Centurion

Let's begin this post with a little story: Around Easter time, the 3 year old boy I watch was learning about Jesus's death on the cross. He came home one day from preschool and sat at the table during lunch and told me all about what he learned. I agreed with most of what he said until he said, "Roman soldiers killed Jesus". He continued on this train of thought and talked about how bad and mean the Centurions were for killing Jesus. I felt the need to clarify and explain to him that it wasn't just the soldiers that killed Jesus, but all of us played a part in his death. This was a difficult concept for a 3 year old to understand but eventually he said "I wanted Jesus to die to so I could be saved." WOW! What an amazing statement for a preschooler.

This conversation got me thinking about how we view our participation in Jesus's death. At least once a year, usually around Easter, we read the story of Jesus's death and resurrection. We are told about Pilate asking the crowd who they want released (the crowd choosing Barabas not Jesus)and washing his hands of Jesus's blood. The next part of the story we hear is from Matthew 27:27

"Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters,and they gathered the whole battalion before him. 28And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him."

When someone mentions a centurion, or Roman soldier, this section of scripture is the first to come to my mind. As Christians we have heard this section of scripture so many times and tend to focus on the aspect of the soldiers doing this evil to Jesus. The soldiers were the ones who put a robe on him, a crown of thorns, spit on him and mocked him. We don't connect what the soldiers did to what we do every single day to our Lord. A lot of Christians believe they weren't there and didn't take part in the death of Jesus but we did. In a way every day when we sin we are taking part in Jesus's death. It wasn't just the centurions who killed Jesus but all mankind. We are all just as guilty in Jesus's death as those centurions. You may be saying to yourself "if I was alive then I wouldn't kill Jesus", but ask yourself this questions: have you sinned? If you have sinned then you have played a part in the death of Jesus. If you believe you have never sinned just take a look at question 16 from the Westminster shorter Catechism.

Q. 16. Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first transgression?
A. The covenant being made with Adam,not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.

Every man/women/child is a sinner and has put Jesus to death. Just take a minute to let this sink in: you played a part in the death of Jesus. By examining the crowd which Pilate appeared before we can see someone from every walk of life with religious leaders acting as agitators. Even though we might not have played a direct role in the death of Christ by being physically present, how are we to say that we wouldn't be a member of the crowd asking for Barabas instead of Christ? Those that trusted and believed in Jesus stood among the crowd and allowed Jesus's death to occur because it had to happen. Because of our sin Jesus had to die in order for us to be saved. Jesus died and rose again to save us and to unite us with Christ, without the death and resurrection of Christ, we wouldn't be able to reunite with God and be forgiven for the miserable sins we commit. Jesus is the way to the Father and only through him can we truly be forgiven for our sins.

After Jesus's death, the centurion is quoted in Luke saying "47Now(BS) when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, "Certainly this man was innocent!" This "bad, mean" centurion witnessed the death of Christ and is now proclaiming that he was innocent. May we proclaim Christ to be innocent and thank God the Father for the gift of his son whose death has purchased eternal life for those who believe in him