Rev. David Holwick M
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 10, 2011
Mark 15:31-39
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I. Army Culture.
A. America has a strong military tradition.
1) In my family, my father, my sister and my brother have all
served in the United States Army.
2) Our country has engaged in at least 11 wars.
3) Even more remarkable, HistoryCentral.com combed the Library
of Congress records and came up with a list of 321
overseas interventions by the U.S. military.
a) That doesn't include covert actions.
b) And it ends at 2004, so the current action against Libya
is not included. [1]
B. Rome also had a far-flung military.
1) Their legions served from Iran to England to Spain.
a) A smaller contingent served in Israel in New Testament
times.
2) Among the most important Roman soldiers were the centurions.
a) In a modern army they would be equivalent to a first
sergeant or perhaps a captain.
b) In a battle formation, every 83 men were led by a
centurion.
1> (Originally it was 100 men but Rome economized)
2> Paid at least 5 times as much as ordinary soldiers.
c) Centurions led in the front and had high casualty rates.
1> The only discharge from service was by death.
2> The Army was truly their life.
3) The forces in Israel at this time had perhaps 20 centurions.
C. These pagan soldiers had a remarkable reputation in the Bible.
1) Jesus commended one of them for having a greater faith
than any Jew he had met.
2) In the book of Acts, a centurion named Cornelius became
the first Gentile convert to Christianity.
3) And one unnamed centurion stood at the foot of the cross.
a) Some wonder if he was the same man as the one who
showed great faith, but the Bible never makes this
connection. (But they may have known each other)
b) This hard-bitten soldier realized something that
millions of people today do not.
c) We should listen to his testimony.
II. The mechanics of the crucifixion.
A. A squad of soldiers, led by a centurion, carried it out.
1) They would have witnessed the trial of Jesus.
a) Indeed, they helped heap abuse on him and mocked him
and scourged him.
b) It wasn't personal, it was just their way of enjoying
their work.
2) A few hours later, they led their prisoners to the hill
known as Golgotha and nailed them to crosses.
B. Violent events got their attention.
1) The sky turned black and the ground shook.
a) (Earthquake is only mentioned by Matthew)
b) All of them were terrified and thinking spiritually.
A while back the Reader's Digest had a story about
the fear that a violent storm can create.
The writer said he and some friends were golfing when
suddenly the sky turned ominous.
They were approaching the 4th hole when it began to
rain hard.
Claps of thunder motivated them to seek shelter in a
gazebo.
As they reached it, a bolt of lightning hit a chain-link
fence close by and it lit up like a neon sign.
The men were so shaken by it they didn't say anything
for a long time.
Then one of them said, "You know that five I had on the
first hole -- it really was a seven."
Sometimes God's judgment seems extra close.
The soldiers at the cross felt this way.
#63431
2) Only one of them seems to have taken the next step.
a) The centurion professed that Jesus must be the Son of God.
1> It is somewhat ambiguous. Luke has him proclaiming
Jesus to be an innocent man, rather than the
Son of God. (yet he praises God) Luke 23:47
2> And "Son of God" to a Roman could just mean a heroic
man, like the heroes of their religious myths.
b) But Mark certainly is having him proclaim Christian
faith.
1> His gospel has this aim from the very first verse.
III. What would drive a pagan soldier to this conclusion?
A. He saw how Jesus died.
1) The other criminals were cursing, but Jesus did not.
2) Instead, the soldier heard Jesus forgiving his tormentors.
3) Then Jesus reassured a thief who had a change of heart.
B. He heard Jesus' cry from the cross.
1) Some of the things Jesus said cut to our hearts.
a) "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
1> Some have taken this as a cry of despair, as if
Jesus concludes that his Father has failed him.
2> But he is quoting from a psalm that prefigured the
crucifixion.
3> Jesus has been cut off from God so he could bear
our sins, but he still calls upon his God and
still has faith.
b) The cry that moved the centurion seems to be the final
one.
1> Mark just says it was a loud cry.
A> John says Jesus cried out, "It is finished."
2> Perhaps the soldier was amazed that someone who
had suffered so much still had the strength to
cry out so loudly.
3> It was no longer a cry of despair, but a shout of
triumph.
IV. The death of Jesus is the key.
A. Many are impressed by his ethics and his love.
1) This has certainly had an impact, however imperfect, on
our world.
2) Unfortunately, there is a tendency to water it down to
warm fuzzies and pats on children's heads.
3) Jesus did not come to entertain and sooth us - he came
to challenge us with the eternal claims of God.
B. Salvation comes when we contemplate the cross.
1) It is not just a grim appendage to a glorious life.
