Mark 15:35-39: a reflection

35Some of those who stood by, when they heard it, said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” 36One ran, and filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Let him be. Let’s see whether Elijah comes to take him down.” 37Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and gave up the spirit. 38The veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. 39When the centurion, who stood by opposite him, saw that he cried out like this and breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

At the moment of Jesus' death, when he cries out and breathes his last, and the veil of the temple is torn in two, an unexpected voice speaks the truth about who he is. It is not a disciple, not a friend, but the Roman centurion standing guard at the execution, the very officer overseeing the crucifixion. Seeing how Jesus died, he says, Truly this man was the Son of God. At the foot of the cross, an outsider, a hardened soldier, confesses what the religious leaders had denied.

Notice where and from whom this confession comes: at the cross, from a Roman executioner. It was not Jesus' miracles that drew this confession, but his death, the way he suffered and died. And it came not from a devout follower but from a pagan soldier, an unlikely person in an unlikely place. The cross, which looked like Jesus' defeat, revealed his true identity, drawing from a hardened outsider the confession that he was the Son of God.

That is striking, and hopeful. The cross reveals who Jesus is, and it draws faith from unexpected places and unlikely people. The confession that Jesus is the Son of God came, at the crucial moment, not from the religious insiders but from a Roman soldier who watched him die. God can open the eyes of the most unlikely person, at the foot of the cross, to see who Jesus really is. Do not write anyone off as beyond the reach of that revelation, and do not underestimate the drawing power of the cross. The centurion saw, in the dying Jesus, the Son of God. May the same cross open your eyes, and the eyes of those you would least expect, to the truth of who he is.

Lord Jesus, at the foot of your cross, it was a Roman centurion, an outsider and an executioner, who confessed, truly this man was the Son of God, seeing in the way you died who you truly are. Thank you that your cross reveals your identity and draws faith from unexpected places and unlikely people. Open my eyes, as it opened his, to see in your death who you really are. And keep me from writing anyone off as beyond the reach of that revelation; you can open the eyes of the most unlikely person to see you. Let the drawing power of your cross reach me, and reach those I would least expect, that we might confess with the centurion that you are the Son of God.