Acts 10:1-8 Cornelius and the angel

Acts 10:1-8 Cornelius is visited by an angel. We first learn of Cornelius' character, that he was devout and gave alms to the Jews. As a gentile, he was evidently not a proselyte, at least the text does not say that. It simply says that he feared God, and all his household, and prayed continually to God. At 3PM an angel appears to him. Cornelius was much alarmed, as is the case with most people who see angels, since in most cases the angels' first words are 'Fear Not!' But in this case, the angel tells him to send to Joppa for Simon Peter, and where to find him. Evidently, those who were servants, and his soldiers also reverenced God, enough that Cornelius was able to entrust this mission to them.

          This is not the first time a centurion is mentioned. In Luke 7:2-10 a centurion asks Jesus to heal his servant, simply by speaking a word, which elicits the response from Jesus that he has not found such great faith in all of Israel. There is no indication in the text that this is the same centurion, or that it isn't. Why would centurions, or soldiers in general, be such actors in the cross-cultural spread of the gospel? There are probably several factors. One might be simply that soldiers travel more than most other people, except possibly for traders, and therefore they are the most numerous representatives of a foreign culture present in Israel. Another factor is described in Luke 7:6-8, in which the centurion explains that he understands authority in the military context, and is therefore able to recognize spiritual authority present in Jesus. Or perhaps there is an element of the life of a soldier dealing with life and death, with the fog of war, with experiencing a life in which one is not able to control everything but sees things happening, both good and bad, that emerge from unknown causes. Such a life could give a person an insight that we cannot control our own circumstances, that there is another level of existence that has a higher degree of causality, and recognize that the gospel provides a true explanation of that spiritual world.