Easter Meditation 3: Roman Soldiers

Day 3—Roman Soldiers: Missing God (Matthew 27:27-31; John 19:23-24)

By Mark A. Taylor

Being a soldier can be boring. Especially when you’re far from home, in a dry, dirty, dusty place. The duty is even more distasteful when the assignment is to keep order among a stubborn people who resent you and all you stand for. 

And so, when a strange peasant called a king is assigned to your watch, who could blame you for having a little fun? Nothing about him looks like royalty, that’s for sure. So, you find some thorns and make him a crown. Your buddy has a robe he took from some unlucky Jew. It makes the perfect costume. 

“Hail king of the Jews,” you sneer, with all the other guys. First you bow before him, in mock honor, and then you spit in his face. You hand him a staff, and then you take it from him and slap it against his head. He doesn’t look like any king you’ve seen before. He doesn’t even fight back or try to defend himself. 

Plodding through life in middle-class suburbia can be a drag, too. Kids and cars and bills and budgets. Endless hours at Little League games and soccer tournaments. Money-driven bosses and quarterly reports for a corporation that, no matter how much it pays, takes in return some things you’ll never get back.  

And so, when someone offers some distraction from the grind, who can blame you for a little dalliance? When you’ve become convinced that this life is all there is, you might as well make merry, right? You’ve heard Christians talk about sacrifice and service, but that doesn’t look like the real life you see among society’s most successful. 

And so, you mock those rule-keeping, platitude-spouting churchgoers. Occasionally you see in their faces something other than judgment, but their looks of sad concern only make you despise them more and become even more determined to live life your own way.  

God? Sin? Punishment? You’ve broken more than one of their rules, and nothing bad has happened to you yet. 

The cycle has repeated itself since the early days of creation. Men mock God and misuse his blessings. They stand face-to-face with all the evidence for his reality. But bored with life and running fast after fun, they spit in the face of his goodness and his patience. And they never see what he’s ready to accomplish in their lives, even though he is right beside them.  

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RESPOND: 

1. Think of a time in your life when you ignored God. How long did it take for you to see the error of flaunting your selfishness in his face? 

2. Thank God for the circumstances and people who have brought you back to him, perhaps time and again.  

3. Ask God to help you see his activity in your life this week, and this very day.  

4. Make a list of situations where you need his presence and his answers. Ask God to show you his will. Consider how you can make sure you don’t miss him in your life right now. 

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We will post another Easter meditation on Thursday morning.