Yielding To A Higher Power

Yielding to a higher power

Luke 7:1 – 10

Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael Harvey Koplitz

Luke 7:1 When He had completed all His discourse in the hearing of the people, He went to Capernaum. 2 And a centurion’s slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die. 3 When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking Him to come and save the life of his slave. 4 When they came to Jesus, they earnestly implored Him, saying, “He is worthy for You to grant this to him; 5 for he loves our nation and it was he who built us our synagogue.” 6 Now Jesus started on His way with them; and when He was 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; 7 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. 8 “For I also am a man placed 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.” 9 Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, “I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” 10 When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

In Luke chapter 7 verses 1 to 10, we have the story of a centurion slave who became very ill, and the centurion came to Jesus in order to save him. One of the interesting things I want to bring out in this narrative is that if you take it from the Greek and bring it back to the original language of Jesus, which is Aramaic, the centurion becomes a soldier of Herod Antipas, who was the king of the Galilee. When you do that, this soldier could have been Jewish immediately comes to mind. Therefore, this narrative can apply to all people, Gentiles and Jews alike.

The soldier clarified he had the authority over his men. He could tell them what to do and they would have to do it no matter what. This put him in a position of authority. Whether the soldier was working for Rome or for Herod, the soldier had the authority to also, shall we say, bully the average person? Perhaps bullying is too rough of a word. Let’s say this person was a peacemaker. It would be like a police force today. Their primary aim is to maintain the peace of the communities that they are protecting.

This soldier could’ve enlightened and demanded, or even ordered him, to cure his servant. However, he did not do that. He humbled himself before Jesus and basically said to him, Jesus have authority over me, and I need your help. He asked him to please help him because he knew in his heart that he was standing before God’s Messiah. If we think of this soldier as being Jewish, then we can say that he understood God’s true purpose for the Messiah.

But what do I mean by that? Let me give you a little of the history of the Messiah tradition at the time of Jesus' life. The Romans had overseen the Galilee and Judea since around 68 BCE. So, they have been around for well over 100 years. The Romans oppressed the people in their empire, especially in the Near East. To top that off in Jesus’ day, we had the remnants of Herod the Great’s kingdom. Herod Antipas, who was a son of Herod, oversaw the area which Jesus lived in. Herod Antipas lived in luxury and in beauty, while his subjects lived in poverty. He oppressed the people by collecting additional taxes on top of the Roman taxes because he wanted to support his life of luxury. People had very little hope except they knew God was sending his Messiah. The people knew God would send his Messiah, who would be a son of David, and would liberate Israel from the oppressors, restore the nation, and give them hope amid their struggles.

History tells us that during the reign of David and Solomon, Israel was prosperous and strong. When the kingdom divided into two after Solomon’s death, the two nations alone could not stop all the surrounding nations from exploiting them. The Maccabees led the restoration of the nation of Judah for about 100 years. However, the Maccabees were constantly fighting with the Syrians and eventually, in 68 BCE; they asked the Romans to help them. The Romans came into the country and decided that they needed the land bridge that Judah represented between the north of their empire and the kingdom of Egypt, which they were about to conquer. Therefore, Judah came under the control of Rome. And for 100 years, the people prayed to God for the Messiah.