The Confession And Conversion Of A Roman Centurion MARK 15:37-39

The Confession And Conversion Of A Roman Centurion MARK 15:37-39

OUR TEXT
MARK 15:37-39

37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost. 

38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. 

39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.”

INTRODUCTION

In the Bible we are given a glimpse of a man who was present during Jesus’ crucifixion. This man was a Roman Centurion, the commander of over 100 soldiers in the Roman army. We know little about the man except that he was probably a hardened soldier and a veteran of so many wars and conflicts during that time. He had, in all likelihood, presided over the crucifixion of hundreds or even thousands of men and must have become insensitive to the agony these men endured.

It is most likely that this man was present from the time Jesus was brought to Pilate right until the Lord’s body was lowered from the cross and given to Joseph of Arimathea. He may even have been present with the detachment of soldiers that aided in Jesus’ arrest the night of His betrayal.

This man would have accompanied Jesus from the time the Jewish leaders brought Him to the Praetorium. He would have ordered his men to beat Jesus, caring little for who He was, knowing Him only to be just another in a long line of people he was commanded to execute. He would have been nearby when his men dressed Jesus in a robe, pressed a crown of thorns onto His head and walked Him to Golgotha. He would have given the order to proceed with the crucifixion.

This Roman Centurion is mentioned in three of the four Gospel accounts. He is mentioned, not for his cruelty, ruthlessness or ability as a soldier, but for something—for a marvelous transformation that occurred immediately after the death of one of his prisoners. Having seen so many crucifixions, the Roman Centurion knew what to expect from his prisoners.

Most of them who were sentenced to be crucified were criminals, brigands, thieves, and murderers. He had heard countless men scream in agony while being whipped and plead for their lives before Pilate. From their crosses he had heard them shout curses to men below and blasphemies to God above. The behavior of the thieves on either side of Jesus was all too familiar, as they mocked and ridiculed Jesus as He hung between them.

THE PARADIGM FOR SEEING

If God can tear the veil in the Temple, He can rend a Roman soldier’s understanding of a dying Christ. That is, if God can split open Jewish sacred space, then a Roman Centurion’s heart and mind can be opened to see God’s world.

Mark tells us that a lone Roman Centurion watched closely the workings of God. Far from blinding him, the Cross became the paradigm for seeing. And that is one of the ironies of the whole event. It is a dumbfounding twist, and partly causes us to cringe, “No, it can’t be true that the Roman Centurion knew or meant what he said…” The meaning of the confession is to be found elsewhere.

But the fact is that the Roman Centurion saw God working where God was most active. The sad irony is that nobody saw it. We read Mark and we get it, why didn’t everyone else standing around the cross see it? Indeed:

WHERE GOD WAS MOST REVEALED HE WAS MOST CONCEALED

For the ones who were supposed to see Him (the Jewish people) there was blindness. When we get to Mark chapter 15, the story turns, and unexpectedly it is the bit-player who sees, even while the privileged characters miss the whole point. Mark’s Gospel is all about seeing.

God tears the veil and access is opened up to a new chapter in the life of God among humanity, and the first to take a step towards this is a Roman Centurion who sees God working. This makes sense of the narrative, not because it is Mark’s narrative, but because it is the Word of God.

That is, God works where people don’t expect to find Him working, and that’s why the Cross is blinding and why God is most concealed where He is most revealed. God showed up but His people could not see Him. “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:10-11). This is really strange.

Perhaps this really strange thing is still true today. Perhaps the text does not fit our ideas of what is appropriate to the plan of God, and when that happens we find that we don’t have a category for all of this stuff actually being true and really happening (or at least that, “the Roman Centurion didn’t really get it”).

The danger here is that we won’t find God doing what He wants to do, and we will protect him from him with a safe retreat to the form of the story, the idea of the plot, the turn of narrative, the devices of the author, and all the rest.

We will find in Mark’s Gospel a narrative theory that has left us saying that the Roman Centurion didn’t mean what he said, but that he spoke with irony (or something else of that sort). In reality, we just saw God tear the fabric of what a Roman Centurion knew best.

