Luke 7:1-10
There was an old man on his deathbed and he knew the end was near. His nurse, his wife, his daughter and his two sons were with him. He asked for two witnesses to be present and a camcorder be in place so he could record his last wishes, and when all was ready he began to speak: "My son, Bernie, I want you to take the Mayfair houses." "My daughter Sybil, you take the apartments over in the east end." "My son, Jamie, I want you to take the offices over in the City Centre." “And Sarah, my dear wife, please take all the residential buildings on the banks of the river."
The nurse and witnesses were blown away because they didn’t realize how extensive his holdings were, and as he slipped away, the nurse say to his wife, “Your husband must have been a very hard-working man to have accumulated all this property" and his wife replied, "Property"? .... He had a Paper Route!"
Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. 2 And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die. 3 And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant.
4 And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, that he was worthy for whom he should do this: 5 for he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.
6 Then Jesus went with them. And when He was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto Him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof: 7 wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. 8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, go, and he goeth; and to another, come, and he cometh; and to my servant, do this, and he doeth it.
9 When Jesus heard these things, He marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 10 And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.
The events of the day we’re focusing actually began in the previous chapter and in chapter 6, verse 12 we see Jesus had spent the night in prayer on the top of a mountain and following this He called His twelve disciples; and then together they all went down the mountain where they saw a huge multitude of people who had come from several towns and cities. These were people who wanted both to hear what Jesus had to say and many who came to be healed of whatever problems they had.
And as you can imagine, with these great crowds that some of them were looking for answers to questions about God and maybe life in general and several would be making requests of one kind or another; but while He was in the middle of helping these people; Jesus turned His attention to His disciples and gave them a shorter version of the beatitudes He had given in Matthew chapter five and basically, what He did was to take what many of them would have considered to be common-sense teaching and turned it all around.
For instance, many of the Jews had believed that good living resulted in prosperity and the prosperous were guaranteed a place in heaven but Jesus began by saying that those who live for Him may be actually be called to live a life of poverty; but someday they're going to experience true riches when they're enjoying life in the kingdom of God.
I think the best example of this is found in Luke 16 where we see a man named Lazarus who we’re told was faithful to God in spite of the fact that he was not only extremely poor but was obviously was too sick to even fight off the dogs that wanted to lick his sores; but when he died we see him enjoying all the comforts of heaven. On the other hand, we also see the rich man who enjoyed to the full but was absolutely oblivious of the needs of those around him and he ended up dying and spending eternity suffering in hell.
And then Jesus said that those whose faith causes them to experience hunger are going to know what it means to be well fed, particularly when they find themselves sitting down at the marriage supper of the lamb; because they’ll not only be enjoying the feast of feasts but they also be sitting in the very presence of God Himself.
Now listen, this is going to be the banquet to end all banquets. Over the years, I've experienced a few really good banquets where there was excellent food followed by exceptional music and then a message of encouragement that made you want to serve the Lord more than ever before; but imagine a meal and a program that's been designed by God Himself. Listen, that is going to be a banquet we'll be talking about for the rest of eternity.
And then He says, that those who have spent their time weeping are going to spend eternity laughing. There are at least two ways we can interpret this and the first is the spiritual one where many of God’s people have spent time weeping for the unsaved; and the promise is that these people are going to spend eternity rejoicing and the reason they’ll be rejoicing is because they’re going to see the very ones they wept for in heaven.
And then second, there are also those who have spent their entire life weeping and by this; I mean they’re been wrestling with emotional problems which many of us don’t understand but someday they'll be free and the scripture says these people are going to spend eternity laughing.
I think of people like Charles Spurgeon who was a great pastor and evangelist but in several of his writings he says he spent most of his life wrestling with depression. And then there was William Cowper who wrote such hymns as, "God Moves in a Mysterious Way" and the first verse says,
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
And many of Cowper’s storms were internal and he wrestled with emotional problems that few of us will ever understand or experience.
