God reaches out to all unbelievers. He wants them to hear the good news of eternal life through faith in Christ. He does not reach out only to people He chose in eternity past. God, who is all-powerful, has an infinite number of ways to reveal truth to every person.
The centurion at the cross is an example. He was a pagan. I am pretty sure he was not familiar with the OT Scriptures. But the Lord revealed truth to him in ways he could understand. The Lord wanted the centurion to contemplate how great the Man on the cross was.
The centurion, like every person, was a product of his culture. That culture was Roman. One popular author from that culture wrote that Romulus, the founder of Rome, did not die. Instead, he disappeared during an eclipse and became a god (Plutarch, Life of Romulus 27.6-7). An earlier author, Cicero, said the eclipse signified that the soul of Romulus went to the heavens (Cicero, On the Republic 6.22).
Such writings formed the mythical view of the Roman centurion. Plutarch also said that darkness in the skies revealed how the gods were reacting to certain monumental events. When Cassius and Brutus murdered Caesar, a comet appeared, and the rays of the sun were obscured. Darkness filled the sky. A spirit appeared to the assassins and told them that the gods disapproved of what they had done (Plutarch, Life of Caesar 69.4-6).
Another writer during the time of Christ, Pliny the Elder, said many Romans believed that strange signs in the skies meant bad things were going to happen. He said that when Caesar Augustus’s father died, the sun was darkened by stars. He agreed with Plutarch that when Caesar was murdered, there was a solar eclipse (Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 2.26-30). Darkness in the skies meant that a great man had died.
Roman army leaders would interpret signs in the skies as portents of things to come. An eclipse, which cut off the light of the sun, was seen as a sign of what the gods thought about an upcoming battle.
Josephus, the famous Jewish historian who wrote under the auspices of Rome, also speaks of an eclipse as an omen connected to the deaths of righteous people. Certain Jews rebelled against the actions of Herod the Great when the king violated the Law of Moses. Josephus describes these men as virtuous, well loved, and devoted to the Law of God. When Herod burned them alive, Josephus remarks that an eclipse of the moon accompanied their deaths (Antiquities of the Jews 17.6.1-4). Roman soldiers would have been very open to such views.
How did the Roman centurion, who was steeped in Roman culture, interpret the darkness in the middle of the day during the crucifixion of Christ? He had heard from his leaders that such phenomena suggested a great man had died and that the gods were angry at the events in Jerusalem that day.
The centurion had likely expressed such views to soldiers under his command. Such junior soldiers were around the cross of Christ. When the centurion said that Jesus was the righteous Son of God (Matt 27:54; Luke 23:47), I am pretty sure he did not mean what a Christian would mean by that statement. But there is no doubt that God was showing him a truth he did not know. The Man on the cross was truly a great Man. Jesus was innocent and did not deserve what happened to Him. Through the centurion’s culture, the Lord reached out to him. It was a great start.
Did the centurion later believe in Jesus for eternal life? We do not know. We do know from Scripture (Acts 10) and from secular history that many in the Roman military became believers. We also know that, as He does with all men and women, the Lord was revealing truths about Jesus to this man. The centurion initially responded very positively. Personally, I would not be surprised to meet him in the kingdom. I am convinced that the Lord is reaching out to people around the world in various ways. We are going to be surprised by some of the people we see in the kingdom
