Truly this man was the Son of God

The centurion had participated in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. He had seen first-hand Christ’s faultless demeanour, ‘Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not’, 1 Pet. 2. 23. The centurion had felt the three hours of darkness during which the Saviour was hid from human eye, and after which He ‘cried with a loud voice . . . My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me’, Mark 15. 33, 34. Instead of hanging on the cross for many hours, gradually weakening, suddenly ‘Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost’, v. 37. The earth shuddered in response, Matt. 27. 51, 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’, Mark 15. 39.

The centurion was not the only one whose attention was fixed on Christ. Speaking of His physical body the Lord Jesus had said, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’, John 2. 19. Passers by mocked Him with these very words, Mark 15. 29. His earthly ministry had touched the lives of many. On one evening ‘all the city was gathered together at the door. And He healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils’, 1. 33, 34. Israel’s leaders acknowledged this and jeered at Him because of it, ‘He saved others; himself he cannot save’, 15. 31. Even ‘they that were crucified with him reviled him’, v. 32. Others came to the cross out of wholehearted commitment to Christ. There were women who had followed and served Him in Galilee. When men had done their worst, Joseph of Arimathaea came and tenderly ‘took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre’, v. 46. This action fulfilled the scripture, ‘He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death’, Isa. 53. 9.

Many other Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in minute detail at Calvary, including His death by crucifixion, Mark 15. 24; Ps. 22. 16, the gambling of the soldiers for His garments, Mark 15. 24; Ps. 22. 18, and even His being crucified between two robbers, Mark 15. 27, 28; Isa. 53. 12.