Jesus has just spent the better portion of His day healing the multitudes that flocked to him and, on a plain in the countryside near Capernaum, He had delivered a long sermon.
We find our chapter beginning with the close of that sermon. Verse 1, “He had completed all His discourse in the hearing of the people, He went to Capernaum.”
We have seen that Jesus had made the fishing village of Capernaum His home-base, if you will. This is the place He stays at while ministering in Galilee.
Verse 3 tells us that, upon Jesus’ arrival in Capernaum, He was met by “some Jewish elders.” Now, the term “elders” does not refer to a group of senior citizens. Luke is referring to the religious leaders of the local synagogue. (The office of elder or overseer in the Church is patterned after the office of elder in the old Jewish synagogue.)
These “Jewish elders” of the Capernaum synagogue are on a mission as they confront Jesus. They have been sent to Jesus to persuade Him to perform an act of compassion. They want Jesus to save the life of a person who is near death.
We have here the beginning of a marvelous tale.
You see, the story begins with “a certain centurion.” A centurion is a military officer of the Roman Army, corresponding to our captain. All of Palestine - including Galilee and Judea - was under Roman military government at this time. The Roman headquarters was in Caesarea but there were bands of soldiers stationed in every town of significant size. The reason why there were soldiers stationed throughout the cities is to maintain Roman control. To make sure that the Jews would not rebel.
Our centurion probably commanded a company of soldiers here at Capernaum or just outside Capernaum on the road to the nearby city of Tiberius, where Herod Antipas had his palace.
This centurion owned at least one slave. His slave “was sick and about to die.” Matthew 8:6 tells us that the slave was “lying paralyzed at home, suffering great pain."
Now according to Roman law, a master had complete control of the life of their slave. A slave-owner had the right to kill his slave. Moreover, it was pretty much expected that a slave master would kill his slave if the slave became seriously ill or injured to the point where the slave could not perform their responsibilities. A slave was of no more value than a mule or an ox.
But, the centurion in our story was unusual.
Our centurion shows himself to be different than the average Roman in his attitude toward his slave. It says that this slave “was highly regarded” by the master. The Greek word rendered “highly regarded” means to be held in honor, to be prized, to be considered precious or dear.” This word is used, in 1 Peter 2:4, to describe how precious the Father considers Jesus.
Even though he was a slave, he was dear to the centurion. Even though there was a huge gap in social status, the centurion held his slave in honor.
As Christians, Philippians 2:3 directs us to be different than the average individual. It says, “with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself.”
I want you to notice that it does not say regard others as you regard yourself. See others as your equal. You know, if we did that alone, there would be a great change in our behavior. If we considered the rights and needs of others as we consider our own, there would be a social revolution in this world. The problems in this world stem from the fact that we do not have the same consideration for others as we do for ourselves or demand that others have for us.
Paul tells the Christian to not just have the same consideration toward others as you do yourself but, he says consider others more highly than yourselves. The Greek means to think of others as more superior to yourself, better than yourself, surpassing yourself!
What does that mean in tangible terms? In conduct? Romans 12:10 answers that: “give preference to one another in honor.” That is, we defer to the rights and needs of others before our own. They come first. We defer to them. We treat them as if they were of higher rank or status.
In the kingdom of Christ, our greatness is measured by how willing we are to humble ourselves and exalt others in the way we treat them and serve them. Mark 10:43-45, "Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
Mother Theresa said that she saw the face of Jesus in every face she met. That motivated her to show the greatest kindness and provide the humblest service to anyone who came into her life.
She had it right. Jesus told us how we treat others, even the lowliest, we treat Him (Matthew 25:40, 45).
Do we treat others in the way we would treat the Lord Jesus? The way we treat our parents, our children, our spouses, our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, work associates, friends or the strangers that we meet - would we treat Jesus the same way we treat them?
“With humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself.”
Our centurion considered his lowly slave so precious and dear, that He humbled himself to seek help to bring relief and healing.
Verse 3, “And when he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking Him to come and save the life of his slave.”
It is doubtful that anyone in Capernaum and its surrounding area, by this time, had not heard of Jesus. But, how wonderful that this worldly warrior would seek Jesus. But, would you note again that this centurion does not approach Jesus directly or in person. Rather, he asks the Jewish elders of Capernaum to intervene and persuade Jesus to assist.
Why didn’t the Centurion approach Jesus and request His help face-to-face? Why did the Centurion use the elders as mediators?
Well, many think the biggest reason why this Centurion was backwards about approaching Jesus was the fact that he was a gentile and Jesus was a Jew. Certainly, there is no doubt that this Centurion understood that the common belief of the time was that a Jew was to have any no association with a gentile or else they would become spiritually contaminated or unclean. Based upon Jewish religious belief, to have interaction with a non-Jew would make oneself ‘unclean.’
This may explain some of the Centurion’s reluctance in approaching Jesus - that he was respecting the social rules of the Jewish religion. But, that reason alone does not seem satisfactory to me.
You see, he did not seem to have any qualms about approaching the local synagogue rulers or elders directly to request their mediating services. They, obviously, were Jews.
In fact, this Centurion seems to have had a lot of interaction with the local Jewish population. Notice that the Jewish elders told Jesus that this Centurion “loves our nation, and it was he who built us our synagogue.”
