“Timeless Reactions to the Crucifixion” Luke 23:47-49; Matthew 27:54

In 1927, the famous poet T.S. Eliot became a Christian, which shocked his friends and associates. He embraced the deity of Christ, and the gospel of grace. He would become one of the most influential poets in the last century.

He would go on to rather courageously write his opinion that it was secular society’s rejection of the gospel that had led to cultural decline and moral decay. And that was his opinion of his world, 100 years ago.

Prior to his conversion, he belonged to an informal group of artists and authors and intellectuals. When the news hit the fan that he’d become a Christian, they wanted nothing to do with him any longer, of course.

One article I read said that they were filled with shock and disgust over his conversion. Virginia Woolf, the famous author and leader of this group, visited Eliot in his home – they sat by his fireplace where he told her about his change of heart.

Instead of being interested, she later wrote to a friend, “I have had the most shameful and distressing meeting with Tom Eliot. He may now be considered dead to us all from this day forward. He has become a believer in God and he now goes to church. I was shocked. I mean, there is something obscene in a person sitting there by the fire [actually] believing in God.” (SOURCE: ^{Adapted from Joseph Loconte, A Hobbit, A Wardrobe, and a Great War (Thomas Nelson, 2015), p. 124)}

She felt it was shocking . . . it was shameful . . . it was even obscene!

Which reminds you that you can’t determine the definition of obscenity or what is shameful from the world around you – their definitions and reactions are the opposite of what’s true and good and right.

Maybe you’ve had a similar reaction upon your conversion to faith in Jesus Christ . . . the cross of Christ became for you, a crossroad where you turned one way and everyone else in your family turned the other way.

The cross of Christ created a crisis in your world – your relationships – your career – your family and friends. It’ll never be the same because of who you now follow as your Lord and Savior.

Go out there in your world and talk in generic terms about God this and God that – and you’ll be left alone. But talk about Jesus as the Redeemer who died on a wooden cross 2,000 years ago, to pave the way for sinners to go to heaven, and you’ll get a reaction. Everybody’s gonna have a reaction when you talk like that.

I have been fascinated by the reactions of people who’ve appeared at this scene on Calvary – Skull Hill – Golgatha.

In fact, before we leave this scene, I want to point out 4 reactions from people who’ve shown up in the account of Christ’s crucifixion.

I see four reactions here at Mount Calvary as Jesus dies.

The first reaction is implied from the clues we’ve been given in the gospel accounts.

And that reaction is:

Relief!

The Jewish leaders wanted him dead. The high priest, the elders and the scribes – almost everyone on the Sanhedrin – the Jewish Supreme Court – had voted to put Him to death.

The news had quickly traveled down the hill and into the city of Jerusalem and to the leaders of the Lord’s opposition that He had just died.

And let me tell you, they were so glad to see that troublemaker – that whip-swinger – temple-cleanser – tradition-breaker, crowd-mesmerizer, miracle-worker was finally gone.

One author wrote, the Lord’s enemies would have breathed a sigh of relief, glad to see their rival was dead. (SOURCE: ^{Charles R. Swindoll, Insights on Luke (Zondervan, 2012), p. 513)}

But there’s another reaction here – in a word:

Regret!

Luke’s account records for us in chapter 23 and verse 48:

And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, [this show] when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. Luke 23:48

The word refers to beating oneself while mourning or lamenting.

^{William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke (Baker Book House, 1978), p. 1039}

They’re pounding on their chests mourning and lamenting the death of an obviously innocent man.

They had taunted Him, hounded Him, mocked Him – cried out as a mob to crucify Him – but they are now filled with guilty regret, aware that something unusual had happened.

Luke says that this was the result of all they saw. The verb here for what they saw uses a Greek verb theoreo – which gives us our word for theory.

It means to see something that provokes one to consider what it means – to produce a theory or two about it. They weren’t convinced, but they had their theories.

And so as these people leave the scene, they are engrossed in debates on all that these events must have signified – Jesus was a great man, a great teacher, maybe even a prophet, certainly a mysterious man.

