The Centurion: ?¨Truly this was the Son of God?Æ April 5, 2006
Matthew 27: 51-54 Pastor Mark Nieting

Professional soldiers, especially those who have risen through the ranks to the NCO level, can be rather hardened individuals. They are usually highly trained and highly motivated. Often, especially when they??ve been ?¨in the field?Æ for any length of time and seen some combat, they have become quite skeptical and cynical. And when they??ve worked with criminals?ñ.especially criminals condemned to die?ñ.die by crucifixion?ñ.there probably isn??t anything they haven??t heard.

When we think of Roman soldiers, we usually think in terms of the Roman Legions. A Legion consisted of about 6000 fighting men, arranged in groups of 10 ?¨Cohorts?Æ of about 600 men, each Cohort made up of 6 Centuria, groups commanded by a Centurion. The Centurion, and that??s who our subject is on this 6th Midweek of Lent, was the Roman officer responsible for a group called a Centuria, a group of 100 soldiers (at least on paper), hence the name that sounds like it is straight out of the metric system. This Centurion, whose name is lost to history, was the part of Pilate??s army responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus and the two criminals. It wasn??t unusual duty for Roman soldiers. They did it all the time, and probably heard every story in the book from the men that they crucified.

There were differences about THIS particular day and this particular crucifixion, however. First, it was DARK; unusually dark; totally dark during the middle of the afternoon. That in itself is enough to make one think, and Centurions were men capable of thinking. This was no ordinary thunderstorm?ñ.it wasn??t the same, didn??t feel the same and there??s no record that it rained. It just got DARK. Pitch dark. 

Next was the crowd. Normally the crucifixions were accompanied by a few family members, everyone else wanting to stay as far away as possible, so they didn??t end up on a cross as collateral damage. This time there was a big group of religious leaders gathered around; a rather bloodthirsty lot of Pharisees and members of the Sanhedrin. They weren??t a quite bunch, instead they were all jeering and making fun of the Man in the Middle, saying that He should be able to come down from the cross in spite of the iron spikes through his ankles and wrists?ñ..or that God?ñor Elijah?ñshould come and TAKE him down. Yeah, that??ll happen, the Centurion no doubt thought?ñ.but why the furor? Why the frenzy? Why call Him a prophet? Why say Elijah should come back just for Him?

There was also, a little farther back and trying not to get noticed, a group of men who had been followers of the man crucified in the middle?ñ.but most of them didn??t stay?ñ.they ran. And there were women?ñ.more than the normal number. 

Then there was the matter of the sign over the man??s head. It wasn??t a label of accusation?ñ.a sign that named a crime for which the punishment was death by this particularly horrible means. That would have been normal, part of the tactics the Romans used to keep their vassals in line. But it wasn??t that way for the man in the middle. This time the sign was a rather amazing, rather grand Title: ?¨Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.?Æ No Roman Centurion had ever crucified a King before?ñ?ñand this one sure hadn??t.

There was also the matter of what the ?¨man in the middle?Æ had to say. He asked ?¨His Father?Æ to FORGIVE the soldiers who were crucifying Him. That had to be a first, the Centurion had to have thought. It was normal to hear screaming, moaning, and to be cursed out simply for doing their jobs. Most guilty men ?¨wear halos?Æ all the way to the end, so it was normal to hear excuses and ?¨Not Guiltys?Æ from the condemned men, but it was NOT normal to hear words of forgiveness. The same went on between the Man in the Middle and one of the thieves?ñ.garden variety criminals who were getting what they deserved?ñ.and this Jesus promised that they would be together in paradise?ñ.that same day? Amazing! Sometimes it took two or three days for a man to die up there?ñ.unless someone came along and broke their legs so they couldn??t keep pushing up.

Then there were words of care from the man in the middle to a man who was to care for his mother. How could He have focused on such details when He was obviously in so much pain?ñpain that caused Him to cry out ?¨My God, Why have You Forsaken me??Æ

Usually it??s the other way around, isn??t it? Usually it??s WE who mess up?ñand it is WE who end up saying, ?¨My God, I??m sorry that I have forsaken YOU!?Æ Usually it is our sins who separate us from God?ñbut this time, God separated Himself from the One in the Middle, the one called Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. And He KNEW anguish because of it! It tore Him up?ñ..so evident was the torment of His alone-ness on the cross.

Finally the Centurion knew that they had come to the moment of death, far too soon for the standards of a ?¨normal?Æ crucifixion. The Man in the Middle, this Jesus of Nazareth, called out that ?¨It was Finished?Æ and gave up His Spirit to 
His Father and died?ñ..and when He died, an earthquake shook the land. Earthquakes are common to the area around Jerusalem, with the Dead Sea Transform Fault Line between the Sinai Plate and the Arabia plate running right along the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. But the timing? Right at the exact moment of the death of the Man in the Middle, and right when it was the darkest, at 3 PM? 


So what was it that caused this hardened professional soldier to come to the conclusion that THIS TRULY WAS THE SON OF GOD? Remember what St. Paul wrote in Romans 10:17, ?¨Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes from the preaching of Christ.?Æ The Pharisees, even if they didn??t mean it, proclaimed that this was the Christ. So had the other enemies of Jesus. The crucified robbers had done the same. Nature had said the same thing, in several different ways. Coming from all these different places and all these different sources, the Holy Spirit wove the events of the day together to create faith in the heart of the Roman Centurion. All of this bears witness to what Luther wrote in the meaning of the Third Article of the Creed: ?¨I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and keeps me in the true faith.?Æ

It all adds up to one simple truth: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and the Savior of the World. The Centurion, by the Work of the Holy Spirit, knew it and bore testimony to it. Even as he watched and heard with the eyes and the ears of an unbeliever and a Gentile?ñ.God gave Him the gift of faith in the One whom He proclaimed as the Son of God?ñ..Jesus, our Savior.