Today, on
October 29 (October 16 O.S.), the Orthodox Church invites us to
celebrate the memory of an unusual saint who might have been the first Gentile
to become a saint. Gentiles were people who did not belong to the Jewish faith
and who worshiped pagan gods. He was a centurion of the Roman garrison based in
Jerusalem during the rule of Pontius Pilate, the prefect of Judea in 26-36 AD.
Unfortunately, we don’t know much about this saint.
Let’s
imagine two Roman soldiers and their centurion who kept guard near a hill
called Golgotha (lit. ‘skull’) on the Friday before the Jewish Passover. The
shadows of three crosses with three blood-covered bodies pierced the cloudless
sky. There were people—scornful or anxious, indifferent or crying—under the
crosses. Did any one of them know that it was the most important event since
the time of creation of the world and man—the re-creation and redemption that
opened to us the road to the restoration of the lost harmony?
We can be
certain that Roman guards were the most indifferent and bored of all the
spectators. While Jews felt that this event was a part of their national
history whether they liked it or not, Roman soldiers perceived executions as a
monotonous routine. Moreover, they were “on duty” and couldn’t indulge in the “innocent
entertainment” that they enjoyed while their governor judged Jesus, nicknamed
the Messiah—a liar who called himself king. The exotic Oriental titles were
amusing to them, so they had a lot of fun in the praetorium, playing “fake king”
and throwing dice to find out who was going to be the next “king”. Remember a
school game where one person turns away and covers his face with his hands, all
the while others poke at him and then jump off, and he has to guess who punched
him? The fact that this game was known and played by Roman soldiers stationed
in Judea was proven by archaeological excavations. The battered and tattered “king”
couldn’t have come at a better time. “Great!” one of the soldiers said. “Here
is the king for the game! But first, let’s make him wear royal clothes!”
Then
the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto
him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him
a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they
put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed
the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And
they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And
after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his
own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. (Matthew 27:27-31).
Now they
had to stand under the scorching sun until late in the evening, and then kill
the crucified men, take their bodies off their crosses because it is forbidden
to leave them hanging on Passover, and throw them into a nameless pit for
executed criminals. A boring, boring job.
All of a
sudden, the anguished King of the Jews cried out, and yielded His spirit.
People immediately felt that the earth shook and saw cracks in between the
rocks. The whole world shook in sorrow. The sun hid its face, and mysterious
darkness wrapped up the mountain. The air was stuffed as if a thunderstorm was
about to begin. The soldiers were at a loss for words. The centurion took a
long look into the face of the Crucified King, and exclaimed, “Truly He was the
Son of God!” Something extraordinary must have led the rugged officer, for whom
suffering, blood, and death were a common attribute of his job, to utter these
words!
The Holy
Tradition preserves the name of that centurion. His name was Longinus. When he
became a Christian, he retired and lived in his father’s house. Pilate sent a
report about the centurion to the Emperor Tiberius and received the emperor’s
decree to execute the apostate. They beheaded Saint Longinus. A part of the
relics of the holy centurion is preserved in Saint Peter Cathedral in Vatican.
By Yury
Ruban,
Ph.D,
D.Th.
Translated
by The Catalog of Good Deeds
CONVERSATION