Matthew 27:54 meaning

The parallel gospel accounts of Matthew 27:54 are found in Mark 15:39 and Luke 23:47-48.

After describing the phenomenal signs that supernaturally occurred when the Messiah died (Matthew 27:50-53), Matthew pivots his narrative to record how Jesus’s executioners responded to these wonders.

Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (v 54).

Matthew uses the word—now—to reposition his narrative’s perspective from describing the supernatural events accompanying Jesus’s death to the noteworthy response of His executioners.

Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus (v 54a).

The centurion and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus were His executioners. They were the Roman soldiers who were assigned to crucify Him. The centurion was the officer in charge—he was a soldier of considerable authority. Roman Centurions typically oversaw divisions of 100 soldiers. John indicates that there was a total of four soldiers (including the centurion) who were keeping guard over Jesus (John 19:23).

It is likely that the centurion was assigned to oversee this particular crucifixion because Jesus was no ordinary prisoner. While crucifixions were standard procedure in the Roman Empire, Jesus elicited passionate responses from His followers and enemies alike. Therefore, the security detail for this execution was amplified.

Further, Jesus’s trial under Pilate (Matthew 27:18, 22-26, Luke 23:16-25, and John 19:5-16) was particularly contentious. Pilate had declared Jesus innocent but acquiesced to the mob’s clamor to execute Jesus in order to, among other reasons, avoid a riot. Pilate likely wanted an officer he could trust, a soldier of experience, to oversee Jesus’s execution in case anything unexpected occurred.

The centurion and his fellow Roman soldiers who were guarding Jesus were also attending the other two criminals who were crucified with Him (Matthew 27:38). The reason they were guarding Jesus and the two robbers was to ensure that they were put to death and that no one interfered with the governor’s orders to execute them.

This centurion and the three guards who were with him were likely the same soldiers who nailed Jesus’s hands and feet to the cross, ridiculed Him, and divided His garments. If these were the same soldiers, they were also among the “them” whom Jesus referred to as He prayed:

“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
(Luke 23:34a)

Matthew continues describing how the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that were happening (v 54b).

The earthquake and the things they saw would have been a subset of the supernatural events that were listed in Matthew 27:45 and 51-53:

1. Darkness covered all the land from noon to 3:00pm (near the time Jesus died)
   (Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:45)
2. “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom”
   (Matthew 27:51a)
3. “the earth shook”
   (Matthew 27:51b)
4. “the rocks were split”
   (Matthew 27:51c)
5. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised
   (v 53)

The centurion and the soldiers clearly saw and experienced 1.) the unnatural darkness and 3.) the earthquake. They may have seen 4.) the rocks split and/or 5.) nearby tombs opened. Given that they were outside the city gates of Jerusalem when they crucified Jesus (Hebrew 13:12), it is unlikely that they actually saw 2.) the temple veil tear in two during this moment. It is also unlikely they would have recognized a Jewish person who rose from the dead given that they were Romans.

Matthew wrote: when they saw these things as they were happening, they became very frightened (v 54c).

The centurion and his fellow guards’ response is noteworthy. It would take quite a bit to frighten a professional Roman Legionnaire—which is what all four of these soldiers probably were. These soldiers were probably hardened veterans who had witnessed brutality and death many times in their careers. They had surely witnessed and even participated in crucifixions of religious zealots and fanatics before. It was probably not Jesus dying that frightened them. It was the supernatural events and circumstances occurring as He was crucified and when He died that greatly upset them.

Specifically, it was the three hours of darkness beginning at noon, and the earthquake, and the other supernatural events surrounding Jesus’s crucifixion. It was these things that frightened and disturbed them.

The soldiers also experienced something remarkable from Jesus that was unsettlingly out of character from the typical person they crucified. Luke infers that it was while they were nailing Jesus’s hands and feet to the cross that He prayed:

“Father to forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
(Luke 23:43a)

These frightened soldiers seem to be included among the “them” to whom Jesus referred as He prayed this. If these soldiers heard Him pray this, it likely would have struck them as memorably odd. Prisoners who were crucified typically would have shown hatred or fear toward their executioners—not mercy. Such a display of compassion may have caused the soldiers who were guarding Jesus to begin to question His character and identity.

Furthermore, watching the manner in which Jesus was suffering and dying may have further caused those who were guarding Him to reexamine who this man they were crucifying really was.

