Amazing Faith

Greeting everyone.

Today I will start sharing with you my exegesis of Luke 7.  We will looking at the verses 1-10, where Jesus encounters a man, whose faith amazes him.  In chapter 6, Jesus had been teaching, and in 7:1, he leaves that place and goes on to Capernaum. In Capernaum there was a Roman centurion who had a faith that impressed even Jesus. This Gentile’s faith in Jesus was greater than any from his own people that he had encountered so far.  

What can see in this man's character that made him so impressive, even to Jesus? Here is my translation of Luke 7:1-10.  What do you notice about the centurion that may have impressed Jesus?

1 After the people there had heard all that Jesus had to say, he went to Capernaum. 2 There was a centurion there who had a servant, whom he valued greatly, who was very ill and near death. 3 When he heard about Jesus, he sent some of the Jewish elders to ask Jesus to come and heal his servant. 

4 Upon their arrival, the elders sincerely urged Jesus, saying, “This man is worthy to have you do this, 5 because he loves our nation, and has built a synagogue for us.” 6 So Jesus went with them. 

When Jesus was nearly to the house, the centurion sent friends to Jesus, saying, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, because I am unworthy to have you come in under my roof. 7 This is why I did not consider myself worthy to come to you.  But, rather, say the word and my servant will be healed. 8 For I am also a man under authority, having soldiers under me. So I say to them, “Come” and they come, and to others “Go” and they go, and to my servants, “Do this,” and they do it.” 

9 Upon hearing this, Jesus was amazed, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I’m telling you that I have not found this much faith in Israel. 10 When those he had sent returned to the house, they found the slave had been healed.

1. He was a caring and compassionate man.  He cared about the welfare of his servant  and he cared about the welfare of the Jewish people, a people that the Romans were currently dominating.  
2. He was generous. He had built the Jews a synagogue.  His compassion and generosity had been such that the elders of Capernaum were willing to speak on his behalf and say, “This man is worthy to have you do this.” 
3. He was humble.  Other people said he was worthy.  He said he was unworthy.  He sent to different groups(first, the elders, and second, friends) to Jesus, and did appear before Jesus himself, at all, considering himself unworthy. 
4. He understood authority.  He had authority, but was also under authority.  He, also seemed to understand that Jesus had authority, even over disease.  He said to Jesus , ‘just say the word and my servant will be healed.’ He seemed to grasp Jesus absolute authority far better than his contemporaries. 
5. He had a faith in Jesus that was obvious.  Jesus had not encountered this kind of faith in Israel.  

A couple of thoughts before I close: The centurion did not come to Jesus in person because he did not consider himself worthy of it. But, Jesus did not comment on the man’s worthiness or unworthiness.  The man was right.  He was unworthy, but that was not an issue that Jesus touched upon. In spite of his unworthiness, Jesus was still impressed by his faith and granted his request.

The story tells very little of the healing of the servant. Jesus does it from a distance, without even entering the house. Instead its focus is on the faith of the centurion. There is a lot to learn about faith from this centurion.  The New Testament only mentions Jesus being amazed twice.  Here, (along with a parallel passage in Matt. 8) and in Mark 6:6 where he was amazed at their lack of faith. 

Tom