Exorcism

In the early chapters of Mark’s gospel, the only beings to identify Jesus as “Son of God” are the Father and demons. No human being recognizes Him until He dies, and then it’s a Roman centurion.

Perhaps Mark intends us to remember the demonic identifications when we get to the centurion – not that the centurion is a demon (though this might be true in some sense, since Jesus battles a “legion” of demons earlier in the gospel), but rather in the sense that the death of Jesus is the great final exorcism of Israel. What Jesus had been doing as “Son of God” in the synagogues He does climactically at the cross.