The Centurion

Prompted by my devout and wonderful wife, I recently bought an audio version of the Catholic Bible on Audible* and downloaded to my Droid. I've been listening to it now and again as I drive. I've been deeply affected by listening to it and it's had some wonderful effects in my daily life. I might blog on those later, but there are several stories that, heard rather than read, have made me wonder about the people involved. The story of the Centurion is one such

When he went into Capernaum a centurion came up and pleaded with him. 'Sir,' he said, 'my servant is lying at home paralysed and in great pain.'

Jesus said to him, 'I will come myself and cure him.'

The centurion replied, 'Sir, I am not worthy to have you under my roof; just give the word and my servant will be cured. For I am under authority myself and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man, "Go," and he goes; to another, "Come here," and he comes; to my servant, "Do this," and he does it.'

When Jesus heard this he was astonished and said to those following him, 'In truth I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found faith as great as this...(T)o the centurion Jesus said, 'Go back, then; let this be done for you, as your faith demands.' And the servant was cured at that moment.

The thought that immediately jumped into my head was this: What did the Centurion think and feel when he heard that Jesus had been crucified? The guy was a Roman, not a Jew. I'm not sure how the Romans rotated their troops, but it could have been that he was on a temporary deployment in Judea where he discovered the Son of God. That alone would be enough to blow your mind, but to find out later that he had been crucified would be shocking. I could just see the fellow using his connections within the army and within the Judean populace to find out just what happened.

I wonder what he did after that.

I doubt he was anyone's fool.
* - I love Audible. LOVE IT.