This centurion, he was sent in charge of this small group of soldiers as they saw to the execution of Jesus. Per John’s account, there were four of them, and he would have been their sergeant, as it were. Why is he noteworthy? After all, the sight of Roman soldiers was hardly novel, nor would it be out of the ordinary in any way to find a centurion assigned to such a detail as this.

Well, the Synoptics concur in describing his amazement at how this Man had died. He was a centurion. He had seen enough of these crucifixions before to understand how they worked, how they were intended to work. The whole design was aimed at inducing a particularly slow, particularly painful death, the better to warn off others who might be tempted to similar crimes. But, Jesus hadn’t taken long at all. He hadn’t suffered that debilitating loss of all bodily control that should have been expected. He didn’t linger in His agony. Oh, He had cried out, right enough, but not in the way men usually would.

And then, of course, there were those events that had been happening around him as he oversaw this crucifixion. The sun had darkened for three hours! Now, let us suppose this man knew a bit of basic astronomy. Even so, he would understand that three hours was rather a long time for an eclipse to last. Far too long. But, there it was. The darkness had come and it had not lifted. And then, the earthquake! The city was shaken to so great a degree that those tombs, (tombs just like the one Jesus was going to be stowed in,) opened up! Do you think these went unnoticed? Do you think they went unnoticed by anybody? How could they?

A quick aside here: For the many who seek to discount the account given in the Gospels, to write it all off as some fanciful fabrication put together by the Apostles, or some larger group of Jesus’ followers, consider this. They would have to be incredibly stupid to include in such an attempt to delude nations things such as Matthew describes around the scene of Jesus’ death. The Sun darkened for three hours? Who’s going to buy that in the first place, and how hard would it be to debunk? Even without the internet, even without mass communication, all it would take is one man, Roman or Jew, it doesn’t matter, one man that the reader knew, who had been in the region. Remember that these things were written within the lifetimes of those who are mentioned. There were witnesses still extent, both hostile and otherwise. If they were making this stuff up, how swiftly would the Sanhedrin have moved to reveal the contradictory truth?

How swiftly would Rome have acted to demonstrate the nonsensical foundation upon which this new religious sect was founded? But, nobody comes forward to say that the sun never did that. Nobody comes forward to suggest that Matthew was clearly delusional if he thought there’d been an earthquake in Jerusalem that day. And surely, somebody from the temple would have been pretty quick to denounce the claims that the curtain across the Holy of holies had been rent in half! That’s serious. That’s up there with the Louvre having to fess up to having accidently put a ladder through the Mona Lisa during a janitorial mishap. If these things didn’t happen, somebody would have been readily available to point that out.

But, instead, we have this: The centurion confirmed the reports! The centurion! Here, in the immediate aftermath, we see him called before Pilate to confirm the relatively minor surprise of Jesus being dead already. Oh, yes sir! It is most assuredly true. Saw the detail come out and verify that myself, sir. I rather doubt he was offering more than the necessary answer to the question at this point. He is unlikely to be repeating to Pilate his assessment that this man was truly the Son of God.

For all that, I have to ask how powerful a testimony would it be for a Roman to see evidence of some man being sired by some god? It’s a common enough theme, certainly, in Greek mythology, and the Roman gods are effectively the same crew with different names. This alone, I should think, would hardly merit bringing the centurion into the picture. But, Luke gives us a first hint at what might explain his prominence in this closing scene. “When the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God” (Lk 23:47). Make no mistake about that. What Luke is indicating is praise of the God of Israel, the God of all creation. It is as if a light went on in this centurion’s mind and he was forced to recognize that the pantheon of which he had been taught from youth was nothing compared to this God Who made the sun dark and the earth tremble as He witnessed His Son dying. Add the many reports of dead spirits walking the streets the next day, and this God guy has all the bases covered!

But, even this doesn’t entirely explain his place in Scripture. After all, we have probably all witnessed occasions of someone’s emotionally charged avowal of faith only to find that within the month they are nowhere to be found amongst God’s flock. Emotional reaction to stimuli is one thing. Faith is something else entirely. And here, I would turn to John’s account to suggest that this centurion did indeed come to faith. In his coverage of the crucifixion, as he describes that second detachment of soldiers come to speed up the process, John makes this rather odd comment. “He who has seen has borne witness [continually, even to now], and his witness is true. He knows that he is telling the truth, so you can believe him” (Jn 19:35).

Now, there is some debate as to whether John is talking about himself here or some other. But, there is another, greater reason for this comment. There is another who is bearing witness. Indeed, the implication in that passage is that he bears witness of this all the time. You, dear readers, have heard him yourselves, and I am telling you that I was there, too. He’s not making it up! Honestly, look at him! Think about who he is. He’s a centurion! Of all the Romans you have met, of all the soldiers you have encountered, you know as well as I that the centurions are the worthies. They are not politicians like your governors, caught up in court intrigues. They are not scoundrels and mercenaries like so many of the regular soldiers. No, they are men of sound mind and proven ability. If ever there was a reliable witness to what happened, this is it! And he has been among you, testifying to what he himself saw!

