The Centurion And His Perception About Life

I think in this postmodern world selfishness creeps in all the walks of life..may be in your profession, personal life…Its all about me, this becomes the motto of many. Pay attention to me- give me, serve me. We desire for a life partner who will not impede our ways to personal happiness, We look for in children to fulfill our dreams, we seek for situations, circumstances, climate everything to favor us. We love colleagues and other people around us who meet our expectations.

The medias around us compel us to promote ourselves, please ourselves, protect ourselves and make a name for ourselves. And we tempt to think that self –promotion and self celebration is the path to happiness.

People are being objectified, seen as a means for our achievements. It ultimately leads to peace less homes, conflicted lives, brokenness of relationships and shallow dreams.

It is in such a world can we recognize the worth of other person’s life? The centurion’s faith was valued when he counted his servant’s life valuable

2. His quality of intervention in lives.

The centurion sends elders of the Jews as his representatives. This tells us that he had a good relationship with them. Roman centurions weren’t known for their love of Jews. Most Roman centurions hated the Jews, were prejudiced against the Jews. But here in the passage for today it says that the centurion loved Jews in spite of all hatred and divisions. In Jesus’ time Romans had only one God that is the Roman Empire. This centurion even though a part of roman regime he considered Jews as his fellow brothers and also built a synagogue for them (7: 5). Thus his intervention bridged the gap between Romans and Jews in that premise.

Nowadays we hear appealing slogans like “one country-one law, one country-one language” so on and so forth..But in under cover there exists disparities and resulting violence which is being celebrated by people with vested interests. Thus we are living in a divided world.

In an artificial virtual world our self-selected sources of news and friends on social media can give us a false sense of community. But when we look up from our screens we discover that we are a culture divided on many fronts. We are afraid of one another who will really challenge my worldview.

This is a world which celebrates divisions and takes advantage of hurt.

In a divided world of hatred centurion’s intervention bridged the gap. Are our interventions making any positive impact in the world we live in, in the relationship with people around us? or is it widening the gaps and chasing people away from us creating hatred and disparities?

Let us challenge ourselves this week to analyze our interventions and the impact that create on others

In the Bible Jesus taught us to cloth the naked. It is not just the physical nakedness Jesus meant. If you have some money to spare you can do it without any hesitation. But by nakedness Jesus might have meant those who fall short in self esteem and stand exposed lags behind in social standard and expectations. Will you be there to cover them up and give voice in their noiselessness?