Luke 7:1-10 - The Centurion's Faith

We've been in the Gospel of Luke since January. We'll be there through the rest of the year and early into next year. Today, we're in chapter seven, and we're going to look at the first 10 verses. So if you've got your Bible with you, hold that up. If it's your phone or your tablet, wave that at me. Great, and be sure to be ready to take some notes as we go along.

After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now, a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews asking him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation and he is the one who built us our synagogue." 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. Therefore, I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me. 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."

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." And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.

Who here is on Facebook? Yeah, I don't mean like right now, on Facebook in general. Yeah, some of you are liars, because I see your stuff out there. If you're on Facebook, it's not uncommon that one of your friends or acquaintances says, "Hey, I'm going through whatever turmoil. Would you send warm fuzzies, positive energy, teddy bears, love, and prayers my way?" What they're really looking for is a God-sized solution, but they don't know God, and so they're reaching out for somebody to intercede on their behalf.

If you've got friends who know a little bit about your faith, they may come to you and say, "Hey, I know you're kind of religious. Would you pray for me?" What they're looking for is somebody who has a connection to God to intercede on their behalf, and that's really what this story is about today.

So, after he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now, a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who is highly valued by him. A couple of things have been happening. Jesus has been teaching, he's been giving this discourse that we've been going through over the last few weeks, he's been performing miracles, there are people who are beginning to follow him, he has called out his apostles to represent him, and he's beginning to even get some persecution, some pushback from the Jewish leaders.

And so, he finishes his teaching, and he returns to Capernaum, which has really become his home base of operation. Now, the story is going to shift to this centurion. A centurion had a servant who is sick and at the point of death, who is highly valued by him. In the Roman army, a centurion was responsible for a hundred other soldiers. They were part of a battalion of six thousand individual soldiers, but their primary responsibility was to be a mediator between the Roman government and Roman military and the people of the occupied territories that they were in.

So, the job description for a centurion was that they'd be of sound mind, that they be someone who was personable, someone who is not a big risk-taker, but someone who would die at their post if called upon. So, what was really expected of them was that they would be very good at cross-cultural relations, and that they would be faithful to the Roman Empire, but also willing to help the people of the occupied territory live their lives in peace. And because of this, the Roman government realized it's not good for us to come in and change people's culture.

And so, what they would do is they would allow the other faiths to take place, the Jewish faith was allowed, they would allow Jews to worship in the synagogue, they weren't going to infringe on that, but they needed to put a commander in place who could interrelate with the Jewish people and keep the peace, and that's exactly who this gentleman is.