Luke 7:1-10 Humility and Faith
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 7. This morning we are going to look at verses 1-10, that’s on page 863 in the pew Bibles.
We missed you very much last Sunday but Sam and I successfully completed our Outdoor Emergency Care Technician training and we start work on the Ski Patrol at King Pine this afternoon. Thank you very much for your prayers, they were needed and felt all along the way.
As we turn our attention to the Gospel of Luke I want us all to keep in mind one simple phrase. It’s from both James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5, a quote from the Septuagint, which is the Greek version of the Old Testament, from Proverbs 3:34: God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
What we are about to examine is an actual account of this principle at work in the ministry of Jesus is Galilee. Luke 7:1-10.
After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2 Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. 3 When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, 5 for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” 6 And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. 7 Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 9 When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” 10 And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.
Let’s pray.
It’s not lost on me that it’s Christmas time. It seems every year I have to explain why I don’t like Christmas but if I give my reasons a spiritual spin I usually get away with it.
Busyness, and pressure, and noise aside, there is a reason that this season is troubling to me that is evident in our text this morning. Though God, in His grace, gave us Christmas by being born in humble human likeness, to humble parents, in the most humble way and place possible, culture has turned Christmas into a celebration of pride. Even Charlie brown’s Christmas pointed that out years ago that Christmas had gone commercial, everything showy and flashy, it’s nonsense!
Here in our text for this morning we can see the exact opposite at work in the life of the Centurion in Capernaum.
Now Jesus had been in Capernaum before, half of the Apostles were from Capernaum so it’s no surprise that when He returned there everybody in town heard about it. It wasn’t a big place after all.
One of the people that heard He was back was the Centurion. A Centurion, as the name suggests for you Latin scholars, was the commander of a company of a hundred soldiers. This was a person of influence in Capernaum for sure. But what else do we know about centurions?
They’re Romans, those soldiers that they commanded were Roman soldiers, which tended to make them not friends of the Jewish people, after all, they were an occupying army in Israel.
And because they’re Romans they are also Gentiles. A Gentile is anyone who is not Jewish, anybody who is not descended from Abraham. I am not Jewish, I am Welsh, which makes me a Gentile. For the Jews at the time Gentiles were unclean and the Jewish people were forbidden from even sharing a cup or plate that had been touched by a Gentile. Entering the home of a Gentile would make them unclean so needless to say, they didn’t hang out together.
But this particular Roman Centurion had a more friendly approach. He showed his love for the Jewish people by building them a synagogue and had good relations with them. This wasn’t a mark of his office but of his character. Centurions had to be a certain kind of person, reliable, steadfast, and steady. They needed to be able to stand their ground even to the point of death, but that didn’t mean that they were required to be nice to anybody. This particular Centurion however was.
In verse two we learn that the Centurion had a servant who was very sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him.
This also speaks to the character of the Centurion. Servants in Rome were not employees they were slaves. As slaves they were legally treated as property with no rights of their own. It was recommended that when farm implements got old or broken they should be replaced and the same was true about slaves according to one historian.
But this Centurion didn’t see his servant this way, Luke says that he highly valued him. And when he got sick the Centurion looked for a solution. It just so happened that Jesus was in town again.
Verses three through five also show us that the Centurion was a person of influence, not just because of his station but because of his character.
3 When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, 5 for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.”
The elders of the Jews in Capernaum were not coerced into saying these things. The Centurion had been good to them and their village and they wanted to return the favor and Jesus had the power to do so.
For the elders to say that he is worthy to have Jesus heal his servant was a big deal, these were not the words of the oppressed but of friends. Either way, Jesus agreed and started towards the Centurion’s house when He was greeted by another envoy.
6 And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. 7 Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
So the Centurion starts by sending his kind of outer circle to Jesus. “Jesus is Jewish so I‘ll send the Jewish elders with a formal request.” But now he sends his friends to Jesus saying that he was unworthy to have Jesus in his house. He also recognized Jesus’ authority as he would have known that Jesus cast out demons in Capernaum before and had healed other people there as well.
To be clear, the Centurion is not claiming authority over Jesus, he is recognizing the authority OF Jesus, that He has the power to say the word and things will happen, just say the word and my servant will be healed.
And how does Jesus respond? He marvels!
9 When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” 10 And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.
This is only one of two places that New Testament records Jesus marveling, the other is when He marveled at the lack of faith of the people when He was rejected in Nazareth in Mark 6:6.
Now we can clearly see that Jesus has the power to heal, He has the power to work at a distance, He shows compassion on the Centurion and his servant, and he is worthy of our praise for those things.
There are some things about the Centurion that I think we can all learn from.
First, the Centurion had two options when his servant fell ill, pride and humility.
If the Centurion chose pride things would have gone very differently. He could have sent soldiers instead of friends and commanded Jesus to come and heal his servant on pain of death. Or, he could have tossed out the sick and dying slave like a broken farm implement and gone out and bought a new one. He could have blamed the God of the Jews for the sickness and impending death of his servant. Any number of things could have been different if the Centurion responded to this difficulty with pride.
But instead he responded in humility. The elders of the Jews were willing to seek out Jesus for him because of his love for them and their nation. His friends were willing to go to Jesus because they loved the Centurion and most likely loved his highly valued servant. Love only grows in the soil of humility.
Johann Heinrich Majus (1653-1719) said, “The better a man knows God and himself, the humbler he will be.”
The Centurion knew the reality that he was unworthy to have Christ in his home, he was unworthy to even go speak to Him in person but he had the faith that Jesus could do for his servant what he was asking and so did his friends that sought Jesus on his behalf.
This is exactly how we all should come to Jesus. As Alistair Begg put it, “When we come to Christ we come face down.”
The Centurion came to Christ in humility, in faith, even without full understanding. The Centurion knew that the power of God was in Jesus though he may not have understood that Christ Jesus is God manifested in the flesh.
His friends came in faith on behalf of their friend, bearing his burdens to Christ, an act we now call “prayer.”
In Matthew’s record of this event in his Gospel in chapter 8 verse 13, Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.
John Calvin wrote, “Hence it is evident how graciously Christ pours out His grace when He finds the vessel of faith open. Though he addresses these words to the Centurion, there can be no doubt that, in His person, he invites us all to strong hope. Hence we are also taught the reason why God is, for the most part, so limited in His communications to us: it is because our unbelief does not permit Him to be liberal. If we open up the entrance to Him by faith, He will listen to our wishes and prayers.”
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Amen.