They had their theories – they didn’t know exactly, but what they did know was that Jesus didn’t come down off that cross to prove He was the Messiah – He died.

He died.

I mentioned several years ago about a conversation I had in Israel with a young lady behind the counter at a gift shop. No one else was in the shop – so I struck up a conversation about Jesus. I eventually asked here, “Give me the main reason you do not believe He is the Messiah.” And she said without a pause, “Because He died.”

She sort of laughed, as if the reason was so obvious – “He can’t be the Messiah because He died.”

That was the reaction of this crowd here. Some had wondered and they at one point waited breathlessly to see if Elijah would come to rescue Him and announce He was indeed the Messiah.

Matthew’s gospel showed this same crowd shouting at Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” (Matthew 27:40)

But He didn’t.

But now . . . they wondered – they had their theories – Jesus might not be the Messiah, but He didn’t deserve to die – especially like this!

One commentator, R.C. Lenski puts their reaction into a rhyming couplet in his commentary: “They came to witness a show; they left with feelings of woe.” (SOURCE: ^{Quoted by Hendriksen, p. 1037)}

And now this crowd heads home filled with shame and regret for their part in bringing about the death of an innocent Man.

The next reaction I want to point out is, in a word:

Remorse!

Luke now writes in verse 49:

And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. (SOURCE: Luke 23:49)

Can you imagine a more pitiful group of people?

Standing at a distance – more than likely afraid of the crowd – the religious leaders.

Many more will slip away into the night, and return to the life they’d left behind, before following Him.

Several of the original disciples will go back to fishing for a living. Disciples will travel back to their home villages and try to answer everyone’s questions – and wonder about the questions they have in their own hearts and minds.

They had envisioned a kingdom. James and John assumed they’d have front row seats, on either side of Jesus.

They had professed their undying faith in Him. They knew who He was – at least they thought they knew who He was.

Now, He’s gone – they are filled with incredible sadness and remorse over the death of their friend, their teacher, their guide, their hoped-for-Messiah.

Some of them will huddle up in an upper room over the weekend to try and make sense of it all.

A weekend of questions . . . a weekend of sorrow and tears.

But for one man – the most unlikely man – is not filled with remorse, but reverence.

Reverence!

Luke records, back in verse 47:

Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” Luke 23:47

He praised God. The word to praise is doxazw which means to praise the reputation and character of God.

We sing the doxology which is a song of praise to God the Father, Son and Spirit.

He’s praising God – why? Because Jesus is an innocent man. Literally, Jesus is righteous. “He is the righteous One”. (SOURCE: ^{Swindoll, p. 512)}

Later in the Book of Acts, this phrase becomes a messianic title for Jesus – He is the Righteous One (Acts 3:14).

^{David E. Garland, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke (Zondervan, 2011), p. 929}

Before Stephen is martyred by the Jewish mob, in Acts chapter 7, he preaches that Jesus was “the coming Righteous One.”

Later in Acts 22, as Paul is converted following his encounter with the risen Lord there on the Damascus road, Ananias confirms Paul’s testimony by saying, “You have indeed seen the Righteous One”.

There is only one righteous man to have ever lived – and that man is Jesus.

So get this – the very first worship service after the Lord’s death, doesn’t take place in the temple, or in a synagogue, or in a church, but at the foot of the cross. (SOURCE: ^{Adapted from Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Matthew (Crossway, 2013), p. 884)}

And not by an educated Jewish leader, but by a calloused, Roman centurion who believes.

What led him to this point?

Again, Luke put it this way:

Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God …

Luke 23:47a

I mentioned earlier how the crowd is filled with regret because of what they had seen. That word for seeing meant “to theorize” – “to come up with a theory”.

But here, in verse 47, the verb “to see” is different. It’s a word that means to perceive – to see with the mind – to interpret correctly what has been seen.

David Garland writes in his exegetical commentary on this text that this centurion’s confession reveals that he saw something beyond surface appearances. (SOURCE: ^{Garland, p. 929)}

We would call it “insight”; we would say, “he connected the dots” – by the Spirit’s enabling, he put the puzzle pieces – the clues – together.