This was also true of David Brainerd who had been a missionary to the American Indians. It was said that, "In the whole Brainerd family for two hundred years there was a tendency to a morbid depression. In his diary, he wrote on December 16, 1744. "I was so overwhelmed with dejection that I knew not how to live: I longed for death exceedingly: my soul was 'sunk in deep waters,' and 'the floods' were ready to 'drown me': I was so much oppressed that my soul was in a kind of horror." But in spite of his emotional problems he was greatly used by God.
There are many things we learn from these men but one of the most important is that godly people can experience depression and being depressed is no more sinful than having the flu.
·Elijah was so depressed he said he wanted to die.
·Job was so depressed he cursed the day he was born.
These men all loved the Lord, but they experienced depression.
And then second, we also see that mental and physical exhaustion can lead to depression.
Someone wrote, “Depression and fatigue may feed off each other in a vicious cycle because those who are depressed are four times more likely to develop unexplained exhaustion, while those who suffer from exhaustion are nearly three times as likely to become depressed.”
And then third, the experiences of these men also teach us that we can't spend our lives living according to our feelings.
A mother went to wake her son for church one Sunday and when she knocked on his door, he shouted, "I'm not going!" She said, "Why not?" And he said, "I'll give you two good reasons." "One, the people at the church don't like me and two, I don't like them." And his mother said, "I'll give you two good reasons why you are going. One, you're 47 years old and two, you're the pastor!"
And then Jesus said that those of us who really want to live for Him should expect to be hated by the world because the world that hated Him are going to hate those who are indwelt by Him.
And then He warned us that we’ll also be falsely accused and labelled as being evil; but in spite of false accusations He tells us to rejoice because we’ve not only got a lot to look forward to; but also because we’re going to be treated the way the prophets were who came before us.
And then He gave us some practical ways to live; by loving our enemies, to avoid judging others and being generous with all God has blessed us with.
And He concludes by comparing the lives of those who live for Him with those who live for themselves; and says that those live for Him are like houses with solid foundations which will remain standing in spite of the storms that come into every life; but those who live for themselves will have nothing to hang onto and they’ll be washed away when the raging floods that come into every life come into theirs.
So, Jesus finished this great message and then it says He headed for Capernaum which was a little town on the edge of Galilee and this is where He had spent most of His time and ministry and it’s also assumed since He had no home of His own that He stayed at Peter’s house while He was there.
Capernaum had been a large fishing community and had also been a very busy trading centre. A number of years ago Sally and I had taken a boat ride across the sea of Galilee to visit this area and were surprised to see not only the foundation of Peter’s house but a few doors down were the foundation stones of the very synagogue Jesus had preached in.
We have a tendency to compare the size of their synagogues to our church buildings today and assume they might hold a few hundred but most of them would only accommodate about thirty to fifty people at a time. So, there were times where Jesus preached to thousands on the hillsides or had to teach from a boat because of the huge crowds but when He preached in a synagogue or even in a house; the crowd would be very small in comparison.
Jesus had not only lived in Capernaum but He had also done many of His miracles there, including: the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law and the raising from the dead the daughter of Jairus who had been the ruler of the synagogue. And then according to Mark 1 He also cast out an evil spirit there on the Sabbath and in Luke 4:40 we’re told that all the sick people of Capernaum had come to Peter’s house where they were healed and many demons were cast out while they confessed that Jesus was the Son of God.
In Mark 2 we’re also told that it was in Capernaum where a paralyzed man was let down through the roof and healed and just off the shore Jesus had caused His disciples to catch a huge catch of fish and it was also here where He had sent Peter to catch a fish that held his tax money in it’s mouth.
This miracle of healing this Centurion’s servant may have been the last miracle the people of Capernaum ever witnessed because in spite of all they saw and experienced most of them weren’t saved; because in spite of all the miracles they witnessed they refused to repent and turn from their sin.
Jesus said of them in Matthew 11, “It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.” And history records that Capernaum was completely destroyed and became an uninhabited land for centuries.
So, we come to Jesus encounter with this centurion and I want to point out that he was not only an unusual man but had made an unusual request and then we’ll see Jesus’ response to this man and his request.
