What Convinced Him?

Sunday’s sermon took us back to the cross on Good Friday.  Luke 23:32-47 begins with Jesus hanging on Calvary’s cross between two true criminals.  Jesus was scourged, mocked, and ridiculed.  He was wounded for our transgressions.  He was bruised for our iniquities.  He was rebuked and scorned.  Ultimately, he died.  And when the centurion, the Roman soldier, tasked with carrying out this punishment saw the events unfold…he cried out and proclaimed, “Certainly this was a righteous Man!”

So, what convinced the centurion that Jesus was who He claimed to be?  Maybe, he was convinced by the way that Jesus maintained His composure on what was surely the worst day of His life.  When I have bad days, I get grumpy.  Everything little thing annoys me and magnifies the intensity of my emotions.  I’m irritable.  I’m unpleasant.  Not so for Jesus on that day.  Although He was in physical pain, He kept it together.  When the literal weight of the world was on His shoulders, Jesus did not lash out.  I don’t know about you but witnessing His reaction to all that was thrown at Him would have made Jesus stand out to me.  My reaction to life’s calamities matters.

Jesus’s composure was astounding, but it might not have been the only thing that claimed the centurion’s attention.  He may have also been swayed by the way that Jesus embraced the cross.  When the battalion came to arrest Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, they asked Jesus to identify Himself.  Jesus declared who He was, and simply speaking His identity had the power to make the crowd fall at His feet.  And then a crazy, terrible, wonderful thing happened.  Jesus told them to get up and arrest Him.  He had his face turned toward Calvary.  He was ready to embrace the cross that He did not deserve.  Without the cross, His work would be left undone.  The cross, though painful, was part of the process.

Perhaps the centurion regarded Jesus’s compassion while on the cross as a sure sign that He was the Almighty.  I stated earlier that I can be a grump and grouch when my days are thrown off.  When I’m in pain…..forget about it.  But I haven’t ever experienced physical pain the way that Jesus did that day.  Remember he was whipped.  His back was literally torn open by the beatings that He had endured.  A crown of thorns had been pushed into His skull.  Blood poured from all over His body.  And yet, He found time to minister to the criminal on the cross.  In the midst of excruciating pain, His compassion shone through.  He guaranteed the criminal a spot with Him in paradise that same day.

The cross didn’t take Jesus’s power away.  As a matter of fact, the cross lifted Jesus up for the entire world to see.  My life was forever changed by the cross and so was yours.  While on the cross, Jesus cried out with a loud voice.  He set the atmosphere by quoting scripture.  He laid out all that He had to save a dying world.  And we know that the atmosphere must have been right because by the end of this dark day, the centurion exclaimed that “certainly this was a righteous Man!”

We are living in dark days.  I have seen atrocities play out before my eyes for all of my life.  It gets discouraging.  I often feel hopeless.  So I need reminders that though the cross is heavy, it doesn’t mean that there is no power in it.  On the other side of Good Friday is Resurrection Sunday.  And I’m convinced that I serve a God who is not through with me, or us, yet.  #wepreach

Questions to ponder:

• What crosses (obstacles, opposition) are you currently experiencing?
• Do you have a support system in place to help you cope with crosses?
  • If so, how often do you utilize it?
  • If not, would it be beneficial for you to find one?
• When is the last time that you purposely addressed your mental health?
• Are you able to find positive and purposeful activities when life’s issues weigh on you?