The centurion, like kings and knights, possessed all powers.
He felt, as though, in front of Jesus, his might was mere mist.
Doesn't this mist, though tentative, add to timely showers?
He wanted Jesus to cure his steward. There came the twist.
Knowing him through and through, the incarnate felt compassion.
He strolled towards his mansion with his heavenly design.
Two humble beings met. One was God, who renounced heaven.
The other was one who felt unfit to face the divine.
He poured out his heart. Jesus knew well. No word was needed.
A breeze of blessing blew within the centurion's heart.
His steward was healed. Does any prayer go unheeded?
On the canvas of faith, hasn't he painted his fine art?
In faith, as Jesus said, meekness, like blood in flesh, is mixed.
Deeds done in faith, in the azure zone, are never eclipsed.
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, gathered in awe
to watch The Master and his name exhort,
and at the crease blazoned a century score
by the Lion slayer in fierce onslaught.
Cut, hook, pull, and drive - each ball thunderstruck
as I took my guard at the city end,
cover and square leg would scurry and duck
when Excalibur blade threatened…Amen!
“Bravo centurion!” they’d shout, “more! more!”
dapper in his zinc and red bandana -
into Wisden and new Leopard folklore
“run-out” on that great urban savannah.
I should have stayed my crease - instead I ran -
but cometh the legend, cometh the man!
Written: December 1996
Note: A centurion is a batsman who scores
a hundred runs in an innings. Alas I
was run-out for 111 that fateful day.
*The Leopards were my cricket team.
*The Lions were one of our fiercest rivals.
*Cover & square leg are fielding positions.
*Cut, hook, pull, drive, are cricket shots.
*Taking guard is marking your crease in
line with your stumps to protect them.
*Excalibur is a brand of cricket bat.
*Wisden is a prestigious cricket almanac.
Proudly he stands,
the centurion of stone,
alone in his battleground
where winds drape their
coolness against his
sun-baked smile unbreaking
as he defies the forces
opposing his decades of being,
dauntless in his pose,
he holds his thrusting sword
towards a ghostly foe.
As the head Centurion was supervising his men
Occasionally he'd look upon Jesus now and then
And as he was instructing his men as to what to do
It was closer to this Man Jesus that this centurion drew
And after the Cross was raised he then stood on guard
This battle worn soldier whose heart was now so hard
Hearing his own men as they cast lots for Jesus' clothes
A compassion, which he could not discern, suddenly arose
And as he watched Jesus for three long hours in agony
It was through this manner that his heart began to see
This man who was there the whole time at the Cross that day
In seeing Jesus suffer he knew that this Jesus was the Way
He had watched in so many other men being crucified before
But it was this, Our Lord, who changed his whole entire core
For this Man was different as He suffered in all complete Grace
Asking His Father to forgive us as Blood ran down His Face