Redeemed! (Mark 15:38)

You don’t become a centurion by acts of kindness. He was coarse and vulgar. As an executioner, his heart had become as hard as the nails that he hammered into the hands and feet of Jesus. He had trained himself not to see the pain he inflicted on others. For three hours he had joined in the sport of mocking this man whom he had hung on a tree. He had wiped his blood-stained hands as he gambled for the Jesus’s clothing at the foot of the cross. The blood stained clothing still held the fragrance of the nard that Jesus had been anointed with. Something stirred within the centurion.

At noon, with the sun directly overhead, darkness fell. It was as if a shroud had covered the light. In the darkness the centurion could hear as Jesus struggled to breath. In the darkness he heard the words that began to shatter his hard heart. Words spoken from the cross were few because of the great effort it took to simply breathe. The words he heard created a flash of light within his dark soul, “Father, forgive them; for they don’t know what they are doing.”

Jesus had experienced nothing but cruelty. But just as the darkness could shroud but not extinguish light, so the cruelty Jesus experienced could not diminish His kindness. The thief who had hurled insults at Jesus earlier now asked to be remembered when Jesus came into His kingdom. With life-giving kindness Jesus spoke, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Years of treating others with ruthless brutality had hardened his heart until it had become like a tomb. But in the presence of relentless tenderness his heart began to soften.

Standing in the darkness, stained by the blood of the man hanging on the cross before him, an awakening began to take place. For years he had tried to put to death his blood-drenched conscience. He had been chased deeper and deeper into the darkness to escape the light that might expose what he had become. Standing guard at the cross he could no longer find refuge in the darkness. For three long hours he stood guard as the light of the world hung on the cross before him. 

When the work of redemption was completed, the centurion heard Jesus say, “It is finished!” Then, to his utter astonishment, he heard Jesus cry out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit,” and He breathed His last. The ground beneath the cross began to shake, the earth slit open, and those who had been confined to their tombs were brought to life. “When the centurion, who was standing opposite Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, ‘This man really was God’s Son'” (Mark 15:39)!