"The Centurion's Testimony: Truly this was the Son of God"

 

Matthew 27:54: So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God!

I often think of this passage when I have a funeral with military present. Often one man in charge and two soldiers with him. They fold the flag, one blows taps, they salute, present the flag on behalf of the President and a grateful nation, and they leave. A cold December day and a windswept valley brought the funeral party after one of the longest funerals with 350 people attending and about a dozen people sharing stories after my message, the frozen soldiers begged me to let them go first, which I did with many apologies for their time waiting. It was not exactly the Battle of the Bulge (where the weather competed with the Second World War), but it was cold for California.

This verse is certainly meant by Matthew to strike shame and rebuke to the Jews who had rejected Christ. This small detachment of soldiers under the direction of a centurion had probably been to many a crucifxion. Yet nothing compare to this. Impressed by the cries from the Cross; filled with awe at the darkness, the earthquake,and the speed with which Christ died; the centurion and his detachment experienced both awe and wonder.

Note that word "feared." We have that whenever the divine reaches into the ordinary lives of mankind. We consider our lives too routine and humdrum, and yet when God gets involved we "fear" instead of trust.

Some have suggested that the fear was a reflection of the soldiers on their own sins as they beheld the sinless Son of God. If so, then the word "Truly" would speak of a conviction on the part of the soldiers that they were now expressing faith in Christ. Those soldiers had heard Christ say: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). They now become an answer to that prayer.

And so are we all! While the crowd of Jews who knew the Old Testament Scriptures regarding the Messiah stood there shouting insults at God suspended between earth and heaven, a handful of Roman soldiers--far from their culture and comfort zone--were able to recognize just who Jesus was. A condemnation to a nation, a comfort to the world. May we take that blessed burden of spreading the Good News to a world that is lost in sin.