The Roman Centurion - a mystery to ponder

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop David Walker

Good Morning

Each day, today and next week, my inspirations for prayer will come from one of the biblical characters who was profoundly changed by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

For Gaius, a career Roman Centurion, first century Palestine was not the assignment he might have hoped for. Little chance for the plunder that followed military victories, just constant vigilance against a truculent local population with their alien religion and propensity to rebel unexpectedly. And of course there was the regular task of keeping order during public punishments, not least crucifixions. But yesterday has been different. The man on the middle cross, the one who’d apparently claimed to be King of the Jews, had gone to his death, not pleading or cursing like any ordinary terrorist or criminal, but petitioning his God to forgive his killers.

The words had come from Gaius’s mouth involuntarily, “Truly this man was a son of God”. He prayed nobody had heard his utterance. To be found ascribing the status to a convicted terrorist normally reserved for emperors might consign him to this provincial backwater for the rest of his career.

But now, on this Saturday morning, when he could relax in the assurance that the Jews would be focussed on their sabbath religious rituals, the words that had sprung from his lips kept coming back. What would it mean if this strange convict was indeed of divine blood? Maybe a few more years here would give him opportunity to reflect on his unexpected assertion.

Today, as we await the joy of Easter, I pray that, like that perplexed centurion, as we wait for events to unfold, we may marvel at the mystery of Christ’s death and ponder its import for our lives.