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Luke 23:47-49
In Luke 23:44-46, Jesus cried out to His Father in heaven and committed His spirit into His hands and then took His last breath and died on the cross as the veil of the temple was torn in two. As the centurion who was involved in the crucifixion of Jesus stood by and watched and listened to these things take place, he became amazed at what had happened, and it made a change in his life. He now declares that this man in which he has been abusing physically all morning was certainly a righteous man (Luke 23:47). This righteousness is confirmed in the fulfillment of the prophecy spoken by Isaiah 53 and in Jesus’ own words in Luke 22:37.
In Luke 23:48-49, all the people who had gathered to see this crucifixion; those who shouted the cry to crucify Him, the disciples of Jesus, Jews and Gentiles alike, in seeing what had happened, now leave the scene in fear that they truly have killed the Son of the most high God. Even those who followed Jesus throughout His physical earthly ministry stood at a distance in somewhat of a disbelief of what had taken place that dark day. They must have all returned to their homes in the darkness full of the wonder of “What now?”
This is the event of Jesus taking our sins to pay for them in His death on the cross.
This is the realization of Jesus truly being righteous.
In this event of the death of Jesus on the cross, He continues to show that He came to save the world from sin, not just His chosen people Israel. This is proven by the last person to accept Jesus and declare His righteousness; the centurion. We are told no more about this centurion who would have been a Roman (Gentile), but we must give way to the possibility that in his change of heart in declaring Jesus righteousness that his life was changed from that moment forward. What we are told about this centurion does not definitely define a moment of salvation for him, but the elements of the possibility are there. What we can take from this as Jesus’ last moment in physical life on earth is that He spent it reaching out to the spiritually lost, even the one who was the actual one doing the physical beating and abusing of Him right up to His death on the cross, He remained forgiving. He came to save the world from sin (John 3:17), and that includes anyone who will declare His righteousness by believing in Him.
Dear Lord,
We all have disobeyed your will for our lives in that we all have lived at least part of our lives in the sinful nature, and for the most part, probably more of our lives than we would like to admit. But You sent Your Son Jesus to pay that penalty for us in His innocent death served undeservingly. You were able to open the eyes of the centurion who beat Jesus and crucified Him, and in so can open the eyes of any-and-every one of us. Please open our eyes, hearts, minds, and souls to life in Jesus so that we all may experience true life in Christ Jesus through believing in Him and what He has done for each of us on the cross. In Jesus name I pray, amen.