Good Friday Reflections

yes I know this is woefully out of date now...

but if anyone is interested in a reflection on the centurion it might be interesting...

[also please forgive the formatting - it has very little to do with grammer, and more to do with making it easier to read out.]

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In this reflection, our focus is the Roman centurion and his confession of who Jesus was. 

Mark commences the gospel with his own confession of Christ – in chapter 1, verse 1, he writes ‘The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God’. Halfway through the gospel account, Jesus asks Peter who he thinks he is, and Peter gives his confession that Jesus is the Christ.

Now, at the end of the gospel, in the midst of Good Friday, the centurion makes his own statement on who Jesus was.

To help you picture the event, a centurion was perhaps the equivalent of a captain or lieutenant in today’s army. He commanded directly a centuria of men – which was in those days around 80 men. 

This centurion had no doubt seen many deaths, on the battlefield and no doubt in many executions as well. Most likely he was in charge of the guard who performed this act of crucifixion, and so would have been present at the gruesome events recorded earlier in the chapter vs 16-20 – when the soldiers mocked Jesus, gave him the crown of thorns, and beat him, before then leading him out to die on the hill outside the city.

As he marched his men out, the centurion would have quite likely felt as though it was any ordinary crucifixion. 

But suddenly and unexpectedly he appears to have been deeply affected by Jesus’ death, When he saw how Jesus died he said “Surely this man was the son of God!”. 

Now we don’t know whether the centurion meant this as a question or a statement. Was it a carefully thought out judgement after observing all these things for himself, or was it something he casually blurted out not expecting anyone to take notice? Certainly it wasn’t the sort of thing you'd expect a battle hardened soldier to utter at a typical crucifixion.

Perhaps he had noticed Jesus before when he taught in the temple, 

perhaps he had felt humbled by Jesus’ prayer earlier in the day of ‘Father forgive, for they know not what they do’, 

perhaps he was moved by the way Jesus had not responded to the way his soldiers had mocked him. Whether or not these things were significant, I think there is something very important in what Jesus cried out - 

“Eloi Eloi, lama Sabacthani?”, 'my God my God, why have you forsaken me?'

This is the cry of a love that suddenly feels no longer reciprocated. 

The love that granted it its identity and upon which it depended for its being and its world is no longer there. 

For Jesus now, the experience of feeling forsaken by his Father was the most awful thing that could happen to him, and far surpassed the pain of the nails.

Maybe it was the evident sincerity and pain poured out in those words from the cross that broke through the callus built up by years of being exposed to death 

and pierced the heart of the centurion with these words. 

On the cross was someone who loved God much, and had been loved by God, 

for only one who genuinely loves much can be hurt this much by separation.

The centurion was moved by the tortured Jesus and saw something in Him that enabled him to recognise Jesus as being more than simply a human being, a good teacher or miracle-worker. 

So he cried out publicly, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” His testimony was short. But sometimes only a few words are needed.

The centurion’s judgement on Jesus challenges us to re-assess our own view of God a

nd the place of suffering within the divine economy. 

Perhaps it is not the case that God is 'big enough' to be present at the cross,

But instead the cross, with all its terrible darkness, shows us more of what is characteristic of God and his love, than anything else can or ever could. 

The death of Jesus impacted the centurion for it jolted him out of self-interested indifference and enabled him to see with striking clarity just who Jesus was. 

May our reflection on the events of Good Friday enable us to see with similar clarity just who Jesus is and so come to know and experience the gift of eternal life that he offers to all who come to him.