The natural impression of the Crucifixion.
We may call it the natural impression, because it was made on an outsider, who had come into no relations with Christ, and is not likely to have had any prejudices either for or against him. It was made on a Roman officer, who would be calm and self-restrained, inclined indeed to be cynical, familiar with death scenes, and hardened by the familiarity, and not at all susceptible of emotional influences. We can easily see what the Crucifixion was to the Marys, who stood watching it through the telescope of their tears from afar off; but it surprises us to find what a power it had on that cold and self-restrained Roman. The man appears before us but for a moment, and then vanishes forever away. But the vision of him reminds us that the crucified Christ has been a larger, wider power in the world than we have reckoned who did but count the number of his professed adherents. The truth is larger than we have ever thought it to be, which Jesus uttered when he said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."
I. WHAT IMPRESSED THE CENTURION AS SO STRANGE? Remember he had seen criminals die before that day. Watching Jesus, he was smitten with the conviction, "That Man is not a criminal."
1. He contrasted him with the two thieves who were being crucified with him. There was a calm dignity about Jesus which the other sufferers did not and could not show. Compare the things spoken. Thieves reviled; Jesus reviled not again.
2. He could compare Jesus with other victims he had crucified. And the comparison had to be a contrast, a most striking and impressive contrast. Account must be taken too of the influence on the Roman of the darkened sky and the quaking ground.
II. WHAT WAS THE IMPRESSION PRODUCED ON THE CENTURION? St. Luke reports him as saying, "Truly this was a righteous Man." He felt his innocence. A Roman would not put our high meaning into the term "Son of God." What he felt was that the man was a victim, a sacrifice; he was suffering no just reward of his deeds. The natural impression of the Crucifixion confirms our view of Jesus as "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners," and fit to be, what he was, the world's Sacrifice for sin.—R.T.