This verb is used in the same way over in Matthew 5:16 where Jesus tells His followers:

Let your light shine before others, so that they may see [there’s the same verb – that they might put the clues together – what are they? That they may see] your good works [and do what? Praise you? Give glory to you? No! That they may see] and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16

People are gonna see the way you live and some of them are gonna connect the dots – it isn’t really about your good works – it’s about the God you believe in who empowers you to live a life of good works.

So here on this hill called Calvary, a centurion glorifies God by acknowledging the righteousness of Jesus. (SOURCE: ^{Hendriksen, p. 1037)}

But that’s not all this centurion was praising God about, here in this scene.

As we’ve learned in our study through Luke, that by combining the gospel accounts you put all the clues together and get the fullest accounting.

Matthew’s gospel adds this stunning declaration in chapter 27 and verse 54:

When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” Matthew 27:54

Not only the centurion, but these four soldiers under his command who’d been given the gruesome task of crucifying Jesus and the two thieves – all five of them come to the same conclusion.

The first post-cross revival takes place among the Roman military!

My missionary father, who founded Missions to Military, used to love this passage. He would add to this passage the fact that the first Gentile convert added to the New Testament church, in Acts chapter 10, was another centurion.

It’s likely that these two men knew each other – in fact, we know there were only around 700 centurions in the entire Roman army.

The first-fruits of the gospel in the Gentile world were military personnel.

Centurion comes from the Latin word for “one hundred” – a Roman centurion commanded 100 soldiers.

He had earned this right for his loyalty and dedication to the Roman empire. And this particular, anonymous centurion had been given a challenging assignment.

It was his assignment to oversee the crucifixion of Jesus in this incredibly volatile environment. He didn’t know if the mob would even allow it but rather kill Jesus before ever reaching Golgotha.

To make matters even more complicated, Jesus had been unable to carry the crossbeam, and a bystander had been forced to carry the crossbeam instead.

The streets were lined with people shouting for this man’s death – Skull Hill was packed with spectators who’d come to mock this man while he died – that was something this centurion had never seen before.

We know from history that no one but grieving relatives – if that – would ever come to watch a crucifixion.

But Matthew writes that after what this centurion and his soldiers had seen – same word for “connecting the dots – putting the clues together – after what they saw – they actually became the first evangelists after the death of Christ.

What had they seen?

We’ve spent seven weeks studying what they saw . . .

• They saw Jesus stand before Pilate and they heard Pilate declare that Jesus was innocent of any crime – but you can crucify him anyway.

That would have immediately mystified these defenders of Roman law.

• Then they saw devout women in Jerusalem weeping as Jesus walked by – and they saw Jesus stop and tell them not to weep for Him, but for their nation.

• They saw Jesus refuse the narcotic drink of wine with myrrh, to deaden the pain. Typically, victims would gulp down as much as they could.

• As they nailed Jesus to the crossbeams, instead of cursing them, they saw His compassion for them, and heard Him say, “Father forgive them – they don’t know what they’re doing.”

This was the first time, no doubt, the Centurion had ever had a crucified person pray for him.

• They saw Him repeat this prayer of compassion and forgiveness.

• They saw the placard above His head announcing His royalty.

• They saw Jesus have a brief conversation with one of the dying thieves – promising him that before the day was out, they would walk together in Paradise – in the eternal Garden of the King.

• They saw Jesus place the care of His mother into John’s hands – the only disciple who hadn’t run away.

Then centurion and his soldiers see the earth suddenly grow dark as night, even though it is high noon. They knew something supernatural was at work.

• They hear Jesus cry out to God as His Father – crying over His abandonment as the Father turns away from His sin-saturated Son.

The soldiers now stay close to the cross, keeping watch over Jesus, Matthew writes in verse 54, perhaps to make sure nothing happened to Jesus in the darkness

• Then after nearly three hours of silence, the darkness begins to lift and they hear Jesus say through parched lips – I thirst. They immediately give him some of their sour wine – the common drink of soldiers during this assignment.

