GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
MARK 15:39
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39 The centurion was standing there facing him. When he heard his cry and saw how he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
Darkness had fallen at noon on this day, but there were still other miracles that happened after the Lord died on the cross. First: the temple curtain was torn in two (as we have seen). Second: There was an earthquake, and Third: The rocks split open (both according to Matthew 27:51). Fourth: The tombs of many believers, “holy people who had died,” broke open, and the people came out of their tombs and appeared to many people in Jerusalem (Matthew 27:52-53). Mark does not describe these later things, but the earthquake along with the continuing darkness and the splitting rocks were more than enough to bring out cries of fear from the soldiers guarding the crosses.
Mark draws our attention to the attitude of the centurion (an officer or high-ranking sergeant), and the other Gospels tell us that it was not only the centurion, but his soldiers as well, who said these things. The way that Jesus had behaved all through his trial, the mockery, the punishment, and the execution, were totally affirmed by the way he carried himself even into death. A liar, a pretender, might have put on a brave face during the trial, and even during some of the torture, but Jesus maintained his innocence even through the ordeal of crucifixion.
The miraculous signs were involved in this confession. The darkness, the earthquake, and the shattering stones were all signs they would have seen, felt, and been frightened by. There was at this moment no way for them to have learned about the temple curtain, nor about the dead rising from their graves. But based on what they had seen and heard and experienced for themselves, this Jesus was everything he had said all along. He was not guilty of anything. He was not a threat to the Jews or to the Jewish religious leaders.
The centurion says even more. He calls Jesus two things: “The Son of God,” and “a righteous man” (Luke 23:47). And he said one other thing: “He praised God” (Luke 23:47). The centurion was not making a comment about this Jesus being a nice man, or a moral man, or even about being an innocent man wrongly put to death. All of those were true, accurate, and correct. But the centurion praised God, called Jesus righteous, and called Jesus the Son of God.
Three of the Gospels record this soldier’s words. He does not say, “the son of the gods,” but “the Son of God.” He and his soldiers are the very first trophies of the crucified Christ, won to faith through Christ’s death on the cross. Since faith comes by hearing the gospel message, what gospel message can they have heard? Mark tells us here that it was the cry of Jesus. There were seven things spoken by Christ as he was on the cross under the centurion’s guard and observation. Three of those were prayers to God the Father: (1) Forgive them; (2) Why have you forsaken me?; and (3) Into your hands I commit my spirit. Jesus had also spoken words of comfort to one of the criminals (4): Today you will be with me in Paradise; and also to his mother (5) Woman, this is your son; this is your mother. He has also asked for a drink (6) I am thirsty, but then he had proclaimed his work in the world as Savior to be complete (7) It is finished. Here in these words we find the forgiveness of sins, the work of the Messiah, divinity of the Son, the obedience of Christ to the law of Moses (specifically the Fourth Commandment), humble obedience to the Father, the mention of heaven as Paradise, the promise of a way to heaven through faith in himself, and the completion of God’s plan of salvation.
While these things are only a thumbnail sketch of the plan of salvation, all of the important elements are there. The divinity of the Son. The obedience of the Son. The vicarious atonement. The end of sin. The end of death. The life eternal in heaven. They had heard people use the title “Son of God” during Jesus’ trial before Pilate (John 19:7) but also during the crucifixion itself, when the Lord was mocked by Caiaphas and the other Jewish leaders (Matthew 27:43).
The centurion probably didn’t understand much of this, except for one or two things, which is precisely what he said: “This is truly a righteous man. This is truly the Son of God.”
Here was the very beginning of the harvest of souls won for heaven by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. You and I are part of this same harvest. Since Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers out to the harvest field” (Luke 10:2), you and I should recognize that the workers Jesus was talking about will always be part of the harvest themselves. Who in the coming generation might serve? Will they consider the work if you don’t talk with them about it? You don’t need to be a genius to work in the Lord’s harvest. He asks us to be faithful (1 Timothy 1:12; Revelation 14:12). It is a miracle of God that any of us become believers in Christ, and there at the foot of the cross, the miracle took place, just as the Spirit knew it would.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Mark 15:39 The centurion