So, it says Jesus had arrived home after preaching and healing all these people and I’m sure He was exhausted but in verses 2 and 3 it says that a certain centurion was concerned because his servant or his slave was sick and was about to die. The centurion had obviously heard about Jesus and His ability to heal and it says that he sent the elders of the Jews to ask if Jesus would come and heal his servant.
It actually says, the Jews ‘besought him instantly” which means they were not only in a hurry but were making a big deal about this centurion because as far as they were concerned; they considered this man to be worthy because he had not only loved their nation but had even built them a synagogue and the synagogue Jesus had preached in, may have been the very one he had built. So, they were saying, this man not only loved God but then he demonstrated his love for God in the way he loved God’s people.
Listen, this guy was different from the rest of the Romans because the Jews saw all the Romans as immoral pagans and as far as the Jews were concerned God had created the gentiles to fuel the fires of hell. And then second, these Romans were not only occupying their land but they taxed them for living in it.
On the other hand, the Roman’s hated the Jews as well because they saw them as people whose lives were dominated by religious traditions that didn’t make sense and they spoke of Judaism as being nothing more than some kind of barbarian superstition.
So, the fact that these Jews wanted Jesus to perform some kind of miracle for this centurion was extremely unusual to say the least. And when Jesus heard their request it says, “then Jesus went with them” but Matthew fills it in a bit when he says that when Jesus had heard the Centurion’s request He said, “I will come and heal him.”
Now, the title centurion basically means he was a captain and captains had to earn their rank by being battle tested. These men were considered to be the backbone of the Roman army.
The term Centurion refers to the fact that this man was responsible for the actions of a hundred men. These centurions were known for their commitment and they expressed it in their loyalty, courage, bravery, fortitude, strength. And you have to understand that fighting back then was all hand-to-hand combat. They were known as a soldier's soldier.
The ancient historian Polybius offers a list of qualifications looked for in centurions. They must be not so much "seekers after danger as men who can command, steady in action, and reliable; they ought not to be over anxious to rush into the fight; but when hard pressed they must be ready to hold their ground and die at their posts.”
It’s interesting that every time the New Testament deals with a Centurion, there’s always a level of respect and three of the Centurions mentioned appear to be believers. There is this one here and there is one at the end of the gospel of Luke who witnessed the crucifixion and it says, “he glorified God, saying, certainly this was a righteous man.” And then the third one is in Acts chapter 10 whose name was Cornelius and Cornelius was also said to be a God-fearer.
So, this centurion was stationed in Capernaum and his job was to maintain Roman law and order. His day-to-day activity not only included keeping track of his men but also making sure he kept the peace; but in spite of his responsibilities this man seemed to be pre-occupied with a trivial household matter which was a sick slave.
And he was concerned because his slave was dying; and what you have to understand is that slaves were so plentiful that they had absolutely no value in their culture. Slaves were either bought in the market or captured in battle and if a slave either couldn’t or wouldn’t work their owner could simply sell them to rid of them or if they felt like it, they could simply kill them like they would a sick animal.
In the Roman Empire, there were as many as 60,000,000 slaves and these weren’t all menial workers but some of them were doctors, teachers, musicians, actors or secretaries. In fact, slaves did all the work of Rome. The Roman attitude was, there was no sense in being in charge of the world if you have to waste your time working.
Under Roman law slaves were considered to be property like furniture or tools and that gave the owner the right to do whatever he wanted without any legal repercussions.
Some of them were loved and treated like trusted family members; but listen; they were never considered to be people but things and they had no legal rights whatsoever. The fact that they could talk made them equivalent to a parrot.
They were very much like our dogs and cats today. We spend money to buy them, then feed them, take them for out for exercise and even take them to the vets if they need it. We have parts of our houses set out for them and even provide them with special food. But as much as we love and enjoy their company our pets have no legal rights. They can't vote or drive a car or even qualify for a pension - except in England. There, police dogs qualify for three thousand dollars a year for health benefits when they retire.
