The last three hours of Jesus’ life are set up in a dramatic manner. From the sixth hour (noon) to the ninth hour (3 P.M.), darkness covers the land in preparation for Jesus’ end — and in accordance with Amos 8:9, “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.”
This conflicts with John, though, who records that Jesus wasn’t even condemned until the sixth hour. The reason is that different theological agendas motivated the different authors. For Mark (as well as the other synoptics), Jesus had to suffer for six hours (just as God created for six days) and die on the seventh hour (just as God rested on the seventh day, the Sabbath). For John, however, Jesus had to die just as the Passover lambs were being killed — and for the same reason John describes Jesus’ execution as occurring before Passover, again contrary to Mark.
Vinegar is an odd thing to offer a person to drink, but Mark would have included it in order to fit in with the Psalms 69:22, “for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” It is possible, however, that the offer of vinegar was yet another attempt to mock Jesus — had he taken it, it would have only made his thirst and suffering worse.
Jesus & the Roman Centurion
The comment from the Roman centurion is important because it is the only time that we see someone openly declaring Jesus to be the Son of God. We first hear it in the introduction to the gospel and then again from a heavenly voice when Jesus was baptized. This outsider, however, is the first human being to declare it openly — not unlike how an outsider and a stranger is the first to actually take up a cross for the sake of Jesus, as Mark described earlier.
What a centurion might have meant or been thinking in such a situation is irrelevant — the declaration exists for the sake of Mark’s audience: it is not by seeing the miracles of Jesus that one can come to truly understand his identity, but only by seeing his death. It is, then, the death of Jesus rather than his miracles or preaching that are at the core of Mark’s theological program for his audience. This may offer at least a partial solution to the problem of the so-called “Messianic Secret” — the fact that so many in the narrative remain obtuse to Jesus’ true identity as he works miracles around them.
After Jesus’ Death
The anti-Jewish, anti-Temple themes are continued with the comment that after Jesus’ death the veil separating the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom, thus eliminating what separated God from his people. The pro-Roman, pro-Gentile themes continue with the centurion who confesses at the cross that Jesus was the Son of God (hardly something that a Roman soldier would have said at this point). The old covenant with Israel has ended; a new covenant that includes Gentiles and that is based upon personal confession is to be established.
Mark’s inclusion of the women here at the moment of Jesus’ death is important. First, it signifies that Jesus had an entourage much larger than just his twelve disciples. Second, it prepares the way for the women to discover the empty tomb later on. Finally, it continues the theme of Jesus’ female followers being more true and faithful than his male disciples — after all, it is the women who are here at his death, not the apostles.
