Many years ago, in one of our house moves, we had one box that was never unpacked. It had lived in the bottom of the wardrobe for about six months before I rediscovered it. In the back of my mind, I knew it was there, but I didn’t pay much attention to it.

Now I’m a person who loves to throw junk away. So, when I found the box, I thought to myself, “We haven’t opened it in six months. Obviously, we don’t need whatever is in it, so let’s just get rid of it. Let’s live on the edge and throw out the whole box without even looking inside.”

My wife Anna is not as impulsive as I am. She’s a lot more level-headed and so she didn’t share my enthusiasm. So, we had a look inside.

When we opened it up, we found passports, marriage certificates, birth certificates and lots of other important things. It turned out to be the type of box that you would grab if the house was on fire!

In Mark 15, we meet a man who had just made a very important discovery. He was the Roman centurion who was standing at the foot of the cross at Jesus’ execution. We read that when he saw how Jesus died, he could only come up with one conclusion.

He proclaims, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

Time and again, all throughout the book of Mark, people who meet Jesus come up with different conclusions of who he is. Some say he is from the devil. His family say that he is crazy. The religious rulers say he is a sinner.

But there at the foot of the cross, the centurion – of all people – is the one who finds the right conclusion.

Maybe you have treated Jesus like that box at the bottom of the wardrobe. You may bump into him every now and then. You may think you know what is inside, but you are still a bit unsure. You might even have come up with a conclusion of who Jesus is. You might even be tempted to totally give up on him and throw all this Jesus stuff out.

Let me encourage you to take the time to look inside the box.

If Jesus is who the centurion says, if Jesus himself is telling the truth, then he is worth the time. He is worth the time and effort to investigate and follow.