The Bible does not give us many facts about activities of the centurions. In fact, centurions are referred to only four times in the Bible.
Matthew 8 records the story where the centurion asked for his servant to be healed. “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed” (Matt. 8:8). Jesus remarked that never before in Israel had He found such faith as possessed by that centurion.
Of course the most famous centurion of all was Cornelius. In the Book of Acts, he was a man of valiant prayer who sought God through Christ. Cornelius became a believer after his encounter with the Apostle Peter.
Acts 27 records a centurion by the name of Julius whom the Apostle Paul encountered on his voyage to Rome.
All three of the Synoptic Gospels record the life-changing rescue of the centurion at the foot of the cross. The account of Luke is somewhat different from the accounts of Matthew and Mark. The reason why this is so will be apparent in a little bit.
What was a centurion? A centurion was also called a legionnaire. A legionnaire, the commander of one hundred men, a unit in the Roman Army known as a century, was called a Centurion. He had absolute authority over these men.
Publius, a first-century historian, said that in order to be a centurion one had to have unusually high intelligence and physical stamina. If a man was chosen to be a centurion, he was the elite of a chosen few. The centurion was that kind of man.
Why did this centurion become convinced that Jesus was indeed the Son of God? Why did he become convinced that Jesus was a good man? Subsequent history indicates that this man became a Christian. He accepted Christ, confessed Him, and followed Him in all matters. I trust that is so.
Have you ever thought about why you are a Christian?
• Why are you not a skeptic?
• Why are you not an atheist?
• Why are you not a Madelyn Murray O’Hair?
• Why do you believe this Bible is true?
• Why have you chosen to believe that Jesus is Who He says He is?
Why did this man choose to believe? What inspired and motivated him? What caused him to shout out in a doxology of praise, “Truly this was the Son of God!”? If anything will convince you that Jesus is all He said He is, surely it is the experience of the cross.
There are four reasons why I believe the centurion burst out with, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST
The centurion could see the obvious goodness of Jesus Christ. Luke 23:47 records that the centurion said, “Certainly this man was innocent” (or righteous). You may think this is a contradiction with what is recorded in Matthew and Mark. The truth of the matter is that there is no contradiction. In essence what he exclaimed was, “Truly this was the Son of God, a righteous man!” He stated both of those.
What made him see the goodness of Jesus Christ? While the other people were hating, Jesus was loving. Those who passed by were railing at Him, but Jesus was blessing. One of the two thieves was pronouncing damnation upon the executioners, but Jesus was asking for their forgiveness. “He could have called ten thousand angels,” but He didn’t.
There was a look about His facial countenance that showed He cared. Even when His mouth was as dry as sand, even when blood was spurting from His hands and feet, even when the thorns on His head were piercing His forehead and scalp, causing Him excruciating pain – Jesus still thought about others.
Mark records that the centurion was standing opposite Jesus.
That meant that he was right there very close. He literally had a bird’s eye view of the crucifixion. When those two thieves were thrown on the cross they resisted and struggled as the nails were placed into their hands and feet. Yet when the Roman soldiers grabbed the Lord Jesus to nail Him to on the cross, He did not resist. Jesus plainly said, “You don’t need to take My life from Me – no man can do that! I lay it down freely!” They watched Jesus as He climbed upon that cross
and gave His life freely.
Artists, most of the time, have drawn the cross incorrectly.
They will show it fifteen or twenty feet in the air. The truth of the matter is that the feet of the person being crucified were only a foot or two off the ground. When the mob would come by, they could mock at the victim’s nakedness. Sometimes they would use rods and hit various parts of the victim’s body. They might tear his beard from his face or strike him with their fists.
I can imagine that as the centurion witnessed that being done to the thieves, he heard them cursing, their profane remarks, and every kind of ugly obscenity being hurled toward those who railed against the thieves. However, Jesus blessed the people and loved them.
Do you believe that Jesus had probably encountered this centurion before His death? According to Roman law, every time a crowd gathered, the soldiers had to be there. Rome controlled Judea and Galilee as Roman provinces. The Jewish people, even though it was their country, were not self-governing. They were captives. The Scripture tells us that there was almost always a crowd around Jesus.
I think it is very likely that this Roman centurion had possibly been assigned to Jesus. I feel certain that the Roman governor knew of Jesus and probably had a centurion assigned to him at all times. There were never very many centurions to begin with, so it is possible that this very centurion was a constant companion of Jesus.
I wonder if this man might have been there the day Jesus forgave the woman who was caught in adultery. He would have seen her as she was set free, and may have found it hard to believe that Jesus did that.
I wonder if that same centurion had been assigned to Jesus when He went out on that grassy slope to preach to the multitudes. He would have seen five thousand people who needed food. And He would have seen Jesus feed those people by performing an unusual miracle.
I wonder if he saw Jesus that time when the disciples were trying to shoo away the little children. He would have heard Jesus’ words, “It is better for a millstone to be tied around your neck, and for you to be thrown into the depths of the sea, than for you not to let a little child come unto Me!” I wonder if by the time of the crucifixion this centurion already had evidence in his heart that this, indeed, was an unusual man.