You think Matthew’s account too incredible to be accepted, too fanciful? Ask this centurion! He was there. He will tell you that Matthew didn’t add the least bit of fabrication. You don’t need to take the word of us Apostles on what we’ve told you. Yes, it’s just barely believable, I suppose, that the eleven of us might have conspired to concoct a story like this, that we spent long nights together scripting the details of what we would say about the three years of ministry and how it all ended. Preposterous, yes, but just barely believable. But, you don’t just have our word on it. There are others among you who confirm our testimony, and you have to eventually come to realize that there are way too many others for us to have somehow brought them all into our little game. No. A centurion, particularly, would be party to no such thing. And yet, here he is. You have heard him. You can trust him. You can trust our words. You can trust God!

While we are never told outright that this centurion came to faith, I find it almost impossible to suppose otherwise. Bearing in mind the state of the Empire, and the standing of Christianity in that empire, it’s not too hard to fathom why nobody mentions his name. Cornelius, we know by name. That other, up in Capernaum, would have been identifiable by his association with the synagogue, I suppose. But this one remains effectively nameless. Considering the retribution that the Sanhedrin meted out against those in their own number who dared to believe; considering the trouble that was made for those soldiers who were detailed to guard the tomb; considering the mess that Pilate himself landed in: It could be dangerous to career and to life itself for this centurion to be known by name to the authorities in Rome, or even in Ephesus. Word would travel swiftly, after all! And his testimony was far too valuable to be thrown away with his life like that!

No, I feel pretty confident that we shall meet this centurion in heaven when our time comes. The centurion confirmed. It became something of a life mission for him to confirm. He could find no duty more joyful than to enter amongst the fellowship of believers and give them stronger foundation to believe.

As to his path to faith, one can only imagine. I would imagine, for instance, that having come to the realization that this man whose execution he had just overseen was the Son of God Himself might bring with it a rather large dose of fear and concern. I would imagine that such heavenly signs of displeasure from this God Who Fathered the Son might lead one to have some serious worries as to his own immediate future. After all, a God Who can quench the sun and shake the earth, is it even remotely possible that He would fail to notice all who had their hand in this greatest of all desecrations? Is it even thinkable that He would not retaliate? Particularly to the Roman mind! What do you do to a lawbreaker? Well, you just saw it! What do you do to a rebel, to one who has sought to kill the Emperor or his family? You just saw it! What does an army do when provoked? It attacks. And, being the Roman army, it wins! What hope, then, could there be for this poor centurion? Claiming that he was only doing his duty wouldn’t get him very far, and well would he know that.

But, remember, John was there. Mary was there. They were close enough to hear Jesus seeing to His mother’s care, and if they were close enough to hear, so was this centurion. And, they were close enough to hear his amazed recognition of who Jesus was. In the turmoil and emotional pain of that moment, it’s hard to say how either of these two would react, but it seems that they, almost alone from amongst that inner circle of His followers, have stood firm in the turmoil, have held to some semblance of faith even though He hangs there dead. Hearing that cry of recognition from the centurion, hearing the notes of concern and even despair that may have tinged that cry, don’t you suppose they might have made note of him? Don’t you suppose he might have made note of them?

Now, we understand that for the next little while, the Apostles were fearful and in disarray, many if not all of them heading back to Jerusalem to take up their old lives again. We know that the turmoil was not just theirs, but also enveloped the government for a time. There would be recriminations for all involved, and as I said, if the centurion noticed the sun and the earthquake, so too did Pilate. He’s never been particularly comfortable in this governor’s role, and this isn’t helping. The constant annoyance of these Sanhedrin guys coming with their latest grievance hasn’t been helping at all! And they, too, could not fail to have noticed these astronomical signs, certainly couldn’t miss the business with the veil! They could continue in denial of the implications, but then again, it was those very implications that moved them to fiercer determination to see this business of Jesus squashed for good and all.

Yet, all their efforts were for naught! Reports and rumors were coming in. This Jesus Who had been crucified was not in His grave! (And many of the dead saints roamed the streets of Jerusalem…) The centurion would hear of this. Then, reports were coming that He had been seen alive! This was too incredible! The Sanhedrin, of course, was doing everything in its power to discredit those reports, but the centurion heard, and all that fearful foreboding found a glimmer of hope to cling to. If John and Mary didn’t seek him out, it would hardly surprise to learn that he had instead sought them out. It may have been weeks, even months later, when he heard about those in power hauling these Christ followers in for questioning and even execution. He could hardly expect a welcome at that point, and yet, he must know! If there is hope, if that One he had crucified yet lived, and there was this forgiveness he had heard about, then he needed that forgiveness! This God was a god worth serving! This God was God, and if God would have him, he would gladly give himself over to worship this One Who died and now lives forevermore.