Prepare for Easter

Good Friday

Friday, April 10, 2020

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide

And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Having said this, He breathed His last. Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent.”

Luke 23:46-47 NASB

Here’s another spot with an often overlooked, revealing word! Notice the centurion’s reaction to what he had witnessed. This man was one of the Romans who had forced that long walk to Calvary -- certainly not an innocent bystander. We don’t know how his ugly job impacted him, but he did his job.

Now it was over, and he made this bold, belated statement concerning the innocence of Jesus. The script does not say he cried out in despair or sorrow or relief. It says he began “praising God” as he declared Jesus’ innocence!

A Roman soldier praising God? That’s what it says. And why? Because he realized the innocence of the man they had just killed. That can only mean one thing. The centurion suddenly believe that Jesus was exactly who had had said he was. That’s saving faith! And he praised God for the death of this innocent one on his behalf.

Oh, he may not have understood fully what that meant, but then neither do we! He may not have grasped the significance of Christ as his substitution, but he could understand that he now believed in the one whom he’d just been a party to putting to death.

He wasn’t the only one. The text says that “multitudes” went away “beating their breasts.”

Father, Thank you that Christ’s faithfulness to your business, even as he died, brought many whom you love to your kingdom, including us. Amen

About My Father’s Business:

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church
of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2010
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator