Series: Cultivate your Faith in the Lord
Week 1: Learn from the Centurion's Faith (Luke 7:1-10)
Dear friends in Christ.
I think it’s safe to say that most of us here, maybe even all of us, are rather familiar with the movie, The Wizard of Oz. After all, it is a classic story of Dorothy, a young girl from Kansas who finds herself transported to the land of Oz, a vibrantly colorful and magic land filled with all sorts of amazing characters. As she travels along the way to meet the wizard, she meets for interesting friends, has quite a few adventures, and learns a great deal about friendship, courage, wisdom, caring, and trust. Yet, even as she learns these lessons, at the end of the movie she learns that she already had everything that she needed stored up inside of her. This, in fact, is the very lesson that the movie, The Wizard of Oz seeks to teach. Although it is nice to have powerful friends like the wizard, at the end of the day, Dorothy already had everything she needed to get home. She merely had to look to herself, have faith in herself, and find what she needed inside herself. Interestingly enough, this is the very lesson that the world is constantly teaching us. As humans, we are constantly told that we can do anything we want. We have the power to affect our lives, all we have to do is look deep enough inside ourselves and we will find everything we will ever need. All we have to do is trust ourselves. But even though this is the lesson that the world is constantly seeking to teach us, our Savior teaches us a different lesson about faith in our text this morning, in fact, as we look at Luke 7:1-10, we will see Jesus teaching a lesson about faith from the example of the centurion.
“When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” 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. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 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.” 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.” Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. ” (Luke 7:1–10, NIV)
Now, when the events of our text take place, Jesus was returning to Capernaum just after he finished preaching the Sermon on the Mount. In chapter 4, Luke records how Jesus had previously been in Capernaum and how he had carried out several healings which had completely amazed everyone present, and now Jesus was returning to the town that had become the center of his ministry in Galilee ever since his home town of Nazareth had rejected him. (Luke 4:28-30) In Matthew 8:1-4, we are told how Jesus healed a man with Leprosy, just before entering Capernaum, and now, as Jesus enters, our Lesson begins as we learn from the lesson of the Centurion’s faith, teaching us that faith is not self-centered, but God centered.
Now, if you think about it, the centurion in this account, must have been a rather important man. He was a Centurion, meaning that he was the commander of 100 men at Capernaum, which would have made him ranking officer in town, and the person who was essentially in charge of Capernaum under the Roman Leadership of the day. But not only does his position tell us something about his authority and importance, it also tells us about his character, as the Romans didn’t just pick anyone to be a centurion, they picked the best men. In fact, the historian Polybius, who lived 200 years before Jesus wrote that centurions must be “men who can command, (men) 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.” This centurion was a man who was respected, who was courageous, who was a leader and who was resourceful. He was an important man. He was a man who surely had everything necessary to find his way back to Kansas by himself if he ever found himself stranded in Oz. Yet, this man was different. His faith was not self-centered, but God centered.
Though this man was a Roman Centurion and a Gentile, he had come to faith in the God of Israel. He had heard about Jesus as verse 3 of our text tells us, and he must have concluded that Jesus was the Messiah that the Lord had promised in the pages of the Scriptures. And it was to Jesus that this centurion turned for help when his “paralyzed and suffering servant” (Matthew 8:6) was facing death. Instead of believing the lie that he had the power to go back to Kansas, he courageously reached out to the one he knew had the power to heal. He reached out to Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Christ. As Luke tells us in verses 3-6, “The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” So Jesus went with them.” (Luke 7:3–6 NIV)
When the Elders came to Jesus they based their request on the Centurion’s merits. They came right out and said that he deserved Jesus’ help because, even though he was a Roman Centurion and a Gentile, he loved the Jewish Nation. He had even gone so far as to build them a synagogue with his own money, and so, as they entreated Jesus to come, they sought to persuade Jesus based on the Centurion’s merits.
How often haven’t we done the same thing that these elders did? How often haven’t we based our own requests for the Lord’s help on the basis of our own merits? How often haven’t we expressed our own feelings of entitlement when it came to God’s help, rather than prayers and petitions based in humble, God centered trust that the Lord would carry out what was best for us in his own time. I hate to admit it, but I know I’ve done it. I’ve done the mental arithmetic during prayers, praying while thinking that I’ve been pretty good this week so I should have earned enough brownie points with the Lord to ask for a big favor. There have been times that I have found myself trying to bargain with the Lord for what I wanted, rather than simply asking and trusting that he would do what is best, and if we are honest with ourselves, we all must admit that we’ve done it too. We have all tried to bargain with God. But the truth is, there is nothing that we can offer to God with which to bargain, because everything we have is what God has loaned to us already. Thus, everything that the Lord does for us is an act of his Grace. The answers he grants to our prayers, be they “yes” or “no”, are answers of his grace. The forgiveness that he gives, even when we pray in a self-centered bargaining way is an act of his grace designed to help us re-center our faith on him and humbly trust his divine authority, and that is the second lesson we seek to learn from the faith of this Centurion.
Though the Elders of the Jews had come to Jesus expressing just how much the Centurion deserved Jesus’ help, this was not the Centurion’s intent. Though he did indeed love the Jewish nation, and had used his own wealth to build a synagogue for the people, these were but acts of love flowing out of a faith that was God-centered; a faith that clearly and humbly trusted in the divine authority of Jesus. This is brought out ever so clearly by Luke’s words beginning in the second part of verse 6, where he says, “[Jesus] 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. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 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.” 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.” Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. ” (Luke 7:6–10, NIV)
Though, as we said before, the Centurion was an important man in Capernaum, he was not consumed by his own importance. He did not feel that he was entitled to the Lord’s help in any way, in fact, as a Gentile, he did not feel worthy to have Jesus come under his roof. Instead, he humbly placed his faith in Jesus’ divine authority to heal with but a single word. As a Centurion, this man knew what authority was all about. He, himself was under the authority of others, and had others under his authority. When he was commanded, he acted, and when he commanded, those under him acted. Thus, he understood that Jesus was a man of authority, which had been given to God. He understood that as a man of authority Jesus was able to give commands that would be carried out without question. Which is why the Centurion’s message to Jesus was: “Don’t trouble yourself in coming ... simply say the word, and my servant will be healed.”
At this, Jesus marveled at the humble faith that so clearly trusted in him and his authority over sickness and death. Here was a Gentile who had faith in God that outstripped even the Jews. Oh, the Jews had faith, but the centurion had great faith. It was great faith that wasn’t self-centered. It was great faith that humbly focused on God. It was great faith that trusted in God’s authority.
So, if I might quote Glenda, “What have you learned, Dorothy?” What have we learned about faith from the example of the Centurion’s faith? What have we learned about our own faith? Where is our faith centered? Is it centered on ourselves and what we have accomplished for God? Or is it centered on God and what he has accomplished for us? By taking time to be here this morning and learning from the example of the Centurion’s faith, I can say that your faith is humbly centered on your Lord and Savior, by whose authority you have come to know him and by whose authority your sins have been forgiven. By taking the time to gather for worship your faith and your trust in God has increased as the Holy Spirit has been at work in your hearts through the Words that you have heard today. By taking the time to worship the Lord, your focus has moved off of yourselves and on to the Lord, and you are now ready to go out into the world and let your faith shine in all that you say and do. By gathering here this morning, you have been built up in your trust in Jesus Christ your Savior, and assured of the salvation which is yours through the very faith the Lord has instilled in your hearts.
Though the world is constantly telling us that like Dorothy, we have the power within us to accomplish whatever we want, the Lord is calling on us to look to him in faith. Continue in his word, focusing your faith on him, your Lord and Savior as you humbly trust his divine authority. Amen.
Many of the thoughts and ideas in this sermon are similar to an excellent sermon written by David Elvery, "Great Faith & Great Humility in Action." His sermon was a great help in organizing my own thoughts on this text.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
