Luke 23:47-49 47Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was righteous!” 48And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. 49And all who knew him and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.
Luke continues to recount the responses given to Jesus. He notes three types of responses in these verses to Jesus’ death. First, when Jesus expired, something happened in the mind of the centurion in charge of the crucifixion. A centurion was a Roman soldier in charge of a cohort of one hundred soldiers. Luke’s note of this man’s position as centurion is noteworthy because it provides validity to what took place and would have been impressive to the ancient readers.
The testimony of what he saw convinced him of Jesus’ righteousness (dikaios). The centurion witnessed the dark sky and may have heard what Jesus said. The statement about him praising God assumes that he had some belief in God. Most Romans would have been polytheists if they followed their traditional religion, which adopted the Greek pantheon of Gods, plus having other gods. Some Roman soldiers, like Cornelius in Acts 10, were God-fearers who believed in one God.
This centurion certainly could have been one of these God-fearing Gentiles. He saw something powerful in Jesus as he hung on the cross. It is impossible to tell what he thought about Jesus beyond seeing him as an innocent man, or if he had any faith in Jesus. However, what he saw made a big impression on him. How one translates the word righteous is influenced by how one interprets the spiritual status of this soldier. If he is viewed as a soldier just observing the situation, we might translate the word as “innocent.” But if he had some inclination of faith in God, as Matthew 27:54 and Mark 15:39 indicate, then it would be better to translate the word as “righteous.”
Second, the crowd that seemed to be against Jesus or were passive bystanders went home mourning at this spectacle (theōrian, “sight”). The implication with verse 48 is that they also saw Jesus as innocent and the whole thing as a major tragedy. They walked away after he died with heavy hearts because they saw through it all, just like the soldier. Beating one’s breast in the Bible is a sign of great sorrow and even regret. The crowd may have felt some responsibility for what took place, or minimally, they felt deeply impacted and saw the huge mistakes that had been done to kill Jesus. this was a tragedy of deep significance, but they did not understand how significant this was.
Third, those who knew Jesus watched all that was going on. Luke is rather generic about the makeup of the group who knew Jesus. The assumption is that this included the apostles, but Luke does not use any term for followers but just the generic word of association. The apostles were not being disciples at this point but scared onlookers, like the rest of the crowd. Luke adds the significant note that the women disciples from Galilee were also present. These women had faithfully followed Jesus all the way from Galilee. These women may have been the ones mentioned in 8:1-3 who were healed of various issues.
Luke does not record any emotional response from this group. Even more dramatic is that they watched all this from a distance. They did not even get close to Jesus. They followed Jesus to the cross but still lacked the courage to go to the cross or even associate with Jesus. They may have been big talkers until the pressure came, but they would not totally abandon their faith. They must have had a deep disappointment and confusion about all that was happening.
How do we respond when confronted with the reality of death on a cross? People react differently to Jesus. Some will have animosity and rejection. Others will be indifferent. There may be curious people, casual observers of religion. Luke challenges his readers to respond in faith. The story is not over yet. The last part will move us towards courageous and confident faith.
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