Mark 15:39

The Confession of the Centurion

39. when the centurion in charge of the quaternion of soldiers. See above, Mark 15:24.

that he so cried out The whole demeanour of the Divine Sufferer, the loudness of the cry, and the words He uttered, thrilled the officer through and through. Death he must have often witnessed, on the battle-field, in the amphitheatre at Cæsarea, in tumultuous insurrections in Palestine, but never before had he been confronted with the majesty of a Voluntary Death undergone for the salvation of the world. The expression of a wondrous power of life and spirit in the last sign of life, the triumphant shout in death, was to him a new revelation.

the Son of God In an ecstacy of awe and wonder "he glorified God," he exclaimed, "In truth this man was righteous" (Luke 23:47); nay, he went further, and declared, "This Man was a(or the) Son of God." It is possible that on bringing the Lord back after the scourging, which he superintended, the centurion may have heard the mysterious declaration of the Jews, that by their Law the Holy One ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God(John 19:7). The words made a great impression on Pilate then(John 19:8). But now the centurion had seen the end. And what an end! All that he had dimly believed of heroes and demigods is transfigured. This man was more. He was the Son of God. Together with the centurion at Capernaum (Matthew 8) and Cornelius at Cæsarea (Acts 10) he forms in the Gospel and Apostolic histories a triumvirate of believing Gentile soldiers. The words, I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me, had been already fulfilled in the instance of the penitent malefactor. They are now true of this Roman officer. The "Lion of the tribe of Judah" was "reigning from the Tree."