When Hannibal marched his elephants over the Pyrenees he told his men to make sure and kill the Centurions first. Take them out, and the Romans could be beaten. But why? A Centurion only commanded 100 men. This was a small number, but it was not random. By trial and failure, the Romans found that a Centurion could not intimately know more than 100 men, and that this personal relationship was vital to his ability to command and control them effectively. It was not the quantity of men that the Centurions commanded that made them dangerous to the Enemy, it was the quality and personal nature of their leadership. Unlike higher ranking officers of the Roman army, the Centurions had to earn and keep their position through merit. Because their men’s lives rested upon their leadership ability, a Centurion’s skill (or lack of it) also profoundly affected the lives of his men’s families. It was to a Centurion and his family that the Lord sent Peter to begin his ministry to the gentiles (Acts 10). I do not believe this to be an accident, for it was Centurions who occupied the critical intersection between a community’s secular virtue and its spiritual vitality—where better to plant the seed of Truth? Hannibal was only half right—it was not only the army that was vulnerable if the Centurions were slain, it was the entire society.
The town I grew up in during the Seventies was very small, but not so small that you knew everybody. I lack distinct memories of most of the men of that town—but a few stand out. They were the ones who knew your name, knew who your father was and what sports you played. They would talk to you when they saw you outside the hardware store, “hey Davy, that was a heckuva a double you hit off of Matty Sherlock” they might say. Or, because they knew the bad stuff you were into as well as the good, sometimes they would give you a hard look: “you boys need to stay out of the old Williams’ barn, the floor’s rotting out.” They were not like the other dads. When they came home from work, we didn’t run if we were playing football in their yard. You could ask their advice and it wouldn’t get back to your dad, unless it needed to. When you needed a reference letter for your college application, they would write it from what they knew about you, not from what you told them about yourself. I had the same Little League coach four years in a row. I saw him again at my sister’s wedding twenty years later. He called me “Davy” even though I was 32 years old. He looked different, but I knew his voice. These men were the Centurions of my little town.
Early in His ministry, Jesus went about the towns and villages teaching, preaching and healing. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He told his disciples that “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” (Luke 9: 35-37). Charlotte is a big city to a small town boy like me. I feel lost here sometimes among the other sheep. Who is going to lead us? Hey Centurion. Hey Minivan Centurion--who is going to lead us?
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