One of the major themes of the New Testament is the idea that a person’s background does not determine their salvation. One group that shows the expansive power of faith is the centurions that interact with Jesus and his disciples and later the apostles.
A centurion was a master of war. In the Roman army, a centurion was a man of any social rank who proved his worth on the field of battle and was entrusted with the command of a Century, or half of a Cohort, essentially 100 men. A centurion was ruthless; he was in charge of discipline in the Roman Legion, and discipline was brutal. When even the slightest thing went wrong, it could mean the death of an entire legion in hostile territory, and the centurion was essential to making sure that did not happen. It is interesting to see how God uses the centurion in furthering his kingdom.
The first encounter with a centurion comes soon after Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. It is a face-to-face encounter. The centurion asks that Jesus heal his servant who is sick and close to dying. Jesus agrees, and goes to his house, but the centurion stops him while he is still far from the house, saying “Lord…I am not worthy to have You come under my roof. But only say the word and my servant will be cured. For I too am a man under authority, having soldiers under my command. I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes; and to another ‘Come!’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘do this!’ and he does it.” (Matt. 8:8-9) The centurion here recognizes that Jesus has authority given to him to hold sway over the illness, and even to nature itself. This statement of faith in Jesus astonishes even Jesus himself, who immediately says to those following him, “I assure you: I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith!” (Matt. 8:10) Jesus then states that even Gentiles like the centurion would be welcomed into the Kingdom, a promise later carried out in Peter’s conversion of Cornelius. Jesus’ statement can be interpreted as the first hints of a Great Commission, which would come after his resurrection. By reaching out to the Centurion, Jesus set into motion the idea that all people, not just the Jews, can be saved.
We meet the second centurion at the foot of the cross. This man was in charge of the Roman soldiers assigned to execute Jesus, and was likely a man who had done this many times before. While what the soldiers did to Jesus, beating, scorning, and mutilating him, is well recorded, the presence of the centurion in charge of these men is not mentioned until after Jesus had breathed his last. At that time, the earth shook, the sun went dark, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and graves were opened, and the dead walked the streets of Jerusalem. At the end of this, one sentence is recorded in all three synoptic gospels. “Surely, this man was the Son of God!” (Matt. 27:54, Mark 15:39, Luke 23:47) This statement of Jesus’ divinity is the first time since Peter’s confession that anyone outside of the twelve disciples acknowledged with full conviction that He was the Son of God. It is amazing that we find such conviction and assuredness from a man who was most likely raised to be a skeptic. This centurion’s proclamation of faith can be heard throughout the centuries and is still a part of our own confessions of faith in the church today.
The third and final centurion is the centurion Cornelius. Cornelius and his family were devout and god-fearing according to Acts 10, his fact is important, or else all other facts about this are not miraculous. Even though he was devout and God-fearing, Cornelius was neither a Jew nor a Christian. An angel of the Lord came to Cornelius and told him to send for Peter, who was in Joppa. At this time, the Christians were still clinging to the remnants of their Jewish heritage, and as such, no Gentile had been converted. Peter was granted a vision in which all kinds of unclean animals appeared before him and he was told by God to kill and eat. Three times Peter refused, however, upon the arrival of Cornelius’ men, and his arrival to Cornelius’ house, Peter understood what the vision meant. It meant that nothing is unclean which God has made clean, and we have all been made clean by Christ Jesus, therefore we should not turn away those who we believe to still be unclean, for this exposes our ignorance to the true and binding grace of God.
The faith of the centurions is astounding. On more than one occasion, a man who was not Jewish and probably had no faith in the living God showed more reverence and knowledge than those who had studied the word of God extensively. This proves to us that all people are brought together at the foot of the cross, and there we are all equal; equally unworthy like the centurion with a sick servant, equally awe-struck like the centurion at Calvary, and equally able to receive his grace and mercy like Cornelius and his household.
- Andrew Binkley
