Matthew 27:54

Truly this was the Son of God.

Homage of reason and conscience to the facts of the Christian religion

Men’s hearts often harden in proportion to the privileges they enjoy. Hence heathens look on the affecting scene in a different state of mind than the Jews. They were nearer the kingdom of heaven.

I. We have in this declaration A testimony to the impressive character of those great historical facts which were connected with the foundation of Christianity. These facts are the basis of Christianity. Familiarity with them may tend to rob them of their greatness. It is so with the wonders of nature; the sun ceases to astonish us. It is with the first impression produced by these events that we have to do. The centurion and his band were not predisposed to attach any peculiar sanctity to these events. They had no previous knowledge as to the meaning of them. They had been educated in the paganism of the Romans; they worshipped many gods. They may have seen that the Jews adored no images, that they paid respect to the Temple as the house of their one God. This knowledge of Judaism may have prepared this centurion to use language different from that of the pagan idolatry. This Roman officer would appear to have had every opportunity of becoming acquainted with the things which happened at this time at Jerusalem. Natural and civil history are full of remarkable events. They are to be viewed in general relation to the sinfulness of man; they may at the same time he traced to natural causes. But the events which attracted the attention of the centurion were of a different order. It was a solitary occurrence in the history of the world. The like had never happened before. There was a remarkable response and sympathy between the natural and moral world of human life. The course of nature is generally indifferent to the facts of human life; the moon shines on the wreck. But here nature seems roused from her general apathy to human affairs. Well might such extraordinary events convince men that more was going on than met the eye-that the sufferer was no ordinary Person. The prelude of events to the cross might deepen the impression.

II. Practical improvement from their testimony. I regard their testimony as the homage of reason and conscience to the general truth of the Christian religion. All they had seen manifested that Jesus was the Son of God. What a depth of meaning in these words to us.

1. The glory of the Son of God was more illustrious by the very humiliation which attended His course.

2. In what light does “this was the Son of God” exhibit man’s moral view and the evil of sin.

3. If the Son of God must thus become a public spectacle of suffering and death, in order to exhibit the method by which it seems good to the Sovereign Will of God that sinners should approach Him; let us rejoice in the Father’s love, and in the Saviour’s love, Who became obedient unto the death of the cross.

4. How solid is the ground on which the guilty may apply for pardon.

5. The Saviour justly claims the hearts and obedience of all. (J. Hoppus, LL. D.)