Mark 15:39: The Centurion's Confession. Standing directly in front of Jesus, a centurion sees the way Jesus breathes His last and declares: "Truly this man was the Son of God!" The centurion’s confession is especially significant in Mark's Gospel because a Roman soldier recognizes the identity of Jesus as the Son of God after witnessing how He faithfully suffers and dies.
In Mark 15:39, the Roman centurion who was standing directly in front of Jesus sees the way He breathes His last and confesses: "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (v 39).
This confession is one of the climactic moments of Mark's Gospel.
The religious leaders rejected Jesus. The crowds mocked Him. His disciples fled. But a Roman centurion watched Jesus faithfully fulfill His mission unto death and recognized the truth:
Truly this man was the Son of God! (v 39).
After describing Jesus's death and the tearing of the temple veil (Mark 15:37-38), Mark pivots his narrative to record the remarkable response of the Roman centurion who oversaw Jesus's execution:
When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (v 39).
TheCenturion
Mark first identifies the man who made this remarkable confession as the centurion.
A centurion was a Roman military officer of considerable authority. Roman centurions typically commanded divisions of approximately one hundred soldiers.
This particular centurion was the officer in charge of overseeing Jesus's crucifixion. It is likely that the centurion was assigned to oversee this particular crucifixion because Jesus was no ordinary prisoner.
While crucifixions were standard procedure throughout the Roman Empire, Jesus elicited passionate responses from His followers and enemies alike. Further, Jesus's trial under Pilate had been particularly contentious (Mark 15:1-15,Luke 23:16-25,John 19:5-16). Pilate had declared Jesus innocent but acquiesced to the crowd's clamor to crucify Jesus (Mark 15:13-15,Luke 23:4). Pilate likely wanted an officer he could trust, a soldier of experience, to oversee Jesus's execution in case anything unexpected occurred.
The centurion and his fellow Roman soldiers who were guarding Jesus were also attending to the two robbers who were crucified with Him (Mark 15:27). Their responsibility was to ensure that the condemned men died and that no one interfered with the governor's orders to execute them.
The centurion and his soldiers were likely the same men who nailed Jesus's hands and feet to the cross, divided His garments, and cast lots for them (Mark 15:24). This centurion may also have participated in mocking Jesus.
Luke records that the soldiers mocked Jesus while He was on the cross:
"The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, and saying, 'If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!'" (Luke 23:36-37)
These soldiers also seem to have been among the people for whom Jesus prayed:
"Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34a)
If the centurion heard Jesus pray this, it likely would have struck him as unusual. Prisoners who were crucified typically would have shown hatred or fear toward their executioners--not mercy. Such a display of compassion may have caused the centurion to begin questioning the character and identity of the man he was crucifying. It may have helped lead him to the conclusion that Jesus was truly the Son of God (v 39).
The Centurion's Proximity to Jesus's Cross
Mark provides a detail that Matthew does not. Mark points out that the centurionwas standing right in front of Him (v 39). This description emphasizes thecenturion's position as an eyewitness to Jesus's death.
The centurion observed Jesus while He was on the cross with his own eyes and ears. He was not standing from a distance--he was standing right in front of Him.
From this position, the centurion had an unobstructed view of Jesus throughout His suffering and death. The centurion likely would have seen the way Jesus responded to His mockers. He likely would have heard Jesus's cries from the cross (Mark 15:34,John 19:30,Luke 23:46). He would have experienced the mysterious darkness that fell over the land from the sixth hour until the ninth hour (Mark 15:33).
As a professional commander of soldiers, the centurion understood courage, discipline, endurance, obedience, and duty. He had probably watched many men die. But he had never watched anyone die like Jesus.
Witnessing the manner in which Jesus suffered and died may have caused the centurion to reexamine who this man really was. Jesus did not curse His executioners. He did not beg them for mercy. He refused the wine mixed with myrrh. He endured the cross with love.
Jesus had come "to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).