All of these things that were happening throughout the Messiah’s crucifixion now impressed upon them as the earth shook in the midday darkness as Jesus surrendered His spirit to God (Luke 23:46) and “the way He breathed His last” (Mark 15:37). And they became very frightened. Their fright could have been because of what they had done. Even these hardened veterans recognized that Jesus was no ordinary man.

Matthew reports that when Jesus died, the Roman soldiers who crucified Him became very frightened. And it was in response to what they saw and their justifiable fear that they said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (v 54d).

The word truly emphasizes that the soldiers confessed what they said in complete sincerity and further underscores how genuinely frightened they were. Perhaps when they realized Jesus’s divinity they feared divine retribution. This thought would be consistent with the view of gods within Greco-Roman paganism. It is ironic to consider them having such a fear when they just witnessed the Son of God taking upon Himself their own sins, that they might be saved.

Apart from the disturbing events themselves, the soldiers correctly recognized that these supernatural events were connected to Jesus’s crucifixion—a crucifixion in which they had just heartily performed an essential role. The enormous gravity of what they had done was beginning to dawn on them. They had just tortured and executed God’s Son. They became very frightened as they considered the divine retribution and wrath for doing such a terrible thing.

But Jesus had already petitioned God on their behalf to “forgive them” for their unholy and cruel actions against Him because they were ignorant of such things (Luke 23:43). In a larger sense, Jesus came to surrender His life on the cross for the sake of all men, including these frightened soldiers (Matthew 20:28). As Jesus told Nicodemus, He did not come to condemn the world, but to save all who believed in Him (John 3:17-18).

Mark specifies that it was the Roman Centurion who spoke the words declaring that Jesus was the Son of God (Mark 15:39). Perhaps he was speaking on behalf of those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus. Perhaps each of the four soldiers said this in their own right. In either case, Mark further points out that the centurion “was standing right in front of [Jesus]” (Mark 15:39) when he said this.

We don’t know the heart of others, but perhaps when the centurion looked at Jesus lifted up on the cross and confessed that He was the Son of God, he was born again. The centurion confessed: Truly this man was the Son of God! In this breath, the centurion both confesses Jesus’s divinity, and by extension condemns his own role in mocking and torturing God’s Son to death on the cross.

If in that moment the centurion believed, then Matthew is giving us a direct application of John 3:14-15, where Jesus told Nicodemus that anyone who looked at Him “lifted up” as the Israelites of old looked at the bronze snake “lifted up” on a pole, they would be delivered. In the case of the Israelites, when they believed enough to look at the snake, they were delivered from the venomous viper-bites. Similarly, Jesus delivers us from the poisonous venom of sin. It could be that this centurion’s confession is an illustration of John 3:14-15.

Luke adds that the centurion “began praising God, saying, ‘Certainly this man was innocent’” (Luke 23:47). This further indicates the guilt which the centurion felt for participating in the crucifixion of Jesus who was indeed innocent. It could also indicate his belief.

It is noteworthy that the first person to be recorded as recognizing Jesus’s divinity following His death was a Gentile. The Jewish leaders had violently rejected Jesus:

• As their Messiah (Matthew 27:25),
• As God (Matthew 26:64-65), and
• As their King (John 19:15)

All these rejections came in no uncertain terms. But as the Jews rejected Jesus, and largely continued to reject Jesus, these Gentiles it seems were among the first to recognize Jesus for who He really is—the Son of God.

This ironic pattern of the Jews rejecting their deliverer was foreshadowed in the Old Testament. The Hebrews in Egypt initially rejected Moses as their deliverer. It was only after being in exile for forty years that they received him to lead them out of Egypt.

It is also reflected in the life of Joseph. Joseph was a proto-messiah, a foreshadowing type of Jesus. God raised Joseph to the second-highest position in Egypt, where he ruled for many years, blessing Egypt and the surrounding nations. Ironically, Joseph’s brothers rejected him as their leader, selling him into slavery. They did not know or recognize him as their brother until much later (Genesis 45:1).

In the same way many of the Jews (the Messiah’s brethren) did not (and largely continue to not) recognize Jesus as the Messiah He truly is (John 1:11). However, this will not always be the case. In Zechariah 12, the prophet gives a message directly by God (“Thus says the Lord” Zechariah 12:1). In it the Lord declares:

“I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.”
(Zechariah 10:12).