JESUS IS THE REVELATION OF GOD BEING GOD

The Roman Centurion knows Caesar to be the Son of God. So God obliterates that idea. And it all happens at the Cross, the place where Rome’s ability to banish life is most visible. Caesar, the world’s version of the Son of God, had the cross as his emblem even as it was the implement of his power. So God picks that spot to reveal Himself to a Roman.

At the Cross, the power to kill gets turned into the great display of who God is.

Jesus is the revelation of God being God; and He picked the place where the greatest human, Caesar, was most feared. God chose man’s ability to kill as the place to undo the corrupt way of being a great and feared human.

THE SHOCKING REVELATION AT THE CROSS

I would suggest that the shock value goes up if we understand that this Roman Centurion really did get it. That is, there is a divine beam of light that got through the darkness. This Roman Centurion was not blinded by the Cross, but saw through to what was going on—that is the shocking revelation at the Cross when so much disbelief surrounds it. It is so shocking because the Cross would be the last place to discover that Caesar was actually losing his power—after all, the Cross was the convincing assertion of his authority. Yet, in that exact unlikely place, another power was being made known.

Jesus could not be the Son of God according to the calculus of Rome. So God was showing that the fallen way of reckoning was all wrong. And God used the wrong person to point it out. He used a Roman Centurion. God’s wisdom is foolishness to those who are perishing, and He uses every opportunity to communicate His upside-down reckoning.

Demons in the Gospel of Mark know who Jesus is. And a Roman Centurion who was keenly watching Him die knows who He is. This is not the place one expects to find insight in the working of God. All the ones who should have been in the know turned out to be in the dark, and the ones who were definitely not supposed to get it (they are not even supposed to be a focal point in a story about God), got it.

Of course, for the demons it was ruinous for Jesus to come, but they did understand that warfare was afoot. For the demons, it was not a happy revelation, but for the roman Centurion, it was glorious.

None of this is expressly to be attributed to irony in the Gospel of Mark per se, but it is the irony of God being God.  For where God is most revealed He is most concealed. That is His calling card. Where He is most on display (at the Cross), He is most hidden. And it turns out that the one who is not a part of the people of God (a non-Jew), eyes God and identifies the King of the Jews.

That the Roman Centurion actually gets it (and means what he says about Jesus being the Son of God) is not the real problem. It is in how God works. But some commentators are baffled by it and suppose that Mark is using the episode as a literary device. I suggest we should be very careful here, for in so doing, we may rob the story of one of its climactic elements. The story works just fine with God working where we don’t expect Him.

First, on a rugged Cross, where the Savior of the world died, and second in a Roman Centurion, who saw His great Light. It’s all backwards, and we know it, and we run away from it. We are like the characters in the story that were standing around the Cross. It is right in front of us, and the obvious revelation of God is too blinding for our eyes, so we miss the point.

THE CONFESSION OF THE ROMAN CENTURION

There was something else about the way Jesus died that convinced the Roman Centurion that His enemies were wrong—and that He truly was “the Son of God.” Listen very attentively to Mark 15:37 and 39.

37 “And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.”

39 “And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.”

Jesus “cried with a loud voice” right before He died. “And when the centurion…saw that He so cried out [with a loud voice] he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God.” Why would Jesus’ “loud voice” cause the centurion to say, “Truly this man was the Son of God?”

The loud cry of Jesus is very unusual because men who were crucified usually have no strength left, especially when near death. But Jesus’ death was no ordinary one, nor was His shout the last gasp of a dying man. It was a shout of victory!

The centurion had seen it all. At the beginning of the crucifixion he was an unbeliever. But he heard Jesus pray for him,

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

(Luke 23: 34)

He saw the darkness fall over the face of the earth. He saw the earthquake. He “feared greatly” (Matthew 27:54). And now he saw Jesus die as he had never seen any other crucified man die! All the others became so weak they couldn’t breathe—and died in silence. But Jesus “cried with a loud voice!” Where did He get the strength to do so?

