BURKITT : | Mr 15:1 | Mr 15:2-5 | Mr 15:6-15 | Mr 15:16-20 | Mr 15:21-37 | Mr 15:38-41 | Mr 15:42-47 |
Reference
38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. 39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. 40 There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; 41 (Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem. (Mark 15:38-41 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
Three circumstances are here observable; 1. A stupendous prodigy happening upon the death of our Saviour, The veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom: The veil was a hanging which parted the most holy place from the holy sanctuary. By the rending of which, God testified that he was now about to forsake his temple; that the ceremonial law, was now abolished by the death of Christ, and that by the blood of Jesus, we have access unto God, and may enter into the holy of holies. See the note on Mt 27:51.
Observe, 2. What influence the manner and circumstances of our Saviour’s death had upon the mind of the centurion, and the soldiers with him; they cry, Verily this was the Son of God.
Where observe, That the heathen soldiers were sooner convinced of the divinity of our Saviour than the unbelieving Jewish doctors. Obstinacy and unbelief filled their minds with an invincible prejudice against Christ, so that neither the miracles wrought by him in his life, or at his death, could convince them that Christ’s friends were witnesses of his death; they are the women that followed him, and ministered unto him; not one of his dear disciples came near him, except John, who stood by the virgin Mary.
O! what a shame was this, for the apostles to be absent from a spectacle upon which the salvation of the world did depend!
And what an honour was this to the female sex in general, and to these holy women in particular, that they had the courage to follow Christ to his cross, when all his disciples forsook him and fled! God can make timorous and fearful women bold and courageous confessors of his truth, and fortify them against the fears of suffering, contrary to the natural timorousness of their temper; these women wait upon Christ’s cross when his apostles fly, and durst not come nigh it.