From the vantage of standing right in front of Jesus, the centurion (v 39), a man who understood duty himself, may have noticed Jesus's remarkable self-control. The centurion may have sensed how Jesus seemed to be on a mission to accomplish something when He was on the cross and how when Jesus's work was finished (John 19:30), He willingly bowed His head and surrendered His life (Luke 23:46).
The centurion witnessed how Jesus completed His mission and declared: "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (v 39).
Luke records that the centurion responded to "what had happened" by praising God and saying: "Certainly this manwas innocent" (Luke 23:47).
The portion of the centurion's statement revealed in Luke focuses on Jesus's innocence and righteousness. The portion of the centurion's confession revealed in Matthew and Mark focus on Jesus's divinity. The centurion confessed both that Jesus was the Son of God (Matthew 27:54,Mark 15:39) and that He "was innocent" (Luke 23:47)
Matthew adds the detail that the centurion and the soldiers with him "became very frightened" (Matthew 27:54).
It would take quite a bit to frighten a professional Roman legionary. These soldiers were probably hardened veterans who had witnessed brutality and death many times throughout their careers. They had likely witnessed and participated in previous crucifixions of criminals, rebels, and religious zealots.
It was not the fact that Jesus died that frightened these soldiers. Matthew says it was "the earthquake and the [other extraordinary] things that were happening" (Matthew 27:54).
These Gospel accounts are complementary as they describe that the centurion was deeply affected both by the supernatural signs surrounding Jesus's death and by the remarkable manner in which Jesus Himself suffered and died.
The Centurion's Confession
The centurion's confession was: "Truly this man was the Son of God!"
His confession is simple and straightforward: This man, meaning: "Jesus" who had just breathed His last breath, was the Son of God. The centurion was confessing that this man, Jesus, was divine and that this man was from God.
The word--Truly--emphasizes the sincerity and depth of conviction to the centurion's confession.
Truly this man was the Son of God! (v 39). In his confession, the centurion not only acknowledged Jesus's divinity; by extension, he condemned his own role in mocking and torturing God's Son to death on the cross.
We don't know the heart of others, but perhaps when the centurion looked at Jesus lifted up on the cross and confessed that He was the Son of God (v 39), he was born again.
If in that moment the centurion believed, then Mark is giving us a direct application of John 3:14-15, where Jesus told Nicodemus that anyone who looked at Him "lifted up" as the Israelites of old looked at the bronze snake "lifted up" on a pole, they would be delivered. In the case of the Israelites, when they believed enough to look at the snake, they were delivered from the venomous viper bites. Similarly, Jesus delivers us from the poisonous venom of sin. It could be that this centurion's confession is an illustration of John 3:14-15.
Luke adds that the centurion "began praising God, saying,'Certainly this manwas innocent'" (Luke 23:47). This further indicates the guilt which the centurion felt for participating in the crucifixion of Jesus who was indeed innocent. It could also indicate his belief.
The portion of the centurion's statement revealed in Luke focuses on Jesus's innocence and righteousness. The portion of the centurion's confession revealed in Matthew and Mark focus on Jesus's divinity.
It is noteworthy that the first person to be recorded as recognizing Jesus's divinity following His death was a Gentile. The Jewish leaders had violently rejected Jesus:
All these rejections came in no uncertain terms. But as the Jews rejected Jesus, and largely continued to reject Jesus, this Roman Gentile seems to have been among the first to recognize Jesus for who He really is--the Son of God (v 39).
The centurion's confession is the climatic statement concerning Jesus's death in Mark's Gospel. His statement--Truly this Man was the Son of God! (v 39)--are for Mark and Matthew's Gospels what Jesus’s final recorded statements "It is finished" (John 19:30) and "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit" (Luke 23:46) respectively are to the Gospels of John and Luke.
Mark does not record the words Jesus spoke in His final cry. Instead, Mark, following Matthew (Matthew 27:54) focuses on the Roman centurion's conclusion about who Jesus was. Mark does this in the hopes that his Roman readers will draw a similar conclusion as their fellow Roman and fortify their trust that Jesus truly is the Son of God (v 39).
