Rubrius the Centurion
He looked on with repulsion as he watched his fellow Roman soldiers go through process of crucifying the three men. He was seeing this process through a whole different point of view than he had before. It wasn’t that any of the cruelties now in progress were new to him. In fact, several times he had been charge in carrying out this hideous death sentence. In fact, he and his men had probably had been just as brutal as these soldiers and had as much fun as these men were seemingly having. But lately his prospective had changed on so many things. The sight of Jesus suffering on that cross made both sick and angry. And it being done by his own countrymen just made it worst.
As he watched with mounting rage, Rubrius reflected back on the events that had made him a different man. A change that had taken him from being an enthusiastic oppressor of Rome’s conquered peoples to wanting to become one of them.
He had grown up in a minor noble in the city of Rome itself. He had always been enamored with the life of the soldier. As a boy he and his friends had watched, with pride the victory parades that snaked through the streets of the capital city. With the drums pounding and the colorful banners flying, it was quite a spectacle.
They had cheered the victorious soldiers marching in formation and their spoils of captive people and goods that followed behind. Many times they glimpsed at strange animals that had be brought from the far away lands. The elephants were all the boys’ favorites.
When he became of age, he was given a position in the army. After a rigorous period of physical training, because of his family he went into officer training. After training he was assigned to the army led by Vitellius a formal consul, and now operating in Syria. After numerous battles with the Persians, his company was sent west and was now under the command of Herod Antipas who was king in the Samaria region. There he and his command of one hundred men were in charge of keeping the trade roads in good repair and free of bandits.
While the pay of a minor officer wasn’t very good, the opportunity to acquire money from the local population abounded. Over the years, he had done very well and acquired enough funds to settled down and purchase a house within sight of the Sea of Galilee. More important, he had found a lovely local girl whose family was willing to part with her for a hefty price. He worked hard at getting the extended family to trust him and eventually felt like he had accomplished it.
Rubrius was the typical Roman that worshiped the traditional gods without giving much thought to it. Since the gods didn’t demand much, it mostly was a lot of fun with all the feasts and athletic games that went along with it. At first the Jewish belief that there was only one God sounded idiotic to him. How could one god do everything that gods need to do, was his favorite question? After being around these Hebrews he began to seriously consider his own question. All the gods and goddesses with all the human traits and quirks that they were supposed to have, begun to seem a little silly the more he thought about it.
Under the direction of one of his wife’s relatives, he began to critically explore the Hebrew faith. Their history was amazing to Rubrius who had just assumed that since Jews were a conquered people their past was insignificant. But the most striking thing about this faith was that there was only one God and he had chosen the Hebrews to show who he is. It was difficult to comprehend all the stories that they told about how God had intervened in their race, but it sure was fascinating.
There was no defining moment; it was a gradual progression towards a change in faith. He eventually came to believe that Jehovah was the one and only true God. He proved to the Jewish community of his new faith, by being the major contributor to a new synagogue in the town. But for understandable reasons, he was reluctant in taking the final act of commitment, that of circumcision.
He also, like most of the people in the region, began to take notice of the new prophet on the scene, Jesus of Nazareth. Because of his military duties, he didn’t get to personality hear him much, but the couple of times he did, he came away amazed. The healings that he witnessed were truly astounding. No true human could have possibly have done them.
What Rubrius spent a lot of time pondering was, who was this “Son of Man,” as the prophet sometimes referred himself? Many claimed he was the ‘Messiah,’ a term that Rubrius had to do some studying on. To him, this Jesus didn’t seem to be the type that was going to lead a revolution against his fellow Romans. This was an area that he had some expertise, since he had help put down several insurrections during his career.
Some thought this Teacher might be of the devil, but anyone who listened to his teachings and heard the compassion in his voice, could only believe that this man was of God? He came to the conclusion that no matter what others thought, Jesus knew exactly who he was and where he was headed and that he was in total control of his own destiny.
He own experience with Jesus came when his favorite servant Demetrius, became so deathly sick with a high fever that he couldn’t move any of his limbs. With time running out, Rubrius knew their only hope was Jesus, who happened to be teaching in a nearby town. When he got to where Jesus was teaching he found the usual crowd around the Teacher was dense. It took awhile to work his way up close to him. The people around him starred at him wondering what this high Roman soldier wanted with the prophet.
When it was finally his turn to speak to Jesus, he said, “Lord, my servant is seriously ill and we fear for his life. I would have brought him to you but he is now paralyzed and the trip here probably would have killed him.” Jesus looked him in the eyes and said, “Don’t worry, I will go to your house and heal him.”
Rubrius was surprised that Jesus was willing to make this special trip, especially for a Roman gentile. He told the Lord, “I’m not worthy for you to come to my house, Lord, I know you can heal him from here. You are like me in that when I give an order to my soldiers I know it will be carried out. You have much more authority than I do, so you can just say he’s healed from here and it will be.
Jesus grinned at him for a moment and turned to the crowd raise his arms and said loud enough for everyone to hear. “This man has more faith than anyone I have found in all of Israel. Many different kinds of people are going to come to heaven from all parts of the world. And many from our own people will never make it and there will be great sorrow.” He then turn to Rubrius and said, “Because your faith is great, your servant is healed. He then turned and began giving his attention to the other people who were around him.
Rubrius hurried home and found just what he expected, Demetrius had been healed exactly at the time that Jesus had pronounced it.
From then on Rubrius tried to follow Jesus whenever he could. When he had found out that Herod was coming to Jerusalem for the Passover observances, he was delighted because his detachment always went with him when he traveled. He also knew that Jesus always came to the Temple for the Passover.
This had been his first visit to the much-acclaimed Holy Temple and he had truly felt God’s presence there. But the visit had been ruined when late last night Jesus had been drug into where Herod had been staying for a sham trial. He was glad when Herod had passed him back to Pilate, hoping that would be the end of it.
And now, for one of the few times in his adult life, he felt completely helpless. Here was the Jesus, unjustly condemned by Pilate, the representative of Roman law. (A legal system that all Romans took great pride in and that was supposed to be an example of great justice to the lands that they conquered.)
As he stood there and watched the soldiers finish their grisly work, Rubrius was convinced that if Jesus wanted to put a stop to all this, he could. The question is why didn’t he? No matter how painful, he was determined to stay on this hill till this was all over. As he looked up into the tortured face of the man who he believe was from the one and only God, he could feel the hot tears begin to stream down his face, and he didn’t care who saw them.
Matt: 8 Luke: 7
1. Why is Rubrius such an unlikely believer in Christ?
