Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-october-2-2023
Luke 7:1-10
The Faith of the Centurion
When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2 There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3 The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, 5 because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” 6 So Jesus went with them.
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” 10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.
One of the things people have commented on about the video series The Chosen is the complicated way the relationship is portrayed between the Jews and their Roman occupiers. The Romans (or most of them, anyway) are not portrayed just as evil thugs, and the Jews are not all innocent and virtuous. Personally, I suspect the relations between the two groups really were that complicated. The Romans could be brutal, but they were also a culture of law and order. There was even a court in Rome where people from other parts of the Empire could sue if they felt their Roman authorities had been cruel or unreasonable.
It seems clear from the gospels that some of the Romans, at least, demonstrated some sympathy for the Jews. And this story gives an example. In the story, a Roman army officer with a reputation for kindness to the Jews expresses a faith in Jesus in plain and simple terms. No theological talk, no rules and rituals, no doctrine. Just a statement of belief that Jesus has the power to save.
As the commander of a unit of about 100 men, this Roman centurion would be a career soldier, one who had risen to a position of real authority in the greatest army in the world of its time. Men rose through the ranks of the Roman army by being tougher, smarter and more disciplined than the others around them. So presumably this guy had a lot on the ball.
And it seems that the centurion wasn’t just tough and smart – he was also a man of faith. He would have been called a “God-fearer” – that was the phrase used to describe a gentile who worshiped the God of Israel and tried to follow the Law of Moses, but who had not formally converted by undergoing circumcision.
And on top of his own faith, this army officer was a friend to the Hebrew congregation in the town of Capernaum, where Jesus lived as an adult. Luke says he was praised by the local Jewish leaders as ‘loving’ the covenant people, and that he had even built the local synagogue. If that’s the case, Jesus and the centurion might even have met before.
In any case, the centurion has a valued servant who is deathly ill, and at the centurion’s request, some of the local Jewish elders approach Jesus on his behalf. They ask Jesus to come and heal the servant, and he agrees. But while he’s on route, the centurion sends some friends to tell Jesus he doesn’t need to bother himself to come to the house. “But say the word,” the centurion says, “and my servant will be healed.”
There are a couple of details here that seem significant to me. The first is that the centurion sends this second message with some of his friends. The first ones to approach Jesus on behalf of the centurion were local Jewish leaders. So as much as they might appreciate the centurion, their relationship with him was on an official basis. But then the centurion sends friends – people whose relationship with him is personal. That adds an extra urgency to the matter.
And apparently the centurion has instructed his friends to address Jesus as “Lord.” We tend to take that for granted because that’s how we typically refer to Jesus – as “the Lord.” But this is one of the first times in Luke that anyone addresses him using that title of respect and honor. And in the Roman Empire, people routinely said, “Caesar is Lord.” So for a Roman army officer to instruct people to address Jesus that way points to the great respect he had for him.
The message the officer sends to Jesus confesses his own unworthiness even to have Jesus come into his presence or to enter his house. For an officer of the Roman Empire with the power of life and death over the local Jews, that’s a striking degree of humility. The centurion is not making demands or even expressing an attitude of entitlement. He’s begging for help.
And finally, the centurion says he understands that Jesus has authority over the forces of nature. The officer says he understands what it means to have authority – he has it himself. The centurion can command soldiers to do things, and they do them. And the centurion states his belief that Jesus has the same kind of power over the forces of nature that he himself has over his soldiers.
Jesus expresses amazement at the soldier’s faith. In fact, he says it’s greater than any faith he’s seen among the Israelites. That’s the real bottom line of this story, it seems to me. This Roman officer is a forerunner of the billions of gentiles who would come to follow Jesus. And he’s a model of real faith. Faith that acknowledges the Lordship of Jesus. Faith that confesses our unworthiness to be in his presence. And faith that believes that Jesus has the power to heal us and that he cares enough about us to do it.
And it seems to me that this great faith the centurion had – faith that exceeded that of the covenant people – is why Jesus went out of his way to perform the miraculous healing the man asked for.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for the example of this faithful Roman officer. Let him inspire us to boldly declare the lordship of Jesus, to acknowledge our own unworthiness as disciples, to believe in his power, and to embrace his love for us. Amen.
Blessings,
Henry
(The listed readings for today are Psalms 19 and 20; II Kings 17:24-41; I Corinthians 7:25-31; and Matthew 6:25-34. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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