THE CENTURION'S CONFESSION IN THE GOSPEL OF MARK
Matthew's inclusion of this event looks backward toward the Old Testament prophecies that anticipated the Gentiles' recognition of the Messiah. Luke's inclusion of the centurion's confession seems to anticipate what was to come in the book of Acts, written by Luke, as the Gospel spread to the Gentiles.
The centurion's confession has particular significance within the Gospel of Mark and it would have had been of particularly keen interest to Mark's Roman audience.
The man who makes the climactic confession at the cross is Roman, as Mark's primary readers were Roman. The centurion is a man whose life and identity were shaped by service, duty, obedience, and power. And what the centurion saw in Jesus causes him to recognize something extraordinary.
The Roman centurion saw how the powerful Son of God had completed His mission as the faithful Servant (Mark 10:45).
The centurion saw a different and greater kind of power. Jesus did not abandon His mission when obedience required suffering. He remained obedient to the point of death (Philippians 2:8). The centurion saw in Jesus and the wayHe suffered on the cross, the embodiment of what it meant to be great (Mark 10:43). The centurion saw in Jesus someone far greater than himself. He saw that Jesus was truly the Son of God (v 39).
The centurion's confession was similar to the response Mark hoped to evoke from his Roman readers.
Mark began his Gospel by declaring Jesus to be "Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark 1:1). Now, at the moment of Jesus's death, a Roman centurion makes the same confession. But as Mark was written for Roman believers, Mark does not merely want to convince his (already believing) readers that Jesus is the Christ and Son of God. Rather, Mark calls his readers to trust Jesus more, to follow Him, and faithfully serve God as He did--even when discipleship requires suffering, sacrifice, rejection, or death.
Mark wants his readers to take up their own cross and follow Jesus:
"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." (Mark 8:34)
Mark wants his readers to become great, as God defines what is great:
"You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all." (Mark 10:42b-44)
Mark 15:39
39 When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
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Mark 15:39 meaning
The parallel gospel accounts of Mark 15:39 are found in Matthew 27:54 and Luke 23:47-48.
In Mark 15:39, the Roman centurion who was standing directly in front of Jesus sees the way He breathes His last and confesses: "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (v 39).
This confession is one of the climactic moments of Mark's Gospel.
The religious leaders rejected Jesus. The crowds mocked Him. His disciples fled. But a Roman centurion watched Jesus faithfully fulfill His mission unto death and recognized the truth:
Truly this man was the Son of God! (v 39).
After describing Jesus's death and the tearing of the temple veil (Mark 15:37-38), Mark pivots his narrative to record the remarkable response of the Roman centurion who oversaw Jesus's execution:
When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (v 39).
The Centurion
Mark first identifies the man who made this remarkable confession as the centurion.
A centurion was a Roman military officer of considerable authority. Roman centurions typically commanded divisions of approximately one hundred soldiers.
This particular centurion was the officer in charge of overseeing Jesus's crucifixion. It is likely that the centurion was assigned to oversee this particular crucifixion because Jesus was no ordinary prisoner.
While crucifixions were standard procedure throughout the Roman Empire, Jesus elicited passionate responses from His followers and enemies alike. Further, Jesus's trial under Pilate had been particularly contentious (Mark 15:1-15, Luke 23:16-25, John 19:5-16). Pilate had declared Jesus innocent but acquiesced to the crowd's clamor to crucify Jesus (Mark 15:13-15, Luke 23:4). Pilate likely wanted an officer he could trust, a soldier of experience, to oversee Jesus's execution in case anything unexpected occurred.
The centurion and his fellow Roman soldiers who were guarding Jesus were also attending to the two robbers who were crucified with Him (Mark 15:27). Their responsibility was to ensure that the condemned men died and that no one interfered with the governor's orders to execute them.
