Day 39: In Front Of Jesus

“And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”” 

Mark 15:39

What is it about Jesus that leads you to conclude that he is surely the Son of God? For the centurion in this verse there was apparently something about the way Jesus died that led him to realise that he must be the Son of God.  

Glancing at the preceding verses, maybe it was because of the strange darkness that covered the land in the middle of the day, or perhaps Jesus’ calling out to his Father to ask why he had forsaken him. It could have been the news that the curtain in the temple had torn in two all the way down at the moment that Jesus had breathed his last. Or perhaps it was all of these and more. But whatever it was, the centurion noticed that there was something about Jesus that marked him out as the very image of the invisible God.  

I find there is something faith-building and restoring thinking of Jesus during his years on earth – thinking of the way he lived, the way he died, and the way he lived again! And even through doubt, it helps me realise that Jesus is indeed the image of the invisible one – the Son of God.

Tom Riches