This man really was the Son of God!
Mark 15:33-39
About noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way until around three o’clock. Then about that time Jesus shouted, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?”
Some of the people standing there heard Jesus and said, “He is calling for Elijah.” One of them ran and grabbed a sponge. After he had soaked it in wine, he put it on a stick and held it up to Jesus. He said, “Let’s wait and see if Elijah will come and take him down!” Jesus shouted and then died.
At once the curtain in the temple tore in two from top to bottom.
A Roman army officer was standing in front of Jesus. When the officer saw how Jesus died, he said, “This man really was the Son of God!”
The first human being in history to utter these words about Jesus was a Roman battle-hardy centurion. Faced with darkness and the utter sense of abandonment in the cry of Jesus, Mark has him make the declaration that nobody else dared to make.
His miracales, his perfect life, his compassion, his large following - none of this seems to have poduced this kind of response. But when faced with the overwhelming anguish and suffering of Jesus, motivated by love, there was no other conclusion to make.
It is at the cross where the truth about Jesus is revealed - that this man was the Son of God. The one who enters into all the pain and suffering that often causes us to echo his words… My God, my God why have you abandoned me?…is the Son of God.
Spend some time at the cross again this Good Friday, maybe you’ll see Jesus differently than before.
Here is the story from Mark 15…
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Peter declared that Jesus was the son of the living God long before the centurion.