Reflections by the Pond
April 16, 2003

A Quik'ning Spirit

Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!" Matthew 27:54 nasbu

A soldier must, by training and intent, be hard. The purpose of war is to kill people and break things, and a soldier must be trained to pursue his craft with unflinching purpose, for the lives of the innocent depend on it. A soldier's heart is motivated not only by the need to kill his enemy or be killed by him, but by the possibility that if he doesn't, his enemy will pass over his fallen body to kill family and friends. So a soldier, by definition, must be hard.

The heart of a Roman centurion would surely have been hard. He was battle-scarred, experienced in the art of war, capable of thrusting his short sword into living flesh for one purpose: to kill before he was killed. He was also a leader, in charge of from seventy to a hundred men trained to do the same.

On a hill outside the gates of Jerusalem a centurion commanded the soldiers in charge of killing people in a different way: crucifixion. Perhaps his heart would have been harder still, for the motivation of battle is survival, but the motivation of Golgotha was cruelty. There was no punishment more cruel, more despicable, than that of being hung from a wooden frame to slowly, agonizingly die by asphyxiation. Battle-hardened soldiers must have flinched at the sight of people being killed in such a manner. But, over time, by the numbing effect of familiarity and habit, their hearts would have become harder still to the anguished cries of their victims.

But there came a day when they crucified one able to change hearts. The centurion in charge of death that day gazed upon the face of the dying prisoner and realized that He was different from the rest. This one condemned seemed to hold the cosmos in His hand. He called out to His God not in anger or fear, but with a familial bond: Father. And when He did finally die, the very universe itself trembled at the loss.

And in that instant, with everything about him quaking and splitting at the seams, the centurion's heart was changed. He looked upon the dead Christ and realized that he was standing before God. His calloused spirit suddenly soared into the Spirit come down from above, and he was forever changed.


Scholars could not chronicle the untold millions of souls that have gazed with hardened cynicism upon the face of Christ--and have come away changed. We live in a hard world, a world of slamming callousness and disregard, a world of bruising insensitivity, a world ruled by the maxim: "Kill or be killed." But in the Spirit of the One who gave Himself upon the cross dwells sufficient love to change the hardest heart, the most callous spirit. And in His resurrection and life dwells the hope for all willing to seek Him.

And can it be that I should gain
An int'rest in the Savior's blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God shouldst die for me?
(Charles Wesley)

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Reflections file: pond0367.txt