The Final Week of Jesus - Friday

The Final Week – Friday

³⁷ With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
³⁸ The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. ³⁹ And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God! 

Mark 15:37-39

Many people made their decisions about who Jesus was after seeing how he lived and how he acted. Peter concluded he was the Messiah. Pilate decided he was innocent. This man, this Roman soldier, concluded that he was the Son of God by watching Jesus die. 

I find it hard to imagine that this could be so, but consider this. Crucifixion is a terrible way to die, but it was also reasonably common for Romans to inflict this on people. This man would have likely seen many people die this way. He is now a Centurion, so he might have been involved in a number of crucifixions over his years of service. 

It can take days for someone to die by being crucified, and any final sound would be a whimper.

Now picture what he is seeing. He stands before three crosses, one of which holds a sign saying, “The King of the Jews”. Darkness comes across the land for three hours in the middle of the day – an unearthly and unexplained darkness. And in the midst of all of this, Jesus dies not with a whimper but with a loud cry. 

There was something very different about this death and it was enough to make this man to conclude 

“Surely this man was the Son of God.”

What makes you conclude that Jesus is the Son of God.