It is just one line.  It’s uttered by a pagan, a Roman soldier.  But as an eyewitness to the crucifixion, he is indelibly captured for all of history: “Truly, this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15.39).

What caused the Roman soldier to utter this line?  Surely, this was a man who’d witnessed all kinds of horrific death.  In fact, he was probably the perpetrator of the deaths of others.  This was not likely his first crucifixion.

So why the amazement?  Scripture gives us some clue.  It says the Roman soldier “stood facing [Jesus and] saw that in this way he breathed his last…”  What was the way that Jesus died?

By all accounts, the Roman soldier would have heard the news: Jesus was dying because he was at the center of religious controversy.  By all accounts, he was innocent, but the Jewish religious leaders wanted him dead.  Pilate obliged.  There, on the cross, in his final moments, when all his oxygen was waning, Jesus cried out, “It is finished!”

Why did he not defend himself?  Why did he not speak out?  Why did he not perform some miracle as he was reported to have done many times?

Why would an innocent man give up his life?  And there in that question, it dawns upon this Roman soldier.  It is in the power of the gift that this man Jesus demonstrates his divinity.  The power of the gift leads Him to proclaim: “Truly this man was the Son of God.”

Bill High

Bill is CEO & Founder of Vyne Legacy. He works with families to equip them with tools to build multigenerational legacies, and he teaches givers and financial advisers on transformational biblical generosity. He is the co-author with David Green of Giving It All Away and Getting It All Back Again: The Way of Living Generously.

Published September 20, 2010

Topics: A Life of Faith