The Centurion At The Feet Of Jesus Series

At this point Borgnine wrote: “then it happened. As I stared upward, instead of the chalk mark, I suddenly saw the face of Jesus Christ, lifelike and clear. It was not the face of Robert Powell I was used to seeing, but the most beautiful, gentle visage I have ever known. Pain-seared, sweat-stained, with blood flowing down from thorns pressed deep, His face was still filled with compassion. He looked down at me through tragic, sorrowful eyes with an expression of love beyond description.

Then His cry rose against the desert wind. Not the voice of (the director), reading from the Bible, but the voice of Jesus Himself: ‘Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.’

In awe I watched Jesus' head slump to one side. I knew He was dead. A terrible grief welled within me, and completely oblivious of the camera, I started sobbing uncontrollably.

The director yelled ‘Cut!’ And Borgnine looked over to see that Olivia Hussey and Anne Bancroft were crying, too. I wiped my eyes and looked up again to where I had seen Jesus.… He was gone.

Borgnine closed his comments with these words: “I have not been quite the same person since. I believe that I take my faith more seriously. I like to think that I'm more forgiving than I used to be. As that centurion learned two thousand years ago, I too have found that you simply cannot come close to Jesus without being changed.” (Snowflakes in September: Stories about God's Mysterious Ways, by Corrie Ten Boom and Ernest Borgnine, published by Dimensions for Living.)

As we are here at church this morning, we have an advantage that Centurion never had. We have God’s words in our hands – in our Bible. We know things about Jesus and His sacrifice that pagan would never have considered. But sometimes we have a problem. Sometimes we don’t SEE Jesus. We don’t understand and feel what He went through on the cross for us. Sometimes we get caught up in the religious things we do each Sunday to honor God (and there’s nothing wrong with those things). But we can get so caught up with the sermon and the songs and the prayers that we many times don’t think to take the time to see Jesus on the cross. Of course, that’s the reason we take communion every Sunday – to remind us of His sacrifice for us. But we must be careful that we don’t let our religious activities cloud our vision so that we don’t see Jesus. That’s the one advantage the Centurion had over many church goers – he saw Jesus as He really was.

INVITATION

SERMONS IN THIS SERIES: What The Cross Meant To…

• The Centurion At The Feet Of Jesus Mark 15:33-39

• The Man From Arimathea Matthew 27:57-66

• The Cross Of Barabbas Matthew 27:11-26

• Victory In Jesus I Corinthians 15:35-57