What We Know About the Soldiers at Jesus’ Death

Over the centuries since the first Easter, the question has been asked, “Who killed Jesus?” The answer is both complicated and simple. It’s complicated because from an earthly perspective, there were many responsible for Jesus’ unjust death: the religious leaders hell-bent on seeing Jesus eliminated for either blasphemy or because He was a threat to their power; Pontius Pilate, who had neither the power nor the will to preside over a just trial; and the Roman soldier, who actually carried out this state-sponsored death.

Who Killed Jesus?

And yet if we understand the true story of Easter, we recognize that nobody really took Jesus’ life. He offered it freely for the sins of His people (John 10:18). And the Father, before time began, determined that the Son would die as a substitute to atone for the sins of those who believe (Isa. 53:10). Moreover, the human responsibility for Jesus’ death is shared by all sinners. All of us have gone astray, the prophet Isaiah says, and the Lord has laid on Jesus all of our sins (Isa. 53:6). God made Jesus to be “sin for us,” Paul would later write in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

But the actual task of carrying out Jesus’ death did fall to the Roman soldiers, on command from Pontius Pilate. I’ve often wondered how these men felt as they whipped Jesus to within an inch of His life, hoisted Him up on the stout wood post, nailed His wrists and ankles, and stuck the sword deep in His side to prove He had died.

The Soldiers at the Cross

The gospels give us a bit of a glimpse into how these soldiers might have felt. We see two scenes that remind us just how ordinary it was for Romans to execute criminals arrested for insurrection—the charge against Jesus. Crucifixion was a uniquely Roman practice, designed for a slow painful death and maximum indignity to dissuade future insurrectionists.

“The Son of God could have commanded legions of angels and had these hardened men of war flat on their backs.”

For many of the soldiers this was just another day at the office, as they gambled below the cross for a piece of Jesus’ garments (Matt. 27:35–36). We don’t really know what this practice meant, other than a macabre game to pass the time and offer further embarrassment to the one being crucified. We also hear the mocking words of some soldiers: “Hail, king of the Jews!” (Matt. 27:28).

The irony of this scene is rich. These soldiers didn’t know what they were saying. The Son of God could have commanded legions of angels and had these hardened men of war flat on their backs. He could have marshaled the power of God and resisted His arrest. But He yielded to the way of the cross so these men who mocked Him might have salvation. If Jesus did come down from the cross, no one would ever be able to ascend up to Heaven and know God.

Jesus’ Response

Yet Jesus, even as He suffered in agony, whispered forgiveness toward His captors, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34 niv). These Roman soldiers were mere pawns in a long cosmic battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). This is true of every human being, laden with sins we choose and sins we commit without knowing, the human heart so wicked we don’t even know the depths of our depravity. And yet at this cross, at Easter, we can find forgiveness in the death of the Innocent One.

Not all of the soldiers mocked. One soldier, a centurion, looked up at Jesus and declared, “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Matt. 27:54). Was this a statement of belief in Jesus as the Son of God? Or was this an acknowledgment, after the ground split open and the sky turned dark, for this Roman soldier that Jesus was more than a mere man, perhaps divine? We don’t know, but we do know that not every heart at the foot of this cross was hardened. Some were able to look up and believe.