Eight words.
That’s what I am remembered for 2000 years later. You don’t remember my name. But I guess of the 230 million people alive in 33AD - I guess there are not many people you remember anything of - and at least for me you remember 8 words
“Truly this man was the Son of God” - not in John’s acount that you have just heard, but in Mark’s and in Matthew’s.
“Truly this man was the Son of God”
Of course, the story didn’t begin with the 8 words.
It begins with a posting no solidier wants.
Your Empire needs you. Join the legions. Bring civilisation to the barbarians. Defend the pax Romana.
Not that that’s why any of us really joined up. Citizen of the mighty Roman Empire with privileges that conquered people people could only dream of. But it means bog all if you are a plebian struggling to buy bread to feed yourself.
Join the legions. Get fed bread.
His imperial majesty Tiberius Caesar son of the divine Augustus, Emperor and ruler of the known world - is not [hush I didn’t say this] going to stay emperor long if he doesn’t pay his legionaries.
It’s a tough life being a legionary - heavy packs to carry. Long marches. Long days. Brutal punishments for the slightest infraction.
It’s a tough life being a legionary. But when you have been starving you’ll sign up for 25 years of being fed bread. And the perks are good to. Join at 15 - retire at 40 and they’ll settle you in a colony full of ex military folks like you with a pension for life and a native wife.
Join the legions. Get fed bread.
Join the legions. Restore your pride.
We are the mighty Roman Empire. Other nations are pathetic compared to us. Barbarian Gauls - you think of Asterix and Obelix. We think of terrorists - threatening our safety until the mighty Julius caesar grandfather of our beloved Emperor Tiberius crushed them and brought them into the Empire. Greeks - you think of playwrites and philosophers. We think of ponces and nonces - great at maths but can’t hold a country together. We the mighty Romans have taken their learning and turned it into something useful - roads and aqueducts, and accountancy to enable massive trade in grain and so many other wonders. A million people live in the city of Rome. Have you ever heard of that. A million people living in one city? Without Greek inventions like the maths to make the trade possible, or the aqueducts to bring in enough water - none of that would be possible. But did the Greeks actually build a city of a million people? No- useless ponces and nonces. It was we who did the Mighty Roman Empire.
Which makes it tough when you are a plebian on the streets of Rome, struggling to get enough to eat - and you see some Syrian merchant wearing robes and jewels you could never dream of, with a pot belly showing the pheasant and wild boar he gorges himself on. Surrounded by slaves.
We are citizens! And these foreigners come in, taking our jobs, taking our wealth.
Join the legions. Restore your pride.
In the legions you are a big man.
If a legionary says to you “give me your coat!” - you’ve got to do so. Because you ain’t no Roman. And I’m not just a Roman. I’m a legionary.
We get better weapons than the other soldiers too. We are not the only soldiers. There’s the auxiliaries too. Non citizens, people conquered lands, knowing that if they do their 25 years they can earn citizenship for themselves and their children. Good on them. But let them work for it. For now we citizens get the decent weapons, we citizens get the decent armour.
In the legions you are a big man.
So aged 15 I joined up. And got the posting nobody wanted - to Judea. I had dreamed of Gaul or Iberia or Egypt. And they sent me to a land full of atheist Barbarians. People who don’t believe in Jupiter or Mars or Hera. Of course every nation has their own gods - but the Judeans, they say their single god is the only God. And a troublesome bunch they are, always a rebellion here, a rebellion there. Crucifixions - lots of crucifixions in Judea - the only way to show what happens when you rise against Rome. Don’t they realise how better off they are with our roads and and our schools and our water. It’s not as if they would be independent without us. If we walked away, the Persians would walk in the next day.
Yes, they lived up to my expectations. I hated this forsaken by the gods country.
And then 3 years ago I began to hear of a man.
It started on a posting in Galilee.
Some of the lads started coming back to base confused. “Give me your coat!” They would say as they often do. And the local would give them their coat … and then pass them their shirt too. “Why on earth?” “The preacher Jesus: he says we must do it”
Or some other lads would grab a few locals “Carry my pack for a mile” That’s the one limit you know, we can’t make them go more than a mile. And at the end of the mile they would go “No, we will carry it another one: the preacher Jesus, he says we must do it”.
Then there was my mate, fellow Centurion, Flavius Otullius. He had a servant he was very fond of who was very ill. Tropical diseases here - usually fatal. But this Jesus, he heals the man’s servant without even entering his house. Well I have heard of lots of sourcerors doing their magic. And when they make you better, what do they want? [open hand to gesture] Cash!