2) Paul said the cross is so important he wanted to preach
nothing else.
a) Without the cross, we have no hope.
b) With the cross, we can triumph over death.
C. What do you think of the cross?
1) Perhaps your faith is rather tepid, more of an inheritance
from dead relatives than something that is alive.
2) Have you contemplated what the death of Jesus really means?
V. It still changes people today.
A. The role became real.
The 1976 mini-series "Jesus of Nazareth," directed by Franco
Zeffirelli, is an eight-hour special that is still shown on
television every year around Easter.
Jesus was played by the British actor Robert Powell;
Olivia Hussey portrayed Mary, his mother;
and Anne Bancroft was Mary Magdalene.
Ernest Borgnine had a small but crucial role as the centurion
who was present at the crucifixion.
When it came time for Borgnine's scene during the crucifixion,
the weather was chilly and gray.
The camera was to be focused on him at the foot of the cross,
so it was not necessary for Robert Powell, the actor who
portrayed Jesus, to be there.
Instead, Zeffirelli put a chalk mark on a piece of scenery
beside the cameraman.
"I want you to look up at that mark," he told Borgnine, "as if
you were looking at Jesus."
Borgnine hesitated.
Somehow he wasn't ready. He was uneasy.
He asked the director, "Do you think it would be possible for
somebody to read from the Bible the words Jesus said as He
hung on the cross?"
Borgnine knew the words well from the days of his childhood in
an Italian-American family in Connecticut.
He had also read them in preparation for the film.
Even so, he wanted to hear them now.
Zeffirelli said, "I will do it myself."
He found a Bible, opened it to the Book of Luke, and signaled
for the camera to start rolling.
As Zeffirelli began reading Christ's words aloud, Borgnine
stared up at that chalk mark, thinking what might have gone
through the centurion's mind.
That poor Man up there, he thought.
Jesus says He is the Son of God, an unfortunate claim during
these perilous times.
But I know Jesus is innocent of any crime.
"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
The voice was Zeffirelli's, but the words burned into Borgnine
-- the words of Jesus. (Luke 23:34-46)
Forgive me, Father, for even being here, was the centurion's
prayer that formed in Borgnine's thoughts.
I am so ashamed, so ashamed.
"Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in
paradise," said Jesus to the thief hanging next to Him.
If Jesus can forgive that criminal, then He will forgive me,
Borgnine thought.
I will lay down my sword and retire to my little farm outside
of Rome.
Then it happened.
As Borgnine stared upward, instead of the chalk mark, he
suddenly saw the face of Jesus Christ, lifelike and clear.
It was not the face of actor Robert Powell he was used to seeing,
but the most beautiful, gentle visage he have ever known.
Pain-seared, sweat-stained, with blood flowing down from thorns
pressed deep, His face was still filled with compassion.
Jesus looked down at Borgnine through tragic, sorrowful eyes
with an expression of love beyond description.
Then Jesus' cry rose against the desert wind.
Not the voice of Zeffirelli, reading from the Bible, but the
voice of Jesus Himself:
"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."
In awe Borgnine watched Jesus' head slump to one side.
He knew He was dead.
A terrible grief welled within him, and completely oblivious
of the camera, Borgnine started sobbing uncontrollably.
"Cut!" yelled Zeffirelli.
Olivia Hussey and Anne Bancroft were crying, too.
Borgnine wiped his eyes and looked up again to where he had
seen Jesus.
He was gone.
Borgnine reflected:
"Whether I saw a vision of Jesus that windswept day or whether
it was only something in my mind, I do not know.
It doesn't matter.
For I do know that it was a profound spiritual experience and
that I have not been quite the same person since.
I believe that I take my faith more seriously.
I like to think that I'm more forgiving than I used to be.
As that centurion learned two thousand years ago, I too have
found that you simply cannot come close to Jesus without
being changed."
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B. How close are you?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] “Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2004,”
statistics taken from the Library of Congress,
http://www.historycentral.com/USEFOFORCE.html
#63429 “Borgnine at the Crucifixion,” Rev. Robin Ellis in his sermon
“A Soldier’s Story,” Kerux Sermon #63430,
http://www.wentworthbaptist.ca/old/sermontexts/Mark%2015.16-
41%20A%20Soldiers%20Story%20080713.htm
#63431 “That Lightning Must Have Been Mighty Close,” Robert L. Hodge,
Readers Digest, May 1996, p. 135; secondary source was
Rev. Jeff Strite's sermon "Surely This Was The Son of God,"
Kerux Sermon #20833.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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