• And then, they hear Jesus triumphantly shout, “It is finished” and then immediately afterward, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” And with that, Jesus dies.

And the earth begins to shake with an earthquake – people fall to the ground – stunned by the obvious connection – Jews and Gentiles alike believed earthquakes signified the presence and power of God.

And this centurion, the spokesman of this converted band of soldiers says, “Truly, this was the Son of God.”

No wonder – the compassion – the forgiveness – the dignity – the control – the promise of a kingdom – calling God His Father – the darkness – the earthquake.

C’mon . . . connect the dots . . . they did.

“Truly, this was the Son of God!”

Unfortunately, your study notes will suggest that the definite article is lacking and therefore the centurion might have merely said, ‘Truly this was a son of God’ or, “truly, this was the son of a god”. Any God.

I am angered by the footnotes in my evangelical translation that suggest this as well, even though the lack of a definite article with the title “Son of God” does not question it’s meaning grammatically or contextually.

Luke wrote often in this manner to emphasize the title, not deemphasize it.

Son of God!

• In chapter 1 of Luke’s account, the angel appeared to Mary to give her the news of her supernatural fertilization –
• the Spirit of God causing one of her eggs to come to life –
• thus giving this new life a divine nature from the Spirit and a human nature from Mary –
• by avoiding the sperm – the seed of Joesph, a man, whereby a fallen sinful nature is transmitted –
• Jesus will have a human nature, but not a fallen sin nature –

And the angel tells Mary in verse 35, this child will be called, “the Son of God.” There’s no definite article there.

In Matthew’s gospel, when Jesus walked on water in the middle of that storm, out to the boat where the disciples were in there giving each other the last rites, Jesus calms the storm with a word and the disciples say – “Truly you are the Son of God.” No definite article there.

I noticed that on this text, there are not comments in my uninspired footnotes at the bottom of the page suggesting that they said, “if you are a son of a god”.

No – “You are the Son of God!

This is the exact same construction used by the centurion.

Truly, this was the Son of God!

I couldn’t help but think of the testimony of the centurion and the dying thief.

• The dying thief believed in Jesus even though Jesus was about to die.
• This centurion believed in Jesus even though Jesus had just died.

They saw with the eyes of faith.

For this centurion, this would be a life-changing confession – a dangerous confession. Caesar demanded the highest loyalty from his military commanders.

Caesar was considered divine – once a year every citizen had to go to a temple and offer incense to the deity of Caesar. They would receive a receipt from the temple priests that they had done so.

Imagine what this centurion might lose? Imagine what he gained forever?

I read some time ago of a pastor recalling a summer mission’s trip to Malaysia. While there, he served in a growing, Bible-believing church. At one of their worship services, a teenage girl shared with the congregation her faith in Christ. Then they celebrated her faith in Christ as she was baptized during the service.

This pastor noticed a couple of old suitcases leaning against the wall of that little church, near the back doors. When he asked the pastor why the luggage was there, he pointed to that teenage girl and said, “Her father told her that if she was baptized as a Christian, she could never come home again. So she brought her luggage with her.” (SOURCE: ^{Raymond McHenry, McHenry’s Stories for the Soul (Hendrickson, 2001), 48)}

Church tradition says this centurion’s name was Longinus.

He would join the New Testament church in Jerusalem. He would eventually be called to testify of the strange and miraculous events surrounding the crucifixion of the man called Jesus.

Because he refused to deny the events he witnessed while Christ was on the cross; because he also refused to deny the Lord’s resurrection, he lost his job, his reputation, and eventually his life. (SOURCE: ^{Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, The Crucifixion of the King of Glory (Ancient Publishing, 2021), p. 206)}

He became one of the earliest martyrs in church history.

The man who held the first worship service after the death of Christ – singing as it were the foundation of our doxology – our faith – our gospel – today.

That truly . . . it’s the truth . . .

Jesus is a righteous man – sinless.

And He’s sovereign –

Truly, Jesus is the Son of God!