This Roman Centurion had presided over many crucifixions. But no other man had died with “a shout of victory.” The Roman Centurion was convinced. Christ’s enemies had been wrong! He himself had been wrong! Looking up at the dead body of Jesus on the Cross, he confessed,

“Truly this man was the Son of God.”

THE CONVERSION OF THE ROMAN CENTURION

Was the Roman Centurion converted? I firmly believe so, and here is why—he was an unbeliever—but now he says, “Truly this man was the Son of God. This is surely as good as Peter’s confession! Jesus asked Peter “Whom say ye that I am?” (Matthew 16:15). Peter answered, “The Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Jesus said,

“Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”

(Matthew 16:17)

The Roman Centurion surely had as much faith as Peter! If Peter’s testimony of Jesus as “the Son of the living God” came from the Father’s illumination, the Roman Centurion’s testimony must have come from the same source!

And the Roman Centurion made a better confession of his faith in Jesus than Peter did! Peter forsook Jesus and fled. The Roman Centurion stood in full view of Christ’s enemies—and fearlessly testified:

“Truly this man was the Son of God.”

But the Roman Centurion said something else of equal importance. Luke tells us that he also said,

“Certainly this was a righteous man.” (Luke 23:47)

This may not sound as important, but it is. This Roman Centurion said both: “This man was the Son of God; this man was righteous.” It is the same thing the dying thief had said when he was converted on the cross next to Jesus,

“This man hath done nothing amiss.” (Luke 23:41)

The Roman Centurion heard the converted thief say that. He had not believed it before. He had mocked Jesus earlier just as the repentant thief had! (Luke 23:36; Matthew 27:44). But now, in their conversions, the repentant thief and the Roman Centurion agree,

“This man hath done nothing amiss.”

“Certainly this was a righteous man.”

By divine revelation, both the repentant thief and the Roman Centurion saw that Jesus was not guilty. More than that—they saw His blessed righteousness! Did they know more? Scripture is silent. But they knew enough to say that Jesus was sinless, guiltless of the so-called “crimes” for which His enemies crucified Him. The repentant thief knew enough to call Jesus “Lord.” The Roman Centurion knew enough to say, “Truly this man was the Son of God.”

Do you believe that the repentant thief was converted? Do you also believe that the Roman Centurion was converted?

LESSON TO BE LEARNED

Now, what do we learn from all this? I believe the Scriptures make the lesson plain—two men, the repentant thief and the confessing centurion, began by mocking Christ on the Cross, as did the rest of the crowd. But, after watching Jesus die, these two men, the repentant thief and the confessing centurion, believed in Jesus. But two other men, the High Priest and the railing thief, saw the same events and remained non-believers.

That, I believe, is the lesson God wants us to learn from the Scriptures. The two thieves could see the same thing—one was converted and the other was not. Two men of power could see the same thing; the High Priest remained unconverted while the Roman Centurion was converted.

Two people can hear the same Gospel—and one can be converted while the other remains in disbelief. How many times have you read about this in the Gospels? How many times have you heard the Gospel preached? Others have come to Jesus and have been saved! How is it that you remain lost? How can it be that you will not come to Jesus and be saved? How much longer will you wait? Jesus says to you,

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

(Matthew 11:28)

Jesus died in your place, to pay the debt you cannot pay. He rose from the dead to give you life. Why wouldn’t you come to Jesus? Why do you keep on waiting? Why not come to the Son of God?

Jesus loved the repentant thief enough to save him at the very door of death. Jesus loved the Roman Centurion enough to give him faith, even though this man supervised and executed His crucifixion, and ordered His hands and feet to be nailed to the accursed cross! And, my dear friends, Jesus loves you enough to forgive and save your soul tonight—whatever sins you have committed—however long you have kept away from Him.

Come! Come to Jesus who loves you, and He will wash your sins away in His precious Blood! Come! Amen.

 

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