The Surprise of Easter 

I will start this Holy Week reflection by sharing with you a poem by an award-winning poet, who happens to also be my dad, Warren.  

Dad has written poetry since before I was born; for the consultant psychiatrist that he was for 52 years of professional service, it was an important escape and a vital part of him processing the world he inhabited – with all of its grittiness and all of its beauty.  

I have previously written of Dad’s important role in the moment of my personal conversion – a conversation that led me to the irresistible claim of Jesus on my life.

Here's a poem Dad wrote about the centurion guarding the cross Jesus was hanging on. 

Centurion.

a life of harshest discipline 

a savage life

part time executioner 

hardened to the task

seen and heard too much

to listen to the mob

discipline not withstanding

his own man to the core

may have read the prophets

who knows what he believed

listened to the dying thief

the welcome born in pain

felt three hours of darkness

in his dayshift on the hill

watched a man who wore it all

saw him see it through

listened to his final words

the always open door

light in a mind uncluttered

he knew the Son of God.

Warren Argall © 2010

Matthew (chapter 27), Mark (chapter 15) and Luke (chapter 23) all record the centurion’s words: “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

Jesus hung on the cross because of God’s much bigger plan.  Pilate and the authorities of the day thought they were dealing with a local uprising when Jesus was sentenced to death. 

But God’s plan for the salvation of all humanity required this event – a criminal’s sentence of death, no less – to be played out in all its horror.

The centurion recognised what so many “experts in the law”, the biblical scribes of the day, could not (or would not).  The Old Testament – the law and the prophets – had pointed through prophecy upon prophecy to the coming of the Messiah. And so many of the details of Jesus' life were also foretold.

And yet, it was a centurion – from another culture, quite possibly relatively untrained in the ways of the Israelites – who made this significant statement.

The Son of God. Hanging on a cross. Dead. 

But not defeated.

Fulfilling a bigger plan.

One he shared in devising.

A plan he had to fully participate in,

So that ALL could be saved – 

From eternal separation from God.

In conquering death, seen so clearly in the resurrection,

He presented a gift to all mankind – 

Completely underserved – grace.

For you, for me. 

Not because of who we are, but because of who He is.

Once, complete in its scope, for EVERY SINGLE one of us.

May we have eyes to see God’s phenomenal goodness to us, this Easter.

Shalom.