The “Me” in this verse is God, the Lord. And He says at a point in time the Jews will recognize that Jesus, whom they pierced, is also God. At that time they will mourn because they will realize what they did. Perhaps the soldiers at the foot of the cross are having a similar reaction when they realized what they had done. Thus is shall be, as the Apostle Paul asserts, all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26).

The centurion’s and his fellow soldiers’ response to Jesus are akin to Egypt recognizing Joseph’s worthiness before his brothers did.

Moreover, there are numerous prophecies in the Old Testament regarding the Gentiles recognizing the Messiah, of which the centurion’s confession is a type of fulfillment. This commentary will highlight two of these prophecies.

Perhaps the most direct fulfillment of the centurion’s confession is found in Isaiah:

“They will say of Me, ‘Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength.’”
(Isaiah 45:24a)

The pronoun “They” in the context of Isaiah 45:24 refers to the Gentiles. As a ranking officer in Caesar’s army, this centurion and the legionnaires who were keeping guard over Jesus with him would have been Roman by blood, and therefore Gentiles. The centurion and those who were with him recognized Jesus’s divine “strength” (Isaiah 45:24) by declaring Him to be the Son of God, similar to how Isaiah prophesied “They” would.

The centurion also declared Jesus to be “innocent” (Luke 23:47) which is synonymous with how Isaiah prophesied the Gentiles would speak of God, “Only in the LORD are righteousness…” (Isaiah 45:24).

Another prophecy that the centurion’s confession seems to be at least a partial fulfilment of is found in Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is a Messianic psalm that predicts the Messiah’s rejection, suffering, death, and triumphant vindication. Matthew sprinkled several allusions to Psalm 22 throughout his account of Jesus’s crucifixion.

“All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord,
And all the families of the nations will worship before You.”
(Psalm 22:27)

The centurion’s confession may be another of Matthew’s prophetic allusions to Psalm 22. If so, the centurion’s recognition of Jesus as the Son of God is a kind of prelude to the much larger and greater fulfillment of the Gentile’s recognition of the Messiah predicted in Psalm 22:27 that “all the families of the nations” will worship the true and living God.

Psalm 22:27 is representative of numerous other prophecies in the Old Testament predicting how Gentiles will recognize the Messiah. These additional prophecies include Psalm 46:10, 72:10-11, 67:1-2, 86:9, Isaiah 2:2-3, 11:10, 45:20-24, 49:1, 6-7, 52:15, Zechariah 2:11, 8:22-23, Malachi 1:11, Micah 4:1-2.

These prophecies mostly speak of the end times when all peoples including Gentiles will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord. Again, the centurion’s confession is a foretaste of that greater confession.

Taken, separately or together, Matthew seems to be suggesting that these prophetic allusions were either initially or beginning to be fulfilled in the centurion’s confession. These prophecies  will continue to be fulfilled to an even greater extent throughout the books of Acts (Acts 8:25-39, 10:1-48, Acts 13:44-52, Acts 15:1-29). These prophecies concerning the Gentiles will culminate upon Christ’s return (Philippians 2:10-11).

Matthew’s inclusion of the centurion’s confession is the thirteenth allusion to a Messianic prophecy being fulfilled over the course of his narrative of Jesus’s crucifixion.

Mark’s inclusion of the centurion’s confession (Mark 15:39) would have had keen interest to his Roman readership and would have been similar to the response that Mark hoped to evoke from his readers, namely that they too would recognize Jesus as God’s Son as this centurion had.

Unlike Matthew’s inclusion of this event, which primarily looks backward to how it fulfilled Old Testament prophecy, Luke’s inclusion of the centurion’s confession (Luke 23:47) seems to have anticipated what was to come in the Book of Acts (written by Luke) as Paul (Luke’s ministry partner) took the Gospel to the Gentiles.

Finally, Luke adds this comment to this terrible scene:

“And all the crowds who came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, began to return, beating their breasts.”
(Luke 23:49)

The crowds of mockers who gathered to ridicule Jesus and boast in His death, now left beating their breasts in grief and sorrow. Beating one’s breast was a public display of mourning. It was a sign of grievous calamity or woe. It is not clear if those who were beating their breasts recognized, along with the centurion, that Jesus was the Son of God or if they were only lamenting the terrible things that occurred, including the temple veil tearing.