The centurion and his soldiers were likely the same men who nailed Jesus's hands and feet to the cross, divided His garments, and cast lots for them (Mark 15:24). This centurion may also have participated in mocking Jesus.
Luke records that the soldiers mocked Jesus while He was on the cross:
"The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, and saying, 'If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!'"
(Luke 23:36-37)
These soldiers also seem to have been among the people for whom Jesus prayed:
"Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."
(Luke 23:34a)
If the centurion heard Jesus pray this, it likely would have struck him as unusual. Prisoners who were crucified typically would have shown hatred or fear toward their executioners--not mercy. Such a display of compassion may have caused the centurion to begin questioning the character and identity of the man he was crucifying. It may have helped lead him to the conclusion that Jesus was truly the Son of God (v 39).
The Centurion's Proximity to Jesus's Cross
Mark provides a detail that Matthew does not. Mark points out that the centurion was standing right in front of Him (v 39). This description emphasizes the centurion's position as an eyewitness to Jesus's death.
The centurion observed Jesus while He was on the cross with his own eyes and ears. He was not standing from a distance--he was standing right in front of Him.
From this position, the centurion had an unobstructed view of Jesus throughout His suffering and death. The centurion likely would have seen the way Jesus responded to His mockers. He likely would have heard Jesus's cries from the cross (Mark 15:34, John 19:30, Luke 23:46). He would have experienced the mysterious darkness that fell over the land from the sixth hour until the ninth hour (Mark 15:33).
As a professional commander of soldiers, the centurion understood courage, discipline, endurance, obedience, and duty. He had probably watched many men die. But he had never watched anyone die like Jesus.
Witnessing the manner in which Jesus suffered and died may have caused the centurion to reexamine who this man really was. Jesus did not curse His executioners. He did not beg them for mercy. He refused the wine mixed with myrrh. He endured the cross with love.
Jesus had come "to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).
From the vantage of standing right in front of Jesus, the centurion (v 39), a man who understood duty himself, may have noticed Jesus's remarkable self-control. The centurion may have sensed how Jesus seemed to be on a mission to accomplish something when He was on the cross and how when Jesus's work was finished (John 19:30), He willingly bowed His head and surrendered His life (Luke 23:46).
The centurion witnessed how Jesus completed His mission and declared: "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (v 39).
Luke records that the centurion responded to "what had happened" by praising God and saying: "Certainly this man was innocent" (Luke 23:47).
The portion of the centurion's statement revealed in Luke focuses on Jesus's innocence and righteousness. The portion of the centurion's confession revealed in Matthew and Mark focus on Jesus's divinity. The centurion confessed both that Jesus was the Son of God (Matthew 27:54, Mark 15:39) and that He "was innocent" (Luke 23:47)
Matthew adds the detail that the centurion and the soldiers with him "became very frightened" (Matthew 27:54).
It would take quite a bit to frighten a professional Roman legionary. These soldiers were probably hardened veterans who had witnessed brutality and death many times throughout their careers. They had likely witnessed and participated in previous crucifixions of criminals, rebels, and religious zealots.
It was not the fact that Jesus died that frightened these soldiers. Matthew says it was "the earthquake and the [other extraordinary] things that were happening" (Matthew 27:54).
These Gospel accounts are complementary as they describe that the centurion was deeply affected both by the supernatural signs surrounding Jesus's death and by the remarkable manner in which Jesus Himself suffered and died.
The Centurion's Confession
The centurion's confession was: "Truly this man was the Son of God!"
His confession is simple and straightforward: This man, meaning: "Jesus" who had just breathed His last breath, was the Son of God. The centurion was confessing that this man, Jesus, was divine and that this man was from God.
The word--Truly--emphasizes the sincerity and depth of conviction to the centurion's confession.
Truly this man was the Son of God! (v 39). In his confession, the centurion not only acknowledged Jesus's divinity; by extension, he condemned his own role in mocking and torturing God's Son to death on the cross.