I can’t think of a greater compliment one man could give another than, “You are a good man!” There is a great deal of difference between being a “nice guy” and being a good person. Sometimes a “nice guy” will still cheat in business.
Sometimes a nice guy will like you. Sometimes a nice guy may know proper etiquette but not know how to be good.
There is a difference in knowing how to hold your fork
and how to hold your tongue! There is a difference in knowing how to open the door for your wife and how to open the door for all kinds of evil that might come into your life.
The reason the Roman soldier could scream out to those around him, “Truly, this was the Son of God!” is that through Jesus’ life and through the experiences of His execution, this Roman soldier saw a vastly different life. He saw a quality in Jesus Christ that made him say, “Certainly, this was a righteous man!” He also saw something about the humanity of Jesus that caused him to know that Jesus was a good man.
When Paul was in a Roman prison writing the Book of Philippians, he declared in 1:12, “Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.” To Paul it really didn’t matter what happened to him, because the spreading of the gospel had been benefited.
The goal of Jesus during His entire life was that God the Father be visible, that God be seen in Him. Therefore, whether Jesus was cursed or hurt or even executed, His Godly manhood was going to be seen.
Take the goodness of Jesus Christ and look at how He lived. Look at His manhood and how He treated women, other men, His enemies, and those around Him. Watch Him love the little children. Watch Him be kind to people who didn’t deserve His kindness.
As you look at the sweet spirit of Jesus, you will want to say as this centurion, “This man was real! This man was authentic! This man was genuine,” because of the obvious goodness of His manhood.”
I read a story recently that illustrates what I’m talking about. Back in the days when racial prejudice was open, vile and violent, a man was raised in the South under the bigotry and prejudice of that day. His mother and father had been killed by whites. He lived with his grandmother and with his brother. One night men dressed in the white hoods of the KKK came to their home.
The family was frightened because there had been an uproar in the community. They burst open the little door of that rundown shack in the cotton field. They came in, got his older brother, dragged him out into the yard, put ropes under his armpits, and tied the rope to the horn of a saddle. Then they dragged him down a terrible rocky road, through the briar patch, and then around the courthouse down at the city square. When they got through with him, they brought his body back to the grandmother’s yard and threw him into the yard, bloody and dying. He died before they could get him into the house. Then the man in the white hood apologized because they had taken the wrong man! And added to that tragedy is that these men were never even arrested, much less prosecuted for the murder.
The next morning the grandmother got up to work at the white folks’ plantation house. She first cut up some turnip greens, then went back to the house and removed the salt cloth from the meat. Her grandson urged his grandmother, “Grandma, you poison those white folks food today! When you cook for those white folks today you put poison in that food. Don’t let them get by with what they have done to my brother!”
He never forgot how she disappeared down the road as she went to that plantation house, swept and mopped their floors, cared for their children, bathed their children,
cooked three meals that day. Tired and worn out, she came back home that night, and he asked, “Grandma, did you poison the white folks’ food like I asked you to do?” She said, “Honey, the Lord never told me to worry about what the white folks do. He told me to worry about what I do! The Bible says that we are to love our enemies and pray for those that despitefully use us. Today they saw that I lived like Jesus told me to live!”
When the goodness of Jesus comes into your life there is a difference about you. You don’t just know proper etiquette;
you don’t just know how to be polite. You don’t just do the things society demands. There is a different nature inside you that makes you a truly good person.
THE ROYALTY OF CHRIST
Not only did the centurion see the righteousness of Christ,
he also saw the royalty of Christ. I believe the centurion said what he did because of the apparent God-likeness of Christ.
In the Greek NT there is no article, the, in this phrase: “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matt. 27:54). What the centurion actually said was, “Truly this was Son of God.”
Grammatically, this is called the genitive of quality. Every time the NT uses this grammatical structure, it refers to the fact that it is a descriptive phrase and not a description of ancestry.
For example, James and John were called “sons of thunder.”
Those who did the works of the devil were called “sons of Belial.” Others were called “children of wrath.” In each of these cases, the reference wasn’t to ancestry, but to activity.
The centurion wasn’t describing the Deity of Christ in respect to His ancestry. He merely meant it was obvious that Jesus was different, and if anyone on this earth had God as his Father, it had to be this man who was dying on the cross.
Jesus is definitely the Son of His Father. So, there is no article.
Gaze at the example of the cross. Jesus was submissive as an example. He had to be willing to endure pain. This centurion became convinced first of all because of the obvious goodness of the man Christ.
Second, because of His apparent God-likeness, He appeared to be like God, and indeed He was! Today, we would that Jesus was a chip off the old block. He was just like His father.
THE RESPONSE OF HEAVEN
Not only did this centurion marvel at the righteousness of Christ; he also saw the response of heaven. He became convinced that Jesus was the Son of God because of the response of heaven to this cruel treatment of Jesus.
This centurion undoubtedly had seen hundreds of people executed. That was part of a centurion’s assignment. He had seen crucifixion after crucifixion and never had he seen nature respond to an execution. Yet when Jesus was crucified, all of a sudden from noon until three o’clock, it was pitch dark, as if it were midnight. People were frightened for their lives. Some began to beat upon their breasts and return to their homes in terror. There was a pitch-black, cave-like darkness upon the earth.
