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for Novelty ShopGreetings, good friends. In this kind of get up you are naturally wondering who I am. Well, my name is Longinus. My home is Rome, and I have belonged to the Roman legion ever since I joined up as a teenager. Things went well for me, so I decided to make it a career. Finally, I worked my way up through the ranks, and today you see standing before you a genuine Roman Centurion. That means that I was in charge of 100 men.
Most of my duty was spent in and around Rome. In later years I spent time in Corinth, and a couple years ago I was transferred to Caeserea. It was in this city where the Governor Pontius Pilate had one of his summer homes built.
I really should tell you a little about my boss, Pilate. Pilate seemed to have a way about him whereby he alienated most everyone he met. Frankly, people did lot like the man. Part of it was probably his need to prove to everybody that he was boss. A couple times he went too far with the Jews, and some of the leaders lodged a complaint with Tiberius Caesar, and they were given a hearing. As a result, Pilate was rebuked by Caesar, and from that time on the Jewish leaders pretty much had Pilate where they wanted him. The upshot of all of this mess was that Pilate hated the Jewish leaders, and yet he was afraid of them to the point where he did not want to upset them enough where they might once again run to Caesar with some complaint.
I had not been assigned to duty in Ceaserea very long before my men and I were transferred to Jerusalem. We came into town shortly before they began their annual observance of the Passover. This time of Passover was always a bit tense. You should know that the Jews were fiercely independent and as a result they were a hard group to govern.
The biggest problem was that they took their religion too seriously. It seems that they were always objecting to something that we Romans did. First it was the images on the standards that were always carried by our legions. Another time it was the taxes which Rome levied on them. Then there was the constant agitation from all of them in regard to their being ruled by a foreign power.
All these feelings simply became greater at Passover time. You see, Passover was the time when the Jewish people celebrated their independence from slavery in Egypt. It was a time when they were more eager than ever to be free from the boot of Rome. Probably because of this feeling among the people there always seemed to be a bunch of agitators in Jerusalem who did their best to stir up some kind of rebellion or trouble.
That's the reason why Rome always moved an extra garrison of troops into Jerusalem for the several weeks that the Passover celebration lasted. It's amazing how an extra bunch of armed soldiers walking around can cause folks to think twice before initiating some kind of trouble.
Anyhow, now you can understand the reason why my men and I ended up with duty in Jerusalem. When the order came down from headquarters, I really wasn't too surprised.
We hadn't been in town too long, when one of my men brought word that the high priests in town were really hopped up about someone called Jesus son of Joseph. I don't know, guess he was from some hick town called Nazareth. Seems that he was stirring up all kinds of turmoil in the city. The real issue had to do with the temple, you know that's where the Jews go every Sabbath day for worship. Well, one day this Jesus character comes striding into the temple and provokes a riot. You see many Jews have set up a very lucrative business in the temple's outer courts where animals of all kinds were offered for sale so Jewish folk could proceed with all the religious rigmarole they went through with sacrifices and the like. Anyhow, this Jesus character strolls in tipping over money tables, uses a whip of cords to drive out the dealers, and tells everyone what a travesty this kind of activity is making out of the temple. Needless to say, the Jewish leaders were infuriated by such brazen interference.
I told my men to keep an eye on him, and that wasn't too hard. I mean this Jesus character was usually right out in the thick of things. But watch him as we did we couldn't really see any indications that he was somehow dangerous or some kind of threat. There were always big crowds around him. At times I even listened in to what he said. Seemed to me that most of the time he was talking about religion and all that kind of stuff. I must tell you that I found him very interesting to listen to. More than once I will admit that I even wandered into the part of town where he was most often found, just so I could kind of eavesdrop on what he was talking about.
I remember one moment which was almost amusing. You see the high priests were always trying to get him into trouble. Well, on this particular day, they had specifically contacted me. Said they wanted me on hand so I could arrest him, if I felt he was stirring up sedition or rebellion against Rome. The Jews came up to Jesus nice as pie, treating him with great respect. I'm quite sure that he quickly saw through their hypocrisy. Anyhow, they said to him, "We know that you are an honest man and speak out on what you believe, irregardless of what others may think. So tell us Galilean, should we pay taxes to Caesar or not?" --For a minute I thought they had him. If he said one should not pay tax to Rome, then I would have had to arrest him for high treason against Rome. But if he did say Israelites should pay tax to Rome, then it was obvious that many in the crowd would turn against him, as one who was aspiring to the cause of Rome. But he just smiled and asked if someone would show him a coin. Then he asked whose image they saw on it. When they replied that it was Caesar, he said, "Then why don't you give Caesar what belongs to him, and give God what belongs to God. You owe something to both God and Caesar, so be sure that each gets its fair share." Well, they just stood there for a minute with their mouths sort of hanging open, then very quietly they melted away into the crowd. I had a hard time to keep from laughing right out loud.
The next several days were busy, and I neither saw nor heard anything about Jesus the Nazarene. Then Friday morning word came to my quarters that something was brewing. It seems that the Sanhedrin had managed to get Jesus arrested, tried and came up with a verdict of death. Because Jews were not allowed to carry out the sentence of death, they had converged on Pilate, and that's how I got involved in the whole grubby mess. Immediately, I gathered my men, and we made our way to the Palace of Pontius Pilate. When we got there I was surprised to see that the prisoner was this Jesus, the one I have already told you about.
