Hey, do buddy, yeah you in the front row, you don’t see and Pharisees around do you? Ok, Hi, I am Longius and I am a Roman Centurion. These are strand days indeed. I’ve traveled the world in the service of Rome and Tiberius our Emperor and General. I’ve lived a life of great adventure and seen many amazing things an places in the service of the empire, but overall this has been a great time to serve. This is the time of “Pax Roma” the peace of Rome. Peace, that word might be a bit of an exaggeration I have seen my share of battles and skirmishes after all the empire must be kept secure. But I have never seen or dreamed of seeing days like the last few I’ve lived through.
How strange you ask? There are some who would call me a legend. Legend, that’s strange, I feel real enough and I don’t feel that extraordinary. But what’s happened these last few days, I would say that would be the stuff of legend if I hadn’t lived them for myself and seen them with my own eyes. The emperor himself would be changed if he had walked in my shoes the past few days.
It started with the reports, understand in Jerusalem there are always reports of something going on. But this one seemed to be an issue between the Jews. It was hard for us to figure out exactly what was going on. Most of the reports centered around the teacher, Jesus, He was nothing more than a traveling rabbi, but some said He was a prophet, some said He was a miracle worker, but what really had our attention was that some said He was the Messiah. That was a term we had heard before. There had been others who claimed to be the Jewish Messiah, they too had gathered followers, in the end we had to march with our troops and crush these uprising.
Understand I have no fear of battle, but this is work that I have no taste for, trained soldiers mowing through a foe that amounts to little more than a collection of farmers and workmen. There is no satisfaction in that type of victory, but worse any time armed men clash there is still a bill to be paid on both sides. Men, whom you’ve lived, trained and fought with lost in a useless conflict. Yes the term Messiah caught our attention rapidly, it was a term that we didn’t want to be uttered at all.
But this man was different. He wasn’t claiming to be the Messiah. He didn’t appear to be challenging our authority. In fact the reports were that He was teaching words of love, and reconciliation between God and man. What caught my attention was that although He didn’t appear to be challenging our authority, He did appear to be challenging the authority of the religious leaders in the area. That made me a little suspicious of the reports about Him, because they were His chief accusers.
Despite my thoughts about them though, all of our suspicions were raise when He arrived in the city. You understand some people questioned if He would come to the city for Passover, some people assumed that if He did it would be in secret. But instead, when He came into the city, He came in as a King. Multitudes of people went out to see Him, we were dispatched to make sure there was no great disturbance. We couldn’t believe what we saw. People were taking off their cloaks and throwing them on the ground in front of Him so that his donkey could step on them. Others were cutting down palm branches to fan and shade Him. All of them were yelling religious things like Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Well it was strange, but not illegal so we left them alone. It was later that we heard that some were saying, it was prophetic, that it was foretold that He would arrive in the city like that. I dismissed this as superstitions. After all I had been all over the empire and every nation had their own superstitions, what made these Jews think that they were different.
That was on Monday, we knew that we were in for a long week, this would be no ordinary Passover. Tuesday thing began to get worse. Jesus went into the temple to confront the money changers and such. It was quite an upset I can tell you. The priests tried to get us involved but we try to stay out of religious disputes.
Wednesday things seemed to calm down a bit. But while Jesus was teaching in the temple the some of the Pharisees came to confront Him. They asked him what authority He taught with, He answered a question with a question, He asked them whose authority they thought John the Baptizer taught with. When they could answer things seemed to die down. But that was Wednesday.
Thursday came, people were busy with their Passover preparations, but there were other preparations going on as well. Around midnight the temple guard went out and arrested Jesus. The religious leaders had been trying to accuse Him of blasphemy, but this time the charge was insurrection. They claimed to have testimony that this man claimed to be the King of the Jews. Well that was a serious charge, and there was all that talk about Him being a Messiah. If there was one thing that the Empire could not allow it was another rebellion. Our troops were stretched far enough so we dealt harshly with even a hint of rebellion, in his case were told there were witness.
He was arrested and we were put on alert for trial and possible execution the next day. We knew that this would be no ordinary arrest, but even we were not quite prepared for the emotional frenzy of the day. The officials kept passing Him off to one another, each one trying to appease the crowd but not knowing what to do. My soldiers were ordered to give Him the 40 minus one, one lash short of death. I told my boys to do it well, and they did. We wanted to make sure that anyone watching didn’t even consider taking us on.