The Bible records that after three hours of darkness there was an earthquake. The centurion heard Jesus cry out, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit!” Then the Bible states that He “gave up the spirit.” The earth began to quake and rocks were split.
One commentator had an intriguing idea about this. He believed that every rock on the earth began to crack.
Beneath the feet of that centurion rocks of every size and shape began literally to break open. The Rock of Ages would not break, but all of the other rocks would! The rocks of the mountains began to crack, and people began to fall into the crevices.
I can imagine, as that Roman solider looked around to see what was happening, suddenly he may have heard a mighty sound as the veil in the Temple was ripped into. The Bible records that at the moment of the death of Jesus, they tore, as if giant hands from heaven had ripped the curtain that separated people from the Holy of Holies. It was ripped from the top to the bottom.
Surely, he thought, “That’s all that is going to happen.”
Then, suddenly, dirt began to fly through the air as if someone was shooting it from below. The Bible says the graves were opened, and the saints of the ages began to come out of their graves and to walk around Jerusalem. Many people saw them.
If you had viewed all of that, you would believe that God was trying to speak? When that Roman soldier saw all of that – the darkness, the earthquake, the rocks splitting, the veil in the Temple rent in two, the graves opening, and the people being resurrected – he began to realize that there was only one conclusion: this is the Son of God! God is a loving and patient God. But please realize that patience is not pardon. While God may be patient with you now, there will come a day when there will be no more patience. There is no sin like that of rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart.
Years ago, when I was a child, we were traveling to Kansas to see my grandparents. A huge truck passed us and nearly blew us off the road. My little daddy, got that old 56 Chevy going real fast and he passed that truck, slowed to a stop and got out. My little 5 ft. 8 in. 155 lb. Daddy went back to that big trucker, climbed up on the running board of that truck and proceeded to tell him that it was one thing to run him off the road, but he had his wife and children with him.
He made some promises to that trucker about his future, and after he got through the man apologized.
If you want God against you, you mess around Jesus. If you want all of heaven’s power against you and against your family, you simply turn your back on Jesus. You crucify Jesus in your heart – you crucify Jesus in your life – you start putting Jesus upon the cross of your compromise and mediocrity. You put Jesus on the cross of your unconcern. Then watch out! God will not take it!
You say, “But I thought the sin that God would not forgive was the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit?” That’s right, but do you know who that is?
Suppose Western Union brought me a telegram that read,
“The President of the U.S. desires your presence tomorrow.”
Then, suppose I took that telegram, tore it up, spit on it, and tossed it in the trash. Do you think Western Union would be offended? Of course not! My insult would not be against Western Union but against the President of the U.S. I didn’t reject Western Union. I rejected the President’s invitation.
When you blaspheme the Holy Spirit, you don’t reject the Holy Spirit – you reject Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” The Holy Spirit is the member of the Trinity who draws men to Christ.
I have thought of all the crimes that have been committed in the world: the atrocities of war, child molestation, pornography, rape, murder, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, and all the rest. Those thousands upon thousands of crimes, yet even an adulterer or a homosexual who repents can go to heaven; even an atheist who repents can go to heaven; even a man who murdered 10,000 people, who repents, can go to heaven. Even a man who would rape a little child could go to heaven if he repents.
You may be the nicest person in the community, you may be the kindest, most considerate, most loving person you know, but you are going to die and go to hell if you reject Jesus!
The one crime God cannot stand is for you to mistreat His Son.
The centurion saw heaven’s response to what the world did to Jesus. And God said, “No more! No more!” That was heaven’s response.
THE WITNESS OF HIS HEART
The centurion saw the righteousness of Christ, the royalty of Christ, and the response of heaven. There is a final reason why he could say, “Truly this is Son of God!” He gazed at the witness of his own heart.
I have a vast array of material in my background and in my library to present apologetics for the faith. I could give you reasons that would stretch the back of your intellectual reasoning on why Jesus is the Messiah. I could read you the works of Josephus, and you would be impressed with Josephus’s evaluation of Christ. I could go on with historians and with intellectual rationale to make you believe that Jesus indeed is the Son of God. However, all of that is inconsequential.
If I were to ask you, “Why are you a Christian?” you wouldn’t give me an intellectual reason. I have never asked anyone that question and received some kind of academic answer.
People usually give the same reason that this centurion did.
He cried, “Truly this is the Son of God!” When he really looked into the face of Jesus,
• he had a thirst that was quenched ,
• a hunger that was satisfied,
• and a longing that was filled.
It was the witness of his heart.
People will never have the deepest needs of their hearts met, until they meet Jesus! Tradition has it that the centurion was, indeed, Cornelius. I don’t know. Yet I do wonder about the journey of that man.
I hope that you have been convinced to confess as he did, “This is the Son of God.” I must tell you this: the only hope for you and your family is for Jesus to come first in all things. Put Him first and testify with the centurion, “Truly this was the Son of God.”
Then act upon that confession now! You have heard the message. Jesus expects you to respond now.
• No more waiting.
• No more procrastination.
You need to respond now.
