And Such Were Some of YouSample

The Convinced Centurion

For hours, the centurion had been watching him die. He saw death, torture, and humiliation every day, and it took a lot to shock him. But there was something very different about this man hanging on the center cross. The centurion was immune to the sights and sounds of death, but it wasn’t every day that they put to death a so-called “king.”

He and his fellow soldiers found a faded purple cloak and threw it over Jesus’ lacerated back, twisted a crown of thorns, and jammed it into his brow. They thrust a staff into his right hand as a scepter knelt before him and hailed him “king of the Jews.” Then they punched him and spit in his face and led him away to be crucified.

At 9:00 a.m., the soldiers hoisted Jesus’ cross into its upright position. The centurion stood guard and pretended he wasn’t listening to the interactions happening around the foot of Jesus’ cross. He couldn’t help but notice Jesus’ uncanny and gracious responses to those who hurled abuse and scorn at him.

At noon, when the sun was at its zenith, it suddenly became dark as midnight. This was not the kind of darkness that rolled in with an afternoon storm. The centurion had never seen or felt such penetrating, menacing darkness–especially in the middle of the day!

Crucifixion was designed to take a long time, and when the final throes of death mercifully came, the last moments were uglier than the first. The centurion was surprised when, only six hours after the crucifixion had begun, Jesus yelled out with a loud voice, “It is finished!” and breathed his last. Seconds later, the earth shook, and the rocks around Jerusalem split in two. When the earthquake stopped, the centurion exclaimed, “Truly, this was the Son of God!”

Another irony of Calvary is that the place of death became a place of new life for the thief, the centurion, and many other soldiers. On the darkest day, when midnight came at noon, it was the best and brightest day of all.

It’s only by grace that those who, in ignorance, had been accomplices to his murder were the first to be saved by it. Salvation began that Good Friday right where the centurion stood: at the foot of the cross, and it still happens there today. When we see him for who he is, we say along with the centurion, “Surely, he is the Son of God!”

When we encounter Jesus, we can’t help but exclaim and proclaim that he is the Son of God, just like the centurion did. When you read the crucifixion accounts, do you see Jesus as the Son of God? How should you respond?