Then the final charge came down, “King of the Jews.” The thing was, even in the midst of the beating we gave Him, I didn’t see the defiance one usually sees in a rebel, just a calm that was frankly unsettling. When the orders came down, to crucify Him we did our best. We formed around Him and began to mock Him. We stripped off His clothes and put on a scarlet robe. Some of the boys fashioned a crown with the nasty thorns that grow in this region. We put a staff in His hand then in mockery, we bowed to him. I’m ashamed to say what happened next now. Then we stripped off that robe, we put his clothes back on, we began to spit on Him. We took the staff away from Him, and began to beat Him with it.
Then I headed to Golgotha to oversee His crucifixion while some of our cohort followed Him as He slowly made His way through the city and up the hill. In truth, after the beating we had given Him it was a wonder that He could stand, let alone carry His cross. I guess I wasn’t the only one to think that way because my soldiers gave Him the mercy of letting someone help Him with His cross.
Finally He came to that final destination. Inside I was beginning to have my doubts about what we were doing, but I was a soldier, and soldiers follow orders. So we stripped him the rest of the way, we placed Him on the cross we dropped it into the ground. We did it right orders were orders, and besides if we showed weakness now, then it could be seen as a sign that we were soft and lead to rebellion later. So we crucified Him exactly as we were supposed to. Then we stood guard, as the crowed mocked Him. Oh sure there were His supporters there, but they were clearly outnumbered by His enemies, this was clearly their day.
Or so it seemed, you see that’s when things started to get strange. As they were mocking Him, He prayed, “Father forgive them.” This lasted for 3 hours until around noon, then the sky became dark. Everyone got a lot quieter then. Around three He cried, “It is finished.” That was when the ground began to shake, the biggest earthquake I have ever experienced. It was then I said those words, “Truly this man was God’s Son.” At that moment I knew what was the difference between the Jews and all those other superstitions, it was this man. This man who fulfilled prophecies, this man who faced humiliation, torture and death with divine calm, this man at whose death the very sky darkened and the earth shook. This man was who He said He was. This man was the Son of God.
No one really anticipated what came next. Once He was dead, and I assure you He was dead. To make sure they had me pierce His side clean through to the heart to make sure. I guarantee you He was dead. I thought it was curious that some of the other religious leaders came and claimed His body. They prepared His body and then they buried him.
You understand when we buried someone we buried them. The stone we had rolled in from was around 2 tons, about the size of one of your midsize cars. Then I put rotate squads of 4 of my best soldiers in front to guard that tomb, and guard it they would, because if someone were to come and take that body on their watch they would be executed. Finally I placed the seal of Rome on that stone. It may seem like a small thing but the penalty for breaking that seal, for moving that stone, was that when we caught you, and we would catch you, we would crucify you, up-side-down. The seal of Rome wasn’t broken lightly.
But it was broken that day. That Sunday that the world would never forget, the stone rolled away, how? I don’t know, all I know is that the stone rolled away and He stepped out of His grave. My soldiers came to me. They were afraid, they failed at a task that they knew they couldn’t fail at but they did. They told me they had worked a deal with the religious leaders, where if they would tell people that some of His followers had taken the body, they would cover for them with the governor. Well, they may have pull with the governor, but not with me, I know what I saw, and I know that my men don’t fail at such a missions.
That was just one of the rumors about Him. Others try to say that He simply passed out and woke up later. If you don’t understand the brutality of the lashing and crucifixion, understand this, I stabbed Him in the heart with a spear. I have fought all over the world with sword and knife and spear, when I kill a man he stays dead, especially a helpless man on a cross.
Jesus died that day and He is the one who walked out of his tomb alive. That stone moved because He is God, He rose from the dead, because He has the power over death. You may think I want to see the Pharisees to defend the honor of my troops, but that’s not it. I may not have defended Him that day, My men and I may have been the very instruments of His execution, but that was before we knew who he was. Now I know that He is the Son of God and I will defend Him. The Pharisees may think that they silenced my men, but I’m going to tell. I’m telling you and everyone who will listen that Jesus is the risen Son of God. I can do this without fear because know I know that God has come to walk among us and that He has conquered the grave. Because of that we can live with Him forever.
Have you made the decision to follow Him today?