It was interesting to read about Leona Helmsley's dog Trouble who died about a year ago. Leona was known as ‘the queen of mean’ and when she died she left her dog 12 million dollars. Her dog’s yearly expenses were $190,000. Her security team cost $100,000 a year because there were so many threats to kidnap or kill her. Her grooming bill was $8,000. Her food was $1,200 and her medical expenses ran from $2,500 to $18,000 a year because she had kidney problems. She also had a guardian and he was paid $60,000 a year. And typical of the extremely wealthy; this dog also had a bad attitude and was always biting somebody but listen, she was much better off than a slave.
Aristotle wrote, "There can be no friendship nor justice towards inanimate things; indeed, not even towards a horse or an ox, nor yet towards a slave. For master and slave have nothing in common; a slave is a living tool, just as a tool is an inanimate slave."
So, the fact that this Centurion cared for his slave made him a saint compared to those who were around him.
And when Jesus and the religious leaders were on their way to the centurion’s house it says, “And when He was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof: 7 Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. 8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, go, and he goeth; and to another, come, and he cometh; and to my servant, do this, and he doeth it."
I have also been a man of authority. When I would stand in front of my church and said, “Stand” everybody stood up. And when I said, “Let the service begin, the service began; but my authority was always very limited. I could have said, “There will be no sleeping in church” but a few would nod off anyways. And when I went home for supper I could have said, “Let there be a thick juicy steak with a baked potato” but my kids took precedence and we’d often have Kraft Dinner with little pieces of wieners in it. I realize my authority was very limited, but Jesus has the ultimate authority.
Now listen, to what this centurion said, he said, "I am not worthy" which means, I’m not good enough for Jesus to come under my roof. And then he spoke about his authority and he said that anyone who has authority can delegate someone else to do what he wants. In other words, he doesn't always have to do every little thing himself and he saw Jesus authority the same way and said all that Jesus had to do was to say the word, and his servant would be healed.
We don't know how but somehow this man not only knew who Jesus was but also how God operates and he knew that all Jesus had to do was to say the word and his servant would be healed. Somehow, he understood that all of creation was under Jesus authority.
And then verse 9 says, "When Jesus heard these things, He marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."
The Pharisees would have said, this guy wasn’t born into the race of the chosen people, he hasn’t spent his life studying the holy book, he doesn’t attend worship or pray in public places, he doesn’t tithe to the temple or support its activities but Jesus said, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."
Listen, there are only two places in scripture where we’re told Jesus was amazed and this is when He saw what He referred to as “great faith” and in both of these places the people were gentiles. This is one and the other was the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 who had approached Jesus because of her demon possessed daughter and when Jesus was hesitant to heal her because she was a gentile she humbly said, even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the table and Jesus healed her daughter but before He did He said, "Woman, you have great faith."
What made the faith of these two so great was that neither of them had grown up with the scriptures or had any understanding of faith and yet both of them expressed it better than any of His disciples.
So, Jesus was amazed. First, because this man loved a slave which had no value to anyone but him. Second, because he loved the Jewish people and demonstrated his love by providing a place for worship and third, because he was humble. And then fourth, because he seemed to have an understanding of who Jesus was.
This story ends with a very brief mention that "the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well." And the amazing thing was, that the man who was the center of the story was healed and yet his healing was secondary to the centurion's expression of faith. You see, there are many nameless people in the New Testament who were healed and yet we don’t know how many of were even saved but this centurion was and we know this because it says that Jesus marvelled at his faith.
The great guru was asked a question' “O great guru, what is faith?” And the answer from the top of the snow-capped mountain came, “Faith is a condemned prisoner asking for a doggie bag during his last meal.”
A Japanese Christian once said, “A faith that does nothing, gives nothing, costs nothing and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.”
In 1916, a man by the name of Pastor Thomas Chisholm was relieved of his pastoral duties by his church because he had asthma and he wasn’t preaching loud enough. And so, at fifty years of age, he began going door to door on the dirt roads of Kentucky and selling brushes for a living. At a time of life when most would be discouraged, complain, or even quit, Thomas Chisholm just continued to praise God for His many blessings.
Seven years later, he penned a poem called: “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning
with thee,
Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not,
As thou has been, thou forever will be.
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!
