The Centurion

Saint Luke - Chapter 23

The Centurion. J-J Tissot

[47] Videns autem centurio quod factum fuerat, glorificavit Deum, dicens : Vere hic homo justus erat.
Now the centurion, seeing what was done, glorified God, saying: Indeed this was a just man.

From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)

Saint Luke gives us a few details which are as picturesque as they are interesting.  To begin with, he implies that the Centurion was standing opposite to the Cross as we have represented him in our pictures (ex adverso stabat), that is to say, in a good position for seeing and hearing all that went on, so that nothing could escape him.  In the second place, Saint Luke seems to suggest that it was the loud cry of Jesus which made the soldier come to the conclusion that he did.  Accustomed as he no doubt had been for many years to witnessing the carrying out of capital punishments, he had never before been witness to a similar incident, for those who suffered crucifixion generally died from exhaustion, and, as a matter of course, were quite unable to utter a cry so loud a that of Jesus.  The Centurion, therefore, recognized the supernatural character of that cry, which, taken in connection with all that he already knew of the Master, with what he had himself noticed in His bearing throughout His sufferings and by the signs and tokens which succeeded His death, converted him to belief in the Saviour and wrung from him the confession quoted above.  Saint Matthew and Saint Mark make him say: " Truly this man was the Son of God", whilst Saint Luke employs a much more ambiguous expression: "Certainly this was a righteous man." What are we to gather from this discrepancy?  Is the expression "Son of God" to be taken in a limited sense, as applying to all just men, or is the word translated in Saint Luke's Gospel by righteous to be understood in a more elevated sense, as indicating the one perfectly just and righteous man?  It is very difficult to decide this question.  Longinus, it must be remembered, was a heathen, little prepared for the idea of a Son of God made man, but, at the same time, he knew enough about the personality of Jesus and the titles He used in speaking of Himself for us to be justified in interpreting the confession made by him in the Christian sense.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam