Jesus was nailed to the cross at 9 a.m. (15:25); at noon a strange darkness came over the sky and persisted into the afternoon. Mark does not explain this but his readers should understand the darkness as representing the power of evil at that time as demonic forces tried to overpower the Son of God. It may also be understood as a sign of coming judgement on those who had rejected Christ (compare Amos 5:18-20). In John's gospel, one of the themes is the conflict between the light of God's truth and the darkness of sin and evil. At 3 p.m. Jesus shouted out the first words of Psalm 22, translated from Aramaic by Mark. What did this terrible cry mean? It is suggested that Jesus began to pray with the words of Psalm 22, which begins with this helpless cry to God but goes on to end triumphantly with a prophecy that all nations will turn to God. 'From every part of the world they will turn to him; all races will worship him' (Psalm 22:27). We may also suggest with reference to Mark 15:34, that because Jesus had identified himself fully with the sinful human race, he was assaulted by the full horror of sin as he hung helpless and suffering on the cross, 2 Corinthians 5 :21; he felt that the evil around him was actually separating him from his Father, and his cry expressed this What he cried out expressed the extent of his suffering for the sake of others. He had entirely fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 52: 13-53: 12; he was the suffering Servant.

As Jesus died (15:37) the curtain which separated the most holy place in the Temple from the rest of it, was ripped in two. As with the darkness that came over the sky, Mark does not explain this; the reader may interpret it to mean that the barrier between man and God had been ripped away by the sacrificial death of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19-20). What was said by the Roman officer in charge of the execution (15:39) pointed towards yet another barrier which would be ripped away by the death of Jesus, that between Jew and Gentile (Ephesians 2: 14).

Of great interest to the early Church were the names of the women who had stayed near Jesus at the crucifixion. Mark says nothing at all about the whereabouts of the disciples during the final hours of Jesus' life and the hour of his death. These same women were to be the first witnesses that Jesus had risen.