We don't know the heart of others, but perhaps when the centurion looked at Jesus lifted up on the cross and confessed that He was the Son of God (v 39), he was born again.
If in that moment the centurion believed, then Mark is giving us a direct application of John 3:14-15, where Jesus told Nicodemus that anyone who looked at Him "lifted up" as the Israelites of old looked at the bronze snake "lifted up" on a pole, they would be delivered. In the case of the Israelites, when they believed enough to look at the snake, they were delivered from the venomous viper bites. Similarly, Jesus delivers us from the poisonous venom of sin. It could be that this centurion's confession is an illustration of John 3:14-15.
Luke adds that the centurion "began praising God, saying,'Certainly this man was innocent'" (Luke 23:47). This further indicates the guilt which the centurion felt for participating in the crucifixion of Jesus who was indeed innocent. It could also indicate his belief.
The portion of the centurion's statement revealed in Luke focuses on Jesus's innocence and righteousness. The portion of the centurion's confession revealed in Matthew and Mark focus on Jesus's divinity.
It is noteworthy that the first person to be recorded as recognizing Jesus's divinity following His death was a Gentile. The Jewish leaders had violently rejected Jesus:
All these rejections came in no uncertain terms. But as the Jews rejected Jesus, and largely continued to reject Jesus, this Roman Gentile seems to have been among the first to recognize Jesus for who He really is--the Son of God (v 39).
The centurion's confession is the climatic statement concerning Jesus's death in Mark's Gospel. His statement--Truly this Man was the Son of God! (v 39)--are for Mark and Matthew's Gospels what Jesus’s final recorded statements "It is finished" (John 19:30) and "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit" (Luke 23:46) respectively are to the Gospels of John and Luke.
Mark does not record the words Jesus spoke in His final cry. Instead, Mark, following Matthew (Matthew 27:54) focuses on the Roman centurion's conclusion about who Jesus was. Mark does this in the hopes that his Roman readers will draw a similar conclusion as their fellow Roman and fortify their trust that Jesus truly is the Son of God (v 39).
THE CENTURION'S CONFESSION IN THE GOSPEL OF MARK
Matthew's inclusion of this event looks backward toward the Old Testament prophecies that anticipated the Gentiles' recognition of the Messiah. Luke's inclusion of the centurion's confession seems to anticipate what was to come in the book of Acts, written by Luke, as the Gospel spread to the Gentiles.
The centurion's confession has particular significance within the Gospel of Mark and it would have had been of particularly keen interest to Mark's Roman audience.
The man who makes the climactic confession at the cross is Roman, as Mark's primary readers were Roman. The centurion is a man whose life and identity were shaped by service, duty, obedience, and power. And what the centurion saw in Jesus causes him to recognize something extraordinary.
The Roman centurion saw how the powerful Son of God had completed His mission as the faithful Servant (Mark 10:45).
The centurion saw a different and greater kind of power. Jesus did not abandon His mission when obedience required suffering. He remained obedient to the point of death (Philippians 2:8). The centurion saw in Jesus and the way He suffered on the cross, the embodiment of what it meant to be great (Mark 10:43). The centurion saw in Jesus someone far greater than himself. He saw that Jesus was truly the Son of God (v 39).
The centurion's confession was similar to the response Mark hoped to evoke from his Roman readers.
Mark began his Gospel by declaring Jesus to be "Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark 1:1). Now, at the moment of Jesus's death, a Roman centurion makes the same confession. But as Mark was written for Roman believers, Mark does not merely want to convince his (already believing) readers that Jesus is the Christ and Son of God. Rather, Mark calls his readers to trust Jesus more, to follow Him, and faithfully serve God as He did--even when discipleship requires suffering, sacrifice, rejection, or death.
Mark wants his readers to take up their own cross and follow Jesus:
"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me."
(Mark 8:34)
Mark wants his readers to become great, as God defines what is great:
"You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all."
(Mark 10:42b-44)