But this Jesus, he cures the man for nothing.
Now there’s a certain rule to the way things work. We hate the Judeans. The Judeans hate us. We’ll pick on them for no reason at all, because that makes us feel big. We are not big back at home in the slums of Rome. But when we bully the Judeans, we are big. And the Jews, there’s not much they can do - but they spit on us, won’t eat from the same plates as us, see as unclean. A Jewish sorcerer heals a Roman servant - he’ll charge triple. Not this Jesus. He treats the man as though they are both equal citizens of some different Kingdom, and with love and affection he heals him.
Then’s there’s the tax collectors. We all hate the tax collectors. The Judeans hate the tax collectors because they are traitors siding with us. We hate the tax collectors - well if someone will sell out their own people for enough money, just because they are selling them out to you doesn’t stop them being scum. But this Jesus - he treats them like human beings, and eats with them … and indeed with a few of the lads who join them.
Then there’s the prostitutes. Most of my boys like a night with a Jewish whore. If she is good, she might even get paid. You wouldn’t socialise with them obviously… But this Jesus. He shows no interest in getting inside their knickers. He treats them like human beings, and he eats with them.
And we are told to arrest this man.
So with a bunch of Judean priests and pharisees we grab him in some garden. One of his followers tries to start a fight. Grabs a sword and hacks of the ear of the high priest’s servant. Jesus tells him to put down his sword - and he heals the servant’s ear. What a sight. I have never seen a miracle before that night. It’s not the one I expected to see.
The next 24 hours goes on. We are told to do him over to placate the priests. So we do. Dress him in a fake crown of thorns “Hail King of the Jews” Whack!
But somehow the more we mock him… the more… he looks … like a king.
Like a King of a very different sort of a kingdom.
Pilate doesn’t want to kill him. We can tell that. I think he can see something of what I can see in this strange man. But no amount of torture can placate the priests. They bay for blood.
We could leave the doors open, and this man would not walk out. He could heal this servant’s ear, and he lets us do this terrible stuff to him.
So the time comes to take him to be crucified.
As we walk him through the streets, we are meant to mock him. That’s what you do to traitors - and supposedly that’s what he is meant to be. Though he doesn’t look like any traitor I have seen before.
Or is he more dangerous than other traitor, because he challenges our whole way of being, with our violent gods and our assumption that we are better than other people.
We Romans don’t have crippled children - if a baby is deformed we put it on a mountain to die. The Judeans. Their god doesn’t like them killing babies, so they keep their cripples but treat them as unclean. But Jesus - he loves the cripples and makes them better. And you know, the miracles are incredible. But even if he didn’t heal them, there would be something about that love that would be incredible. He acts as if all people - Jew or Greek, Slave or Free, male or female, are all one, are all beloved of the God he calls Father.
So he walks through the streets carrying his cross, and we mock him. And the more we mock him, the hollower it feels. Even on the way, he is comforting other people - like a bunch of wailing women, or his mum, or the man we force to help him carry his cross.
And we get to the mount of crucifixion, and the sun goes dark.
That freaks me.
And the cross, he doesn’t stop loving people.
There he is comforting other people being crucified.
And he has absolute confidence where he is going. Our ancestors tells us that when we die we live as pale shadows in the land of Hades. Enjoy this life, because the next life ain’t much to look forward to.
But Jesus says to the other dying man “Today you shall be with me in paradise”. I know which sounds more attractive.
And then looking down at those below - I think I see him looking straight into my eyes - and I want to look away, but I can’t look away from those beautiful loving eyes. And I hear him say “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”.
And he bows his head and gives up the ghost.
And say - out loud where my men can hear me. Out loud in front of the crowd where they can all hear me too. Out loud where his mum and the few of his followers who haven’t run away can hear me.
I say eight words:
Truly this man was the Son of God.
You ask what I meant. “You’re a Roman, you believe in lots of gods. You believe the Emperor’s the son of a god”
No I didn’t mean it like that. Our Roman gods seem so petty in comparison to this man and the God he calls Father. Jupiter turning into a bull so he can bonk some girl. Or Jesus who rescues girls from Sexual slavery and gives them dignity. Mars who sends the Roman Jackboot to crush rebellion, or Jesus who says “love your enemies. Father forgive them for they know not what they do”
I always wanted to be a Big Man. A Roman Citizen. A legionary. A Centurion. Someone who is big because he can look down on other people.
Jesus showed me a different way of being big, where you treat everyone as equal citizens of a different sort of Kingdom.
Jesus showed me a different way of being big.
And so I say those eight words again.
Truly this man was the Son of God.
