Mark 15:33–39

 Jesus’s call to follow Him was not limited to any one group of people. He had many female disciples that followed Him, that would be unusual in the culture that He lived in. 

 God offered His salvation to the world that He created and loved.

Jesus died for our sin so that through Him we could become the righteousness of God in Him.

I am a child of God who believes
that we are all children of God
and we are all part of each other.
May we all know peace.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Mark 15:33–39

33 Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 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?” 35 Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, “Look, He is calling for Elijah!” 36 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.” 37 And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. 38 Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 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!” 40 There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome, 41 who also followed Him and ministered to Him when He was in Galilee, and many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem. The New King James Version

This darkness was a supernatural darkening of the skies.

Of the seven cries from the cross, this fourth one was the most passionate. Quoting Psalm 22:1, Jesus expressed the agony of being abandoned by His Father as He alone bore the sin of the world. Jesus’ spiritual agony was intense, yet He still addressed His Father personally as My God. 

Those who mistook Jesus’ words as a call for the prophet Elijah may have been unable to understand Him. The dehydration caused by crucifixion often made speech difficult. A sip from the sponge full of sour wine was supplied because Jesus said “I thirst”. This allowed Jesus to utter His final two sayings, “It is finished” (John 19:30) and “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46). 

Jesus breathed His last after a loud conscious statement. Frequently, crucifixion produced a coma or unconsciousness prior to death, but Jesus was in control of all His faculties until the moment when He voluntarily gave up His life. 

The significance of the supernatural tearing of the veil of the temple is that access to God is now open to all. No longer through priests and the blood of bulls and goats do we approach God, but through the torn veil, which also symbolizes Jesus’ broken and torn body. Top to bottom reminds us that God Himself removed the barrier.

Only Mark uses the Latin term centurion, a Roman captain in charge of one hundred men. The centurion’s statement that Jesus was the Son of God can be construed as a confession of belief in Jesus’ deity. But the Son could also be translated a son. The NKJV Study Bible

The darkness came parallels the cosmic signs that Jesus said would herald the Son of Man’s return. 

Jesus cries out in Aramaic; Mark provides the Greek translation. Jesus epitomizes suffering itself, and the desperation felt with it, in this moment. 

The bystanders misunderstand Jesus’ cry of “Eloi! Eloi!” as “Eli(jah)! Eli(jah)!” They do not realize that the figurative Elijah—John the Baptist—has already come and gone. 

Truly this man was God’s Son. Jesus’ identity is fully revealed upon His death. At three key events in Mark’s Gospel—Jesus’ baptism, transfiguration, and crucifixion—a voice confirms that Jesus is God’s Son. Here, it is no longer God the Father proclaiming Jesus’ identity, but instead a non-Jewish person—confirming Jesus’ ministry and mission to Gentiles. Faithlife Study Bible

There was a thick darkness over the land, from noon until three in the afternoon. The Jews were doing their utmost to extinguish the Sun of Righteousness. The darkness signified the cloud which the human soul of Christ was under, when he was making it an offering for sin. He did not complain that his disciples forsook him, but that his Father forsook him. In this especially he was made sin for us. At the same instant that Jesus died, the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom. 

This spake terror to the unbelieving Jews, and was a sign of the destruction of their church and nation. It speaks comfort to all believing Christians, for it signified the laying open a new and living way into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. The confidence with which Christ had openly addressed God as his Father, and committed his soul into his hands, seems greatly to have affected the centurion. Right views of Christ crucified will reconcile the believer to the thought of death; he longs to behold, love, and praise, as he ought, that Saviour who was wounded and pierced to save him from the wrath to come. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

Psalm 22:1 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?

Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Matthew 27:48 Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.

Matthew 27:50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

Matthew 27:51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,