the ninth hour as God hangs suspended upon a Cross." It is as if the whole of creation experiences a depth of sadness and extraordinary depression at this tragedy.

And 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?" My study bible says, "In His humanity, Christ is really forsaken: in, and with, and for us, who are forsaken and abandoned. Eloi is an Aramaic form which means 'my God.' These words are from Psalm 22, which Jesus is no doubt praying. In its entirety, it is a prophesy of His Crucifixion. But it tells us of His frame of mind and His faith.

Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, "Look, He is calling for Elijah!" Then 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." My study bible notes that many believed Elijah would come to rescue the pious. And we recall from the Gospels that the prophesy that Elijah would return, heralding the appearance of the Messiah, is very much on the people's minds, and very much connected with John the Baptist as Herald of Jesus' ministry. But here the Gospel treats us to its own irony: those who mishear His words are not the witnesses in which we trust. The ones who offer Him wine, which He has steadily refused, "testing" to see if Elijah will appear, are not the faithful. It is a small note on the veracity of the Gospel that is our witness, whose words we can trust, whose faith is true.

And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. Again, my study bible has a helpful note: "The Greek verb for breathed His last or 'expired' connotes a voluntary death. Jesus' death is that of the suffering Messiah, whose cry is not a defeat but a sign of the separation between the soul and the body, a turning point towards the triumph over death, the trampling down of death by death." The verb in the Greek suggests a great sigh, a final breathing out.

Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. My study bible says here: "The dividing wall of hostility separating man from God is symbolically represented by the veil of the temple, which was torn in two by the death of Jesus." This tear suggests also to me an extraordinary grief. But at the same time, it is a rent, a kind of eruption. It is an exposure of the heart of something coming into the world, the kingdom breaking through for us. Something in the world has indeed changed, and is here for good.

So 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!" This centurion has obviously experienced a great many crucifixions, so his pronouncement at this moment is a moving and extraordinary one. We just don't know the power of the personal, the encounters that connect each of us to Christ in whatever way they happened. Tradition holds that this man would become a martyr of the early Church. And the insight of this centurion, with all of his experience, in comparison to those who have been prepared for the Messiah and yet rejected Him, gives us a message from the Gospel writer, who would go on to play a role in the early church at Rome.

So, we have the summing up of Jesus' crucifixion and death. The veil in the temple is torn in two, even creation itself seems to be mourning and in darkness. And a centurion, leader of one hundred soldiers, standing guard at the crucifixion, is also shaken and torn into belief at what he witnesses -- despite the important people who mock Jesus. Something new has come into this world at His death, and it will not be taken away. Jesus' final breathing out is not a "giving up" but a signal that the Spirit of truth will be "breathed out" into the world, an anointing for all of us. We see the immediate effect upon the centurion. Let us consider this place between death and resurrection, and Jesus' words in John 12:24: Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. His death will bring us something tremendous; it shatters the veil in the temple, it opens up for us the possibility of salvation, faith and truth, it touches even the centurion, making him a convert. The world, in this scene, is still and waiting. What will the seed sown here bring to us? In the depth of darkness, in the ground, a seed is sown. This seed is planted in us. What will it sprout in you?