Consider the centurion in charge of guarding Golgotha at Christ’s crucifixion. From Reliving the Passion by Walter Wangerin Jr.
“See to it, Centurion! I’ll see to it, sir. “
And so he has seen to it over the years. And now he has lingered through a truly terrifying storm, a blackness three hours long, here on a hill, exposed to the wind’s lash, protecting…..what? Whom? Who is this Jesus?
What was that? A loud shout! This is not at all what the centurion expects. It’s a cry that he has heard before, to be sure….but never in defeat and never, never in death, always when the soldier has won the battle or the king the war! This is a cry of triumph! The centurion whirls around to see Jesus, so suddenly dead upon that battle cry of triumph…sees the central criminal with such stunning clarity, sees as he has never seen before…and whispers with the solemn weight of a personal confession, “Truly, this man…”
It is on Golgotha that a centurion spins around and stares at the man in the middle, just as that man dies, exactly as Jesus gives up the ghost and slumps forward from the cross.
But all at once that centurion sees as though light burst upon his eyes, as though the veil between bright heaven and dark earth had been torn in two from the top to the bottom. The centurion sees better than he did and more than he ever did before: he sees God! He sees the very nature of the love of God! The dying of one is the other one’s window and what has been veiled is now revealed, and a pagan whispers with the solemn weight of conviction, confession, faith; “Truly, this man was the Son of God!”
Please come join us for the Maundy Thursday Communion Service at 7:00 pm this Thursday. Then we will indeed celebrate the joy of Easter Day!
Easter Day schedule
7:00am Sunrise Service at the Corner Cross
8:00am Easter Breakfast provided by the Youth
9:15am Sunday School
10:30am Easter Celebration Worship
Blessings, Pastor JoNell
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