"And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto Him a
centurion, beseeching Him and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home,
sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus said unto him, I
will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am
not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word
only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority,
having soldiers under me, and I say unto this man, Go, and he goeth;
and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and
he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that
followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found such great faith,
no, not in Israel."--MATT. viii. 5-10.
We find in Holy Scripture, that of the seven heathens who were first
drawn to our Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel, three were soldiers.
The first was the Centurion, of whom our Lord speaks in such high terms
of commendation.
The next, the Centurion who stood by His cross, and said, "Truly this was
the son of God." Old legends say that his name was Longinus, and tell
graceful tales of his after-life, which one would fain believe, if there
were any evidence of their truth.
The third, of course, was Cornelius, of whom we read in the Acts of the
Apostles.
Now these three Centurions--commanding each a hundred men--had probably
risen from the ranks; they were not highly educated men; they had seen
endless cruelty and immorality; they may have had, at times, to do ugly
work themselves, in obedience to orders. They were doing, at the time
when they are mentioned in Scripture, almost the worst work which a
soldier can do. For they were not defending their own country against
foreign enemies. They were keeping down a conquered nation, by a stern
military despotism, in which the soldiery acted not merely as police, but
as gaolers and executioners. And yet three men who had such work as this
to do, are singled out in Scripture to become famous through all time, as
the first-fruits of the heathen; and of one of them our Lord said, "I
have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel."
Why is this? Was there anything in these soldiers' profession, in these
soldiers' training, which made them more ready than other men to
acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ? And if so; what was it?
Let us take the case of this first Centurion, and see if it will tell us.
We will not invent any reasons of our own for his great faith. We will
let him give his own reasons. We will let him tell his own story. We
may trust it; for our blessed Lord approved of it. Our Lord plainly
thought that what the soldier had spoken, he had spoken well. And yet it
is somewhat difficult to understand what was in his mind. He was plainly
no talker; no orator. Like many a good English soldier, sailor, yeoman,
man of business, he had very sound instincts in him, and drew very sound
conclusions from them: but he could not put them into words. He knew
that he was right, but he could not make a speech about it. Better that,
than be--as too many are--ready to make glib speeches, which they only
half believe themselves; ready to deceive themselves with subtle
arguments and high-flown oratory, till they can give the most
satisfactory reasons for doing the most unsatisfactory and unreasonable
things. No, the good soldier was no orator: but he had sound sense under
his clumsy words. Let us listen to them once more.
"I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this
man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my
servant, Do this, and he doeth it." Surely the thought which was in his
mind is to be found in the very words which he used--Authority.
Subordination. Discipline. Obedience. He was under authority, and must
obey his superior officer. He had soldiers under him, and they must obey
him. There must be not only no mutiny, but no neglect, no arguing, no
asking why. If he said Go, a man must go; if he said Come, a man must
come; and make no words about it. Otherwise the Emperor's service would
go to ruin, through laziness, distrust, and mutinous talk. By
subordination, by discipline, by mutual trust and strict obedience, that
empire of Rome was conquering the old world; because every Roman knew his
place, and every Roman did what he was told.
But what had that to do with our Lord's power, and with the healing of
the child?
This. The honest soldier had, I think, in his mind, that subordination
was one of the most necessary things in the world; that without it the
world could not go on. Then he said to himself, "If there must be
subordination on earth, must there not be subordination in heaven?" If
he, a poor officer, could get his commands obeyed, by merely speaking the
word; then how much more could God. If Jesus was--as He said--as His
disciples said--the Lord, the God of the Jews: then He had no need to
come and see a sick man; no need to lay His hands on him; to perform
ceremonies or say prayers over him. The Laws of Nature, by which health
and sickness come, would obey His word of command without rebellion and
without delay. "Speak the word only, Lord, and my servant shall be
healed."
But how did the Centurion know--seemingly at first sight, that Jesus was
the Lord God? Ah, how indeed?
I think it was because he had learnt the soldier's lesson. He had seen
many a valiant officer--Tribunes, Prefects, Consuls, Emperors, commanding
men; and fit to command men. There was no lack of such men in the Roman
empire then, as the poor, foolish, unruly Jews found out to their cost
within the next forty years. And the good Centurion had been accustomed
to look at such men; and to look up to them beside, and say not merely--It
is a duty to obey these men, but--It is a delight to obey them. He had
been accustomed--as it is good for every man to be accustomed--to meet
men superior to himself; men able to guide and rule him. And he had
learned--as every good soldier ought to learn--when he met such a man,
not to envy him, not to backbite him, not to intrigue against him, not to
try to pull him down: but to accept him for what he was--a man who was to
be followed, if need be, to the death.