As I looked at the proceedings, several things became clear. First, the Jewish leaders had no real case against Jesus. About the best they could do was accuse him of some vague claim that he wanted to be king, and the rest was religious nonsense. Secondly, Pilate did not like having his sleep interrupted, and these hopped up Jews had come so early asking for an audience. Well anyhow, Pilate was in a foul mood. Thirdly, I could see a game of cat and mouse sort of developing between the Jewish leaders and Pilate. Caiaphas wanted to see this Jesus put to death, and to do so he was willing to make up any charge necessary to get the job done. On the other hand Pilate was a bit skittish, not wanting to be negligent of his duty, and have these hateful Jews report him for bad governance to Rome. The final piece was that Pilate became convinced that Jesus was innocent. He could find no crime he had done which might call for the death penalty. Every Passover Pilate was in the habit of releasing some political prisoner. It was kind of a bribe by Pilate to appease the rebellious Jews.
So Pilate tried that tack with Jesus. He even suggested that this Nazarene fellow be set free as the political prisoner of the year. But Caiaphas and his crowd had foreseen this possibility, and they had bribed a motley crowd that usually gathered in front of the temple, begging for a bread handout. But this morning there would be no bread, until the crowd had done what they were told by Caiaphas and the priests. They were supposed to cry out for the release of some murderer named Barabbas, and ask that Jesus be crucified.
Then Pilate had a thought, perhaps if he had Jesus whipped, this might satisfy the crowd's obvious desire for blood. Maybe after that they may be willing to consider his releasing this man named Jesus.
But there answer came right back: "You release this man and we know that you are no friend to Caesar." Well, when Pilate heard that, he pretty much knew he was finished. Above all else, Pilate wanted no one, and I mean no one going to Caesar Tiberius with news that once again he had dropped the ball. So reluctantly, Pilate gave the final order. Take this Jesus, have him scourged, and then taken to the hill called Golgotha and ready him for crucifixion. But do you want to know something my friends? I had the strangest feeling that Pilate really felt guilty about what he did on that early part of Friday morning.
Well, from there on it was up to my men and myself to carry out Pilate's sentence. Now I have been a soldier for a good many years, and I have been through lots of fighting and bloodshed in that time, but believe me, I've never really gotten used to crucifying a man.
I think this is one reason why the prisoner is turned over to the troops for a brief time before the sentence is carried out. They are also feeling somewhat wrong about this upcoming death, and by taunting and mocking the prisoner, you know, rough him up a bit---well then when they have to get down to the grisly business of nails, the cross and all, it doesn't seem to appear quite so gross.
Most prisoners would react to this sort of thing. You know, they'd fight back, try to break away, curse the men, spit on them, perhaps get in a good swing or two, maybe kick a couple guys. You see this would make the men mad at the prisoner, and it made it a lot easier to crucify the guy later on.
Well, when they began this taunting, mocking business with Jesus, he would not react at all. He refused to fight back. He just stood there and took it. Somehow he looked at his taunters in a way--well, it was almost like he was feeling sorry for them, if that makes any sense. This was all wrong; the men felt totally frustrated. Finally, they took out their frustration on Jesus by giving him a terrible beating. They laid the lash on his bare back, ripping it away in terrible bloody pieces. But still he remained silent, he showed no reaction. Believe me, it was awful. I finally stepped in and put a stop to it. I stopped the grisly episode partly in pity and partly because if they had gone on much longer, there would have been no prisoner to take out and crucify.
For most crucifixions we took the longest route possible to the crucifixion site. This way the people could see very clearly just what happened to folks who rebelled against Rome.
Well, we had gotten about half way up the hill, when Jesus slipped and fell. I could tell he was too weak from the beating my men had given him. He simply didn't have the necessary strength left to make it to the crucifixion site. So I pointed to a bystander and ordered him to pick up the cross. Of course, he objected, but no matter, he did carry it the rest of the way.
We finally got there, and I got busy with things, while my men took care of the actual crucifixion. On this particular day there were three prisoners, and for each one the feet and hands had to be nailed to the upright and the cross piece.
Jesus was given the middle cross, and once when I was about my grisly duties I happened to meet his eyes, and what I saw there surprised me. There was not a look of hate like I would have expected, but one that seemed to say, "I understand your feelings; and I appreciate it." It really got to me, and I found myself shouting out some crazy orders, so the men wouldn't see that their commanding officer was showing signs that he was acting like some woman.
I guess we had been there about an hour, and I looked up and saw that Jesus had his eyes closed, then I heard him say, "Father forgive them, for they don't really know what they are doing." I found those words absolutely incredible. Betrayed by a friend, sentenced as a result of a rigged trial, declared innocent by Pilate, and yet sentenced to death; terribly scourged by my men--and now this crazy, this wonderful man talks about forgiveness to all these, his declared enemies. Tell me friends, isn't that too incredible?
The next few hours were long. Then we offered Jesus some wine mixed with a drug which would help dull the pain. But he refused it. It was almost as if he were saying, "I'd rather face death conscious of what is going on instead of being drugged and stupid."
As the time dragged by, I found myself thinking, I'm going to find one of this man's followers, and learn more about him. Even though he was close to death he made a great impression on me.
It was about the middle of the afternoon, and I heard him quietly say, "Father I put my life in your hand." Then his head drooped, and I knew he was gone. Then I looked up at him and something sort of clicked in my head. It dawned on me the kind of man he really was. And I just blurted out what had become clear to me. Truly this was the son of the most high God.
Gene Sikkink
Oakes, N. D.
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