The soldier who made sure
Longinus
born Aziz
Named by tradition · Backstory original
Witness II of VI · Iron slate
02 In one line
The soldier who put a spear in a dead man’s side to be sure of the death — and was undone by the sureness.
03 In the books
Born Aziz — beloved — to a potter called Yannai and his wife Marta, in an eastern-hills village beneath the notice of empires. His mother blessed him with the words the God who sees will keep you, and keep the road that brings you home. At the wheel he learned his father’s craft-lesson, which was also a lesson about people: you don’t force the clay; you hold it steady and let it rise.
Then drought came, and a Roman debt, and the family broke. He went out to make his living doing the exact opposite with his hands. Rome unmade the provincial boy, drilled the old self out of him, gave him a new name — Longinus — and put a spear in his grip. He rose. He kept a clean record. He kept his face shut. He acquired a scar at the corner of his mouth and a silence between his two names that widened every year.
On a hill outside Jerusalem he did his job properly, as he always had, and drove the spear in to be certain. And then he heard himself say a thing no soldier of Rome should ever say, out loud, in front of his own men. He spent the rest of his life learning to set the spear down and answer to Aziz again.
04 In Scripture
Mark 15:39; Matthew 27:54; Luke 23:47 — the centurion at the cross, who declares Jesus innocent, or the Son of God. John 19:34 — a soldier pierces Jesus’s side with a spear, and blood and water come out.
The Bible names neither man, and does not say they were the same person. Later tradition supplies the name Longinus and merges the two, as this series does. Aziz, the potter’s family, and the entire eastern-hills childhood are original.
Mark 15:39
39When the centurion, who stood by opposite him, saw that he cried out like this and breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
Matthew 27:54
54Now the centurion, and those who were with him watching Jesus, when they saw the earthquake, and the things that were done, feared exceedingly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God.”
Luke 23:47
47When the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, “Certainly this was a righteous man.”
John 19:34
34However one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
05 His world
The Roman army took poor provincial men, drilled the old self out of them, and sent them to hold down other people’s countries with the flat of a hand. A soldier’s whole identity was the instrument in his grip — which is what makes setting it down so nearly impossible.
06 What he carries
That grace reaches even the hands that did the deed. He is saved with the worst of it still wet on his hands — the hardest case in the series so far, and the answer is still yes.
07 A lesson
The truth, once you have said it out loud, will ask you to lay down the very thing you built your life on. Confession is not the end of the reckoning. It is the start of a different life.
08 Threads
On the Pavement he strikes the irons from Bar-Abba’s wrists and locks them onto another man. Years later, in a low room among the followers, the two of them sit across a table — the soldier who kept Rome’s peace and the rebel who broke it, the two blades of one political knife — and discover they have been made brothers. At Miriam’s deathbed she calls the stiff old soldier close, and blesses him.
- Bar-Abba — Strikes off his ironsThe Pavement · The Centurion · Barabbas
- Bar-Abba — Made brothers at the tableThe lower city · The Gathering
- Miriam — Blessed by herThe last door · The Gathering
- Demas — On the same hillGolgotha · The Centurion
09 Where they stood
10 Hear the opening
11 His book
The Centurion (Book II)
Book Two
The Centurion
The soldier who made sure of the death, and could not unsee it.
Ebook · Paperback · Hardcover — From £4.99 (sample)
Which is harder to believe — that grace would reach the worst person you can think of, or that it would then seat you at the same table as them?