Moved By What He Saw - The Roman Officer

When the Roman officer who stood facing him saw how he had died, he exclaimed, “This man truly was the Son of God!”

Mark 15:39

Rembrandt’s painting The Three Crosses depicts Jesus’ crucifixion. If you look closely, you can see a solitary human figure almost lost in the shadows at the edge of the painting.

Experts on Baroque art believe that this solitary figure is a Rembrandt self-portrait. They think that he included it because he recognized the part his own sins played in nailing Jesus to the cross.

Nothing touches a man like recognizing his part in putting the Son of God to death. A nameless Roman officer stood by watching and listening as the Savior completed the most important act in human history, his sacrificial death on the cross.

This soldier had taken part in some of the most barbaric, brutal executions imaginable, but everything seemed different this time. He had overseen Jesus’ crucifixion; he had stood by as the nails pierced Jesus’ hands and feet. He listened as Jesus silently endured shouted angry cursing and jeering beyond what any common criminal might expect. He had heard Jesus cry out in agony and had felt the ground beneath his feet tremble at the very moment this Messiah breathed his last.

The Roman soldier, a man of war whose own acts of cruelty and violence had surely seared his conscience and hardened his heart, witnessed all this from the foot of the cross. He concluded, “This man truly was the Son of God!”

Although Scripture gives us no further account of this soldier’s life, it is hard to imagine his life not changing for the good. He had seen, at close range, the man he identified as the Son of God willingly pouring himself out as an offering for sin. No wonder he openly declared what so few others dared to say.

What does Jesus being the true Son of God mean to you? Nothing changes, moves, motivates, or transforms us like this realization. When you understand and admit your part in his sacrificial death, you take the first step toward becoming the kind of man God made you to be.