Scene from “Jesus of Nazareth” courtesy of Pinterest

Such Great Faith

The Faith of the Centurion

5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”

7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment. (Mathew 8:5-13)

He’s a Roman!

I can attest to the fact that there is a hidden issue with this story, one that even Wikipedia was almost too coy to mention: Homosexuality.

It was a fact of life in Roman times that soldiers had sex slaves to service their needs. It seems obvious, doesn’t it? As a Roman Army commander, you wouldn’t want the population to complain to Caesar about sexual harassment of their women. So the Army ‘servants’ would have included a young Greek Adonis or two.

At face value, the fact that he was a Roman officer should have been enough to exclude him from the working of a miracle.

But his homosexuality makes the story all the more remarkable. Jesus didn’t hold the Centurion’s sexual preferences against him.

Jesus knows how to make a point, and, boy oh boy, did he ever make a point.

Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself

I’ve spoken of this before, especially with the fact that the current issues some Christians have with the LGBTI community. But this could actually signal the Second Coming of Christ.

It also fits in with my own past life memory as the “Roman Governor”.

In the World War I setting of a “No Man’s Land” encounter with a wounded enemy soldier, I had to shoot him (at his request) to put him out of his misery. Then I realized that he was my slave from the Roman life, a man who was also my lover. “Light bulb moment.”

What goes around, comes around again.

A New Convert

The story wouldn’t be complete without an explanation. I have been trying to match my planetary positions with ‘real’ past lives. See As Above, So Below. Others are skeptical about historical figures being real, in the sense that one must have a very inflated ego to believe that one could have possibly been them.

In most cases, I’d agree, but then my understanding of Astrology is the counter to that argument: not every life is going to be significant; but some will symbolize the energy that a particular planet in a specific sign can have. I see the connection when heroes from the past are highlighted. In reality, one doesn’t actually have to be that individual: one needs only to ‘personify’ the energy in their present life.

The Centurion (unnamed) is the first Gentile in history to witness Jesus in action. He may even have been part of The Passover Plot, in return for the gift of healing that Jesus gave to his servant. The image at the foot of the Cross is a snapshot of the change in that being’s life. It is also a hint at what was to come in the future.