Luke 23:47
Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.
The unnamed people of the Bible shed some of the brightest light on what the word of God can do for us. Think of some of them; the unnamed shepherds on the fields of Bethlehem, or the unnamed widow in the temple or the unnamed thief on the cross or the unnamed centurion who stood watching to the end. Their names really aren’t important to us. In fact, if we did know their names, we might easily be tempted to worship them as has happened already with the thief on the cross, who, in the 12th Century, was given the name, Dismas. In his honor, churches have been built around the world, and at his altars, people pray. Do you see why their names aren’t important? What is important about these people is what they said and did. The shepherds glorified God, the widow gave her mite, the thief found forgiveness in Christ, and the centurion confessed that the man he helped crucify was the holy Son of God. We don’t need to know their names, because God does and He has already written them next to your’s and mine in the Book of Life.
Today we want to take a closer look at the centurion and his role in Jesus’ suffering. A centurion was a professional officer of the Roman army who commanded about 80 men. He was distinguished by his uniform: his armor was silvered, he wore his sword on his left side rather than his right, and he ruled his men with an iron hand. He was stationed at the passion scene to keep order. The Jews hatred for Jesus was growing and protests and violence were springing up all over the city. When Judas betrayed Jesus on Thursday night, the soldiers were on hand to protect Him from the crowd. When Pontius Pilate finally saw that the situation was out of control, when he saw that the whole city was in uproar, chanting outside his courtroom, “crucify Him, crucify Him,” he gave him over to the soldiers for crucifixion. The Jews not only wanted Jesus, they wanted Him on a cross.
These soldiers weren’t interested in justice, whether Jesus was innocent or guilty. Their job was to crucify Him, something they well knew how to do. To satisfy the bloodthirsty mob, they dressed Jesus in a purple robe and planted a crown of thorns on His head. They mocked Him and spit upon Him, and ultimately dressed Him in His own robe again and led Him off to Calvary, where they took heavy, wrought, iron nails and drove them through Jesus’ hands onto the crossbeam and nailed his feet on a vertical step.
All the while, our centurion stood looking on, making certain that that criminal in the middle was properly crucified. One of the things about Jesus that must have impressed him was that Jesus never spit back when He was spit on. He never cursed those who cursed Him. In fact, he heard words from the mouth of Jesus that he may never have heard any crucified person say before, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34 How could he not realize that Jesus was praying, not only for the hysterical mob, but also for him and for his soldiers! Everything Jesus said from the cross was a call to repentance and to faith. When he heard Jesus promise a convicted criminal, “Today shall thou be with me in paradise,” he could easily have thought, “I want to be in paradise too.” When heard Jesus tenderly commit the care of His mother to one of His own disciples, he had to be amazed how Jesus, in the midst of dying and intense physical pain, could continue to think about others. Finally, when heard this emaciated and wasted man cry out with a voice, loud and clear, “It is finished,” John 19:30, it was clear that our Savior was in charge to the end. No one took His life from Him. He gave it to redeem a world lost in sin. The final scene was awesome. The ground shook under his feet; rocks split open, tombs broke apart, and the bodies of many holy people rose to life to walk back to the city. It was almost like the end of the world.
What the centurion heard and saw that day so overwhelmed him that he glorified God and said, “Certainly this was a righteous man.” Luke 23:47. Here was one, fully man and fully God, who loved the world so much as to take their place on the cross. Most amazing of all is the fact that the centurion was neither terrified nor sad. The disciples were so afraid that they deserted Jesus to the scorn of the mob, “And they all forsook him, and fled.” Mark 14:50. The grief-stricken women wrapped his body with linen and sadly made their way from the tomb. This centurion, however, glorified God. How he did that, we don’t know. Perhaps he sang; perhaps he shouted; perhaps he jumped up and down for joy. How do you glorify God? On what some theologians consider the saddest afternoon in the history of the world, on this afternoon the centurion was not sad, but happy. The longer he watched the crucifixion scene, the more he came to realize that Jesus was no ordinary man, but the Son of God Himself, for who else could endure all that He did without a word of complaint. Twice from the cross, he had heard Jesus talk directly to His Father in heaven, asking pardon for sinners and committing his last moments to His care. Now he knew that Jesus was a righteous man who came to redeem the unrighteous world.
It is interesting and noteworthy, that Jesus’ life on this earth began and ended with the praise of common, ordinary unnamed people. Do you remember how, once the shepherds had seen the infant Jesus in the manger, they returned, “glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen?” Luke 2:20. We never hear of these shepherds again and we will never know their names. Their praise and glory, however, is one of the brightest spots of Christmas. Much the same way we read, “Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God.” We never hear of this centurion again, and we will never know his name, but his confession, “Certainly this was a righteous man,” heralds the end of Jesus’ earthly life in a most wonderful and joyful way.
Perhaps we should entitle our sermon this evening [afternoon], “the Joy of Good Friday.” After all, what do we have to be sad about? If an unnamed centurion glorified the God whom he had just come to know, how much more should we not sing His praise and glory? Sometimes I wonder about the symbolism of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday with fasting and darkened churches and black or red altar hangings and graphic representations of our Savior’s last three hours. Jesus did indeed die for our sins and we have every reason to be sorry for them. The principal message of Good Friday, however, is not that we are sinners, but that Jesus Christ drank the bitter cup of God’s wrath to His dying moments so that our sins might be forgiven. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, not only is the Friday of His death a good Friday, but every Sunday is a good Sunday and every Monday is a good Monday. Every day we say with the publican, “God be merciful to me, sinner,” Luke 18:13, and every day our Savior says to us, “Son, daughter, thy sins be forgiven thee.” Mark 2:54 What better reason do we have to make this day one of the bright days of our lives, to glorify and praise God for the wonderful things we have seen and heard, for forgiveness, for His gracious love and for the glorious hope of everlasting life.
Lift we, then, our voices,
Swell the mighty flood,
Louder still and louder
Praise the precious blood!