How strange that this Roman Centurion would come to love the people he was sent to dominate and control. Most Romans despised the Jews. This Centurion developed, not just a human bond, but an actual sacrificial love for the Jews. One way that this Centurion showed his sacrificial love for the Jews was that he used his own money to build their synagogue for them in Capernaum.
Based upon his attitude and actions, the Jewish elders thought highly of this Centurion. Verse 4 says, “when they had come to Jesus, they earnestly entreated Him, saying, "He is worthy for You to grant this to him.”
Let me go-off on a tangent here, for a moment. Just as most Romans despised the Jews. Most Jews hated the Romans, especially Roman military men.
How do you treat those who you know hate you with a passion? Most people despise those who despise them. The more noble individual will not despise the one who hates them but will ignore them and go their way.
Jesus taught in Luke 6:27, "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”
When was the last time you went out of your way to do something good or nice to someone you knew hated or despised you?
This Centurion had followed Jesus’ ethic. The Centurion had sacrificed in doing good for people who hated him and resented his very presence.
And, in doing good to those who hated him, he won them over. The Jewish elders were happy to intervene on the Centurion’s behalf: “They earnestly entreated Him, saying, "He is worthy for You to grant this to him.”
(When we love those who hate us, we are truly worthy of the title “child of God”; for, we are imitating our Lord and our Father in Heaven. Matthew 5:44-45, 48, "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous….Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.)
Now, back to my previous thought…..
It seems obvious that this Centurion was used to having interaction with the Jews. I have serious doubts that he was bashful or timid about approaching Jesus because Jesus was a Jew. No, I am convinced that this Centurion felt inadequate to approach Jesus because He recognized that Jesus was no ordinary Jew. The things that he had heard about Jesus convinced him that this Jesus was extraordinary.
This becomes clear when he refers to Jesus, in verse 6, as “Lord”.
The Greek is “kurios” and it ‘is a title of honor expressive of respect and reverence, with which servants greet their master.’ The Jews used it to refer to the Messiah. The Romans also used it of governmental leaders such as ‘a sovereign, a prince or the Roman Emperor himself.’ In other words, it was a title used of one who has absolute power and authority.
There isn’t a more fitting title to be applied to Jesus than the one chosen by this Centurion since Jesus is Master. Being the Divine Messiah or Christ, He is the Sovereign King. He possesses absolute power and authority.
This Centurion had such a lofty opinion of Jesus that he did not feel worthy of approaching Him directly.
You know, we all need to have reverence for Jesus. We all need to be mindful of His greatness and His majesty. We all need to have this Centurion’s awareness of the supreme splendor and dignity of the ‘King of kings and Lord of lords.’
But, we ought never to allow our recognition of His glory to keep us from coming into His Presence. Though we may be unworthy, yet we are welcome to approach His royal throne. We need not go through mediators, such Mother Mary, a saint nor a priest.
Paul reassures us with these encouraging words, in Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.”
We need to go through Jesus to gain access to the Father but we can have direct access to Jesus, our High Priest. And, we should seek His Presence in our lives through-out our days.
Verses 6-9, “Now Jesus started on His way with them; and when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, ‘Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof; for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I, too, am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ’Go!’ and he goes; and to another, ’Come!’ and he comes; and to my slave, ’Do this!’ and he does it.’ Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and turned and said to the multitude that was following Him, "I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith."
If there was something that this Centurion was an expert in, it would be the recognition and exercise of authority. As a Centurion, he had absolute power or authority over 80 to 100 men. He could ask any of his men to do something and be confident that it would be done. He need but give his slave a command and it would be obeyed.
I suppose that when we consider the Centurion’s conviction about the sovereignty of Jesus, it is only natural that this Centurion would understand that there would be no need for Jesus to come personally to heal his slave. As One possessing absolute authority, all Jesus need do is issue a command and His will would be obeyed.
Jesus marveled at this Centurion’s spiritual insight and faith.
You see, none of the Israelites possessed this degree of insight of the authority of Jesus and the faith to apply that insight to their situations.
The reason the crowds followed Jesus around is because they lacked insight of the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. They thought that Jesus had to touch them or they needed to touch Jesus in order to receive His healing powers.
Note Luke 6:17-19, “He descended with them, and stood on a level place; and there was a great multitude of His disciples, and a great throng of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear Him, and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being cured. And all the multitude were trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all.”
Only twice in the Gospels are there statements made that Jesus marveled about something. Here, he “marveled” about the faith of this Gentile Centurion. In Mark 6:6, Jesus “marveled” at the lack of faith of His countrymen.
In which direction would Jesus marvel about us: our faith or lack of faith?
Have you given Him your life?
Have you surrendered to the Lord with the firm conviction that doing His will brings the sure path of blessing?
If you have become His disciple, do you truly ‘walk by faith rather than by sight’?
Do you look for evidence that God is working before you believe or do you believe and know that He will work?
Are you truly confident that Jesus can help bring victory over every personal weakness or every problem that is plaguing your life? Or, do you feel you must handle it yourself or seek help elsewhere?
When you make requests in prayer, do you possess the unwavering personal assurance that He will answer?
Our story ends in verse 10, “And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.”
How will your life story end? It depends upon your faith.