There was in that good Centurion none of the base spirit of envy, which
dreads and therefore hates excellence, hates ability, hates authority;
the mutinous spirit which ends, not--as it dreams--in freedom and
equality, but in slavery and tyranny; because it transforms a whole
army--a whole nation--from what it should be, a pack of staunch and
faithful hounds, into a mob of quarrelsome and greedy curs. Not of that
spirit was the good Centurion: but of the spirit of reverence and
loyalty; the spirit which delights in, and looks up to, all that is brave
and able, great and good; the spirit of true independence, true freedom,
and the true self-respect which respects its fellow men; and therefore it
was, that when the Centurion came into the divine presence of Christ, he
knew at once, instinctively and by a glance, into what a presence he had
come. Christ's mere countenance, Christ's mere bearing, I believe, told
that good soldier who He was. He knew of old the look of great
commanders: and now he saw a countenance, in spite of all its sweetness,
more commanding than he had ever seen before. He knew of old the bearing
of Consuls and of Emperors: and now, in spite of Christ's lowly disguise,
he recognised the bearing of an Emperor of emperors, a King of kings. He
had learnt of old to know a man when he met one; and now, he felt that he
had met the Man of all men, the Son of Man; and that so God-like was His
presence, that He must be likewise the Son of God.
And so had this good soldier his reward; his reward for the soldierly
qualities which he had acquired; for subordination; for reverence; for
admiration of great and able men. And what was his reward? Not merely
that his favourite servant was healed at his request: but that he learnt
to know the Lord Jesus Christ, whom truly to know is everlasting life;
whom the selfish, the conceited, the envious, the slanderous, the
insolent, the mutinous, know not, and never will know; for they are not
of His Spirit, neither is He of theirs.
But more: What is the moral which old divines have drawn from this story?
"If you wish to govern: learn first to obey." That is a moral lesson
more valuable than even the use of arms. To learn--as the good Centurion
learnt--that a free man can give up his independence without losing it.
Losing it? Independence is never more called out than by subordination.
A man never feels himself so much of a free man as when he is freely
obeying those whom the laws of his country have set over him. A man
never feels so able as when he is following the lead of an abler man than
himself. Remember this. Make it a point of honour to do your duty
earnestly, scrupulously, and to the uttermost; and you will find that the
habits of self-restraint, discipline, and obedience, which you, as
soldiers, have learned, will stand you in good stead for the rest of your
lives, and make you each, in his place, fit to rule, just because you
have learned to obey.
But now go on a step, as the good Centurion went on, and say--If there is
no succeeding in earthly things, whether in soldiering or any other
profession, without subordination; without obeying rules and orders
strictly and without question: then perhaps there is no succeeding in
spiritual and heavenly things. For has not God His moral Laws, His
spiritual Laws, which must be obeyed, if you intend to prosper in this
life, or in the life to come?
"Thou _shalt_ love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul, and thy
neighbour as thyself. Thou _shalt_ honour thy father and thy mother.
Thou _shalt not_ kill, steal, commit adultery, slander, or covet." So it
is written: not merely on those old tables of stone on Sinai; but in The
Eternal Will of God, and in the very nature of this world, which God has
made. There is no escaping those Laws. They fulfil themselves. God
says to them, "Go," and they go; "Come," and they come; "Do justice on
the offender," and they do it. If we are fools and disobey them, they
will grind us to powder. If we are wise and obey them, they will reward
us. For in wisdom's right hand is length of days, and in her left hand
riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths
are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold of her, and
blessed is every one that retaineth her; as God grant you all will do.
But you, too, in time may have soldiers under you. Think, I beseech you,
earnestly of this, and for their sake, as well as for your own, try by
God's help to live worthy of Christian English men. Let them see you
going out and coming in, whether on duty or by your own firesides, as men
who feel that they are "ever beneath their great taskmaster's eye;" who
have a solemn duty to perform, namely, the duty of living like good men
toward your superior officers, your families, your neighbours, your
country, and your God--even towards that Saviour who so loved you that He
died for you on the cross, to set you the example of what true men should
be; the example of perfect duty, perfect obedience, perfect courage,
perfect generosity--in one word--the example of a perfect Hero.
Live such lives, and then, will be fulfilled to you, and to your children
after you, from generation to generation, the promises which God made,
ages since, to the men of Judea of old; promises which are all true
still, and will continue true, in every country of the world, till the
world's end.
"Put thou thy trust in the Lord, and be doing good; dwell in the land,
and verily thou shalt be fed.
The Lord knoweth the doings of the righteous; and their inheritance shall
endure for ever.
They shall not be confounded in the perilous time; and in the days of
dearth they shall have enough.
The Lord ordereth a good man's going; and maketh his way acceptable to
himself.
Though he fall, he shall not be cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him
with his hand.
I have been young, and now I am old; yet saw I never the righteous
forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread.
Flee from evil, and do the thing that is good; and dwell for evermore.
For the Lord loveth the thing that is right; He forsaketh not his that
are godly, but they are preserved for ever." Amen.