Mark frames his entire Gospel between two confessions: the opening sentence (“Jesus Christ, the Son of God”, 1:1) and the centurion's declaration at the cross (“Truly this man was the Son of God”, 15:39). The centurion was a Roman officer — an agent of the empire that had just executed this man. He was not trained in Jewish messianism. He was watching a man die. Whatever he saw in the way Jesus died, it was enough to produce the confession that the disciples had been building toward all Gospel long.

From the writers we read together

Michael S. Heiser

biblical scholar, author of The Unseen Realm (1963-2023)

Heiser's work on the divine council and the “powers and principalities” reads the cross as a victory in a cosmic conflict most readers miss because they don't see the supernatural backdrop. In Colossians 2:15 Paul writes that at the cross Jesus “disarmed the powers and authorities” and “triumphed over them.” The centurion, standing at the foot of the cross, sees something. Heiser would suggest that what he sees is not merely a courageous death but a moment in which the fabric of the visible world has been torn by something happening in the unseen realm. The curtain of the temple has already split from top to bottom (v. 38). The centurion's confession is not coincidental to that tearing.

Heiser's reading restores the scandal of the cross: it is not a defeat that needs to be spiritualized into victory. It is a victory that looks like defeat. The Son of God dies the death of a slave, and in that death the powers that held humanity captive are disarmed. The centurion — a professional soldier who knew what a powerful death looked like — saw it. His confession is the voice of the Gentile world beginning its reclamation.