Today I find the soldiers most interesting in this passage. Of course there is much going on since one could argue that this was the most important event in the history of the world, but that is part of the reason I find the soldiers so fascinating.
“Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.” And then what? Would anyone of them have any idea what they had just won? Did the first person to buy a painting from a young Vincent Van Gogh have any idea that what they were buying so cheaply would one day be worth millions? It is unlikely that any of these soldiers had any notion that what they just won was anything more than a rag of bloody clothing. How could they know that what they held in their hands would one day be so valuable that it would mobilize armies for the chance to possess it, that poets would write about it for centuries, that righteous people would tremble at the thought of it?
Then there is the Centurion who said, “Surely this man was the Son of God.” Why did he say that? He didn’t know the curtain in the temple had been torn in two. He simply heard Jesus’ cry and saw the way He died. This man had seen scores, maybe even hundreds, die this terrible death but he had never seen anyone die it this way. He knew what Jesus was going through. That was no mystery. The mystery was how anyone could go this and die; yes with a cry, but... A sane cry. We know from the other accounts that Jesus said, “Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit.” He had heard a lot of things but he had never heard anything like that from the lips of one being publicly tortured on the cross. What could it mean? Surely this must be the Son of God.
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