We aren’t here to demonstrate how great our faith is but how great is His faithfulness. So, how did this centurion develop such great faith? We have no idea but some how he had heard the word of God and believed it.
Let me finish with verse 10, it says, “And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.
So, here’s the servant who had been sick and near death was completely healed. And the strange part is, it’s almost a footnote, like oh yeah, the servant was healed. There are several people like this in the New Testament where Jesus healed them and that’s the last we hear of them and we wonder what happened after that. Was this servant saved and will we see him in heaven?
Through the years I’ve preached in churches, youth groups, on the streets and in prisons and I’ve seen people get saved but I never saw them again. And I wonder, have they gone on with the Lord and are they involved in reaching and teaching others or did they just walk away and forget about it? We’ll have to wait until we get to heaven to find out.
So, this slave was healed but listen carefully, he had no faith. He didn’t know who Jesus was and he might have been too sick to even know that anybody had sent a message about his condition but Jesus healed him.
There are six features that characterized Jesus' healing ministry and these features set Him apart from those who claim to heal today.
First, Jesus healed with a word, as He did in this situation. Second, He healed instantly. There was none of this; go home and wait for it. Third, Jesus healed totally. The lepers were cleansed, the deaf could hear and the blind received sight. Fourth, as we see in verse 40, Jesus healed everyone. There weren’t long lines of disappointed people who didn’t get what they came for but everyone was healed. Fifth, His healings were for real problems. These weren’t vague, ambiguous and invisible problems like back pain, heart palpitations, or headaches but He healed paralyzed limbs that had never moved, gave sight to eyes that had never seen, hearing to the deaf and cleansed lepers who life and hopes had faded like their flesh. And then finally, Jesus even raised the dead and these were people like the young man who was on his way to the graveyard, a young girl whose death who was laid out for mourning and even Lazarus who had been dead for four days.
The heart of this story is not the healing of the slave; it’s important, because without it the story wouldn’t exist, but it’s just the framework for what Luke wants us to see. What matters is the centurion’s faith and what matters today is my faith and yours.
I remember reading about Robert Wilson who had been the President of Princeton. He had mastered 45 ancient languages and in his spare time studied archaeological digs. At the end of his life, he was asked: "Dr. Wilson, what is the greatest and most profound truth that you have ever discovered" Dr. Wilson thought for a minute and said, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." This wasn’t what men would call deep truth but it certainly was life-changing for him.
Listen, if you want to get good grades in school, you have to work hard and apply yourself. If you want to make a good salary, you need to work hard for that as well. If your goal is to achieve awards, you’ll have to do your very best. After all, we’ve been taught since we’re very young that anything worth having is something we have to work for but listen, salvation is totally different because the scripture says it’s a gift of God and all you can do is to believe and receive it.
As someone said, “None of us can go back and make a brand-new start, but any of us can start now and make a brand-new ending.”
Conclusion
How does a person come to know God? There are a few simple steps. The first step is admitting our need by confessing our need to be saved. This is both simple, but it’s also very difficult because even though we know we’re not perfect, we have a hard time admitting we’re lost but the scripture says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
The second step is repentance and repentance simply means turning from our sin and this isn’t just a one-time event but it’s something we need to do every time we sin.
Someone said, “Insanity is when you keep doing the same things over and over, each time expecting to get a different result.” And until we repent we’ll just keep committing the same things over and over again.
And then the third step is simply putting our faith in Jesus Christ and accepting what He did for us when He died on the cross.
Augustine was a leader in the church around 400 A.D. and although people referred to him as saint Augustine by his own testimony he had been anything but a saint.
He had lived a very immoral life before he gave his life to Jesus and one day after he was saved he was walking down the street and he happened to run into one of his old friends who happened to be a prostitute. She called his name as he walked by but he didn’t answer and she called again and said, “Augustine, it is I!” But he simply called over his shoulder, “Yes, but it is no longer I.” He had begun a new life with God and he knew in his heart that his old ways were gone and the new life had begun.
You see, saved people know that even though God knows the very worst about us; He loves us anyway. As an evangelist used to say, “God loves you just the way you are but He loves you too much to leave you that way.”
