An Unlikely Centurion Confession

Day 70: Mark 15:1-47

“And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’” - Mark‬ ‭15:37-39‬ ‭ESV‬‬

All of Jesus' life as a man, in the flesh, led up to this moment. He had not come to set up a physical throne on earth to displace Rome. Instead, He had come to face a torturous death at the hands of those same Romans. At first glance, it would seem that Jesus had lost, that He had been defeated. He would appear to be yet another causality in the long line of those who had tried to make a difference.

Yet this Roman centurion was having second thoughts. I'm sure the 3 hours of darkness was one of the first things to get his attention. This centurion would have been a commanding officer of 100 soldiers and seems to be the one in charge of Jesus' crucifixion. What he witnessed on this Good Friday led him to make a remarkable confession as Jesus being the Son of God.

This is the fourth blatant reference in Mark to Jesus being called God's son in Mark’s gospel. The others: 1:1, 1:11, 9:7.

One of the things that this confession from the centurion should teach us is that a genuine, powerful encounter with Jesus can melt even the hardest of hearts. May we not give up on the most unlikely to believe.

There is no one beyond the reach of our crucified (and glorified) Savior. The following quote from Spence-Jones is a little long but does a great job describing what was happening to this centurion as Jesus experienced the cross:

"He had observed him through those weary hours; he had noticed the meekness and the dignity of the Sufferer; he had heard those words, so deeply impressed upon the faith and reverence of Christians, which fell from him from time to time as he hung there; and then at last he heard the piercing cry, so startling, so unexpected, which escaped him just before he yielded up his spirit; and he could come to no other conclusion than this, that he was in very deed God’s Son." - Spence-Jones, H. D. M. (Ed.). (1909). St. Mark (Vol. 2, p. 310)